CHAPTER III
A MYSTERIOUS SEARCH
Nort and Dick Shannon, Bud's "city cousins," seemed to realize, as didthe young rancher, his mother and sister, that something was wrong.Prepared as Nort and Dick were for strange and sensational happeningsin the west, they sensed that this was out of the ordinary.
The solitary rider had also attracted the attention of the cowboys who,the excitement at the corral being over, had turned toward their bunkhouse to prepare for the evening meal. Slim Degnan, the foreman, Babe,his assistant, and one or two others started forward as if to interceptthe horseman. But a cowboy on foot is like a sailor off the deck--outof his element. They wore high-heeled shoes--boots made especially forthe use of spurs, and they were not capable of rapid progress except ontheir steeds.
The lone rider was past them in a flash, turning into the lane that ledtoward the ranch house, where Bud and the others could not be seen,having turned at the call for help.
"What's the matter of him--locoed?" asked Babe.
"Looks that way," murmured Slim. "But Ma Merkel will know how tohandle him, and Bud has his gun. Still, I don't know but we'd bettermosey up that way, so as to sort of back the boy up, as long as hisdad's away."
"My idea coincides," murmured Babe. "We'll prospect along up there,"he called to the other cowboys, some of whom seemed to show a desire torush to a possible rescue. "It'll be all right."
By the time the foreman and his assistant had reached the porch onwhich stood the two tenderfeet eastern lads, with Bud, his mother andsister, the lone horseman had dismounted, not with any degree of skill,however, but slipping off as though greatly fatigued, or rendered limpfrom fright.
"Can you send help to him?" he gasped, pointing back in the directionwhence he had come. "If you don't they may kill him! Oh, such men!Such men!"
"Kill who? What's the matter? What sort of help do you need?" askedBud quickly, while Nort and Dick looked at the excited man. He borenone of the marks of the west. His garb was of the East as his ridinghad been, though he sat a fairly good saddle, or he never could haveridden at the speed he did. But he had a good horse. Even Dick andNort knew enough about animals to tell that. The pony, his sidesheaving and his nostrils distended, gave this not altogether muteevidence of his race against time.
"It's Professor Wright," came the panting answer. "He's offthere--with his prospecting party. I'm his assistant!"
"I thought he looked like a professor," murmured Dick to Nort.
"Keep still!" sharply commanded Nort.
"I am Professor J. Elwell Blair," went on the still greatly excitedrider, "an assistant to Professor Wright. We are camped about threemiles from here, over there," and he waved his hand toward where Budand Slim, on their homeward ride, had seen the wisp of smoke. "SomeMexicans threaten to attack us," went on the man who called himselfProfessor Blair. "In fact they had already started when ProfessorWright bade me ride for help. We knew there was a ranch over in thisdirection. Can you send us help?" he asked anxiously.
"Sure!" exclaimed Bud.
"Oh, if your father were only here!" murmured Mrs. Merkel.
"Our boys are enough!" declared Nell, with sparkling eyes. "I wish Imight go!" she added. "Can't I?"
"No indeed!" declared her mother. "The idea! You must take Slim withyou!" she called after Bud, for he was already half way down the laneleading to the corral, calling on Professor Blair to follow, andshouting to Nort and Dick:
"Come on, if you want to see some lively doings!" Bud invited.
"We sure do!" yelled Nort.
"Hadn't we better change our clothes?" asked the slower Dick.
"Change nothin'!" cried Nort. "Leave your coat off if you want to!I'm going to shed mine!" and shed it he did, dropping it on the groundas he leaped forward.
"What is it, Bud?" asked Slim Degnan, as he and Babe, on their way tothe house, met the fleeing young rancher, who had even distancedProfessor Blair, though the latter had again mounted his tired horse.
"Don't know--exactly," came the answer. "He's a stranger," and hejerked his thumb over his shoulder back toward the professor. "He anda party are camped over in the hills--where we saw the smoke a whileback," he explained further. "He says a bunch of Greasers are tryingto do up his boss. Wants help!"
"Wa'al, he come to th' right place," remarked Babe Milton briefly, as,with more speed than you would have believed he possessed, he rantoward the corral.
Already several cowboys, sensing that something was wrong, had begun tocatch and saddle enough ponies to provide mounts for Bud, the foremanand his fat helper.
"Give my cousins Baldy and Gimp!" cried Bud to one of the cowboys whowere in the corral. "You can ride those, even if you haven't got yourold clothes on," he added.
"Lively now!" cried the foreman, assuming, as was his right, command ofthe little cavalcade. In less time than it takes to tell it, they wereriding along the trail, directed by Professor Blair, whose horseseemed, somehow, to have recovered its wind sufficiently to keep pacewith the fresher steeds.
"Are you all right, fellows?" Bud called back to his cousins, as he,himself, spurred ahead alongside Slim and Babe. Nort and Dick formedthe rear guard with the professor.
"Sure!" declared Nort. "Oh, boy! A fight the first day we get here,Dick!" he yelled to his brother.
"Don't be too sure," called hack Bud. "These Greasers may hit thetrail as soon as we head into sight."
"Greasers are Mexicans, aren't they?" asked Dick.
"Yes," answered Professor Blair, who rode between the two easterners."We had to engage some, and I believe a few Indians, also, in ourprospecting work. Our own men are all right, but we were attacked bysome strange Mexicans and Indians--or we were about to be attacked,when I rode off for help."
"What started the row?" asked Bud.
The question seemed to embarrass Professor Blair.
"The Mexicans seem to think we have something of value, or at leastknow where valuables may be," he answered. "I believe they think weare after desert gold, and though we have found some----"
"You have found _gold_!" cried Bud.
"No! No! It is a false rumor!" hastily declared the professor. "ButProfessor Wright has been obliged to keep secret the object of hissearch, and perhaps the mystery surrounding it has been misconstrued bythe ignorant men. They declare we are after gold, but it is somethingfar more valuable, though I am not allowed to disclose what----"
He was interrupted by the sound of distant shooting, followed by faintyells. Bud Merkel clapped spurs to his horse and shot forward, whileProfessor Blair excitedly exclaimed:
"Oh, they are killing him! They are killing him!"