back, out of the circle of light cast by the fire under the
kettle. He seemed to be alarmed.

"Who's there?" he cried.

The boys did not answer. They did not know what to do. It was all so
strange and startling.

A moment later the queer hermit, for such he seemed to be, had snatched
the kettle off the chain by which it was suspended. With a quick
motion of his foot he scattered the embers of the fire so that
immediate section of the cave was obscured by smoke and fantastic
shadows. Then the old man ran back into the darkness of the far
reaches of the cavern and disappeared from view.

"There he goes!" cried Nort. There was no longer need of whispering.

"After him!" cried Dick.

"No! Don't go!" exclaimed Bud. "You don't know what he was doing,
what he may be up to nor where he's gone. It isn't safe!"

This last was so evident that Nort and Dick at once agreed to the
proposition and halted. But Dick added:

"We don't know, for sure what he was doing, but I can pretty near
guess!"

"What?" asked Bud.

"He was brewing stuff to poison our cattle. He's the fellow that's
been doing it. He's the cause of all the trouble at Dot and Dash. We
ought to have him arrested, and we've got good proof against him!"

"What proof?" Bud asked.

"The bottles of stuff he sold us. Lucky we didn't take any of it!
It's poison, sure! Come on, let's get back and then send word to the
sheriff to come and arrest this old man."

It seemed to be good advice and the best thing to do under the
circumstances, whether or not Dick's theory would be borne out by facts.

"We'll go back and have that Elixer analyzed," said Bud as he swung
around with his cousins and began the retreat. "I meant to have it
done before but there's so doggoned much to do here it slipped my mind.
But I'll have it looked after now."

It did not take the three long to emerge from "Elixer Cave," as they
named the place where they had seen the hermit over his brew. Their
horses were patiently waiting and in a little while the boys were
within sight of the ranch house.

But something seemed to be going on there. Snake, Billee and Yellin'
Kid were standing near the cook house, whence came a series of wild,
yipping yells.

"What's the matter?" cried Bud as he rode up to the group of cowboys.
"Who's doing all that yelling?"

"Fah Moo!" answered Old Billee Dobb.

"Who in the world is Fah Moo?"

"The new Chinese cook that come out from town soo