Produced by Al Haines
[Illustration: Cover art]
[Frontispiece: "LOOK OUT!" QUICKLY YELLED NORT. "JUMP FOR YOUR LIVES!
IT'S A FLOOD!" "The Boy Ranchers in Camp."]
THE
BOY RANCHERS
IN CAMP
OR
_The Water Fight at Diamond X_
By
WILLARD F. BAKER
Author of "The Boy Ranchers," "The Boy Ranchers on the Trail," etc.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
THE BOY RANCHERS SERIES
By WILLARD F. BAKER
12mo. Cloth. Frontispiece
THE BOY RANCHERS
or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X
THE BOY RANCHERS IN CAMP
or The Water Fight at Diamond X
THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL
or The Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
THE BOY RANCHERS IN CAMP
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
II A NIGHT RIDE
III THE WARNING
IV A STRANGE REAPPEARANCE
V ANOTHER WARNING
VI TROUBLE AT SQUARE M
VII DOUBLING UP
VIII DRY AGAIN
IX A SHOT IN THE NIGHT
X INTO THE TUNNEL
XI THE RUSH OF WATERS
XII THE RISING FLOOD
XIII WHERE DID IT GO?
XIV A NIGHT ATTACK
XV THE BRANDING IRON
XVI QUEER ACTIONS
XVII "GERMS!"
XVIII ROPED!
XIX AN EXPEDITION IN THE DARK
XX INTO THE DEPTHS
XXI THE FIGURE ON THE ROCK
XXII THE WATER GATE
XXIII THE CONSPIRATORS
XXIV A POWERFUL STREAM
XXV HAPPY VALLEY
THE BOY RANCHERS IN CAMP
CHAPTER I
A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
"Look out there, Bud! Look out! There you go!"
"Side-stepping soap dishes! What's the idea? Whoa, there, Sock!"
The pinto pony reared, swerved sharply to one side as a black streak
shot across the trail almost under his feet and then, when the animal
came to a sudden stop, there shot over his head the boy who had given
vent to the last exclamation.
Bud Merkel came down sprawling on all fours in a bunch of grass which
served, in a great measure, to break the force of the catapult over his
pony's head. And then, as the lad righted himself and limped over to
catch his steed, he cried:
"What in the name of the petrified prune pie was that, Billee?"
"A jack, Bud! A jack rabbit, and as black as gunpowder! Yo' shore are
in for some bad luck, now!"
"Bad luck! I should say so! Almost breaking my neck, and laming
Sock," and the lad looked anxiously at his pinto, being relieved to
find, however, that the animal had suffered no harm.
"But this won't be all!" declared Billee Dobb. "I never see a black
jack shoot in front of a man yet that bad luck didn't follow!"
"Well, let's make it go some to catch us!" suggested Bud as he leaped
to the saddle, after making sure that the girths were tight. "Black
jack! First one I ever saw," and he looked off in the distance toward
a streak of dust, which was all that now represented the frightened
rabbit that had shot across the trail so unexpectedly.
"They aren't plentiful; thank your stars!" exclaimed the old cowboy.
"I'm glad it didn't happen to _me_."
"Yes, if you'd a' toppled over your critter's head there'd be a bigger
crack in the ground!" laughed Bud, as he looked at his companion's
greater girth and weight. "It came as sudden as a flash of lightning,
that jack!"
"Bad luck allers does come that-a-way," croaked Old Billee Dobb.
"Oh, you and your bad luck!" laughed Bud. "Come on now, hump yourself!
Hump yourself, you old soap-footing specimen of a slab of saltpeter!"
he cried to his pony. "Mosey along!"
"What's your rush, Bud? Anybody's take a notion t' think you was in
suthin' of a hurry, t' hear you talkin' that-a-way t' your critter,"
remarked Billee as he ambled along behind his more impetuous companion.
"Hurry, Billee? Of course I'm in a hurry!" admitted Bud, a tall,
well-tanned lad as he adjusted himself to his saddle, and dashed ahead
of his companion on the dusty trail. "I reckon you'd be in a rush,
too, if your cousins that you hadn't seen since last fall were coming
to camp all summer with you!" and Bud Merkel swung around in his
creaking saddle to note the pace of his companion.
"Them two tenderfeet comin' out to Diamond X ag'in?" asked Old Billee
Dobb.
"Course they are!" answered Bud. "But they're a long shot from being
tenderfeet, now, since they helped get rid of Del Pinzo and his
cattle-rustling gang, and did their share in solving the mystery of the
Triceratops. Tenderfeet! Guess you'd better not let 'em _hear_ you
call 'em that!"
"Mebby not, son! Mebby not!" agreed Old Billee, rather mildly as he
tried to urge his slower-going animal to keep pace with Bud's. For the
pinto, responding to the spur of voice and heel, had shot ahead. "I
sorter forgot your cousins did have a hand in the lively doin's at
Diamond X last season. So they're coming out again, be they?"
"Yes, and we're going to make a camp of it, over in Flume Valley. I'm
going to raise there the finest bunch of steers you ever hazed to the
stock yards, and Nort and Dick are going to help me. I'm riding to
meet them now at the water-hole, and we're going back to stay all
summer in Flume Valley."
"Hum! Flume Valley!" mused the older cowboy, for both riders were of
that class, though Bud Merkel was the son of the man who owned Diamond
X, and other important western ranches. "Flume Valley! That's where
your paw started that irrigation scheme; ain't it?"
"Yes," replied Bud. "It was only a waste bit of land before dad ran
the water through the tunnel-flume from Pocut River, but now it grows
the best grass you ever rolled your bed in. And the steers--you ought
to see 'em, Billee!"
"Well, I'm aimin' to, right soon," responded the old man. "Your paw
was sayin' suthin' about putting me over there, but I didn't pay much
attention to it. So you and the eastern lads are going to camp in
Flume Valley, be you?"
"Yes, because, being an experiment, dad didn't want to build any ranch
houses there yet. But if we make good on the deal, and can raise
steers on the grass that's grown since the water was let in, why, I'm
to have it for my own ranch, when I come of age, and Dick and Nort will
be my partners. We'll call it Diamond X Second."
"Good name! Mighty good name! Look out there, you old piece of bacon
fat!" he called sharply to his animal, pulling the pony quickly up as
it stumbled. "There aren't any prairie dog holes here for you t' go
puttin' your foot in! What's the matter of yo'?"
But though Old Billee and Bud spoke thus in seeming harshness to their
horses, there was no unkindness in their treatment of the animals. It
was just their picturesque, western manner of talking, and hardly had
the echo of Old Billee's words died away on the hot, dusty air than he
was gently patting the neck of the pony he rode.
"Did dad say you were to help me over in Flume Valley?" asked Bud, as
he slowed down the pace of his animal to keep alongside that of the
older cowboy.
"Yes, he said I was to be your helper. And first I sorter hated to
leave Babe, Slim, Snake and the rest of the bunch. But if you say your
cousins are coming out, and if we can raise better cattle there than on
the home ranch, why, mebby it won't be so worse."
"Of course it won't!" cried Bud. "Why, even in the short time the
steers have been in Flume Valley, Billee, they've improved."
"You say there's stock there now?" asked the old man, for he was
gray-haired, "Well, if they've been thrivin' by themselves so far,
what's the good of you an' your cousins campin' there to watch 'em eat?"
"Lots of reasons," answered Bud, as he and his companion started up a
hill, on the other side of which they would reach the water-hole, where
the main trail from Diamond X came in. "For one thing this is
something new, and dad wants it watched carefully. Then, too, the
water pipe and reservoir will need looking after. But, more than
anything else, it's Del Pinzo and his gang of rustlers."
"Those scoundrels didn't get what they deserved for tryin' to run off
our stock last year!" complained Billee. "Now they're raisin' ructions
again; be they?"
"They sure are!" declared Bud. "It wasn't that they didn't get what
they deserved, for they were sentenced to long terms. But the trouble
was they didn't stay in jail where they were put."
"I reckon they look at it just the other way!" chuckled Billee.
"Yes," agreed Bud. "But it's going to make trouble for dad and all the
other cattle raisers around here having that bunch of Mexicans and
Greasers loose. That's one reason why we've got to watch out at Flume
Valley, where we're going to try to raise some cattle that will beat
those at Diamond X. I'm glad you're going to be with me, Billee."
"Hum! You don't care what sort of trouble th' old man gits into; do
you, Bud?" and he smiled a toothless smile at his employer's son.
"Well, it's all in th' day's work, I reckon. But I'm not expected t'
come with you to-night; am I? Slim said I was to report t' him at the
main buildin's."
"No, you don't have to come right away," replied Bud. "I'm to meet
Dick and Nort at the water-hole--they were due at our ranch this
morning--and you're to come when you can."
"Might as well be quick as sooner," laughed the old cowboy. "I don't
take much to new-fangled notions. But orders is orders, I reckon."
"Oh, there isn't so much new at Flume Valley," said Bud. "All it ever
needed to make one of the best places in this part of the country for
raising cattle was water. Now, since dad had the big pipe flume put in
from Pocut River, where it can fill the reservoir and water the grass
and the cattle at the same time, things are going to boom!"
"They are to hear you tell 'em!" chuckled Billee. "Well, I wish you
all good luck, Bud, I'll help all I can. I'll be over to-night, if I
can make it, though it's some of a ride after a day's work."
"Oh, I won't expect you," said Bud. "I've got everything all laid out
for the camp there. Nort and Dick will be with me, but we'll be on the
lookout for you to-morrow. Bring what things you need, and some grub.
And if my mother has any pies baked, just pack a few of them."
"Only a _few_?" asked Billee, with a grin.
"As many as Nell will let you take," laughed Bud. "But there's Nort
and Dick! Whoop! Oh, boy! Come a-runnin'!" and the young rancher
beat a tattoo with his heels on the sides of his steed, and raced down
the slope toward two other lads who, like himself, were attired in
conventional western costume. Old Billee pulled his steed to a halt
and watched the greetings.
"It's a great thing to be young!" sighed the old man. "The greatest
thing in the world! But maybe I can do something yet! Only I don't
like that black jack--I shore don't! Never heard of anythin' but bad
luck followin' one of them nimble cusses! I don't like it for a cent!"
"Well, here we are!" cried Nort Shannon, flinging his broad-brimmed hat
into the air, and catching it on the end of his .45 before the
headpiece could touch the ground.
"Came right on time, too! Zip Foster couldn't 'a' made it better!"
joyously declared Bud, clapping his palm into that of Nort.
"Haven't you run him off the ranch yet?" asked the other lad, who was
rather short and stout, not to say fat.
"Run who off?" asked Bud.
"Zip Foster!" repeated Dick. "Last I heard of him----"
"Never mind _him_!" and Bud seemed somewhat annoyed at having mentioned
the name. "Oh, but I'm glad you fellows are here! Have a good trip?
Are you hungry? Did you have grub enough? Can you ride right out now?
How's everybody at my house?"
Nort looked at his western cousin, and then, with a deliberate motion
pretended to mop his face free of some imaginary perspiration, brought
out by the rapid-fire questions on his cousin's part.
"Say! Go a bit easy, will you, Bud?" he begged. "One at a time! Line
forms on this side!"
"We're going right out with you, and everybody's fine!" answered Dick,
summing up matters. "Your father said we were to ride out and meet you
here at the water-hole. We've got as much of our outfits as we'll need
for a few days, and so let's mosey along. Oh, but it's great to be
back out west!"'
"You got off a ripe one that time!" agreed Nort. "Who's that up
there?" he asked, pointing to the figure of a solitary horseman on the
hill down which Bud had ridden.
"Looks like Yellin' Kid," commented Dick.
"It's Old Billee," answered Bud. "He's going to be with us out at
Flume Valley. Did dad tell you of the new venture?" he asked his
cousins.
"Yes, and it sounds good. Must have been quite a trick to bring water
from Pocut River, Bud."
"Well, it would have been if Professor Wright hadn't showed dad how to
use an old underground water course for part of the way. Then it was
easy. And say--you ought to see what a difference water has made in
that valley! It was almost a desert before we irrigated."
"I'm anxious to see it!" said Nort.
"We can't get there any too soon to suit me," added Dick. "Just think!
We're going to be our own bosses--boy ranchers for fair!"
"You intimated plenty that time!" cried Bud. "Well, let's hit the
trail!"
The three boy ranchers started off, Nort and Dick accompanying Bud back
over the way the latter had come. As they rode up the hill Old Billee
passed on down another trail, leading to Diamond X proper.
"Howdy, boys!" called the old cowboy from the distance to Nort and
Dick. "See you a bit later over at your own ranch!" he added, and
then, with a friendly wave of his hand, he went down into a little
swale, or valley, and was lost to sight.
"Now for some good times!" cried Bud, as he rode between his two
eastern cousins, who had again come to spend the summer with him in the
great western outdoors.
"If it's anything like last year we sure will have a bang-up vacation!"
declared Nort.
"Well, I can't promise anything like that--with cattle rustling and
digging up animals ten million years old," laughed Bud. "But I think
we might have a little excitement."
"How?" asked Nort and Dick eagerly.
"Tell you later," promised Bud.
They rode on, talking over old times and planning new ones, and as the
shadows began to lengthen they rode down into a triangular valley, at
one end of which a rude dam could be noticed, while, scattered over the
green carpeted floor, were hundreds of grazing cattle.
"Say, this is some slick place!" cried Dick.
"The best ever!" affirmed Nort. "And is this where we are to camp and
ranch it?"
"Right here," declared Bud. "Course we haven't any ranch house yet.
But we've got a tent--there it is," and he pointed to a white canvas
shelter not far from the dam.
"A tent! Oh, boy! better and better!" yelled Dick, as he urged his
pony forward.
As the three boy ranchers neared their headquarters, represented by two
or three tents grouped together, there emerged from among them the
figure of a man on horseback.
"There's old Buck Tooth," said Bud.
"Who?" asked the eastern cousins.
"Buck Tooth--a Zuni Indian that dad picked up somewhere. He's one of
the best herd-riders you'd want, and he and I are great friends.
Wonder what's the matter, though? He acts as though something had
happened."
Bud pulled rein, to allow a better observation of the figure that was,
obviously, riding out to meet him. Nort and Dick also halted their
ponies. But Buck Tooth rode to meet them at great speed, sitting in
the saddle as though part of it and the horse. He rode in a manner
that made Nort and Dick envy him.
"What's the matter, Buck?" asked Bud, as soon as the Indian was within
hailing distance. And then Nort and Dick could see why he was called
that. A large, yellow-stained tooth protruded from his mouth, giving
him not exactly a pleasant expression.
"What's wrong, Buck, you ride so _pronto_ like?" demanded the young
western ranch boy.
"Heap wrong!" came the answer in guttural tones. "You no shut off
water in pipe; eh?"
"Shut off the irrigation water? I should say not!" cried Bud. "Why,
has anyone?"
"Water no come! All gone! No run splash-splash now!" and Buck Tooth
waved his hand toward the reservoir made by a dam that curved out in a
half circle from the wall of natural rock.
"The water gone!" cried Bud. "This is strange! Let's have a look!"
He and his cousins rode at top speed to the reservoir that had
reclaimed Flume Valley from the semi-desert it had long been.
Dismounting, they climbed the slope and saw that from the great iron
pipe, which was wont to spout a sparkling stream, there came only a few
drops and trickles.
"It's disappeared!" said Bud in a low voice. "The water has taken
another course! This means the end of Flume Valley, I reckon!"