ket
from Buckskin's head; whereupon the animal, recognizing this as a sign
to rise, quickly gained his feet and shook himself.

"It's back to the blankets again for another nap," remarked Bob, when
he, too, had seen his animal regain an upright position. "Wonder
what's next on the programme for us. Twice, now, we've been waked up;
and I don't know whether it's really worth while trying to get any more
sleep to-night. It isn't a great ways from dawn, is it, Frank?"

The other cast a quick look up at the stars. Accustomed to reading
these heavenly sign posts of the night, he was able, from their
positions, to give a pretty fair guess as to the hour; just as the sun
served him in place of a watch during the day.

"Three hours yet to dawn, Bob; no use staying up all that time," he
said, presently. "We expect to be on the move again at peep of day;
because, after what's happened, it'll be wise for us to get off the
level here before broad daylight comes along. There might be curious
eyes on the watch up yonder, on Thunder Mountain; and that, you see,
would just spell trouble for our crowd."

"Whew! things are thickening, for a fact!" exclaimed Bob.

"I was only thinking," Frank continued, "whether we ought to try and
get word back to the ranch about our discovery. If they knew Mendoza
and his rustlers were hiding somewhere about this place they'd comb the
whole mountain range so they could run him to earth. He's been the
pest of the border too long now, and something's just got to be done to
chase him back where he belongs, south of the Rio Grande."

"But you don't want to go back just yet, do you, Frank?" asked Bob,
uneasily.

"I'm ready to do what you say, though I'd like to stay," came the
prompt answer.

"Then I say, let's stick it out," declared Bob, with animation. "It
might turn out to be a false alarm, after all; and we'd feel pretty
cheap to bring all the boys along, and then not be able to show 'em any
game. No, I say it'll be time enough to go after 'em, when we make
dead sure!"

"That settles it, then," remarked Frank, with a little laugh, as though
pleased to learn that his saddle chum looked at the matter in such a
sensible light.

This time, after they had lain down in their blankets, there was no
further alarm. Frank, from long habits of early rising on the range,
awakened just as the first faint streaks of dawn began to show in the
eastern horizon.

It required but a touch to arouse