midnight
`` Yes , '' agreed Bud . `` But who was monkeying around here as we rode back to camp ? That 's what I want to know ! '' However , search as the boy ranchers did , they found no midnight visitor . All was quiet at their camp , save for the distant howl of a coyote , and the splash of the water into the reservoir . All the stock had been driven away from Happy Valley to the big round-up at Diamond X , but soon the fertile glade would again be dotted with hungry cattle . `` Well , I reckon we 'll have to give up , '' said Bud , when a thorough search had been made , and no one discovered .