IN SPITE OF ALL
Nort and Bud stared at Dick for several seconds without making
any remark. They were sitting on their ponies, completely baffled
by the manner in which the trail of the rustlers had suddenly
"petered out." And they had been about to turn and go back to
camp when Dick made his enthusiastic remark.
"A watch tower?" repeated Bud.
"Sure!" declared his cousin. "We used to build 'em when I
belonged to the Boy Scouts. Remember, Nort?"
"Sure! It begins to come back to me. We used to bind saplings
together and make quite a high perch. The idea was that you might
be able to see your way if you got lost," he explained to Bud.
"Not a bad idea, either," commented the western lad. "I begin to
see your drift, as the wind said to the snowstorm. You mean to
build a sort of high platform up by the reservoir, Dick?"
"Yes, a watch tower of logs, strong enough to hold one or two
fellows. You could make ladders so's we could reach the top
platform, or we could scramble up if we left hand and foot holds
where we lopped the branches off saplings."
"That's right!" cried Bud, now almost as enthusiastic as was his
cousin. "And with a good pair of glasses, or a telescope such as
dad has at the ranch, we could see all over the valley."
"Let's make it!" cried Nort, and the matter was settled as
quickly as that.
Something of the excitement that had moved them must have been
visible on the faces of the boys when they returned to camp, for
Old Billee, greeting them in the absence of the other cowboys,
asked:
"Did you land 'em, Bud?"
"Who; the rustlers? No. Couldn't see where they'd vanished to any
more than, as one of the boys said, as if an airship had been
used. But we got an idea, Billee."
"They're valuable--sometimes," agreed the veteran cow puncher
cautiously.
"We hope this one is going to be!" frankly laughed Bud. "We're
going to build a watch tower, and take turns staying up in it
with a telescope. We can see almost the whole valley if we get
high enough, and as there aren't many patches of woodland where
the rascals can hide, we hope to spot the rustlers as soon as
they begin their tricks."
"Well, you may do it," and again the cowboy was very cautious. "I
never heard of cattle rustlers bein' caught that way, but when
other means fail, try suthin' diffrunt! We'll tackle th' tower!"
And as the other cowboys, even Four Eyes, pronounced the scheme
worth trying, it was put into operation. Mr. Merkel, to whom Bud
communicated his idea over the telephone, rather laughed at it.
"How about nights?" asked the ranchman. "No matter how high you
are up after dark you can't see any better."
"But most of the raids of the rustlers have been in daylight,"
declared Bud.
"It's about fifty-fifty," his father told him. "However, it won't
do any harm to try it. Only don't fall off that watch tower of
yours. I'll come out and look at it when you get it done."
The boy ranchers and their cow punchers started work the next
day. Dick and Nort remembered, in a dim way, how, as Boy Scouts,
they had helped erect towers, hastily constructed of saplings.
Their recalled knowledge, together with the natural adaptability
and skill of the cowboys, finally succeeded in there being
evolved, and erected, on the aide of the valley rather a
pretentious tower. "It must look like an oil well derrick from a
distance," observed Nort, when it was al most completed.
"What do we care how it looks, if it does the trick?" retorted
Bud. "From that perch, and with this telescope dad let me take, I
can tell the color of a cow clear to the end of our valley."
There was no question but what the watch tower did provide an
excellent vantage point. From its top platform, reached by rude
ladders, any unusual movement in the entire valley could be seen
during the day.
It was planned that the boys--and by this I mean the hired
cowboys also--should take turns in being on watch in the tower
during certain periods each day. A schedule was drawn up by Bud
and his cousins, and put into operation as soon as the tower was
completed.
"And now we'll catch the rustlers at work!" boasted Bud.
But alas for their hopes! In spite of all their precautions, and
setting at naught the hard work of constructing the tower, there
was another raid on the cattle in Happy Valley, about a week
after the wooden perch had been set up.
It was not a disastrous raid, and only a half score of steers
were driven off from one of the more distant herds. But the raid
took place, and at night. It was discovered one morning, just as
Bud was going up into the tower, where a seat and sheltered place
had been built.
"They fooled us, Bud," said Old Billee, riding in from a distant
part of the valley.
"Fooled us? How?"
"They let us watch by day, an' they come an' robbed by night!
Another bunch of steers gone!"
"Well--by Zip Foster!" cried Bud, slamming his hat down on the
ground. "I'm getting tired of this!"