CHAPTER III
THE WARNING
"Will it be safe to leave our camp alone, like this?" asked Nort, as heand his companions rode off, leaving behind them the white tents,gleaming in the wondrous light of a full moon.
"Why not?" inquired Bud. "It won't walk away."
"No, but some one might come in and take everything."
"There isn't much worth taking. You brought your old stuff with you,we have our ponies, so all they could snibby would be the camp dishes,and they aren't worth the risk."
"Could they drive off any of your cattle?" asked Dick.
"Why don't you say _our_ cattle?" asked Bud with a smile, which wasplainly to be seen in the brilliant moonlight. "You fellows are inthis venture with me, you know."
"We haven't yet gotten used to thinking of it that way," remarked Nort,as he rode beside Buck Tooth. The old Zuni Indian managed to keep pacebeside the boys without ever urging his pony forward, a trick of ridingwhich even Bud envied.
"Well, you'd _better_ get used to it," was the laughing retort. "Yourdad staked you to part of the expenses of this deal, same as mine didme, and of course you'll share in the profits--if there are any," Budadded rather dubiously. "And if we don't get that water back therewon't be enough to make you need a hat to carry 'em off."
"As bad as that?" inquired Nort.
"Oh, I'm not saying it's bad--_yet_!" exclaimed Bud. "There may bejust a stoppage in the pipe, which can easily be cleaned out. Or, itmay be--something else."
But what else it might be he did not say, and Nort and Dick were notsufficiently familiar with irrigation and flume lines to hazard aguess. But they knew enough about their cousin to tell that he wasworried.
"What do you plan to do?" asked Dick, as the four rode on, their poniesoccasionally stumbling as they mounted the rocky trail that led overSnake Mountain. "Look for that man--the one you----"
"The one I _didn't_ shoot!" interrupted Bud. "I'm as sure I didn't hithim as I am that we four are here this minute. I know I fired toohigh!"
"Unless the bullet hit a rock and glanced down," suggested Nort.
"Well, yes, that may have happened," admitted Bud. "But if he wasbadly hurt he couldn't get away, as he did."
"Could he have fallen into any hole or gully?" asked Dick. "We didn'tlook for that."
"He might have," admitted the western lad. "But what I'm looking for,now, isn't that fellow, who may or may not be shot, but for the breakin my flume--that's what I want to locate. Once I get the water soit's running back in my reservoir I'll feel better. For if there's apermanent shut-off we might as well move out of Flume Valley," he wenton. "The cattle would just naturally die of thirst!"
"Isn't there any water at all?" asked Nort, as he pulled his pony upsharply when the animal stumbled.
"Not enough to water all the stock I aim to raise," answered Bud. "Atthe far end of the valley--away from our camp--the grass grows prettywell, for some rain does fall there once in a while. But there isn't awater-hole worth the name, and you know what happens to cattle whenthey can't get a drink!"
"I should say so!" commented Nort, for he and his brother had seen someof the terrible suffering caused by animals having to be driven longdistances without any water being available. "Then the pipe line isyour only hope?"
"That, and the ancient underground watercourse it connects with tobring water from the Pocut River," replied Bud. "You see, there's asort of natural tunnel under the mountain, and this was once an oldriver bed. I suppose, or at least Professor Wright has told us, thatonce this tunnel was full-up with water. But there was a change in thedirection of the old stream, and the water tunnel dried up. However,it didn't cave in, except in a few places, and we now use it to bringwater to Flume Valley. There is really only a comparatively shortlength of pipe at either end, one end being where the water from thePocut River enters, and the other where the pipe delivers the water toour reservoir."
"How are you going to find the break?" asked Dick.
"Or stoppage?" suggested Nort.
"Well, I aim to ride over the mountain tonight," answered Bud, "and seeif all is clear at the river intake end of the line. If it is, I'llknow there must be a stoppage, or break, somewhere inside the old watertunnel."
"How you going to find that?" inquired Nort.
"Why, we'll get lanterns and ride through," replied Bud. "That's easy!"
"Ride through an underground river!" cried Dick. "You can't!"
"No, we couldn't if the old underground river course was _full_,"agreed Bud, "but it _isn't_. There's only a comparatively small amountof water flowing through the old course, which is wide enough for twoof us to ride or walk abreast, and twice as high as you need. I'veridden through more than once. It's like a long, natural tunnel underthe mountain, with water flowing in the center depression, so to speak."
"Must be rather spooky inside there," suggested Nort.
"It is a little; and it's nearly an all-day's ride. But it's the onlyway to find the trouble. Professor Wright said that some day the watermight work through, and go off on a new course, and in that case I'd bedished until I could stop up the break."
"Well, we'll help all we can," offered Nort.
"Sure thing!" echoed his brother.
"We'd better take it a bit easy now," spoke Bud, as the ascent of themountain became more steep. "We don't want to wind the ponies, and wemay have a hard day ahead of us to-morrow."
"It _is_ quite a climb," admitted Nort. "Are we going to ride allnight?"
"No, we'll turn in about midnight," said Bud. "But this will give us astart so we can get to the Pocut River end of the flume by morning. Wecan stop any time you fellows want to."
"Oh, we aren't tired!" Dick hastened to say, a sentiment with which hisbrother agreed. "This is as much fun as riding herd, and driving offthe cattle rustlers."
"Glad you like it," commented Bud. "And the rustlers might as welldrive off our stock, if we don't soon get this water to running again.Old Billee said I'd have bad luck when that black rabbit crossed mypath, and it sure is coming!"
"What black rabbit was that?" asked Nort, curiously.
"One that gave me a tumble when I was riding to meet you," answeredBud. "I never saw one before, and I don't want to again. Not that I'msuperstitious, but there sure is something queer about _this_! I don'tlike it for a cent!"
The boy ranchers and the Zuni Indian rode on, mounting higher andhigher along the mountain trail, heading for the summit. And when theyreached it, and Bud, by a glance at his watch, announced that it wasmidnight, he followed with the suggestion that they camp there for theremainder of the night.
"We can make the rest of the trip in a couple of hours, for it's downhill," he said.
"Camp suits me," murmured Nort, and soon, after a bite to eat, theyrolled themselves in their blankets, having tied the ponies to scrubbushes, and went to sleep. The riding of the boys, coupled with thepure air they had breathed, brought them slumber almost at once, andeven Buck Tooth, alert as he usually was, neither saw nor heardanything of the sinister visitor who came softly upon the sleeping onesduring the night hours.
For there did come a visitor in the night, as evidenced by a scrawledwarning, on a dirty piece of paper, fastened to a stubby tree by along, sharp thorn.
It was this fluttering bit of paper that caught Dick's eye when heawakened, rather lame and stiff, and stretched himself in his blanketas the sun shone in his eyes next morning.
"Hello!" he cried, taking a hasty look around to see if Bud had,perchance, ridden away without awakening his companions, and had leftthis note to tell them so. "What's the idea?" and then Dick noticedthat all three of his companions were stretched out near him, and thefour ponies were standing together not far away.
"What idea?" asked Bud, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
"That special delivery letter," and Dick pointed to it. "Wasn't herelast night," he went on, "for I tied Blackie to that tree before Istaked him o
ut. What is it?"
Bud rolled out of his blanket, and took the piece of paper from thetree.
"It's a warning!" he announced.
"A warning?" cried Nort and Dick, while Buck Tooth began making a fire.
"Yes," went on the boy rancher. "Here's what it says:
"'Don't take no more watter frum Pocut River if you want to stayhealthy!'"
"Whew!" whistled Dick. "What does that mean?"
"Just what I'd like to know," said Bud, and then all three boysstarted, and looked toward the upward slope of the mountain, down whichthey had partly descended. For there came rolling toward them a massof dirt and stones, indicating the approach of some one.