ral days had passed since the fight at Helen Mowbray's house, and
Ted Strong and the broncho boys were again at the Bubbly Well Ranch.

The remains of Helen Mowbray had been laid to rest near the major's
ranch house in a little lot surrounded by a low fence, and her treasure
was safely stored away in the safe in the major's bedroom.

The period of their visit to the ranch house was past, but still they
stayed to help the major to get word of his brother Frederic Caruthers,
alias Fancy Farnsworth, alleged to be the worst man in Arizona.

Where he might be none knew, of course, but Ted was of the opinion that
he was still somewhere in Arizona, and not far away, either.

He could not have told why he believed so, but he had one of his
"hunches" to that effect, and believed it as surely as if he knew it for
a fact.

Ted had seen his hunches turn out true so often that he did not attempt
now to distrust them.

Somehow, he felt that everything was to come out all right some day, and
that he would find Farnsworth, or Frederic Caruthers, to be more exact,
and Ted always reproached himself when he thought of the young fellow by
his false name.

One morning Ted awoke before the dawn, sitting upright in bed, listening
for a sound, but heard nothing unusual.

This was one of Ted's habits--to be aroused by some unknown sense in the
night when danger threatened.

Hearing nothing, he got out of bed, and sat on its edge and listened
again.

"Wonder what waked me?" he muttered to himself. He was not in the least
sleepy, as he would have been if he had wakened naturally.

"I don't think I was dreaming," he continued to mumble to himself. "And
it wasn't a noise. Must have been a hunch. Guess I'll get up and see if
there's anything wrong about here."

He slipped swiftly into his clothes, and sauntered through the living
room.

It was just beginning to get light outside, and the windows were gray,
while all else in the room was still dark.

He opened the door and stepped out into the chill morning.

Then he heard a noise, but so faint that it couldn't have been that
which had disturbed him from his sound sleep, he thought.

But as the sound came nearer on the clear, thin morning air, and he
recognized it and realized its significance, he knew that it was this
fine, almost indistinguishable sound that had penetrated in some
mysterious manner to his inner ear and called him from his sleep.

It was the cry of a hungry and