' fix it. It's a big
bust, the report has it, an' he don't want th' cattle to stampede out."

"All right, we're going," declared Bud. "Come on, fellows," he called
to his cousins, and they galloped away toward the ranch headquarters,
while the cowboys rode on their way, Yellin' Kid singing at the top of
his voice. The boy ranchers passed the newly branded calf, its mother
still licking the burned place, but the little creature did not seem
much to mind what had happened, for it was eating grass.

"Who broke the fence?" asked Nort, as he and Dick rode along on either
side of Bud, whose horsemanship they were trying to imitate.

"Hard to say," was the answer. "Sometimes it's Greasers, and again
Indians, who hope to get a few cattle in the confusion if a herd gets
out. Then again something may have frightened the cattle themselves,
and in a rush they may have broken through. Generally it's the cattle
themselves, and then we have to rush a bunch of cowboys to mend the
break, some of 'em stringing new wire while others keep the steers,
cows and calves from coming out on the open range."

"Say, there's been a lot of excitement since we came here!" declared
Nort, his eyes shining in delight at the prospect of more.

"Oh, there's always more or less going on like this," said Bud. "If it
isn't one thing it's another, though I must say we haven't had anything
like those queer professors in some time."

"I'd like to know what their game really is," remarked Dick.

"So would I!" exclaimed his more impulsive brother. "And I'd like to
catch 'em at it when I had my gun loaded," and he tapped significantly
the .45 on his hip.

"Don't be too fast with gun play," advised Bud calmly. "You'll find,
if you ever become a rancher, that you'll use more powder on coyotes,
rattlers and in driving cattle the way you want 'em to go, than you
will on humans. There isn't so much shooting out here as the writers
of some books would make out."

"Well, if there's only a little, I'll be satisfied," said Nort.

They reached the headquarters of Diamond X ranch without mishap, save
that Dick's pony stepped into a prairie dog's hole, and threw his rider
over his head. But Dick was rather stout, and cushioned with flesh as
he was, a severe shaking-up was all the harm he suffered.

"They're nasty things at night--prairie dogs' burrows," said Bud. "But
mostly a pony can see 'em in time to side-step. Yours just
didn't--that's all."

"