“This outing is going to do Mary a world of good,” confided Mrs. Rover to Mrs. Powell. “She has always been so timid.”
The river in which the boys went fishing and also bathing was a broad, shallow stream which could be forded in many places with ease. So far, however, the lads had remained on their side of the watercourse. But one day Jack proposed that they go off on horseback and do a little exploring on the other side.
“We might ride past the Bimbel place, and also the one Jarley Bangs owns,” said he. “Who knows but what we may catch sight of Bud Haddon and his crowd.”
“We don’t want to get into any trouble with those fellows,” put in Fred quickly.
“Oh, they can’t touch us!” exclaimed Andy. “They don’t even know us. And we’ve as much right to use the trails around here as anybody—the land isn’t fenced in.”
“Yes, but you know what Jackson said,” went on Fred. “He said the Bimbel outfit wasn’t a very nice one and that Bangs was very miserly and peculiar. That sounds as if both places were good ones to steer clear of.”
“Oh, come on! Let’s go anyhow,” put in Spouter. “I’m anxious to know what sort of neighbors we have. They can’t find any fault with us for coming over when they find out that my father owns this ranch.”
The boys talked this matter over several times, and the next day obtained permission to take the horses and go off for a day’s outing along the river. They were to take their lunch with them, and did not expect to come back until evening.
“I wish we could go along,” sighed Martha.
“We’ll take you along next time, Martha,” answered her brother. “This time I’m afraid the ride will be a little too long for you.”
“Never mind, Martha and I will take a little ride of our own,” declared Mary. “We can go up to the edge of the woods and pick some wild flowers.”
“Let’s do it!” answered her cousin quickly.“One of the cowboys tells me there are all sorts of wild flowers up there near one of the springs.”
Hop Lung was told to prepare a lunch which the boys might take along with them, and set to work immediately. As he got the things ready the Celestial had a faraway look in his eyes and once or twice he stuck out his tongue suggestively.
“One flishee—two flishee—lot flishee,” he murmured to himself. “Hop Lung fixee boys,” and he smiled in his own peculiar way.
The day dawned bright and clear, and immediately after breakfast the boys leaped into the saddle and with good-natured shouts swung the sombreros they were wearing, and started off on their ride. Each had equipped himself with a pistol, although they expected to do no shooting, and several carried small saddlebags containing their food and drink, the latter placed in a couple of thermos bottles. They also carried feed for the horses.
“Whoop-la!” shouted Andy gaily. “Come on, fellows! let’s put distance between ourselves and the ranch.”
“Better take it a little easy at the start, Andy,”remonstrated Gif. “Remember we expect to cover quite a few miles, and we don’t want to wear out the horses at the start.”
“We’ll let Spouter set the pace,” announced Jack, for he had not forgotten that they were all guests of the lad mentioned.
They had questioned the foreman regarding the lay of the land, and he had drawn up a rough map for them which Jack carried. Inside of half an hour they reached the fording place he had mentioned, and there crossed the stream, coming out on the side of a small hill.
“I wonder if we’ll come across any wild animals,”remarked Fred, as they pushed along a well-defined trail leading to the top of the hill and through a small patch of scrub timber further westward.
“From what Joe Jackson said, I don’t think there’s very much left in this immediate vicinity,”answered Spouter. “You see, the cowboys have scared most of the animals away. Of course, they occasionally come across a bobcat or a mountain lion, and then we might come across a wolf or a fox or some jackrabbits, or even a bear.”
“Well, please don’t let ’em come at us in a bunch!” cried Randy, with a grin. “One at a time, please.”
“It’ll be our luck not to see a thing worth shooting,”declared Fred. “I wouldn’t give five cents for our chances of bringing down anything.”
Fred had scarcely spoken when the horse Gif was riding shied suddenly to one side, throwing Gif into some low bushes. Then the horse gave a snort and leaped ahead on the trail, not stopping until he had covered a hundred yards or more.
“Hello! what’s the trouble?” exclaimed Jack, bringing his own steed to a halt. “Are you hurt, Gif?”
“No. I’m all right. But what startled that horse?” demanded the other lad, as he scrambled to his feet. Then he gave a sudden yell. “It’s a snake! Look out!”
All looked in the direction pointed out by Gif, and there saw a black object wriggling away through the brushwood. As quickly as they could Jack and Spouter, who were close by, pulled out their pistols and fired at the snake. They saw the reptile rise up in the air, turning and twisting, and then disappear from sight between the rocks.
“What’s up? What are you shooting at?”cried Fred, galloping to the spot.
“A snake. He scared Gif’s horse and threw Gif into the bushes.”
“Where is he?”
“I guess he got away, although I think we wounded him,” answered Jack.
“It’s funny how that horse shied,” said Spouter.“Maybe he stepped right on the snake.”
“That might be,” put in Fred. “Maybe the snake was sunning himself and didn’t notice our approach until the horse stepped on him. Then he switched around, and that must have started the horse off. I wonder if we can catch him.”
“I think so,” answered Spouter. “Gosh! I’m glad no one was bit. That snake looked to be of pretty good size.”
While Spouter and Jack hurried forward to capture the runaway horse, Gif was assisted to the back of the steed Randy rode.
“I’m glad I didn’t go out on my head on the rocks,” remarked Gif, as the boys went forward.“I might have broken my neck.”
“Yes, you picked out just the right place to fall into,” answered Andy.
“I didn’t pick it out. I went where I was sent,”returned the other lad calmly. “After this I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for more snakes.”
“I think we had better all do that,” said Fred.“Gee! I’d forgotten all about those pests.”
When they reached the runaway horse they found him still somewhat skittish. But he was soon calmed down, and then Gif remounted him, and they set off along the trail as before.
“Well, we didn’t exactly meet a wild animal,”remarked Randy. “But we met something just as bad.”
Presently the boys came to a spot where the river wound around the hill, and beyond this was a broad stretch of plains, apparently many miles in extent. Far to the southward they could see some tall timber.
“The Bimbel ranch must be somewhere in this vicinity,” declared Jack.
“Yes, and the Bangs place can’t be so very far off,” returned Fred.
But distances in the open air are deceiving, and the boys rode along over the plains for the best part of an hour before they reached a spot where the trail branched in several directions. Here they came to a halt, wondering which way to turn next.
“It’s too bad they don’t put up a few signboards out here,” grumbled Randy. “How is a fellow going to know where he’s heading?”
“I suppose the natives know these trails just like we know the main streets of New York City,” answered Jack. “And that being so, they don’t need any signboards.”
Jack had consulted the rude map given to him by the ranch foreman, but this did not seem to have upon it the forks of the trail.
“I suppose those cowboys would know at once which was the main trail and which were only side
trails,” said Gif.
The boys were still uncertain which way to turn when Fred set up a cry of amazement.
“Here comes an auto, boys! What do you know about that?”
“An auto!” several of them repeated.“Where?”
The youngest Rover pointed with his finger, and there, to the astonishment of every one in the party, they beheld a small touring car coming across the plains at a speed of twelve or fifteen miles an hour. It was running in a curiously haphazard fashion.
“What a way to run an automobile!” ejaculated Randy.
“Maybe the driver is getting out of the way of holes,” answered Jack. And then he added quickly: “There isn’t any driver!”
Completely mystified, the boys stared at the oncoming automobile. For a moment it seemed heading directly for them, but suddenly swerved and started off across the plains in another direction.
“It is empty!” ejaculated Andy. “It’s running by itself!”
CHAPTER XXIII
JARLEY BANGS
“What do you know about that!”
“Who ever heard of an automobile running around by itself?”
“It’s gotten away from somebody,” came from Jack. “Just look at it skating over the ground!”
“Come on! Let’s stop the blamed thing!”shouted Andy, and started off on horseback after the runaway car.
“You’ll have a sweet job catching that auto,”declared his twin. Nevertheless, he followed Andy, and, not knowing what else to do, the others did the same.
The automobile was of a cheap variety, and clattered noisily on its way, with one cylinder occasionally missing fire. It had been running in a snakelike course, but now it seemed to be making something of a circle.
“By jinks! I think it’s coming back here!”exclaimed Fred suddenly.
“It isn’t running as fast as it was,” declared Spouter. “Maybe it’s going to stop.”
“I’m going to see if I can’t get aboard!” cried Jack, with sudden determination, and headed his horse behind the touring car, which was still moving at a fair rate of speed.
Once one of the front wheels went down in a hole, and then the car slued around and started off, heading almost for the boys.
“Look out!”
“Get out of the way there or you’ll be run down!”
Wild cries rent the air, and the young horsemen scattered in every direction. But Jack was watching his chance, and as the car slued around once more he managed to leap from his horse and clutch the side of the automobile. Then he leaped into the car and turned off the power, and in a few seconds he brought the automobile to a standstill.
“This is the queerest adventure I ever heard of,” declared Gif, when the brief excitement had come to an end. “Who ever heard of meeting a runaway auto like this?”
“I guess we can be thankful that we weren’t run down,” returned Fred. “You took a big chance, Jack, in jumping on board as you did.”
“Oh, it wasn’t such a risk,” answered his cousin modestly. “I think the auto was getting ready to stop anyhow.”
“I wonder where the owner is?” questioned Andy.
“Perhaps the auto struck a stone and threw him out!” exclaimed Spouter suddenly. “He may be lying along the trail somewhere stunned or dead.”
“I guess the best thing we can do is to see if we can locate the owner,” declared Gif, after a pause.
“Come on, Spouter. You get in the auto with me and we’ll run it back in the direction it came from,” said Jack. “The other fellows can follow and bring our horses.”
“Do you think you can run this car?” questioned Spouter.
“Sure I can! It isn’t much different from the cars I’m used to even though it’s a cheap one,”was the reply.
Spouter dismounted and was soon beside Jack. The power was again turned on and the car moved on with many a little jerk and jangling of metal-ware.
“It’s next door to a bit of junk,” remarked Jack, as they moved forward along the trail at a rate of about fifteen miles an hour. “I think if a fellow tried to make real speed with it it would fall to pieces.”
“Sounds to me as if it needed oiling,” ventured Spouter.
“Yes, it needs oiling, and new springs, and a new engine, and a new chassis and a few other things, and then it would be quite a good car,”answered Jack, with a grin.
The two lads in the car had covered less than a mile, and the others were coming up behind them, when they saw a man running toward them and waving his arms wildly.
“Hi there! Stop!” called out the man. “Stop, I tell you! If you don’t stop I’ll have the law on you!”
As soon as he saw the man Jack slowed up and came to a standstill by the side of the fellow. He was a tall, lean man of about fifty, with a strangely wrinkled and sallow face and long, drooping, reddish mustache. He had a pair of greenish-brown eyes that seemed to bore the boys through and through as he gazed rather savagely at them.
“What do you mean by running off with my car?” he demanded, as he shook his fist at the lads.
“Is this your car?” questioned Jack.
“You know well enough it’s my car!” blustered the man. “And I demand to know what you mean by running away with it!”
“We didn’t run away with it,” answered Spouter.
“Yes, you did!”
“We did not!” put in Jack. “We found it back there on the plains running around all by itself.”
“What? You expect me to believe such a story as that?” exclaimed the tall man, glaring at them more ferociously than ever. “Running around by itself! How could it be doing that? You took it from where I left it, up by the trees yonder!” and he pointed to a quantity of tall timber some distance away.
By this time the other boys were coming up, bringing with them the two unused horses. The man gazed at them in surprise and also noted the two steeds that were not being used.
“Maybe you’re telling the truth and maybe you ain’t,” went on the man sourly. “I’d like to git at the bottom of this.” Thereupon the boys related what had taken place and Spouter mentioned the fact that his father was the owner of Big Horn Ranch.
“Oh, then you’re Mr. Powell’s son, eh?” cried the man. “Are you the boy who went to Colby Hall with my nephew, Lester Bangs?”
“Is Lester your nephew?” queried Spouter. And as the man nodded shortly, he added: “Then you must be Mr. Jarley Bangs?” and again the man nodded.
“I think you ought to thank our chum here, Jack Rover, for bringing your car back to you, Mr. Bangs,” remarked Gif. “If he hadn’t jumped from his horse into the car the machine might be racking itself to pieces out on the prairie now. It was doing all sorts of stunts when he jumped aboard and shut off the power.”
“I can’t understand this nohow,” grumbled Jarley Bangs. “If what you say is true, how in thunder did that car git started? I left it by the edge of the woods while I went in to look over some timber that we thought of gitting out this fall. All at once I heard the engine go off with a bang, and when I ran out of the woods to see what was doing the car was gone.”
“Was any one with you?” questioned Spouter.
“No. I came out alone. Lester wanted to come along, but I told him to stay at the ranch and do some work. He seems to think that all he’s out here for is to play.”
“Oh, then Lester is staying with you, is he?”queried Fred.
“Yes. His folks let him come up for a couple of months. Then he’s going back to his home in Wyoming, and after that he’s got to return to that military school. I think it’s a fool notion to send him to that school. If I was his father I’d make him stay out here and go to work.”
“You don’t suppose Lester tried to start the car, do you?” questioned Andy.
“How could he if he was at the ranch? Bu
t wait a minute! He said something about going fishing in that brook that flows through the woods. Maybe he did come up that way, after all.”
“Does he know how to run the auto?” asked Randy.
“Yes, he does. But I don’t let him run it very often because he’s so careless I’m afraid he’ll ruin the machine—he bangs her over the rocks something awful. I ain’t got no money to waste on a new car. This has got to do, even if it is kind of used up.”
“Maybe Brassy—I mean Lester—came up and tried to start the car while the gears were in mesh,” suggested Jack; “and then when the car started to run away perhaps he got scared and ran away, too.”
“If he did anything like that he’ll have an account to settle with me!” exclaimed Jarley Bangs, his eyes glowing with anger. “That boy is getting too fresh. I said he could come up here, thinking he’d do some work around the place and so earn the money that I promised him for his schooling. But evidently he thinks more of having a good time than he does of working. He is forever fooling around the car and wanting to run it; so I wouldn’t put it past him to do what you suspect. As soon as I git home I’ll ketch him and make him tell me the truth,” continued Jarley Bangs, with a determined shake of his head.
After that he questioned Spouter concerning the ranch Mr. Powell had purchased and spoke of the men who had previously owned the place.
“These city fellows think they kin come out here and make a fortune on a ranch,” he growled.“But after they’ve owned a place a year or two they find it ain’t so easy. A man has got to hustle like all git-out to make a living.”
“Where is your ranch located?” asked Fred.
“Our buildings are right behind that patch of timber,” was the reply. “It’s not so very much of a place, but it’s good enough for me.”
“And where is the Bimbel ranch?” questioned Gif.
“That’s up to the northward, over the top of yonder hill. But you young fellows had better give Bimbel a wide berth,” went on Jarley Bangs, with a shake of his head.
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