THE SLOUCHING RIDER
Nick Looker’s answer winged down on the evening breeze.
“Yo-o, Ted! What you say-y-y? Where you been?”
“How do I get out of here?”
“South! Keep south! Straight out from the gully! Then bear west! I’ll
meet you!”
With a throb of sudden hope in his heart that Nick had found Roy, Teddy
turned Flash about and rode rapidly in the direction Nick had indicated.
While the boy is hurrying to meet the young puncher on the trail above
him, a few moments will be taken to tell something of Roy and Teddy
Manley of the X Bar X Ranch.
The two brothers had been born on their father’s ranch, and, with the
exception of the three years they had spent at the Hopper Boarding
School, just outside of Denver, they had lived the rugged life of the
cowboy. Although their father was more than moderately well off, he, as
a Westerner of the old school, determined that his boys should have
every chance the West offered them to grow into hardy men. Hence it was
that they were an important part of the “working crew” on the X Bar X.
As related in the first book of this series, called “The X Bar X Boys on
the Ranch,” Roy and Teddy succeeded in obtaining information which led
to the capture of a band of rustlers at the very moment they had planned
to steal cattle from the Manley range. Among these men was Gilly Froud,
who was despised even by his cronies because of his cruelty to horses
and his mean, avaricious spirit.
It was this coward who, out of revenge for a fancied wrong done him by
Mr. Manley, had stolen General, Star, and Flash, the especial horses of
Mr. Manley, Roy, and Teddy. That theft was his undoing, for the two boys
and their father were determined to recover their favorite mounts at all
costs. The many exciting adventures which led to their recovery and the
jailing of most of the rustlers, are told of in the book preceding this.
With this explanation, let us return to Teddy as he is riding to meet
Nick Looker, a cowboy of the X Bar X outfit.
Following Nick’s instructions, the boy bore south out of the gully.
Then, in a moment, he spotted a well worn trail, and, practically of his
own accord, Flash made for this at a gallop.
“Right under my nose and I couldn’t see it!” Teddy murmured bitterly.
“What a fine Westerner I am! If I had found this sooner I’d be almost
home by now and we could have started after Roy that much quicker.
There’s just a chance that Nick saw him—just a chance. Baby, I sure
hope he has!”
Eager to set his mind at rest, he touched Flash impatiently with his
heels. The horse, who was doing his best over the rough ground, turned
his head as if in reproach. Teddy grinned slightly.
“All right, ole hoss,” he said. “Go ahead. Don’t mind me. Guess I’m kind
o’ nervous. But you can’t blame me now, can you?”
At that moment, when Teddy was most concerned over his brother’s safety,
Roy was within a quarter of a mile of him, across the gully, himself
riding toward Nick Looker.
When the landslide came, Roy, realizing his danger, had snapped Star
into action with a sudden yell. The next moment the pall of dust hid
everything, and Roy had to give his safety into the keeping of his pony.
Star did not fail him. Taking a direction at right angles and to the
left of the route Flash had picked, the bronco sought to avoid the
rumbling slide by long, desperate bounds. Somehow, he had chosen the
only avenue of escape left to him. As he shot over the mountain, Roy
noticed that they were leaving the landslide behind. In a few moments he
and Star stood in safety, while in the distance the rocks still crashed
down the slope.
As Teddy’s first thought had been for his brother, so now Roy hoped
fervently that Teddy had succeeded in riding clear.
He stopped and looked about him. The thunder of the landslide had died
to an echo, and Roy knew that within five minutes the earth would settle
entirely. Still it would not be exactly safe to ride over that stretch
of mountain for some time, as the least disturbance might start another
slide.
“Well, if she starts, she starts,” Roy said aloud. “I’ve got to find
Teddy! If he’s off his horse, he’ll want to ride double with me. Guess
Star can hold us; hey, old boy? Get along now. Tread easy. Don’t go
kicking about or you’ll have the whole mountain on top of us. All right,
mosey!”
Diagonally across the mountain he rode, his eyes narrowing as the sun
neared the horizon and Teddy was still missing. Yet, he thought, no news
is good news, and Teddy might even now be waiting at the ranch for him.
To the best of his knowledge, the trail he rode led toward the X Bar X.
If Teddy was really lost, it would be best to make for home and send out
a searching party. One man could do nothing in this trackless, wild
country. Turning in his saddle, Roy squinted at the descending sun, now
a dull red ball.
“Take it on the run, Star,” he said aloud, in a somewhat anxious voice.
“Night, she’s coming. Want to find out if Teddy got home safe. If not—”
He did not complete his thought, but let the reins hang loosely over the
bronco’s neck. Star eased into a gallop.
“I suppose we’re going right,” Roy remarked after a moment. “Seems as
though the ranch should be due east. When that slide came, we were—”
Cutting the sentence off sharply, he pulled back on the reins with all
his strength. Star slid forward on stiffened legs, reared, and came to
rest within a foot of the edge of the gully. From where Roy sat, it
appeared that the pony’s head hung over the cliff while the horse
himself remained on solid land only by dint of clinging to the earth
with his tail, or perhaps with his hind feet, to help him. The boy took
a deep breath.
“If it’s all the same to you, Star, maybe you’d be just as happy a
little farther back. Hey? Easy, now—there’s no rush. Let’s not do
anything sudden. Easy! That’s the stuff. Whew!”
Pushing back his sombrero, Roy mopped his forehead.
Then he dismounted and walked forward, to part the bushes and
investigate the canyon before him.
“She’s deep, all right, and wide,” he mused. “Not a chance to jump
it—here, at any rate. Funny I don’t remember this. Well—”
He shook his head jerkily, in the gesture of a person casting an
unpleasant thought from him. Walking swiftly to where he had left Star,
he remounted and started silently to follow the canyon. Turning from
side to side, so that he might not miss Teddy if the boy were in that
vicinity, Roy, glancing to the south, away from the gully, gave a start.
In the distance, far up the mountain, he could see the figure of a man
on horseback.
“Teddy!” he yelled, then the next moment regretted it. That was not
Teddy. He rode differently, slouched to one side. Quickly Roy moved out
of sight behind a bush and peered through. The man was gone. Roy could
not tell whether he had heard his hail or not.
“Jimminy! he looked familiar.” The boy was puzzled. “I’ve seen a rider
just like that somewhere. I wonder if—” Then he smiled to himself at
the absurdity of it. The rustlers they had captured were in jail at
Hawley. That fellow who had wanted to shoot Froud for knifing his friend
Brand was certainly behind bars.
“It couldn’t have been him up there! Yet that slouch and the queer way
he held his shoulders!”
Roy had not known how vividly the picture of that night had been
impressed in his memory. The ride to the north fence—the long
wait—then the coming of the rustlers with Froud leading them and the
others following, among them one with that strange slouch. No, Roy had
not consciously marked the peculiarity of that side-riding horseman. Yet
now, when he saw one who recalled the scene, he pictured the rider
almost as vividly as if he were before his eyes.
Keenly the boy swept the mountain top with his gaze, but the puncher had
disappeared. Roy shrugged his shoulders.
“Guess I’ll never know,” he commented grimly. “But how could it be that
rustler when he’s over in Hawley playing solitaire in a cell? My eyes
must be doing tricks.”
Star whinnied softly, recalling Roy from his reverie.
“Thanks, baby,” the boy said with a little chuckle. “You’re a grand
little alarm-clock, I’ll tell a maverick! Let’s be going.”
With the disappearance of the strange horseman, Roy’s mind reverted to
Teddy with a sickening fear. A frown came to his face and he chirped to
Star, who was moving restlessly forward. With a jump the pony went into
a gallop.
“Hey, you!” came a sudden call.
Roy jerked his head around in amazement.
“Where you bound for? Eagles, to get the evenin’ mail?”
“Nick!”
“Why not?”
A puncher rode into the open and approached Roy. His tanned face wore a
broad grin.
“What’s yore hurry?”
“Nick! Have you seen Teddy? Is he safe?”
“Sure, he’s safe!” the cowboy chuckled. “Safe an’ sound. He’ll be here
in a minute. I spotted him followin’ the gully like a lost sheep.
Listen! Think I hear him now. Say—”
But Roy waited no longer. With a yell he started Star toward the sound
of the approaching horseman. In a moment the two brothers were face to
face.
“Teddy! I was afraid you were—”
“I thought you were—”
They both stopped. Teddy thrust out his hand, and, for a brief moment,
it met Roy’s in a firm grip that spoke of what was in the heart of each.
Then Teddy chuckled.
“Quite a show, hey, Roy?”
“I’ll tell a maverick! But, Teddy, when the rocks were busting down a
mile a minute and roaring like thunder and the dust started to rise,
didn’t it remind you of—now tell the truth—didn’t it remind you of the
eruption of the volcano in ‘The Fall of Pompeii?’”
Teddy laughed softly, and side by side the two boys rode toward the X
Bar X. Nick, whistling softly, led the way. The sun flashed a last blaze
of orange and pink as it sank behind the hills.
Far to the rear, on the mountain top, was a lone horseman, his hand
shading his eyes, peering intently at the three riders. Silent and
immobile as a statue he sat, slouching sideways in the saddle, as though
he were discouraged and weary after a long, long ride.