You look as if some one had handed you a lemon."

"No lemons in mine, but I jest got a hunch that this yere outfit is
being follered, an' that thar's some dirty work doin'."

"What makes you think that?"

"I found a couple o' dead steers back a bit with our brand on them."

"Great Scott! What seemed the matter with them?"

"All swelled up."

"Poison?"

"That's what makes them swell up. There's no disease in ther herd, what
I kin diskiver. All healthy enough. But some o' them is showin' signs o'
loco, an' thar ain't no loco weed on this range."

"That's mighty strange. I hadn't noticed it. What do you think of it?"

"I believe that dog Woofer is follerin' us, an' has been spreadin'
poison o' some kind on ther range what either kills or makes ther steers
crazy."

"If that is true, it is the most serious thing that has come our way in
a long time. It wouldn't take much of that sort of work to put the whole
bunch out of business and leave us with not enough cattle to pay to
drive back to the road."

"That's right. We'd be in a pretty fix with the best o' our herd rottin'
out here on the prairie. And about all we've got is tied up in it, too."

"What do you think is behind it?"

"Barrows, the dirty little coward of an officer back there at Fort
Felton, striking back-hand blows at us through his money, by hirin'
crooks and murderers to do his dirty work. There's more than one man at
work at this."

"I've no doubt you're right. By Jove! I'm going to take a look at the
situation myself."

"Be careful about goin' too far away from the herd alone."

"I will; and, say, warn Stella and Miss Croffut about going out of sight
of the herd, and to always fire a signal if strange men approach them
when away from camp."

"I'll put everybody on, and warn them to be on their guard."

As Ted rode on, he turned the matter over in his mind.

Not knowing exactly if poison had been given the cattle, or if they had
eaten of a poisonous weed, of which he had no knowledge, Ted was in a
quandary. But it was questions like this that came before cowmen on the
range, and it was the successful ones who solved them.

Ted felt, therefore, that it was up to him to get at the cause of the
trouble which had unexpectedly come to him.

If he was being followed by a band of cattle poisoners who worked in the
night, the sooner he knew it the better, for he could then lay plans to
put them out of their nefarious business.

As he rode,