was scared!"

"Then why would you be willing to go back?" asked Nort.

"To look after you kids--that's why--if so be your Pa thinks it fitten
to send you out to Dot and Dash. An' you heard me, too, the first
time!" snapped Billee with a trace of temper which was unusual in his
gentle nature.

"Well, I don't believe I'm going to send them--that's the answer to one
question," said Mr. Merkel. "After what you told me, Billee, I can't
see that it would be wise to take a chance. I'll put up with my loss,
and----"

"Did you pay much for the new ranch, Dad?" asked Bud.

"Well, I thought I was getting a bargain," his father relied. "But
maybe I'm going to be left holding the bag after all. It strikes me
now that Barter was pretty anxious and quick to sell. I ought to have
smelled a rat, but I didn't. And, by and large, it was a pretty good
sum I paid. But, as I said, I'm willing to lose if----"

"You aren't going to lose, Uncle Henry!" cried Nort.

"Not if we have anything to say about it!" chimed in his brother.

"And you got to count on me!" added Bud.

"The smallest roosters always have the loudest crow!" chuckled Snake
Purdee.

"Hey, you! Cut that out!" growled Yellin' Kid. "There ain't a yaller
streak in these boys an' you know it!"

"Course I know it!" chuckled Snake. "I was only kiddin'! Me, I aim to
go 'long with 'em an' see what caused them mysterious killin's. Sure,
I'm goin'!"

"Go easy, boys!" chuckled Billee. "If you all leave Diamond X, how's
Slim an' Babe goin' to run things?"

"Don't fool yourselves!" snapped the lanky foreman. "I run Diamond X
'fore any of you fellers ever forked a bronc an' I can do it again."

"He's got me!" chimed in Babe.

"Ho! Ho!" chuckled Yellin' Kid. "You must 'a' been readin' the funny
papers!"

There was an ominous note, now, in some of the voices and Mr. Merkel,
knowing how easily tempers of even the best of punchers are ruffled,
interposed a soothing word or two.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," he said. "If what Billee states is
true, and I know he is telling the truth as he sees it, or as he heard
it, why, I'm not going to send anybody to Dot and Dash."

"Oh, Dad!" cried Bud, beseechingly, while Nort and Dick chimed in with:

"Uncle Henry, we just _got_ to go!"

"We'll have another talk about it," went on the ranch owner. "This is
all news to me, Billee, and surprising news, too. I don't know what to
do. I wish I had heard some of