'em outright yet. My dad still
has a mortgage on 'em."

"But if we have luck we can clear that off; can't we?" asked Dick.

"Sure, this year, maybe," assented Bud. "I never saw steers fatten so
fast as ours have since I brought 'em to Flume Valley. I reckon the
land, being without water so long, raises a specially fine kind of
grass. Of course, there's always some at the far end of the valley,
good grass, too, but when there wasn't any water for the cattle to
drink there wasn't any use trying to raise stock there. But now it's
different."

"And all we want is for the water to stay," added Dick.

"That's all," chimed in his brother.

With Buck Tooth trailing behind, the three boys took the mountain trail
and reached their camp near the reservoir that evening. They found Old
Billee and Yellin' Kid waiting for them, these two cowboys having been
assigned by Mr. Merkel to help his son in the lad's new venture.

"Well, yo' got back, I see," remarked Old Billee as he greeted the
lads, the Indian going off by himself, for he was rather taciturn in
his manner.

"Yes, we're here," admitted Bud. "But I can't understand that water
coming back so unexpectedly."

"Are you sure it stopped running?" asked Yellin' Kid in his usual loud
voice.

"Sure!" declared Bud. "Didn't Buck see it--or, rather, he didn't see
it, for there wasn't any water to see coming through the pipe--only a
few drops."

"I wouldn't take his word," declared Old Billee. "Not that Buck would
actually lie, but those Indians are queer."

"Oh, we all saw that the water wasn't running," declared Nort.

"Well, it was when I got here," stated the old cowboy. "And there
wasn't a sign of anything wrong. But if there had been I'd expected
it, 'count of----"

"That black rabbit, I reckon!" broke in Bud.

"Perzactly!" declared Old Billee. "A black jack shore is bad luck, at
any stage of the game!"

But for a time there seemed to be no truth in this western omen.
Following the first mysterious disappearance of the water, and its
equally strange reappearance, peace seemed to settle down over Flume
Valley.

The steers and yearlings, with which Bud's father had entrusted him and
the boy ranchers, thrived and fattened on the succulent grass. Old
Billee, Yellin' Kid, with Buck Tooth's help, aided the boys in such
minor duties as were necessary to perform about the camp. The main
duty was looking after the safety of the cattle, to see that none of