hours. As the early hours were always the ones when it was most likely
trouble would happen, the two veteran cowboys volunteered for this
service, leaving Bud and his cousins to make their beds, such as they
were, near the little fire. The boy ranchers would relieve the others
after midnight.

So, wrapped in their tarpaulins, their heads resting on their saddles,
and their feet to the fire, the three boys looked up at the silent
stars. They talked in low voices at first, for the voice of man is
soothing to cattle. Now and then some cow lowed, or a steer snorted or
bellowed. But, in the main, the animals were silent. And to this
state Bud and his cousins soon came, for they were tired with their
rather long ride late that afternoon.

"I wonder if any rustlers will come here?" spoke Dick to his brother,
when Bud's regular breathing told that he had fallen asleep.

"Don't know--wish they would," Nort answered, half drowsily.

"Well, I'm ready for 'em," murmured Dick, as he felt of his gun where
it lay in its holster at his side, though he had loosened his belt to
lie down.

The night became more silent and colder. The two other cowboys were on
the far side of the herd now, working around in opposite circles,
meeting and passing one another. It would soon be time for them to
turn in, and Bud and his cousins to turn out.

Nort was turning over to get into a more comfortable position, when he
heard something hiss through the air with a swishing sound. For an
instant he thought of rattlesnakes, but almost at once it was borne to
his mind that he had heard this sound before--the swish of a lariat
through the air.

He sat up quickly, straining his eyes in the direction of the sound.
Just then a piece of the greasewood burned up brightly, and revealed to
Nort this sight.

From somewhere in the darkness, beyond the circle of light, a lariat
had coiled in among the lads. And as Nort looked, the coils settled
over the head of his brother Dick. Before Nort could cry a warning, or
scramble from under his tarpaulin, the rope tightened and Dick was
pulled from his resting place near the fire out into the darkness, his
frightened yells awakening the echoes, and startling the cattle into
uneasy action.

CHAPTER XIII

THE ATTEMPT FOILED

It was only a moment that surprise held Nort motionless, sitting up
there by the small fire of greasewood twigs, with the bunch of cattle
moving uneasily in the darkness.