"I don't myself. I wish we had a bunch of Moon Valley ponies here to ride. I've never seen any that could come up to them."

They were following a trail that led directly into the west. It was a cattle trail, and Ted's practiced eye told him that it led to water.

Several miles to the west he saw the plain became broken.

"There's water over there," he said.

"That's where we'll find the cattle," answered Stella. "Do you want to go that far and look at them?"

"I will if you think you can stand it."

Stella looked at him scornfully.

"I guess this beast will go the distance," she answered, giving the little gray a clip with her quirt, and galloping ahead of Ted, who was not slow to follow.

As they proceeded the ground became more and more broken.

"I believe there is a bit of 'bad land' over there," said Ted, pointing forward.

Still they saw no cattle, although Colonel Billings had told him that morning that his greatest herd, the one he wished the boys to examine with the view to purchase, lay in the big west pasture.

But all they could see so far was the broad stretch of green prairie and the low line of the rough land in the distance. Not a living thing was in sight.

The only movement was the flying shadows of the white clouds over the prairie, and the waving of the deep, rich gra.s.s when a vagrant breeze swept by.

But suddenly Ted pulled in his pony, and shaded his eyes with his hand, staring into the west.

"What is it?" asked Stella, reining in.

"I thought I saw something red shoot across the horizon to the west, where you see those gray rocks," answered Ted.

"A cow--or, perhaps, the dangerous red bull," laughed Stella.

"Nothing like that. It wasn't the right color. Did you ever see a scarlet cow?"

"Never did."

"Well, the thing I saw was scarlet, and it was not shaped like a cow."

He was still looking intently into the west.

"There it is again!" he exclaimed, unlimbering his field gla.s.ses.

After a moment of intense scrutiny, he raised the gla.s.ses suddenly to his eyes.

"By Jove!" he cried, "it's a motor car, and I believe it's 118."

"Impossible!" cried Stella.

"No, entirely possible," said Ted intensely. "Don't you see if it was this fellow Checkers who got the machine from the agent by false pretenses he would take it as far away from town as possible?"

"Yes, I see that."

"Then which direction would he take if, as I think, he is in league with the train-robbing syndicate, which we have persuaded ourselves to think made their headquarters at Green River, but in this direction? We have learned that others of those we believe to be in it are to be the guests of this ranch, and--"

"I see. He could not well bring the red car to the ranch house."

"That's it."

"Then where do you suppose he's going with it?"

"There's no better place to hide it than in those very 'bad lands,' if I am guessing right, at the rough land yonder."

"True. What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to find that red car and my friend, Checkers."

"Not alone, Ted. You're going to get the other boys to help you, aren't you?"

"Now is the accepted time. I'm going right away now. But it would be a good scheme for you to ride back to the ranch and tell Bud and the boys quietly what I am about, and have them come out in case I should need help."

"I hate to see you ride away alone, Ted. You can't tell what there is over there. Better let me go along."

"No, Stella, it would be no use. You know that I appreciate your courage and skill in every way, but this, probably, will be no work for girls."

Stella pouted at this. She did not like the idea of the long ride back to the ranch house alone.

She looked at Ted to see if he really was in earnest, and when she saw the look in his face she turned back with a wave of the hand and a "So long!" and started for the ranch house.

"Tell Bud to bring three or four of the boys out here with him," shouted Ted after her. "Thank you, Stella."

But she only nodded her head and pursued her way, and Ted, after looking after her for a moment, rode forward. He had not seen the red car for several minutes, it having disappeared behind a rocky b.u.t.te.

Having a fair horse, he gave it the gad and struck into a gallop. Soon he entered upon the rough land, and from a rise saw a stream below and a herd of cattle beyond, where the prairie began again; the railroad, and a small red station house, with two or three low buildings about it.

He now understood that he had seen the red car on the far side of the ravine, through which the stream flowed, and went down to the stream, his horse sliding on its haunches amid a clatter of broken clay and pebbles.

He was soon across and clambered up the other wall of the ravine, and there in the clay found the impression of the tires of the red car.

"I'm all right now," he muttered to himself. "On the track of Checkers and the robbers' automobile. I wonder where it will end."

He had no difficulty in following the tracks of the automobile for a considerable distance, when the ravine ran out on that side and the bank of the stream flattened; and he rode along it, following the trail with ease.

Then the bank of the stream rose again, and the water flowed through a ravine, into which the red car had entered. It could not escape him, and Ted chuckled, and examined his revolver, loosening it well in its holster, for he had not forgotten the warning against Checkers given him by Chief Desmond.

The ravine grew deeper as he advanced, and soon it became tolerably dark at the bottom where the high walls shut out the light. Suddenly his horse stumbled, and, as Ted shot over its head, he heard the tw.a.n.g of a broken wire that had been stretched across the path.

He had fallen into a trap. As he struck the earth, he was stunned for a moment, then a heavy weight was upon him.