CHAPTER X.
SILVER FACE.
As Ted released the badly punished young Indian and rode back to wherethe boys were waiting for him, Crazy Cow painfully raised himself to asitting position in his saddle. But the pain was too great, and heslowly and painfully slid to the ground. But the backs of his legs wereso seamed with welts that he could not walk.
He was, indeed, an object for pity, but he had been defeated, and notonly that, but had been whipped on the most shameful spot, in Indianfighting, and his friends would have none of him.
When he looked toward them for sympathy they only pointed the finger ofscorn at him, and laughed.
Now Ted rode out in front of the boys, and, raising his voice, said tothe Indians:
"Go back to your village. Do not come to my ranch again. Next time itwill be something worse than quirts with which we fight, and dead men,instead of squaws with sore legs, will be the result. Go!"
The old medicine man turned his pony toward the mountains, and in aguttural voice gave the command.
Without a word, and without looking back, the Indians started on theirway, Crazy Cow following dejectedly on foot, leading his pony.
He had been conquered and humiliated, but his heart burned with hatredfor the young white chief who had been the cause of it.
When the Indians were out of sight, Ted returned to the boys.
"Well, that's over for the present," he said.
"Yes, but we'll have trouble with those fellows later, you may be sure,"said Ben. "Look out for a ball or a knife in the back from Crazy Cow."
"I don't fear him as much as I do the cunning and treachery of that oldvillain, Flying Sun, who plans these raids and lets the young menexecute them while he stays back in a safe place."
"What interests me more than anything else just now is Stella and Bud. Ipropose that we drop everything else and hunt for them. You know thatsince the appearance of the man without a face, and now this encounterwith the Indians, to say nothing of sending Sol Flatbush's body home onhis horse, the members of the Whipple gang will be pretty keen afterevery member of our party."
"True, Ben. We must be very careful of Stella from now on. I would nothave taken this ranch had I known that it was menaced by such a gang ofthieves as seems to be in the mountains."
"Where had we better scout?" asked Ben.
"Do you think Bud and Stella went farther west?"
"Yes. As we started away from the ranch house I heard Bud say to Stella,'When the gang came out of the corral just before daylight I saw thatmost of them headed into the west. If we go that way we're sure to beatthe others to the trail.' Then I saw them slip away quietly back of thehouse, and later they disappeared over a rise due west."
"Then that's where we must look for them. Forward, fellows. We're goingto find Bud and Stella."
"Do you think it is necessary for all of us to go?" asked Kit.
"No, I don't. The ranch must have a guard of some sort. About half ofyou turn back to the lines, and two of you ride to the ranch house tosee that all is well, and guard it."
Ben sorted out the fellows who were to go back to the ranch, keeping allthe broncho boys to start on the hunt for the missing ones.
No one felt exactly uneasy for the safety of Stella and Bud, but it wasproper, under the circumstances, to see that they were safe.
"As before, we will split up into couples to search for Bud and Stella,"said Ted. "You better come with me this time, Ben."
To the west of the line of the Long Tom Ranch the land became morebroken. At first the hills ceased to be rolling and broke off intocanons, more or less deep, with sometimes sides that assumed the dignityof precipices.
The sides of the foothills were clothed in small tracts of scrubby pinetimber, and altogether it was not a pleasant country to travel over inwinter.
* * * * *
When Bud and Stella left the ranch house, Stella was bubbling over withjoy at the prospect of being in the hunt for the Indians, and theprospect of Bud teaching her the mysteries of the trail, particularlythe war trail.
"Don't say a word," said Bud, with a wink, "an' we'll fool 'em all. ThemInjuns never went nowhere except inter ther east. I throwed out a blasto' hot atmosphere erbout them goin' west. That wuz ter fool ole noseyBen, who had his neck stretched out like a spring chicken's ter hearwhat was bein' said, an' git ther advantage o' my sooperior knowledge.
"Well, when I see that I thort I'd give him somethin' ter chase, so Ihands out the west p'int, when I mean ter go ter ther east. When westart out we'll ride ter ther west until we come ter ther first draw,then foller it ter ther south until we come ter a break leadin' east,then foller that, an' we'll be fust onter ther red man's tracks."
"All right," laughed Stella. "That will be a good joke on Ben. He didn'tlike it because he couldn't go with us."
Now it will be seen that Bud's little fiction in the hearing of Ben wasnot the proper thing, and, as it turned out, Bud was mighty sorry forhis apparently innocent fib before the end of the day, or the dawning ofthe next.
They did as Bud planned, and when they were well out of sight andhearing of the other boys they turned to the east, and, when well out onthe prairie, turned their ponies' heads to the north.
As they cantered across the prairie, on which the snow was like dry sandand only about an inch deep, they could see bands of their cattle hereand there pawing the snow off the grass, or "rustling" for their fodder,as the cowmen call it.
"I shore believe thar's somethin' wrong on this yere range," Budremarked, after they had gone a few miles.
"Why?" asked Stella.
"Somethin' wrong with ther cattle."
"In what way?"
"Thar ain't half enough o' them here."
"Do you mean that some of them are gone?"
"Yep. Thet's jest what I mean."
"Strayed, probably?"
"No. Stole."
"Nonsense. Who could have stolen them? The Indians?"
"No. I reckon not. The Injuns is keen after ponies. In the fust placethar ain't nobody what kin wear out a pony as fast as an Injun. Theywork their ponies ter death, starve 'em, beat ther hides off'n 'em,neglect 'em, and when they're wore out turn 'em loose fer ther wolves.Second, they kin run off a bunch o' ponies in a hurry, but they balksome at rustlin' cattle because they move so slow. If we aire shy onbeeves ther white men has got 'em."
"When we get back we ought to round the cattle up and count."
"That's ther only way ter do it. I've got a pretty good eye fer a herd,an' it's my idee thet we're losers here, an' that ther rustlers isgittin' rich off'n us."
About noon Bud pulled in his horse, and examined the snowy groundcarefully.
He had struck a trail.
Winding across the prairie in a northeasterly direction was a broadtrail, the tracks of many cattle and horses.
"Here we are," said Bud. "Thar's whar some o' our cattle and severalponies have passed."
He got down to the ground, and, stooping over the trail, regarded itcarefully.
Suddenly he straightened up.
"This is not an Injun trail," he said.
"It isn't?" asked Stella.
"No. Here are the tracks of cattle, an' on top of them those of horsesridden by white men."
"How do you know they were not Indians?"
"Here's an impression o' a horseshoe, an' here's another o' a differentsize. These were made by animiles ridden by white men."
"I can understand why you should know that they were white men's horsesbecause Indians do not shoe their ponies, but I'm blessed if I can seehow you know that white men were riding them."
"Easy enough. These horses were ridden straight. An Indian, in spite ofstories to the contrary, is not a good horseman. He rides all over theground instead of straight ahead when he is going anywhere, seemin' asif he wanted to get his money's worth of the ride. If it had beenIndians who were driving off these cattle, you would see pony tracks allover the prairie ab
out here."
"Then we've struck the wrong trail."
"Well, we've missed the Indians, but we've struck another and a betterlead. Ther boys under Ted will most likely git in ther trail o' therpony snatchers, but we're on another lay--cattle thieves."
"This is something of a surprise, isn't it?"
"You bet. If we hadn't run ercross this yere trail we mightn't have goton ter ther fact thet our steers wuz bein' lifted ontil so many o' themwuz gone thet it would make a big hole in our herd."
"Have they much the start of us?"
"I reckon they have." Bud was down on his knees, looking closely at thetracks.
"Yes," he continued, "they went by here shortly after midnight."
"How do you know?"
"Against ther east side o' each o' these leetle depressions made by ahoof is some fresh snow."
"I don't see how that tells the time."
"I do. Along about midnight last night a wind come up an' blew from therwest fer half an hour. It drifted a little snow before it, which settledinter these depressions an' banked up against ther east side o' thesetracks."
"That seems reasonable. Bud, where did you learn all these things abouttrailing?"
"Never learned them nowhar. It's jest thinkin' about what yer see whatmakes a scout an' trailer. These cattle is somewhar up in them hillsyon. They probably drove until sunup, an' then stopped ter give thercritters a rest before shovin' them inter ther mountings."
"Then I suppose we better hurry. We may be able to find out where theyare."
"Righto, we'll mosey. I reckon we've struck a good thing."
"How many beeves do you suppose there were in that steal?"
"Oh, I reckon fifty er sixty."
"Whew! That's worth going after."
Bud had mounted, and they galloped along the trail, which was broad anddeep. It led them through coulees and over hills and down into valleys,and the sun was high and the trail apparently endless.
"Bud, let us stop and eat our lunch. I'm hungry," said Stella.
"All right. I'm a bit peckish myself," was the reply.
They were in a narrow valley which was strewn with great bowlders, andon the sides of the hills grew a great many scrub pines. Through thecenter of it ran the broad trail.
The lunch was tied to the cantle of Bud's saddle, while Stella carried acanteen of coffee, for she was a great favorite of McCall, the cook, andwhen she started out for the day he invariably put up the best lunch acow camp could afford.
Bud, in the meantime, had found a spring on the hillside and had wateredthe horses, then made a fire of pine boughs over which they heated thecoffee and warmed themselves. Then they began their luncheon.
Bud was so busily appeasing his hunger that he did not say much, and didnot think it strange that Stella said nothing. They were seated onopposite sides of the fire, and Bud, thinking that perhaps Stella mightneed something, looked across at her.
What he saw caused him to stare.
Stella was looking over his head with an expression of horror on herface. Her wide, staring eyes were filled with an unspeakable horror.
Her hand was poised in mid-air, just as if she had been going to putsomething into her mouth, when the action was arrested by the sight ofsomething that froze her with terror.
"Stella, what's ther matter?" Bud managed to blurt out.
Stella's lips moved, but no sound came from them. She was too frightenedto speak.
Then Bud, observing the direction in which she was looking, turned hishead.
In an instant he was on his feet. He had become very pale, and his handshook as he reached slowly toward his holster.
Standing behind him was a creature such as he never had seen before.
It was a man of great stature, clad entirely in black, over which wasthrown a long, black cloak.
But the horror of the creature was the face. Out of an expressionlessmask of silver, without nose or mouth, gleamed a pair of fierce, blackeyes, that twinkled maliciously. Midway of the face were two holes,nostrils through which he breathed.
It was the man at whom Carl had fired his six harmless bullets--the manwith the silver face.
Bud stood staring at him like one frozen, but Stella, when she saw thatBud was as frightened as herself, was able to take her eyes away fromthose terrible orbs that shone through the silver face, and regained hercomposure, and now was able to look at him without terror and withcuriosity.
There was something fascinating in that blank, rounded, shining, whiteface, lighted only by those remarkable eyes.
What was behind that mask? A face, or only a blank?
Bud had somewhat recovered from the ague of terror into which the suddenappearance of the man with the silver face had thrown him, for he was abrave fellow, and not easily shaken from his courage.
"What do you want?" he asked at last, but yet with a little tremor inhis voice.
There was no answer, but the eyes continued to burn in a very suggestiveway. It seemed as if the man behind the mask was trying to speak, butcould not.
Presently, however, he made a motion with his hand that told them tofollow him.
"I'll be derned if we do," said Bud stubbornly. "Who aire yer, anyway,an' what business hey yer buttin' in on us this away?"
A strange, inarticulate, bubbling sound came from behind the silverface, but Bud could not understand it.
Again came the signal to follow.
"Not on yer life," said Bud firmly. He drew his revolver, and a look ofdecision came into his face. When Bud took on this look he meantbusiness.
"Oh, Bud, don't oppose the terrible creature," whispered Stella, to whomfear had come again from looking on that blank but fascinating face.
"No, by jing, I ain't goin' erlong with thet freak. If I could see hisface an' knowed who he wuz I might talk business."
As he said this the eyes behind the silver mask fairly shot forth sparksof anger, and again that horrible bubbling noise was heard.
The creature raised his arm. There was a sudden rush, and Bud felt hisarms grasped from behind.
But as this happened he had presence of mind enough to point hisrevolver at the man in the silver mask and pull the trigger.
The weapon crashed, and, as the smoke cleared away, Bud saw the thing ofhorror still standing unharmed where he had been, although the revolverhad been pointed directly at his heart, while from behind the mask cameagain that sickening, bubbling laugh.
At another signal from the figure Bud was dragged a little way up thehillside, and his wrists were securely tied, his arms embracing a tree.
While this was being done Stella, too frightened to make an outcry, wasled away, and, looking over his shoulder, Bud saw her mount Magpie andride away surrounded by four men, led by the man with the silver face,who bestrode a splendid black charger.
Bud was left alone to survive, if he could, the perils of frost andhungry wolves.