did, Bud."

"That's all bosh!" exclaimed Bud. "There's as much water for Hank
Fisher as he ever had at Double Z. Besides, this isn't his way of
doing business. He's as mean as they make 'em, but he'll come out in
the open and tell you what he thinks of you."

"Yes, Hank is that way--_sometimes_," agreed Babe cautiously. "At th'
same time I wouldn't put it past him. Better tell your paw about this,
Bud. You got grit--all three of you!" and he included the other boys
in his glance. "But you can't fight Hank Fisher, Del Pinzo and that
onery gang of Greasers and Mexicans!"

"There!" cried Nort, clapping his hand down on his outstretched leg.
"That's who that man was--Del Pinzo!"

"What man?" asked Babe.

"The one Bud shot."

"What's that?" cried Babe, half starting to his feet. "Did you shoot
somebody?"

"Well, I may have _creased_ him," admitted the boy, using a word to
denote a grazing bullet wound, hardly more than a scratch.

"Whew-ee-ee!" whistled Babe again. "This sounds like old times! Let's
have the hull yarn, Buddy!" he appealed.

Whereupon Bud related how he had ridden from his new ranch--Diamond X
Second--to meet his cousins whom he expected. He told of finding the
stream of water shut off, of the appearance of the man, the shot, his
sudden vanishing, and the subsequent night ride of the boys.

"That was Del Pinzo, I'm sure of it!" declared Nort. "I was trying to
think where I'd seen him before, and now I remember!"

"You couldn't very well forget Del Pinzo," declared Bud. "But this
wasn't he. That isn't saying that it might not have been, of course,"
he added, "for I understand he broke jail, after they caught him and
sent him up for rustling our cattle. No, this wasn't that slick
Mexican, Nort."

"Who was it?" asked Babe, helping himself to another of the flapjacks
which Buck was making in a skillet over the greasewood fire.

"That's what we don't know," said Bud. "He just naturally vanished,
the way my water did. What are you going to do, Babe?"

"Well, I ought t' keep on lookin' for them strays your paw's so anxious
about," was the answer. "But I reckon I got time t' mosey along with
you. You say you're goin' down to the river?"

"Yes, to see if there's anything wrong at the intake pipe," Bud
answered.

"Then I'll go with you," offered Babe. "And before you try that ride
through the old water course, under the mountain, you'd better call up
your paw."

"What for?" Bu