HITTING THE TRAIL
Bud Merkel shook his head as Nort Shannon offered this possible
explanation of the action of Professor Wright.
"Never's been any gold found in these regions all the years I've lived
here," he said.
"There's always a first time," countered Nort, while the cowboys gazed
about them, talking in low voices.
"It must be something else," said Bud. "This is a prospecting bunch,
it's easy to see that, but they're not after gold. These two
professors are from some eastern college, I take it," he went on.
"They may be after specimens of plants, or stones. Using their
vacation this way. I've heard of it being done."
"That's right!" chimed in Dick. "Two of the professors from our
Academy spent all one summer in the Adirondacks, getting material for a
new geology book they were writing. Maybe that's what these professors
are doing," he suggested.
"Then why are they keeping so blamed secret about it for?" asked Nort,
impulsively. "There's no crime in getting rock specimens, or in making
up a new geology, only I wouldn't want to do it," he finished with a
grin. "I get enough of study all winter. We came out here to have
fun!"
"And we've started in right!" declared his brother. "Fun and
excitement."
"I reckon we'll have to let these fellows have their way," murmured
Bud. "They aren't on our ranch, and this is a free country. They may
have permission from the Double Z people to look for specimens here."
"Is this Double Z land?" asked Dick.
"Right about here is," answered Bud. "Our line runs over there, and
back where we came from," and he motioned toward the ranch buildings.
"Better be hitting the home trail too, soon," he commented. "It'll be
dark in no time, and I'm as hungry as they make 'em!"
"You said something then!" declared Babe. "I don't see that we can do
anything more here--they don't appear to want us overly much," he added.
Perhaps Professor Wright was aware that a little feeling had arisen
over his hasty warning to Yellin' Kid, for he hastened toward the
foreman and said:
"I shall be most grateful to you if you will send over something for
the two wounded men. I don't like to let them go to your place, hurt
as they are, and I don't like to deplete my force. Those rascals may
return."
"That's right," agreed Slim. "Wa'al, I reckon we can accommodate you.
I'll send one of the boys back with a bottle of antiseptic stuff right
after grub. Wash out the wounds, pour some of this stuff on and bind
'em up. The men'll be all right. Greasers don't mind a little thing
like a bullet through the arm or leg. You know 'em?"
"No, I only hired them three days ago to help with our camp outfit.
Some of my men deserted, and I have reason to believe it was some of
them who led the attack on us."
"Any special reason why they should shoot you up?" asked Slim. "That
is if it isn't askin' a personal question," he added, mindful of the
reception accorded Yellin' Kid.
"It is all due to a foolish mistake," said Professor Wright, with a
quick glance at his assistant, Professor Blair. "We are here on a
scientific mission, as perhaps Professor Blair told you, and a few of
the deluded men I engaged to help me make some excavations imagine I am
after gold. That is far from the truth, for----"
"It is far more valuable than gold!" exclaimed Professor Blair.
"Eh--well, yes, in a way," said the chief, as Bud caught a look of
warning flashed at the man who had ridden for help. "But that is
neither here nor there," went on Professor Wright. "The point of the
matter is that I had to discharge the leader of my uneducated helpers
because he persisted in trying to find out what we were after. He took
some of the men with him, necessitating the hiring of others. Then the
climax came this afternoon, when, unexpectedly, we were attacked. In
my wanderings I had seen your ranch buildings, and I ventured to hope
you would send us help when I dispatched my assistant to you."
"Wa'al, we did what we could," said Slim. "Of course you know your own
business best, but I wouldn't take any chances with Greasers. They may
come back, if you have any valuables here."
"We have," said Professor Wright, with a glance at the tent, the flaps
of which he had tightly closed. "But I do not fancy they will again
attack us soon. We wounded some of them before you came, and we shall
now be on our guard. If I can have the antiseptics for those two men,
I shall be grateful."
"I'll send 'em over later," promised Slim, and then he called to the
cowboys: "Don't 'pear to be much further need of us, boys. Let's mosey
back!"
And while the cavalcade was on the trail leading to Diamond X ranch,
Bud's cousins had a chance to tell him how it was they had come West so
unexpectedly.
They had long been promised by their parents that they might spend a
summer in the great open, but, for one reason or another, the visit had
been postponed from time to time.
But about a week back Mr. Shannon found that his business called him to
South America. He decided to take his wife with him, and this would
break up their home for the time being.
"So he decided to let us hit the train for here," explained Nort, whose
name, as you may have guessed, was Norton. "We didn't take time to
write--just packed up and came on," he added.
"We did telegraph," said Dick. "But we knew we could find you, whether
you met us or not, Bud."
"I never got your message, and I don't believe dad did, either,"
remarked the young rancher. "But he may have for all that. He's been
terrible busy lately, arranging for a big shipment of steers, and our
telephone has been out of order, so maybe they tried to 'phone the
message to us and could not raise us, and it got laid aside. But I'm
sure glad you're here now."
"So are we!" exclaimed Dick.
"Do you mean to say you have a telephone?" asked Nort, with something
of disappointment in his voice.
"Of course!" laughed Bud. "This is a big ranch, and we couldn't get
along without a 'phone. We're hooked up with other ranches, and we
have a private line of our own from one ranch to the other. We're on
the long distance, too. Oh, we couldn't manage without the wire."
"It doesn't seem like the wild west, if you have a _'phone_,"
complained Nort.
"Oh, you will find it wild enough!" declared Bud. "Didn't you get your
fill on Tartar, and haven't you seen a real man-fight first crack out
of the box?"
"Yes, I had all I wanted on Tartar," confessed Nort with a smile. "I
hope your dad won't think I was too fresh, getting on one of his horses
without having permission," he said.
"Tartar was the one who was fresh," laughed Bud. "But the boys
shouldn't have allowed you on him."
"That was my fault," confessed impulsive Nort. "As I told you, Dick
and I arrived at the station without being expected by you, as it now
turns out. We scouted around, and found one of your wagon outfits
there, and of course the driver was decent enough to bring us in.
"I saw that corral full of ponies first shot, and as I can ride--a
little----" he quickly qualified his statement, "I just hopped aboard
the liveliest pinto in the pack."
"You sure did pick a lively one!" chuckled Bud. "I don't see how you
stayed on as long as you did. Tartar is next door to an outlaw. He's
a bucker and a roller, and they do say he killed a man once. I don't
see why dad keeps him. There aren't two men around here who can ride
him."
"Well, I'm not going to qualify," declared Nort. "But, as I said, when
Dick and I arrived we didn't stop to do any thinking. We hit the
corral, and though some of the men did warn me, I was foolish enough to
try and stick on that wild colt. You came along just in time."
"Yes, there might have been trouble," agreed Bud. "You'll have all the
riding you want if you stick around here. We don't know what walking
means on Diamond X, though dad does talk of getting a flivver. I wish
he would."
"There's lots of level country around here," observed Dick.
"Plenty, and the other kind too," added Bud nodding toward the hills at
their backs. "Well, we sure will have good times."
"We want work, too," declared Nort. "We want to learn to be ranchers."
"You'll have that chance, too," declared his western cousin. "But now
let's lope along a little faster. If we don't get to the table the
same time as the boys there won't be a smell left. Supper's going to
be late to-night."
For a time the pace forbade conversation. The only sounds were the
beating of hoofs on the ground, the clatter of buckles and the squeak
of damp leather. Then the cowboys, and the young ranchers, trotted
down the slope that led to the corral, and Nort and Dick had a glimpse,
in the doorway of the ranch house, of their aunt.
A quick survey of the party told Mrs. Merkel that there had been no
casualties, and, with a satisfied sigh, she went back in the house, and
began to put the supper on the table, with the assistance of Nell and
two women workers.
"The boys'll eat us out of house and home to-night," she remarked to
Nell.
"It's lucky we have plenty," commented Bud's pretty sister.
And plenty there was, as Dick and Nort amply testified to a little
later, as they drew chairs to a long table at which they sat with the
ranch hands, who had made hasty toilets after their fast ride.
For a time there was heard only the rattle of table utensils, but, with
the sharp edge of appetites dulled, talk and joking retort ran about
the board. Bud took his part, but the two easterners were silent,
preferring to listen and learn. And they picked up many a gem of slang
from the repartee that flashed forth.
"Any of you boys ever see that outfit before?" asked Bud's mother, when
an account of the professor's camp had been given.
No one had, but "Snake" Purdee, so called because of his deadly fear of
rattlers that were occasionally met with, remarked, after disposing of
a mouthful of biscuit:
"Some of the Double Z boys was tellin' me of a locoed tenderfoot who
was grubbin' for diamonds, or suthin' like that, an' I reckon this is
him."
"Shouldn't wonder," commented Mrs. Merkel. "You say you're going to
send over some liniment?" she asked the foreman.
"I was aimin' to do it," he answered. "That is if you----"
"Oh, of course!" interrupted Mrs. Merkel. "One of the boys can ride
over this evening. I don't want anybody to suffer when I can help."
Nort nudged Bud under the table.
"Can't we go, too?" asked the city lad.
Bud hesitated a moment and then answered:
"Why, yes, I reckon so." To his mother he said: "I'll ride over, too,
with Nort and Dick."
"Will it be safe?" asked Mrs. Merkel, with a quick look at the foreman.
"I wish Mr. Merkel would come."
"Oh, it'll be _safe_ enough," the foreman answered. "Those Greasers
won't come back, especially after dark. They'll lay low. I'll send
Babe over with the boys."
"Oh, joy!" murmured Nort, and the eyes of Dick sparkled. This was
living life as they had dreamed it--a night ride to a camp that had
been attacked by savage men!
"Get on some other clothes," suggested Bud to his cousins, as they left
the table. "You'll spoil those in no time, on a horse."
"All right," agreed Dick, and soon he and his brother had made the
change. If not exactly attired as were the cowboys, their outfits were
sufficiently practical for the time being.
"Can't we have guns?" asked Nort, while some of the ranch hands were
saddling ponies for the little party that was to take the antiseptics
to the wounded men.
"Know how to shoot?" asked Babe, who felt his responsibility at taking
two tenderfeet on the trail at night.
"A little," admitted Nort, and Dick nodded in agreement.
"Wa'al, I don't reckon you'll have any use for 'em," said the assistant
foreman, "but it's just as well to pack 'em. I'll get you a couple
guns," and he started toward the bunk house while Bud and his cousins
mounted their ponies and prepared to take the trail.
"They'll do," Babe said to Bud in a low voice, after passing to Dick
and Nort the guns. "Lots to learn, but they've got the grit, and they
ain't too much set up. They'll do."
Then they hit the trail.