CHAPTER IV
AROUND THE CAMPFIRE
Naturally impatient, the boy ranchers did not want to return once theyhad started on the trail of the robbers. They thought they should beallowed to rush off, and perhaps they had an idea they could soon "meetup" with the suspects and bring them back. But Mr. Merkel and theother ranchmen, as well as the veteran cowboys, had no such delusions.However, this was no time to discourage impetuous youth.
"What's the matter, Dad?" asked Bud, as he recognized his father'svoice among those bidding him and his cousins to return. "Has someonetelephoned in that they've rounded up the thieves?"
No surprise need be occasioned when I speak of telephones in connectionwith ranching in the far west. Times have changed since the early daysof the buffalo and Indians. Both are almost extinct, though theIndians have lasted longer than the bison.
But the West has progressed with other parts of the country, and theadvent of the cheap automobile and the spread of telephone wires, andeven wireless now, has brought far distant ranches close together. SoBud knew it could easily have been the case that some distant ranchmanmight have telephoned to Diamond X that he had made a capture ofsuspicious persons. He may not have known of the theft of Mr. Merkel'sSpur Creek papers, for this robbery had not yet been broadcast.
"No telephones, son," said Mr. Merkel easily, as he strode out to wherethe horses of the boys were pawing the ground, almost as impatient tobe gone as were their masters. "But I want you to take one of the menwith you."
"Oh, Dad! I don't want to do that!" protested Bud.
"We've hit the trail alone before," added Nort.
"It isn't a question of your ability," went on Mr. Merkel. "But youmay have to split--very likely you will, and for this purpose four arebetter than three. Then you can pair it off."
"That's right," slowly admitted Bud. "Two of us might have to followone trail, and it would be lonesome for just one to take the other.How about Old Billee?"
"You couldn't pick a better companion," agreed Mr. Merkel.
Billee Dobb was only too glad to get away from the routine work of theranch--riding herd and helping in the round up and shipping--andquickly saddled to accompany the boys on their ride through the night,in an endeavor to pick up the trail of those who had committed therobbery at Spur Creek.
"Well, I guess we're off this time," remarked Dick, as once more theyturned their horses' heads in the general direction supposed to havebeen taken by the robbers.
It was, as you may surmise, pretty much guess work, and yet there weresome clues on which to work, and the boys hoped to pick up others asthey went along, by stopping at different ranch houses and makinginquiries. Then, too, cowboys would be met with here and there, andthey might have seen some trace of the fugitives.
In the olden days, before the West was as much traveled as it is now,it might have been possible for pioneers, such as those featured in thenovels of James Fenimore Cooper, to have followed and picked up thetrail by the mere physical evidences left on the ground--a footprinthere, a hoofmark there, the pressed down grass and so on.
But this was out of the question now, though some slight marks might bediscovered in the daytime by the sharp eyes of Billee Dobb, who was aveteran cowboy and plainsman. In this Bud and his companions wouldhave to rely on Billee, as the boys themselves had not had muchexperience in this line.
"Well, Billee, what do you think of it all?" asked Bud as he rodebeside the old man, while Nort and Dick loped along in the rear.
"You mean what happened to-night, Bud?"
"Yep." Bud was clipping his words short to save time.
"Well," said the old man slowly, "I don't know just what to think.It's all mighty queer, but one thing I'll say--this didn't all happenjust to-night."
"You mean it was planned in advance?" asked Dick.
"Sartin sure, son! It was a put-up job if ever there was one. Why,just look back over it. Here we all were in peace and quiet, and Mr.Merkel was entertainin' his friends, when up rides a bunch of oneryGreasers, if I'm any judge."
"What makes you think they were Greasers?" asked Bud.
"'Cause no decent white men would act like they did. Up they rides,pretending to be sneakin' in on us, maybe to lift a few horses or elsestampede a bunch of our cows. But that wasn't their intention at all."
"If it was, Slim and the rest of 'em spoiled their plans," observedNort.
"Don't worry, they had no notion of takin' anything," declared OldBillee. "They just wanted to take our attention while some of theirconfederates sneaked in and got Mr. Merkel's papers; and they done thatsame."
"I'll say they did!" exclaimed Bud in disgust. "It was all too easyfor them. But how did they know Dad's papers were in the safe?"
"Well, it's common knowledge that your paw claims the land around SpurCreek," observed Billee. "That's common knowledge. And it wouldn'ttake a Kansas City lawyer long to figger out that he had papers toprove his claim, an' that he kept these papers in his safe; it bein'equally well known that we haven't much time to fool with banks aroundhere, 'specially in the busy season.
"So all the rascal had to do was to get the house clear, by creatin'some excitement away from it, and then he walked in an' skinned thesafe. It didn't help matters any that th' perfesser happened along atthe same time, either, and I don't care who knows it!" declared BilleeDobb emphatically.
"You don't mean to say you believe Dr. Wright had any hand in this?"cried Bud.
"Well, maybe _he_ didn't 'zactly have a hand in it," grudginglyadmitted the old cowpuncher, "but he played right into the hands of th'scoundrels."
"On purpose, do you mean?" asked Nort.
"Well, that's to be found out," remarked Billee musingly.
"Billee, you're 'way off there!" cried Bud. "Professor Wright is asright as his name--we proved that before when he was here after theprehistoric Triceratops bones."
"He may have changed since then," declared Billee. "What did he wantto come in and lead us off on a false trail for, when we was hot afterthe robbers?"
"He didn't do it purposely," asserted Nort, who, with his brother,shared Bud's views as to the integrity of Professor Wright. "It wasbecause he got lost."
"Yes, to hear him tell it," sneered Billee.
"Why, look here!" cried Bud. "What good would it do Professor Wrightto get hold of Dad's papers proving ownership to the Spur Creek lands?Why would he want the land? If anybody wants it they must be those whoare coming in under the new government ruling--sheep herders maybe, andit's to them we have to look."
"That Wright is just the kind of a chap who'd go in for sheep herding,and spoiling a cattle country," complained Billee, as he pulled up thehead of his horse, when the animal showed a tendency to stumble over aprairie dog's hole.
"You're away off!" laughed Bud. "It may have been sheep herders whogot Dad's papers, hoping thus to be able to claim a lot of land fortheir woolly feeders, but Professor Wright had no hand in it."
Billee's only answer was a sniff.
However, as the boy ranchers rode along in the darkness they realizedthat they could have had no better companion than Old Billee Dobb, forhis very vindictiveness, though it might be wrongly directed, made himeager to keep after the robbers. That Professor Wright was other thanhe claimed to be, none of the boys doubted for a moment.
But who was behind the plot which had just succeeded so well? That wasa question which needed answering.
The ranch buildings of Diamond X were soon left behind in the darkness,their pleasant glow fading as the four horsemen of the prairies rodealong in silence, looking, as best they could under the faint glow ofthe moon for the outlines of other horsemen to be shown on the horizonas they topped some rise in the undulating ground.
In general the boy ranchers and Billee were following the trail onwhich Slim and the cowboys had started after the shots were fired--thetrail that was crossed by Professor Wright, causing the pursuers toturn back.
"It would hav
e been better if some of us had kept on when we had thestart," commented Nort when, after an hour's ride nothing had been seen.
"Yes, it would," agreed Billee.
"But we didn't know, then, that there had been a robbery," went on Nort.
"That's right," assented Bud. "We just thought it was an ordinarybunch of cattle or horse thieves, and if they had been there would havebeen nothing else to worry about, as we drove them off."
"Well, we may get 'em yet, but 'tisn't very likely," said Billee.
And as the night wore on and they kept their slow pace over the plains,this prediction seemed about to be borne out.
The boys and Billee had stopped at ranch houses here and there to makeinquiries about some fleeing band of horsemen, but no one had seenthem. The proprietors of most of the ranches were over at Diamond Xand had not yet returned. Some of them had telephoned to their foremenor other members of the ranch households, telling about the robbers andsaying that Bud and his companions might call.
But beyond this no trace was found of the robbers.
It was long past midnight when Old Billee pulled his horse to a stop,and "slumped" from the saddle.
"What's the matter?" asked Bud. "See some sign?" By this he intendedto ask if the old plainsman saw any indications that they were hotteron the trail of those they sought.
"Nope!" answered Old Billee. "But we're going to camp and make coffeeand frizzle a bit of bacon. No use keepin' on any longer. We can't doanything more till mornin'."
"Camp it is!" exclaimed Bud, "and I'm not sorry, either."
Shortly a fire was going, made from twigs and branches picked up undera few trees near where the party had stopped, and soon the appetizingaroma of coffee and bacon spread through the night air.
"Um! But this is jolly!" cried Nort.
The horses were picketed out and after the midnight supper thewayfarers rolled themselves in their blankets and prepared to pass whatremained of the night in the glow of the campfire, and beneath thefitful light of the cloud-obscured moon.