CHAPTER VI
TROUBLE AT SQUARE M
"Guess that must be a joke," decided Nort, as he stepped gingerly fromhis cot, for it was cold in the mornings, though hot enough at midday."Likely Old Billee or Yellin' Kid stuck it there," added the easternlad, as he looked at the scrawled warning.
"Old Billee wouldn't do it," declared Bud. "He's gotten over hisjoking days. But it might have been Yellin' Kid."
"Sure!" agreed Dick. "Probably he did it to make what Billee saidabout the black rabbit come true--to sort of scare you, Bud."
"Well, of course that _might_ have happened," admitted the western lad,but from the tone of his voice, as he made a hasty toilet, his cousinscould tell he was far from being convinced.
"You don't reckon it could be Buck Tooth, do you?" asked Dick,following his cousin's example in attiring himself for the day's work.
"What? That Zuni Indian? I should say not! His idea of a joke wouldmake your hair stand on end--or it would in his wild and younger days.Now all he cares about, after he gets through riding herd, is to sit inthe sun and smoke his Mexican cigarettes. Buck Tooth doesn't joke."
"Well, maybe it was Yellin' Kid," suggested Nort.
But when, a little later, they assembled in the meal tent, to partakeof breakfast, and Bud produced the scrawled board, Yellin' Kid was thefirst to shake his head at the implied question.
"I like fun!" he remarked in his loud, good-natured voice, "but I don'tplay such jokes as this. My idea of fun would be to help dig upanother one of them queer, slidin'-trombone insects with the threehorns that the professor fellers discovered. But this--why, Bud, thismay be serious business!"
"That black rabbit--I told you!" croaked Old Billee.
"Do you really think it means anything?" asked the boy rancher, whilehis young partners in the new venture leaned eagerly forward to listento the answer.
"I sure do," declared Yellin' Kid. "All of us have known, Bud, an'your father among 'em, that puttin' a dam in Pocut River, an' takingwater for you here, at Flume Valley, made the Double Z outfit madenough t' rear up on their hind legs an' howl! Hank Fisher hasclaimed, all along, that th' Diamond X outfit hadn't any right t' takewater from th' river, t' shunt over on th' other side of SnakeMountain, where we are, here."
"Yes, I heard dad say that," spoke Bud. "But if Hank Fisher had anyrights that we violated, why didn't he go to law about it?"
"That isn't Hank's way," commented Yellin' Kid. "He'd more likely trysome such tricks as _that_," and the cowboy nodded toward the warningon the board.
"Do you think he left that?" asked Nort.
"And was he, or Del Pinzo, in our camp last night?" cried Dick.
"As to that I couldn't say," replied Yellin' Kid. "I slept like twotops last night, after I got t' sleep. I didn't even hear you fellows_snore_," he added, for the three boy ranchers had a tent tothemselves, while Old Billee and Yellin' Kid bunked in an adjoiningone, Buck Tooth having his own special dugout near the camp fire.
"We never snore!" declared Nort.
"Well, I didn't hear a sound!" assented Yellin' Kid.
"Nor I," said Old Billee.
There was no use asking Buck Tooth. An actual demonstration would havebeen required to make him understand what a "snore" was, and then hemight have misinterpreted it into an attempt to work some "magic" onhim.
"Well, somebody came in our camp, and left that board--there's nogetting away from the fact," declared Bud, as he put aside the ominouswarning. "And it may have some connection with the stoppage of thewater, or it may not."
"I'm inclined t' think it has," said Yellin' Kid. "An', what's more,Bud, I think we'll wake up again, some mornin', t' find that reservoirof yours out-a business."
"Do you mean Hank Fisher, or Del Pinzo and his crowd, will blow it up?"asked Bud anxiously.
"Not exactly that, but they'll cut off your water supply."
"But how can they?" asked Bud. "They can't do anything to the pipeintake at Pocut River without being seen, and dad had legal advice tothe effect that he has as good right to that river water as Double Z,or any other ranch. And as for this end of the pipe here, we can lookafter that, I reckon," and he significantly tapped his .45 which he hadstrapped on, preparatory to getting ready for the cattle shipment.
"That's all right," asserted Yellin' Kid. "But you've forgotten th'big tunnel under the mountain, Bud, where the water runs free after itleaves the river pipe, an' before it gets to the pipe here."
"But Hank, or Del Pinzo, can't cut off the water inside the mountaintunnel without having it back up and run into the river again--and itdidn't do that!" Bud insisted.
Yellin' Kid shrugged his shoulders, as he started for the corral to gethis horse, since he was to aid in driving the cattle to the railroadstock yard.
"I don't know nothin' about th' scientific end of it," he drawledloudly, "but, mark my words, there's some queer business goin' on, an'Hank Fisher an' Del Pinzo have a hand in it. Look out for your watersupply, Bud; that's my advice!"
"An' don't let any more black rabbits cross your path," added OldBillee.
"Bunk!" scoffed Bud. "Though I don't like this warning, all the same.Let's go take a look at the reservoir, fellows."
But an inspection of the concrete water-container showed nothing wrongthere. The sparkling fluid, so necessary for the cattle, and so vitalto Diamond X Second, was spurting from the pipe freely.
"Guess they're only trying to bluff us!" was Dick's opinion.
"Maybe," assented his cousin. "But, all the same, I'd like to know whowas in our camp last night. If this thing is going to keep up we'llhave to mount guard."
"That wouldn't be a bad idea," declared Nort. "I don't like to go tobed so early, anyhow."
"You'll be glad enough to turn in after we get into the swing of thingshere, branding cattle, shipping 'em off and all that," said Bud. "Butlet's take a look around after we get this bunch off."
And when Yellin' Kid, with another cowboy sent by Mr. Merkel to helpBud in getting the steers to the railroad station, had departed withthe shipment, the boy ranchers, Old Billee and Buck Tooth made acareful examination in the vicinity of the tents.
Of course, with so many who really belonged in the camp, trampingaround it, there was little likelihood of an alien foot beingdiscovered. Nevertheless, Bud hoped for something of this sort. Butit was not to be. No trace of the midnight intruder, who had left theominous warning, was discovered. And yet he had come and gone--hadeven penetrated to the tent where the boys were sleeping.
"It's either bluff, or it means something," declared Bud, as theyassembled for lunch. "And if it isn't bluff, but a _fight_, HankFisher and Del Pinzo will find we can stick to our guns as well asthey!"
"You said it!" cried Nort.
"Del Pinzo didn't stay long in jail; did he?" asked Dick, for,following the discovery of the Triceratops and the capture of thecattle rustlers, as detailed in the first volume, the Mexican halfbreedhad been arrested.
"No, he managed to get out, and, by some hook or crook, he stillmanages to escape arrest," Bud answered.
For some time it appeared that the two warnings were only "bluffs." Nosign came from the unknown, and no trace was seen of Hank Fisher, DelPinzo or any of the unprincipled gang which had made so much troublethe previous year for the Diamond X outfit.
Nor did the water coming under Snake Mountain show any signs of givingout. Day after day it ran its limpid stream, furnishing drink for manand beast, and enabling grass to grow where it had never grown before.
"Some day I'm going to rig up a turbine wheel and attach a dynamo toit, so we can have electric light here," declared Bud.
"That'll be great!" exclaimed Dick.
The first shipment of cattle had been safely gotten off from FlumeValley, and brought a good price. This money did not all come to theboy ranchers, however, as Mr. Merkel had insisted on a strict businessdeal; and he was to be paid for his share of the stock he supplied Budfrom the first money
coming in. Later the boys would get theirprofits--if there were any.
But the first lot of steers had been sent away, bringing a higher pricethan usual because of their prime condition, attributed, so Bud said,to the finer quality of grass, and it looked as if the boy ranchersmight make a success of their first venture.
"Even discounting the black rabbit and the warnings out of the air,"said Bud.
It was, then, with somewhat of an ominous feeling that, one morning, asthe boys and their cowboy friends were at breakfast, they saw a riderhastening toward them along the trail that led from Diamond X.
"It's Snake Purdee!" exclaimed Yellin' Kid, when the rider hadapproached near enough to be recognized.
"An' he's ridin' like he had suthin' on his mind!" added Old Billee."I hope that black rabbit----" he murmured, and then his voice trailedoff into a whisper as Yellin' Kid surreptitiously kicked him under thepacking-box table.
"Don't scare th' boys!" whispered Yellin' Kid in explanation, as SnakePurdee galloped nearer.
The rider flung himself from his pony, which came to a sliding stopnear the camp tents, and, looking first at the boy ranchers, and thenat the big, peaceful valley stretching out before him, remarked:
"Yes, there's plenty of room here!"
"For what?" asked Bud.
"More cattle!" answered Snake Purdee. "There's been trouble over atSquare M, fellows!"
"Trouble?" exclaimed the boy ranchers in chorus. "What kind?"
"Bad trouble," was the reply. "Call your father up on th' 'phone,Bud," he added. "He wants t' talk t' you. Yes," he went on, musingly,as Bud hastened in to the telephone, "there's bad trouble at Square M!"
Boy Ranchers in Camp; Or, The Water Fight at Diamond X Page 6