out of the saddle! Oh, boy!" and with a yell Babe ran to
join in the fray.

Nort cleared his face of blood and water long enough to see Snake
Purdee keel over out of his saddle as a bullet struck him, though it
afterward developed that the cowboy was not badly hurt.

Slim was slightly wounded, and Mr. Merkel had a narrow escape. But
though the Diamond X bunch took hard knocks they gave harder ones. Nor
did the professors escape scathless, for Mr. Wright was grazed by a
spent bullet, and his helper was horned by one of the wild steers.

"There they go! We've made 'em run for cover!" shrilly cried Yellin'
Kid as he spurred after the last of the lawless men. "Yip! Yippy!
There they go!"

And go the rascals did--that is, those who were not wounded or captured.

CHAPTER XXV

THE TRICERATOPS

Diamond X cowboys were in complete possession of the mysterious camp of
the two professors. The fight had been won by the Merkel forces, and
at no very great sacrifices on their part. One or two of the cowboys
had been wounded, but not seriously, though two horses had been killed,
and also one steer. On the other hand, the enemy, as represented by
the Greasers and some cowboys who were in the pay of the two
professors, were in need of hospital treatment in several cases; one
serious. But they had brought the trouble on themselves by their
lawless acts.

Babe helped Nort tie a bandage around the bullet-cut on his forehead,
and then, with his eyes cleared of the blood, Nort was able to see that
victory had come to Diamond X.

Bud's quick act, in lassoing Del Pinzo, just as the latter was about to
ride down Nort, had been one of the turning points in the fight. When
the Greasers saw their leader pulled from his saddle they turned and
would have fled, but for the cowboys who surrounded them, compelling
them to surrender with the grim words:

"Hands up!"

Nort saw Del Pinzo, and several of the others, being roped and tied on
ponies, and then his attention was attracted to Dick, who came limping
up with a rueful face.

"Hurt?" asked Nort of his brother.

"No, but wasn't it rotten that my horse had to stumble just as I was
going to pot one of 'em?"

"Yes, but _you_ might have been potted instead! We're well out of it,
I think."

"They got you, though!" said Dick, a bit anxiously.

"Only a scratch," Nort answered, though his whole face was beginning to
feel stiff from the effects of the bullet wound.

"W