themselves if they could.

With drawn guns, firing rapidly and yelling as loudly as they could,
the boy ranchers rode in among the frightened steers, endeavoring to
turn them off to the right. For a moment it seemed as if they were not
going to do this, but eventually their tactics succeeded, and the
leaders of the herd swung off. Then the others followed and it was now
a comparatively easy matter to drive them along where it was desired
they should go.

"Poor things!" murmured Dick sympathetically, as he saw the weary
cattle. "We'll have to let 'em rest, Bud."

"Guess you're right," agreed the son of the Diamond X owner. "They
won't be much good for shipping to market until they get some fat back
on their bones." Many of the cattle were in woeful shape, and all
suffered from lack of water, since the rustlers had driven them so
hard, endeavoring to get far away with them as soon as possible that
they had not stopped to water them.

"There's a little stream over there," announced Sam, one of the cowboys
who knew this part of the country well. "We can haze 'em over there
and keep 'em for a while."

This was considered the best thing to do, and soon the weary cattle
were drinking their first water in many hours. Afterward they all lay
down to rest, not even eating until some of the weariness had passed.

Meanwhile the cowboys under Old Billee had come to close quarters with
the rustlers and the fight started immediately. There was nothing
unusual about it, the rustlers merely desiring to get away and the
outfit from Diamond X wishing to capture them to make them pay for
their lawlessness.

One rustler was captured, for he was so wounded that he fell from his
horse. The others got away, one badly hurt, it seemed, for he had to
be taken in charge by one of his companions who lifted him to his own
saddle.

As for Billee and his forces, they suffered somewhat, two of the
cowboys being painfully wounded by bullets. But, on the whole, the
affair ended much better than might have been expected. The stolen
cattle had been recovered, in as good condition as could be hoped for,
and the rustlers had been driven off, with the exception of the wounded
one.

It was planned to take him to the nearest jail, but this trouble was
obviated for the man died in the night.

Riding back after having driven off the rustlers, Billee and his men
found the cattle quietly resting, while Bud and his friends were doing
likewis