shattered for several days. It was on the afternoon of the
day before the mine expert was to arrive that Bud, Nort and Dick,
riding toward the cave to find out how matters were progressing there,
saw, on a hillside some distance away from the glen, a number of
motionless lumps.

"Looks like some of the steers from the main herd had strayed and were
taking a siesta," suggested Nort.

"Yes," admitted Bud, slowly. "But I wonder----"

Suddenly he put spurs to his pony and dashed toward the dark objects.
His cousins followed and as they got near enough they saw that the
cows, far from taking a siesta, were in their last sleep.

"They're dead!" exclaimed Bud. "Dead same as the others were--from
gas, or something. Boys, that gang is back again!"

"Then it's all up with the men on guard at the mine!" cried Nort.

CHAPTER XXII

TO THE RESCUE

There was no use wasting any time or sympathy over the dead cattle.
They were dead beyond a doubt, a fact which was easily proved. And
yet, as before, there was not a sign of anything that showed how they
had met their death. The bodies lay in a natural position, as though
the animals had been overcome when grazing and had sunk gently down.
Or as if they had succumbed to some gentle poison that brought a
painless death.

"Well, if this isn't the limit!" cried Bud while his cousins looked at
him and at each other with wonder on their faces.

"Of all the rotten things to do!" snapped out Nort. "To kill these
poor cattle! Why doesn't that gang fight like men if they want to give
battle--not spray their dirty poison gas around dumb beasts?"

"It is pretty rotten," agreed Dick.

Bud was carefully scanning the ground in the vicinity of the dead
cattle, at the same time cautiously sniffing the air to detect any
possible taint. But he seemed to discover nothing. Dick and Nort
followed his example, but were unable to come upon any clew.

However, not far from where the half dozen valuable animals had dropped
dead there was a little crack or rift in the earth. It was a sort of
opening between two long ridges of rocks, there being an outcropping of
stone at this point. It was part of the two ridges which, suddenly
rising higher, formed the walls of Smugglers' Glen farther to the
south. Dick was the first to notice it.

"See anything there?" asked Bud, noting that his cousin was bending
over the cleft in the surface.

"No, I can't see anything and I can't smell any