CHAPTER IV
A STRANGE REAPPEARANCE
Characteristic it was of Bud Merkel, being a son of the west as he was,that his hand instinctively sought the leather holster whence protrudedthe grim, black handle of his .45. But he did not draw the weapon, nordid Nort or Dick pull theirs, which they had started to get out whenthey noted Bud's action.
For Bud smiled when he had a glimpse of the newcomer, and Buck Tooth,who had glanced up from where he was making the fire, gave a grunt ofwelcome.
"Babe!" exclaimed Nort, as he recognized the fat assistant foreman ofDiamond X ranch. "Babe!"
"Sure! Who'd you think it was?" came the smiling question. "Lookslike you had an idea it might be one of them rustlers that made troublewhen you fellers was here before! Eh?
"Glad t' see you two _ex_-tenderfeet," and Babe Milton grinned broadlyas he accented the _ex_, and held out a welcoming hand to Nort andDick. "They said you was comin' back to Diamond X, but I sorter missedyou--been out tryin' t' locate a bunch of strays," he confided to Bud,"an' I didn't have no luck! Glad to meet yo' all, though, powerfulglad! 'Specially on account of that there coffee!" and he sniffed theair as he caught the aroma of the fragrant pot Buck Tooth was puttingon to boil.
"But what are you lads doing so far from Diamond X?" Babe went on, whenthey had moved over to the camp fire, the blaze of which was geniallywarm this cool morning on the mountain.
"We aren't stopping there this trip," said Nort.
"We're 'on our own,'" proceeded Bud. "I'm raising cattle in the oldBuffalo Wallow Valley--Flume I call it now."
"Oh, yes, I did hear you were going to tackle that," spoke Babe."Didn't know you'd got stocked up, though. Well, I've been over atSquare M for so long I don't hear no real news no more. Gosh! But wedid have some excitement the time those professor chaps pulled that_Trombone_ out of the ground; didn't we, Bud?" he chuckled.
"Triceratops, Babe! Triceratops!" corrected Bud, laughing at theexpression of the fat assistant foreman's face.
"I never could remember the name of them musical pieces, nohow!" sighedBabe. "Fond as I am, too, of singing," and, taking a long breath, hebellowed forth on the unoffensive morning air this portion of a ballad:
"Sing me to sleep with a spur for a rattle, Fill up the biscuits with lead. Coil me a rope 'round th' ole weepin' willow, Curl my feet under my head!"
"Glad you feel that way about it," remarked Bud, rather soberly, asthey squatted around the fire for breakfast, which Buck Tooth seemed tohave prepared in record time.
"What's bit you?" asked Babe, pausing with a smoking flapjack half wayto his mouth, while in his other hand he held a steaming tin cup ofcoffee. "Git out th' wrong side of th' saddle this mornin'?"
"No, but there's trouble over at the valley," explained Bud. "Thewater has stopped running and----"
"The _water_ stopped running!" interrupted Babe.
"Yes, and when we start out, intending to see what's the trouble, weget this warning," and Bud extended the dirty piece of paper that hadbeen fastened to the tree with the thorn.
"Whew-ee-ee!" whistled Babe, as he read the scrawl of misspelled words.He opened his mouth again, to intone another of the hundred or moreverses of his favorite cowboy song, but Bud motioned to him to refrain.
"Don't you like my singin'?" asked Babe, a bit hurt.
"Yes, but I want to ask you some questions," went on Bud. "You sayyou've been out looking for strays?"
"Yep; prospectin' up and down Snake Mountain all yist'day an' part ofth' night. My grub giv' out with supper last night, an' I was hopin' Imight even run into a bunch of Greasers, when I saw you folks spreadin'th' banquet table here."
"Glad you joined us," remarked Nort.
"So'm I," mumbled Babe, his mouth full of bacon and flapjacks. "Butwhat's your questions, Bud? Shoot!"
"Did you see anybody who might have written this?" and the boy rancheragain read the sinister warning:
"'Don't take no more watter frum Pocut River if you want to stayhealthy.'"
"Why, no, I didn't see nobody," spoke Babe, with more force thangrammar. "'Tain't a joke; is it?"
"Not when I tell you the water has stopped running," said Bud.
"So you did! Hum, that's mighty queer like!" mused the assistantforeman, who had, early in the spring, been transferred to Mr. Merkel'sSquare M ranch from Diamond X. "But some of us rather thought there'dbe trouble when your paw dammed up the river to shunt some of itthrough the old water course over to Buffalo Wallow. Hank Fisherclaims his water supply has been lessened by what your paw did, Bud."
"That's all bosh!" exclaimed Bud. "There's as much water for HankFisher as he ever had at Double Z. Besides, this isn't his way ofdoing business. He's as mean as they make 'em, but he'll come out inthe open and tell you what he thinks of you."
"Yes, Hank is that way--_sometimes_," agreed Babe cautiously. "At th'same time I wouldn't put it past him. Better tell your paw about this,Bud. You got grit--all three of you!" and he included the other boysin his glance. "But you can't fight Hank Fisher, Del Pinzo and thatonery gang of Greasers and Mexicans!"
"There!" cried Nort, clapping his hand down on his outstretched leg."That's who that man was--Del Pinzo!"
"What man?" asked Babe.
"The one Bud shot."
"What's that?" cried Babe, half starting to his feet. "Did you shootsomebody?"
"Well, I may have _creased_ him," admitted the boy, using a word todenote a grazing bullet wound, hardly more than a scratch.
"Whew-ee-ee!" whistled Babe again. "This sounds like old times! Let'shave the hull yarn, Buddy!" he appealed.
Whereupon Bud related how he had ridden from his new ranch--Diamond XSecond--to meet his cousins whom he expected. He told of finding thestream of water shut off, of the appearance of the man, the shot, hissudden vanishing, and the subsequent night ride of the boys.
"That was Del Pinzo, I'm sure of it!" declared Nort. "I was trying tothink where I'd seen him before, and now I remember!"
"You couldn't very well forget Del Pinzo," declared Bud. "But thiswasn't he. That isn't saying that it might not have been, of course,"he added, "for I understand he broke jail, after they caught him andsent him up for rustling our cattle. No, this wasn't that slickMexican, Nort."
"Who was it?" asked Babe, helping himself to another of the flapjackswhich Buck was making in a skillet over the greasewood fire.
"That's what we don't know," said Bud. "He just naturally vanished,the way my water did. What are you going to do, Babe?"
"Well, I ought t' keep on lookin' for them strays your paw's so anxiousabout," was the answer. "But I reckon I got time t' mosey along withyou. You say you're goin' down to the river?"
"Yes, to see if there's anything wrong at the intake pipe," Budanswered.
"Then I'll go with you," offered Babe. "And before you try that ridethrough the old water course, under the mountain, you'd better call upyour paw."
"What for?" Bud wanted to know.
"Well, he mightn't altogether like it. There's a risk, an' he may wantt' send some of us with you. It's easy t' get him on the 'phone fromthe dam."
"Yes," agreed Bud, "I s'pose I had better do that." He remembered thatwhere Pocut River had been dammed to enable water to flow into the pipeline, and then through the old river course to his reservoir, there wasa general store, which boasted of a telephone.
A little later, breakfast having been finished, the party, nowincluding Babe, reached the Pocut River. There an inspection showedthe water from the river above the dam running freely into the pipethat carried it to Flume Valley.
"Nothing wrong here," remarked Bud as he looked into the dark tunnelwhich received one end of the pipe. And it was through this naturaltunnel, extending under the mountain, being the course of an oldstream, that the boy ranchers proposed riding.
"No, th' trouble must be somewhere inside," agreed Babe. "But call upyour paw, Bud."
Which Bud did, learning
from his father at Diamond X, that Old Billeehad departed, early that morning, to take up his abode at the camp inthe valley.
"Better wait until Old Billee reaches your place, and then call himup," suggested Mr. Merkel to his son over the wire, for there was a'phone in Bud's camp. It seemed rather an incongruity, but it was agreat convenience, since it connected directly with Diamond X, TriangleB and Square M ranches, as well as with the regular lines.
There was nothing to do but wait until Old Billee might be expected tohave reached the camp in Flume Valley, and after several hours Budcalled up his own new ranch headquarters.
"They don't answer," Central reported.
"He's taking his time," commented Babe.
But an hour or so later, after several other trials, the voice of OldBillee came back over the wire from miles distant.
"Hello! Hello there! Wassa matter? Wassa matter?" demanded the voiceof the old cowpuncher. "Where's everybody, anyhow? Nobody here butme!"
"We're over at the dam--Pocut River," called Bud into the instrument."Say, Billee, something happened at my place last night. The waterstopped, and we came over here to see where the stoppage was. But it'sall right here. How about you there?"
"All serene here, Bud, all serene! Wait a minute and I'll take a lookat your reservoir. I can see it from the tent where you got thistalkin' contraption strung. You say the water stopped last night?"
"Stopped complete, Billee," Bud answered back over the wire.
"Well then, if there's any comin' over the spillway, now, it's a signshe's runnin' here ag'in, I take it!"
"Sure thing. But is she running?" asked Bud, anxiously.
"Wait a minute, an' I'll take a look. Hold on to that there wire!"
"I'll hold it!" promised Bud, smiling at his cousins.
There was a moment of anxious waiting and, in fancy, the boy rancherscould see Old Billee going to the tent flap and looking toward thereservoir.
"Hello, Bud!" presently came the call over the wire.
"Hello, Billee. What about it?"
"Water's there all right! Must 'a' come back in th' night! She'srunnin' fine now!"