ey were being put
to a severe test. They had ridden out from the mysterious camp of the
professors, and now they were to ride back to it, leading the raiding
party. True, they had come out at night, and under the stress of
excitement, so that it was not easy to determine the trail back.

But as the boys rode alone, each at the head of a cavalcade that was
beginning to diverge, they felt the full measure of responsibility.
One of them must make good--must pick up the obscure trail leading to
the rendezvous of the cattle rustlers.

It was Dick who proved the lucky one this time. The party led by Nort
was out of sight among the many hills and swales, when Dick, riding
past a water hole, stopped suddenly.

"The trail goes in that way," he said. "I'm sure of it. Blackie
stopped here when we were riding out, to get a drink."

"Are you sure he stopped here?" asked Babe, who was with Dick's party.

"Positive! He stopped in such a hurry that I slid off and fell, and
this excited him so I had quite a job holding him."

In an instant one of the cowboys was out of his saddle and looking
carefully at the ground.

"The kid's right!" he exclaimed. "There's been some sort of a fracas
here."

In that country, where rains were infrequent, and travel light, marks
remained for a long time on the dry ground.

"I'm sure it was here," declared Dick, "and we came out that way." He
pointed toward some distant hills.

"Well, we'll take a chance on it," said Babe. "Light a fire, fellows."

In a few minutes a column of smoke was ascending, and two of the
cowboys, holding a blanket over it, moved the cloth to one side at
intervals, so that puffs of the dark vapor arose and floated upward.

"That'll call 'em," observed Babe, who sat on his horse directing
operations, at the same time scanning the horizon for answering signals
from Nort's party.

"Won't the rustlers see these and skip out?" asked Dick, as the smoke
puffs went up thick and fast.

"Don't believe so," spoke Babe. "If they do see 'em they'll only think
they're camp fires, or round-up blazes."

"We'll do the rounding-up," grimly commented Snake Purdee. "But of
course these fellows may be on the lookout. Can't hardly expect much
else after they come to know that their prisoners have skipped, and the
Greaser has gone back to his baby days, eating paregoric! Oh, my
spurs! That was slick!"

"There they are!" suddenly cried Dick, as he descried other smoke
si