THE SCRATCHED SAFE
Eagerly the boy ranchers gathered about Buck Tooth. The Indian,
as if rather ashamed of the hurry and emotion that had possessed
him, grew quieter as he threw the reins down over his pony's
head, as an intimation to the animal not to stray. Then the Zuni
turned toward Bud and his cousins.
"This is the second time you gave me bad news, Buck," remarked
the western lad. "Remember?"
"How?" asked the Indian sharply.
"I say this is the second time you've brought news of something
bad. You were the first to tell me about the water stopping in
the reservoir. And from then on we had some rousing times; didn't
we, fellows?" asked Bud, turning to his chums.
"That's right!" assented Nort.
"But what's going on now?" Dick wanted to know.
"You said it!" exclaimed Bud. "I should let Buck Tooth tell it,
instead of keeping him gassing away about the past. What's the
row, Buck?"
"Robbers!" was the Indian's answer.
"Robbers? At Diamond X?" cried Bud.
"Did they get anything?" Dick wanted to know.
"Anybody hurt?" asked Nort.
"Get some money--nobody hurt only Babe--him get broken leg,"
half-grunted the Indian.
"Babe has a broken leg in a fight with robbers?" gasped Bud.
"Shoot it along a little faster, Buck! I'm sorry I didn't let you
ride harder at first. How much did they get? Was it rustlers, and
I'll bet a cookie with a raisin in that Del Pinzo and his gang
had a hand in the fracas! Did Babe shoot any of 'em?"
"Babe him try--but too fat," said the Indian, with as near to a
chuckle as ever he achieved, "Fall down--bust leg. Your
_padre_ no can tell how much money gone, but big iron box
not opened."
"Oh, they didn't get to the safe, then!" exclaimed Bud with
relief in his voice. For he knew, at this season of the spring
round-up, that many thousands of dollars, from the sale of
cattle, were often kept in his father's safe. "But go ahead,
Buck! Tell us more about it. Step on her! Give her the gas! Open
the throttle!"
"Hu?" grunted the Zuni, questioningly. "I step on somet'ing?"
"You're only mixing him up!" declared Nort "Let him take his own
time, Bud."
"If I do he'll be until noon giving us the facts. And if the
robbers looted dad's office, even if they didn't get the safe
open, they may have lit out with a tidy sum, and we ought to take
the trail after 'em. That's what Buck came here for, likely! To
get us on the chase from this end. Go ahead! Shoot!" he
requested, meaning a verbal fire, not actual.
Whether Buck Tooth would have succeeded, under these confusing
directions, in making a quick, dear statement of the matter is a
question that was not settled. For, just as the Indian was about
to resume, Dick looked off toward the distant hills, which lined
the trail between Diamond X proper, and Happy Valley, and the lad
exclaimed:
"Here comes one of the robbers now, riding like Sam Hill!"
Bud and Nort leaped to the side of their partner, their hands on
their weapons, but, after a glimpse of the approaching horseman,
having shaded his eyes with his hands, Bud cried:
"That isn't a robber! It's Yellin' Kid. I know his riding. I
reckon he's come to give us the straight of it!"
Which proved to be the case.
"Buck outrode me," admitted Yellin' Kid as he drew rein, and his
voice was not as loud as usual. "We started at th' same time,
shortly after midnight when th' break was made, but that Indian's
cayuse shore can step some! An' Buck can ride--let me tell you!"
"You shot a ringer that time!" asserted Bud. "But what happened!
And is Babe badly hurt!"
"No! He just twisted his ankle gettin' out of his bunk in a hurry
t' take a pot shot at th' bunch that tried to hold us up. Doc.
Tunison says he'll be all right in a week."
"But Tunison is a horse doctor!" objected Bud, for Babe, the fat
assistant foreman of Diamond X, was a prime favorite with him and
his cousins.
"Yes, shore he is! Why not? A horse doctor for a cow puncher!"
chuckled Yellin' Kid. "But here's the yarn."
Thereupon, having turned his pony out to graze with the Indian's,
Yellin' Kid told the boys what had happened.
"We started some of the cattle from th' round-up brandin' over to
th' railroad," the cowboy stated, "an' followin' th' usual
preliminaries we all settled down for th' night, after you
fellows rode off. An' let me tell you I was glad t' hit my bunk!
"Well, some time near midnight we, out in th' bunkhouse, was
roused up by shootin' from your father's bungalow, Bud. Course
that couldn't mean but one thing, an' we all got our guns an'
rushed out, natcherally. But all we saw was a bunch ridin' off in
th' darkness, your father firin' at 'em, Bud.
"Come t' find out, your mother had been woke up by a noise in th'
office where th' safe was. She called your father an' he took a
look, with his gun, of course. He saw a man in a mask tryin' t'
open th' strong box, and your dad gave th' usual countersign.
"But th' burglar wheeled, an' popped one at your dad, not hittin'
him I'm glad t' say, an' out th' winder he jumped, th' burglar, I
mean. Then the rest of th' gang, which was waitin', rode off,
shootin' some, as your dad was doin'.
"Come t' find out, they'd got a few hundred dollars from the desk
where your dad left th' cash, Bud, but th' main part was in th'
safe, an' _that_ they couldn't get open. Course soon as we
knowed what was up we organized a posse, an' started off--all but
Babe. He fell--or rolled--out of his bunk an' twisted his leg,
somehow.
"Anyhow, Buck an' I was told off t' ride this way, partly t' let
you fellers know what had happened, an' partly t' see if there
was any trace of th' skunks what robbed your dad down here in
Happy Valley. How about it? Seen anybody?"
"Well, yes, we did see some one sneaking around here when we
arrived last evening," Bud answered. "But that was long before
the robbery."
"And tell him what we found!" urged Dick
"Oh, yes, a stethoscope," went on Bud. "But that has nothing to
do with the matter. Maybe some doctor, or medical student, is out
here for his health, and dropped it as he rode over our place."
"What's a slitherscope!" asked Yellin' Kid. "Anything like a
Triceratops?"
"No!" laughed Nort. "We'll show you. But say, what can we do
toward getting these robbers?"
"We've got t' trail 'em," spoke the older cowboy, as he turned to
go to the tents with the boy ranchers, Buck Tooth following with
the two half-winded ponies. "Soon as I get my breath----"
"That's right!" interrupted Bud. "Come on up and sit down. I'll
make you some coffee. I forgot you'd ridden all night."
"Half of it, anyhow," asserted Yellin' Kid. "An' I rode hard! But
so did Buck Tooth, only you'd hardly know it. He sure can make
his cayuse cover th' ground!"
Indeed the Indian showed little signs of the hard riding he had
accomplished between midnight and dawn. And when he and Yellin'
Kid were having a belated morning cup of coffee further details
of the story were told.
Who the robbers were, and how many there were in the gang that
attempted to force the safe at Diamond X, were matters left to
further enlightenment. Mr. Merkel had only seen one in his
office, bending over the safe, and this one had fled at the
command of "hands up!" Then the others had raced away, amid a
fusillade of shots which they returned.
It was so dark--the moon of the early night having been clouded
over--that the direction taken by the robbers had not been
ascertained.
"They probably scattered," declared Yellin' Kid. "It would be th'
safest way--for them! But there's a chance some might 'a' come
this way, so your dad wanted you t' be on the watch."
"We will!" declared Bud. "And when some of the boys come back on
the job here, and we get our allotment of cattle so things settle
down to normal, I'm going back to the ranch and have a talk with
dad."
"'Twouldn't be a bad idea," agreed Yellin' Kid. "But where's that
mouth organ you said you found?"
"A stethoscope," laughed Bud. "Here it is," and he exhibited the
medical instrument.
"Hum!" mused the cowboy. "It might be a burglar tool for all I'd
know the difference. But now, if it's agreeable t' you fellers,
let's have a look around. Maybe some of them burglars got a chunk
of lead in him and he's hidin' out around here."
However, a search in the vicinity of Happy Valley camp disclosed
nothing, and then Bud and his cousins set about getting back into
the routine that had been interrupted by the round-up.
"The first thing we've got to do," Bud declared, "is to mend that
break in the telephone line. If that had been working last night
you could have called us up, Kid, instead of you and Buck having
to ride out here."
"Yes, we wished th' line was working" admitted the cowboy. "But
it wouldn't have been of much use, it seems. Them burglars didn't
come out this way. However, it's just as well t' have it fixed."
There was a system of telephones connecting Bud's camp with his
father's main ranch and also the two branch ones, and the system
was likewise hooked-up with the long distance. But a recent wind,
just before the round-up, had blown down some poles in Happy
Valley, putting Bud's line out of commission. This was why he and
his chums could not be reached by wire from Diamond X.
The poles were set up in the next few days, when some cowboys
arrived to again take up their duties with Bud, Nort and Dick;
for the cattle not sold were again sent back to the valley range
to fatten for the fall, and they needed to be looked after.
Meanwhile, a search of the surrounding country had failed to
disclose any trace of the robbers, and their identity remained
hidden. They had gotten away with about $500, missing a much
larger sum in the safe. The authorities were notified, and a
posse scoured the region, but fruitlessly.
"Let's have a look at the safe they tried to open, Dad," begged
Bud, when he and his cousins had ridden over to pay a week-end
visit to the home ranch. "Did they try to drill it for an
explosive?"
"I don't believe so, son. In fact, I haven't looked at the safe
very closely, except to notice that it was all right. And I took
the money out of it over to the bank next day."
Bud and his cousins looked at the strong box in which Mr. Merkel
kept his money and valuable papers. It was a large, old-fashioned
safe, proof from any fire that might visit the ranch, and beyond
the ability of ordinary burglars to open, without the use of
explosives or special tools.
And as Bud leaned over to look at the heavy door he saw something
that caused him to ask:
"Were these here before the attempted robbery, Dad?"
"What there, Bud?"
"These scratches on the front of the door. It does look as if
they tried to drill the safe!"
Bud pointed to several parallel marks on the steel door. The
scratches were deep in the paint, and seemed to radiate toward
the shiny nickel dial of the combination. "Scratches!" repeated
Mr. Merkel, coming over to look. "No, I never noticed them
before. Why, she is clawed up some," he admitted. "But I can't
say that they haven't been there since I got the safe, which was
just before the round-up. Yes, she sure is clawed up some," and
he spoke as if some mountain lion had done the damage to his
strong box.
But here Bud's sister, Nell, took a hand in the proceedings.
"Those scratches are new ones--they were made by the burglar,"
declared the girl, whom Nort and Dick thought the prettiest they
had ever seen. "I know, for I dusted your office, Dad, the day
the round-up ended, and the door was as shiny then as a new
penny."
"Then the burglar did it," decided Bud. "And it shows we have to
deal with a regular gang of safe robbers, instead of just
ordinary cattle rustlers!"