MISSING STEERS


Like a flash Bud, who had been standing beside Nort, to watch
the effect of Dick's try, turned and faced outward to view the
darkening valley, whence had come the sound of that shot. Nort
turned also, but Dick seemed to think one of his companions had
played a trick on him.

"That isn't fair!" cried the stout lad. "What'd you want to go
and bust that bottle for, Nort?"

"I didn't do it!" asserted his brother.

"Nor I," added Bud in a low voice. "The shot came from out
there," and he indicated the long and fertile valley, over which
the purple evening shadows were falling. "Duck, fellows!" he
suddenly cried, and he pulled Nort beside him in the grass.

Dick, who caught the words of warning, and saw what his cousin
had done, also dropped down, so that, a second or two after the
firing of the strange shot that had shattered the bottle, only
the heads of the boy ranchers showed above the grass, and then
only slightly. "What's the idea?" asked Dick, as silence followed
the measure of safety.

"Whoever it was that fired might shoot again," replied End.

"Who was it?" asked Nort.