CHAPTER VI
AT DOT AND DASH
Silently the little circle of ranchers, young and old, gazed at theominous warning Nort had picked up. Yellin' Kid was the first tospeak, following the reading of the message on the dirty piece of bagpaper.
"Well, I'll be horn-swoggled!" voiced the Kid in his usual loud tones.
Billee Dobb looked sharply from Nort to Dick and then at Bud.
"This any of your doin's?" he asked.
"Our doings! What do you mean?" challenged Bud.
"I mean you aren't getting up some stunts for the rodeo--oh, Iforgot--that's off," the veteran puncher hastened to add. "But none ofyou youngsters did this, I hope."
"Dropped that warning?" questioned Dick. "I should say not! I didn'tdo it!"
"Nor I!" voiced Nort. "I picked it up, and I can see, Billee, youmight naturally be suspicious of me as one who knew just where tolocate this piece of paper. But I had nothing to do with it."
"Nor I!" said Bud. "'Tisn't my idea of the right kind of a joke toplay."
"You never can tell what young fellows will do," murmured Old Billee."But I'm glad to hear you three say you had nothing to do with it.Sort of relieves me."
"'Tisn't my kind of writing," went on Dick as though he thought,because he had given the first alarm and had been, in fact, the onlyone to view the midnight intruder, that more suspicion might attach tohim as the joker than to any one else.
"I'm not much on writin' myself," declared Yellin' Kid, "and while Imight say I'd be proud if I could sling a pen the way this feller did,I want it distinctly understood I didn't have nothin' to do with it."
"You needn't tell the folks in the next county about it," gently chidedBillee. Then he took the paper from Snake Purdee, who was curiouslyexamining it, and subjected it to a close scrutiny.
"Make anything of it, Billee?" asked Yellin' Kid endeavoring to put thesoft pedal on his voice.
"The writin' ain't that of anybody I know," said the veteran, "and Ican't, offhand, recall anybody whose initials are S.T. But TimMellick, who keeps the store over at Palmo, has paper bags of the samekind of stuff as this."
"I don't believe that will be much of a clew," said Dick. "Most paperbags are alike, and store keepers get their supply of them from awholesale house that supplies a hundred customers."
"No, I don't reckon we can do much toward pickin' up the trail of thisfellow from that scrap," admitted Billee. "So the next best thing todo is to get breakfust."
"That's right--let's eat!" exclaimed Snake.
"But you aren't going to throw that away; are you?" asked Dick as hesaw Billee folding the ragged piece of brown paper containing thesinister warning.
"Throw it away? Oh, no! Of course I'm not. I'm going to keep ituntil I can find out what it means."
"What it means is plain enough," said Bud. "Somebody doesn't want usto go on to Death Valley and Dot and Dash ranch."
"All the more reason why we should go on there and see what it means!"cried Nort.
"That's the talk!" echoed his brother and cousin.
"If they're trying to scare us away, they'll find we don't scare wortha cent," added Bud.
"It goes to prove, though," remarked Dick, "that Billee's story islikely to be borne out. I mean that there's something queer going onat Death Valley."
"Queer is right!" assented Bud. "Though whether this is a warning inour interests, sent by one who doesn't want to see any of us get putout of business with the poisoned water, or whether it's a warning tokeep away so we won't discover some crooked business--that's somethingwe can't answer."
"Not yet," said Billee Dobb significantly. "But we'll soon be able to.I've got my mind made up, now. I'm going to see this thing through tothe finish!" and he smote his right fist into his open left hand with asound like the report of a small gun.
"That's the way to talk!" cried Yellin' Kid. "I wish I'd had a sightof the fellow who dropped that warning," he went on. "He would besitting down here now talking Turkey and tellin' what it was all about.Why didn't you call me first, Dick?"
"I raised the alarm as soon as I could wake myself up," was the answer."But I guess we were all sleeping pretty sound."
While Snake was frying the bacon and making the coffee, some of theothers cast about the camp in a circle, seeking some clew to themidnight visitor. But nothing could be found that shed any light onthe mystery. It was evident that the man, whoever he was, had riddento the camp, had picketed his horse out some distance and then hadsneaked in among the prostrate, sleeping figures. Evidently his objectwas merely to leave the warning, and not to rob or commit some moreserious crime. And his touching the foot of Dick was an accident.Then, seeing he had caused an alarm, the man slipped away, dropping hisnote.
Puzzle their heads as they did, none of the six could recall any one,either among their friends or enemies, whose initials were S.T. andDick's suggestion, that the symbols of a name were only assumed, seemedto be generally accepted.
Breakfast was eaten, camp was broken and once more, after anothercasual casting about for possible clews to the intruder, the cavalcadewas under way. But one more night separated them from the vicinity ofDeath Valley and the new ranch.
"And the sooner we can get there and begin checking up on some of thethings we've heard the better I'll like it," remarked Bud.
"I guess we all will," echoed Nort.
"I only hope we'll find something tangible, and not a lot moremysteries," spoke Dick.
"It'll probably turn out to be poisoned springs or bad water,"suggested Yellin' Kid. "That's the most reasonable explanation."
"Um!" was all Billee Dobb would reply to that.
They made rather good time that day, as the trail was now downward forthey had passed the range of low hills outside of the valley. And whennight came, and they were once more camped out, they knew that thefollowing day would see them at Dot and Dash ranch.
"What about standing guard to-night?" asked Bud of his cousins whencamp was established and a good supper had been eaten.
"'Twon't do any harm to have sentry-go," agreed Dick.
"But the chances are a hundred to one against anything happening todisturb us," said Nort. "That fellow isn't likely to come back."
"I agree with you," said Bud. "But, all the same, I think we'll allsleep sounder if we stand watch and watch."
"It'll be our turn," declared Snake. "We three old gazaboes will taketurns. You kids had last night. This is ours."
It was no more than fair and the boy ranchers were glad enough to letthe men act as sentries. So Billee, Snake and Yellin' Kid arranged itamong themselves, leaving the night to uninterrupted slumber for thethree boys.
"That is, we'll sleep if nothing wakes us," said Bud.
And nothing did. Nor did any of the cowboys, who took turns stayingawake during the night, report any untoward occurrences. But in spiteof that fact when Bud went to the grub box to get out some bacon hefound, stuck in a pack, a folded brown paper, like the one on which theother warning was written. And this message was of like import withthe other. It said:
DON'T GO TO DOT AND DASH.
However there was no signature to this. But none was needed to make itcertain that it was from the same hand.
"Well, what do you know about that!" cried Nort when he saw what Budhad found.
"How'd he get in camp to leave that warning without being seen orheard?" asked Dick.
"Guess it's up to us," admitted Billee with a sheepish smile. "We oldgeezers must 'a' been asleep at the switch. No tellin' which one itwas," he went on, "'ceptin' I'll swear nobody slipped past when I wason guard."
"And nobody came into camp while I was sentry," added Snake.
"That goes for me, too!" came from Yellin' Kid.
"Then we'll all have to plead guilty," chuckled Billee. "Anyhow here'sthe warnin' and it looks as if this fellow, whoever he is, wasfollerin' us up to discourage us from going on."
"Well, he shan't disco
urage me!" exclaimed Bud.
"Nor me!" came in a duet from Nort and Dick.
"That's the ticket! Then we'll go on!" said Billee. "But I would liketo know," he murmured, "how this chap can sneak in and out of a campwithout rousing somebody. I sure would!"
However there was nothing more to be done. And after making sure noclews could be picked up, the second warning was placed with the first,in Billee's big leather wallet, and the travelers prepared to resumethe trail.
They were now in a wilder and more lonesome country than any they hadever before visited. It was distinctly the "bad lands," but often insuch a region can be found isolated places where abundant water andherbage offer ideal sites for cattle raising.
Such, Mr. Merkel had said, was his new Dot and Dash ranch. And it wasapparent to the boys and their older companions, as they rode along,that the valley was a good locality for raising cattle.
"This must be the place," said Bud as they began riding down theopposite side of the slope they had climbed to cross the low range ofmountains. "It's just as dad described it. I'll show these papers towhoever's in charge and they'll know we have come to take over theranch." He tapped in his pocket a bundle of documents which his fatherhad given him to show the transfer of authority.
"Yes, that's Dot and Dash," said Billee as he recalled some of thefamiliar landmarks. "This is the place where I used to punch cattle."
"Seems to be a right nice sort of a place," murmured Snake. "And Ireckon them tales about all the cattle droppin' dead are fakes. Lookat that herd," and he pointed to a collection of dots on a distant hill.
"Nobody said _all_ the cows died!" retorted Billee. "And maybe the badspell, whatever it was, has worked itself out. I hope so. But there'sDot and Dash all right," and he waved to a collection of ranchbuildings that came into view with a turn of the trail.
In a short time they had traversed the slope and were on the level andgreen floor of a pleasant valley, long and narrow, yet wide enough togive space to several big ranches. The hills were barren and rugged insome places, and wooded in others.
On up to the ranch rode the cavalcade, the thoughts of the boys busywith many things. It was rather a tamer entry than they had counted onafter Billee's stories and the receipt of the two dramatic warnings.
"Guess we aren't going to have any trouble after all," said Dick asthey rode their horses to the hitching rail, made the reins fast anddismounted to enter the main house.
"It's quiet enough," said Nort
"'Tis, for a fact," echoed Bud. "Doesn't seem to be anybody aroundhere for me to serve my possession papers on!" he chuckled. "Hello!Anybody home?" he called loudly.
There was no answer save the echoes of his voice through the ramblingbuilding.
"Give 'em a call, Kid, you can make yourself heard," suggested Snake,and the yeller let out a ringing shout.
Still there was no reply and the silence was beginning to get on thenerves of the boys when Billee, who had been roaming around, came inwith a queer look on his face.
"What's the matter?" asked Bud.
"There's a dead man outside in the yard," was the quiet answer of theveteran puncher.
Boy Ranchers in Death Valley; Or, Diamond X and the Poison Mystery Page 6