A RUSH OF STEERS
Russ came bounding from his hut, carrying with him the moving picture
camera, its three legs trailing behind him.
"Come on, girls!" he cried, as he saw Ruth and Alice peering from their
shelter. "It's all right!"
"Oh, what does it mean?" asked Ruth. "Where's daddy?"
"Here I am," answered Mr. DeVere.
"It's all right!" yelled Baldy, capering about, and vainly clicking his
revolvers, for he had fired all the cartridges in the cylinders. "It's
the boys from Rocky Ranch! They saw my signal and came to the rescue!"
"That you, Baldy?" shouted a voice out of the cloud of powder smoke that
hid, for a moment, the cowboys from view.
"That's who it is, Bow!" was the answer. "Could you read my smoke?"
"I sure could, and we come a-runnin'. Are the girls safe?"
"Everybody's safe. But look out for yourself, these Indians are sort of
riled at us."
From the group of Indians who had left their ceremonies, to rush toward
the huts of their erstwhile captives at the sound of the shots and
cheers, came deep-voiced mutterings. They were gathered in a group
around their chief, Jumping Horse.
"Look out for 'em!" yelled Baldy.
"Don't worry," advised Pete Batso. "They haven't any weapons."
"Just my luck," groaned Russ, setting up his camera.
"What's the matter?" asked Alice, who now felt no alarm.
"Too dark to get a picture, and I had a little bit of film left on a
reel. I might have got a dandy rescue scene; but now it's all up. Too
bad!"
"Never mind, you got some good ones," Ruth comforted him.
"Yes, but that would have completed the picture--'Captured By the
Indians.' However, it can't be helped. Maybe after all this excitement
is over we can get the Indians to pose for us. I'll tell Mr. Pertell
about it."
The rescuing cowboys had drawn rein in front of the lined-up Indians,
near the huts of the captives. There was a goodly squad of cow
punchers, and they seemed delighted to have been of some service to the
picture players. Some of them were reloading their big revolvers, for
they, like Baldy, in the excess of their spirits, had fired off every
chamber. But no one had been hurt, for they merely shot in the air.
"Well, you got here, boys, I see," remarked Baldy.
"That's what we did!" cried Necktie Harry, who was flecking some dust
off the end of his gaudy scarf.
"We saw your smoke talk about an hour ago," explained Bow. "First I was
sort of puzzled over it. I thought maybe it was the Indians, for I
calculate it was about time for them to be at their high jinks.
"Then I caught the private signal you and me made up, and I says: 'By
Heck! Baldy's in trouble! Wasn't that what I said, Pete?" and he
appealed to the foreman.
"That's what it was, Bow. Them's the very words you used. Says you:
'Baldy's in trouble,' says you. And then we come on the run."
"And we calculated we'd find the young ladies, and the rest of the
outfit here, too," went on Bow. "When they didn't come back to the ranch
last night we was all alarmed, and went off to the place they were
goin' to make pictures. But there wasn't a sign of any trail there, and
we didn't know what to think. We never dreamed you'd be on the _mesa_,"
he added to Mr. DeVere.
"I suppose we never should have come," admitted the actor. "It was on a
sudden impulse, and sorry enough we were for it, too."
"Oh, but it all came out right," said Alice, trying to make herself look
a little more presentable, for a night and more than a day spent as a
prisoner in a little hut was not conducive to neatness of attire.
"And Russ got some fine pictures of the ceremonies," added Ruth.
"That's good!" cried Pete Batso. "When we started for here your manager
said he reckoned his operator would have made good use of his time."
"We didn't know just what shape you was in," said Buster Jones, "only
Baldy's message didn't say any of you was killed, so we hoped for the
best."
"Yes, it might have been worse," agreed Baldy. "Well, now, let's travel.
Did you have any trouble gettin' past their guard line, boys?" he asked.
"Nary a trouble," replied Pete. "We just rushed through before they knew
what was up."
The captives were soon in the saddle again, and escorted by the cowboys
made for the trail down to the plain. There were more angry mutterings
from the Indians, but they made no effort to stop the retreat. Perhaps
they realized it would be useless.
It was no easy matter descending the steep trail, but it was
accomplished without mishap, and finally Rocky Ranch was reached. And it
is needless to say that the captives were made welcome.
A little later, in clean garments, and after a good meal, they told of
their adventures. The girls were quite the heroines of the hour, and
held the center of the stage, rather to the discomfiture of Miss
Pennington and Miss Dixon, who were in the habit of attracting all the
attention they could.
"There's one picture I want very much to get," said Mr. Pertell, as he
sat with his players in the living room of their quarters one evening.
"Name it," declared Mr. Norton, the owner, "and, if it's possible, I'll
see that you get it."
"A cattle stampede," was the answer. "I want to show the steers in a mad
rush, and the cowboys trying to stop them. But I don't suppose you can
tell when one is going to happen."
"No, you can't tell when a real one is about to take place," the owner
admitted, "but maybe we could fix up one for you."
"How do you mean?"
"Why, I mean we could take a bunch of steers, start them to running, and
then the boys could come out and try to get them milling--that is, going
around in a circle. That stops a stampede, usually. We could do that for
you."
"And will you?" asked the manager, eagerly.
"Why, yes, if you want it. I'll speak to Pete Batso. He's had more
experience than I have. We'll get up a stampede for you."
The cowboys entered into the spirit of the affair once it was mentioned
to them, and arrangements were at once made.
As there might be some little danger of a refractory steer breaking
loose and injuring someone, the ladies of the company only took part in
the preliminary scenes.
These included the beginning of the drama in which the stampede was to
play a principal part. It involved a little love story, and the lover,
Paul, was afterward to be in peril through the cattle stampede.
The first part went off all right, Ruth and Alice acquitting themselves
well in their characterizations. Their riding had improved very much,
and they were sure of themselves in the saddle.
"Now, ladies," said Pete Batso, who was managing the cowboy end of the
affair, "if you'll get over on that little mound you can see all that
goes on and you won't be in any danger. We're goin' to stampede the
cattle now!"
"Whoop-ee!" yelled the cowboys, as they rushed up at the signal, when
Ruth and Alice, with Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, had gone off some
little distance.
"Get ready, Russ!" called Mr. Pertell.
"All ready," answered the young operator, as he took his place with his
camera focused.
The steers, startled by the shots and shouts of the cowboys, began a mad
rush.
"There's your stampede!" called Mr. Norton to Mr. Pertell. "Is that
realistic enough for you?"
"Quite so, and thank you very much."
More and more wild became the rushing steers, as the cowboys drove them
along in order that pictures might be made of them.