IN A BAD MAN'S POWER
Having secreted their ponies in a dense growth of scrub oak, Tad laid
out his plan as follows:
"You, Ned, will go straight in from here until you've got about a
quarter of a mile directly inland. When you have done so turn due west.
I don't think you can lose your way for you can see out every little
while and thus get your bearings."
"Where are you going?"
"Back to the point where we first decided to make camp. I shall have
easier going than you will, but I shall be in more risk."
"What's the rest?" asked Ned with a short laugh.
"It is my idea to close in on the right fork of the stream there in the
foothills. I'll come up from the west and you from the east. In that
way we shall close in, you see, covering roughly the greater part of
the territory."
"Then you think we shall find our man there?"
"I am sure he will get there eventually, provided he has not seen our
movements out there. He will go to the stream and from there he will
quickly locate our camp. Understand?"
"As far as it goes, yes. But what are we going to do if we find him?"
"Watch him. Find out what he is up to, then from that on be guided by
circumstances. But whatever you do, Ned, don't use your revolver
unless it be to save your own life."
"No, I'm not aching to shoot any one. Do you know, Tad, I'm thinking
you and I are biting off a bigger mouthful than we will know how to
chew?"
"We will manage it somehow."
"What do you think this fellow is trying to do?"
"It looked very much as if he were trying to kill us," smiled Tad.
"It did. But what for?"
"I have an idea the professor was right when he said the fellow mistook
us for some other party."
"And he's likely to do it again, if that's the case."
"He may have already discovered his mistake, Ned. You observe he hasn't
fired a shot since?"
Rector nodded thoughtfully.
"Well, we must be on the move. We don't want to be caught out here
after dark, you know, Ned. Remember, the right fork, where it enters
the hills, is the point we have agreed upon meeting. You will strike
the stream farther back, then follow it, but be very careful. Be an
Indian, Ned. If you are a white man you're likely to lose your
identity. We don't want to stop any bullets. Chunky has done quite
enough of that for one day."
"I'll watch out---never you fear, old man."
"Then here we go."
Tad crept silently away, hugging the base of the rocks so that it would
have been difficult for one at the top to have seen him at all. Ned,
obeying his instructions, found a canyon up which he crawled, neither
boy making a sound. They had agreed upon the two-shot signal to call
each other, three shots being a warning to the rest of their party
that they were in need of assistance.
Neither lad saw or heard anything of a disturbing nature on his way out.
Ned found no difficulty in making his way into the range of mountains,
but as he proceeded and found no one there he grew more bold. Not that
he was particularly careless, but he unconsciously relaxed a little of
his former caution.
In the meantime Tad Butler had crept on past the place where the party
had first planned to go into camp. Not a sign of a human being
greeted Tad's watchful eyes. The lad climbed the side of the rocks,
keeping his body hidden in the foliage as much as possible. He had
got about half way up when he paused to take a look over the plain
beneath him. The Pony Rider Boy could faintly make out the place
where his companions were in camp awaiting the result of his mission.
"I believe there's Chunky standing on that rise," muttered Tad. "Yes
it must be Chunky. I'll bet the professor doesn't know the boy is out
there. Chunky evidently is getting anxious about us."
Bang!
The shot sounded some distance to the eastward of where Tad was
secreted. Instinctively the lad glanced toward the camp again.
Stacy Brown no longer was to be seen. Tad Butler could not repress
a laugh. He had a pretty clear idea as to what had caused Chunky's
sudden disappearance. It did not occur to him that possibly Stacy
had been hit. As a matter of fact the unknown marksman's bullet had
grazed the head of the fat boy, instilling in that young gentleman
a more thorough respect for the mountaineer's marksmanship.
But now Tad's mind turned to the object of his visit to the mountain
range. He was there looking for the man who had fired the shot.
Ned Rector had heard the shot also. Both boys were making their way
toward the spot whence the shot had seemed to come. Ned had located
the sound much nearer than had Tad. The latter struck off in a
southeasterly direction which carried him still farther into the hills.
He had reasoned that the shooter was occupying a high point of vantage
somewhere farther in, whence he was taking pot shots at the camp of
the Pony Rider Boys. In this Tad was mistaken. The mountaineer was
much nearer the plains than Tad thought.
Ned started on a trot immediately after having heard the shot.
"I've got him this time!" exulted Rector. "I've got a chance to show
the fellows what sort of a trailer I am. They don't think I'm any
good, except Tad, and he knows better."
Tad, as he skulked along, was wondering if Ned had heard the shot and
hoping that his companion would make no false moves. Each boy was
determined to round up the man who had winged Stacy Brown and narrowly
missed killing the others of the party.
Night was coming on rapidly and it behooved the lads to make haste.
In the first place they did not know these hills, and, in the second,
the professor would become alarmed and come in search of them were
their return delayed too long. This was not desirable. It might mean
the undoing of the entire party unless Tad and Ned succeeded in
rounding up their enemy first.
Ned, in his excitement, had a mishap. While creeping along the upper
rim of a gully he stepped on a round stone. Ned fell crashing into
a heap of rotting limbs and went floundering from there to the bottom
of the incline, making a racket that must have been heard clear out on
the plain.
The lad got up, his clothing torn, his face scratched, very much
chagrined over his blundering fall.
"I guess I'm not so much of a scout as I thought I was," he muttered.
"Chunky could have done no worse and for a blundering idiot he's
always held the cup up to the present time. I'm glad no one saw me
make such an exhibition of myself. But what if that fellow heard me?
No, he couldn't. He is too far away."
In this Ned was wrong. The "man" was not so far away as the Pony Rider
Boy thought. The fellow, while watching for another opportunity to
shoot, had caught the distant sound of crashing twigs. It might have
been a falling tree, it might have been an animal. At any rate it put
the fellow instantly on his guard. Lowering his rifle he began skulking
in the direction of the racket.
By this time Ned was walking ruefully down the gully looking for a
convenient trail up the side to the ridge. Not that he could not have
made the ascent anywhere, but that he did not wish to raise any more
disturbance than he already had done. At last, finding what seemed
to him to be a path, Ned began climbing the side of the gully. Had
the boy first taken a survey of the ground at the top of the rise, he
might possibly have made a discovery, and then again he might not.
Crouched behind a rock was a man. The fellow was fingering his
rifle suggestively. Twice he raised it to a level with his eyes and
drew a bead on the advancing form of Ned Rector, and as many times
lowered it.
The watcher observed that Ned carried no rifle, only a revolver
slapping against his thigh in its holster as the boy stumbled on up
the mountain side. The mountaineer evidently changed his mind about
shooting, for he changed ends with the gun and sat waiting. A few
moments later Ned stepped up beside the rock where he stood listening
and looking about him. The Pony Rider Boy looked everywhere except
in the right place.
Suddenly there was a crackling of twigs behind him. Ned turned just
in time to see the figure of a man leaping upon him. The boy went
down under the crushing weight, the cry that rose to his lips smothered
by a stinging blow in the face.
Ned lost consciousness. Everything turned suddenly black about him.