AT THE VALLEY RANCH
"Listen!" exclaimed Frank, holding up his hand.
"Talk to me about your Tower of Babel! It wasn't in the same class as
that row. Twenty men trying to talk all at once!" growled Jerry,
starting up.
"Oh! Where are you going?" asked Will.
"Outside, to find out what the trouble is," replied the other.
"But you may get hurt if those bad men start to shooting up the train,"
expostulated the official photographer anxiously.
Jerry gave a hoarse laugh.
"Tell me about that, will you! He actually believes we are going to be
put through a course of 'stand and deliver' by the merry gentlemen of
the road. Why, bless you, my boy, didn't you hear one man say something
about a trestle burning just ahead? It spells delay for us, but that's
the worst of the whole affair."
"Then I'm going out, too," declared Will, with sudden zeal, as he
snatched up his camera and threw the strap over his shoulder.
He scented a chance for a striking picture, and to obtain that Will
would have risked even a possible encounter with train robbers.
Frank and Bluff would not be left behind, and quickly the entire quartet
had reached the platform. They found that the stop was at a little
country station. A signal had suddenly flashed before the eyes of the
engineer, telling him he must not think of running past, which accounted
for the quick work of the compressed-air brakes.
No need to tell what was wrong. Up the track a quarter of a mile could
be seen a fire, and one glance was enough to tell the chums that, just
as Jerry had said, a trestle of some sort seemed to be burning.
Loud shouts attested to the fact that every available man was hurrying
to the scene, in the hope of saving the trestle before it was so far
gone that nothing could be done.
"Come on, fellows! Our train must stay where it is until this thing is
done burning, one way or the other. Perhaps we can help put the fire out
with buckets."
That was the first thought Frank had, to be of some assistance.
The four of them ran with the rest of the passengers. Such a spectacle
could not be witnessed every day, and every one was desirous of getting
closer to the scene of action.
"How did it catch?" asked Frank of a railroad man who was hustling
about, handing buckets to a line of men extending down to the water of
the creek far below.
"Don't know. Perhaps from sparks left by the six-seventeen freight. Lend
a hand here, lads; we need all the help we can get," replied the other.
"Sure! That's what we came for. Get along, boys, and pass these
buckets!" cried Jerry, suiting the action to the words.
Once the string of buckets got to going, and the contents began to be
cast upon the creeping flames, there sprang up a hope that the trestle
might be saved.
Seeing this, the workers redoubled their efforts, and faster rose the
full buckets, the empties going down at the same rate. It is really
astonishing what a large amount of water can be carried by such an
endless chain.
"Hurrah! We're besting it, lads! Keep it up!" shouted the agent, who
was the man Frank had first addressed.
Will had not joined the relay. There seemed to be plenty of recruits
without him, and, truth to tell, he was bent on getting a picture of the
scene. Doubtless many present were startled by a sudden brilliant
illumination as he set off his flashlight cartridge; but those who were
in ignorance as to what it meant were soon set wise by others.
Once they began to get the upper hand of the fire it became easy.
Fortunately, there was not a breath of wind at the time. Had it been
otherwise, no efforts on their part could have saved the trestle.
"I should think they would have them all of steel!" gasped Bluff, as he
labored away, passing endless buckets up and down.
"Most of them are, I understand, but in this case, you see, it is a long
stretch, and perhaps it wasn't thought necessary," replied Frank.
"We're going to save it, all right; but I wonder if our train dare pass
over? It seems to me the fire must have weakened the structure more or
less," remarked Jerry.
"Oh, well, they'll find some means of strengthening it in that case. I'm
only worrying about the delay. Mr. Mabie will have to wait so long."
"But, Frank, they must wire the news, and he will know the reason for
our hold-up," said Will quickly, and the others all agreed that this
must be so.
Less than an hour later the last spark had been extinguished. Then men
climbed all over the trestle to ascertain just how much it had been
weakened by the fire.
There was a difference of opinion among them, some declaring that it was
as good as ever, and the others shaking their heads solemnly, as they
prophesied all manner of dire things if the through train, with its
heavy sleepers, attempted to go over.
While some gangs of men were hastily bracing up a weak spot with what
material lay close at hand, kept for an emergency of this sort, a
freight train that happened to be on a siding at the station, was pushed
out on the trestle to discover how the situation stood.
The chums watched operations with their hearts in their mouths,
figuratively speaking; but no catastrophe followed, and it began to
appear that, after all, the express might pass over in safety.
Another trial was given, this time with the heavy freight engine
attached to some of the largest flats, laden with steel beams. The
trestle bore the strain handsomely.
"That settles it, fellows. Back to our car for us. We're going across!"
sang out Jerry as he turned and made off down the track.
"How long were we here?" asked Bluff, sighing, and they knew he was
thinking again of the weary hours that must elapse ere he could open
that big trunk in order to ascertain whether his fears in connection
with that beloved hunting-knife had any foundation or not.
"Three hours, about. Give them another half hour to get moving, and
there you are. Hark! The engineer has started to whistle. That is to
tell the passengers a start is intended; and here they come, rushing
pell-mell, fearful of getting left." And Frank laughed at the energy
displayed by some of those who had been aboard.
It was a critical time when the train slowly pushed out upon the long
trestle. Everybody doubtless held their breath, and doubtless many a
heart throbbed with suspense.
"It's all right, boys! We're safely over!" exclaimed Jerry, as, looking
out of the open window, he could see that they had passed the critical
stage.
"Oh! I'm so glad! I don't know when I've felt such a flutter about my
heart. But, anyway, I secured a cracking good snapshot of that burning
bridge. Every time we look at it we can remember our hold-up," observed
Will, sighing with relief.
It was now about ten o'clock at night, and on account of the delay,
travel was more or less congested along the line.
Frank, upon making inquiries, learned that they would not arrive at
their destination until about daybreak, and so he and his chums went to
their berths to secure what sleep was possible.
Frank had them up in good time, and long before dawn they were fully
dressed, awaiting the arrival of the train at the valley station with
impatience.
"Another hour now, and then I shall know," Bluff was saying to himself.
"Thank goodness!" exclaimed Jerry, who happened to overhear him. "And
for the peace of the party, I do hope the first thing you see when you
open your bag will be that awful sword."
"We're stopping, fellows!" cried Will, trembling with eagerness.
Five minutes later they jumped down from the train.
"Hello, boys! Glad to see you! Better late than never!" said a hearty
voice, and then they found themselves shaking hands with a big man,
whose gray-bearded face seemed to be a picture of good nature.
Of course, this was Mr. Mabie, the ranchman. He saw to it that their big
trunk was dropped off the baggage car, to be seized by a couple of
cowboys and hustled on to the back of a long buckboard wagon, drawn by a
couple of skittish horses.
Then they were off, not five minutes after the train had pulled out.
"Here, Reddy," said Mr. Mabie to the young driver, "let me make you
acquainted with some good fellows about your own age," and he introduced
them one after another.
Frank saw that the cowboy was well named, for he had quite a fiery
thatch; but his freckled face seemed one of the sort that invited
confidence, and Frank believed he would like the other right well. Of
course, Reddy was attired as all well-ordered cowboys should be. Will
was secretly wild for a chance to introduce him in some picture.
"It will give such a pleasing variety to our book of views, for we
haven't got a single cowboy in between the covers," he said in an aside
to Frank.
They followed up the valley for over an hour. The ranch was miles
removed from the railway, and surrounded by the wildest scenery the
boys could remember having looked upon, and that was saying a good deal,
after such a journey.
Martin Mabie was a widower, without any family. Still, he had a number
of women folks on the place, a sister keeping house for him, with a
Chinese cook to attend to the kitchen part of the establishment.
"Ain't this immense?" remarked Bluff, as he waited impatiently for the
men to carry the big trunk indoors, so that he could satisfy his soul
about the one object that had been worrying him ever since leaving
Centerville.
Somehow or other they seemed slow about doing this. The horses had to be
attended to first of all. Then there seemed to be some sort of
excitement in the neighborhood of the corral, for the boys noticed a
mounted cowboy come dashing up and jump from his steed, which was
blowing hard, as if from a rapid dash.
He wondered if this sort of thing was of daily occurrence on the big
ranch, which took in the whole valley for miles, and extended even up
along the sides of the mountains on either hand.
"What ails the fellow, I wonder?" observed Jerry, who, it seems, had
also noticed the rush of the newcomer.
"From the way he bolted into the office where Mr. Mabie went, I imagine
he must have brought important news of some sort," remarked Frank.
"Perhaps our very introduction to the Big M Ranch is going to be in a
whirl of excitement, fellows. I've noticed that somehow we seem to stir
up things wherever we go; not that we mean to have things happen, but
they just pick out such a time to play hob," said Jerry, shaking his
head as if thoroughly convinced.
"Here comes Mr. Mabie, hurrying this way!" declared Bluff, beginning to
forget his other anxiety for the time being in this new mystery.
"And there goes the cowboy back to the horse corral. He's shouting
something, too, and as sure as you live every man is jumping to get a
horse handy between his legs. Look at them slapping saddles on! Why,
they'll be off like the wind! Boys, something is up! I know it!"
Frank and his chums saw several cowboys dash away as though possessed,
shouting, and waving their hats in a reckless manner, as if about to
charge an enemy who had designs on the cattle of the ranch.
"Whatever can it mean?" said Will again.
"For the life of me I can't imagine," returned Frank, sorely puzzled.
"But we'll soon know, fellows, for here comes Mr. Mabie, and he's
swinging his hat as though just as excited as the balance of the crowd.
Whatever it is, he means to tell us!" cried Jerry, his eyes glowing with
the nerve-racking anxiety.