ew moments Nort, Bud, Yellin' Kid and Snake Purdee had unrolled
from their warm blankets and had grabbed their guns. Bud threw some
light cottonwood on the embers and the blaze that at once resulted
showed objects up fairly plainly, though there was sufficient shadow to
make the picking out of any particular horse thief very difficult.

"Where is he--which way did he go?" shouted Yellin' Kid.

"Over there!" and Dick pointed the trail along which they had ridden
that day. Quickly he told his story--how he had been awakened by the
midnight visitor kicking the boy's foot as he strode over him.

"Come on!" called Snake and in a moment the entire camp was trailing
after him in the direction where Dick had seen the old man vanish.

But it was like pursuing one of the shadows of the night, and it did
not take long, after emerging from the circle of illumination of the
fire into the blackness of the surrounding night, to impress all with
the idea that a capture was out of the question.

"How many horses did he get?" asked Bud. "Gee! Why didn't you wake
me, Dick?"

"I did as soon as I got my wits about me," was the answer. "It all
happened so suddenly."

"Horse thieves don't generally send word they're comin'!" chuckled
Billee. "But it strikes me you've made a mistake, Dick."

"A mistake, how?"

"Callin' this old man, as you say he was, a horse thief."

"What else was he?"

"I'm not sayin' he wasn't. But he didn't take any of our ponies.
Count for yourself."

It took only a few moments to enumerate the riding and pack animals
tethered near the camp and the count was found to total correctly. Not
an animal was missing.

"Guess you were too quick for him," commented Nort to his brother.
"It's lucky you woke up."

"It's lucky he kicked my foot!" chuckled Dick. "Lucky for us and
unlucky for him."

"Somewhat," admitted Billee Dobb. "Well, he come here and he went
away, and we aren't none the worse off as far as I can make out. Guess
I was a little out when I said not to stand guard. But I didn't
imagine we were in horse-thieves' country."

"Hadn't we better have sentry-go from now on?" suggested Bud.

"'Twouldn't be a bad idea," admitted Billee.

"I'll take first shot at it," said Dick. "I'm wide awake now and since
I saw this old man I'll know him again if he comes sneaking back."

Nort and Bud were as eager to take the first watch as was Dick, but he
insisted that it go to him. So, after anothe