While the ranchmen and Mrs. Wilder made themselves comfortable in
chairs, the boys squatted or stretched out on the piazza, their
restlessness proclaiming the expectancy with which they awaited the
"heap talkee" Nails desired to impart.

The cowboy soon appeared, and, after seating himself at Mr.
Wilder's bidding, launched into an account of what he had learned
in Tolopah.

"There are twenty of them in the gang," he said, "and Megget has
joined them by this time, though he wasn't with them when they made
the raids. As near as I could make out, their headquarters are in
the Lost Lode Mine. There are three trails to it, one leading in
somewhere near the trail you all took on your hunting trip and the
others to the south, along which they drive the cattle they steal.
I----"

"Mr. Wilder, you don't suppose that could be the trail where I saw
those men crossing the face of the cliff, do you?" interrupted Tom.

"I shouldn't doubt it a bit. I'd forgotten about them entirely."
And he briefly told Snider of the figures they all had seen,
adding: "Much obliged for reminding me, Tom. That may have been
Megget and the fellows you met with him. Go on, Nails; anything
more?"

"Nothing but that it's my opinion they have a spy in Tolopah who
keeps 'em mighty well informed on the happenings at the Half-Moon
and Three Stars ranches."