same college to which Professor
Wright and Professor Blair were attached, had been given, by a Mexican
guide, a bone from that strange monster--the Triceratops.

By dint of much questioning this professor learned that the bone had
been found on land near Diamond X ranch. Professors Blair and Wright
secured government permission to prospect on unclaimed land, and thus
began a search for the complete skeleton, a search that ended so
dramatically.

The two professors had hired an outfit, and planned to spend the entire
summer looking for the remains of the prehistoric monster Dinosaur.
Their actions were misunderstood by some of the Mexicans and Indians
they hired, these ignorant men thinking gold was the object of the
search. Hence the attack on the camp at the time Bud and his friends
warded it off.

On the occasion when Ridin' Kid rode his horse against the tent, which
seemed to conceal something valuable, there was, inside the canvas
shelter, some bones that, later, proved to be part of the very skeleton
which Bud, Nort and Dick helped to raise from its ten-million-year-old
bed. The professors were afraid there would be a premature discovery
of what, to them, were valuable relics, so guarded the tent jealously.

But eventually the bones and fossils were hoisted out of the hole,
which had to be blasted larger to enable this work to go on, and the
scientists departed for the East and their colleges, parting on the
best of terms with the Diamond X outfit.

"Saddle up, boys!" called Mr. Merkel to Bud, Nort and Dick one day,
about a month after the fight in the valley camp.

"What for--have we got to quiet a stampede?" asked Dick, who had
recovered from his injuries, as had Nort.

"No, we've got to ride in to town, to give evidence against Del Pinzo
and his gang," answered Bud's father. "Their trial comes off to-day.
They've been in jail ever since we roped 'em!"

"More excitement!" yelled Bud as he raced for the corral to saddle his
pony, an example followed by Nort and Dick.

The boy ranchers, with some of the older men, rode off over the
prairies to the distant seat of the local government, where the trial
of the cattle rustlers was to be held.

And, as they rode into the small town, a typical western ranch
settlement, they became aware of something exciting that was going on.

Through the main street rode a number of cowboys, with drawn guns in
their hands. Several of these horsemen knew the Diamond X