Boy Ranchers in Death Valley; Or, Diamond X and the Poison Mystery

by Frank V. Webster

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE AVENGERS

  Bud Merkel took a long drink, shook his head several times as though toclear his brain of some benumbing influence and began his story.

  "I guess you all know," he said, "how I started over here yesterday tosize up our stock to get ready for the first shipment to go from Dotand Dash under the new ownership." His hearers nodded. By this timeseveral other cowboys from the other searching parties had arrived tohear the good news of the finding of Bud.

  "Well," went on the young rancher, "I got to the range all right,looked the herd over and found there were more steers ready to shipthan we had counted on," and he looked toward his cousins. "Then Ithought I'd spend the rest of the morning in exploring Smugglers' Glen.I wanted to see if I could find out where the old Elixer mandisappeared to that time he ran away from us," and again he looked atNort and Dick. The story of the herb doctor was known to most of thecowboys.

  "I rode on up into the gulch," continued Bud, "and when I got close tothe cave I slid off my horse, for his feet made so much noise on therocks that I thought if the old man was in the cavern he'd take warningand skip out before I could catch him at work. That's what I wanted todo--see old Tosh at work brewing his stuff. And I wanted to find ifthere was another entrance or exit from the cavern. I didn't know butwhat, in case of a big blizzard, we might not shelter some of our stockin the cave if we could open it up more."

  "That wouldn't be a bad idea," commented Nort.

  "Well, anyhow," resumed Bud, "I got off my pony, tied him to a tree andwent on up the glen afoot. I was almost at the cave when, all of asudden, two or three men came out. They seemed quite surprised to seeme, and I certainly was to see them. They weren't any of our men, andthey hadn't any right on our range, any more than Old Tosh has, but Iguess no one minds him.

  "I thought, of course, that these fellows were rustlers--they wererough and tough enough looking to be almost anything. But before Icould say or do anything, one of them set down what looked like a tankcontaining carbonic acid gas, like they use at drug store soda waterfountains. I wondered whether these fellows were going into the gameof putting pop in the Tosh Elixer, when, all at once I felt sort ofqueer. I tried to fight off the sensation, but I kept getting weakeruntil I just crumpled up in a heap.

  "I thought of all sorts of things--the stories Billee had told aboutthe sudden deaths here, how Sam Tarbell was overcome and his horsekilled and then, just as if I was in a dream, I felt some of those menpick me up and carry me into the cave."

  "The darned hijackers!" cried Yellin' Kid.

  "Can't we do something to 'em?" demanded Snake angrily.

  "Wait," cautioned Bud. "I haven't finished. The men picked me up. Iwas so weak and knocked out by that peculiar smell, whatever it was,that I couldn't do anything. It was, as I said, just like being in adream. They laid me down on a pile of bags, or something. It wasdark, but they had some lanterns. My eyes were half open so I couldsee a little. Then they tied me up and after that I don't remembermuch. I have a hazy recollection, just as you'd have from trying toremember a half-forgotten dream, a recollection of seeing the menmoving about the cave, digging out rocks, hammering and crushing them.For a time I thought they might be going to wall up the entrance andbury me there alive.

  "Then I must have gone to sleep, or lost consciousness, for everythingfaded away and the next thing I knew I woke up. It was dark and quietaround me and I began to move my arms and legs. I had been tied uppretty tight, but the knots seemed to be looser now and I managed towork some of them off so I could free myself.

  "Then I got up, found a flashlight in my pocket--luckily the men hadn'tsearched me--and I managed to make my way out of the cave. So here Iam--that's all there is to it."

  "Well, that's good and plenty!" cried Nort.

  "Didn't you stop to see if those men were still there, and what theywere doing?" asked Dick.

  "No, I didn't feel able," Bud answered wearily. "All I wanted to dowas get out, find my horse and ride back to the ranch. But where isStar?" the young rancher suddenly asked, looking around.

  "He's safe in the corral," Dick answered. "We found him wanderingaround without his bridle on when we went to look for you lateyesterday afternoon."

  "He must have pulled away from the tree where I had him tied and yankedthe bridle off that way," Bud said.

  "Horses an' bridles ain't much account now!" declared Billee. "Themain thing is about these darn varmints that treated Bud so. Who doyou think they were--I mean what sort of scamps?" asked the old ranchhand, and he fingered his gun, which several other cowboys were doing.

  "I think they were cattle rustlers," answered Bud, who seemed to befeeling better each moment. "They must have been hiding in the cavewaiting for a chance to drive off some of our stock, when their planswere spoiled by my happening along."

  "That's probably it," agreed Nort. "But what about that soda watercylinder you say they shot at you?"

  "I wouldn't call it soda water," stated Bud with a grim smile. "But itcontained some sort of gas and they must have shot it at me for itknocked me out."

  "How was it they could turn a stream of poison gas, or at leastknock-out gas, on you, Bud, and not suffer from it themselves?" askedDick.

  "The wind was blowing straight from them to me, down the glen," was thereply. "The breeze carried the stuff to me and it didn't bother themat all for it floated right from them."

  "Just like gas in the war," stated Snake, who had fought in France, ashad several of the other husky cowboys. "That's probably what it was,too, some kind of gas they used in the war. It comes in tanks, and theGermans used to lay a shallow trench full of these cylinders, with theopenings in 'em pointed our way. Then they'd open a faucet, let thegas out and the wind would blow it right in our faces. If we didn'tput on gas masks it was bye-bye for us."

  "But," exclaimed Nort, "Bud wasn't killed."

  "No," agreed Snake with a grim smile, "and we're darn glad he wasn't.Like as not they didn't use strong gas on him. There's lots of kindsof gas, you know. I took some once to have a tooth yanked out and Ilaughed to beat the band. Even in war all the gas wasn't sure death.There was a kind that made you cry like you'd lost your best girl."

  "That's the explanation then," decided Nort. "These fellows--call 'emrustlers for the time being--have got hold of some kind of knock-outgas and they used it on Bud."

  "I sure was knocked out," murmured the young rancher.

  "But what's their game?" asked Yellin' Kid in no gentle tones. "Ifthey're rustlers why did they just hold Bud a prisoner a while and thenlight out and not take any stock?"

  "They probably figgered the game was up," suggested Snake, "and wantedto make their get-away. Anyhow they didn't get no stock."

  "Are you sure of that?" asked Bud.

  By this time nearly all the other members of the searching parties hadbeen gathered near Smugglers' Glen, the more distant ones having beensignaled to by shots previously agreed upon. And from the leaders ofthese squads it was learned that no raid had been made during thenight. The whole range had been pretty well covered.

  "Well, that's good," said Bud when the welcome news had been conveyedto him.

  "Do you think these rustlers were responsible for the deaths here inthis valley?" asked Nort. "Have they been setting off this gas--orsome even worse--and killing cattle, men and horses?"

  Billee Dobb shook his head.

  "Death Valley got its name a long while back," he said. "Long beforethese fellers could have been operating. This is some new dodge, takemy word for it."

  "It's a queer way to rustle cattle--kill 'em with gas," said Yellin'Kid.

  "Oh, they keep the gas for humans that might try to catch 'em, Iguess," Billee went on. "That's just something to cover theiroperations. And it doesn't solve the other deaths that took placehere."

  "You say you saw those men digging away in the cave, cracking rocks andthe like of that?" asked Snake.

&
nbsp; "That's what I think I saw," spoke Bud. "Of course I don't know _what_I really saw and what I may have _dreamed_, half unconscious as I was.But it's easy to find out if any digging has been done in the cave. Wecan take another trip back there and----"

  "That's just what we'll do!" cried Nort

  "And we'll catch these fellows an' string 'em up!" cried Sam Tarbell."They killed my best horse and I'm going to have revenge on 'em. Areyou with me, boys?"

  "Sure!" cried half a score of cowboys, their hands going to their guns.

  "We'll revenge Bud, too!" exclaimed Dick.

  "That's the talk!" shouted Yellin' Kid. "Let's get at these _hombres_an' chase 'em out of the country!"

  Eager and excited, angry, and justly so, the crowd was ready foranything. They would have rushed at once into the defile but thatBillee Dobb held up a restraining hand.

  "We want to go at this thing calm and cautious like," he said. "Wewant either to catch these scamps or drive 'em out. At the same timewe want to find out what their game is."

  "That's right," agreed Bud. "The more I think of it the more I'm sureI didn't _dream_ I saw 'em digging something out of the sides of thecave. They _really did it_."

  "Diamonds, maybe!" exclaimed Snake, eagerly.

  "Be yourself, boy!" chuckled Yellin' Kid. "Diamonds don't grow outhere."

  "All right--have it your way," mildly assented Snake.

  "So it would be a good thing to see what these birds were up to," wenton Bud. "I'm still so sort of knocked out that I can't do much. I'vegot to get back and rest up. But if you boys want to go back up thereand see what you can find, and do, I'm willing."

  "We sure will!" cried the crowd as one man.

  "Let Billee be the leader," suggested Bud.

  And in a few minutes the avengers had formed a sort of plan of battleor attack which, they hoped, would solve some of the mystery of DeathValley.