Riding hard along the trail toward the bridge, Bert soon overtook his saddle horses, grazing on a side hill not far from the trail. But the cattle were nowhere in sight. Convinced that they could not be far away, he gave the horses another start along the way, and made a close search for the cattle. Soon he became convinced that he must have passed them.
Hastily roping and tying up two of the horses to keep the little band from getting away from him, he returned back along the trail in a frantic search for the cattle, until darkness compelled him to abandon it. He had seen nothing of the cattle, nor had he found any tracks. He knew cattle nature well enough to feel sure that the animals would not have wandered so far away of their own accord. He was compelled to believe that somebody had
