Spread out abreast. The more ground we
can cover the better."
"But don't get too far apart," interposed the rancher from the
Three Stars. "Keep close enough together so you can see the man on
your right."
Rapidly were these commands given, and within fifteen minutes after
the mysterious calls had startled them the twenty-three horsemen
were advancing over the prairie, eyes and ears alert for sound or
sight of the men who had uttered the signals, the two Eastern boys
and Horace riding between Mr. Wilder and Pete at the southern end
of the line.
But for once Sandy's ears had played him false. Ignorant of the
psychological fact that only when a man's head is turned can he
correctly judge the direction of sound, it being impossible to
distinguish between a sound coming from directly in front or
behind, the foreman of the Three Stars Ranch had been deceived
because he had been looking straight ahead out into the prairie.
And instead of riding toward the men who had roused them by their
cries, each bound of the horses was carrying them farther away.
When Larry and his companions had met the bear, the four raiders
with the cattle Jeffreys had seen were only about two miles in
advance of them. As the boys had thought, the reverberations of
the shots had reached the ears of the men at the rear of the cattle
and they had uttered the wail as a signal to those ahead, jumping
to the conclusion that they were being followed.
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