maverick, or an unbranded calf, and feast up
on it. They'll skin it, salt down the hide after they blur the brand,
and get away with it."

"What's blurring a brand?" asked Dick.

"Putting a hot iron on it over the brand that's already there,"
explained Bud. "Some brands can be changed from one to another without
much trouble, but when this can't be done a cattle thief will simply
make a botch of the brand, and it's a pretty slick ranchman who will
swear, out of hundreds of steers and calves, that any particular one is
his, if he can't make out the brand or earmarks clearly."

"Earmarks?" questioned Nort.

"Sometimes we clip a piece out of a calf's ear," explained Bud, "as
well as branding 'em. Each ranchman has his own particular earmark for
his cattle. But either may be botched or blurred by a thief if he's
cute enough."

"And does this Del Pinzo do that?" asked Nort, a little thrilled at
having been in such close association with a cattle thief.

"I wouldn't put it past him, and the gang he hangs out with," Bud
answered. "Maybe that's what he was up to when I roped him."

"Where does he hang out?" asked Dick.

"He's supposed to work on the Double Z ranch--Hank Fisher's place," was
the reply. "And Hank doesn't bear any too good a reputation around
here."

"Maybe he was one of the men the professors hired, and who afterward
turned against them," suggested Dick.

"Maybe," assented Bud. "I'd like to know what that camp meant," he
murmured as he rode on with his cousins.

"If they aren't after gold, they're after something, and they're making
a secret of it," declared Nort. "And meeting Professor Wright the
night an attempt was made to steal some of your cattle, Bud, makes it
look as if the whole outfit might be trying to rustle off stock."

"Yes, it might, and again it might not," said the western lad. "I'd
hate to think two decent-looking men, like Professor Blair and
Professor Wright, would be cattle thieves. But you never can tell.
Their learned appearance may be all bluff. I'd sooner think it was Del
Pinzo and his gang. But he may be working with the professors.
Anyhow, they haven't got away with anything yet, and they won't if
dad's boys keep their eyes open. Only I would like to solve the
mystery of that camp," and he looked back toward the deserted one,
where some strange excavations had been made.

"Maybe we can trail 'em and find where they've gone," suggested Dick.

"Oh, we could