Produced by Al Haines
[Transcriber's note: Extensive research found no evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
THE
BOY RANCHERS
IN DEATH VALLEY
OR
_Diamond X and the Poison Mystery_
By
WILLARD F. BAKER
Author of "The Boy Ranchers," "The Boy Ranchers at Spur Creek," "The
Boy Ranchers in the Desert," "The Boy Ranchers on Roaring River," Etc.
_ILLUSTRATED_
[Transcriber's note: Frontispiece missing from book]
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
THE BOY RANCHERS SERIES
By WILLARD F. BAKER
12mo. Cloth. Frontispiece
THE BOY RANCHERS
Or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X
THE BOY RANCHERS IN CAMP
Or the Water Fight at Diamond X
THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL
Or Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers
THE BOY RANCHERS AMONG THE INDIANS
Or Diamond X Trailing the Yaquis
THE BOY RANCHERS AT SPUR CREEK
Or Diamond X Fighting the Sheep Herders
THE BOY RANCHERS IN THE DESERT
Or Diamond X and the Lost Mine
THE BOY RANCHERS ON ROARING RIVER
Or Diamond X and the Chinese Smugglers
THE BOY RANCHERS IN DEATH VALLEY
Or Diamond X and the Poison Mystery
_Other volumes in preparation_
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York
COPYRIGHT, 1928, BY
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
THE BOY RANCHERS IN DEATH VALLEY
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. BAD NEWS
II. UNDAUNTED BY FEAR
III. ON THE TRAIL
IV. A NIGHT ALARM
V. THE WARNING
VI. AT DOT AND DASH
VII. SAM TARBELL'S STORY
VIII. THE ROUND-UP
IX. THE QUEER OLD MAN
X. DEAD CATTLE
XI. INTO SMUGGLERS' GLEN
XII. THE ELIXER CAVE
XIII. FRIGHTENED HORSES
XIV. BUD DISAPPEARS
XV. THE SEARCH
XVI. BUD'S STRANGE TALE
XVII. THE AVENGERS
XVIII. DRIVEN BACK
XIX. GAS MASKS
XX. GLITTERING YELLOW
XXI. FALSE SECURITY
XXII. TO THE RESCUE
XXIII. TESTING THE GOLD MINE
XXIV. A STRANGE DISCOVERY
XXV. THE END OF DEATH VALLEY
THE BOY RANCHERS IN DEATH VALLEY
CHAPTER I
BAD NEWS
Excited shouts, mingled with laughter, floated on the sunlit and
dust-laden air to the ranch house of Diamond X. Now and then, above
the yells, could be heard the thudding of the feet of running horses on
the dry ground.
"What do you reckon those boys are doing, Ma?" asked Nell Merkel as she
paused in the act of laying the top crust on a raisin pie.
"Land knows," answered the girl's mother with half a sigh and half a
chuckle. "They're always up to something. And, now that your Pa is
away----"
Mrs. Merkel's remarks were interrupted by louder shouts from the
corral, and Nell heard cries of:
"Try it again, Bud!"
"You missed him clean, that time!"
"How'd you like that mouthful of dust?"
"Git up an' ride 'im, cowboy!"
Like an echo to these sarcastic exclamations, Nell heard the voice of
her brother Burton, commonly known as Bud, answer:
"I'll do it yet! Just you wait!"
"I wonder what Bud's trying to do?" murmured Nell.
"Oh, run along and look if you want to," suggested Mrs. Merkel, with a
kind regard for Nell's curiosity. "I'll finish the pie."
"Thanks!" And Nell, not even pausing to clap a hat over her curls,
hastened out into the yard, across the stretch of grass that separated
the main house from the other buildings of Diamond X and was soon
approaching the corral where were kept the cow ponies needed for
immediate use by the owner, his family or the various hands on the big
estate.
Nell saw several cowboys perched on the corral fence, some with their
legs picturesquely wound around the posts, others astraddle of the
rails. Among them she sighted Dick and Nort Shannon, her two "city"
cousins, who had come west to learn to be cowboys. And in passing it
may be said that their education was almost completed now.
"Why, I wonder where Bud is?" asked Nell, as she made her way to the
fenced-in place.
A moment later she received an answer to her question, for her brother
arose from the dust of the corral and started for the fence. He seemed
to have been rolling in the dirt.
"That's a queer way to have fun!" mused Nell.
Without making her presence known, she stood off a little way and
watched what was going on. She saw Bud mount the fence near where the
two Shannon boys were sitting, though hardly able to maintain their
seats because of their laughter.
"Going to try it again, Bud?" asked Dick.
"Surest thing you know!" snapped back the boy rancher.
"Wait till I go in and get you a bit of fly paper!" suggested Nort.
"Fly paper! What for?" demanded Bud.
"So you can stick on!"
"Ho! Ho! That's pretty good!" shouted such a loud voice that Nell
would have covered her ears only she knew, from past experience, that
Yellin' Kid did not keep up his strident tones long. But this time he
went on, like an announcer at a hog-calling contest, with: "Fly paper!
Ho! Ho! So Bud can stick! That's pretty good!"
"Go ahead! Be nasty!" commented Bud good-naturedly as he climbed up
the top rail and perched himself there in standing position while he
looked over the dusty corral that was now a conglomeration of restless
cow ponies. "But I'll do it yet!"
"I wonder what in the world Bud is trying to do?" asked Nell of herself.
She learned a moment later. For Bud, after balancing himself on the
top rail, looked across the corral to where Old Billee Dobb was holding
a restless pony, and the lad called:
"Turn him loose, Billee!"
"Here he comes! All a-lather!" shouted the veteran cow puncher, as he
slapped his hat on the flank of the pony and sent it galloping around
the inside fence toward the waiting youth. "It's now or never, Bud!"
"It's going to be now!" shouted Nell's brother.
Fascinated, as any true girl of the west would be, by the spirited
scene, Nell saw Bud poise himself for a leap. Then she understood what
was about to take place.
"He's going to jump from the top rail of the fence and try to land on
the back of the pony when it gallops past him!" murmured Nell.
"Regular circus trick that is! I wonder if he can do it? But from the
looks of him I should say he'd already fallen two or three times.
Billee gave him a fast one this round."
Nell referred to the horse. And it was characteristic of her that she
was not in the least afraid of what might be the consequences of her
brother attempting the aforesaid "circus trick." Nell was as eager to
see what would happen, as were any of the cowboys perched on the corral
fence, and in furtherance of her desire she drew nearer.
By this time the pony, started on its way by the slapping from Billee
Dobb's hat, was running fast. And its speed was further increased by
what Dick, Nort and their companions, perched up there like rail birds,
did and said. For the punchers, old and young, yelled and yipped at
the steed.
"Come on there, you boneyard bait!" shouted Snake Purdee.
"Faster there, you spavin-eyed son of a Chinaman!" roared Yellin' Kid.
Nort gave vent to a shrill whistle, while Dick, drawing his big
revolver, fired several shots in the air.
All this had the effect of further alarming the already startled pony
and when it neared the place where Bud was perched on the top rail,
ready to make a flying leap, the animal was, as Old Billee had said,
"all a-lather."
"Bud is crazy to try anything like that!" exclaimed Nell in a low
voice. Nevertheless she did not call out to stop him, and her cheeks
showed rosy pink and her eyes were sparkling in the excitement of the
moment.
"Go on, now! Ride 'im, cowboy!" came in stentorian tones from Yellin'
Kid.
"Oh, I hope he makes it!" voiced Nell, clenching her hands so tightly
that the nails bit into her palms.
A moment later, as the pony rushed around the confused bunch of its
fellows in the center of the corral, Bud leaped for its back, for the
animal was now opposite him. The pony carried only a blanket strapped
around its middle. And there was nothing for the venturesome rider, or
would-be rider, to cling to but this strap or blanket.
"If there was a saddle, Bud could make it!" whispered Nell in her
excitement. "I guess that's why he must have fallen the other times."
For upon his clothes and person Bud Merkel bore unmistakable signs and
evidences of having fallen not once but several times in the corral
dust.
"Wow!" yelled Dick Shannon.
"He's on!" cried his brother Nort.
"And off ag'in!" roared Yellin' Kid.
Bud had made the leap from the fence, his hands, for a moment, had
grasped the strap around the pony and then his fingers had slipped off.
Likewise the one leg he managed to throw over the steed's back seemed
to be about to slide off.
But just when it seemed that Bud would fall to the ground, his fingers,
in a last, despairing grip, caught a fold of the blanket. By a supreme
effort he pulled himself up, managed to get one leg over the ridge-like
backbone of the pony and, a moment later, he was sitting upright on the
saddle blanket, both hands under the strap, while his heels played a
tattoo on the sides of the steed, urging him forward at even faster
speed.
"By golly, he done it!" cried Old Billee.
"He sure enough did!" echoed Yellin' Kid, reaching for his cigarette
papers and muslin bag of tobacco.
"That ought to get him something at Palmo," commented Snake Purdee,
referring to a coming rodeo in a nearby town close to the Mexican
border. "Can't do a much more hair-raisin' trick than that!"
"I didn't think he could do it!" commented Old Billee coming around
from the far side of the corral to join his friends.
"Well, he tried hard enough before he managed to stick," exclaimed Nort.
In the excess of her enthusiasm Nell clapped her hands. And Dick,
turning to ascertain the source of the noise, chuckled:
"Look who's here!"
"Got a ticket, little girl?" asked Bud, who, having demonstrated that
he could do what he had said he could--leap from the corral fence to
the back of a passing pony--was now slowing down his steed and riding
him back to where the other punchers were perched.
"I'm a reporter," responded Nell with a smile. "I'm writing this rodeo
up for the papers."
"Then we'll have to make a press box for you," said Nort.
He and his brother, with the half score of cowboys, and Nell were
offering their congratulations to the daring boy rancher when a new
voice, floating toward the corral from the direction of the house,
called to ask:
"What's all the excitement about?"
"Oh, hello, Dad!" cried Bud, waving his hat toward a well set-up,
bronzed specimen of a western ranchman who was walking slowly toward
the fence. "Did you see me?"
"I saw you risk your neck, if that's what you mean," answered Mr.
Merkel with a half smile.
"You should have seen him when he missed!" chuckled Old Billee.
"Anything the matter, Dad?" asked Bud as he swung himself down off the
saddle blanket and approached his father who was now leaning over the
top rail of the corral fence. Something in Mr. Merkel's face showed
that he had news to impart.
"You see," went on Bud, "we're all going to do stunts over at the Palmo
rodeo, and I made up this one, of fence jumping, so Dick and Nort and I
could horn in on some of the prizes. But if you don't want me to--"
He paused suggestively.
"You seemed to make out all right this last time, which is the only
time I saw you," chuckled Mr. Merkel. "But----"
"You needn't worry about the ranch work, Dad!" interrupted Bud,
eagerly. "It's all been 'tended to. Herd riding, looking after
fences, cattle all shipped off just as you left word when you went away
and all that. We got everything cleaned up and I thought we could take
a little time off to practice for the rodeo."
"Oh, sure! That's all right!" Mr. Merkel hastened to say. "I wasn't
finding any fault with your bare-back riding. But what I wanted to say
was that I've got a new job for you boys and if you take it on, which I
hope you'll do, you won't have any time for a rodeo."
"A new job!" cried Nort, eagerly.
"Anything to do with Chinese smuggling?" asked Dick.
"No, I'm glad to say it hasn't," went on the owner of Diamond X. "This
is right in the line of your regular work."
"Then you bought the new ranch; did you, Dad?" asked Bud, for his
father had been away about a week on a mission known only to the
immediate family, but which was now stated by his son.
"Yes," Mr. Merkel slowly replied, "I took over Dot and Dash, and if
everything here at Diamond X and in Happy Valley is in as good shape as
you boys seem to think, why, I'm going to send you there."
"Send us where?" Bud wanted to know.
"To the new ranch--Dot and Dash is its cattle brand--to get it in shape
before winter sets in. You don't mind; do you?"
"Mind!" joyously cried Bud. "Sure not!"
"That's good news!" commented Nort.
"Right-o!" sang out his brother. "Things were getting slow around
here, and if we didn't have the coming rodeo to think about----"
"Well, then if you're willing to take charge of Dot and Dash for a
while you can pass up the rodeo," chuckled Mr. Merkel. "Not but what
you won't have more excitement, maybe, than if you did try bulldogging
and bare-back riding," he added to his son. "Only it will be sort of
different, and your stunts will be doing some good instead of just
endangering your necks."
"Aw, there wasn't any danger," murmured Bud.
"No!" chuckled Snake Purdee. "The dust is pretty soft to fall on," and
his point was illustrated as Bud began whipping some of the accumulated
soil from his chaps.
"Well, that's what I came out to tell you, the news about buying Dot
and Dash," concluded Mr. Merkel.
"That's good news for us!" declared Nort. "It will give Dick and me a
chance to show how much we have learned about cow punching since we
came here."
"Sure, it's good news all right," echoed Dick.
And then Old Billee Dobb struck in with a few remarks which, most
distinctly, were in the category of bad news. For the veteran puncher
said:
"Excuse me, Boss," and he looked at Mr. Merkel to ask: "Did I
understand you to say you'd taken over the old Dot and Dash ranch?"
"That's right, Billee."
"Is that the outfit not far from Los Pompan, near the Mexican border?"
"That's the place, Billee."
"Hum!" The old man seemed lost in thought for a moment. Then he went
on with: "It's in a valley; ain't it, Boss?"
"Yes, Billee, in the prettiest valley, outside of Happy, that I ever
laid eyes on. It's an ideal place for a cattle ranch. I'm lucky to
get hold of it at the price I did. But Jed Barter was anxious to sell
out and----"
"'Scuse me once more, Boss," and Old Billee seemed very anxious and
much in earnest now, "but did you hear any rumors or talk about Dot and
Dash before you bought it?"
"No, Billee, I didn't. What do you mean?"
"Didn't anybody tell you the local name of the place 'fore you took it
over?"
"The local name! Why, no. What's the name got to do with it?"
"Nothin' much, maybe," slowly answered Billee while the boy ranchers
regarded him curiously. "Only Dot and Dash ranch is located in what
has always been called Death Valley, and nobody has ever been able to
make a success of it as long as I can remember. I wish, Boss," he went
on earnestly, "that you'd 'a' told me 'fore you bought this ranch. I'd
'a' put you wise to what it really is--Death Valley!"
"Death Valley?" echoed Bud Merkel. "What do you mean? Who died there,
and how come?"
An ominous hush fell over the assemblage of cowboys on the corral fence
and they looked from Billee Dobb to the owner of Diamond X. The bad
news, clearly, had startled him from his usual calm.