y're in the wagon. Maybe they aren't just the proper clothes for a
ranch, but they're old things----"

"The older the better!" interrupted Bud, and he was about to follow his
cousins inside when Nell exclaimed:

"Some one is coming! Look!"

They all turned to observe a solitary horseman riding at top speed for
the group of ranch buildings. He came from the direction where Bud and
the foreman had seen the slim wisp of smoke about an hour before, and
as he rode, the man shouted above the thundering thuds of his horse's
hoofs:

"Help! Help! Can't you send help!"

CHAPTER III

A MYSTERIOUS SEARCH

Nort and Dick Shannon, Bud's "city cousins," seemed to realize, as did
the young rancher, his mother and sister, that something was wrong.
Prepared as Nort and Dick were for strange and sensational happenings
in the west, they sensed that this was out of the ordinary.

The solitary rider had also attracted the attention of the cowboys who,
the excitement at the corral being over, had turned toward their bunk
house to prepare for the evening meal. Slim Degnan, the foreman, Babe,
his assistant, and one or two others started forward as if to intercept
the horseman. But a cowboy on foot is like a sailor off the deck--out
of his element. They wore high-heeled shoes--boots made especially for
the use of spurs, and they were not capable of rapid progress except on
their steeds.

The lone rider was past them in a flash, turning into the lane that led
toward the ranch house, where Bud and the others could not be seen,
having turned at the call for help.

"What's the matter of him--locoed?" asked Babe.

"Looks that way," murmured Slim. "But Ma Merkel will know how to
handle him, and Bud has his gun. Still, I don't know but we'd better
mosey up that way, so as to sort of back the boy up, as long as his
dad's away."

"My idea coincides," murmured Babe. "We'll prospect along up there,"
he called to the other cowboys, some of whom seemed to show a desire to
rush to a possible rescue. "It'll be all right."

By the time the foreman and his assistant had reached the porch on
which stood the two tenderfeet eastern lads, with Bud, his mother and
sister, the lone horseman had dismounted, not with any degree of skill,
however, but slipping off as though greatly fatigued, or rendered limp
from fright.

"Can you send help to him?" he gasped, pointing back in the direction
whence he had come. "If you don't they may k