CHAPTER IV
THE SCRATCHED SAFE
Eagerly the boy ranchers gathered about Buck Tooth. The Indian,as if rather ashamed of the hurry and emotion that had possessedhim, grew quieter as he threw the reins down over his pony'shead, as an intimation to the animal not to stray. Then the Zuniturned toward Bud and his cousins.
"This is the second time you gave me bad news, Buck," remarkedthe western lad. "Remember?"
"How?" asked the Indian sharply.
"I say this is the second time you've brought news of somethingbad. You were the first to tell me about the water stopping inthe reservoir. And from then on we had some rousing times; didn'twe, fellows?" asked Bud, turning to his chums.
"That's right!" assented Nort.
"But what's going on now?" Dick wanted to know.
"You said it!" exclaimed Bud. "I should let Buck Tooth tell it,instead of keeping him gassing away about the past. What's therow, Buck?"
"Robbers!" was the Indian's answer.
"Robbers? At Diamond X?" cried Bud.
"Did they get anything?" Dick wanted to know.
"Anybody hurt?" asked Nort.
"Get some money--nobody hurt only Babe--him get broken leg,"half-grunted the Indian.
"Babe has a broken leg in a fight with robbers?" gasped Bud."Shoot it along a little faster, Buck! I'm sorry I didn't let youride harder at first. How much did they get? Was it rustlers, andI'll bet a cookie with a raisin in that Del Pinzo and his ganghad a hand in the fracas! Did Babe shoot any of 'em?"
"Babe him try--but too fat," said the Indian, with as near to achuckle as ever he achieved, "Fall down--bust leg. Your_padre_ no can tell how much money gone, but big iron boxnot opened."
"Oh, they didn't get to the safe, then!" exclaimed Bud withrelief in his voice. For he knew, at this season of the springround-up, that many thousands of dollars, from the sale ofcattle, were often kept in his father's safe. "But go ahead,Buck! Tell us more about it. Step on her! Give her the gas! Openthe throttle!"
"Hu?" grunted the Zuni, questioningly. "I step on somet'ing?""You're only mixing him up!" declared Nort "Let him take his owntime, Bud."
"If I do he'll be until noon giving us the facts. And if therobbers looted dad's office, even if they didn't get the safeopen, they may have lit out with a tidy sum, and we ought to takethe trail after 'em. That's what Buck came here for, likely! Toget us on the chase from this end. Go ahead! Shoot!" herequested, meaning a verbal fire, not actual.
Whether Buck Tooth would have succeeded, under these confusingdirections, in making a quick, dear statement of the matter is aquestion that was not settled. For, just as the Indian was aboutto resume, Dick looked off toward the distant hills, which linedthe trail between Diamond X proper, and Happy Valley, and the ladexclaimed:
"Here comes one of the robbers now, riding like Sam Hill!"
Bud and Nort leaped to the side of their partner, their hands ontheir weapons, but, after a glimpse of the approaching horseman,having shaded his eyes with his hands, Bud cried:
"That isn't a robber! It's Yellin' Kid. I know his riding. Ireckon he's come to give us the straight of it!"
Which proved to be the case.
"Buck outrode me," admitted Yellin' Kid as he drew rein, and hisvoice was not as loud as usual. "We started at th' same time,shortly after midnight when th' break was made, but that Indian'scayuse shore can step some! An' Buck can ride--let me tell you!"
"You shot a ringer that time!" asserted Bud. "But what happened!And is Babe badly hurt!"
"No! He just twisted his ankle gettin' out of his bunk in a hurryt' take a pot shot at th' bunch that tried to hold us up. Doc.Tunison says he'll be all right in a week."
"But Tunison is a horse doctor!" objected Bud, for Babe, the fatassistant foreman of Diamond X, was a prime favorite with him andhis cousins.
"Yes, shore he is! Why not? A horse doctor for a cow puncher!"chuckled Yellin' Kid. "But here's the yarn."
Thereupon, having turned his pony out to graze with the Indian's,Yellin' Kid told the boys what had happened.
"We started some of the cattle from th' round-up brandin' over toth' railroad," the cowboy stated, "an' followin' th' usualpreliminaries we all settled down for th' night, after youfellows rode off. An' let me tell you I was glad t' hit my bunk!
"Well, some time near midnight we, out in th' bunkhouse, wasroused up by shootin' from your father's bungalow, Bud. Coursethat couldn't mean but one thing, an' we all got our guns an'rushed out, natcherally. But all we saw was a bunch ridin' off inth' darkness, your father firin' at 'em, Bud.
"Come t' find out, your mother had been woke up by a noise in th'office where th' safe was. She called your father an' he took alook, with his gun, of course. He saw a man in a mask tryin' t'open th' strong box, and your dad gave th' usual countersign.
"But th' burglar wheeled, an' popped one at your dad, not hittin'him I'm glad t' say, an' out th' winder he jumped, th' burglar, Imean. Then the rest of th' gang, which was waitin', rode off,shootin' some, as your dad was doin'.
"Come t' find out, they'd got a few hundred dollars from the deskwhere your dad left th' cash, Bud, but th' main part was in th'safe, an' _that_ they couldn't get open. Course soon as weknowed what was up we organized a posse, an' started off--all butBabe. He fell--or rolled--out of his bunk an' twisted his leg,somehow.
"Anyhow, Buck an' I was told off t' ride this way, partly t' letyou fellers know what had happened, an' partly t' see if therewas any trace of th' skunks what robbed your dad down here inHappy Valley. How about it? Seen anybody?"
"Well, yes, we did see some one sneaking around here when wearrived last evening," Bud answered. "But that was long beforethe robbery."
"And tell him what we found!" urged Dick
"Oh, yes, a stethoscope," went on Bud. "But that has nothing todo with the matter. Maybe some doctor, or medical student, is outhere for his health, and dropped it as he rode over our place."
"What's a slitherscope!" asked Yellin' Kid. "Anything like aTriceratops?"
"No!" laughed Nort. "We'll show you. But say, what can we dotoward getting these robbers?"
"We've got t' trail 'em," spoke the older cowboy, as he turned togo to the tents with the boy ranchers, Buck Tooth following withthe two half-winded ponies. "Soon as I get my breath----"
"That's right!" interrupted Bud. "Come on up and sit down. I'llmake you some coffee. I forgot you'd ridden all night."
"Half of it, anyhow," asserted Yellin' Kid. "An' I rode hard! Butso did Buck Tooth, only you'd hardly know it. He sure can makehis cayuse cover th' ground!"
Indeed the Indian showed little signs of the hard riding he hadaccomplished between midnight and dawn. And when he and Yellin'Kid were having a belated morning cup of coffee further detailsof the story were told.
Who the robbers were, and how many there were in the gang thatattempted to force the safe at Diamond X, were matters left tofurther enlightenment. Mr. Merkel had only seen one in hisoffice, bending over the safe, and this one had fled at thecommand of "hands up!" Then the others had raced away, amid afusillade of shots which they returned.
It was so dark--the moon of the early night having been cloudedover--that the direction taken by the robbers had not beenascertained.
"They probably scattered," declared Yellin' Kid. "It would be th'safest way--for them! But there's a chance some might 'a' comethis way, so your dad wanted you t' be on the watch."
"We will!" declared Bud. "And when some of the boys come back onthe job here, and we get our allotment of cattle so things settledown to normal, I'm going back to the ranch and have a talk withdad."
"'Twouldn't be a bad idea," agreed Yellin' Kid. "But where's thatmouth organ you said you found?"
"A stethoscope," laughed Bud. "Here it is," and he exhibited themedical instrument.
"Hum!" mused the cowboy. "It might be a burglar tool for all I'dknow the difference. But now, if it's agreeable t' you fellers,let's have a look around. Maybe some of them burglars got a
chunkof lead in him and he's hidin' out around here."
However, a search in the vicinity of Happy Valley camp disclosednothing, and then Bud and his cousins set about getting back intothe routine that had been interrupted by the round-up.
"The first thing we've got to do," Bud declared, "is to mend thatbreak in the telephone line. If that had been working last nightyou could have called us up, Kid, instead of you and Buck havingto ride out here."
"Yes, we wished th' line was working" admitted the cowboy. "Butit wouldn't have been of much use, it seems. Them burglars didn'tcome out this way. However, it's just as well t' have it fixed."
There was a system of telephones connecting Bud's camp with hisfather's main ranch and also the two branch ones, and the systemwas likewise hooked-up with the long distance. But a recent wind,just before the round-up, had blown down some poles in HappyValley, putting Bud's line out of commission. This was why he andhis chums could not be reached by wire from Diamond X.
The poles were set up in the next few days, when some cowboysarrived to again take up their duties with Bud, Nort and Dick;for the cattle not sold were again sent back to the valley rangeto fatten for the fall, and they needed to be looked after.
Meanwhile, a search of the surrounding country had failed todisclose any trace of the robbers, and their identity remainedhidden. They had gotten away with about $500, missing a muchlarger sum in the safe. The authorities were notified, and aposse scoured the region, but fruitlessly.
"Let's have a look at the safe they tried to open, Dad," beggedBud, when he and his cousins had ridden over to pay a week-endvisit to the home ranch. "Did they try to drill it for anexplosive?"
"I don't believe so, son. In fact, I haven't looked at the safevery closely, except to notice that it was all right. And I tookthe money out of it over to the bank next day."
Bud and his cousins looked at the strong box in which Mr. Merkelkept his money and valuable papers. It was a large, old-fashionedsafe, proof from any fire that might visit the ranch, and beyondthe ability of ordinary burglars to open, without the use ofexplosives or special tools.
And as Bud leaned over to look at the heavy door he saw somethingthat caused him to ask:
"Were these here before the attempted robbery, Dad?"
"What there, Bud?"
"These scratches on the front of the door. It does look as ifthey tried to drill the safe!"
Bud pointed to several parallel marks on the steel door. Thescratches were deep in the paint, and seemed to radiate towardthe shiny nickel dial of the combination. "Scratches!" repeatedMr. Merkel, coming over to look. "No, I never noticed thembefore. Why, she is clawed up some," he admitted. "But I can'tsay that they haven't been there since I got the safe, which wasjust before the round-up. Yes, she sure is clawed up some," andhe spoke as if some mountain lion had done the damage to hisstrong box.
But here Bud's sister, Nell, took a hand in the proceedings.
"Those scratches are new ones--they were made by the burglar,"declared the girl, whom Nort and Dick thought the prettiest theyhad ever seen. "I know, for I dusted your office, Dad, the daythe round-up ended, and the door was as shiny then as a newpenny."
"Then the burglar did it," decided Bud. "And it shows we have todeal with a regular gang of safe robbers, instead of justordinary cattle rustlers!"