A TERRIBLE PLOT
Quickly the men ran to the woods where they had concealed their
ponies, unhobbled, saddled and mounted them, riding along till they
came to where Pete and the boys were.
"Which way shall we go?" inquired Sandy when all were In their
saddles. "That cry came from straight ahead of us on the plains,
according to my judgment."
Pete and the other cowboys agreed with him, and, trusting to their
sense of direction, the owner of the Half-Moon said:
"Then we'll ride due east. Spread out abreast. The more ground we
can cover the better."
"But don't get too far apart," interposed the rancher from the
Three Stars. "Keep close enough together so you can see the man on
your right."
Rapidly were these commands given, and within fifteen minutes after
the mysterious calls had startled them the twenty-three horsemen
were advancing over the prairie, eyes and ears alert for sound or
sight of the men who had uttered the signals, the two Eastern boys
and Horace riding between Mr. Wilder and Pete at the southern end
of the line.
But for once Sandy's ears had played him false. Ignorant of the
psychological fact that only when a man's head is turned can he
correctly judge the direction of sound, it being impossible to
distinguish between a sound coming from directly in front or
behind, the foreman of the Three Stars Ranch had been deceived
because he had been looking straight ahead out into the prairie.
And instead of riding toward the men who had roused them by their
cries, each bound of the horses was carrying them farther away.
When Larry and his companions had met the bear, the four raiders
with the cattle Jeffreys had seen were only about two miles in
advance of them. As the boys had thought, the reverberations of
the shots had reached the ears of the men at the rear of the cattle
and they had uttered the wail as a signal to those ahead, jumping
to the conclusion that they were being followed.
Making use of their knowledge of the mountains, the raiders had
hurriedly driven the cattle into the forest, where they would be
out of sight and so could not give warning of the whereabouts of
the thieves, and had then hidden themselves behind some rocks along
the trail. From their ambuscade they would be able to shoot down
their pursuers or capture them as they felt inclined.
But as the reader knows, the boys doubled on their trail and so
divided the trap.
After waiting till dark without any sign of pursuers, the raiders
grew fearsome.
"We've got to find out for sure whether it's somebody on our trail
or just some one that is hunting," declared one of them, who, if
the two brothers could have seen him, they would have recognized as
Gus Megget.
"Considering we've waited more than two hours and no one has showed
up, I say we ought to push onto the Lode, Gus," asserted another.
"How can we drive cattle over this trail in the dark?" growled the
chief of the raiders. "You ought to have more sense, seeing the
trouble we've had to get them as far as this in the daylight."
"So long as we can't drive, we might just as well go back and find
out who's been shooting."
Realizing that it was futile to urge their leader to change his
mind, the other raiders sullenly acquiesced, and, emerging from
their places of concealment, went into the woods to get their
horses and were soon riding stealthily back over the trail.
Though they dared not refuse to go, the men, however, were not
backward in expressing their disapproval of the move, declaring
that they were tempting disaster by returning when they had made so
successful a start.
But Megget paid no attention to their grumblings and soon his
companions lapsed into silence.
Fate, however, which had saved the two brothers and the young
rancher from stumbling into the ambush, was still favoring them.
For when the raiders reached the edge of the prairie Megget ordered
a halt that they might eat, and when again they resumed their ride
the boys were far on their way toward the spot where they met their
friends.
Not long did it take their pursuers to discover the place where the
three had eaten and then to find the direction in which they had
departed.
"What's the use of following any farther, Gus?" demanded one of
them. "So long as they have ridden to the south, and there are
only three of them, anyhow, we are in no danger."
But with a blind obstinacy the leader of the cattle thieves
persisted in continuing the pursuit, and set the pace at a fast
gallop.
In due course of time, as the boys before them, they discovered the
glare from the camp fire.
"We'll ride into the mountains, dismount and then find out who it
is that has the fire," declared Megget.
"You're playing with trouble, Gus," protested his companions.
"From what I know of Wilder, he won't let a bunch of his cattle be
lifted without doing something. That may be his fire."
"All the more reason why we should go to it--to make sure," snapped
the leader of the raiders. "Wilder is a fool or he wouldn't leave
his herd unguarded at the Witches' Pool."
"You'll find he's smarter than you think. I'll bet all my share of
these raids will come to that the only reason the herd was alone
was because his whole outfit is on the trail from the bottoms,"
asserted another.
"Well, the boys can take care of 'em if they are. I said I was
going to find out who built that fire, and I'm going to." And
without more ado, the leader of the raiders dashed into the woods.
Riding cautiously among the trees until he thought he was about
back of the fire Megget gave the word to dismount.
A short distance to the south and above them was a ledge from which
they would be able to command a view of the camp fire, and rapidly
the raiders made their way to It.
What they saw when they reached the top and gazed down caused them
to exclaim in amazement.
The cowboys were saddling their ponies, and instead of the three
men they had expected to discover, Megget and his companions saw a
dozen.
"That's the Half-Moon bunch!" declared one of them.
"There are too many of them," asserted another. "We're in a pretty
mess now. Those three men we followed have evidently informed them
of finding our trail and they are starting to pick it up."
"Don't you worry about that," growled Megget. And before his
companions were aware what he intended to do, he uttered the calls
that caused the ranch owners and cowboys to start out into the
prairie.
Eagerly the raiders watched them disappear and Megget chuckled:
"I thought I could fool 'em. It's easy when you are above any
one." And then he added: "You'll wish you had never started after
me, Wilder!"
Wondering at their leader's meaning, his fellows had no chance to
ask, however, for even as he spoke Megget was descending from the
ledge.
Arriving at the camp fire, he glanced about for a few moments, then
sent his men for the horses.
As soon as he was sure he was alone, the leader of the raiders
walked out on the plains, paused, wet his finger in his mouth, then
raised his hand above his head.
"Great! I'm sure playing in luck," he muttered to himself. "The
wind is blowing from the west--straight out across the plains."
And chuckling grimly, the cattle thief returned to the fire to
await the horses.
Mounting quickly when they arrived, Megget gave a curt order for
his own men to follow and galloped in the same direction the ranch
owners and cowboys had taken.
At the end of a quarter of a mile he drew rein and again went
through the performance of wetting his finger and raising it above
his head, murmuring more to himself than his pals:
"I didn't know but that the hills might have changed the direction
of the wind.
"Here, you," he added, turning to his men, "two of you ride a mile
up and Squinty and I'll ride south. When I give the call, fire the
grass and then ride for the trail and drive the cattle to the mine.
I'll cut across and warn Vasquez and the others."