outfit, and
when one man clattered past on his horse Mr. Merkel cried:

"What's up?"

"Jail delivery!" was the answer. "Those cattle rustlers broke out just
now! We're after 'em! Come on!"

"Not Del Pinzo and his gang!" cried Bud.

"You said it!" shouted the man--a deputy sheriff. "A lot of Greasers
rode in just now, started shootin' up promiscus like, and in the
excitement Del Pinzo and his crowd managed to get out of the calaboose!
We got to get a new one, I reckon! But come on! We may land 'em yet!"

"Oh, Zip Foster!" yelled Bud, as he urged his horse forward.

"More exciting fun!" commented Nort. "Got your gun, Dick?"

"Sure!" was the answer.

Through the main street of the town rode the boy ranchers, following
the trail of the posse of officers and men who were trailing the
escaped prisoners.

As they turned into a cross thoroughfare the sound of rapid firing came
to the ears of Bud and his cousins.

"Watch your step!" counseled Mr. Merkel. "Wait a minute!"

But the boys did not wait. On they rushed, only to come into action at
the tail end of the fight. Some cowboys and members of the sheriff's
hastily organized posse were shooting at some Greasers who had turned
to make a stand. But the Mexicans saw that they were outnumbered, and
fled off in disorder, firing and being fired at.

However, there were no casualties, and when one of the deputies
explained that this "bunch" was not Del Pinzo and the escaping men, but
some others, Bud and his friends rode back.

"They tried to draw us off the trail of that slick Greaser," explained
one of the deputies.

"Can't we join the posse?" asked Nort of Mr. Merkel.

The ranchman shook his head.

"There's enough after 'em without you," he said. "And as long as Del
Pinzo has taken matters into his own hands, and succeeded in postponing
his trial, we might as well get back to Diamond X."

Bud, Nort and Dick rather regretted this, but when they learned, later,
that the sheriff and his men rode hard all night after the prisoners,
only to lose them among the hills near the Mexican border, our heroes
decided it was just as well they had not gone.

"So Del Pinzo got away after all, did he?" asked Babe, when the boy
ranchers rode back to put their ponies in the corral. "That Greaser
sure is a bad one! He'll make trouble yet!"

And Del Pinzo did. He was of a vindictive nature, and he associated
much of his trouble with Diamond X ranch. So, natural