Then, with a yell that had in it both
warning and encouragement, Nort scrambled to his feet and made a grab
for Dick, who was being dragged off in the loop of a lariat, the other
end being manipulated by some one unseen.

"Hold it, Dick! Hold it!" cried Nort, as, many a time he had thus
shouted encouragement to his brother on the football field. "Hold it!"

But Dick was unable to do this. Taken at a disadvantage, awakened from
a half-sleep as he was, and dragged from a fairly comfortable bed, he
was puzzled and confused, not to say frightened.

But he was capable of yelling, and this he did to the best of his
ability.

"Here! Quit that! Let up! What you doing?" shouted Dick, for, as he
said afterward, he thought it was one of the cowboys playing a trick on
him, hazing a tenderfoot, perhaps, though Dick proudly imagined that he
was fast graduating from that class.

The yells of the two brothers naturally awakened Bud who, being more
used to sleeping in the open than were his cousins, had almost at once
gone soundly to sleep. But it did not take the young rancher long to
rouse himself.

"What's the matter? What's going on?" shouted Bud, and Nort had a
glimpse of his cousin with his gun in his hand. This reminded Nort
that he had left his weapon under his tarpaulin, and he made a dash to
get it, mentally blaming himself for not proving more true to his idea
of the traditions of the West, and having his revolver always with him.

With a quick motion of his foot, Bud shoved some unburned sticks of
greasewood into the blaze. They flared up, and the young ranchman
wheeled quickly, and tried to pierce the gloom into which Dick had been
dragged.

But that lad had not been idle during this strenuous time. He had felt
the lariat tightening about the upper part of his body, and he had let
out a frightened yell. But he had done more than yell. He had grasped
the rope with both hands, in a quick, upward motion, and had succeeded
in slipping it off, over his head, a task he would have been unable to
perform had his enemy had daylight in his favor. But, as it was, Dick
succeeded in escaping the noose.

"Who is it? Who did that?" yelled Dick, as he managed to get to his
feet, and staggered back toward his tarpaulin, evidently with the
intention of seeking his gun.

But there came no answer out of the gloom.

Bud and Nort hurried over to Dick, who was rather dazed and ruffled up
from the experience he had un