MISSING PAPERS
Nort and Dick lost no time following their cowboy cousin, Bud, outside
the ranch house, and each of the three lads, as well as Mr. Merkel and
his associates, had caught up one of the heavy revolvers that were
never far from their hands. For, as has been said of the West, a man
doesn't always need a gun out there, but when he does need it, he needs
it "mighty bad and mighty sudden."
The boy ranchers were taking no chances.
"What's the matter, Slim?" asked Bud as he rushed outside and saw a
group of cowboys near the foreman. They were vaulting to the saddles
of their horses which had hurriedly been turned out of the home corral.
"Rustlers!" cried Nort. "Is it rustlers, Slim?"
"Might be, for all I can tell," was the answer. "I saw some men riding
along out there, and when I called to know who they were they didn't
answer, which was suspicious in itself. Then I told 'em to stop until
I could get a look at 'em, but they turned and made off, and that was
worse, so I fired a couple of times after 'em."
"Where are they now?" asked Dick.
"That's what we're going to find out; son," was the foreman's grim
answer. "You there, Babe?" he called to his fat assistant, who
rejoiced in the diminutive nickname.
"All there is of me," was the sighing answer. "Stand still there, you
slab-sided chunk of salt pork!" he called to his horse, which was
nervously swerving about. And Babe Milton was too heavy to be a quick
mounter. He needed special attention on the part of his steed.
"Let's go, fellows!" cried Bud to his cousins, and, not waiting for the
permission of Mr. Merkel, the lads saddled their horses and started
after the foreman and his cowboys who had gotten a flying start.
"What do you imagine it is?" asked Nort as he rode between his brother
and cousin, while they urged their steeds on to catch up to those ahead
of them.
"Haven't any idea," answered Bud, glancing back to note that his father
and the visiting ranchmen had gone into the house. Probably Mr. Merkel
and the others knew the matter could safely be left to the cowboys.
Bud and his cousins rode fleet ponies, and they were more than at home
in their saddles, so it did not take them long to reach the bunch of
cowboys riding across the plains ahead of them, on the trail of the
mysterious night visitors.
"Any idea who they were, Slim?" asked Bud, guiding his horse alongside
that of the foreman.
"Not the least in the world. But they're up to no good or they
wouldn't have veered off at the first hail. There's something
suspicious in that."
"I should say so," agreed Nort.
"Couldn't be any sheep herders coming so soon, to turn their nibblers
on our land; could it?" Dick wanted to know. He spoke of "our land,"
for he and his brother owned a small ranch in partnership with Bud.
"No, I don't reckon it was the sheep herders themselves," said Slim,
"but it might be some of their bunch coming to size things up. The
government never made a worse mistake than to throw this Indian land
open to everybody. Them fellers at Washington should have barred the
sheep men!"
To hear Slim talk you would have imagined that he could go to
Washington and regulate matters all by himself. But if you understand
the feeling of western cattle men and horse men against sheep herders
it will make it easier to comprehend.
"Well, if any of 'em try to come to Happy Valley," said Bud, "they'll
wish they'd stayed out."
"That's right!" chimed in Nort and Dick.
Suddenly one of the cowboys on the outer fringe of the riding posse
uttered a low cry and exclaimed:
"There they are--off to the left!"
As he spoke the moon came out from behind ragged clouds and disclosed
two horsemen riding at full speed across the prairie.
"After 'em, fellows!" cried Slim, and he fired some shots in the air.
The boy ranchers put spurs to their steeds--not cruelly but with a
gentle touch to let the horses know a burst of speed was needed--and
the race was quickly taken up.
And while it is on I will beg a moment or so of the time of my new
readers to make them acquainted with the heroes of this story. As
related in the first book of this series, called "The Boy Ranchers; or
Solving the Mystery at Diamond X," Nort and Dick Shannon, eastern
cousins of Bud Merkel, went to the ranch of his father, Diamond X, to
spend their vacation. While there certain mysterious happenings
occurred. Dr. Hendryx Wright, a college scientist, with a party of
helpers, was discovered digging not far from Diamond X. At first it
was thought he was after a lost gold mine, but later it was disclosed
that he was after the bones of a prehistoric monster for the college
museum.
The part that Del Pinzo, a rascally half-breed, played in this search
and the activities of the boy ranchers, are fully set forth. Nort and
Dick liked it so at Diamond X that they took up their home with Bud,
and became partners with him, their father buying them a share in a
ranch located in "Happy Valley," as the boys called it.
Following the exciting times related in the first volume, the boy
ranchers went to camp, they took the trail and also helped pursue a
band of Yaqui Indians who escaped from their Mexican reservation, and
the details of those activities will be found in the volumes
specifically named for each line of activity. The book immediately
preceding this is called "The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians; or, On
the Trail of the Yaquis."
They had not long returned from helping to defeat these marauders, and
rescue Rosemary and her brother Floyd, when the news came about the
government lands being thrown open. Then had followed the alarm in the
night, and the chase, which was now on.
Forward toward the two lone figures spurred the boy ranchers and their
cowboy companions. Several more shots rang out, slivers of flame
spitting harmlessly into the air, for until more was known of the
character of the fugitives, no one desired to fire directly at them.
Though in the West it was the custom to shoot first and inquire
afterward, Slim Degnan knew it was not always a wise policy. Innocent
men might be injured.
However the two fugitives were either such poor riders, or their steeds
were so tired, or, possibly, it was a combination of both causes, that
the outfit from Diamond X was not long in overhauling them.
"Look out for shots!" warned Snake Purdee, who was now in the lead with
Slim.
But the two figures whose horses were rapidly slowing to a walk, showed
no signs of fight. Indeed the larger of the two men cried:
"We surrender, gentlemen!"
In the half light of the moon Bud, Nort and Dick looked at each other
on hearing that voice. It brought back to them very vividly a picture
of strenuous times.
"Don't let 'em shoot, Professor!" chimed in another voice. "If I only
had my long poker here----"
"Be quiet, Zeb," spoke the one who had offered to surrender. "You
aren't attending the school furnace now."
"I only wish I was," came the rueful comment.
"Did you hear that?" spoke Bud to his cousins.
"It's Professor Wright!" exclaimed Nort and Dick in a sort of surprised
duet.
"But what's he doing here, and at night, and why did he run?" asked Bud.
However, these questions could be answered later. Just now Slim and
his bunch of cowboys were interested in discovering the object or
motive of the strangers of the night--strangers in that the foremen and
his helpers had not recognized the identity of the two men. And, in
fact, Professor Wright--he of the pre-historic monster fame--was the
only one known to the boys, and then only by his voice. Who "Zeb"
might be they could only guess.
"Except that I'd say, first shot, he was janitor in some small college
where the professor taught," remarked Nort, and this proved to be the
case.
"What do you want?" queried Slim of the two former fugitives, though
really they were that no longer, being now surrounded by the cowboys.
"We were looking for the ranch of Mr. Merkel--Diamond X it is called, I
believe," said the taller of the two strange riders.
"Well, you're running away from it," commented Snake Purdee.
"And why did you fire at us?" asked Slim.
"Gentlemen, I didn't fire. I am Professor Hendryx Wright, and this is
my helper, Zeb Tauth. He is the janitor at my school, and I have
brought him out west with me. I have a small party accompanying me and
we are going to make another search for fossil bones as I did once
before at Diamond X ranch. I was looking for the place in the
darkness, having left my other men and supplies some distance back,
when you suddenly set after us. I took you for horse thieves----"
"Just what we sized _you_ up as," laughed Slim, who now had recognized
the professor, though Zeb was a stranger. "Mighty sorry to have
troubled you," went on the foreman, "but we couldn't take any chances."
"Especially with the sheep herders likely to swoop down on us and spoil
everything," added Bud.
"Hello, boys! Are you there?" exclaimed Professor Wright as he
recognized the voice of the lad. "You say someone had been stealing
your sheep?"
"Shades of Zip Foster! Never that!" cried Bud, calling upon a sort of
mythical patron saint whose identity he jealously concealed from his
cousins. "When we start herding sheep, Professor, the world will turn
the other way."
"We'll explain later," suggested Nort. "If you're going to stop with
us, Professor, turn around and come back."
"Gladly," answered the scientist. "But I have left my men and the
outfit some miles back, awaiting word as to whether or not I could
locate your ranch, and----"
"I'll send a man to bring 'em up," offered the foreman. "Mighty funny,
though, about you not firing at me," he added, as the horses were
turned back toward Diamond X. "Are you sure your friend didn't?" he
asked the professor.
"Zeb doesn't know one end of a gun from the other," said the scientist.
"As for me--I have none."
"Mighty queer!" muttered Snake. "Somebody fired all right."
"Must have been another party," suggested Bud. "Maybe you chased the
wrong bunch, Slim."
"Maybe I did, Bud," admitted the foreman, "though I didn't think there
was two bunches. If there was----"
He did not finish what he intended to say, for his mind was busy with
several thoughts engendered by the news that the hated sheep men might
come to a land so far held sacred to horses and cattle.
"Yes, it's mighty queer," said Slim musingly, as they turned in toward
the corral not far from the ranch house. "Some one fired at me just as
the chase began, and if it wasn't the professor----"
Mr. Merkel, followed by some of his ranchmen neighbors, came hurrying
from the house. Framed in the lighted doorway stood Ma Merkel and Nell.
"That you, Slim?" asked the owner of Diamond X.
"That's me," was the reply.
"Did you get 'em?"
"Well, in a way, yes," came the slow reply. "They turned out to be
friends of yours."
"_Friends?_" questioned Mr. Merkel sharply.
"It's Professor Wright," explained Bud.
"Then you've got the wrong parties!" cried Mr. Merkel. "There's been a
robbery here!"
"A _robbery_!" chorused the boy ranchers.
"Yes! In the excitement somebody got in the ranch house and ransacked
my safe."
"Did they get much?" Dick asked.
Amid a silence Mr. Merkel answered:
"They took the papers that prove my right to lands along Spur Creek!"
"Spur Creek!" fairly shouted Bud. "That's where they're going to open
the Indian holdings--where the sheep men will first head for, and if we
can't control that opening our range won't be worth a hill of beans!
Are you sure the papers are gone, Dad?"
"I'm only too sure, son," was the grim answer.