ver. We've got to get to the bottom of this puzzle."

His cousins agreed with him. However there was nothing they could do
at present. So they rode back to the ranch where they told their
strange experience, and suggested to Billee, Snake and the other
cowboys that it would be well for them to be on the watch, to find out
if any strange weed or flower growing in Death Valley was responsible
for the sinister manifestations.

"It may be a new brand of loco weed," suggested Yellin' Kid in his big
voice. "Some of that's deadly."

"To eat, yes, but not to smell," Bud reminded him. "But you may be
right at that. Keep your eyes open, boys."

"Loco weed!" exclaimed Billee. "I've had experience with that--I mean
some ponies I once owned went crazy from it. It sure is queer stuff."
He referred to a species of bean plant, growing in some sections of the
west. Horses and cattle who inadvertently eat this weed with their
other fodder run madly about as if insane and often have to be shot.
Sometimes loco weed is powerful enough to kill, it is said by some,
though there is a doubt on this point. But none of the cowboys had
ever heard of the odor from loco weed doing any damage.

The incident of the ponies running away was soon forgotten in the rush
and detail of work that soon piled up at Dot and Dash ranch. More
cattle were put out to graze, to thus fatten up for market. More hands
were hired and the place soon was almost as busy, big and important as
the boys' ranch in Happy Valley, or the original one at Diamond X.

There was one thing Bud and his cousins noticed and spoke of, however,
and this was that all their cowboys came from distant places, with the
exception of Billee, Kid and Snake. All the hands hired gave their
addresses as of ranches far removed from Death Valley. And though when
they first started business the boy ranchers had endeavored to hire
hands in Los Pompan, they were not successful.

"Why don't you want to sign on with us?" Bud asked more than one.

"Oh, well, I don't have nothin' against you, personal, boss," would be
the answer, "but I don't jest like that locality."

Then Bud and his cousins knew that the sinister reputation of Dot and
Dash was at the bottom of the refusal.

But enough men from other places were hired to run the ranch, and
matters were shaping themselves nicely. Bud sent word home that in
spite of the sensational stories, and the one or two strange happenings
the bo