e riders, of which there were two or three, checked their horses to
descend the hill past the overturned wagon; but as they did not trouble
to lower their voices, every word they said was perfectly audible
through the hush of the night.

"As neat a job of stampeding as ever I saw," said a hoarse voice.

"We got them away so quietly too. That was a bright idea of yours, Alf,
to make friends with the watchman last night," said another, whose tones
had a boyish ring, as if he were hardly grown up as yet.

"Alf always did understand making friends at the right time, and if I
know anything about it, there was something more than whisky in that
bottle from which you offered him a drink," said a third man, whose
voice had such a horrid ring that Nealie could not repress a shudder,
and she pressed the cushion down with a warning air upon the two boys as
the beginning of another gurgle sounded from them.

"What is that in the hollow there?" demanded the first speaker, whom the
others had called Alf.

"It looks like a wagon that has come to grief and been deserted," said
the third man in a casual tone, and then they put their horses to a
canter again and swept past the wagon without troubling more about it.

"Cattle thieves!" murmured Nealie, and there was a shaky sound in her
voice which made Rupert reach up to grip her hand, as if he would give
her more courage that way.

"What a mercy that the cattle charged down upon us and upset us in this
fashion, or we might have had something even more unpleasant to bear,"
whispered Sylvia, clasping Ducky closer in her arms and feeling grateful
for what at first had seemed such an awful disaster.

"Cattle thieves? But how will they manage to get clear away without the
proper drovers finding which way they have gone?" asked Rupert, who had
been straining his ears to discover the route taken by the men who had
just ridden past.

"Here comes Rockefeller. I say, Nealie, let me ride a little way after
those men and find out which way they have gone? It is a bit lighter
now. I expect that the moon is getting up; there is the end of a moon
that shows somewhere near morning, I know," said Rumple, then he thrust
out his head and called softly to a shape which he had seen faintly
outlined against the dark hillside, and he was immediately answered by a
cheerful whinny, and a moment later Rockefeller shuffled up, his hobbles
not permitting much in the way of pace, although he could get about