"I haven't any father!" burst out Dave. "And that's the trouble. Oh, it's just as Len Molick said--I'm a nameless n.o.body!" and his voice choked and broke.

Mr. Bellmore rode his horse over beside Crow. He put his arm around the lad, who hung his head.

"Look here, old man!" said the engineer. "I don't want to intrude, but if it will do you any good, tell me all about it!"

"I will!" exclaimed Dave, taking a sudden resolve. "I wasn't going to tell you," he went on, after a pause, "for, though some of the fellows at the ranch know it, and though some over at Centre O do, also, still I wasn't going to tell you. I was so happy before I knew it."

Then, slowly, and haltingly, he told how Len Molick had fired the taunt at him and how, upon making inquiries of Mr. Carson, the latter had confirmed the rumor, saying that Dave was not his son, though he loved him as such.

"And where did you say he found you?" asked the engineer. There was a curious light in his eyes, and an eager expectancy in his manner.

"It was during a flood somewhere in Missouri. I've forgotten the exact name of the place. He can tell you. He picked me up on some wreckage, and looked after me. That was a long while ago--or at least it seems so," Dave remarked with a smile.

"It couldn't have been so very long ago. You're not more than twenty; are you, Dave?"

"Nineteen, I think. Of course I don't know my exact age."

"No, I suppose not. Then I'm not so much older than you. I'm twenty-seven.

But yours is a strange story. Dave, we are brothers in misfortune."

"Brothers in misfortune! What do you mean?" cried the young cowboy.

"I mean, that I haven't any near relatives either. And while I do know who I am, and who my parents were, still that isn't much satisfaction. I have lost them."

"Lost them?" Dave echoed.

"Yes, and in a flood, such as nearly claimed your life. I must find out just what town you came from. It may be that our folks lived in the same place. It would be a strange coincidence, but it might be that it is so. I lost all my folks, including a baby brother in a Western flood. I don't know many of the particulars, for I was with relatives in Ohio at the time, so I escaped.

"I am anxious to hear Mr. Carson's story. It interests me mightily. To think that we have gone through much the same sort of suffering. But I should have thought so small a baby as you must have been at the time would have been drowned."

"I would have been if it hadn't been for one thing," returned our hero, with an odd little smile.

"One thing? What was that?"

"I doubt if you can guess."

"Maybe you were bound fast to the wreckage, or it didn't float into deep water."

"I don't know about being bound fast, but I do know the wreckage floated around, or rather, down stream. But that wasn't what I referred to."

"What was it?"

"Can't you guess?"

"I don't think so."

"I had on a cork life-preserver," said Dave. "I was looking at it this morning when you called to me."

"A cork life-preserver?" excitedly repeated Mr. Bellmore. "Was it--was it any particular kind, Dave?"

"Why, yes, it was. But why do you look at me so strangely?"

"Never mind that now! Tell me about that life-preserver. How was it made?"

"From bottle corks strung together and made into a belt. I had it around me when dad--I mean Mr. Carson--picked me up. I--I thought the preserver might be a clew but it isn't, for--"

"A clew! Of course it is!" fairly shouted the engineer. "Hurrah, Dave it _is_ a clew. Put her there, old man! Shake! I said a while ago that we were brothers in misfortune! We're more than that.

"We're real brothers, Dave Carson--no, not Dave Carson any longer! Dave Bellmore! We're brothers, I tell you! brothers!"

CHAPTER XXV

THE NEW RANCH

For a moment the two remained with clasped hands, looking deep into the eyes one of the other. Then Dave, with a deep breath, murmured:

"Brothers! Is it possible?"

"Not only possible, but probable!" cried Mr. Bellmore. "We are brothers, I tell you, Dave! Your mention of that cork life-preserver almost proves it to me."

"Why so?"

"Because, before I went away to the East, to visit, I made one just like that with which to learn to swim. I did learn, too, with it. Of course I'd have to see this one to be dead sure, but it isn't likely that there would be two cork life-preservers made in that way. I'm sure it was mine you had on when you were rescued. Come on, we'll gallop to the ranch and find out."

They set off at top speed, Dave's heart beating madly with hope.

"Oh, if it should prove true, after all!" he murmured over and over again.

"That I really have some folks at last!"

As they rode Mr. Bellmore briefly told how, as a boy of about ten, he wanted to swim in the stream that ran near his home.

"This was in Missouri, too," he said, "so that adds to the a.s.surance I have that we are brothers, since it was in Missouri that you were found by Mr. Carson. I made that life preserver out of a design from my own head. I know I had to beg and borrow corks from all the neighbors before I had enough. But with that on I simply could not sink, and so I learned to swim.

"I wanted to take it East with me, but my folks persuaded me to leave it at home. And poor mother or father must have fastened it on you when the flood came. Oh, I'm sure it's the same one. We are brothers!"

Once more they clasped hands and looked into each other's eyes.

It was two excited individuals who burst into the ranch house of Bar U a little later. Fairly leaping from their steeds Dave and Mr. Bellmore sought Mr. Carson.

"Dad, where is that cork life-preserver?" asked the young cowboy. The use of the word "Dad" seemed perfectly proper under the circ.u.mstances.

"The life-preserver?" repeated the ranchman, wonderingly.

"Yes, Mr. Bellmore--Benjamin," said Dave, using the name for the first time, "Benjamin thinks it's one he made, and if it is I'm his brother!"