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"Oh, no. The men who are doing that are right out there. I've left some of my cowboys to attend to them," answered Uncle Fred. "What I came on for, besides getting you to go back with me, is to get some books about springs and streams of water, and also to talk with some engineers about a queer spring on my ranch."
"What sort of queer spring?" asked Daddy Bunker. "I thought all springs were alike."
"Well, I s'pose they are, in that they have water in 'em," said Uncle Fred. "But mine isn't that kind. Sometimes it has water in it, and again it hasn't."
"What do you mean?" asked his sister. "Does the spring go dry? That used to happen to the spring where we lived when we were children. Don't you remember, Fred?"
"Yes, but that spring only went dry when there was no rain -- say in a dry, hot summer. The spring on Three Star Ranch goes dry sometimes in the middle of a rainy season."
"What makes it?" asked Daddy Bunker.
"That's what I came on to find out about," replied Uncle Fred. "None of my cowboys can tell what makes it, and the Indians are puzzled, too. It's like one of Laddie's riddles, I guess."
"That's what we thought about the ghost at Great Hedge," said Mrs. Bunker. "But we finally found out what it was, and very simple it was, too. Perhaps this spring of yours will turn out the same way."
"Well, I hope it does," said her brother. "All I know is that sometimes the spring will be full of fine water. We use it for drinking at the ranch house and for watering some of the horses. The cattle drink at a creek that runs through my place. That never goes dry.
"But sometimes there will be hardly a drop of water in the spring, and then there is trouble. Everybody is sorry then, for we have to haul water from the creek in barrels, and it isn't as good to drink as the spring water."
"Is that the only queer thing?" asked Daddy Bunker.
"No. The most remarkable thing about it," went on Uncle Fred, "is that every time the spring goes dry some of my cattle are taken away. I suppose you could call it stolen, though I don't like to think that any of my neighbors would steal. I used to think the cattle wandered away, but since none of them wander back agai...
"And every time the spring dries up the cattle are taken?" asked Mrs. Bunker, while the six little Bunkers listened eagerly to Uncle Fred's story.
"Almost every time. I don't know what causes it."
"Maybe the cows drink up all the water," said Russ.
"No, cattle don't come near the spring," said Mr. Bell. "They are on the far end of the ranch. It is a puzzle to me; about as much of a puzzle as the ghost must have been at Great Hedge, before you found out about it."
"So you came East to consult some engineers about the spring," remarked Daddy Bunker. "Do you think they can help you?"
"Well, you know there are engineers who make a study of all kinds of water; of springs, lakes, rivers, and so on," explained Uncle Fred. "They are water-engineers just as others are steam or electrical engineers. I thought I'd ask them the reasons for springs going dry. Some of them may know something about the water i...
"Anyhow I had some other business in New York, so while I was attending to that, and coming on here to get you folks, I thought I'd see the engineers."
"And have you seen any yet?" asked his sister.
"Not yet. I'm going to in a day or so. But I stopped at a store and ordered -- -- "
Before Uncle Fred could say what it was he had ordered the doorbell rang again. This time it could not be Daddy Bunker coming in, as he was already at home.
Norah, who went to open the door, could be heard speaking to some one.
"Oh, and it's a message you have for Mr. Bell, is it?" she said. "Well, come in and don't be standin' there in the wet rain."
"A message for me!" exclaimed Uncle Fred. "I hope it isn't any bad news from my ranch -- about more cattle being taken."
Chapter V
Packing Up
"Somebody for you, Mr. Bell," announced Norah, as she opened wider the door of the sitting room where the six little Bunkers, Uncle Fred and the others were gathered. "It's a boy, and he has a package."
"Then it can't be a telegram containing bad news," said Uncle Fred. "They don't come in packages, unless there's a lot of 'em, and I hardly would get that many. I'll see what it is."
The boy was not a telegraph messenger after all, but a special delivery lad from the post-office, and the package he had for Uncle Fred was a book.
"Oh, it's a book I sent for to New York," said the ranchman after he had given the boy ten cents, and had opened the package.
"It's a book that tells about springs, and the rocks underneath the earth where the water comes from. I thought I'd read about springs so I'd learn something about the queer one on my ranch," Uncle Fred said to Daddy Bunker. "I heard about this book, sent to New York for it, and asked them to send it to me here by spec...
"Will you read us a story out of the book?" asked Margy. "I like stories."
"I don't believe there are any stories in this book," said Uncle Fred with a laugh.
"Could you tell us one?" asked Mun Bun.
"About cowboys!" exclaimed Russ.
"And Indians!" added Laddie.
"Well, I guess I could think of a story, if I tried real hard," answered Uncle Fred, laughing.
The six little Bunkers gathered about his chair, and, laying aside the book that the special delivery messenger had brought, the ranchman told the children some wonderful stories.
He told them how, once, his cattle all ran away in a mad rush called a "stampede," and how he and his cowboys had to ride after them on ponies, firing their big revolvers, to turn the steers back from a deep gully.
"And did you stop 'em?" asked Russ, his eyes wide open in wonder and excitement.
"Oh, yes. But it was hard work," answered his uncle.
Then Mr. Bell told about a big prairie fire. On the flat, level fields, where he pastured his cattle, grew long grass. When this gets dry it burns very easily, and, once started, it is hard to stop.
"And how did you stop it?" asked Rose, when her uncle had told about the blazing miles of grass.
"We got a lot of men and horses and plows," he answered, "and plowed a wide strip of land in front of the fire. When the flames got to the bare ground there was nothing for them to burn, and the wind was not strong enough to carry them over to where there was more grass. So we saved our ranch houses."
"Do you live in a house on your ranch?" asked Laddie.
"Why, of course we do!" laughed Uncle Fred. "What did you think we lived in?"
"Tents, like the Indians."