CHAPTER II
A CALL FOR HELP
Without waiting for his pony to come to a stop, Bud fairly flunghimself out of the saddle, and with his rope, or lariat, coiled on hisarm he ran toward the corral.
"What's matter?" demanded Babe Milton, the assistant foreman, pausingin his repeated exclamations of:
"Some ridin'! Some ridin'!"
"Don't you fellows know any better than to let a tenderfoot rideTartar?" cried Bud. "That horse is next door to an outlaw, and youwouldn't get on him yourself, Babe!"
"You said an earful!" came the quick response. "I wouldn't!"
"Then how'd you come to let this fellow on? Who is he, anyhow?" criedBud, as he slipped through a hunch of cowboys who opened to let himpass.
"Fresh tenderfoot," some one said.
"He would ride!" added another.
"Says he's your cousin," added a third ranch hand.
"My _cousin_!" cried Bud. Then he did not stop to do any more talking.He leaped the fence of the corral, and, as he did so he became aware ofanother stranger--a tenderfoot like the lad on Tartar--standing withinthe fenced-off place. This lad, who bore all the marks of anewly-arrived Easterner, was rather short and stout--not to say fat.He stood beside an ancient and venerable cow pony, which was neverridden when there was anything else in the corral to throw a saddle on.And this lad was gazing with fear-widened eyes at the figure of theother lad.
"Get off, Nort! Get off!" cried this stout lad.
"Don't tell him to do that!" ordered Bud sharply. "He'll break hisneck sure! Stick, and I'll rope Tartar!" he shouted, trying to makehis voice heard above the thunder of the feet of the half-maddenedhorse, and the now somewhat subdued shouts of the cowboys.
Bud Merkel knew his business. He had not lived all his sixteen yearson his father's ranch not to learn how to throw a skillful rope, and henow took his position just within the corral, and at a place where hecould intercept the dashing outlaw, Tartar, as the animal came aroundagain with the flapping lad clinging to his back.
"Can you manage, Bud?" called Slim, from his cross seat in his saddle,where he was looking on.
"I'll get him!" was the grim answer.
Many thoughts were shooting through the mind of Bud Merkel, not theleast of which was the remark of Babe Milton to the effect that the ladon Tartar was Bud's cousin.
"Then the other must be, too," thought Bud as he swung his rope anddirected a quick glance at the fat lad now hugging the inner rails ofthe corral fence. "But how'd they get here, and what made him try thatoutlaw?"
However, this was no time to spend in asking oneself questions. Therewas need of action, and it came a moment later.
Hissing and swishing through the air, the coils of Bud's lariat fellaround the neck of the plunging, rearing, running Tartar. In anotherinstant Bud had taken a turn or two around a post, and, by carefullyapplying a snubbing pressure, the pony was brought to a stop.
"Get down--quick!" ordered Bud when the horse was quiet enough topermit of this. And as the other lad obeyed, and shook himselftogether, limping over toward Bud the latter asked: "Are you hurt?"
"Not a bit," was the laughing answer. "I could 'a' stuck on. Hecouldn't throw me."
"Don't you fool yourself!" exclaimed Bud, while some of the cowboyswent into the corral and loosened his lariat from the neck of the nowsubdued animal. Tartar, once the offending stranger was no longer onhis back, seemed normal. "Don't you fool yourself! You couldn't havestayed on a second longer."
"Betcher I could!" came the quick response. "If you'll rope himagain----"
"Cut it out, Nort!" came from the fat lad, who looked enough like thedaring rider to be his brother, as, indeed, he was.
"Oh, let me alone, Dick!" snapped the other. "I can ride!"
"Some ridin'! Oh, boy, some ridin'!" murmured the fat assistantforeman of Diamond X, while his companions grinned.
"You may know how to ride an ordinary horse," admitted Bud with asmile, as he coiled the rope which one of the men handed to him. "ButTartar isn't a regular pony. He's an outlaw, and even Del Pinzo won'ttake a chance on him. I don't see how they come to let you," he added,gazing somewhat reproachfully at the assembled cowboys.
They had begun to slink away, for they recognized the pseudo-authorityheld by the son of the ranch owner. Still they could justify theiraction, somewhat.
"He _wanted_ to ride," declared Babe Milton. "Would have it so, and weroped Tartar for him. I told him your pa wouldn't like it if he washere, but----"
"I reckon you thought you'd see some fun," said Bud, half smiling, forthough he realized that the strange lad had been in some danger, healso realized that the cowboys, fond as they were of fun and practicaljokes, would not have allowed the matter to go too far.
"It's up to me!" declared the slim lad, trying to brush some of thedust and horse hair from his clothes. "'Tisn't their fault at all."
"Good kid," murmured some of the cowboys, glad to be thus vindicated.
"I told him to keep off," said the fat lad, following Bud and thedaring rider from the corral. "I told him to pick a quiet horse, buthe said he wanted a bucker."
"He shore got it," chuckled Slim Degnan, as he ambled along. "He shoredid!"
"Well, I'm glad you're not hurt," exclaimed Bud. "I guess you're mycousins; aren't you?" he asked, holding out his brown, muscular hand tograsp the rather thinner and whiter palm of the lad who had been onTartar.
"Yes, I'm Nort," was the response. "This is Dick, my brother. We'regoing to stay all summer--if you'll keep us," he added, with awhimsical smile. "And after this I'll let you pick my horses for me."
"It'll be safer, until you learn to ride," said Bud. "I mean learn toride western cow ponies," he added quickly, for he did not want toassume this other lad could not ride.
"I guess I don't know so much as I thought I did," confessed Nort."Though I did ride a lot at the Academy."
"Well, come on to the house," invited Bud. "Dad's away, but mother'sthere. Have you met her?"
"No," answered Nort. "We just got here. You see we came ahead oftime. Happened to meet one of your wagons over at the depot, and rodeout here in it. I sort of lost my head when I struck the ranch andwanted a ride right off the bat. I had it, too!" he added with a smile.
"Dad said something about you moseying out this way before snow flew,"spoke Bud, as he walked with his cousins toward the main ranch house,which stood in the midst of a number of low red buildings, itself ofthe same structure and color. "But I didn't expect you so soon, or I'd'a' been over to the station."
"It was all right--we didn't want any fussing," said Nort. "And, as Isay, we started sooner than we expected. Didn't even write."
"No, I guess you didn't," admitted Bud. "Dad sort of mentioned, casuallike, that you'd be along sooner or later, but he didn't get any wordfrom you recently."
"Well, we're here, anyhow," spoke Dick, the fat youth, with a sigh ofevident relief, as he looked back toward the corral.
"I just got in myself," said Bud. "Been away two days mending fence.Had to sleep out one night, and we weren't exactly prepared for it.But I'm mighty glad you've come! We can have some corking times. I'llget you ponies that'll be--er--better to ride than Tartar," he said,substituting the word "better" for that of "safer" which, at first, hehad intended to use.
"That's good!" exclaimed Dick. "I don't claim to be any rider, thoughI can stick to the saddle once I land there," and he shot a side glanceat his more impulsive brother.
"Oh, I could 'a' stuck if there'd been a _saddle_," declared Nort."That was the trouble. I'll ride Tartar yet!" he cried.
"Better go slow," advised Bud. "But there's mother in the door now,and I can smell grub. She'll be surprised to see you."
"Who's that girl?" asked Dick, as he noticed one standing beside thestout, motherly-looking woman in the doorway of the ranch house.
"That's my sister Nell," remarked Bud.
"Nell! Say, she has grown!" cri
ed Nort. "I didn't know she was thatbig!"
"Oh, this is a good country for growing up in!" laughed Bud. "Here'sNort and Dick, Mother!" he called.
"Well, land sakes! I never expected to see _you_ two!" cried Mrs.Merkel, hastily wiping off her mouth with the corner of her apron,preparatory to kissing her nephews. "Land! But you've grown!"
"Not any more than Nell!" declared Dick, as he kissed his aunt and girlcousin, an example gladly followed by Nort. For once the fat lad hadbeaten his slim brother to it.
"Why didn't you write? We didn't know you were coming for a month yet!Where's your trunks? How'd you get here? Come in and wash up andwe'll have supper!"
All this Mrs. Merkel showered on the two "tenderfeet" in a breath, atthe same time fairly "shooing" them into the house as a motherly henmight direct her chickens toward the feeding coop.
"Oh, we just pulled up stakes and lit out," laughed Nort. "We gottired of the East. Oh, but it's great here!" he exclaimed, as helooked back before entering the house, and saw, through the clear air,the wonderful blue sky, and, in the distance, a range of mountains."It's just what I dreamed it would be," he softly murmured.
"Glad you like it! We'll have some swell times!" voiced Bud. "But youwant to get those duds off," he added, as he glanced at his cousin'sclothes.
"We sure do!" declared Nick. "We've got outfits in our trunks.They're in the wagon. Maybe they aren't just the proper clothes for aranch, but they're old things----"
"The older the better!" interrupted Bud, and he was about to follow hiscousins inside when Nell exclaimed:
"Some one is coming! Look!"
They all turned to observe a solitary horseman riding at top speed forthe group of ranch buildings. He came from the direction where Bud andthe foreman had seen the slim wisp of smoke about an hour before, andas he rode, the man shouted above the thundering thuds of his horse'shoofs:
"Help! Help! Can't you send help!"