this trick, never fear."

"They'll sure be surprised when they see us," chimed in the owner
of the Three Stars.

"That's just it," returned Mr. Wilder. "Of course, they think we
have perished in the flames, and when they see us riding in on them
they will be so scared it will take all the fight out of them."

None the worse for their experience, the cowboys were eager to be
under way again that they might exact satisfaction upon the raiders
for their unwilling flight. But Mr. Wilder curbed their
impatience by saying:

"It's all right to want to get on the trail again, but if we should
start now, while the plains are still hot, we run the risk of
crippling some of our ponies. We'll eat breakfast here and then in
an hour I guess we can start. What do you think, Jim?"

"It will be all right to take grub and we can tell about the ground
when we've eaten."

Fate, however, was still on the side of the ranchers, for while
they were at their meal it began to rain.

With a shout the cowboys greeted the first drops, but their masters
grew serious.

"This rain will make it mighty hard to pick up the trail," observed
the owner of the Three Stars.

"But we won't need to search for it," interposed Tom.

At his words all eyes were turned upon him, and Mr. Wilder voiced
their sentiments by asking:

"Why?"

"Because I know the very place where Horace and Larry and I rode
into the mountains. I thought I might want to remember it, so I
broke off some branches and cut a half moon in one of the trees
with my jackknife."

"That's all right, but why should we follow that trail?" demanded
Bill. "The men who set the fire were all of--how far, Horace, from
Tom's trail?" and he looked at his brother.

"A good twenty miles."

"Why should we ride twenty miles when we can start right in at the
hills back where the fire started?" continued Bill.

Some of the cowboys laughed at this seeming evidence of Tom's lack
of understanding of the situation, but the younger of the chums had
his good reasons, as he quickly proved by replying:

"Because that is where they drove fifty cattle in. Mr. Jeffreys
said it was a short cut. Besides, it stands to reason the men
wouldn't have gone that way unless the trail led to the mine where
they could join the rest of the gang. I may be from the East," and
he glanced at the boys who had laughed at him, "but I'm not so much
of a tenderfoot as not to know four men aren't going on a pleas