tely on their arrival Nort and Dick, who were then
rightly classed as "tenderfeet," became involved in a strange mystery.
A call for help came, and they took part in the rescue of two college
professors who had been attacked by a band of Mexicans and "Greasers,"
the latter being a low-class Mexican.

The professors were rescued, but the mystery only deepened. What it
was, and how it came to be solved, you will find set down at length in
the first volume. Sufficient to say, here, that Nort and Dick, as it
were, "cut their eye teeth," during the exciting experiences that
followed their arrival at Diamond X.

The eastern boys learned how properly to ride a pony cowboy fashion,
they learned the use of the branding iron, the lariat and "gun," as the
.45 revolvers were universally called. They learned, also, how to
"ride herd," "ride line" and how to live in the open, with the prairie
grass for a bed and the star-studded sky for a blanket, their saddle
forming the pillow.

Mr. Merkel, Bud's father, owned several ranches besides Diamond X, so
named because that brand was used on the cattle from it. He had Square
M, and Triangle B, the explanation of which names are obvious.

When it came time for Nort and Dick to return east, as winter
approached, they left, promising to return as soon as their summer
vacation should arrive, for they were determined to become boy ranchers
in earnest, an ambition in which Bud shared.

Now it was summer again, and Nort and Dick had once more journeyed to
their uncle's ranch, to be met by Bud, as arranged, at the water-hole.
For between the two visits of the easterners some changes had been made
at Diamond X.

Bud had been clamoring to be allowed to raise some cattle "on his own,"
and his father had consented. Off to the north of Diamond X, and in a
depression between the Snake Mountains on the east and Buffalo Ridge on
the west, was another valley, well sheltered from the wintry blasts.
This valley was owned by Mr. Merkel, and though part of it was
timbered, and some scattered sections produced an excellent variety of
grass for stock, there was no dependable source of drinking water
available. And without water at hand it is impossible to raise cattle
in the west--or any place else, for that matter.

How to get water to "Flume Valley," as it came to be called, was a
problem. It would have been put to use raising cattle long before this
had Mr. Merkel been able to get any water the