A SURPRISE
Some of those in the rear, who had heard Bud's exclamation, but
who had not clearly heard what he said, came crowding up. Among
them was Snake Purdee, and his eyes sparkled with hidden emotion
as he inquired:
"Did you see any rattlers? This is just the place for 'em!"
"Yes, we came acrost a nest of baby ones what had lost their
mother, an' they're countin' on you t' bring 'em up on th'
bottle!" laughed Slim. The men, more or less, poked fun at Snake
because of his great fear of reptiles, and Slim could not forego
this chance.
But Snake understood the game, and realized that he had nothing
to fear. He shot a look at Slim, however, which indicated that
there would be an attempt, later, to get even.
"What's wrong?" asked Slim, for in his endeavor to play a joke on
Snake he had not paid much attention to what Bud was saying.
"We're all turned around," spoke the western lad. "All in a maze.
We started out, heading south, and we've kept, generally, to that
direction ever since. But now we're heading back north. Looks
like we'd lost the trail."
Slim and some of the more experienced cowboys studied the trail
for several minutes. Surely it did seem to "peter out," as
Yellin' Kid expressed it, though it had been fairly plain up to
this point.
"They couldn't get up on either side," declared Nort, looking at
the steep, rocky walls which hemmed the trailers in right and
left.
"And they haven't gone on ahead, for there isn't a sign," added
Dick, who had ridden up the defile for some little distance,
returning to make his report. "Nothing short of an air ship could
have lifted up a bunch of cattle from this gorge and set 'em down
farther on."
"Unless they went through a hole in one of the side walls,"
suggested Slim, "like that underground river you fellows
discovered in the tunnel."
"There are no side passages here," declared Bud. And he seemed to
hold the correct view of it, the others agreeing, after a careful
inspection of the rocky and shale-covered walls on either hand.
"It looks just as if they came up to this point and--vanished!"
"Pretty slick work--I'll give Del Pinzo credit for that," said
Slim, as if it were already established that the wily Greaser
halfbreed had made the descent on Happy Valley. "How he and his
bunch could haze cattle this far into a rocky pass, an' then make
'em disappear, gets me!"
"It shore do!" shouted Yellin' Kid.
"But that doesn't change the fact that we're all switched
around," declared Bud. "We're going north instead of south!"
"Not so hard to account for that," said Snake. "This vale just
naturally twists and turns like a windin' river. I wouldn't
wonder but what we'd been going north other times, only you never
noticed your compass, Bud."
"Well, maybe so," admitted the boy rancher, rather dubiously.
"But it looks as if we were back-trailing, instead of keeping on
after those rascals."
"We're keeping on all right!" asserted Slim. "By some hook or
crook they've fooled us, but we haven't passed 'em, that's
certain, and they must be somewhere up ahead. It would take Rocky
Mountain goats to scramble up there," he added, motioning toward
the steep walls of the gorge. "Some trick ponies might do it, but
no cattle ever could, unless they're like some of them Swiss
cheese brand I seen in pictures!"
"Then do you think we should keep on?" asked Dick.
"I shore do!" declared the foreman.
"Forward march!" cried Bud, with a little laugh. "We want to get
our cattle back, and catch the rustlers who took 'em!"
And so, though all signs of the trail seemed to have vanished,
they kept on. Night saw them in even a wilder region, though
there was a spring of water--not boiling this time--and some
grass for the animals. So it was decided to camp there and take
up the search in the morning.
They were in the enemy's country in every sense of the word, and
could afford to take no chances. So after a fire had been built,
and coffee made, bacon and flapjacks being the other items on the
bill of fare, the men and boys were told off into watches.
Bud and Slim, Nort and Snake, and Dick and Yellin' Kid were
assigned to divide the night among them working as partners in
the order named. The others were to be allowed to roll up and get
what sleep they could, Bud and Slim taking the first watch.
That passed off uneventfully, as did the vigil of Nort and Snake,
nothing more important occurring than the distant howls of the
coyotes.
When it was the turn of Dick and Yellin' Kid they rolled out,
albeit sleepy and tired, to stand guard until morning, when the
trail would again be taken up.
"Zimmy! But it's chilly!" said Kid in a low voice, as lie tossed
some wood on the fire and wrapped his blanket more closely about
him.
"Yes, it always is just before sunrise," added Dick. "I wonder
what we'll find after daylight?"
"I hope we find that ornery bunch!" murmured Yellin' Kid, keeping
down his voice so as not to awaken the sleepers.
"So do I," said Dick.
Then they sat about the fire, occasionally strolling around the
improvised camp, to make sure that none of their enemies were
creeping up on them in the darkness.
The stars shone clear and bright in the sky above, and
occasionally a little wind swept up the dismal defile. Now and
then a loose stone rattled down the sides of shale and volcanic
rock, and at such times Dick, and even Yellin' Kid started, and
felt for their guns. But all the alarms were false ones.
That is, the watchers decided they were, for no sight was had of
anyone until Dick, after a stroll about the fire, suddenly
started back and whispered to Yellin' Kid:
"Isn't that a head looking up over that rock?"
The Kid glanced to where Dick directed his gaze, and, in an
instant, the cowboy had his weapon out and leveled. His finger
was even pressing the trigger when he laughed silently and thrust
the .45 back in its leather case. "Why didn't you shoot?" asked
Dick.
"It was an owl," answered Kid. "It was his ears you seen stickin'
up! Listen!"
And, a moment later, there was the mournful hooting of the
nocturnal bird, which had flown away, but on such downy-feathered
wings that it made no sound.
"An owl!" murmured Dick. Then he was glad he had not shot first,
as he had intended. He would only have awakened the others and
been laughed at for his pains. Sometimes, he reflected, it was
better to hold your fire, even in the west, that region of quick
action.
Soon there was a little grayish, pinkish light to be observed
over the edge of the eastern hill. It grew slowly, and daylight
came, though it was some time before the sun itself was seen, so
deep were the searchers down in the defile.
After breakfast they set out again, looking carefully for signs
of the rustlers, but they saw none, and at last they decided
that, in some mysterious manner, their quarry had given them the
slip.
"Though I don't see how they did it," declared Slim, somewhat
vexed that he and his men were not better able to pick up the
trail.
"There must be some side passage--like that!" suddenly declared
Yellin' Kid, leaping from his horse and then, as suddenly
disappearing from the sight of his companions. "Hey! What's the
idea! Where'd he go?" asked Snake.
"In this side passage," answered Yellin' Kid, as suddenly
reappearing. "Look, here's a crack, or fissure in the rock, I saw
it from where I sat on my pony. It goes off from th' main trail,
but I can't see where it leads."
They all dismounted and investigated. As the Kid had said, it was
a traverse defile, opening out of the main one and almost at
right angles. The opening was concealed behind a great pinnacle
of rock, so that the cleft was only visible from a certain point,
and it was at this point that the Kid saw it.
"Where does it go to?" asked Bud as they entered, single file. It
was only wide enough for that.
"We've got to follow and see!" said Slim.
"If there was a place like that, back where we discovered we were
in a maze, it would have been easy enough for the rustlers to
have driven the cattle through, one at a time," observed Nort.
"But there wasn't any such place!" declared Bud. "We made sure of
that. But where does this lead?"
That was what they all conjectured, and they were soon to learn.
As they rode along, the side cleft widened, until there was room
enough for three to ride abreast. And it was while thus
progressing that Dick, who was in the lead with Slim and Snake,
made a surprising discovery. He rode around a turn in the new
trail, and at the sight of something beyond, in the smaller,
rocky defile, he set up such a shout as brought all his
companions to his side.
"What is it?" shouted Bud.
"Look!" answered Dick, pointing. "Del Pinzo and big gang!"