find the cache?"

"I can try."

"Wasn't it you told me once about bumpin' into a rustler doin' business
whilst you was ridin' the line?"

"At the mouth of Box Canon--yes."

"Well, wha's the matter with you scoutin' up Box Canon an' seein' what
you find?"

"They're roostin' up there somewheres. I'll bet a hat on that."

"How many boys you want with you?"

Jack considered. "One. I'll take Ridley if you don't mind."

"He's a tenderfoot," suggested Ellison doubtfully. "Won't be of any help
to you a-tall in cutting sign. If you leave him he's liable to get lost.
Better take Moser, hadn't you?"

"Rather have Ridley. He doesn't claim to know it all. Besides, we've got
to break him in sometime."

"Suits me if he does you. It's yore party."

"We'll start in the mo'nin'."

"The sooner the quicker," agreed the Captain. "I want the old man to
know we're not spendin' our time settin' around a office. He's got no
call to crawl my hump when you boys are doin' the best you can. Well, go
to it, son. See if you-all can get evidence that will stand up so's we
can collect that bunch of hawss-thieves."

Before daybreak the two Rangers were on their way. They drove a
pack-horse, their supplies loaded on a sawbuck saddle with kyacks. Jack
had been brought up in the Panhandle. He knew this country as a
seventh-grade teacher does her geography. Therefore he cut across the
desert to the cap-rock, thence to Dry Creek, and so by sunset to Box
Canon. At the mouth of the gulch they slept under the stars. As soon as
they had cooked their coffee and bacon Roberts stamped out the fire.

"We don't want to advertise we're here. I'm some particular about my
health. I'd hate to get dry-gulched[7] on this job," said Jack.

"Would the Dinsmores shoot us if they found us?" asked Ridley, searching
with his head for the softest spot in his saddle for a pillow.

"Would a calf milk its mother? They're sore as a toad at me, an' I
expect that goes for any other Ranger too. Homer might give us an even
break because we stayed with him on the island, but I'd hate to bet my
head on that."

"If we get any evidence against them they can't afford to let us go,"
agreed Arthur.

"An' if they jump us up, how're they goin' to know how much we've seen?
There's one safe way, an' they would ce'tainly take it."

"Dead men tell no tales, it's said."

"Some of 'em do an' some don't. I never met up with a proverb yet that
wasn't 'way off about half the time