CHAPTER IX
THE FIRE
"Say when!" called Snake to the spectacle-wearing cowboy, as thereptile-fearing cow puncher and his companions prepared to letthemselves be roped by the new arrival--providing he could do it.
"I'll be ready in a moment," remarked Henry Mellon, and Bud andhis cousins could not but note how differently he spoke from theaverage run of ranch hands.
"More like one of those college professors who were after theten-million-year-old Triceratops," remarked Nort, commenting onthe talk.
"Yes, he is a bit cultured in his speech," assented Bud. "Guesshe hasn't been out west long."
"Then how can he be such a wonderful roper?" Dick wanted to know,for there was no doubt about the ability of Four Eyes, even if hehad not yet made good oh his boast of putting his lariat aroundfour galloping horses at once.
"Oh, well, it comes natural to some people," said Bud, "and then,too, he may have been in Mexico. Some of the Greasers are prettyslick with the horsehair. But let's watch."
By this time the four cow punchers, counting Buck Tooth as one,for the Indian was a good herdsman, had lined themselves up abouta hundred feet from where Four Eyes sat on his horse--not thesame black one he had ridden in, but another, of Bud's stock,that had been assigned him.
"Ready?" asked Yellin' Kid.
"All ready! Come a running!" shouted Four Eyes, and even here hedid not drop a "g."
In an instant the four horses were in motion, coming together, inline, down the stretch which the newcomer faced. In anothermoment Four Eyes had ridden across the path of the oncomingsteeds, and on the ground he spread out his lasso in a greatloop, leaning over in his saddle to do this. He retained hold ofthe rope end that was fastened to his saddle, and then, havingspread the net, as it were, he pulled up on the opposite side ofthe course down which the four were now thundering in a cloud ofdust.
"Can he do it?" asked Nort.
"He can that way--yes," Bud said. "It's a trick! I thought he wasgoing to make a throw."
"It's a good trick, though, if he does it," declared Dick.
In another instant all four horses ridden by the cowboys and theIndian were within the spread-out loop of Four Eyes as it lay onthe ground. And then something happened.
With a mere twist of his wrist, as it seemed, Henry Mellonsnapped the outspread rope upward and, reining back his horse, hesuddenly pulled the lasso taut.
It was completely around the sixteen legs of the four horses,holding them together, the rope itself being half way down fromthe shoulder of each animal.
"He did it! By the great rattler and all the little rattlers, hedid it!" shouted Yellin' Kid, as he pulled his horse to a stop,an example followed by the others. For though they might all(save one, perhaps) have pulled out of the encircling rope, therepossibly would have been an accident. One, or more, of the horseswould have stumbled, or been pulled to the ground. And there wasno need of that in what was only a friendly contest.
"You did it!" declared Yellin' Kid, as Four Eyes loosed his ropeand it fell to the ground, the riders guiding their horses out ofthe loop. "You shore did it!"
"But it was a trick!" declared Old Billee. "'Tw'an't straightropin'!"
"Yes, it's a trick, but not every one can do it," said the newcowboy.
"Betcher I can!" declared Snake.
He tried--more than once, but failed. It was not as easy as itlooked, in spite of the fact that it was a trick.
"No one can throw, with any accuracy, a loop big enough to takein four horses on the run," declared Four Eyes when it had beendemonstrated that he alone, of all the "bunch" at the HappyValley ranch, could do what he had done. "At least if they can,I've never seen it. Two, maybe, or three, but not four. Puttingyour rope on the ground, and snapping it up as the horses get init, is the only way I know."
"I wish you'd show me," spoke Nort.
"I will," promised Four Eyes. "You don't often have need for atrick like it, but it may come in useful some day."
Then he showed the boys the knack of it, though it was evidentthey were not going to master the "how" in a hurry.
Other feats in roping were indulged in by the cowboys, but nonewas as expert as Four Eyes. He seemed to possess uncanny skillwith the lariat, though some of his tricks could be duplicated bySnake, Yellin' Kid and even by the boy ranchers.
But life on a western ranch is not all fun and jollity, though asmuch of this as possible is indulged in to make up for thestrenuous times that are ever present. So, after the ropingexhibition was over, and the newcomer had been assigned certainduties, Bud, Nort and Dick rode down the valley, intending tolook over the place where the steers had been stolen, and thecarcass of one left as a grim reminder of the raid.
Otherwise all in Happy Valley was peaceful. The water was runninginto the reservoir, through the pipes that connected with themysterious underground course, once utilized, it was thought, bythe ancient Aztecs.
Here and there, feeding on the rich bunch and Johnson grass, werethe cattle in which the boy ranchers were so vitally interested.The most distant herd had been driven in by Snake and Yellin'Kid--the herd on which the raid had been made. Like black speckson the green floor of the valley were the cattle, dotted here andthere.
"If we have luck this season we ought to round up a good bunchthis fall," observed Bud, as he rode with his cousins.
"Yes," agreed Nort. "The water can't be shut off now, and we havenothing to worry about."
"Except rustlers," put in Dick.
"And the fellow who broke the bottle for us," added Bud. "I'dlike to know who he was."
"It was a bit queer," Nort admitted. "But I believe it was somepassing cow puncher playing a joke on us. This cattle stealing isno joke, though, and it's got to stop!"
"You let loose an earful that time," spoke Bud, in picturesque,western slang. "We'll have to let the bottle-breaker wait for aspell, until we size up this rustler question. We may have to getup a sheriff's posse and clean out the rascals."
"If we can find 'em," grimly added Dick.
It was some distance to the place where Yellin' Kid and SnakePurdee had seen evidences of the raid, and it was long past noonwhen the boys reached it. They had stopped for "grub" on the way,having carried with them some food. Water they could get from oneof the several concrete troughs that had been installed, thefluid coming through pipes from the reservoir.
"Here's where they killed the steer, or yearling," Bud said,pointing to a heap of bones.
It was all that remained from the feast of the buzzards.
"And here's where they started to drive off the cattle,evidently," added Nort, pointing to where a plain trail, made bythe feet of many animals, led away from the ground that was moregenerally trampled by a large herd.
"Let's follow it," urged Dick. "We want to see when it gets tothe disappearing point."
"That's right!" chimed in Bud.
They urged their ponies slowly along the trail left by therustlers. It seemed to go down the valley to the place where thehills lowered on either side to form a sort of pass. It was inthis pass that the two cowboys said the trail was lost.
"We've got some distance to go, yet," observed Bud, as theypaused to look and make sure they had not lost the trail.
"And, after all, maybe we'll only find the same thing Snake andKid did--nothing!" said Nort.
"Well," began Bud, "we've got to get to the bottom of this, andif we don't in one way we will----"
He was interrupted by a shout from Dick.
"Look!" cried the stout lad. "There's a fire! The grass is onfire, Bud!"
The western lad gave a quick look in the direction Dickindicated. It was off to the right from the trail they had beenfollowing.
"It is a fire--regular prairie fire," Bud murmured.
"Could any of the reservation Indians be on the rampage and haveset it?" asked Nort.
"I don't know! We've got to find out about it!" shouted Bud."Come on, fellows!" And, wheeling his horse, he abandoned thetrail
of the rustlers, and galloped toward the fire, followed byNort and Dick.