CHAPTER IV
SUSPICIONS
With distinct feelings of joy, and no alarm whatever, Nort and Dickwatched the hands of Slim and Babe slide toward their holsters, wherenestled their .45 guns. Bud had taken his off, on reaching the house,and his two "city" cousins found themselves wishing that they worethose ugly but effective weapons.
It was not that Bud was a "gun man," nor was either the ranch foremanor his fat assistant. But as the classical saying has it:
"You don't always need a gun out West, but when you do need it you needit mighty bad, and mighty sudden!"
The guns, by which are meant revolvers of heavy calibre, were used formany other purposes than shooting at human beings. They were almost anecessity for a lone rider to signal for help, or indicate the need ofcertain action, and more than one cowboy owed his life to his gun,either in turning aside a stampede of steers, or against some human oranimal enemy.
It had been the hope of Norton, and Richard Shannon, as soon theylearned they were to spend some time at their uncle's ranch, to "pack agun," but their advent and arrival had been so sudden, and their timeso crowded since reaching Diamond X, that they had to dispense withthese luxuries, or necessities, according to the way you regard them.
But the two eastern lads grinned happily at one another as theygalloped along, and saw the foreman and his fat helper with their heavyweapons out of their holsters.
"Left mine home!" muttered Bud, as his hand, too, instinctively soughtthe leather sheath. Professor Blair, as he had called himself, did notseemed to be armed.
"They shore is some row going on!" exclaimed Slim, as he clapped spursto his already well-doing horse, and shot ahead of the others. "Howmany in your bunch?" he called to the professor.
"There are four of us--Professor Wright, myself and two helpers, EdwardNewton and Silas Thorpe," was the answer. "But the other day weengaged some Mexicans and burros, so our party is now about eight."
"And how many are trying to rush you?" asked the foreman, slightlychecking his horse to accommodate its pace to the slower gait of theprofessor's animal.
"I don't know. There seemed about a dozen who were threateningProfessor Wright when he told me to go for help."
"Not such bad odds," murmured Bud.
"Is it a real fight?" asked Nort, his eyes sparkling.
"Sounds like it," commented the western ranch lad. "But we'll have tolay low. No guns," he added regretfully.
Dick turned to look back toward the ranch buildings, now out of sightowing to the uneven nature of the country. He might have beencalculating whether it would be possible to go back and get weapons.
But he said nothing on this score, though he did let out an exclamation:
"There's another bunch coming along the path."
"Don't say _path_--it's a _trail_," corrected Bud with a smile. "Andthat's some of our bunch," he added. "Cowboys from Diamond X. Guessmother sent them after us, thinking we'd tackled too big a job alone."
"And it does sound like a lively fracas," observed Babe Milton, wipinghis wet and glistening face with the big handkerchief that adorned hisneck, and the neck of every cowboy that Nort and Dick had so farobserved since coming to the "cow country."
These sometimes gaudy handkerchiefs were not mere ornaments. Theyserved the same purpose to which Babe was then devoting his, and as theeastern lads learned later, the silk or cotton squares formed veryeffective protection to nose and mouth while riding range in the thick,heavy dust stirred up by the feet of thousands of cattle. So, like the"chaps," the high-heeled boots, the handkerchiefs and the guns, eachpart of the equipment of a cowboy, has its use.
"Hi! They's some shootin'!" cried Slim, as he spurred forward again,having learned what he wished of the professor.
"Oh, don't let them kill him!" begged the scientist. "It is all amistake--thinking we are after gold--but they'll make any excuse to tryto rob us and get the secret."
"What secret?" asked Bud, but just then a renewed outburst of shots,punctured by shrill yells, told of the need of action as against words.
"They'll kill him! They'll kill him!" moaned Professor Blair.
"'Tain't all one sided!" declared Slim Degnan to Bud, Nort and Dick, asthe three boys managed to get their ponies on a line with the sturdybeast of the foreman. "There's two sets of shootin' goin' on there!"
The sound of fighting, and yells, whether of defiance or fear,increased in volume now, and came from a little glade at the base ofthe wooded foothills, which formed a sort of stepping stone to the grimmountains behind them, along the base of which flowed a river. Thesehills, or part of them, marked one of the limits of Diamond X ranch,though at another point the holdings of Bud's father extended well tothe summit of one of the mountains.
Urging on their horses by heels and voices, the little party swept intothe glade, following a path, or "trail," as it should be called. Thistrail had been worn by countless cattle going to the river to drink,and the feet of the ponies now clattered along it.
A moment later, swinging around a little clump of trees, greasewoodsand sagebush, Bud and his cousins saw a sight which thrilled themthrough and though, though perhaps Bud was more accustomed to suchstirring scenes than were the city lads.
In the midst of an encampment of tents, several men were kneeling down,using packs and baggage as a barricade. They were firing over thisline of defense at objects unseen, but which, as the white puffs ofsmoke showed every now and then, were easily guessed to be humans, withmore or less sinister motives.
There was a regular fusillade, as the party of cowboys approached, andin addition a series of sharp and wild yells which, now that the scenewas reached, could be heard as arising from the underbrush outside thecamp.
The attackers of Professor Wright, for he later proved to be the ownerof the camp, were using their voices as well as their weapons tointimidate the defenders.
"Greasers and some Indians!" cried Slim, as he swept on along thetrail. "Come on, boys!" he yelled and instantly his gun was in action,as was that of Babe Milton.
"Oh, why didn't I bring mine?" mourned Bud.
"Tough luck!" exclaimed Nort.
The advent of the rescue party had an instant effect. No sooner hadSlim and Babe begun firing than there was silence on the part of theattackers. A few scattering shots were fired, one or two more wildyells smote the air and then there was more silence.
"That settles 'em," grimly observed Slim, as he began to reload hisweapon, an example followed by Babe. At the same time those in thelittle camp, who had had their backs turned toward the rescue party,swung about with evident signs of relief on their faces.
A tall, slim man, with prematurely gray hair, stepped forward, restingthe butt of his rifle on the ground as he surveyed the newcomers. Thenhis eyes sought those of Professor Blair.
"I see that you found help," he remarked quietly. "And just in time,too. They were about to rush us, I fear."
"I'm glad we came in time," the other scientist remarked. "I don'tknow your names, gentlemen," he went on, turning to Bud and the others,"but this is my chief, Professor Hendryx Wright."
"I shall take some other occasion to thank you," spoke ProfessorWright, with a smile that included all the rescuers from Slim to Dick."But just now one of my men, possibly two, need attention from adoctor. They have been shot."
"Better let me have a look at 'em," suggested Slim. "I'm not a doctor,but that brand isn't plenty out here. If they're too bad, we can takeyour men to the ranch. Where are they?"
Professor Wright waved his hand toward one of the tents, and while Slimdismounted to make his way there, Bud and his cousins had time to lookabout them.
In addition to four white men, which included the two professors, andtwo who were apparently assistants, there were several Mexicans orhalf-breeds. These were all armed and had, in common with their whiteemployers, been firing at the attacking party. Of the latter noglimpse had been had. They seemed to have vanished into the fores
twith the approach of the rescuers.
"Do you have things like this happen every day, Bud?" asked Nort, withsparkling eyes, as the foreman disappeared into the tent where thewounded men lay.
"No, indeed. This is as much a surprise to me as it is to you fellows.I didn't even know this camp was here."
"What do you reckon it is?" asked Dick.
"Give it up," answered Bud. "I reckon even Zip Foster couldn't makeanything of this."
"Who's Zip Foster?" asked Nort.
"That's what a lot of us would give a deal to know, son," chuckledBabe, who was rapidly making a survey of the camp. "He's a secretfriend of Bud's, an'----"
"Oh, cut it out!" exclaimed Bud, and even his tan did not altogetherhide the blood that surged into his face.
While the two professors were conversing together in low tones, andtheir helpers, including two white men (evidently the Ed Newton andSilas Thorp spoken of by Professor Blair) were putting to rights thesomewhat disrupted camp, Slim, the foreman, came from the tent.
"They're not much hurt," he declared. "Only flesh wounds, but theyought to be treated with some dope I've got at the ranch house. Theycan ride over, and I'll fix 'em up as best I can," he offered.
"You are very kind," murmured Professor Wright. "But it might bedangerous for them to do so."
"Dangerous!" exclaimed Slim.
"Yes, I mean it might inflame their wounds."
"Oh! Yes, it might," agreed the foreman after a moment of thought."Wa'al, I can send one of the boys back for the medicine. Here theycome now," he added, as, with whoops of delight at the prospect of afight, a troop of other cowboys from the Diamond X ranch rode up. AsBud had surmised, his mother had sent them after the advance party.
"What's the row?" cried "Yellin' Kid" Watson, as he unlimbered his gun.It needed but one utterance of his to establish his nickname. Heshouted almost every word he used.
"All over," said Slim, succinctly. "Don't know just what it's about,but it's all over."
The newcomers rode their horses into the camp, and Yellin' Kid, whoseanimal was a bit restive, nearly brought down one of the small tents.As it swayed, a flap opening because of the breaking of one of theropes, Professor Wright sprang forward with a sharp cry.
"Don't go in there! No one must enter that tent!" sharply commandedthe scientist.
"I wasn't aimin' to," remarked Yellin' Kid somewhat tartly and inrather grieved tones. "Come out of that, you soap footer!" he cried tohis steed. "What do you mean, slippin' all over creation?"
He backed his animal away, but Professor Wright, summoning to his sideProfessor Blair, quickly fastened the tent shut again, paying no heedduring this operation, to the cowboys.
"Seems mighty much afraid we'll see something we hadn't a right to,"commented Bud to his cousins.
"Yes, he does act queer," agreed Dick.
"Suspicious, I call it!" whispered Nort. He was impulsive, and muchmore prone, than was his brother, to ascribe motives to others."Maybe, after all, they have gold in there!" he said.
Boy Ranchers; Or, Solving the Mystery at Diamond X Page 4