the foot of the mountains was called.

"If they went that way I will have no trouble in getting help to run
them down," he said to himself. "I can get Ike Watson and Mat Prigley,
who will go willingly, and there is no better man to take hold of this
sort of thing than Ike Watson."

Mile after mile was passed, and the trail remained as plain as before.

"It looks as if they didn't anticipate being followed," was the way
Allen figured it, but he soon found out his mistake, when, on coming
around a rocky spur of ground, the trail suddenly vanished.

The young ranchman came to a halt in some dismay, and a look of
perplexity quickly stole over his face. He looked to the right and the
left, and ahead, but all to no purpose. The trail was gone.

"Here's a state of things," he murmured as he continued to gaze around.
"Where in the land of goodness has it gone to? They couldn't have taken
wings and flown away."

Allen spent all of a quarter of an hour on the rocky spur. Then on a
venture he moved forward over the bare rocks, feeling pretty certain
that it was the only way they could have gone without leaving tracks
behind them.

He calculated that he had traveled nearly ten miles. His mare showed
signs of being tired, and he spoke to her more kindly than ever.

"It won't do, Lilly," he said, patting her soft neck affectionately. "We
have got to get through somehow or other. You must brace up and when it
is all over you can take the best kind of a long resting spell."

And the faithful animal laid back her ears and appeared to understand
every word he said to her. She was a most knowing creature, and Allen
would have gone wild had she been one of those stolen.

The barren, rocky way lasted for upward of half a mile, and came to an
end in a slight decline covered with rich grass and more brush. Allen
looked about him eagerly.

"Hurrah! there is the trail, true enough!" he cried, as the well
understood marks in the growth beneath his feet met his gaze. "That was
a lucky chance I took. On, Lilly, and we'll have Jasper and Rush back
before nightfall, or know the reason why."

Away flew the mare once more over the plain that stretched before her
for several miles. Beyond were the mountains, covered with a purplish
haze.

The vicinity of the mountains was gained at last, and now, more than
tired, the mare dropped into a walk as the first upward slope was
struck.

Hardly had she done so than Allen saw something that ma