the point of
departing.

"Yes! yes!" added Jessie. "I shall worry every minute until you get
back!"

"Don't be alarmed," answered Dave. "We'll get through all right, and
have help here before you know it."

"Are you sure of the trail?" asked Belle.

"Oh, yes, that's easy," answered Phil.

Without another word the two chums started off in the direction of the
ranch house, so many miles distant. The others, watched them out of
sight, and then turned and walked up the river bank toward the shack
Belle had mentioned.

CHAPTER XVIII

OUT IN THE WIND AND RAIN

"Dave, what do you suppose those six horses were worth?" questioned
Phil, as the two youths hurried along the back trail on a dog-trot,--the
same dog-trot they used when on a cross-country run at Oak Hall.

"At least two thousand dollars, Phil," was the reply. "The horse I used
was a dandy, and so was that Belle had--and yours was a good one, too."

"What do you suppose those horse-thieves will do with them?"

"Drive them a long distance, hide them for a while, and then, when they
get the chance, sell them. Of course they don't expect to get full value
for them, but they'll get a neat sum."

"You don't suppose this can be a trick of Link Merwell's?"

"I thought of that, but I don't think so. Taking a horse in this section
of the country is a serious business. Why, they used to hang
horse-thieves, and even now a ranchman wouldn't hesitate to shoot at a
fellow who had his horse and was making off with it. No, I don't think
Link would quite dare to play such a trick. But of course we can
investigate,--after we have reported to Mr. Endicott."

"You are not going to try to keep up this dog-trot all the way to the
house, are you?" questioned the shipowner's son, after about a mile had
been covered, and when they were passing over a rather rough portion of
the trail.

"Winded?"

"Not exactly, but I shall be if I keep this up," panted Phil. "Besides,
I don't want to tumble over these tree roots."

"I wanted to get as far as possible on the way before that storm broke,"
went on Dave, glancing anxiously upward, between the branches of the
trees. "When it comes, I rather think it will be a corker. I hope the
others reach that shack before it rains."

"Oh, they ought to be there by this time."

The boys kept on, sometimes running and sometimes dropping into a walk.
As they advanced, the sky kept growing steadily darker, both on account
of the stor