CHAPTER XXIII.
BAGGING THE GRAY WOLVES.
That night Ted Strong went on watch himself in the cupola, while Bud andClay Whipple marched around the house in opposite directions.
Until the threatened attack took place Ted determined that he wouldwatch the house personally, in addition to the regular guard.
About midnight Ted heard a slight noise out on the prairie.
The night was bright and frosty, and the stars shone with a peculiarlybrilliant radiance, seemingly larger, brighter, and nearer the earththan in more northern climes.
Instantly his acute senses located the place whence the noise had come.
It was merely a slight rustling, but as there was no wind Ted knewinstantly that it had been made by some creature.
His eyes, fixed on the spot, soon became accustomed to the faint light,and he saw an indistinct form that was so near the color of the earththat a pair of eyes not so sharp as his would have failed to detect it.
So indistinct was it that it looked almost like a wraith of grayish-bluesmoke by the starlight.
Presently, as he still stared closely at it, he saw another form muchlike it steal through the dead grass toward it.
Then, over the hills on the east, rose the moon in its first quarter,shedding a pale light over the prairie.
Ted was now able to see that there was a pack of wolves, instead of two,as he at first thought.
The boys on the ground could not see the wolves on account of the tuftsof grass that scattered over the prairie, and, had they seen them, wouldnot have been able to distinguish one from the other.
It seemed strange to Ted that the wolves had not yet given voice. It wasunusual for wolves to come so near a ranch house in numbers withoutgiving warning by howling.
Suddenly the reason why they did not dawned upon him.
They were not wolves, but men in wolves' clothing.
Ted chuckled at the thought.
The "wolves" did not know yet that they were discovered, for they couldnot see Ted in his cupola watch-house, although they could easily seeBud and Clay as they walked around the house, now in the full light ofthe moon.
Ted was suddenly startled by hearing a noise to the left, and at thesame time he heard Bud stop in his march. Evidently he had beenattracted by the sound also.
As Ted looked he saw the cause of the noise. It was a wolf, larger thanthe others, which had crept closer to the house.
As he was looking at it he was astonished to see it rise up.
Then he caught the glint of a revolver barrel in the moonlight.
In an instant he knew the meaning of it.
With the precision of a machine his own rifle rose to his shoulder, and,without a second's hesitation, a streak of flame belched from it,followed by the roar of the report.
Looking closely through the smoke, Ted saw the "wolf" straighten up tothe full stature of a man, then fall to the ground, over which it wentwrithing and tossing, while at the same time the most human of yellsexpressing agony came from it.
This was the signal for the other "wolves" to howl, and the mostunearthly noise come from all sides of the house.
These were followed by a perfect fusillade of rifle and revolver shotsfrom everywhere, most of them aimed at the cupola.
But as soon as Ted had fired the shot that had brought down the man wolfhe had jumped through the scuttle into the attic of the house, and theballs harmlessly riddled the cupola.
From a window on the second floor Ted saw a score or more of forms leapinto prominence; the forms of men who cast aside their skins of wolf,and who had turned their wolfish howls into the scarcely less fiendishyells of men.
At the sight he rushed downstairs, and found the boys hastily gatheringin the dark living room, arming themselves from the gun rack, and takingtheir places beside the windows.
In the middle of the room stood the major, supporting with one arm theunsteady form of his brother Frederic, who had risen at the first alarmin spite of his wound, and who insisted upon fighting with the rest.
"The Gray Wolves have come," he said. "They will be hard to drive off.But you must do it, or go yourselves."
Stella and the young Japanese girl were standing at one of the windowspeering fearfully out.
"Come away from there, Stella," said Ted. "They might see you and fire."
"All right, Ted, but you can bet that I will be in this somewhere," saidStella. "It's my business to defend this girl, and I'm going to do it."
Ted smiled, but said nothing, and passed on around the room, seeing thatthe boys were properly placed to resist the attack when it came.
Outside all was quiet again. The howls had ceased, and not a man was inevidence anywhere. It was the calm before the storm.
"What's the plan?" said Bud, coming up to Ted, for he and Clay had runinto the house at Ted's shot from the cupola.
"I hardly know," answered Ted. "My plan is somewhat upset. I thought atfirst that they were going to attack us immediately in this room. Butthey seem to have changed their minds."
"I've got a hunch," said Bud, scratching his head in a meditative way.
"Let us have it. That's what we need now."
"They're creeping up on us. I see one o' them a minute ago. They'recountin' on gettin' up ter ther house before we expect 'em, an' thenpourin' a volley inter us, an' puttin' us out o' business quick."
"That would be like that brute Mowbray."
"I've got it figgered that way. Now, s'posin' we fool 'em by not bein'here. They sneak until they git so's they kin fire through ther windowswithout any danger ter themselves, an' run away. But we ain't here."
"Where will we be?"
"Comin' up on them from behind."
"That's the stuff. Notify the boys at once. We'll get behind the houseand creep up on them through the grass. We'll fool them at their owngame."
As silently as ghosts the broncho boys deserted the living room and wentto the back door. After carefully reconnoitering the situation without,Ted softly opened the door, and led the boys into the shadow of thehouse, and they crept away through the tall grass.
Only Frederic Caruthers and Stella and the Japanese girl remained in thehouse.
Skirting the house grounds, the boys were soon out on the prairie,giving their enemies a wide berth.
Raising his head slightly from behind a tuft of grass, Ted took stock ofthe position of the enemy.
In the shadow of the house beneath the windows of the living room hecould see the still darker shadows of the Gray Wolves.
Leading the boys into a semicircle from which at a word of command theycould rush the house, Ted passed this word along the line:
"If they enter the house, as they probably will, we will close inquietly, rush the house, and capture them inside. Let none of themescape, and make no noise."
They had not many minutes to wait before the Gray Wolves began to getuneasy.
Evidently they expected some movement within the house, and thecontinued silence puzzled them.
But suddenly, like the scream of a tempest, the still air was shatteredwith wild yells and pistol shots, followed by the crash of breakingglass.
The Gray Wolves had stormed the house, breaking in the windows, smashingin the front door, and making all the noise they could, with the objectof frightening the inmates into a condition where they would be unableto defend themselves.
Stella, with young Caruthers and Itsu San, had locked themselves into aback room, which they could defend for a few minutes at least againstall comers.
As the Gray Wolves attacked the house Ted gave the word to advance, andthey moved forward as one man, crouching behind the grass tufts to beout of sight of any guard the Wolves might have set.
It took not more than a minute or two to reach the side of the house,and look through the windows.
Inside the living room men could be seen running back and forth,searching for the broncho boys and the treasure.
Finally a wild yell told Ted that
the safe had been found.
"That's good," said Ted to Bud. "They're at the safe. It will take alltheir attention for a while. They don't know, poor fools, that thetreasure has been carried out and buried elsewhere. There's where we'llbag most of them. When we get in, boys, look out for Mowbray. Don't lethim escape."
At a signal the boys climbed into the living room, which was nowdeserted, for the Wolves had scattered all over the house. Most of themwere in the major's room working on the safe.
They had tried to move it from the house, but it proved too heavy forthem, and they were now trying to break it open with an ax which theyhad found in one of the lower rooms.
Ted had heard the blows as they beat upon the lock, and in the din itwas not a difficult thing for the broncho boys to get into the housewithout being heard.
Several of the Wolves, in searching the lower part of the house, haddiscovered the locked room in which Stella and the other two were inhiding.
They had attempted to batter down the door, only to be driven from it byshots sent at them by Stella and Caruthers.
"Trouble back there, Bud," said Ted. "I guess some one is trying to getat Stella. Take a couple of the boys, and go back and stop it."
"What are you goin' ter do?" asked Bud, who was afraid the rescuingassignment would cut him out of the fight above stairs.
Just at that moment there was a tremendous explosion overhead, the crashof glass and the triumphant yells of the Gray Wolves.
"I'm going upstairs," yelled Ted. "When you've driven off or capturedthese fellows down here, come up."
At this he dashed away for the broad stairs that led to the upper story,followed by the broncho boys and Major Caruthers.
They had just reached the landing above when the yell of triumph turnedto one of baffled rage, for the Wolves had found that the safe wasempty.
Ted Strong, with a look such as a conquering warrior might wear, burstinto the room where the Wolves were clustered around the empty safe.
Behind him followed the boys.
"Surrender!" shouted Ted.
The Gray Wolves wheeled to look into a perfect battery of rifles. Not tosurrender meant death. To attempt to raise a hand would bring a shot, ora dozen.
The Gray Wolves realized that they were in a trap, and that if they madethe least resistance they would be shot down.
"Throw your guns on the floor!" commanded Ted.
He was obeyed.
"Gather up those guns," said Ted. Bud and Clay stepped forward, andgathered in the rifles and revolvers.
Ted's eyes were running over the group of prisoners trying to pick outMowbray, when suddenly there was a smashing of glass, and, as he turnedin that direction, he saw a form taking a flying leap through the windowto the ground, and, quick as a flash, he fired and rushed to the window.
But when he got there his only reward was the sight of a man onhorseback headed for the hills, swaying dangerously in his saddle.
Mowbray had escaped, but he had taken with him an unpleasant reminder ofTed Strong.
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