THE WARNING
Flaring up suddenly, a stick, in the embers of the fire which had long
been smoldering, burst into blaze. By the light of this Dick saw the
figure hurrying out of the maze of sleeping bodies in the camp. And
there was light enough to see, though dimly, that the figure was that
of an old man.
"Billee Dobb, is that you?" cried Dick, lowering the gun with which he
had begun to draw a bead on the moving figure. "What's the matter?"
But, even as he asked the question his eyes roved to the place where
the old puncher had spread his blankets. And a huddled form there told
Dick that Billee was still sleeping.
Then, before the boy rancher could again get his gun up, the mysterious
figure that had caused the night alarm slipped out of the circle of
firelight and into the shadows of darkness.
Hardly sure, even yet, that it was not all a dream, part of the queer,
fantastic vision of the cowboy shoe salesman kicking his foot, Dick sat
there on his blankets, fingering his gun and wondering what would
happen next.
"Did I see an old man or didn't I?" the boy was asking himself when two
other things happened simultaneously, in the end convincing him that it
was not all a dream.
One thing that happened was that Billee Dobb himself awakened and sat
up as Dick was doing.
"What's the row?" the veteran cattle puncher demanded.
Before Dick could reply there was a disturbance among the tethered
ponies as though something had alarmed them. In a flash it came to
Dick that the intruder he had seen was trying to steal a horse. The
ponies did not dream. When they saw anything they knew it was real.
Accordingly the boy sharply called:
"A horse thief, Billee!"
This warning was enough to set any Westerner on the alert in an
instant, for, in spite of the progress of automobiles, the horse is
still, in the cattle reaches of the west, a thing most vitally needed.
"Horse thieves, eh?" cried Billee in ringing tones. "The varmints!
Come on, boys! We'll get 'em!"
His cries and the voice of Dick served to rouse the others in camp and
in a few moments Nort, Bud, Yellin' Kid and Snake Purdee had unrolled
from their warm blankets and had grabbed their guns. Bud threw some
light cottonwood on the embers and the blaze that at once resulted
showed objects up fairly plainly, though there was sufficient shadow to
make the picking out of any particular horse thief very difficult.
"Where is he--which way did he go?" shouted Yellin' Kid.
"Over there!" and Dick pointed the trail along which they had ridden
that day. Quickly he told his story--how he had been awakened by the
midnight visitor kicking the boy's foot as he strode over him.
"Come on!" called Snake and in a moment the entire camp was trailing
after him in the direction where Dick had seen the old man vanish.
But it was like pursuing one of the shadows of the night, and it did
not take long, after emerging from the circle of illumination of the
fire into the blackness of the surrounding night, to impress all with
the idea that a capture was out of the question.
"How many horses did he get?" asked Bud. "Gee! Why didn't you wake
me, Dick?"
"I did as soon as I got my wits about me," was the answer. "It all
happened so suddenly."
"Horse thieves don't generally send word they're comin'!" chuckled
Billee. "But it strikes me you've made a mistake, Dick."
"A mistake, how?"
"Callin' this old man, as you say he was, a horse thief."
"What else was he?"
"I'm not sayin' he wasn't. But he didn't take any of our ponies.
Count for yourself."
It took only a few moments to enumerate the riding and pack animals
tethered near the camp and the count was found to total correctly. Not
an animal was missing.
"Guess you were too quick for him," commented Nort to his brother.
"It's lucky you woke up."
"It's lucky he kicked my foot!" chuckled Dick. "Lucky for us and
unlucky for him."
"Somewhat," admitted Billee Dobb. "Well, he come here and he went
away, and we aren't none the worse off as far as I can make out. Guess
I was a little out when I said not to stand guard. But I didn't
imagine we were in horse-thieves' country."
"Hadn't we better have sentry-go from now on?" suggested Bud.
"'Twouldn't be a bad idea," admitted Billee.
"I'll take first shot at it," said Dick. "I'm wide awake now and since
I saw this old man I'll know him again if he comes sneaking back."
Nort and Bud were as eager to take the first watch as was Dick, but he
insisted that it go to him. So, after another supply of light wood was
placed near the fire in readiness to throw on and produce a quick
blaze, in case of another alarm, the others retired to their blankets
and Dick was left on guard.
Once more the silence of the night settled over the camp, a silence
broken only by the occasional howl of a distant coyote. Dick made
himself as comfortable as possible and at first he was able to keep
widely awake. Then as the fatigues of the day manifested themselves in
a desire to go to sleep once more he found himself wishing that the
intruder would come back again to furnish excitement to keep him awake.
But nothing like that happened. The night continued quiet and in due
time it came the turn of Bud to relieve Dick. Later Nort relieved Bud
and finished the night watch which came to an end when a rosy tint in
the east announced, the coming of a new day.
"Well, you didn't catch anybody I see!" chuckled Billee as he sauntered
down to the water hole to wash for breakfast.
"No, nothing happened while I was on duty," announced Bud.
"He knew better than to come while I was sitting up waiting for him,"
added Nort.
"You didn't see anything; did you, Dick?" asked Yellin' Kid of the
remaining sentry. "I mean after the first scare."
"No, nothing. He didn't come back--whoever he was."
"Wonder what he came for, anyhow?" mused Bud who had started to follow
Billee to the water hole.
Suddenly Nort, who was walking near his cousin, stooped and picked
something up off the ground. It was a soiled bit of paper, evidently
part of what had once been a grocery bag.
"Maybe he came to leave this!" suggested Nort as he turned the paper
over.
"Came to leave that--what is it?" asked Bud.
"It's some sort of a warning, I guess," was the answer. "Look!"
He held the soiled scrap out to the others. The writing was large and
straggling, but it was plain. The warning said:
KEEP AWAY FROM DEATH VALLEY
IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU.
S. T.