vicious Mexican half-breed had played tricks with the water.

For that is what they amounted to--tricks. Who built the
copper-lever-controlled water gates, putting them in to utilize the
winding underground streams, no one could tell. It may have been the
Aztecs. The powerful, slanting stream of water, it was discovered,
formed the outlet of the shunted-in-river stream when the two side
channels were opened so that Flume Valley's water supply was cut off.

The water gates and the underground streams formed the chief mystery,
and these never could be fully explored. It was thought too dangerous.
How Del Pinzo discovered the workings of the levers, utilizing them to
try to end the rule of the boy ranchers in Flume Valley, was not
disclosed for many years.

"You won't have any further trouble, now that the gates are closed and
the levers taken off," Mr. Merkel said, for that had been done.
"You'll get all the water you want in Flume Valley."

"Guess I'll call it Happy Valley," said Bud, "for everything is coming
out right, now."

"In spite of black rabbits!" chuckled Old Billee.

"Yes, even with black jacks!" laughed Bud. "Everything is working
fine, now."

And so it was. For with the discovery of the secret water gates and
the disappearance of Del Pinzo, the epidemic died away. Though this,
of course, was due to the arrest of Pocut Pete.

That scoundrel was found guilty and sentenced to a long term in prison.
But he kept his counsel, and never actually confessed that it was Hank
Fisher who set him to this dastardly trick--if, indeed, it was that
unscrupulous ranchman of Double Z.

That it was rustlers from Double Z who had tried to drive off some of
the boy ranchers' cattle was not doubted, the finding of the branding
iron being regarded as telltale evidence. But this was not enough to
cause any arrests.

"Well, what are we going to do next?" asked Dick, of his brother and
cousin, when they were fishing in the reservoir one evening, as, with
the closing of the hidden gates and the uninterrupted flow of the
water, many more finny prizes could be hooked.

"Get ready for a big shipment of cattle," said Bud. "I never saw any
finer stock than we have here in Happy Valley. That's our next
move--reap the benefits of our hard work."

But the lads did more than that. And those of you who wish to follow
their fortunes further may do go in the next volume of this series,
which will be called: "The Boy Ranc