CHAPTER XX
A SURPRISE
Some of those in the rear, who had heard Bud's exclamation, butwho had not clearly heard what he said, came crowding up. Amongthem was Snake Purdee, and his eyes sparkled with hidden emotionas he inquired:
"Did you see any rattlers? This is just the place for 'em!"
"Yes, we came acrost a nest of baby ones what had lost theirmother, an' they're countin' on you t' bring 'em up on th'bottle!" laughed Slim. The men, more or less, poked fun at Snakebecause of his great fear of reptiles, and Slim could not foregothis chance.
But Snake understood the game, and realized that he had nothingto fear. He shot a look at Slim, however, which indicated thatthere would be an attempt, later, to get even.
"What's wrong?" asked Slim, for in his endeavor to play a joke onSnake he had not paid much attention to what Bud was saying.
"We're all turned around," spoke the western lad. "All in a maze.We started out, heading south, and we've kept, generally, to thatdirection ever since. But now we're heading back north. Lookslike we'd lost the trail."
Slim and some of the more experienced cowboys studied the trailfor several minutes. Surely it did seem to "peter out," asYellin' Kid expressed it, though it had been fairly plain up tothis point.
"They couldn't get up on either side," declared Nort, looking atthe steep, rocky walls which hemmed the trailers in right andleft.
"And they haven't gone on ahead, for there isn't a sign," addedDick, who had ridden up the defile for some little distance,returning to make his report. "Nothing short of an air ship couldhave lifted up a bunch of cattle from this gorge and set 'em downfarther on."
"Unless they went through a hole in one of the side walls,"suggested Slim, "like that underground river you fellowsdiscovered in the tunnel."
"There are no side passages here," declared Bud. And he seemed tohold the correct view of it, the others agreeing, after a carefulinspection of the rocky and shale-covered walls on either hand."It looks just as if they came up to this point and--vanished!"
"Pretty slick work--I'll give Del Pinzo credit for that," saidSlim, as if it were already established that the wily Greaserhalfbreed had made the descent on Happy Valley. "How he and hisbunch could haze cattle this far into a rocky pass, an' then make'em disappear, gets me!"
"It shore do!" shouted Yellin' Kid.
"But that doesn't change the fact that we're all switchedaround," declared Bud. "We're going north instead of south!"
"Not so hard to account for that," said Snake. "This vale justnaturally twists and turns like a windin' river. I wouldn'twonder but what we'd been going north other times, only you nevernoticed your compass, Bud."
"Well, maybe so," admitted the boy rancher, rather dubiously."But it looks as if we were back-trailing, instead of keeping onafter those rascals."
"We're keeping on all right!" asserted Slim. "By some hook orcrook they've fooled us, but we haven't passed 'em, that'scertain, and they must be somewhere up ahead. It would take RockyMountain goats to scramble up there," he added, motioning towardthe steep walls of the gorge. "Some trick ponies might do it, butno cattle ever could, unless they're like some of them Swisscheese brand I seen in pictures!"
"Then do you think we should keep on?" asked Dick.
"I shore do!" declared the foreman.
"Forward march!" cried Bud, with a little laugh. "We want to getour cattle back, and catch the rustlers who took 'em!"
And so, though all signs of the trail seemed to have vanished,they kept on. Night saw them in even a wilder region, thoughthere was a spring of water--not boiling this time--and somegrass for the animals. So it was decided to camp there and takeup the search in the morning.
They were in the enemy's country in every sense of the word, andcould afford to take no chances. So after a fire had been built,and coffee made, bacon and flapjacks being the other items on thebill of fare, the men and boys were told off into watches.
Bud and Slim, Nort and Snake, and Dick and Yellin' Kid wereassigned to divide the night among them working as partners inthe order named. The others were to be allowed to roll up and getwhat sleep they could, Bud and Slim taking the first watch.
That passed off uneventfully, as did the vigil of Nort and Snake,nothing more important occurring than the distant howls of thecoyotes.
When it was the turn of Dick and Yellin' Kid they rolled out,albeit sleepy and tired, to stand guard until morning, when thetrail would again be taken up.
"Zimmy! But it's chilly!" said Kid in a low voice, as lie tossedsome wood on the fire and wrapped his blanket more closely abouthim.
"Yes, it always is just before sunrise," added Dick. "I wonderwhat we'll find after daylight?"
"I hope we find that ornery bunch!" murmured Yellin' Kid, keepingdown his voice so as not to awaken the sleepers.
"So do I," said Dick.
Then they sat about the fire, occasionally strolling around theimprovised camp, to make sure that none of their enemies werecreeping up on them in the darkness.
The stars shone clear and bright in the sky above, andoccasionally a little wind swept up the dismal defile. Now andthen a loose stone rattled down the sides of shale and volcanicrock, and at such times Dick, and even Yellin' Kid started, andfelt for their guns. But all the alarms were false ones.
That is, the watchers decided they were, for no sight was had ofanyone until Dick, after a stroll about the fire, suddenlystarted back and whispered to Yellin' Kid:
"Isn't that a head looking up over that rock?"
The Kid glanced to where Dick directed his gaze, and, in aninstant, the cowboy had his weapon out and leveled. His fingerwas even pressing the trigger when he laughed silently and thrustthe .45 back in its leather case. "Why didn't you shoot?" askedDick.
"It was an owl," answered Kid. "It was his ears you seen stickin'up! Listen!"
And, a moment later, there was the mournful hooting of thenocturnal bird, which had flown away, but on such downy-featheredwings that it made no sound.
"An owl!" murmured Dick. Then he was glad he had not shot first,as he had intended. He would only have awakened the others andbeen laughed at for his pains. Sometimes, he reflected, it wasbetter to hold your fire, even in the west, that region of quickaction.
Soon there was a little grayish, pinkish light to be observedover the edge of the eastern hill. It grew slowly, and daylightcame, though it was some time before the sun itself was seen, sodeep were the searchers down in the defile.
After breakfast they set out again, looking carefully for signsof the rustlers, but they saw none, and at last they decidedthat, in some mysterious manner, their quarry had given them theslip.
"Though I don't see how they did it," declared Slim, somewhatvexed that he and his men were not better able to pick up thetrail.
"There must be some side passage--like that!" suddenly declaredYellin' Kid, leaping from his horse and then, as suddenlydisappearing from the sight of his companions. "Hey! What's theidea! Where'd he go?" asked Snake.
"In this side passage," answered Yellin' Kid, as suddenlyreappearing. "Look, here's a crack, or fissure in the rock, I sawit from where I sat on my pony. It goes off from th' main trail,but I can't see where it leads."
They all dismounted and investigated. As the Kid had said, it wasa traverse defile, opening out of the main one and almost atright angles. The opening was concealed behind a great pinnacleof rock, so that the cleft was only visible from a certain point,and it was at this point that the Kid saw it.
"Where does it go to?" asked Bud as they entered, single file. Itwas only wide enough for that.
"We've got to follow and see!" said Slim.
"If there was a place like that, back where we discovered we werein a maze, it would have been easy enough for the rustlers tohave driven the cattle through, one at a time," observed Nort.
"But there wasn't any such place!" declared Bud. "We made sure ofthat. But where does this lead?"
That was what they all conject
ured, and they were soon to learn.As they rode along, the side cleft widened, until there was roomenough for three to ride abreast. And it was while thusprogressing that Dick, who was in the lead with Slim and Snake,made a surprising discovery. He rode around a turn in the newtrail, and at the sight of something beyond, in the smaller,rocky defile, he set up such a shout as brought all hiscompanions to his side.
"What is it?" shouted Bud.
"Look!" answered Dick, pointing. "Del Pinzo and big gang!"
Boy Ranchers on the Trail; Or, The Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers Page 20