nted; "and in that case he'll head
them and drive them back; so we may as well walk up to the cabin again
and wait for him."

To this I agreed, and we therefore turned round and retraced our steps.

"There's only one thing about this that I can't understand," remarked
Joe, as we trudged up the hill, "and that is about the halters--why they
leave no trail. That does beat me."

"Yes, that is certainly a queer thing; unless they managed to scrape
them off against the trees before they took to the road. In that case,
though, we ought to have found them; and anyhow it is hard to believe
that all three horses should have done the same thing."

We found Tom very busy packing up when we reached the cabin, and on our
telling him the result of our horse-hunt he merely nodded, saying,
"Well, they'll be back soon, I suppose, and then I'll ride down with
you."

"Why, are you going to quit, Tom?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied. "Your father limited me to one more hole, you
remember, and if I know him he'll stick to it; and as to working any
longer for Yetmore, no thank you; I've had enough of it."

So saying, Tom, who had already cleaned and put away the tools, began
tumbling his scanty wardrobe into a gunny-sack, and this being done, he
turned to us and said:

"I've got a pony out at pasture about a mile up the valley. I'll go and
bring him down; and while I'm gone you might as well pitch in and get
dinner ready. You needn't provide for Sandy Yates: he's gone off already
to see if he can get a job up at the Samson."

Sandy Yates was the helper.

In an hour or less Tom was back and we were seated at dinner, without
Yetmore, who had not yet turned up, when the conversation naturally fell
upon the subject of the runaway horses. We related to Tom how we had
trailed them through the woods down to the road, told him of the sudden
appearance of Yetmore's tracks, and how the horses had then set off at a
run, followed by Yetmore.

"But the thing I can_not_ understand," said Joe, harking back to the old
subject, "is why the halter-ropes don't show in the dust."

"Don't they?" exclaimed Tom, suddenly sitting bolt upright and clapping
his knife and fork down upon the table. "Don't they? Just you wait a
minute."

With that he jumped up, strode out of the cabin, and went straight
across to the stable. In two minutes he was back again, and standing in
the doorway, with his hands in his pockets, he said:

"Boys, I've got another surp