"
"Yer shore right," said Bud. "That Circle Dollar brand hez been
registered somewhere. It's up to us ter find out who registered it, an'
we've got ther thief. I'll skip out fer ther hosses an' ther boys. I
reckon we kin git in here by ridin' across ther backbone o' ther hills."
"All right, get back as soon as you can, and we'll wait for you in the
cave."
Bud and the boys were back within half an hour, having found a pass into
the valley through the hills which inclosed it.
"It's as plain as the face of the sun to me," said Ted, when they were
mounted and were riding toward the cattle. "Shan Rhue would have had
those cattle over the border in a day or two, had he not been so unwise
as to have abducted Stella. It's up to us now to get that bunch back to
the herd."
It did not take the boys long to get the bunch together, and Ted and
Stella rode out to the front of it to point it down the valley, while
the other boys started back to the rear to drive up.
Suddenly they heard yells in the rear, accompanied by pistol shots and
the cracking of quirts.
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