TANGLES
Sitting astride his tired horse Dave looked lung and earnestly at the
fast-disappearing freight, as it went around a bend in the hills. He could
not see Len, but he knew the young bully was aboard.
"Well, you're gone now, but there'll come a time when you may want to come
back," mused Dave. "And when you do, I'll get you. I think you started the
big fire, but I'll give you a chance to prove you didn't."
He sat there musing for a while longer. The freight was out of sight now
but there came to his ears, faintly through the heavy morning air, the
sound of the distant puffing. And he could see the trail of smoke.
"Smoke! Ugh!" exclaimed Dave. "I've seen enough, and smelled enough, in
the last few hours to last me a year!"
His eyes smarted from the acrid fumes of the burning prairie grass, and
his mouth was parched.
"Guess you must want a drink too, Crow," said Dave aloud, and his horse
whinnied as though understanding. Dave saw Len's horse, which the young
rascal had abandoned, taking a long drink from a pool that had formed
under the railroad tank.
Dave's horse needed no urging toward the inviting water and soon both
master and beast were drinking deeply. Dave also plunged his head down in
a puddle and soused his arms and hands in it.
"There, I feel better," he said. "A heapsight better. And now what am I
going to do with you?" he asked as he saw Len's abandoned horse cropping
the grass near the tank. "I can't leave you here for rustlers to make off
with. You're too good an animal, if you do belong to a mean skunk. And yet
I don't feel like doing Len any favor. If I take you I may get into
trouble with Mr. Molick, too.
"Oh, I'll take a chance though. Can't see a horse suffer," Dave went on,
and when his own mount had sufficiently refreshed itself with water and
food, the young cowboy leaped to the saddle and rode up to Len's animal.
He had no difficulty in catching the pony, as it was quite exhausted from
the run. And thus leading his prize, Dave started back. Mr. Bellmore, who
had done as Dave had, taken a long drink and a wash, was also much
refreshed.
"It surely was tough luck," remarked the engineer, "but it couldn't be
helped. We did our best!"
"I should say so!" exclaimed Dave. "I regard it as a pretty sure sign of
his guilt--that running away; don't you?"
"Well, most people would, I think," said the Chicago man slowly, "and yet,
from what you have told me, I guess Len would run from you anyhow,
wouldn't he, if he saw you take after him?"
"He might," admitted Dave, with a grin, as he thought of the encounter he
had had with the bully. "Yes, I guess he might. But we saw him start one
fire; didn't we?"
"Yes, but of course he could claim that he was starting a back-fire, just
as we did."
"Huh!" Dave mused. "I didn't think of that. But I'm sure Len did start the
big blaze, anyhow. He wanted to either stampede our cattle, or burn some
of them, and you can't make me think any differently."
"Oh, I'm not trying to," said Mr. Bellmore. "I'm only giving you an idea
of the view a judge and jury might take of it, if you had Len arrested."
"I didn't think of that," Dave said. "I guess it won't come to an arrest,
as far as that is concerned. We Western folk generally administer the law
ourselves. If we waited for judges and juries we'd get left in a good many
cases. But I don't believe Len will come back, in a hurry."
"Perhaps not But what are you going to do with his horse?"
"I don't know. Take it back with us for the time being. It's a good animal
I might hold it as a sort of hostage until Len claims it. But I don't
believe he will. Whew! That was some chase!"
"It certainly was," agreed Mr. Bellmore.
They rode back slowly. The air was gradually clearing of the smoke from
the prairie fire, though far off it could be observed burning yet. But the
worst of it was over. Bar U ranch was no longer in danger.
"What's the next thing on the programme?" asked Mr. Bellmore.
"Finish the round-up, get rid of as many cattle as we can, provide for the
rest so they'll have plenty of water in the dry spell, and then fight the
Molick crowd," said Dave.
"Plenty of room for action there," commented the engineer with a smile.
"I guess so," assented Dave. "But we're depending on your help."
"And I'll give it to the best of my ability. I think it is wise to
undertake legal action as a starter to regaining control of your water
rights. If they don't help us---"
"Why, then we'll try some of our Western persuasive ways," finished Dave.
"I guess dad will be anxious to get busy right away. This fire shows how
desperate that other crowd is."
"Yes. And if the Molicks had a hand in starting it, which seems reasonable
to believe, they probably did it out of revenge for the breaking of the
dam. But we had a perfect moral, if not a legal, right to do that," the
Chicago man said.
They rode back slowly, and soon overtook Pocus Pete, who was ambling along
on his injured pony.
"How'd he get away?" asked Pete, as he saw Dave leading the riderless
horse. "Was there any shootin'?"
"No, nothing like that," Dave replied. "He jumped on the fast freight, and
left his animal behind."
"Huh! Well, maybe it's jest as well," the foreman said. "It's one skunk
less in a country that's got more than its share. That's a good horse," he
went on, sizing up Len's mount.
"Yes," said Dave. "You'd better take it for awhile, and give yours a
rest."
"I will,' said Pete, dismounting and leaping to the saddle of the other.
It was a great relief for his own mount, whose shoulder was badly
wrenched.
"This is forcin' th' enemy to give us aid an' comfort," commented Pocus
Pete, as he settled to the saddle, having put on his own in place of the
one Len used, which did not fit the foreman.
Back over the burned prairie they rode. It was hot with the heat of the
sun, which rose higher and higher in the sky, and the air, though it was
morning, still seemed to have in it some of the heat from the big fire.
Dave and his friends found Mr. Carson and the cowboys waiting anxiously
for them. The story of the chase and its failure was soon told.
"Well, you did your best, Dave, and I'm much obliged to you," said Mr.
Carson. "I agree with you that it looks as though the Molick crowd was
getting desperate, and trying to drive us out of the country either by a
stampede or by fire. If you hadn't discovered that blaze in time there's
no telling what might have happened. Now I've got to plan what to do."
"And let me help--Dad," said Dave in a low voice. "I want to do all I can
for you and the Bar U."
Mr. Carson did not reply at once, but he held out his hand and Dave
grasped it in a firm clasp. They understood one another.
A conference was held, and it was decided that the round-up should be
finished as soon as possible, and the cattle intended for shipment driven
to the nearest railroad point. The others would be scattered over the
different grazing ranges Mr. Carson owned.
"And then we'll take up this water fight," said Mr. Bellmore. "If I had my
papers here I could begin some preliminary work now."
"What you folks most need is a rest," said Mr. Carson. "You've been up the
best part of the night, fighting fire, and on this chase. Now get some
breakfast and stretch out in the shade of the chuck wagon. There's nothing
to be done right away. Hop Loy, get 'em something to eat!"
"Slure I glet bleckflast!" exclaimed the happy-faced Celestial. "Plenty
hungly Mlister Dave?" he asked cheerfully.
"Yes, plenty hungry," Dave assented.
While he, Pocus Pete and Mr. Bellmore rested after the meal Mr. Carson and
the others finished the round-up work, branding such cattle as had not
already felt the iron. Then the herds were separated, the ones for
shipment being cut out from the others.
The next few days were busy ones, the work going on from the first peep of
daylight until it was impossible to see. And in due time the shipment was
successfully made.
"Well, I can breathe more easily now," said Mr. Carson, when the train had
departed, some of his cowboys going with it to see that the cattle were
fed and watered on the trip. "No matter what Molick does now he can't ruin
me completely."
"That's so, and now we'll take up this water matter," said the engineer.
"I'm afraid it's going to prove a legal tangle, though."
And so it did. The chief fight was about the ownership of the water rights
at the point where Molick had built the dam that the Bar U boys had
destroyed.
It had at once been rebuilt, as was expected and all water was shut off
from Mr. Carson's land in that vicinity. But as he was not pasturing any
cattle there for the present, no damage resulted.
"But you have a right to that water, and I'm going to see that you get
your share of it," said Mr. Bellmore. "It was partly my fault that Molick
built that dam, for if I had not mentioned it to him he probably would
never have thought of it. So it's up to me to make this fight for you, and
I'm going to."
Nor was the fighting all on one side. Molick brought suit against Mr.
Carson for the destruction of the dam, but it would take some time to
settle this, since many questions were involved.
In turn Mr. Carson sued the owner of Centre O ranch for shutting off the
water supply. Mr. Carson, Dave and Mr. Bellmore also went before the Grand
Jury and gave information about having seen Len starting a prairie fire.
That body lost little time in returning an indictment against the missing
bully. But of course it was out of their power to go after him and bring
him back.
"But if he ever does come back I'll get him," the sheriff assured Dave.
"He daren't set foot in this county again. Of course I'm not saying he's
guilty, but I'll arrest him and he'll have to prove his innocence."
"That's all we want," said Dave.
Meanwhile the legal tangles increased. A number of suits were started on
both sides, and as a result there were several physical clashes between
the cowboys of the Bar U and the Centre O ranches.
The horse of Pocus Pete was more seriously hurt than he had at first
thought, and he had to give his mount a long rest.
"But I've got Len's critter!" Pete chuckled, "and I'm goin' to ride that."
This he did to his own great satisfaction. Several times when he and his
boys got into more than verbal arguments with the Centre O crowd Pete used
Len's horse.
"It's like gettin' th' enemy's ammunition an' firin' it at him," said Pete
with a laugh. "I guess they don't relish it none."
And Molick and his crowd did not. They did not make a claim for the horse,
however, since this would have involved admitting that Len rode it to
escape from the country, and they did not want to do this. So Pocus Pete
kept the contraband horse.
Work was easier on Bar U ranch after the big cattle shipment, but still
there was plenty to do. Mr. Bellmore was busy working up his water
irrigation project, in addition to helping Mr. Carson fight the Molick
crowd. After a number of suits had been started Molick brought an action
against the engineer for breach of contract.
"He claims I promised to go into the water matter with him, and then
backed out," said Mr. Bellmore. "Well, I did nothing of the sort. I might
have gone in with him, if you had not warned me, though Mr. Carson."
"Well, I'm glad I warned you, for he'd have you all tangled up if you had
gone in with him."
"I guess you're right. But well get straightened out after a bit, I
think."
The Molick outfit was the only one that fought the irrigation project. All
the other ranch owners in the vicinity recognizing the value of it to
their places, entered into it.