he water hole. "I'm
going to run on ahead and get a drink."

On he ran, and the others saw him stop suddenly when he reached the
spring. Then Russ shouted:

"Oh, come here! Come here quick! Look! Hurry!"

CHAPTER X

SOME BAD NEWS

"I wonder what the matter is," said Mrs. Bunker, when she heard Russ
shout.

She did not have to wonder long. As the others drew nearer, Russ shouted
again, and this time he said:

"The water's all running out of the spring! It's going dry, just like
Uncle Fred said it would!"

"More mystery!" exclaimed the ranchman as he hurried on.

The five little Bunkers and the grown folk reached the edge of the big
spring where Russ stood. He was looking down into the clear water, and
the others did the same.

"Surely enough, it is getting lower!" exclaimed Mother Bunker.

"There isn't half as much in as there was at first," added her husband.
"Is this the way it always does, Fred?"

"I never saw it run out before," answered the owner of Three Star Ranch.
"Every time before, it has happened in the night when no one was near
it. We'd visit the spring in the evening, and it would be all right. In
the morning it would be nearly dry, and it might stay that way a day or
two before the water came back into it. Very queer, I call it."

"So do I!" exclaimed Daddy Bunker. "I'll take another picture of it now.
Maybe that will help us solve the mystery."

While he was getting the camera ready Mrs. Bunker said:

"The water is going out fast. You'd better get a drink now, Russ dear,
if you want it, for there may not be any more for a long time."

"I will!" exclaimed Russ.

Uncle Fred kept half a cocoanut shell tied by a string near the spring
to use as a cup. This Russ dipped in the fast lowering water, and got a
drink for the other little Bunkers and for himself, as they all seemed
to be thirsty at once.

"What will you do for water when the spring runs dry?" asked Mrs.
Bunker of her brother.

"We'll have to draw some from the creek, but I have a lot of this water
stored in the tank. I always keep that full lately, since I can't tell
when my spring is going dry."

They stood and watched the water going out of the spring. It was just
like it is when you pull the stopper out of the bathtub. The water gets
lower and lower, running down the pipe. Only, of course, there was no
pipe in the spring--that is, as far as Uncle Fred knew.

"The water seems just to stop running in," said Daddy