THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS.
The scouts were now confronted by conditions calculated to keep them
guessing at a lively rate. With both owners of the ranch away, to whom
were they to communicate their alarming news? How could they know that
in this telling the story, they might not be giving themselves away to
one of the suspects?
It was a situation calling for considerable head work and reasoning, so
that a serious mistake might not be made in the start.
What made it still more difficult to manage was the fact, which Harry
seemed to be aware of, that there was no real foreman on the place;
Colonel Job himself filling that position, while James Henshaw took
other duties upon his shoulders.
"How about telling your Aunt Mehitabel about it, Harry?" Ned asked, as
they exchanged views and seemed to get no nearer a definite arrangement.
"Just what we'll have to do," replied the other chum, "and say, if only
she'll agree to let us have a free hand, and tell the boys to do what
we want, p'raps we might find some way yet to upset the game of the
rustlers."
"You just bet we will that!" said Jimmy, with all the confidence of one
whose lexicon knew no such word as fail.
"The first thing we must do," ventured Ned, seriously, "is to find out
who it is sends these treacherous messages to parties that have evil
designs on the herds of the Double Cross Ranch."
"Them, you mean, don't you, Ned," added Jack, "because that message
spoke of there being five all told who would look out and see that
things were made easy picking."
"Well," spoke up Jimmy, with a cunning leer, "sometimes you think I'm
sleepy, but I notice that now and then I manage to wake up long enough
to do my little stunt. His handle, it's Ally Sloper, by the same token."
"Who's that?" asked Harry.
"The dub that owns the homing pigeons," came the ready reply, which
caused Ned to smile and nod his head in approbation.
"Good work, Jimmy!" he remarked, "you must have asked the fellow you
rode in behind?"
"Just what I did, Ned," Jimmy told him. "I mentioned the fact that we
had seen a pigeon flying, and then he says as how this same Ally Sloper
he had got about five birds from a feller over in Kingman, on the
railroad beyond the Opal and the Blue Ridge Mountains down in Arizona.
He was told to let one go every little while, to see if they'd get safe
home again. But, fellers, that place lies to the southeast as you know,
and we saw that pigeon away off to the _northwest_ of here, which says
Ally Sloper he just lies!"
"That's a fine start," commended the scout master. "We know who the
chief spy is, and it ought to be an easy thing to learn who his close
pals seem to be, for like as not he'd stick only to those who are in
the same boat with him."
"Sounds well to me, Ned," Jack remarked, after apparently turning the
matter over carefully in his mind.
"What's the game?" asked Jimmy.
"Here's the way it stands," remarked Ned, soberly. "That second message
must have been sent to tell the gang that both bosses are away, and
conditions looking good for a raid to-night."
"Whew! so soon as that?" ejaculated Jack, drawing a long sigh, for he
was pretty tired and had calculated on getting rested up between sunset
and another dawn; if, as they suspected, there were going to be great
goings-on around the cattle ranch before many hours, it was possible
that they might be on the jump all night; but then, Jack was a fellow
who could stand considerable punishment without throwing up the sponge,
and that intake of breath might simply mean a resolution to do his part
in the drama.
"If there was only some way now to round the cattle up and drive them
into the stockades or corrals, so they could be guarded," Ned
continued, as though he might have been doing more or less planning
before the critical moment arrived, "why, we might hold the fort until
morning and not lose any of the herds."
"Do you suppose it could be done?" Harry wanted to know.
"I see no reason why not," came the sturdy reply. "It looked to me like
the herds were grazing within a few miles of here, though there may be
some further off. Now, if the punchers only got the fever on them, I've
no doubt they could round the steers and cows up and get them in the
stockade long before the rustlers would think of coming along."
"There's one bully thing about it," ventured Harry, smilingly. "We're
going to have a full moon to-night, and a cattle drive will be a
picnic. If it was pitch dark, or stormy, it might be a different story.
The scout luck holds good. Things may look a bit gloomy for a while,
but we get there in the end."
"I'll tell you one reason why it's important that we should find out
just who the cronies of this Ally Sloper are," continued Ned. "It would
be a bad thing now if we sent the whole five out in a batch, because,
believing their game was up and that it would be unsafe for them to
ever come back here, chances are they would take advantage of their
opportunity to run off a herd while about it."
"Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb--is that what you mean,
Ned?" Jack asked.
"Yes, about that way," the scout master replied. "On the other hand, if
they are broken up, and only one sent out with each bunch of punchers
to corral the herds, these spies will not be able to work anything
crooked. We'll draw their claws, as you might say, and make them
harmless."
"Here comes my aunt," Harry broke in with, as a large woman brushed out
of the doorway of the commodious ranch house and approached them.
She was an amiable woman, they could see at first glance; but Ned
fancied that, in an emergency, Aunt Mehitabel would not prove capable
of gripping the reins. No doubt, during all her married life she had
depended on her able husband to manage things on the outside, being
content on her part to see that things moved along regularly within
doors, and that meals came on time.
She greeted Harry warmly and was also delighted to meet his chums, all
of whom she urged to go inside the house with her.
But the occasion was so serious that Ned did not wish to waste any more
time than was absolutely necessary.
"We've come to make you quite a little visit, ma'm," Ned remarked,
after she had urged them to make themselves at home, and do whatever
they pleased, "and later on we expect to have a great time riding
around the country and seeing things. But it is unfortunate that
neither one of Harry's uncles is home right now, because we've got some
very important news."
The lady of the house looked worried at once, just as Ned had
anticipated would be the case.
"Oh! what can it be?" she asked, her voice showing traces of
nervousness.
"On the way our chum, Jimmy here, happened to shoot a hawk that had
pounced down on a flying pigeon. Wrapped around one of the pigeon's
legs was a piece of tissue paper, and bearing a message. I have it here
with me, and both the hawk and the pigeon are in one of our packs on
the burros. This message was not signed, but it plainly announced that
there are five untrustworthy men employed on this place who are in
league with cattle rustlers."
"Mercy on us, you don't say! And the colonel away, too! Whatever will
become of us now?" Mrs. Haines started to wail, when Ned smilingly went
on to soothe her by remarking:
"But here are four stout boys, ready to do their level best to upset
the plans of these cattle thieves, if given half a chance, ma'm. Now,
in this message, it is promised that if the conditions look favorable,
another line will be sent, the same way as this was. And as we came up
we saw a pigeon flying into the west, so we take it for granted that
has been done, and the rustler crowd will get busy between now and
sun-up."
"The herds are all out on the range, unfortunately, and it is too late
now to get them in," the lady went on to say, dejectedly. "Oh! how
unfortunate that you did not arrive a few hours ago, when my husband
would have been here to take charge of things, for we have no foreman,
you know."
"It may not be too late, even now, to get the herds rounded up and
brought in to the corral where the boys can guard them," Ned told her.
She looked at him admiringly, doubtless impressed, as many others had
been before then, with his manly bearing and the resolute look on his
face.
"I really believe that if any one could manage it, you could, my son!"
she said, with a simplicity and ardor that caused the warm glow to
spread over Ned's face.
"With what assistance you might give us, Mrs. Haines, we believe we can
save the cattle from this threatened raid," he continued, calmly. "And
first of all it is of the utmost importance that we learn just who
these other four punchers may be who are hand in glove with Ally
Sloper--the man who has sent the pigeon messenger."
"Oh! so he is the one?" she cried, "and I never could bear the sight of
his face, because of the cast in that evil eye of his. But Job always
laughed at me, and said Ally Sloper was one of the best men he had on
the place. What do you want me to do, for you said I could help you win
out?"
"First of all, in the absence of your husband and Harry's other uncle,"
began the scout master, just for all the world, Jimmy thought, like a
great general, such as Napoleon or Grant, laying out his campaign, "it
seems as if the men would take orders from you. Am I right there?
"Yes, it has happened a few times, but I would not have known a thing
about what to do, only for Chunky's advice," she told him.
"Oh! you can rely on Chunky then, can you?" asked Ned, quickly, for
that was one of the points he wanted settled, because a great deal
depended on it.
"Always. My husband would trust him with his life. If ever we do have a
foreman at the Double Cross, Chunky will be the one."
"I'm glad to hear that, because I rode in behind him, and somehow I
fancied he would be the one to confide in. Please send out for him as
soon as you can, ma'm, because we have little time to waste. I hope to
learn from Chunky just who the other four traitors are, for he will
have noticed how this Ally Sloper picks out his friends. Birds of a
feather flock together, you know; and these fellows would feel safer if
they kept in constant touch with each other."
The other scouts approved of what Ned was doing, as their manner of
nodding at different times indicated. They knew that their leader was
equal to running things, even though he might not know so much about
the working of a cattle ranch. And in times gone by they had seen him
pitted against what seemed to be overwhelming odds, to win out in the
end; so that they had unbounded confidence in whatever he started to do.
The rancher's wife left them for a minute, and presently came back to
say that she had sent out the Chink cook, Chin-chin Charlie, to find
Chunky, and tell him to come right to the house on important business.
"We'll get this working pretty soon, I think," Jack declared, with
animation.
"And they'll just have to hunt up some broncs for the lot of us to
straddle, too," added Harry.
"Tell me about that," chuckled Jimmy. "How glad I'll be to mount a
fiery charger and dig me heels into his flanks, after all this terrible
walkin' the lot of us have been doin' lately. I do be wishin' Chunky'd
hurry. If he's gone off now, and couldn't be found at the bunkhouse,
we'll be in a nice pickle, sure."
"Don't worry, because I think he's coming," Ned told him.
Just as he said, this lanky puncher came up on the verandah of the
ranch. He was quickly put in possession of the facts, and expressed
himself in forcible terms concerning the alleged treachery of Ally
Sloper and his four allies.
"I c'n put a hand on the hull blooming lot," he declared, "because it
happens as how that same Ally has been keepin' company with jest four
punchers. They are Lefty Louie, Coyote Smith, Bob Caruso that the boys
calls Robinson Crusoe, and Tinplate George--all clever punchers, but
mighty slick articles at that. If Miss Haines sez as how we take our
orders from you, Ned, just give the word, and you'll see them warts
arounded up like grease."
"Oh! well, we ought to go to extremes only as a last resort, I think,"
said Mrs Haines, who dreaded lest there be some shooting in making the
arrest, and that some of the boys who were her favorites would get
hurt. "Ned has a plan that might answer the same purpose. Tell him
about it, Ned, please."
So the scout master unfolded his scheme.
"How many herds are there on the range just now, Chunky?" he asked.
"Four, all told, with a smattering of others that don't 'mount to much."
"Suppose, then, you make me out a list of the punchers, so that there
will be one of these suspects with every bunch, not counting Ally
Sloper," Ned continued.
"Hello! I'm beginnin' to tumble to the game and, let me say, it fills
the bill first-class," was the quick comment of the lanky one.
He gave the names to Ned as rapidly as the other could write them down;
and it was speedily arranged, so that of the four parties one of the
conspirators had been designated to accompany each. As for Ally
himself, it did not matter much what he did, though they must keep him
under surveillance, lest he upset all their cleverly laid plans by
cutting the corral or, in some other fashion, rendering it impossible
to keep all the hundreds of longhorns near the ranch house, where they
could be guarded.
All this was fixed up in a very short space of time and then Ned
declared they ought to get busy. The sun was sinking toward the western
horizon; but they knew there was going to be no period of darkness,
because the moon was full, which meant that it would rise exactly at
sunset.
"We can eat after we've got those herds rounded up and safe in the
corral, not before," was Ned's ultimatum, when Mrs. Haines spoke about
supper; and this caused one long face to make itself seen among the
scouts, for Jimmy dearly loved his feed.