Ted shook his head.

“Well, he’s a good kid, but he got into bad company at home and skipped.  I corresponded once in a while with his sister, and she wrote me about him, and one day I run across him in a gambling house here.  I hadn’t seen him since he was a kid, but I knew him straight off because he looks so much like Kate—­Miss Farley I mean—­and I called him outside and had a talk with him.  He was mighty uppy at first, and threw it into me so hard that I had to turn in and whale some sense into him.”

“That’s one way of doing it,” said Ted dryly.

“It was the only way for him.  He thought he’d get sympathy by writing home about it, but all he got was that they reckoned he deserved it or he wouldn’t have got it.  After that he was good.  But he’d got in with that Creviss bunch and didn’t seem able to get out of it, so I let him stay, only I made him come to me every day or two and tell me what he’d been up to, and that’s as far as I’ve got.”

“Send him out to me.”

“He won’t work on a ranch, or I’d had him out at the Dumb-bell long ago.  He likes to work in town, so I got him a job, and so far he has stuck to it.  But the gang keeps him from doing any good for himself.  He knows the name of this organization of boys under Skip, and the next time I see him I’ll find out what it is.  Then you keep your eye peeled for it, for Creviss is one of the leaders, and I’m afraid, after to-night, he’ll do all he can to make things lively for you.  He’s a mean, vindictive little cuss.”

“I’ll keep a weather eye out for him, never fear.  Thank you for the tip.  This is the first time I’ve heard of the bunch, I’ve been away from the ranch so much lately.”

The boys had hitched Jack Slate’s horse into the carriage, and he got on the seat with Carl, and they were ready to start.

With an “Adios” to Billy Sudden and his boys, they were off, and arrived at the ranch house without further incident.

Mrs. Graham and Stella had retired for the night, and the boys were sitting before the fire in the living room, for the night was chilly and Song had built up a good blaze against their return.

Naturally, the conversation drifted to the shots fired at them from the alley.

“While I wuz ambulatin’ eround ter-night I overheard some conversation what wuz interestin’,” remarked Bud, who was sprawling on a bearskin in front of the fire.

“What was it?” asked Ted, who had been turning over in his mind what Billy Sudden had told him of the organization of tough boys under the guidance of the ex-convict.

“I wuz standin’ clost ter one o’ ther winders what opens out onter ther alley when I hears two fellers talkin’ below me,” said Bud.

“What were they saying?”

“I wuzn’t aimin’ ter listen ter no one’s privut conversation, but I caught your name, an’ I tried ter hear what wuz said erbout yer.”

“Naturally.”