he said, "how I started over here yesterday to
size up our stock to get ready for the first shipment to go from Dot
and Dash under the new ownership." His hearers nodded. By this time
several other cowboys from the other searching parties had arrived to
hear the good news of the finding of Bud.

"Well," went on the young rancher, "I got to the range all right,
looked the herd over and found there were more steers ready to ship
than we had counted on," and he looked toward his cousins. "Then I
thought I'd spend the rest of the morning in exploring Smugglers' Glen.
I wanted to see if I could find out where the old Elixer man
disappeared to that time he ran away from us," and again he looked at
Nort and Dick. The story of the herb doctor was known to most of the
cowboys.

"I rode on up into the gulch," continued Bud, "and when I got close to
the cave I slid off my horse, for his feet made so much noise on the
rocks that I thought if the old man was in the cavern he'd take warning
and skip out before I could catch him at work. That's what I wanted to
do--see old Tosh at work brewing his stuff. And I wanted to find if
there was another entrance or exit from the cavern. I didn't know but
what, in case of a big blizzard, we might not shelter some of our stock
in the cave if we could open it up more."

"That wouldn't be a bad idea," commented Nort.

"Well, anyhow," resumed Bud, "I got off my pony, tied him to a tree and
went on up the glen afoot. I was almost at the cave when, all of a
sudden, two or three men came out. They seemed quite surprised to see
me, and I certainly was to see them. They weren't any of our men, and
they hadn't any right on our range, any more than Old Tosh has, but I
guess no one minds him.

"I thought, of course, that these fellows were rustlers--they were
rough and tough enough looking to be almost anything. But before I
could say or do anything, one of them set down what looked like a tank
containing carbonic acid gas, like they use at drug store soda water
fountains. I wondered whether these fellows were going into the game
of putting pop in the Tosh Elixer, when, all at once I felt sort of
queer. I tried to fight off the sensation, but I kept getting weaker
until I just crumpled up in a heap.

"I thought of all sorts of things--the stories Billee had told about
the sudden deaths here, how Sam Tarbell was overcome and his horse
killed and then, just as if I was in a dream, I felt