CHAPTER II
A NIGHT RIDE
The boy ranchers stood looking down into the reservoir, which wasalmost full of water, but which was slowly running out through thedifferent gates, some to concrete drinking troughs where thirsty cattlecongregated, and some to distant meadows where it supplied moisture forthe grass on which the steers of Diamond X Second fed. From theslightly ruffled surface of the reservoir, as the evening wind blewacross the water, the gazes of Bud, Nort and Dick sought the faces ofone another.
"This looks had!" murmured Bud, while Buck Tooth, the Zuni Indian,grunted something in his own incomprehensible dialect.
"What does it mean?" asked Nort, as he looked down the slope from thereservoir to the group of tents that was to form the home of himself,his brother and cousin for several months, while they were in camp.
"It means the water supply, on which I depended to raise these steers,has petered out," answered Bud, and there was a worried note in hisvoice.
"You mean stopped for good?" asked Dick.
"I hope not," went on Bud. "But from what you can see--no water comingthrough the pipe line that dad laid to the Pocut River--I should saythere was a break in it somewhere, and it will have to be fixed rightaway--that is, if I'm to keep these cattle here," and he looked downthe valley where the bunches of steers were ever on the move, seekingnew places to feed, or coming to drink water from the supply flowingout of the reservoir.
"We seem to have struck a job right off the bat!" remarked Dick, as hepicked up a stone and tossed it into the reservoir.
"Just as we did when we came west before, and had to jump out and helpthe queer professors," added Nort. "But we're ready to go to work,Bud. All you'll have to do is say the word and----"
But Bud did not seem to be paying much attention to what his cousin wassaying. Instead his gaze followed that of his Zuni Indian helper.Buck Tooth was looking off up the hill under which the big pipe ran tothe distant Pocut River on the other side of the mountain. And as Budand Buck Tooth looked, and as the gaze of Nort and Dick was bent in thesame direction, they all beheld a figure on the back of a fast-movingpony, riding up the trail that led over Snake Mountain.
"Who's that, Buck? See him!" yelled Bud.
"No can tell. Old Billee, mebby!" grunted the Indian.
"No! Old Billee just left me! He's back at the ranch house. Butthat's a stranger, and I don't like strangers sneaking around myranch--especially when there's a break just happened to my pipe line!"exclaimed Bud. "I'm going to look into this!"'
"Hi there! Hold on a minute! I want to talk to you!" he yelled,making a megaphone of his hands and directing it at the figure on theback of the sturdy pony that was scrambling up the mountain trail."Wait a minute!"
But this the stranger seemed unwilling to do. The watching group nearthe reservoir saw him raise his quirt, or short whip, and bring it downsavagely on the back of the pony, which, already, was doing its best tocarry its master out of distance.
Then, with a quick motion, Bud drew his .45, and though both Nort andDick saw him aim it high above the man's head, in order to shoot overhim, horse and rider went down in a tumbled heap at the sound of thereport, which followed as Bud pulled the trigger.
"You've winged him!" cried Dick.
"Shucks! Didn't mean to hit him--just shot to scare him!" declaredBud. "But we'll have to see about it now! Come on!" he cried, and heran down the side of the reservoir to where he had left Sock, his pony,followed by Dick and Nort who also headed for their steeds.
"Hu!" grunted the Indian, as he came on down more leisurely. "Nowater--man shot--new boys come--big time, mebby! Hu!"
And Buck Tooth was more than right. Big times impended in Flume Valley.
While Bud Merkel and his two cousins who had arrived from the east onlythe day before were mounting their ponies, to ride up the side of SnakeMountain, and seek the man Bud had shot, I shall have a chance to tellmy new readers something about the boy ranchers, and the volume thatimmediately precedes this one.
The book is entitled "The Boy Ranchers; or Solving the Mystery atDiamond X." Norton, or Nort, and Dick, or Richard, Shannon were sonsof Mr. and Mrs. Thornton Shannon, and their home was in the cast. WhenMr. Shannon, the summer previous, had been obliged to make a trip toSouth America, with his wife, he sent his sons to spend their vacationat Diamond X, one of the western cattle ranches owned by Henry Merkel,Mrs. Shannon's brother.
Almost immediately on their arrival Nort and Dick, who were thenrightly classed as "tenderfeet," became involved in a strange mystery.A call for help came, and they took part in the rescue of two collegeprofessors who had been attacked by a band of Mexicans and "Greasers,"the latter being a low-class Mexican.
The professors were rescued, but the mystery only deepened. What itwas, and how it came to be solved, you will find set down at length inthe first volume. Sufficient to say, here, that Nort and Dick, as itwere, "cut their eye teeth," during the exciting experiences thatfollowed their arrival at Diamond X.
The eastern boys learned how properly to ride a pony cowboy fashion,they learned the use of the branding iron, the lariat and "gun," as the.45 revolvers were universally called. They learned, also, how to"ride herd," "ride line" and how to live in the open, with the prairiegrass for a bed and the star-studded sky for a blanket, their saddleforming the pillow.
Mr. Merkel, Bud's father, owned several ranches besides Diamond X, sonamed because that brand was used on the cattle from it. He had SquareM, and Triangle B, the explanation of which names are obvious.
When it came time for Nort and Dick to return east, as winterapproached, they left, promising to return as soon as their summervacation should arrive, for they were determined to become boy ranchersin earnest, an ambition in which Bud shared.
Now it was summer again, and Nort and Dick had once more journeyed totheir uncle's ranch, to be met by Bud, as arranged, at the water-hole.For between the two visits of the easterners some changes had been madeat Diamond X.
Bud had been clamoring to be allowed to raise some cattle "on his own,"and his father had consented. Off to the north of Diamond X, and in adepression between the Snake Mountains on the east and Buffalo Ridge onthe west, was another valley, well sheltered from the wintry blasts.This valley was owned by Mr. Merkel, and though part of it wastimbered, and some scattered sections produced an excellent variety ofgrass for stock, there was no dependable source of drinking wateravailable. And without water at hand it is impossible to raise cattlein the west--or any place else, for that matter.
How to get water to "Flume Valley," as it came to be called, was aproblem. It would have been put to use raising cattle long before thishad Mr. Merkel been able to get any water there for the animals todrink, and also some to irrigate the more arid portions so that fodderwould grow.
At the foot of the eastern slope of Snake Mountains ran the PocutRiver, which served to supply not only Diamond X, Square M and TriangleB ranches with water, but also those of Double Z and Circle T, therespective holdings of Hank Fisher and Thomas Ogden. But though PocutRiver gave plenty of water to Bud's father and the other ranchmen, nonewas available for the isolated valley which, except for this, wouldhave been an ideal place to raise steers.
And it was here that the good services of Professor Wright, one of thescientists mentioned in the first volume, came into play. ForProfessor Wright discovered an ancient underground water course,connecting with Pocut River, and when this had been partly tunneled,re-opened at places where it had caved in, and a big iron pipe laidpart of the way, water came gushing out into Flume Valley, as Budrenamed the place, it having been called Buffalo Wallow before thattime; probably when there was water in it and the buffalo made it arendezvous.
And when the water came through the iron pipe, falling into thereservoir that had been built to hold it in reserve, Bud was allowed tobegin his experiment in stock raising.
His father provided him with the cattle, and Bud was a boy rancher inreality now. Hi
s cousins had agreed to help him in the venture ontheir arrival, and Bud had been expecting them when he rode out withOld Billee that day. Old Billee was one of the Diamond X cowboys, andhe might have been made a foreman, except that he had no executiveability. He could do as he was told, and that was about all. He wasreliable and dependable, but had no initiative for big undertakings.Old Billee, with Buck Tooth and some other cowboys, had been assignedto help Bud in his venture.
As Bud has told his cousins, when he rode to meet them at thewater-hole, on the trail from Diamond S ranch, there was no time, yet,to construct ranch houses in Flume Valley. Tents would have to servethe purpose, and the boys were rather pleased, than otherwise, withthis.
"It will be just like camp!" said Bud.
And so the easterners had arrived, and, almost with the moment of theircoming, there had begun the first act in what was to prove a drama ofalmost tragic happenings.
"You stay at the camp, Buck!" called Bud to the Zuni, as the three boyranchers mounted and prepared to ride up to where the unknown man hadcollapsed after Bud had fired. "You stick around! Old Billee, or someof the boys from Diamond X may ride over, though I don't expect themuntil morning. Stay here, Buck!"
"Me stick!" gutturally answered the Indian. "You catchum manmebby--git back water."
"Maybe," agreed Bud, as he and his cousins trotted off up the trail,which wound around the reservoir and over the mountain.
Dusk was falling as the boys reached the vicinity of the place whencethey had seen the lone rider emerge from the bushes, spurring his horseup the rocky trail that led over Snake Mountain, as the whole ridge wasknown.
"Must have been about here," said Dick, as he reined in his steed, forwhich the panting animal, doubtless, was grateful.
"Little farther on, I think," said his brother.
"No, it was right here," declared Bud, as he dismounted and began toscan the ground. "Here's where his horse slipped," and he pointed tothe tell-tale marks on the trail.
"Yes, and look--you hit him all right!" added Dick.
He indicated some dull, red spots on the stones. Bud reached down andgingerly touched them.
"Blood!" he murmured. "Guess I did wing him--or the horse--but I don'tsee how I could. I fired high."
"But where did he go?" asked Nort, following the marks left by a horsethat had, obviously, been hard pressed. "See, the sign goes right upto this rocky wall, and then stops. He couldn't have gotten up there,could he?"
"Not unless he wore wings," said Bud grimly. "But it's getting toodark to see well. We'd better be getting back to camp."
"I thought you were going to follow this up, and see what had happenedto your pipe line," suggested Dick.
"I am, but we can't ride on without some grub. No telling what we maystack up against. We'll have to make a night ride of it, I'm thinking,and I'd like to have Buck Tooth along. He's a shark on following ablind trail. Come on, we'll go back to camp, get some grub and thentake this up again. I hope I didn't kill him, though," murmured Bud,as he again leaped to the saddle, an example followed by Nort and Dick.
"Who was he?" asked the latter, puffing slightly from his exertions,for he was much stouter than his brother Nort.
"Search me!" replied Bud. "Looked mighty suspicious, though, the wayhe rode off. And if he wasn't up to something wrong he'd 'a' stoppedwhen I hailed him."
"Do you think he had anything to do with the break in the pipe?" askedNort.
"You've got me again," confessed his western cousin. "We'll have tomake a night ride of it and find out."
They rode back to the camp tents, to find Buck Tooth calmly smoking hisred-stone Indian pipe, and gazing off in the darkening distance atnothing at all, as far as the boys could determine.
"Anybody been around, Buck?" asked Bud.
"Nope!" was the answer. "You catchum dead man?"
"Not a sign, Buck! Beckon he must have dug a hole and pulled it inafter him. But we've got to find out what's the matter with the pipeline. There's only a few days' supply of water in the reservoir.Rustle out some grub, and we'll ride over the mountain."
"Um," grunted the Zuni, and a little later, after a hasty meal offlapjacks, bacon and coffee, the boy ranchers, with the old ZuniIndian, started on a night ride over the mountain trail, in the generaldirection of the pipe line, the supply of fluid for which had somysteriously stopped.
But strange events were only just beginning to happen in Flume Valley.There were others in store for the boy ranchers.
Boy Ranchers in Camp; Or, The Water Fight at Diamond X Page 2