ody.

He leaped out among a number of bushes and stretched himself.

Having brushed the dirt from his wet clothing, he "located himself," as
he put it, and started up a hill to the entrance to the Devil's Chimney.

He was on the side opposite to that from which he had descended, and, in
order to get over, had to make a wide detour through some brush and
small timber.

This accomplished, he hurried to where he had left Bonnie Bird tethered.

As the reader knows, the beautiful mare was gone, and had been for some
time.

"I suppose that young Arbuckle took her," he mused. "But, if so, why
doesn't he come back here with her?"

There being no help for it, the scout set off for the camp of the
boomers on foot.

He was just entering the temporary settlement when he came face to face
with Jack Rasco, another of the boomers.

"Pawnee!" shouted the boomer, "You air jess the man I want ter see. Hev
ye sot eyes on airy o' the Arbuckles?"

"I'm looking for Dick Arbuckle now," answered the scout. "Isn't he in
the camp? I thought he came here with my mare?"

"He ain't nowhar. Rosy Delaney says he went off with Pumpkin to look for
his dad, who had disappeared----"

"Then he didn't come back? What can have become of him and Bonnie Bird?"
Pawnee Brown's face grew full of concern. "Something is wrong around
here, Jack," he continued, and told the boomer of what had happened up
at the Devil's Chimney. "First it's the father, and now it's the son and
my mare. I must investigate this."

"I'm with yer, Pawnee--with yer to the end. Yer know thet."

"Yes, Jack; you are one of the few men I know I can trust in everything.
But two of us are not enough. If harm has befallen the Arbuckles it is
the duty of the whole camp--or, at least, every man in it--to try to
sift matters to the bottom."

"Right ye air, Pawnee. I'll raise a hullabaloo and rouse 'em up."

Jack Rasco was as good as his word. Going from wagon to wagon, he shook
the sleepers and explained matters. In less than a quarter of an hour a
dozen stalwart boomers were in the saddle, while Jack Rasco brought
forth an extra horse of his own for Brown's use.

"Has anybody seen the dunce?" questioned the scout.

No one had since he had gone off with Dick to look for the so-called
ghost.

"We will divide up into parties of two," said Pawnee Brown, and this was
done, and soon he and Jack Rasco were bounding over the trail leading
toward the Indian Territory, while others w