sleep well. If you guys want a little advice, you'll move along out of
this section. It ain't healthy. A word to the wise. J. D."

CHAPTER XI

JOE HAWKINS'S VISIT

"Can you beat that!" Nort ejaculated when Bud finished reading.
"Nerve--that Delton certainly has his share of it!"

The feeling which the note aroused was not just one of disappointment.
The Kid seemed highly amused at the turn events had taken. Billee Dobb
assumed an "I-told-you-so" expression which sat comically on his
grizzled features. The rest looked slightly bewildered.

"Got away, didn't he?" Dick asked in a flat tone of voice. "Through
the window, I guess. Yep. Slid down the rain water leader. Well----"

"An' he took with him your wireless and your new bunch of cattle," the
Kid remarked sardonically. "Never count the chickens before they
scratch. Mr. Delton is a slicker article than we figgered on."

"Let's see the note a minute, Bud," Nort said. "Huh--'bed too
hard--couldn't sleep!' Wise sort of a bird; isn't he? Say, he must
have written this as soon as we left the room."

"Why?"

"Because if he waited too long he couldn't have seen to write--too
dark. That means he's far away by this time. He probably----"

"The horses! Ten to one he grabbed one of them an' beat it!" Yellin'
Kid cried.

Without further parley the boys and men filed from the room and made
for the corral. The horses had been tied to a pole nearest the house,
and they were not long in reaching them. They could be easily seen in
the moonlight which now flooded the prairie.

"Mine's there!" Bud yelled as he came within view of the animals.
"Guess you're wrong, Kid. Seems like there's--no there isn't, either!
Only four! Whose mount is missing?"

"You might know it," the Kid said disgustedly. "The coot took
mine--out of all that bunch to pick from, he had to rustle my new
bronc! By golly, if ever I set eyes on you again, you old----"

"Take it easy!" laughed Bud. "Could be a lot worse. He might have
turned the rest of 'em loose, too."

"No use beefin' about it," said Billee Dobb. "All over now. He's
gone--an' so's the Kid's bronc. Talk about it in the morning. Me, I'm
tired!"

The night passed uneventfully. At sun-up the Kid appeared at the door
of Bud's room and grinned in at him.

"Ready for work?" he cried.

"You mean trailin' your horse, Kid?" Bud asked mischievously.

The grin left Yellin' Kid's face and his eyes flashed.