"What are you doing?" Ted said angrily. "Let me up, dog-gone you."
But when he saw the dead steer on the ground beside him he remembered
what had happened, and sat up and laughed with the others.
It did not take him long to recover after this.
"I'm going to try to find out what caused this beast to go mad," said
Ted. "There's certainly something wrong about it."
"How are you going to find that out?" asked Ben.
"I don't know yet, but I will," Ted answered. "Come on, two or three of
you fellows. The rest of you ride back to the camp. You may be needed
there. We can't guard things too closely these days."
The party separated, and Ted, with Bud, Ben, and Kit, rode away, but
they had gone only a little ways when they heard a noise behind them. It
was Stella galloping toward them.
"I'm going, too," she said, and go she did.
Riding about half a mile west they came to a deep coulee, into which
they descended and followed its course for a short distance, when
suddenly Ted held up his hand as a signal to halt.
"I smell burning paper," he said, and, getting down from his saddle,
went forward alone on foot, as silently as an Indian.
Suddenly he bent forward, examining something on the ground, and
motioned the others forward. They rode to his side, and saw him looking
at a small, dead camp fire.
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