“But ain’t you a-goin’ to let me ride over and tell the boss what’s
happened?” complained Alkali Joe, after Frank had in as few words as
possible explained just what he and Andy meant to do; and while this
was taking place his cousin had slipped into the house to secure the
coveted guns, the value of which they knew only too well after that
excitement over the bear hunt.
“You never could make it, Joe,” said Mrs. Ogden decisively, “chances
are you’d give that leg a wrench on the way, and just faint from the
pain. Besides, it would be a crying shame to let a wounded man
gallop all day long nearly, or even for a few hours. I’d sooner ride
myself than let you try it.”
“How about you, Charley Woo; can you ride a pony, and follow as
plain a trail as the bunch left behind them?” asked Frank, turning
to the Chinaman.
Charley Woo nodded his head so violently that his dangling queue
looked like an animated rope hanging down his back. He removed his
hands with their long fingernails, from the wide sleeves of the
jacket he wore.
“Sure tling, Flank!” he exclaimed eagerly, delighted it seemed to
have such confidence reposed in him; “him know where Mistah
Withasploon camp las’ night; been samee place much many tlimes ’long
with him. Go there light away, fast as Joe, he pony run. Tell when,
that all.”
Alkali opened his mouth to object to his favorite cayuse being
ridden by another than himself, and a miserable “Chink” at that;
then he shut his teeth hard together as he remembered what it all
meant, and how foolish he would be to throw any obstacle in the way
of the rescue of the little sunbeam that had been the idol of the
ranch for some years now.
Frank himself hurried off to rope the pony in the corral. He had
learned how to do this almost as well as any of the cow punchers
themselves; and quickly made his reappearance leading the mount that
had played havoc with his master’s limb when he failed to detect the
gopher hole in the trail. The little animal was showing all the
signs of anger at being caught by anyone other than the master he
acknowledged, but Frank had no time to waste, and had handled him
without gloves. Charley Woo did not seem to be one whit afraid
because the pony snorted and tried to bite him when he approached.
Watching his chance, when all was ready, the nimble Chinaman made a
flying leap for the saddle that would have done credit to Alkali Joe
himself. He had a quirt in his hand, secured by a stout buckskin
thong to his wrist; and no sooner did he clutch the bridle than he
brought this leather torment down upon the horse’s heaving flank
with a vicious smack.
At the same instant Frank released his grip, and away the pony flew,
the huddled figure of the Chinaman dressed in his white, flapping
garments, on his back, with his long queue flying out behind like a
rope.
“He’s headed straight to begin with,” said Andy, with a sigh of
relief.
“Charley Woo is all right,” declared Frank, “and sooner or later
he’ll get to where Mr. Witherspoon is camped, to carry him the
news.”
“He will if that pony don’t play some smart trick on him,” muttered
Alkali Joe, frowning. “You orter let me try it, Frank; I’m tough as
knots, and I reckon I’d a-stood it.”
“You get back to your bed as fast as you can, Joe,” returned Frank.
“Right now, perhaps you’ve put back the knitting of that bone, and
it may have to be set all over again when Mr. Witherspoon gets a
chance to look at it. Come along, Andy, we’ve got our job laid out
for us.”
Joe still leaned against the hitching rail, and looked longingly
after the Bird boys. From the gloom on his dark face, and the
twitching of the muscles around his mouth, it could be plainly seen
that the puncher was taking his misfortune with a bad grace; and
that he thought himself the most badly used fellow inside of fifty
miles; all because he had not been allowed to make that mad dash of
twenty or more miles in a broiling sun, with a broken leg dangling
uselessly at his side; and had to suffer the mortification of seeing
a “heathen Chinee” gallop away on his pony. It must have been a
cruel experience for Alkali Joe, and one that he would not soon
forget either.
Meanwhile the two young aviators hurried over to the frame building
that Mr. Witherspoon had had erected before their coming, and which
was to be used as a hangar for their precious biplane.
“How lucky, Frank that you overhauled the motor only yesterday,”
remarked Andy, as they reached the wide doors of the shed which,
upon being thrown open would allow of the aeroplane being wheeled
out to where they usually started off.
“I was just thinking that myself,” replied the other.
“Just like you seemed to believe we might have a sudden call for
service,” went on Andy.
“Hardly that,” Frank sent back over his shoulder, as he dove inside
the building, “you know my maxim is to be ready always, for you
never know when the emergency is going to jump out at you. These
things nearly always drop down like a bolt of lightning from a clear
sky.”
“That’s right, Frank. But there’s nothing wrong here, is there?”
“Doesn’t seem to be,” and Frank, who had hurriedly moved about from
one side of the aeroplane to the other, sighed with relief, and so
loud that Andy heard him.
“But you were afraid there might be, own up now, Frank?” he
exclaimed, quickly.
“Well, I didn’t know but that Jose might have made his way in here
last night and damaged the biplane. He sure would if he’d known how
we could use it to chase after him, five times as fast as he could
go on his pony. You know how easy it is to put such a thing out of
commission, Andy. And Jose must have been prowling about here while
we were asleep.”
“Wonder how it was Tige didn’t scent him, and give him a chase?”
remarked Andy, referring to the faithful watch dog that as a usual
thing, played the part of sentinel over the ranch house, when the
night grew old, and every inmate slept.
“Which reminds me that we haven’t seen the old fellow this morning,
Andy.”
“Great governor! that’s a fact!” exclaimed the other, excitedly.
“Say, I wouldn’t put it past that yellow-faced Mexican kidnapper to
poison poor old Tige. When they come to look, chances are they’ll
find him lying stiff in his kennel.”
“But we’ve got no time to talk that over now, Andy,” said the other.
“Lend a hand and we’ll trundle the thing out to the starting place.
Plenty of gasolene aboard, you know, because I filled the reserve
tank yesterday, thank goodness. Here comes Mrs. Ogden with a package
in her hand.”
“Bet you I know what she’s got!” exclaimed Andy; “thinks we might
get lost somewhere out on the desert, and she’s made us up a lot of
grub to carry along. Wait till I look and see if there’s plenty of
water in that jug I fixed to the back of the seat. Yes, brimful,
I’ll tie the guns here. Wait for me just three minutes, won’t you,
Frank? I’m going back to the house.”
“What notion have you got in your head now, Andy?” demanded the
other a little impatiently.
“We ought to have the glasses, you know,” came back to him.
“You’re right, and it was a good thing you thought of them,” called
Frank, only too well pleased to commend his chum for a thing of this
kind.
Andy fairly ran at top speed toward the house, and plunged in
through the open door, not wanting to waste a second more than could
be helped. He was back again at the hangar before the time allowance
he had given himself had expired; and so on arriving found that
Frank had made all other preparation necessary, so that there was
now nothing to prevent their immediate start.
“Oh! how I will pray that you get back our little darling safe and
unharmed!” the housekeeper called out to them, as they were taking
their places.
“Tell Mr. Witherspoon when you see him that we mean to do everything
we can to bring little Becky back home,” Frank said, as his last
words.
“And look up poor old Tige,” called Andy, “just as like as not
you’ll have to bury him, because he must be dead; or else chased
after the boys last night.”
Frank gave the word; each of them had a part to do in the successful
starting of the aeroplane; as the little motor burst into a merry
song they found themselves commencing to move slowly along the level
ground. Faster and faster grew the pace until Frank, deeming that
the time had come to mount upward, changed the planes, and
immediately the clever flier left the ground, rising gradually until
he felt able to increase the speed, and climb upward in spirals.
The first thing that seemed advisable in Frank’s mind was to get
some sort of bird’s-eye view of the surrounding country.
Of course he and Andy had done considerable moving about in all
directions since first coming to Arizona, so that Frank already had
a pretty fair knowledge of the vicinity. But with the glasses to
help out, he hoped to be in a position to discover several things.
“Get busy, Andy, and see what you can glimpse,” he remarked, after
they had succeeded in mounting upward to a considerable distance.
“I’ve already sighted Charley Woo,” replied the other.
“I hope then he’s going right along,” remarked Frank, anxiously, for
his attention had to be confined almost exclusively to the working
of the aeroplane, and on this account he must depend on his chum to
tell him what was happening.
“Oh!” Andy hastened to reply, “he’s still hanging to Joe’s cayuse
like a flea, and as far as I can see, whooping it up at the
liveliest pace ever. But I’m looking away beyond him to find out if
I can see the boys.”
“Well, how about it?” asked the other.
“Wait till we swing around again, and I’ll tell you.”
They were by now high enough to afford quite an extended view in
every direction. Frank’s eyes had sought the south whenever he had a
chance to take them for a second or two from his work; but Andy was
leveling the glasses in almost an opposite quarter.
“There! I’ve just glimpsed a lot of small objects moving this way
and that,” he announced suddenly, “which I take it are cattle, with
the punchers rushing them wherever they want. But they’re a whole
heap of miles away, Frank. Guess they see us by now, and expect
we’re going to sail up that way. Perhaps they’ll wonder to watch us
turn right around and go off to the south. Is it really necessary,
Frank? Couldn’t we run up there and let them know?”
“What would be the use?” returned his cousin. “They could never
catch Jose, mounted on their ponies, and him with all that start.
Why, I’m only afraid he’ll be able to cross over into Mexico before
we get up with him, for all our swiftness with our humming motor.
And minutes are apt to count big in this game, Andy, so I say we’d
better not lose any time running over there, and then going down to
let them know what’s happened. Charley Woo is on the job, and he’ll
get there sooner or later with the news.”
And so Andy said nothing more along those lines.