hile the afternoon was still young they were on their way again,
and before dark they had reached the headquarters of North Station, an
auxiliary to Diamond X ranch.

"You fellows got here pretty quick," observed Sam Tod, the foreman at
North Station.

"Well, we didn't stop to play mumble-th'-peg along th' way," chuckled
Billee. "Now let's hear the yarn straight."

It was hastily told, bearing out what had already been learned of it
over the telephone.

"Pack us up a little more grub and we'll keep on," said Billee Dobb to
Sam, when the narration was ended.

"You'd better call it a day and stay here for the night," counseled Sam.

"Nothin' doin'!" declared Billee earnestly. "We're goin' t' hit th'
trail hard!"

"Now listen a moment," begged Sam. "I know this part of the country
better 'n what you do, Billee, though I give in to you on lots of
points. This section is pretty rough, an' them rustlers won't be able
to make any kind of speed with th' cattle. You can catch up t' 'em
better if you make an early mornin' start than if you keep on now."

"You think so?" asked Billee, who was not "sot in his ways," as he
often said.

"I'm sure of it," declared Sam.

"Wa'al, mebby you're right," conceded the veteran cowboy. "What say,
fellows?" and he appealed to Bud and the others.

"I say let's stay here for th' night," decided Yellin' Kid. "As Sam
says, we can make better time in th' mornin'. Th' rustlers can't drive
cattle only so fast, anyhow."

"Unless they stampede 'em," put in Bud.

"That's what they did t' get away from where we had 'em pastured,"
declared Sam. "But if they get 'em that wild now the animals is likely
t' break away, an' that isn't what this bunch of Greasers is countin'
on."

"I guess you're right," admitted Bud. "It's about a fifty-fifty
proposition, and we'd better wait here over night."

This decided, little time was lost in taking saddles from the horses
and turning them into the corral, while their riders made ready to wash
up, prepare for the evening meal and rest.

As Snake Purdee turned his pony in and hung the saddle over the fence
he noticed a small enclosure in one corner of the corral, in which were
two rather sorry-looking specimens of horseflesh.

"What you got there, Sam?" he asked, nodding toward the two sequestered
steeds.

"Oh, couple a' outlaws," was the answer.

Snake's eyes seemed to sparkle with new light.

"Reg'lar man-killers?" he asked eagerly.