LIEUTENANT WAYNE
Not to mystify you, when there is no need for it, I will say that
the scheme Dick had hit upon was simple enough. If you recall
Kipling's famous story you know that two drummer boys, of a
British regiment in India, when the main body was being defeated
by a horde of natives, slipped quietly off to one side, and, by
hiding behind rocks, played the fife and beat the drum to such
advantage that the heathens thought another regiment was
approaching to take them in the rear, while the British force was
so heartened by hearing the familiar strains that they rallied,
the retreat was stopped and the day won.
Dick and Nort had no fife or drum, and, if they had possessed
those instruments, it is doubtful if they could have performed on
them with any credit to themselves.
Each of them was slightly wounded, but they possessed their guns
and had a plentiful supply of ammunition, and it was Dick's idea
to use this. "We'll slide out, crawl along that gully there," and
he pointed to Nort the one he meant, "and we'll take 'em on the
flank. By keeping behind the rocks, and firing fast, we can make
'em think, maybe, that another force is coming."
"You well said it--_maybe_," murmured Nort. "But at that,
the idea isn't so bad. They may hold us here all day, and with
Slim and his bunch having their hands full, it looks as if the
cattle would be driven off."
For while some of the rustlers were holding Bud and his band in
check behind the rocks, and while others were fighting Slim and
his cowboys, still others were driving the cattle toward the
opening in the old volcano bowl. It was Dick's idea that if by a
cross fire on the part of himself and his brother, hidden among
the rocks, they could scare away the band besieging Bud and his
friends, a diversion might be created which would rout the enemy.
At any rate, it was worth trying.
Bud was busy, as Nort and Dick slipped off, tying a bandage on
the arm of one of the cowboys who had been shot. And the brothers
were glad to try their desperate venture unnoticed, for they did
not want to explain. And they did not want to be observed going
away, as it looked a little like desertion in the face of the
enemy. But, for the time being, there was a lull in the fighting.
The Greasers who had been holding Bud's force behind the rocks,
had quieted down. The fighting between Slim and his cowboys out
in the open, however, was going on fiercely, and several had
fallen on both sides.
Once Dick and Nort were down in a gully, off to the right of the
rocks behind which the band had taken shelter, the eastern lads
were screened from observation, both by their friends and by the
Greasers.
"Cut along, North!" advised Dick, and, in spite of their wounds,
the boy ranchers ran in crouching positions, their guns in
readiness.
It did not take them long to reach a point which they regarded as
favorable for the trick they were going to play--for it was
nothing more nor less than a trick. If they could succeed, by
quick firing, in deceiving the enemy, and causing a retreat, a
sudden rush on the part of Bud and his friends might turn the
scale.
"All ready?" asked Dick of his brother, as they reached some
sheltering rocks on the flank of the party besieging Bud.
"Wait until I lay a lot of cartridges ready on the ground. It
will be easier to reload them."
"Good idea. I'll do the same."
It was rather awkward for Dick, with his wounded right hand, to
reload his gun, but he could manage after a fashion, though not
so well as Nort, whose hurt was in his upper left arm. The lads
saw to it that their weapons were ready, with a goodly supply of
cartridges in front of them. Nort looked across at Dick, behind
the sheltering rock, and at a nod from the latter they both began
firing.
The effect on the Greasers, poorly screened as they were, was
instantaneous. Several leaped to their feet and turned in
surprise toward the sound of firing on their flank. These made
good targets, and by firing at them Dick and Nort brought more
than one to the ground.
Bud and his companions, hearing the firing in a new direction,
where, as yet they did not know they had supporters, were also
taken by surprise, but it was of another nature.
"Come on! Rush 'em!" yelled Bud, when he had looked around, and,
missing Dick and Nort, guessed what had happened. "We've got 'em
in a cross fire now! Rush 'em!"
But the Greasers, disheartened by the firing of Dick and Nort on
their flank, did not stop to be rushed. Those who were able
leaped up and ran toward their horses, which had strayed off to
one side. Bud and his party emerged from behind the rocks, firing
as they rushed the enemy.
"This is the stuff, Dick!" shouted Nort, as he reloaded his gun
and sent another fusilade of bullets into the ranks of the now
retreating Greasers.
"I'm glad it worked!" remarked the proposer of the Kipling
scheme. "Now we can go help Slim and his bunch. They're having
trouble!"
Indeed the tide of battle did seem to be turning against the
foreman and his forces. They were outnumbered, and had lost
several cowboys, by wounds if not by death--just which it was
impossible to determine then. And, meanwhile, the other Greasers,
under the leadership of the wily Del Pinzo, were hazing the
cattle toward the main entrance.
"Good work, boys! Great work!" Bud greeted his cousins with as he
rode out to meet them, when the besieging Greasers had been
routed by the cross fire of the two lads. "How'd you think of
it?"
"It was Dick," spoke Nort.
"It was Kipling!" Dick answered.
"Get mounted and join us!" Bud requested. "We've got to help
Slim!"
This was evident, as the foreman and his cowboys were now hard
pressed. But as Nort and Dick rejoined Bud, having leaped to
their saddles they, as well as the others from Diamond X caught
sight of something which, for the moment made them sick at heart.
For the sight was that of another body of horsemen riding into
the old volcano bowl. On they cantered, the sun glinting on their
arms.
"More of Del Pinzo's rustlers!" burst out Bud. "We may as well
give up! They're too many for us!"
But he did not pull rein, intending it seemed, to fight it out to
the bitter end. A cry from Dick was the cause of wonderment. He
pointed to the new body of advancing horsemen.
"Look! Look!" Dick shouted. "Those aren't Greasers! They aren't
rustlers or Del Pinzo's gang! They're United States troopers! By
all the jack rabbits that ever jumped we've got the rustlers now!
The United States cavalry is on the job!"
And a moment later, as the notes of a bugle gave a musical order,
causing the advancing troop to deploy to right and left, it was
evident that the tide of battle had turned in favor of the boy
ranchers and their friends.
For the newcomers were, in reality, a troop of United States
regulars, and with a dash and vim, exceeded nowhere in the world,
and among no other fighters, this band of grim-faced men entered
into action. Carbines were unslung and their short and ugly bark
was added to the din.
"Come on, fellows!"
"Now we've got 'em!"
"Over the line!"
"Touchdown!"
These were only a few of the excited shouts of the boy ranchers
themselves, while the cowboys of Diamond X riding into the fray
with new hearts, sent up their shrill, yipping yells. It was all
over then but the shouting, so to speak. The Greasers were fairly
trapped--Del Pinzo and all his gang. In vain they attempted to
ride around and escape by the main entrance. But the troopers had
stationed a guard there, and the bowl was "bottled up." One or
two Greasers, sneaking around to the north, did manage to escape
through the crack by which Bud and his friends had entered,
though the main body was captured and the cattle saved.
"Whew, but that was hot work!" commented Bud, toward sundown,
when the rustlers had been caught, disarmed and corraled under
guard.
"You told the truth for once," remarked Dick, whose wound had
been rebandaged by the surgeon accompanying the troopers.
"And I guess this is the end of Del Pinzo," remarked Nort, for
the outlaw Greaser half-breed had been caught red-handed, so to
speak.
"I hope so," mused Bud. "But we paid a price for it."
"And so did they," observed Slim. "We accounted for quite a few,
but I'm sorry for our boys." Several of the Diamond X outfit had
been grievously wounded, and one was killed outright. But the
casualties on the side of the enemy were greater.
The fight was over. The cattle of the boy ranchers were saved,
and the rustlers captured. Tired horses were staked out near
grass and water, and while the cavalry established their camp,
Bud and his friends began to wonder how it was the troopers had
arrived in the nick of time.
"Well, it was more by chance than anything else," said Captain
Parker, who was in command. "We'd been on the trail of these
outlaws for some time, and finally we saw a chance to corner
them. It was due to the work of Lieutenant Wayne that we were
able so to effectually bag them here, though. He has been on
scout duty in this section for some time, endeavoring to get information
so that we might round up this gang."
"Lieutenant Wayne," repeated Bud, wonderingly.
"Yes, here he comes now. He says he knows you boys."
"Knows us!" murmured Dick, as a trooper approached, saluting his
superior and smiling at the boy ranchers. "Yes, don't you know
me?" asked Lieutenant Wayne, holding out his hand to Bud.
"Perhaps if I had on my glasses, you would be better able to----"
"Four Eyes!" burst out Nort. "At least--I beg your pardon--Henry--er--Mr.
Mellon--Lieutenant Wayne!" he stammered.
"Yes, Four Eyes!" was the laughing answer of the trooper. "Those
glasses were only fakes! I wore them as a sort of disguise, and
very effectual they were, it seems."
"Four Eyes!" gasped Bud. "And were you in the United States
cavalry all the while?"
"Yes, on scout, or detached duty," was the answer. "The
government has had many complaints of this band of Del Pinzo's
rustlers, and we were detailed to put them out of business. I was
assigned to go on duty as a cowboy, which wasn't so hard, as I
had been one nearly all my life before joining the army. I worked
on several ranches, picking up bits of information here and
there, and I completed all I needed to get in Happy Valley," he
added.
"And we never tumbled!" remarked Dick.
"Glad you didn't!" laughed Lieutenant Wayne, to give him his
proper title. "I thought you were suspicious of me, more than
once, though," he said.
"We were, after you built that signal lantern on the watch tower--you
did do that, didn't you?" asked Bud.
"Yes, but only as a decoy for the rustlers. I managed to overhear
some of their plans, and part of their scheme called for a light
on the tower when the time was ripe for a raid on your cattle,
boys. So I flashed the signal myself, and, indirectly, it led to
this capture today. For I joined my troop right after that, and
we have been rounding the rascals up ever since.
"We knew they had made a big raid at your place, but we didn't
know where they had hidden the cattle until I happened to think
of this old crater, which I discovered one day when I was working
for you, Bud. So we made our way here and--well, this is the end,
I believe," he added, as he looked over at the bunch of miserable
prisoners.
"I hope it's the end," said Bud. "We want to get back to
business. And I'm sorry we suspected you, Lieutenant."
"Oh, that's all right. In fact, I'm glad you did. It shows I
lived up to the character I was supposed to represent."
There is little more to tell. That night, around the campfire
many things, hitherto a mystery, were explained. The stethoscope
the boys found was the property of Lieutenant Wayne. He had
dropped it when paying a secret visit to Happy Valley. He had
intended to pose as a doctor to deceive the rustlers, but, on
losing the stethoscope he gave up that plan. It is needless to
say that he had nothing to do with the robbery at Diamond X, the
real thieves never being discovered. Lieutenant Wayne apologized
for cutting his way from Bud's tent the night he disappeared
after the signal from the tower. This was the only way he could
disappear and accomplish his plans, he said. And it was he who
had fired and broken the bottle, and had also fired mysterious
signal shots, in order to play up to his character of being in
with the rustlers.
"Though the bottle-breaking was only a joke I indulged in," he
admitted, "I'm sorry it worried you so."
The soldier, of course, had nothing to do with the prairie fire,
and who set it, if it was set, was not discovered. Lieutenant
Wayne finally recovered his black horse Cinder, the animal having
made its way back to Curly Q ranch, where the officer once posed
as a cowboy.
The cattle first stolen by the rustlers were not recovered, but
it was found that when they seemed they had been spirited off in
an airship they had been merely back-tracked and hidden until an
opportune time to dispose of them. Del Pinzo's gang was in
hiding, waiting for a chance to drive off the main body of
steers, when they were surprised by our heroes. Whether Hank
Fisher was in with the rustlers was not decided, though
suspicions pointed toward him. The outlaws were sentenced to long
terms after being captured by the troopers, and their secret
meeting place, having been discovered, was destroyed.
After these explanations had been made, it was decided not to try
to drive the cattle out of the crater until the next day.
The night passed without incident, though none of the boy
ranchers turned in early. They were too excited, and they wanted
to talk over what had happened.
The existence of the old crater was not generally known, but Del
Pinzo and his rustlers appeared to have the secret of it. They
had driven off Bud's cattle, put them into the natural corral and
then filled in, with dirt, the only entrance visible from the
defile trail leading from Happy Valley. They intended to use the
larger opening out of the bowl, to the south, to get the cattle
away. But their plans were frustrated.
The next day the troopers drove off before them the discomfitted
Del Pinzo and his disheartened followers, Yellin' Kid taking the
Mexican's elaborate hat to replace the cowboy's with the bullet
holes. Lieutenant Wayne said farewell to the boy ranchers,
promising to come and see them again, in his real character.
The wounded were transported as tenderly as possible out of the
main egress from the bowl, it being impractical to use the other.
And it was from this larger entrance, after the fence had been
torn away, that the cattle were driven, by a long winding trail
amid the mountains back to Happy Valley. Only a few were lost by
the raid, which was the largest ever perpetrated by the rustlers
in that part of the country.
"But I guess, now that the troopers have Del Pinzo, and not the
local authorities with their flimsy town jails, that this Greaser
won't be foot-loose for some time," observed Bud, when, once
more, the boy ranchers were back in camp.
"I don't want to hear his name again," murmured Dick, nursing his
wounded hand.
"And to think that Four Eyes was working in our interests when we
thought him a spy! That was pretty good!" laughed Nort.
"Yes, it all worked out pretty well," spoke Bud. "And do you know
what I'd like to do? I'd like Dad to buy that old volcano crater
for us. It would be a peach of a place where we could winter a
herd of cattle, and have 'em fat for spring selling. I'm going to
speak to him about it," he concluded.
"Well, you can speak right now, for here he comes, and your
mother and sister, too," added Dick, as Mr. Merkel's auto chugged
down the trail from Diamond X.
"Well, boys, I hear you beat Del Pinzo at his own game!" greeted
the rancher, while Nell expressed her sorrow at Dick's wound, to
the somewhat jealous regard of Nort, whose hurt was more slight.
"Yes, he's where he won't blur any more brands right away," Bud
answered. "But it looked like touch and go for a while. The
troopers came just in time!"
"Well, you fellows seem to know how to take care of yourselves
and the cattle," observed Bud's father. "Guess I'll turn one of
my main ranches over to you. What say?"
But the boys did not answer. They were busy eating slices of a
large chocolate cake that Nell had brought over. This is reason
enough, isn't it? However, the adventures of our heroes did not
end with the capture of the rustlers. And those of you who wish
to follow them further may do so in the next volume of this
series which will be entitled: "The Boy Ranchers Among the
Indians; or Trailing the Yaquis." In that volume we shall meet
many of our old friends again, and, should Bud permit it, I may
tell you about Zip Foster. But with the capture of Del Pinzo, and
his rustlers, this book is finished.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Boy Ranchers on the Trail, by Willard F. Baker