going back."

He turned away and took a few steps along the bank. Then all at once he
stopped and walked back.

"Say, Bud, how big is that north pasture place you were telling about?" he
asked. "I don't seem to remember going over it when I was--"

He broke off abruptly, and a sudden flush burned into his cheeks at the
realization that he had almost betrayed himself. Fortunately Jessup did
not seem to notice the slip.

"I don't know exactly," replied the youngster. "About two miles square,
maybe. Why?"

"Oh, I just wondered," shrugged Stratton. "Well, so-long."

Again they parted, Bud returning to the harness-room, where he would have
to finish his work by lantern-light.

"Gee, but that was close!" murmured Bud, feeling his way through the
darkness. "Just about one more word and I'd have given away the show
completely."

He paused under a cottonwood as a gleam of light from the open bunk-house
door showed through the leaves.

"I wonder?" he mused thoughtfully.

A waste of sand, cactus, and scanty desert growth! In Arizona nothing is
more ordinary or commonplace, more utterly lacking in interest and
significance. Yet Stratton's mind returned to it persistently as he
considered one by one the scanty details of Jessup's brief narrative.

What was there about a spot like that to rouse excitement in the breast of
the usually phlegmatic Andrew Thorne? Why had he been in such haste to
drag Lynch thither, and what had passed between the two before the older
man came to his sudden and tragic end? Was it possible that somewhere
within that four square miles of desolate wilderness might lie the key to
the puzzling mystery Buck had set himself to solve?

"I wonder?" he murmured again, and leaving the margin of the creek, he
moved slowly toward the open bunk-house door.

CHAPTER XI

DANGER

As Buck appeared in the doorway, blinking a little at the lamp-light, the
five card-players stared at him in astonishment.

"Where the devil have you been?" inquired Kreeger, surprised out of his
accustomed taciturnity.

"I thought yuh was asleep," added Peters, casting a bewildered glance at
the shadowy bunk.

Buck, who had scarcely hoped his little stratagem would succeed so well,
refrained with difficulty from showing the pleasure he felt.

"So I have," he drawled.

"But I thought yuh was in yore bunk," commented McCabe, his light-blue
eyes narrowing slightly.

"No, I was outside," explained Stratton careles