CHAPTER II
UNDAUNTED BY FEAR
"Look here, Billee," began Mr. Merkel as he leaned against the fencefor he had just returned from a long journey and was rather weary. "Isthis a joke or are you just stringing me?"
"No stringing, Boss, and not a joke either. You've bought a ranch inDeath Valley as sure as shootin', and while I wish you good luck Idon't see how you're going to have it--not if Death Valley is like whatit was years ago."
"You aren't getting my new Dot and Dash ranch mixed up with DeathValley in the Panamint Mountains of California; are you?" asked Mr.Merkel. "I know that place--four hundred feet below sealevel--alkali--borax and all that sort of stuff. Do you mean----?"
"No, I don't mean that Death Valley," interrupted Billee. "This DeathValley I speak of is only a local name for the region around LosPompan. But it's as bad as the other."
"Suppose you tell me more about it, Billee," suggested the ranch owner.
"Sounds like it would be a good yarn!" commented Bud.
"The kind I like to read about," added Nort.
"This is no _yarn_!" declared the veteran puncher in an ominous voice."It's gospel truth. I'll tell you all I know."
He hitched his heavy chaps around to make his legs more comfortable andthen, selecting a place on the ground, where a shadow was cast by thecowboys on the fence, Billee Dobb began his narrative.
But before I give you that, I want to make my new readers somewhatbetter acquainted with Bud Merkel and his two cousins. They are theyouths who are to be the heroes of this story, and they first came intoprominence in the initial volume of this series, entitled: "The BoyRanchers; or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X."
In that story was related how Norton and Richard Shannon had gone outwest, from New York, and how they took up life on the ranch of theiruncle Henry Merkel. There they found Bud, who had been among horsesand cattle all his life. Nort and Dick soon assimilated the traditionsof the west, became accomplished riders and able to punch cows with thebest of the hands on Diamond X. The lads from the east also learnedwhat it was to come to grips with rustlers, led by that notorious halfbreed Del Pinzo.
After having solved the mystery at Diamond X, Bud and his cousins weregiven virtual charge of another ranch in Happy Valley, not far from themain one managed by Mr. Merkel and his foreman Slim Degnan. But evenon what was, practically, their own ranch, the troubles and adventuresof the boys were not over.
Del Pinzo and others tried more of their tricks and in the succeedingvolumes of the series is related about the water fight, the battle withmore cattle rustlers, how the Yaqui Indians were trailed, and how thesheep herders were overcome. "The Boy Ranchers on Roaring River; orDiamond X and the Chinese Smugglers" is the title of the bookimmediately preceding the present volume, and in that Bud, Dick andNort had some narrow escapes from unscrupulous men. Incidentally theyhelped the United States government bring to justice a large Chinesesmuggling band.
Things on Diamond X had somewhat quieted down after the strenuous dayswith Delton and the others, and Mr. Merkel had gone off on a businesstrip, the import of which was little known to the boys. He hadreturned, as has been related, in time to see Bud leap from the fenceto the back of a galloping horse in preparation for rodeo stunts.
Then Billee Dobb had made his startling announcement about the ominouscharacter of the new ranch purchased by the cattleman.
"Before you spill your bad news, Billee," suggested Mr. Merkel, "maybeI ought to say a few words about what I've done. But also let me askyou if this Death Valley of yours is anything more than one of thepicturesque names we have out here in the Golden West. You know wejust naturally run to Dead Horse Gulch, Ghost Canyon and all that sortof stuff. So if your Death Valley doesn't mean more than those names,why----"
"It means a while lot more than just a name, Boss," said the oldpuncher solemnly. "It means _real death_."
"Death to whom, Billee?" asked Bud.
"To anybody that's foolish enough to try to live there and ride herd,"was the short answer.
"How about the cattle?" Dick wanted to know.
"The same thing happens to them as happens to the men," said Billee ina low voice. "They just naturally die off 'fore they can be shipped tomarket. Believe me, Death Valley is a good place to stay away from!"
"How is it, then, Billee," asked Mr. Merkel, "that nothing happened tome? I just came from there. I don't buy a pig in a poke. I went toDot and Dash and sized the place up before I closed the deal with JedBarter. How is it Death Valley didn't get me, Billee?"
Nothing daunted the old man replied:
"You didn't stay there long enough."
"Well, there may be something in that," admitted Bud's father. "But itwon't take me long to tell you boys," and he indicated his son, Dick,Nort and all the other punchers.
"For some time past," he went on, "I've had the notion that I wanted tospread out a little. Neither Diamond X nor Happy Valley is quite largeenough. To make any money in the cattle business nowadays you got todo business on a large scale. So I've been looking around, and makinginquiries, and in that way heard that the Dot and Dash ranch was in themarket. I'd looked at several others before I got word about this anddidn't like 'em, for one reason or another.
"But when I got to Los Pompan, which is the nearest town to where Dotand Dash is located, it struck me that here I'd found just what I waslooking for. The ranch wasn't too near the town, and yet it wasn't toofar from the railroad, and I took the trouble to find out if therailroad branch line I'd have to use had good cattle pens and loadingchutes. Lots of lines haven't."
"You spilled a mouthful of good beans right there," commented SnakePurdee.
"So," resumed Mr. Merkel after nodding at Snake, "liking the firstonce-over I gave the ranch, I investigated further. It had plenty ofgood grazing ground, lots of water, and there's a range of hills thatwill keep off the cold winds in winter. Barter's cattle--what I saw of'em--looked to be in good shape. So, having satisfied myself, I madehim an offer for the place, we dickered a bit and then closed. So hevamoosed off Dot and Dash and I went on and took possession."
"But did you come away, Dad, and leave no one in charge?" asked Bud, insurprise.
"Oh, no," was the answer. "I hired Tim Dolan, the foreman who workedfor Barter, to remain in charge until I could send you boys down to getyour hands in."
"Was this here Dolan anxious to stay?" asked Billee, slowly.
"Well, no, now you mention it, he did seem in a hurry to get away,"admitted Mr. Merkel. "Though I didn't pay any attention to it at thetime. He said he had another job, and----"
"Most everybody that goes to Death Valley does get another job,"commented Billee, dryly. "But go on, Boss."
"Well, that's about all there is to tell," said Mr. Merkel. "I boughtDot and Dash and hurried home here to get Bud, and some of the boys togo down and take charge. And when I get here I find you practicingcircus stunts."
"I'm through that stuff, Dad, if you got a real job for me!" exclaimedBud.
"You'll get a real job all right, and then some," muttered Old Billee.
"Go on! Spill it!" begged Bud. "What you talking to yourself for?Broadcast it, Billee!"
"Oh, I'll tell you all I know, if your father is through," voiced theveteran puncher.
"Yes, I'm through, Billee," said Mr. Merkel. "Let's hear your goodnews."
"'Tain't good news, and there's no use pretendin' it is!" snapped theaged cowboy. "If I'd known you was dickerin' for any ranch near LosPompan, Boss, I'd 'a' told you to lay off. But it's too late for thatnow, it seems, so I can only warn you to keep away."
"But I've bought it and paid for it. Barter has my money and----"
"Let him keep it, Boss."
"And lose the ranch and the cattle on it?"
"Better to lose your money than to lose your life," muttered Billee."As for the cattle, you'll find fewer of 'em there when you go backthan you left there."
"Oh, stop croa
king, Billee, and spill the beans!" begged Nort.
"'Twon't take long," Billee answered. "I forget just how many yearsago it is," he said, looking off toward the distant hills that borderedDiamond X, "when, in the course of my wanderings, I struck Los Pompan.There was a ranch there then, called Dot and Dash, just as there isnow, but it was run by a fellow named Golas. Maybe he was a Mex.Anyhow I signed up with him and started to ridin' herd. But I didn'tstay long."
"Couldn't you hold down the job?" chuckled Babe Milton, who was SlimDegnan's assistant, and as fat as Degnan was lean.
"None of your wise cracks!" snapped Billee. "I can cut out a bunch ofcattle better'n what you can any day and I'm a heap sight older 'n'wiser. No, the reason I quit was on account of what kept happenin' atDot and Dash."
"And what happened?" asked Dick.
"Death is what happened!" said Billee, solemnly. "Mysterious death!"
"Death can happen on any ranch," observed Mr. Merkel quietly. "Wehave, unfortunately, had deaths here."
"Yes, but they were natural deaths!" declared Billee. "And they didn'tkeep happenin' one after another like at Dot and Dash."
"How many deaths were there?" Bud wanted to know.
"I don't rightly remember, but there was plenty."
"You said they were mysterious," commented Nort. "In what way?"
"That's what nobody could find out," resumed the veteran puncher."First some poor devil of a puncher would be found dead off in somelonely swale. Then we'd find a bunch of cows stretched out, and thenwe'd find another dead man."
"Rustlers," suggested Slim.
"Rustlers nothin'!" scoffed Billee. "Rustlers drive off cattle--theydon't kill 'em--what would be the good?"
"I meant the rustlers did up the cowboys," suggested the foreman.
"Well, if these fellows, who were found dead, got shot, why wasn'tthere bullet holes in 'em?" asked Billee, teasingly.
"Wasn't there?" asked Dick.
"Not a hole."
"How about a knife thrust?" Nort wanted to know.
"Not a scratch or any kind of mark on 'em!" declared the old man. "Andyet their faces showed they'd died in agony. That's what I meant bymysterious deaths."
"It does sound rather queer," admitted Mr. Merkel. "But didn't youfind out what caused all this, Billee?"
"No, Boss, I didn't stay long enough. And neither did nobody else Iever heard of, who worked at Dot and Dash. I vamoosed."
"Well, maybe there was something queer about the ranch years ago,"admitted Mr. Merkel. "But that doesn't say, because fifteen or twentyseasons back something queer happened, that it's still going on."
"Oh, but it is!" declared Billee. "Not a month ago I met a puncher whowas lookin' for a job. He come here but I knew we was full up so Itold him to go over to Circle T, and he done so. But he'd been downDeath Valley way recent like, and he said it was just the same."
"You mean about mysterious deaths?" asked Dick.
"That's it, boy! So what I says is, lay off that place, Boss!"
"Hum!" mused Mr. Merkel. "It doesn't sound very jolly. I don't wantanybody to take any unnecessary risks and yet I hate to lose my money."
"You shan't lose it, Dad!" cried Bud.
"What do you mean, son?"
"Just this! Dick, Nort and I will go down there! We aren't going tobe scared off by any of Billee's tales! We're not afraid; are we?"
He looked at his fellow boy ranchers.
"Nothing to it!" declared Dick, valiantly.
"Let's go!" cried Nort, eagerly.
Undaunted by fear, the three lads ranged themselves alongside of Mr.Merkel, waiting for his word.