glen a
noise. It was a noise of stones rattling one against the other.

Like a flash all turned from observing the object that had caught
Dick's eyes, and the reason for the stone-rattling noise was explained.
It was caused by some one walking unsteadily out of the defile, and the
person who was walking was--Bud Merkel!

For a moment the searchers could scarcely believe that they really saw
the missing youth. But as he came nearer it was only too evident.

"Bud!" cried Nort and Dick in a duet as they spurred their horses
forward. "Bud!"

"By gosh! 'Tis him!" roared Yellin' Kid.

"But he's 'bout done up!" commented Billee Dobb as he, with Kid, urged
his pony forward. "What happened?"

It was obvious that something serious had taken place. Bud was hardly
able to walk, and was supporting himself by leaning on a tree branch as
a sort of cane or crutch. But his face brightened in the rising sun as
he beheld his friends coming toward him.

"What happened?" called Dick, as he dismounted beside his cousin.

"It's a strange story," said Bud in a weak voice. "I've been
practically kidnaped and put under the spell of some sort of poison
gas."

"Kidnaped!" cried Snake.

"Poison gas!" echoed Billee.

"Who did it?" demanded Nort.

"Rustlers, I reckon," said Bud as he sank down on a bowlder and drank
greedily from the canteen Dick offered. "I was surprised by a crowd of
men back there," and he nodded back up the gulch. "They shot some sort
of vapor at me that knocked me out, and I've been a prisoner ever
since. I just managed to get away."

"Tell us about it!" cried Nort.

"And we'll go back there and clean those fellows out!" shouted Yellin'
Kid, reaching for his gun.

He would have put his threat into execution, too, but Bud restrained
him with a gesture as he said:

"It's no use!"

"Why not? Did you shoot 'em up?" asked Snake, with the beginning of a
delighted grin.

"No," Bud replied. "But they aren't there now. They lit out. That's
how I could get away."

"Say, there's more to this than you're telling us!" said Nort.

"Go ahead. Spill the whole yarn--that is if you're able," begged Dick.

"Oh, yes, I feel better now. Give me a little more water and I'll tell
you what happened to me."

CHAPTER XVII

THE AVENGERS

Bud Merkel took a long drink, shook his head several times as though to
clear his brain of some benumbing influence and began his story.

"I guess you all know,"