dergone.

"Hurt?" asked Nort, quickly.

"Not to speak of," answered Dick. "Was that one of the boys?" he
asked, turning to Bud.

"One of our cowboys? No, they don't do such things," was the answer.
"It must have been----"

He was interrupted by the rapid thuds of hoofs and, an instant later,
there dashed into the circle of light Dirk and Chot, two of the men who
had been left when the others rode away to get on the trail of the
rustlers.

"What's the matter?" exclaimed Dirk, reining in his pony so suddenly
that the animal slid with his forefeet almost in the embers of the fire.

"Somebody tried to rope Dick," answered Bud. "I didn't see it, but I
had a glimpse of him being dragged off on the end of a lariat."

"I saw it come shooting in from out there," and Nort waved his hand
toward the darkness.

"I _felt_ it!" grimly declared Dick. "I just managed to slip it off in
time."

"You were lucky," commented Chot. "Let's see who it was," he added.
"Couldn't have been any of our lads," he said in a low voice. "I've
known 'em to do such tricks, but not at a time like this. Might have
been some fresh puncher from Double Z, but if it was----"

"Come on!" interrupted Dirk, satisfied from a glance that no harm had
befallen Dick. Dirk wheeled his horse and rode off into the darkness,
in the direction where the end of the lariat had disappeared, when the
unseen thrower had pulled it to him after Dick's escape.

The two cowboys, who had been on the far side of the herd, had ridden
hurriedly in on hearing the cries of the startled boys. And now they
rushed off in the darkness, trying to find out who it was that had
displayed such evil intentions.

For it was a desperate thing to do. A little higher up and the rope
would have encircled Dick's neck, and it would have taken only a short
time of pulling him across the ground to have choked him. He, himself,
did not realize his danger until later.

For a few moments, after the arrival of Dirk and Chot from the far side
of the resting herd, and their subsequent dash off into the darkness,
Bud, Nort and Dick did nothing. They stood there around the greasewood
fire, trying to understand clearly what had happened.

Then, from the herd of cattle came unmistakable signs of some
disturbance. There were snorts and bellows, the mooing of cows and the
stamping of hoofs. At the same time, from the far side, whence Dirk
and Chot had ridden in, there came the murmur of v