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CHAPTER IV

BACK TO "BIG B."

"Well, we haven't caught up to 'em yet," remarked Joe Duncan, about noon the next day, when they stopped for a little lunch and to allow the horses to drink at a water hole and rest.

"No, the beggars keep well ahead of us," agreed Blake, shading his eyes with his hand and gazing off across the hot, sunlit stretch that lay before them. "Oh, if they have opened those film boxes!" he exclaimed hopelessly.

"They have ponies, and that's more than I calculated on," remarked Hank. "I thought when they raided our camp that they were after our animals, and when they didn't take 'em I thought it was because they were afraid of being chased as horse-thieves by a sheriff's posse. Now I see they didn't want our mounts, as they had plenty of their own. It was grub they were after, and they got it."

"And our picture films," added Blake. "Don't forget that."

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