AT DOT AND DASH
Silently the little circle of ranchers, young and old, gazed at the
ominous warning Nort had picked up. Yellin' Kid was the first to
speak, following the reading of the message on the dirty piece of bag
paper.
"Well, I'll be horn-swoggled!" voiced the Kid in his usual loud tones.
Billee Dobb looked sharply from Nort to Dick and then at Bud.
"This any of your doin's?" he asked.
"Our doings! What do you mean?" challenged Bud.
"I mean you aren't getting up some stunts for the rodeo--oh, I
forgot--that's off," the veteran puncher hastened to add. "But none of
you youngsters did this, I hope."
"Dropped that warning?" questioned Dick. "I should say not! I didn't
do it!"
"Nor I!" voiced Nort. "I picked it up, and I can see, Billee, you
might naturally be suspicious of me as one who knew just where to
locate this piece of paper. But I had nothing to do with it."
"Nor I!" said Bud. "'Tisn't my idea of the right kind of a joke to
play."
"You never can tell what young fellows will do," murmured Old Billee.
"But I'm glad to hear you three say you had nothing to do with it.
Sort of relieves me."
"'Tisn't my kind of writing," went on Dick as though he thought,
because he had given the first alarm and had been, in fact, the only
one to view the midnight intruder, that more suspicion might attach to
him as the joker than to any one else.
"I'm not much on writin' myself," declared Yellin' Kid, "and while I
might say I'd be proud if I could sling a pen the way this feller did,
I want it distinctly understood I didn't have nothin' to do with it."
"You needn't tell the folks in the next county about it," gently chided
Billee. Then he took the paper from Snake Purdee, who was curiously
examining it, and subjected it to a close scrutiny.
"Make anything of it, Billee?" asked Yellin' Kid endeavoring to put the
soft pedal on his voice.
"The writin' ain't that of anybody I know," said the veteran, "and I
can't, offhand, recall anybody whose initials are S.T. But Tim
Mellick, who keeps the store over at Palmo, has paper bags of the same
kind of stuff as this."
"I don't believe that will be much of a clew," said Dick. "Most paper
bags are alike, and store keepers get their supply of them from a
wholesale house that supplies a hundred customers."
"No, I don't reckon we can do much toward pickin' up the trail of this
fellow from that scrap," admitted Billee. "So the next best thing to
do is to get breakfust."
"That's right--let's eat!" exclaimed Snake.
"But you aren't going to throw that away; are you?" asked Dick as he
saw Billee folding the ragged piece of brown paper containing the
sinister warning.
"Throw it away? Oh, no! Of course I'm not. I'm going to keep it
until I can find out what it means."
"What it means is plain enough," said Bud. "Somebody doesn't want us
to go on to Death Valley and Dot and Dash ranch."
"All the more reason why we should go on there and see what it means!"
cried Nort.
"That's the talk!" echoed his brother and cousin.
"If they're trying to scare us away, they'll find we don't scare worth
a cent," added Bud.
"It goes to prove, though," remarked Dick, "that Billee's story is
likely to be borne out. I mean that there's something queer going on
at Death Valley."
"Queer is right!" assented Bud. "Though whether this is a warning in
our interests, sent by one who doesn't want to see any of us get put
out of business with the poisoned water, or whether it's a warning to
keep away so we won't discover some crooked business--that's something
we can't answer."
"Not yet," said Billee Dobb significantly. "But we'll soon be able to.
I've got my mind made up, now. I'm going to see this thing through to
the finish!" and he smote his right fist into his open left hand with a
sound like the report of a small gun.
"That's the way to talk!" cried Yellin' Kid. "I wish I'd had a sight
of the fellow who dropped that warning," he went on. "He would be
sitting down here now talking Turkey and tellin' what it was all about.
Why didn't you call me first, Dick?"
"I raised the alarm as soon as I could wake myself up," was the answer.
"But I guess we were all sleeping pretty sound."
While Snake was frying the bacon and making the coffee, some of the
others cast about the camp in a circle, seeking some clew to the
midnight visitor. But nothing could be found that shed any light on
the mystery. It was evident that the man, whoever he was, had ridden
to the camp, had picketed his horse out some distance and then had
sneaked in among the prostrate, sleeping figures. Evidently his object
was merely to leave the warning, and not to rob or commit some more
serious crime. And his touching the foot of Dick was an accident.
Then, seeing he had caused an alarm, the man slipped away, dropping his
note.
Puzzle their heads as they did, none of the six could recall any one,
either among their friends or enemies, whose initials were S.T. and
Dick's suggestion, that the symbols of a name were only assumed, seemed
to be generally accepted.
Breakfast was eaten, camp was broken and once more, after another
casual casting about for possible clews to the intruder, the cavalcade
was under way. But one more night separated them from the vicinity of
Death Valley and the new ranch.
"And the sooner we can get there and begin checking up on some of the
things we've heard the better I'll like it," remarked Bud.
"I guess we all will," echoed Nort.
"I only hope we'll find something tangible, and not a lot more
mysteries," spoke Dick.
"It'll probably turn out to be poisoned springs or bad water,"
suggested Yellin' Kid. "That's the most reasonable explanation."
"Um!" was all Billee Dobb would reply to that.
They made rather good time that day, as the trail was now downward for
they had passed the range of low hills outside of the valley. And when
night came, and they were once more camped out, they knew that the
following day would see them at Dot and Dash ranch.
"What about standing guard to-night?" asked Bud of his cousins when
camp was established and a good supper had been eaten.
"'Twon't do any harm to have sentry-go," agreed Dick.
"But the chances are a hundred to one against anything happening to
disturb us," said Nort. "That fellow isn't likely to come back."
"I agree with you," said Bud. "But, all the same, I think we'll all
sleep sounder if we stand watch and watch."
"It'll be our turn," declared Snake. "We three old gazaboes will take
turns. You kids had last night. This is ours."
It was no more than fair and the boy ranchers were glad enough to let
the men act as sentries. So Billee, Snake and Yellin' Kid arranged it
among themselves, leaving the night to uninterrupted slumber for the
three boys.
"That is, we'll sleep if nothing wakes us," said Bud.
And nothing did. Nor did any of the cowboys, who took turns staying
awake during the night, report any untoward occurrences. But in spite
of that fact when Bud went to the grub box to get out some bacon he
found, stuck in a pack, a folded brown paper, like the one on which the
other warning was written. And this message was of like import with
the other. It said:
DON'T GO TO DOT AND DASH.
However there was no signature to this. But none was needed to make it
certain that it was from the same hand.
"Well, what do you know about that!" cried Nort when he saw what Bud
had found.
"How'd he get in camp to leave that warning without being seen or
heard?" asked Dick.
"Guess it's up to us," admitted Billee with a sheepish smile. "We old
geezers must 'a' been asleep at the switch. No tellin' which one it
was," he went on, "'ceptin' I'll swear nobody slipped past when I was
on guard."
"And nobody came into camp while I was sentry," added Snake.
"That goes for me, too!" came from Yellin' Kid.
"Then we'll all have to plead guilty," chuckled Billee. "Anyhow here's
the warnin' and it looks as if this fellow, whoever he is, was
follerin' us up to discourage us from going on."
"Well, he shan't discourage me!" exclaimed Bud.
"Nor me!" came in a duet from Nort and Dick.
"That's the ticket! Then we'll go on!" said Billee. "But I would like
to know," he murmured, "how this chap can sneak in and out of a camp
without rousing somebody. I sure would!"
However there was nothing more to be done. And after making sure no
clews could be picked up, the second warning was placed with the first,
in Billee's big leather wallet, and the travelers prepared to resume
the trail.
They were now in a wilder and more lonesome country than any they had
ever before visited. It was distinctly the "bad lands," but often in
such a region can be found isolated places where abundant water and
herbage offer ideal sites for cattle raising.
Such, Mr. Merkel had said, was his new Dot and Dash ranch. And it was
apparent to the boys and their older companions, as they rode along,
that the valley was a good locality for raising cattle.
"This must be the place," said Bud as they began riding down the
opposite side of the slope they had climbed to cross the low range of
mountains. "It's just as dad described it. I'll show these papers to
whoever's in charge and they'll know we have come to take over the
ranch." He tapped in his pocket a bundle of documents which his father
had given him to show the transfer of authority.
"Yes, that's Dot and Dash," said Billee as he recalled some of the
familiar landmarks. "This is the place where I used to punch cattle."
"Seems to be a right nice sort of a place," murmured Snake. "And I
reckon them tales about all the cattle droppin' dead are fakes. Look
at that herd," and he pointed to a collection of dots on a distant hill.
"Nobody said _all_ the cows died!" retorted Billee. "And maybe the bad
spell, whatever it was, has worked itself out. I hope so. But there's
Dot and Dash all right," and he waved to a collection of ranch
buildings that came into view with a turn of the trail.
In a short time they had traversed the slope and were on the level and
green floor of a pleasant valley, long and narrow, yet wide enough to
give space to several big ranches. The hills were barren and rugged in
some places, and wooded in others.
On up to the ranch rode the cavalcade, the thoughts of the boys busy
with many things. It was rather a tamer entry than they had counted on
after Billee's stories and the receipt of the two dramatic warnings.
"Guess we aren't going to have any trouble after all," said Dick as
they rode their horses to the hitching rail, made the reins fast and
dismounted to enter the main house.
"It's quiet enough," said Nort
"'Tis, for a fact," echoed Bud. "Doesn't seem to be anybody around
here for me to serve my possession papers on!" he chuckled. "Hello!
Anybody home?" he called loudly.
There was no answer save the echoes of his voice through the rambling
building.
"Give 'em a call, Kid, you can make yourself heard," suggested Snake,
and the yeller let out a ringing shout.
Still there was no reply and the silence was beginning to get on the
nerves of the boys when Billee, who had been roaming around, came in
with a queer look on his face.
"What's the matter?" asked Bud.
"There's a dead man outside in the yard," was the quiet answer of the
veteran puncher.