PRISONERS
"Would you look at that!" shouted Nort, pointing down into the valley.
"They must be under bombardment! It's a battle, Dick!"
"Nonsense!" cried the younger lad, not as impulsive as his brother.
"They're blasting; that's what they're doing! Trying to locate a
pocket of gold, I reckon. But now we're all right, Nort. They'll tell
us how to get back to Diamond X, even if they can't put us on the trail
of the cattle we so stupidly missed."
"Well, maybe they can, and then again, maybe they can't," said Nort
slowly.
"What do you mean?" asked Dick.
"Well, they may be able to tell us the way to Diamond X, but maybe they
won't want to tell us where the missing cattle are."
"You mean they may have taken 'em _themselves_?" asked Dick, and there
was surprise in his voice.
"It's possible," declared Nort. "But we can't find out much by staying
up here. Let's ride down and see what's going on. I reckon it's as
you say--they have been blasting."
At first no one paid any attention to the approach of Dick and Nort.
The men who had run away as the blast let loose, now hurried back to
peer into the excavation made by the explosion. And among those who
thus eagerly sought to see the inner secrets of the earth, our heroes
recognized Professors Blair and Wright. These two scientists were
foremost among the men standing on the edge of the hole that had been
torn in the earth.
"No success!" Dick and Nort heard Professor Wright say as he turned
aside from the hole. "We must try lower down."
"Higher up, I should say," spoke Professor Blair.
"Oh, no. You must remember that the deposits are weighty, and would be
brought lower and lower each year by gravity, as well as by the sliding
action of the hill under the influence of erosion."
"Yes, you are correct, Professor," admitted Mr. Blair, and then the two
turned and beheld Dick and Nort at hand.
Surprise, and no very pleased surprise at that, was manifest on the
faces of the two scientists as they viewed the boys. Grouped around
the professors were several Mexicans, or Greasers, a Chinese, evidently
the cook of the "outfit," and a number of workmen, unmistakably
American. These last looked at the boys with scowling faces, though
the two professors tried to force smiles to their lips.
"Oh, you are from Circle T ranch, are you not?" asked Professor Blair
of Dick and Nort. "You are the boys who were so kind as to bring the
antiseptics for the wounded men, who, thanks to that treatment, are now
doing well."
"Glad to hear it," said Nort. "Only we're not from Circle T. We hail
from Diamond X."
"Strange names," murmured Professor Wright. "I don't see how you
remember them, though I do recall, now, that Diamond X is the proper
term. We--er--I hardly expected to see you again," he said, haltingly.
"Nor we you," spoke Nort, who seemed to be doing the talking for his
brother and himself. "We started after some cattle, but they got away
from us and we lost ourselves. You haven't seen them; have you? A
bunch of steers with the Square M brand on."
"And if you've seen anything of Diamond X ranch itself, up among these
hills, I wish you'd tell us how to get to it," added Dick, with a
whimsical smile.
"Cattle! Of why should we know of your cattle!" exclaimed a harsh
voice behind the boys, and Dick and Nort, turning in their saddles, saw
fairly glaring at them Del Pinzo, the unprepossessing Mexican half
breed.
"Do you think we have your steers--that we are _rustlers_?" demanded
Del Pinzo fiercely.
"No," said Nort, seeing into what error he might be drawn. "I was only
asking."
"Well, we haven't seen any of your cattle!" declared the Mexican, or
half breed, to give his correct title. "And we don't want you around
here when we're----"
"Just a moment, Del Pinzo," interposed Professor Wright, and Dick
noticed a peculiar look pass between the two scientists. "You must
excuse the zeal of one of our helpers," went on Mr. Wright. "He is
doubtless afraid that you might get hurt in a blast."
"Yes! Yes! Blasts are dangerous!" said the half breed quickly, and it
seemed as if he spoke in answer to a signal given by one of the
scientists. "We are going to set off another."
"It is just some research work we are undertaking," said Professor
Blair, as he saw Nort and Dick looking around. "We have absented
ourselves from our college to do some investigating, and it is
necessary to blast, in some cases, to get at the lower deposits."
Both Dick and Nort said to each other, afterwards, that they did not
believe these statements.
"Perhaps you boys had better come down to the tents," suggested
Professor Wright. "As Del Pinzo says, blasts are dangerous, and the
men are going to set off another. Come to the tents," and with a wave
of his hand he indicated the camp site, a level place amid the little
and big hills all about.
"Thanks," murmured Nort. "But are you going to be able to direct us
how to find Diamond X ranch?"
"Doubtless some of our men can tell you," said Mr. Wright. "Have you
eaten?" he asked.
"We had a little," Dick replied. "But----"
"You can eat more, I have no doubt!" laughed Professor Blair, but his
merriment seemed to be forced. "Well, fortunately our larder is well
stocked. Come down and have something. How are all your friends?"
"Well, as far as we know, not having seen them since yesterday,"
answered Dick. "You see we're not regular ranchers or cowboys yet,
we're just learning."
"One need not be told _that_!" sneered Del Pinzo, who had followed our
heroes and the two professors down the slope.
Professor Blair turned and looked sharply at the half breed. Then the
scientist, speaking, said:
"Del Pinzo, perhaps you had better return and watch that the next blast
harms no one. We would not want an accident."
The half breed hesitated for a moment, and then murmured:
"_Si, senor!_" ("Yes, sir!")
He turned back up the hill, Dick and Nort continued down it toward the
tents.
"Picket your horses and come in," invited Professor Wright, as he held
open the flap of what was, evidently, the private dining tent of
himself and his college companion. "I'll have Sing Wah fix you up a
little feed."
"This is mighty kind of you," murmured Dick, as he and his brother sat
at the folding camp table and ate hungrily.
"And now all we want is to be put on the trail to Diamond X," said
Nort, as they finished. "We'll let the cattle go, for the time being."
He rose to leave the tent, followed by his brother, but, as the boys
neared the flap a man, who, they remembered, had been called Silas
Thorp, interposed his ugly bulk in front of them.
"Don't be in a hurry to leave, boys," he sneered.
"Why not?" hotly demanded Nort.
"Because we'd like to keep you here a while," Thorp went on. "I guess
the professors would like to have you accept their hospitality a little
longer."
"Is this true?" cried Nort. "Are we prisoners?"
"Well, that is rather a harsh word to use," said Professor Wright.
"But we feel we must detain you--at least for a while!"