with the onery skunk
that's doin' the shootin'."

"Take it easy, Kid," Dick cautioned. "You can't tell how many men
there are over there."

"Right! Now you pass the word to the others to keep that hill peppered
with lead. As soon as you see a sign of life, let ride. If you can
keep whoever's doin' all this out of sight, I'll have a chance. So
long!"

Yellin' Kid had started. With a simple "so long" he was off on a
mission which might--and very likely would--end in his death. Men who
spend their lives on the prairies have no time for heroics. They do
their job--and say nothing.

Slowly the Kid crept forward. The hidden gunman seemed to be
withholding his fire. In the brush by the water hole lay the five
watching men--Billee Dobb and Joe Hawkins with long-barreled Colts
ready for action, Dick, Nort and Bud squinting along the barrels of
their shorter guns. Closer, closer, the Kid crawled. Seventy-five
yards! Seventy! Now, Kid--now----

"Well, by the ghost of my aunt Lizzie's cat!"

The Kid was standing upright, his mouth open, his gun hanging loosely
by his side.

Not a soul was in sight!

A quick look about verified this. The country beyond the knoll was
perfectly flat, and for over five hundred yards was bare of even the
smallest bush. Whoever the mysterious shooter was, he had, apparently,
vanished into thin air.

"Hey, you guys, come over here!" yelled the Kid. "We been blazed at by
a ghost!"

One by one the men by the water hole got to their feet.

Dick was the first to reach the Kid's side.

"He's right, boys!" called back Dick, as he saw the empty space behind
the little hill. "Nobody here. But let's have a look at the ground.
We can tell if it's been disturbed, anyway."

A careful search revealed not only the traces of someone having lain
down on the loose earth, but also two empty shells.

"That makes me feel a little better!" cried the Kid as he saw this. "I
don't hanker to be shot at by someone I can't see. Now the thing to do
is to find out what happened to our late playmate."

"He's gone, ain't he?" asked Billee Dobb incredulously, as he came
shuffling along. Off his horse Billee was a bit awkward.

"You don't say! Well, now, I never noticed that! Say, Billee, you a
de-tect-a-tive by any chance?"

"Go on, laugh, Kid! You spent enough time sneakin' up on a whole lot
of nothin', didn't ye?"

"What do you think about this, Mr. Hawkins?" Bud asked of the deputy,