n after you boys left."

"But what's the matter with him?" asked Dick. "Doesn't he like it here
that he's taking on like this?"

"Maybe he's singing for joy," suggested Nort as a louder series of
yelping cries came from the cookhouse.

"More like he's in pain," remarked Snake Purdee. "I'm mighty glad I
didn't drink any of it."

"Any of what?" asked Bud, wonderingly.

"That Elixer of Life the old gazaboo sold for a dollar a chunk. There
was three bottles of it, you know."

"Yes, I know," assented Bud with growing uneasiness.

"Well," went on Snake, "you know I started to take a swig from the
bottle I bought, but Nort wouldn't let me. Then Old Billee locked the
three bottles in a cupboard."

"That's right," assented Bud.

"Well," resumed the cowboy, "we discovered, a little while ago, and
soon after Fah Moo arrived to take charge of the kitchen, we discovered
that those three bottles were gone. We found 'em in the new cook's
department and the last one was empty."

"You mean he drunk all that Elixer?" cried Dick.

"Onless he used it for bathin', which I doubt!" chuckled Snake. "He
must have been nosing around, discovered where the stuff was hid and he
drunk every last drop. That's what makes him sing so, or
cry--whichever way you take it."

"He's poisoned!" cried Bud, no less excited, now, than were his two
cousins. "Poor Fah Moo is poisoned. We just discovered some of our
cattle dead over on the south range. And we found a cave where the old
man brews that Elixer. It's poison, sure. I guess it's all up with
the Chink, but we'll try to get a doctor to save him. I'll 'phone in
to town!"

Bud disappeared into the ranch house while the cowboys looked at each
other's startled faces, and, meanwhile, Fah Moo continued to yelp, yap
and yip in his high, falsetto voice.

CHAPTER XIII

FRIGHTENED HORSES

Bud Merkel lost no time in getting connected, through the telephone,
with the only physician in Los Pompan. Old Doc Taylor, the medical man
was called, though he was not very old. It was more a term of
affection.

"Our Chink cook is poisoned!" Bud explained. "Can you come out quick?"

"_Pronto!_" was the illuminating reply and then there was nothing to do
save wait for Dr. Taylor's arrival.

"He's got a flivver," announced Snake who, with Yellin' Kid, had paid
more than one visit to town since arriving at Dot and Dash, thereby
learning considerable about the place and its inhabitants.