noon
`` Maybe you got off lucky , with only a cut tent , '' the ranchman observed . `` But better be on your guard , son . '' `` We will , Dad , '' replied the western lad . It was about a week after the signal lights had been observed , the disappearance of Four Eyes coinciding , that , as Bud and his cousins were eating `` grub '' in camp one noon , they heard shots fired off to the north , and in the direction of the trail between Happy Valley and Diamond X ranch . `` What 's that ? '' asked Nort , starting from his seat . `` Stampede , maybe , '' suggested Dick , for the boys knew that the older cowboys were in that direction , rounding up a small herd which had been purchased and that was to be shipped east .