THE STAMPEDE.
The two boys stood there, listening to the sounds that constantly
increased in volume, as though approaching rapidly nearer the camp in
the timber growing along the little stream.
There could no longer be the slightest doubt as to what made the noise.
Before now Adrian had heard enough to fully agree with his chum when the
other pronounced it a stampede of cattle. Besides the crash of many
hoofs on the earth, they could catch wild snortings, low, frightened
lowings, and the rattle of striking horns; all of which were very
familiar sounds to both lads, as they had witnessed just such sights on
many a previous occasion.
"The queer part of it is," Adrian had taken pains to say before the
noise grew so boisterous as to prevent all ordinary conversation, "that
there doesn't seem to be anything around to start such a wild rush. A
storm will do it quicker than most anything else, and there couldn't be
one in the quarter where they're heading from."
"Wait and see," Donald had wisely added; if he suspected anything as to
the real facts he did not appear willing to share his thoughts with his
chum as yet, waiting doubtless until he could pick up further proof.
"Shall we wake Billie up?" asked Adrian.
"He'd never forgive us if we didn't," the other replied. "You'd think
the sound would get him to stirring, but Billie could sleep through the
biggest earthquake that ever happened; and if you did knock him up he'd
want to know who was shaking the floor with dancing. But I'll get him on
his feet, while you fetch our ponies in."
So Donald stepped over to where the fat chum was cuddled up in his
blanket just like an Esquimau. After shaking him several times without
any result, save a grunt, Donald shouted in his ear:
"Wake up, Billie! earthquake! cattle stampede, and we're right in the
way!"
"Goodness gracious! is that so?" remarked Billie, as he sat up, and
began to dig his knuckles into his eyes; then, hearing the roar of the
approaching hoofs he became suddenly greatly excited, as he realized
that it was after all no joke his comrades were trying to play upon him.
"Oh! will they grind us to powder, Donald? Can't we even climb a tree,
and get out of reach of their hoofs? Hurry up, and say something before
it's too late! Think what a terrible muss there'll be if ever they
trample on me, and do please tell a fellow what to do!"
"Don't worry, Billie; they won't come into the timber at all. Fetch your
gun, and come along to join Adrian near by. We want to see what it all
stands for as the herd sweeps past. Be quick now, or you'll lost a sight
worth looking at, I tell you!"
Billie hurried at hearing this. Besides, he did not exactly fancy being
left behind when his chum departed.
"How about the ponies, Donald; won't they get in trouble?" he managed to
call out, as he trailed along in the wake of the other.
"I reckon Adrian has brought the lot into the timber; he was just
starting out to do the same when I came to wake you up. Yes, here he is,
and with all our horses safe and sound. Fasten Jupiter to a tree with
his rope, and be quick about it, Billie!"
This was speedily done, after which the trio of Broncho Rider Boys
crouched there on the edge of the timber, waiting until the herd of
stampeding cattle came along.
"If that moon'd only draw out stronger," said Adrian, as he cast a look
upward toward the sky, over the face of which light clouds were drifting
lazily; "but it don't mean to, and we'll just have to do the best we
can. Look sharp, boys!"
"I can see 'em coming right now!" announced Billie.
In fact all of them saw the fast-moving blurr upon the prairie some
little distance away, which they knew must be the cattle rushing
headlong toward them, spurred on by some unseen power, either fear, or a
more tangible force.
Ten seconds later and they were on a line with the hidden boys, who,
crouching there, stared as hard as they could, trying to see whether
wolves were chasing after the herd, as might happen when the ferocious
animals were in great numbers, but not otherwise; or what other cause
there could be for such a great commotion among the cattle.
"Oh! did you see that steer go down?" ejaculated Billie suddenly. "He
must a put his forelegs in a gopher hole, and before he could get up the
rest had trampled him into flinders. Whee! ain't I glad that wasn't
Jupiter and me!"
"You've a right to be thankful, believe me," said Donald, solemnly;
"because it'd be all over with you before you could give more'n a single
yelp. That steer was a big and powerful beast, but you saw how even he
couldn't get up again, once those many hoofs began to pound him flat.
We'll find him there afterwards, and only food for the coyotes."
The stream of cattle had now swept past them, and the thunder of their
many hoofs was gradually growing less insistent as they passed on.
"Well, that was a queer sight, sure," said Billie, rubbing his eyes, as
though he hardly knew whether he could believe what they had told him or
not.
Adrian was strangely quiet, Donald thought.
"Did you ever see a stampede like it?" asked Donald, determined to find
out what the other chum's opinion might be.
"I surely never did, if it _was_ a real stampede," returned Adrian,
slowly, as if he might still be struggling to see light.
"Oh! it was that, all right, but not one brought about by a storm, nor
yet by fear of wild animals," Donald continued.
"Then you heard them too, did you?" demanded the other.
"What was that?" asked Billie, arousing to the fact that he was somewhat
behind, and never liking to be left out of a race through any handicap.
"Cowboys yelling like mad!" Donald went on to say, seriously.
"Oh! you mean that they were trying the best they knew how to head off
the herd and start them to milling; was that it?" Billie went on; for he
had managed to pick up considerable information connected with a cattle
ranch during the time he had spent on the border with his cousin, down
in Arizona.
"On the other hand," Donald remarked, still more solemnly, "it struck me
they were yelling like that to make the long-horns more frightened than
ever; because they whooped like wild Injuns off their reservation, and
in for a gay old time."
Billie gave it up. His wits were inclined to be a little dense at best;
and on being so suddenly aroused from a sound sleep, to witness this
strange passing of a stampeded herd of cattle, he was hardly in a fair
condition to do himself justice when it came to figuring what a mystery
meant.
"I throw up the sponge!" he hastened to say; "somebody'll just have to
take hold and whisper what it all means; because for the life of me I
ain't able to get a grip on the thing. What's the answer, fellows?
Cowboys awhooping things up, and making more work for themselves by
scaring the life half out of their cattle. Say, that's a silly thing to
do, strikes me, now, boys. Tell me what possesses the chump to act that
way? And be quick about it, because when I'm that curious it's dangerous
to leave me groping in the dark. Don't you know fellows have been known
to pine away to nothing just because they kept aworrying about
something. Donald, what's it mean?"
"Adrian you tell him, while I get that little electric torch we used to
find so valuable; I'd like to step out and take a look at that dead
steer, now that the danger's gone past."
The roar of many hoofs was dying away by degrees in the near distance,
showing that the herd must still be on the full run, and as filled with
fright as when the boys saw them sweep past.
"Why," began Adrian, as the other hurried back to where the red embers
of the little camp-fire glowed like a wakeful eye among the trees, "all
I can say, Billie, is that the herd was in a panic, and had been
frightened. If there were punchers galloping along, as both Donald and I
think we made out, they didn't seem to be trying to head the cattle off,
or turn them, but kept in the rear, or the flank, and yelled just to
keep them hustling. Now do you catch on, Billie?"
"Rustlers, you mean, Adrian; cattle thieves carrying off a bunch of the
long-horns!" ejaculated the astonished Billie. "Just to think of running
on a game as old as that the very first thing we come up here? Why, I
thought that was only a practice along the border, where the rustlers
could drive the stolen cattle over into Mexico, and be safe from
pursuit."
"Oh! that's all a mistake, Billie!" declared Adrian; "wherever cattle
are raised on any large scale you'll find men trying to steal them, and
change the marks; because once this is done it's hard to pick out your
own property. And unless both of us are mighty much mistaken, that's
what was being done with that herd we saw pass by on the gallop. But
here comes Donald with the little torch; and as the dust has partly
settled by now, we can go out and take a look around."
"And," said Billie, as if to show that he was not so dull as he had been
once upon a time, "if them rustlers _were_ chasing along behind the herd
we'll find the plain hoofprints of their ponies there; because they'll
show up different from the split hoofs of the steers, eh, Adrian?"
"Good for you, Billie; you're on to the racket nowadays!" declared the
other; and then Donald coming up, the three stepped out toward the spot
where they had seen the unlucky steer fall never to rise again.
There was little trouble about finding the remains, for these prairie
boys had a fashion of locating things at the time they happened, so that
they could head straight to them again when they wished.
And just as Donald had said, the wretched animal had been pounded almost
flat by the many hoofs that passed over him. They might find some decent
pieces of beef to make use of, and that was all, for even the hide had
been ruined.
Adrian took the torch from his chum's hand. They saw him bend down
closer as if to examine the flank of the dead steer. Hardly had he done
so than he gave utterance to a loud cry.
"What have you found now?" demanded Billie, scenting new developments in
the remarkable mystery which had greeted their advent into the Wyoming
cattle country.
"Look at this mark here!" was what the other said, as he drew in a long
breath; and of course both Donald and the fat chum dropped on their
knees, the better to see what was meant.
And there, plainly branded on the flank of the dead animal was the sign
manual which Adrian recognized as his own property, a bar, and the
letter S!