AN UNEXPECTED CLEW
The trail to Thunder Canyon lay through a region noted for its
treacherous footings and short, stubby clumps of mesquit grass that
might conceal a hole just deep enough to break a pony’s leg.
Swinging from the road, the riders entered this desolate tract and
proceeded up a gentle slope, dotted here and there with trees burned
almost leafless by summer suns. Here the land lay pitifully open to the
brazen sky, long since beaten into submission and now venturing only
half-heartedly to produce any protective vegetation. This was a land of
exile, shunned and avoided by the surrounding territory. It was a field
apart.
A dull haze covered the sun as the punchers rode stolidly on. Teddy
turned to glance at his brother, who was loping along in the rear.
“Making the grade, Roy?” he called, and threw his head slightly to one
side. Roy correctly interpreted the motion, and urged his pony until he
was close to Teddy.
“How did that story we heard strike you?” Teddy asked, looking about him
to see that no one was listening. The noise of creaking saddles and the
beat of the horses’ feet on the baked earth prevented the boy’s voice
from carrying far.
“Ike Natick’s?” Roy countered.
“Don’t know his name. The puncher who came over with Bug Eye.”
“His name is Natick. He’s a new hand. Bug Eye says he hasn’t been with
their outfit very long. But he says he’s a good man, and I think he is,
too. He impresses me as being all cowboy.”
Teddy nodded.
“Just wanted to get your idea. I like him O. K. myself. Kind of long and
stringy, but he’s built like a rawhide whip. So you think we can depend
on him?”
“I think so, Teddy. Anyway, we’ve got to. He’s the only one who knows
anything about this business, and it’s nothing more than pure, dumb luck
that he knows as much as he does. He spoke of a woman being in the car.
I’m sure glad of that, but I wonder who she could have been?”
“Some half-breed probably, carried along to take care of the girls.
Those rustlers are not exactly fools, I guess, and they know that if
anything serious happened their lives wouldn’t be worth a plugged
nickel. I reckon the girls will be treated fairly, all right, and I’m
not worried about that. But I can’t stand the thought of those jailbirds
holding Belle and Ethel and Nell captives while they dictate terms to
us! That sort of gets under my skin, by golly! Then, too, unless we find
them soon, we can’t tell what—”
He pulled Flash aside to avoid a sharp depression and left his sentence
unfinished. But Roy understood. He knew that they could not afford to
delay, as the rustlers might become desperate and determine to abandon
the girls to their fate rather than risk capture red-handed. Haste was
imperative. While the girls were in the hands of gunmen and horse
thieves they were in dire peril.
As the riders proceeded, they left behind that deserted waste and came
into a more fertile country. They were nearing Thunder Canyon, through
which ran a turbulent stream, and the nourishment derived from this
water changed the grasses from a lifeless brown to a soft green. They
made better speed now, the footing being much surer.
Before them rose a high mountain. They were to skirt this, for along its
side was Thunder Canyon. Other mountains bordered the gulch, but these
could not yet be seen. At the foot of the rise Mr. Manley called a halt.
“Natick!” he shouted, “ride up here a second, will you?”
The puncher complied, and stood near Roy and Teddy, who had approached
their father and Mr. Ball.
“Right over there lies Thunder Canyon,” Mr. Manley declared, and
pointed.
Ike Natick grunted.
“I know it, boss. An’ that’s the place I mean. Somewhere in there you’ll
find those girl-stealin’ gunmen.”
“Yea?” Mr. Manley looked at him sharply. “What makes you so sure,
Natick?”
“I ain’t sure, boss; but I got a hunch. An’ my hunches usually turn out
pretty good. Besides that, it wasn’t so far from here that I saw the car
comin’ this way. Don’t that road to the 8 X 8 wind past those hills over
there?”
“That’s what,” Pop Burns, who was listening, answered. “She runs right
past them hills.”
“Then I’m sure right,” Ike Natick drawled. “That auto come into this
here canyon. Course, they may have switched to horses later, ’cause the
ground around here ain’t none too good fer a car. I don’t know nothin’
about that. But you hear me, boss, an’ head fer that there cut.”
Pete Ball turned to Mr. Manley.
“I think he knows what he’s talking about, Bardwell,” he said in a low
voice. “Ike hasn’t been with me long, but I’ve found he’s a born
puncher, an’ he sure knows the West. I’m in favor of takin’ his advice
an’ searchin’ that gorge.”
For a moment the owner of the X Bar X ranch sat silent, thinking. He
took his corncob pipe from his shirt pocket and stuck it, unlit, between
his teeth.
“I’ll agree with you, Pete,” he said finally. “Pop, come here! You know
more about Thunder Canyon than any man of us—or you should. Is there
any place in it that might do for a stronghold for rustlers?”
“I’ll say there is, boss!” Pop replied loudly. “The Sholo Caves near
Gravestone Falls! I helped route a gang from there when I was ridin’ fer
yore father, boss. An’ we had some job, let me tell you! We’d never have
gotten ’em loose if one of their men hadn’t welched and let us past. But
we found out one thing—that the only way to really get a bunch out of
those caves is to come at ’em from both sides of the canyon at once. The
men on the other side keep ’em covered while those on this side stick
’em up. If we’d only knowed that when we had our fight, it would’ve
turned out different. As it was, most of the rustlers got away. Me, I
was with the party that—”
“Thanks, Pop,” Mr. Manley said quickly, forestalling any attempt at one
of the long speeches for which the veteran puncher was famous. “That
tells us what we want to know. We head for Sholo Caves, men! Teddy, Roy,
listen to me! You two are goin’ to take the side with the caves on with
Nick, Gus Tripp, an’ Bug Eye. Pete an’ I will ride across from you with
the other men. We’ve got to keep in touch with each other. I guess
you’ve been through Thunder Canyon before, boys?”
“Sure we have, Dad,” Roy answered. “Though there are some parts of it
pretty wide. If we can stay opposite each other till we get to the
narrow part, we’ll be all right.”
Mr. Manley nodded in approval.
“That’s what I’ve been thinkin’,” he said. “But we have to chance that,
I guess. You keep up the same pace we took comin’ over here, an’ I’ll do
likewise. When we get to the Falls, where she’s narrow, we ought to be
pretty near opposite each other. Anyway, we’ll wait there until we get
together. Anybody want to ask any questions before we start?”
The men were silent. The only questions they would ask would be of their
guns—that they might not miss when the time came for action.
Before separating, the boys shook hands with their father. The grips
were momentary, but they were firm, and told of sentiments which were
more easily sensed than spoken. Each knew the danger he was about to
face, and realized that this was the last time he might see the other
alive. Certainly, there was the possibility of a tragic end to this
serious business. Men who would kidnap girls would not hesitate to shoot
to kill if the occasion arose.
Hence the boys knew well to what they were riding. Yet rather than
hesitation, there was about them an eagerness which welcomed whatever
might befall. Their sister was somewhere in that canyon. They were going
to find her and Nell and Ethel, and not all the bullets ever moulded
would prevent them!
“Good luck, boys,” Mr. Manley said, as he sat quietly in his saddle a
moment before starting. “Keep your powder dry an’ your guns clean.”
Those who heard him seemed to feel the old West rush upon them—the West
with pistols leveled and eyes narrowed, the West that had produced a man
like the boss of the X Bar X.
“Don’t shoot unless you have to. But remember that Belle is in there,
an’, if you have to shoot, don’t waste no bullets. I guess that’s all.”
He chirped to his pony. The boys did the same, and the father and his
two sons separated, riding back to back. Behind Teddy and Roy come Nick
Looker, Gus Tripp, and Bug Eye. The others were with Mr. Manley.
The canyon opened out before them. Mr. Manley’s party had already
entered it and were lost to sight behind the trees which bordered its
edge.
Teddy and Roy looked down. At the bottom of the cut they could hear the
faint tinkle of the running stream. From this rivulet the sides of rock
rose perfectly straight, like the walls of two huge buildings. Then,
higher up, the canyon gradually broadened, making a sort of V. Along the
top edge of this V rode the boys, while towering over them, the taller
mountains reared. It was a gorge within a gorge.
As Teddy’s eyes swept over the tremendous expanse his heart faltered for
a moment in sudden despair. How were they ever to find the girls in this
place? The task was hopeless!
Then he remembered his mother’s words:
“They’ll be with us before to-morrow night!”
Touching Flash with his spurs, Teddy rode on.