Produced by Al Haines
[Transcriber's note: Extensive research found no evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
[Illustration: Cover art]
[Frontispiece: SNAKE CAUGHT HOLD OF THE ANIMAL'S LEFT HORN. "The Boy
Ranchers at Spur Creek."]
THE BOY RANCHERS
AT SPUR CREEK
OR
_Fighting the Sheep Herders_
by
WILLARD F. BAKER
_ILLUSTRATED_
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 The Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers
THE BOY RANCHERS AMONG THE INDIANS
or On the Trail of the Yaquis
THE BOY RANCHERS AT SPUR CREEK
or Fighting the Sheep Herders
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York
COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
THE BOY RANCHERS AT SPUR CREEK
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I SHOTS IN THE NIGHT
II MISSING PAPERS
III ON THE TRAIL
IV AROUND THE CAMPFIRE
V AT SPUR CREEK
VI THE ALARM
VII A PARLEY
VIII SUSPICIONS
IX A CALL FOR HELP
X DEL PINZO'S HAND
XI COWBOY FUN
XII AFTER THE RUSTLERS
XIII A CLOUD OF DUST
XIV THE SHEEP ARRIVE
XV A BATTLE OF WITS
XVI STRANGE ACTIONS
XVII "WE CROWED TOO SOON!"
XVIII SKIRMISHES
XIX OPEN WARFARE
XX THE FLAG OF TRUCE
XXI A LEGAL CONTEST
XXII NORT'S PLAN
XXIII IN DISGUISE
XXIV THE BRONTOTHERIUM
XXV THE END OF THE SHEEP
THE BOY RANCHERS AT SPUR CREEK
CHAPTER I
SHOTS IN THE NIGHT
With a rattle and a clatter the muddy flivver stopped with a squeak of
brakes in front of Diamond X ranch house. From the car leaped three
boys, one of them carrying a small leather pouch.
"Here's the mail!" yelled this lad--Bud Merkel by name, and his
cousins, Nort and Dick Shannon, added the duet of their voices to his
as they cried:
"Mail's in! Lots of letters!"
"Any for me?" asked Nell, reaching out her hand toward Bud. "Don't
tell me there isn't!" she pleaded.
"Well, I'm sorry, Sis," began Bud, teasingly, "there was one for you,
but driving in we ran over a rattler and----"
"Don't you believe him, Nell!" consoled Nort, who didn't altogether
agree with Bud's teasing of his sister. "Your letters are safe in the
pouch."
"Oh, there are _letters_, then, are there--not just _one_?" cried Nell
with shining eyes. "Thanks a whole lot."
"Don't thank me--thank the postmaster--or whoever wrote you the
letters!" laughed Nort.
Bud had sat down on a bench outside the ranch house and was opening the
mail pouch. His mother came to the door of the kitchen, wiping flour
from her hands, for though Mrs. Merkel kept a "hired girl," and though
Nell assisted, yet the mother of Bud insisted on doing much of the work
herself, and very able she was, too.
"Any letters for your father?" she asked.
"Two or three," answered Bud, as he looked over the envelopes. "And
one for you, Mother."
"Well, take your father's mail to him when you've finished sorting,"
suggested Mrs. Merkel. "He said he was expecting something of
importance. You'll find him over in the bunk house looking after Mr.
Watson."
"Mr. _Watson_!" shouted Bud with a laugh. "Do you mean Yellin' Kid?"
"Oh, I guess that's what you call him," assented Mrs. Merkel as she
opened her letter. "But his name's Watson."
"Guess you're the only one who remembers that, Ma," chuckled Dick
Shannon, for though Mrs. Merkel was only his aunt, she was almost
universally called "Ma" on the ranch of Diamond X.
"Yellin' Kid isn't any worse, is he?" asked Bud.
"Oh, no, but your father wanted to change the bandages and it takes
some time. You'll find him pretty nearly finished, I guess, though
you'd better take his mail to him there."
There had been a slight accident the week before, in which the horse of
Yellin' Kid had crowded him against a post in a corral fence, badly
bruising and cutting the leg of the cowboy. A doctor had been called,
and after the first dressing of the wound had said Mr. Merkel or some
of the men could attend to it as much as was necessary, and the ranch
owner was now in performance of this duty.
"I'll take the boys' mail, Bud," offered Old Billee, one of the veteran
cow punchers of Diamond X. "Don't reckon you got any for me, have
you?" he asked with a sort of wistful hope in his voice.
"Sorry, Billee, but there doesn't seem to be any," answered Bud.
"Better luck next time."
"No, I don't reckon there will be," sighed Old Billee. "All my friends
is dead an' gone, an' nobody else wants t' write t' an ole timer like
me." He took the letters destined for the other cowboys who were
engaged in various duties about the ranch, saying he would distribute
them, while Bud took those destined for his father to the sleeping
quarters of the men, where Yellin' Kid was forced to remain temporarily
in his bunk.
Nort and Dick had letters from "home," as they called their residence
in the East, though they had been west so long now that they might
almost be said to live on the ranch. And while Bud's cousins were
going over their missives, Mr. Merkel was doing the same with those his
son handed him.
"How are you, Kid?" asked Bud of the injured cowboy as Mr. Merkel sat
at a table tearing open the various envelopes.
"Oh, I'll be up and around again shortly," was the answer. "If you
figure on starting off after any more Indians I could get ready in
about two quivers of a steer's nose."
"Guess there won't be any more Indians around here for a while,"
observed Bud. "We taught those Yaquis a lesson."
"Now you're shoutin'!" exclaimed Yellin' Kid, though it was he, rather
than Bud, who spoke in a loud voice--hence the Kid's name. He just
couldn't seem to speak in ordinary tones, but appeared to take it for
granted that every one was deaf, and so shouted at them.
Suddenly the quiet reading and attention that Mr. Merkel had been
giving his letters was broken as he jumped up, scattering the papers to
the floor of the bunk house. He held in his hand a single sheet that
seemed to cause him great surprise, not to say anger, and he exclaimed:
"Well, it's come, just as I feared it would! Now we're in for some hot
times!"
"What's the matter, Dad?" asked Bud, looking toward the door in which
his cousins now stood, having finished reading their letters.
"Not another Indian uprising, is it?" asked Bud.
"Almost as bad!" his father answered. "We're going to have trouble. I
might have known things were too good to last!"
"What sort of trouble?" inquired Nort.
"With sheep herders," answered Mr. Merkel.
"Sheep herders!" cried Bud, and if you know anything about the cattle
business you will realize his tone of voice. For, as I will explain
later, sheep herders are hated and despised by cattle men and horse
breeders alike, and with good reason, in spite of the rights the sheep
men have. "What do you mean?" asked Bud, fully alive to the danger
implied by his father's words. "There isn't a sheep within a hundred
miles of here, thank goodness!"
"No, but there soon will be," said Mr. Merkel grimly.
"What makes you say that?" and Bud clearly showed his fear and interest.
"Here's an official notice," his father said, waving the paper in his
hand. "It just came in the mail yon brought. The government announces
that it has thrown open to the public the old Indian lands bordering on
Spur Creek, and it won't be a month before the place is over-run with
Mexicans, Greasers, and worse, with their stinking sheep! Pah! It
makes me sick, after all the work we've done at Diamond X to have it
spoiled this way! But I'm not going to sit back and stand it! I'm
going to fight!"
"That's right, Dad! I'm with you! I'll fight, too! Won't we,
fellows?" he appealed to Nort and Dick.
"Sure we will!" was their answer. And it was, in a way, as much their
battle as it was that of Mr. Merkel and his son. For Bud, Nort and
Dick had a small ranch of their own in Happy Valley, not far from the
main holdings at Diamond X.
"But why do you think we'll be over-run with sheep just because they've
opened up the Indian lands?" asked Nort.
"It just naturally follows," his uncle answered. "Every low-down onery
sheep man for a hundred miles around has had his eyes on these lands
for the last five years, waiting for Uncle Sam to put 'em in the open
market. Now the government has finally paid the Indians' claims and
those fellows at Washington have decided to make it a
free-for-all-race."
"Well, in that case," said Bud, "can't you and the other cattlemen
around here jump in and claim the land so there won't be any danger of
the sheep men coming in?"
"Well, there's just one hitch," answered Mr. Merkel. "I said it was a
free and open race, but it isn't--exactly. Ranchmen who own more than
a certain amount of acreage, grazing ground and range, are barred from
taking any of this Indian land."
"But there may be enough good cattle men and horse breeders who will
take up all the claims and so shut out the sheep," suggested Nort.
"That might happen, but I haven't told you all," said his uncle. "You
see boundary lines out here are pretty uncertain. In some places there
never has been a survey made. So not only may the sheep men jump in
and claim the Indian land that the government has opened, but they'll
over-run land that we now use for grazing cattle and horses. And I
needn't tell you that once sheep have been on land it's ruined for my
business."
This was very true, and though Nort and Dick had once been in the
"tenderfoot" class, they had learned of the deep-seated hatred that
existed on the part of a cattle man against a sheep owner.
There is a real reason for this. Horses and cattle in the West just
naturally hate sheep. It may be that the cattle and horses recognize
that the sheep is such a greedy eater that he practically cleans off
the grass down to the very roots, whereas a steer or horse leaves
enough of the herbage to grow for the next time.
Then, too, the strong smell of sheep seems to annoy horses and cattle.
Often a bunch of steers or a herd of horses will stampede and run for
miles, merely after getting a whiff of the odor from a bunch of sheep.
They will even do this if, in grazing, they come to a place where sheep
have been eating. And if sheep wade through a creek the odor of their
oily wool seems to remain for days, and horses and cattle refuse to
drink, unless almost dying of thirst. So much for the animals
themselves, and because of this there was unending war between the
horses and cattle on one side, and sheep on the other. Though it
cannot be said that the meek sheep did any fighting. They never
stampeded because they had to drink from streams where cows and horses
had watered, nor did they refuse to nibble grass left by the larger
animals.
Aside from the fact that the horse breeders and cattle men were
pioneers on the old open range, and naturally resented the coming of
the lowly sheep herders, there is another reason for the hatred.
Sheep, as I have said, nibble the grass to its very roots. And then
the small and sharp feet of the sheep cut into the turf and so chop
what few roots that are left as to prevent a new crop of grass from
growing--the fodder dies off. And as the sheep are kept constantly on
the march, as they greedily eat their way, they spread ruin--at least
so the ranchmen thought. So it was and had been war.
"This is bad news--bad news!" muttered Mr. Merkel. "We ranchers will
have to get together and talk it over. We've got to do something! I
want to talk to Tom Ogden." He was the owner of Circle T ranch, and a
friend of Mr. Merkel.
"Shall I go for him in the flivver?" asked Bud, for since the advent of
the little car he and his cousins often journeyed in it, leaving their
horses in the corral. Though there were places where only a horse
could be used, and of course for cattle work no cowboy would think of
anything but of being in the saddle.
"No, thank you. I'll call him on the wire," said Mr. Merkel. "I'll
have him bring some of the other ranchers over. We've got to act
quickly."
"When does the land-grabbing start?" asked Dick.
"It's open now--has been for the last two weeks. This notice is late,"
said Mr. Merkel, looking at the paper in his hand. "Even now some of
the sheep men may be coming up from the Mexican border. We've got to
do something mighty sudden!"
Seldom had Bud and his cousins seen Mr. Merkel so moved, and the boys
realized from this the grave danger.
That evening a number of wealthy and influential ranch owners gathered
at Diamond X to talk the situation over. As cattle men in a small way,
the Boy Ranchers, as they were called, were allowed to "sit in" on the
conference.
"The worst of it for me," said Mr. Merkel, "is that the range where I
breed my best steers is near this Spur Creek tract, and the sheep will
naturally over-run my feeding ground."
"Can't you fence it in?" asked Mr. Ogden.
"Too late for that now; it would take weeks to get the wire here, and
some of those onery sheep men wouldn't mind cutting the strands,
anyhow. It only takes one night for a band of sheep to ruin a good
many miles of pasture. No, what we've got to do is to fight 'em from
the start--not let 'em get there."
"We'll take up the land ourselves!" exclaimed Henry Small.
"Can't, Hen," objected Mr. Merkel. "We all own our full share now, and
maybe a little more. Of course, when you look at it from a legal
standpoint a sheep man has just as many rights under the government as
we have. But not by custom or western ways."
"Not by a long shot!" cried the other ranchmen.
"I hope your papers are all straight," observed Mr. Ogden to Bud's
father.
"What papers?"
"Your deeds and documents that give you the right to land on this side
of Spur Creek. If there's a legal question the sheep men may try to
jump some of your claims."
"Oh, I guess not," said Mr. Merkel easily. "My papers are all in my
safe, and I can prove title by them easily enough. But, gentlemen,
what are we going to do? That's the question now. What are we
going----"
Mr. Merkel never finished that sentence. For he was interrupted by a
fusillade of shots just outside--shots in the night.
An instant later every man in the conference room, and the boy ranchers
included, had leaped to his feet, and many hands sought the "guns" that
were within easy reach.
"Some of your cowboys disporting themselves?" asked Mr. Ogden of the
owner of Diamond X.
Mr. Merkel shook his head.
"Nothing like that," he remarked.
Some one yelled--there were more shots and then the voice of Slim
Degnan, foreman of the ranch, was heard shouting:
"Get after 'em, boys! Head 'em off!"
"It's a stampede!" yelled Bud. "Come on, fellows!"