ell, well!" exclaimed the children's father. "And to think that two of
the six little Bunkers, by finding the cowboy with the broken leg,
should help solve the spring mystery!"

"It is extraordinary!" exclaimed Uncle Fred. "But I knew as soon as I
saw the little Bunkers in the attic that day I walked into your house,
that they could do something. And they have. Now, Captain Roy, you and
the cowboys ride on and see if you can get back our cattle."

Away rode Captain Roy and the cowboys, and some hours later they came
back with the men, whom they had easily caught. They found the cattle
hidden in a gully, or deep valley, near the creek, and the steers were
driven back to their pasturage on Three Star Ranch.

Then the whole story came out. Sam Thurston and the others of the band,
instead of raising cattle of their own, used to take those belonging to
other ranchmen. They found it easy to take Uncle Fred's, and, by making
a dam, or wall of earth, across the place where the stream started that
fed his spring, they could turn it in another direction, making it flow
over a path, or trail.

Along this trail, when the water covered it, the men drove the cattle
they took from Uncle Fred's field, and the water covered, and washed
away, any marks the cattle's feet made. So no one could see which way
they had been driven.

When the stream was thus dammed it did not flow into the spring, which
went dry. After the dam was taken away the spring filled again.

And so it went on. Each time cattle were taken the spring was made to go
dry, and the men thus fooled Uncle Fred and his cowboys. The bad men
would hide the cattle and sell them to other men who did not know they
were stolen.

So the secret of the spring might never have been discovered except for
Laddie and Russ making that race to the bridge where they found the
cowboy with the broken leg.

Sam Thurston became good after that, his leg healed, and he worked for
Uncle Fred for a number of years. The bad men were sent to prison for a
long time, and had no more chance to take cattle from any one.

"But aren't you going to dig down in the well we made, and see what is
at the bottom of it?" asked Russ of his father, a day or so after the
cattle had been got back and the men sent away.

"Yes, I think we shall," said Uncle Fred. "I'd like to know what that
gurgle of water is."

So they dug and found out. But it had nothing to do with the secret of
the spring, after all. It