owled Rector. "And
don't you dare wake me up again."

Tad stepped out.

"The crowd has given us the slip," announced Stacy.

"What---why they've gone!" exclaimed Tad.

"Yes, they've gone. Gone where there aren't any Pony Rider Boys to
make life miserable for them."

Tad was mystified. The Ranger company had disappeared utterly. They
had slipped away silently and mysteriously. Even the chuck wagon had
disappeared.

"Why, what can it mean?" marveled Tad Butter.

"You may search me. I don't know."

"Hey, Ned!"

"Well, what is it?" growled Rector appearing at the tent opening again.

"They've gone and left us and without even saying good-bye," called Tad.
"Shake out the others."

The professor and Walter, having been awakened by the talking, now
appeared. They were quickly informed that the Rangers had left, at
which they wondered not a little.

"I guess they got tired of our company. I'm going to start breakfast,"
declared Butler.

"This is most remarkable," bristled the professor. "I should have
thought they would have left some word."

"How about that 'possum, Chunky?" jeered Rector.

"You better ask the Rangers. They'll tell you about that," answered
the fat boy with a grin. "There's the sack in which I fetched the
animals back to camp."

"What, did you catch any?" demanded the professor.

"Oh, I got some game, all right. I'm the champion hunter, I am. Say,
I wish I could cook like you," said Chunky gazing admiringly at Tad,
who was confidently making some biscuit for breakfast. "I never could
cook unless I had everything all down in writing before me. How do you
do it?"

"Oh, he cooks by ear," scoffed Ned. "That's why there's so many
discords in our digestive apparatus."

The Pony Rider Boys groaned dismally.

CHAPTER XIII

AN INQUISITIVE VISITOR

Breakfast the plans for the day were discussed. The professor was for
remaining in camp, hoping that the Rangers might return later in the
day. Tad did not believe this would be the case. He reasoned that
the men had been summoned some time during the night to go on a hike,
and that they might not return at all; therefore the Pony Rider Boys
would be losing time, whereas they might be exploring the Guadalupe
range, which stretched away for a hundred miles.

"Still, I can't understand this mysterious departure of our friends,
the Rangers," persisted Professor Zepplin.

"Perhaps it was the bugs," suggested Stacy wisel