s. He had
returned, as has been related, in time to see Bud leap from the fence
to the back of a galloping horse in preparation for rodeo stunts.

Then Billee Dobb had made his startling announcement about the ominous
character of the new ranch purchased by the cattleman.

"Before you spill your bad news, Billee," suggested Mr. Merkel, "maybe
I ought to say a few words about what I've done. But also let me ask
you if this Death Valley of yours is anything more than one of the
picturesque names we have out here in the Golden West. You know we
just naturally run to Dead Horse Gulch, Ghost Canyon and all that sort
of stuff. So if your Death Valley doesn't mean more than those names,
why----"

"It means a while lot more than just a name, Boss," said the old
puncher solemnly. "It means _real death_."

"Death to whom, Billee?" asked Bud.

"To anybody that's foolish enough to try to live there and ride herd,"
was the short answer.

"How about the cattle?" Dick wanted to know.

"The same thing happens to them as happens to the men," said Billee in
a low voice. "They just naturally die off 'fore they can be shipped to
market. Believe me, Death Valley is a good place to stay away from!"

"How is it, then, Billee," asked Mr. Merkel, "that nothing happened to
me? I just came from there. I don't buy a pig in a poke. I went to
Dot and Dash and sized the place up before I closed the deal with Jed
Barter. How is it Death Valley didn't get me, Billee?"

Nothing daunted the old man replied:

"You didn't stay there long enough."

"Well, there may be something in that," admitted Bud's father. "But it
won't take me long to tell you boys," and he indicated his son, Dick,
Nort and all the other punchers.

"For some time past," he went on, "I've had the notion that I wanted to
spread out a little. Neither Diamond X nor Happy Valley is quite large
enough. To make any money in the cattle business nowadays you got to
do business on a large scale. So I've been looking around, and making
inquiries, and in that way heard that the Dot and Dash ranch was in the
market. I'd looked at several others before I got word about this and
didn't like 'em, for one reason or another.

"But when I got to Los Pompan, which is the nearest town to where Dot
and Dash is located, it struck me that here I'd found just what I was
looking for. The ranch wasn't too near the town, and yet it wasn't too
far from the railroad, and I took the