CHAPTER II
THE RUNAWAY
The horses came on at a swift gallop, to an accompaniment of rifle shotsand the jingling of spurs. Directly they were in the circle of lightabout the fire, their frightened eyes showing red as they ran. The facesof the riders glared viciously down at the boys, but the weaponsswinging threateningly from their hands were not discharged as theydashed through the lighted space and were gone.
"Now what do you know about that?" demanded Tommy, as the horsesdisappeared in the darkness and the gradually receding hoof-beats showedthat they were still keeping their course to the north.
"Looks to me like some one was being chased," observed Sandy.
"It would seem that way to the unprejudiced mind!" added George.
Directly the sound of heavy boots scrambling over broken rocks,accompanied by private and personal opinions of that part of Wyoming, ofrocky surfaces, and of midnight expeditions, came to the ears of thelistening boys. As the sounds drew nearer they grouped closer together.
"Here comes the boys who did the shooting!" exclaimed Tommy.
"I hope they won't mistake us for the men they're after!" Georgesuggested. "They look like rather tough citizens," he added, as thebearded faces and roughly-clad figures of half a dozen men swept intothe firelight.
The men were all heavily armed, and it was clear that they were angryfrom the top of their heads to the soles of their feet. Three presentedguns at the breasts of the boys while the other three stepped closer andbegan asking questions.
"Sure, we saw the ginks go by!" Tommy answered in reply to the firstquestion. "I reckon they won't have anything to ride in about an hour ifthey keep up that gait."
"Did they stop or say anything to you as they passed?" was asked.
"I should say not!" replied Tommy. "They went by like Mexicans going toa bull-fight! They showed their guns, but they didn't say a word or doany shooting!"
"What does it mean?" asked Will, approaching the man who appeared to bethe leader of the party.
"It means," was the reply, "that those two fellows are wanted down inSweetwater county for holding up a train on the Union Pacific. A partyof officers had them safe at Green River a couple of days ago, but theybroke loose in some way and came north."
"It's a wonder they headed straight for our campfire!" Will suggested.
"That's what puzzles me!" the other said. "Until I saw you were onlyboys, probably out on a vacation, I thought the robbers might beassociates of yours."
"I hope they won't think so, too," Will answered. "We expect to stayhere two or three weeks, and we don't want to get into any mixup."
"They probably won't trouble you any," the officer remarked, "as they'reundoubtedly headed for the Bad Lands in Big Horn county. If they getinto that country we may as well give up the search."
"Well," Will suggested, "they won't have any horses to ride beforemorning, and you may be able to overtake them after they slow down."
"Oh, we're going to keep on in pursuit!" cried the officer, "But we havelittle hope of overtaking them. They're probably five miles in the leadright now. They've been riding while we've been walking."
"Why walking?" asked the boy.
"Because they shot our horses," gritted the officer.
After partaking of a midnight supper, including several cups of hotcoffee apiece, the man-hunters continued on their way, looking longinglyin the direction of the burros as they passed out of the light of thefire.
"Now that's what I call rotten!" Tommy exclaimed as the voices of themen died away in the darkness. "We've just made camp in a place thatlooks good to me, and here comes a band of train robbers and adelegation of lynchers ready to make us all kinds of trouble."
"I don't see why they should make us trouble," Sandy objected.
"Well, they will just the same," Will broke in. "They'll hang around thehills to the north, and officers will be chasing in after them, and,between them they'll give us a merry little time! If the messengerdoesn't come tomorrow, we'll break camp and get into some otherlocality."
"I should say so!" exclaimed Tommy. "We went to Lake Superior and gotinto a nest of diamond smugglers, and we went to the Florida Evergladesand got into a bunch of swamp outlaws and wreckers, and I've beencounting on a nice quiet vacation this trip."
"We surely do have bad luck on our outing trips!" laughed Sandy. "But Irather enjoy the excitement after all!" he added, with a grin.
"Well, you wait until you get a band of train robbers shooting from oneside, and a band of cowboys shooting from the other side, and you won'tthink it's so funny!" exclaimed George.
While the boys talked they heard a rustling in the long grass to thenorth and east, and directly a figure, crouching low and apparentlywalking with great caution, appeared in view.
"That's one now!" whispered Tommy.
"That's right!" returned Sandy. "That's one coward!"
"Oh, I see," Tommy whispered. "That's Katz!"
The stranger now approached the fire, swinging his rifle jauntily in hishand and throwing his shoulders back until his body swung forward with adecided strut. He looked from one boy to the other as he came closer,apparently seeking to learn from their expressions exactly what was intheir minds. The boys' faces remained perfectly grave.
"It's no use!" Katz said in a moment, putting the butt of his gun downto the ground and leaning on the barrel. "It's no use whatever!"
The boys eyed the speaker suspiciously, but said nothing.
"I followed on as fast as I could!" Katz continued. "But they were onhorseback, and I was on foot, so what could I do? Besides, it was toodark that I couldn't see to shoot," he went on.
"Oh, you went out after the robbers, did you?" asked Will, not caring tocall the fellow's attention to the fact that he ran away to the northbefore the riders made their appearance.
"Why, yes!" was the reply. "What else could I do?"
The boys suspected that Katz had returned to the vicinity of the camp intime to hear the officer explain exactly what was going on. They weresatisfied that he had not pursued the horsemen at all after they hadpassed him, but decided not to enter into any argument with him.
"Well," Will said in a moment. "If you'll all go to bed now, I'll sit upuntil morning. I don't suppose you boys care to be wakened if we haveany more midnight visitors?" he asked tentatively.
"You needn't wake me up for any running race!" Tommy commented.
"If it's all the same to you," Katz suggested, "I prefer to sleep theremainder of the night. Of course," he went on, "if you need me for yourdefence, you need have no compunctions in waking me."
The boys laughed at the idea of calling upon the fellow to assist indefending the camp should necessity arise, and the object of their mirthglared at them suspiciously as he turned away to his tent.
In half an hour the camp was quiet again, with Will sitting in front ofthe fire reading. The coyotes and wolves, which had been frightened awayby the shooting and the clatter of hoofs, now came forward again, andWill was thinking seriously of taking a shot at a great gray beast whena soft call came from the darkness.
"Hello!" the voice said. "Hello!"
"Come up and show yourself!" returned Will.
"Will you give me something to eat if I come up?"
"Sure I will," replied the boy with a grin. "Meals at all hours, youknow! We usually run a hotel where we stop."
"Well you've got a customer right now!" came the voice from thedarkness, and the next moment the figure of a lad of about fourteen madeits appearance in the glow of the fire.
Will stood regarding the boy with open-eyed amazement for a moment andthen swung his hand forward in the full salute of a Boy Scout.
"That's all right!" the strange boy cried. "I'm glad to see that you'rea Boy Scout. I mean to be one some day, but I'm only a tenderfoot now! Ihaven't had any chance for advancement yet."
"What Patrol?" asked Will.
"Beaver, Chicago!" was the reply.
"That's my patrol
!" exclaimed Will in amazement.
"You're the scoutmaster," the boy said, "I've seen you in Chicago."
"Strange I don't remember you!" replied Will.
"Oh, I'm only a tenderfoot," was the answer, "and of course, you don'tknow all the new boys!"
"What are you doing here?" asked Will.
"I'm running away!" was the reply. "You see," the boy went on, "I gottired of living in Chicago, and sleeping in alleys in summer and warmhallways in winter, so I just made up my mind I'd make a break for life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
"But how did you come to walk up into this country?"
"I started out to get a job herding sheep," was the answer, "and I kepttravelling, and travelling, without getting any job, and so here I am,hungry, and ready to go back to Chicago on the slightest provocation!"
"What's your name?"
"Chester Winslow."
"Well, Chester," Will laughed, "it won't take me long to get yousomething to eat, and then you'd better go to bed. You'll have to doubleup with another stranger who came along earlier in the evening, but Iguess you can sleep two in a bed, especially as the bed is made up onthe ground and you can't fall out."
The boy ate a very hearty supper, and five minutes later Will heard himsnoring. When daylight came and the sleepers arose, Katz stumbled out ofhis tent with angry exclamations on his lips.
"What's doing here?" he shouted. "Have I come into the home of the FortyThieves? When I went to bed last night I had a police badge, and arifle, and a revolver, and quite a lot of money! Now I haven't got athing except the clothes I've got on! What kind of a game do you callthis? If it's a joke, it's a mighty poor one!"
Will went to the tent Katz had occupied and looked inside. There was noone there, and he hastened back to the angry man.
"Where's the strange boy who slept with you last night?" he asked.
"Strange boy?" repeated Katz scornfully. "You can't work that game onme! You boys have taken my property, and you'd better be giving it up!If you don't there'll be trouble!"
"We're not afraid of any trouble from you!" Tommy said, with an angrysnort. "If you go to accusing us of stealing your stuff, you'll get yourcrust caved in!"
Then the boy turned to Will with an interrogation point in both eyes.Will saw the question and answered it.
"Shortly after midnight," he said, "a boy who gave the name of ChesterWinslow, his age as fourteen, his rank as Tenderfoot, came here and tolda hard luck story about tramping from Chicago. I gave him something toeat and put him to bed with Mr. Katz."
"Then the fellow is a little thief! That's all I've got to say aboutit!" exclaimed Katz, not quite so aggressive, now that he saw that theboys were inclined to resent insults, and remembering that he had norevolver with which to enforce his demands!
Shortly after breakfast the figures of four burros, heavily laden, andtwo men appeared at the south, heading directly for the camp.
"There's my associate bringing in the burros and the provisions!" Katzshouted.
"And there's our messenger!" whispered Tommy to Will.