ing embers of the fire. And then, in a rush, there came to the
young rancher the meaning of this night alarm. It had been partly a
dream and partly an actual happening.

Some one had stepped over him as he lay in his blankets and had kicked
his foot, causing the dream to merge into reality.

"Who are you?" cried Dick sharply, reaching for his gun.

CHAPTER V

THE WARNING

Flaring up suddenly, a stick, in the embers of the fire which had long
been smoldering, burst into blaze. By the light of this Dick saw the
figure hurrying out of the maze of sleeping bodies in the camp. And
there was light enough to see, though dimly, that the figure was that
of an old man.

"Billee Dobb, is that you?" cried Dick, lowering the gun with which he
had begun to draw a bead on the moving figure. "What's the matter?"

But, even as he asked the question his eyes roved to the place where
the old puncher had spread his blankets. And a huddled form there told
Dick that Billee was still sleeping.

Then, before the boy rancher could again get his gun up, the mysterious
figure that had caused the night alarm slipped out of the circle of
firelight and into the shadows of darkness.

Hardly sure, even yet, that it was not all a dream, part of the queer,
fantastic vision of the cowboy shoe salesman kicking his foot, Dick sat
there on his blankets, fingering his gun and wondering what would
happen next.

"Did I see an old man or didn't I?" the boy was asking himself when two
other things happened simultaneously, in the end convincing him that it
was not all a dream.

One thing that happened was that Billee Dobb himself awakened and sat
up as Dick was doing.

"What's the row?" the veteran cattle puncher demanded.

Before Dick could reply there was a disturbance among the tethered
ponies as though something had alarmed them. In a flash it came to
Dick that the intruder he had seen was trying to steal a horse. The
ponies did not dream. When they saw anything they knew it was real.
Accordingly the boy sharply called:

"A horse thief, Billee!"

This warning was enough to set any Westerner on the alert in an
instant, for, in spite of the progress of automobiles, the horse is
still, in the cattle reaches of the west, a thing most vitally needed.

"Horse thieves, eh?" cried Billee in ringing tones. "The varmints!
Come on, boys! We'll get 'em!"

His cries and the voice of Dick served to rouse the others in camp and
in a f