Maverick's, and so we call, now, any
unbranded animal a 'maverick.' Anybody who finds it can brand it and
claim it as his, though; in some places all the mavericks are bunched
together and divided. But say, I wonder what Babe's doing, anyhow? I
haven't heard a shot, and he must be up to that bunch of rustlers now,
if that's what they were."

"What else could they be?" asked Nort.

"I don't know," Bud replied. "Anyhow, here's some of the cattle. Look
out you don't run into 'em!" he called sharply, as he pulled in his
pony.

He spoke just in time to warn Nort and Dick, for, in another instant,
they found themselves among the tail-enders of a bunch of cattle that
had run from them at first.

No men were in sight--not even Babe--and there was a haze of clouds
over the moon now, and a sort of fog close to the ground, that
prevented clear vision.

"Are these your cattle?" asked Dick.

"Tell you in a minute," responded the young cattleman. He rode up
alongside one of the animals and focused on its rump the gleam from an
electric flash light. Bud carried one of these mighty handy pocket
articles, which are much more effective than matches for making
observations at night. In the bright gleam of the little light the boy
ranchers saw, plainly branded in the hide of the animal, a large
diamond, with the letter X in the centre.

"Dad's stock--all of 'em, I reckon!" exclaimed Bud, as he flashed his
torch on others in the bunch, revealing more of the Diamond X brand.

"But where are the rustlers?" asked Nort, in a tense whisper, and his
hand sought the holster where his newly-acquired weapon rested.

"I don't know," began Bud. "They may have ridden off, or it may be
that----"

He stopped suddenly and listened. Dick and Nort heard, as did Bud, the
rapid approach of a horseman. In an instant Bud had switched off his
pocket electric light, and then in the half hazy light of the partly
obscured moon he and his cousins peered forward. Nort and Dick had
drawn their guns, an example set them by Bud.

"Don't do any shooting until you hear me," ordered Bud. "There may be
no need of it!"

The rider, unseen as yet, was coming nearer and nearer, the thud of his
horse's feet pounding hard on the turf. He seemed to be approaching
from the direction in which Babe had disappeared.

In another instant the rider was pulling his horse to a quick stop
beside Bud's animal, and when a beam of misty moonlight flashed out
fr