wered Pocut Pete, as he sauntered up out of the
gloom. "I saw something movin' down among th' cattle, an' I knew it
couldn't be any of you fellows, so I let go at him."

"_Him!_" cried Nort. "Was it a man?"

"Looked like one," drawled Pete. "I heard you'd had trouble with
rustlers before I came, so I wasn't takin' any chances. I didn't aim
t' hit him, though, only t' scare him, an' I must have winged one of
them night-owls!" He chuckled at this characterization of the coyotes.

"Let's take a look down there," suggested Bud to his cousins, their
worried interest in the stoppage of the water momentarily eclipsed by
the new excitement.

"Oh, you won't find anyone down there _now_!" Pocut Pete made haste to
say. "If it was a rustler he's far enough off by _this_ time, an' I'm
not positive I really saw one--it was so dark."

"It won't do any harm to take a look," declared Bud, and his cousins
were of the same opinion.

"Suit yourself," spoke Pete, easily. "If I did hit him let me know."

Again he moved off in the darkness, and the boy ranchers, after a
moment of hesitation, started in the direction whence the shot had been
heard and the sliver of flame seen. Pocut Pete had gone on the
opposite trail after returning to the boys, a fact which caused Dick to
remark:

"Wouldn't you think he'd want to see if he did wing anybody?"

"He knows well enough he didn't," declared Bud in a low voice, for he
and the others realized that sounds, especially voices, carried almost
as clearly in the night air as across a body of water.

"What made him talk that way then?" asked Nort.

"Oh, he's--queer, I guess," replied Bud. "I don't exactly just like
the way he acts. Did you fellows hear the tinkle of glass just before
that shot?"

"I did," answered Nort, but Dick was not so sure. "What do you make of
it?" Nort wanted to know.

"Wish I knew," spoke Bud, and then he told them about having found the
small, thin, broken phial of dubious-smelling mixture in the bunk tent
of the older cowboys.

"Do you think he takes 'dope,' or medicine of some sort?" asked Dick.

"It's hard to say," was Bud's reply. "But let's look around and see
what we can find."

Their search was unrewarded, however. The cattle quieted down after
the shot, and the coyotes only occasionally gave vent to their
blood-curdling yells. But as for finding anyone who had been
shot--including even a miserable coyote--there was not a sign.

"Guess Pe