said the
ranchman.

"What sort of a man is he?" asked Mr. Pertell, suspiciously.

"Well, not as good a sort as I thought he was. He knows a little about
cow-punching; but not much. Still, I was short of help and had to put
him on."

"What--what does he do with that?" asked Russ, pointing to the camera
out on the bench.

"That? Oh he says that's an electric battery. He uses it for rheumatism;
but I haven't seen him work it yet. He said it was out of order, and
he's tinkering with it the last few days. Why?"

"Oh, I was just--just wondering," returned Russ, evasively.

Then, as he passed on to the dining room, he saw, through a window, a
man hurry up to the bench and remove the camera. Russ could not recall
ever having seen this man.

"There's something queer about this," said Mr. Pertell to his operator.
"What would a cowboy be doing with a moving picture camera?"

CHAPTER XIII

AT THE BRANDING

Russ did not answer for a moment, but kept on beside the manager through
the long corridor that led to the dining hall. Then, just as the two
entered the room, Russ said:

"I reckon, as they say out here--I reckon, Mr. Pertell, that you're
thinking the same thing I am."

"What's that, Russ?"

"That maybe those International fellows are still on our trail."

"That's what I do think, Russ. Though how they got out here ahead of us
is more than I can tell."

"It would be easy enough. They learned we were coming here, and just
took a short cut. We've been on the road quite a while."

"That must be it, Russ. But you say you had a glimpse of the fellow who
took the camera off the bench. You didn't know him; did you?"

"Never saw him before, as far as I could tell. But there are a lot of
camera operators nowadays, so that isn't strange. The International firm
could hire anyone and send him on here to try and steal some of the
scenes we're depending on. He could pose as a cowboy, too."

"Well, we'll just have to be on our guard, Russ. It won't do to let them
get ahead of us. There's too much at stake."

Nothing was said to the players of the suspicions of Russ and Mr.
Pertell. They wanted to wait and see what happened.

Though the meal at Rocky Ranch was served without any of the elegance
which would have been expected at a hotel, the food was of the best, and
there was plenty of it.

"Ah, again sauerkraut!" cried Mr. Switzer, as he saw a steaming dish
brought on the table, topped with smoking sausages