CHAPTER XIII
A SENSATION
“Turned out all right, did it?” asked Hinkee Dee of Gimp when theformer came back the next day from the cattle-driving trip.
“Yes, they was the goods all right. But shucks! what do you think of’em, anyhow?”
“Huh! Well, you know my opinions regardin’ tenderfeet in general, don’tyou, Gimp?”
“Sure do!”
“Then just depict it on these young chaps and you’ll have itindividually so to speak. A lot of college Willies come out here tomake us walk Spanish. Did you see a wrist watch on any of ’em?”
“Great jumping spiders! No! You don’t mean to tell me, Hinkee, thatany----”
“No, I didn’t say any of ’em _had_ fallen so depressingly as that, butthey’re that kind, I reckon. Catch the cattle rustlers! Oh, say, I’mglad I’m not in the habit of fainting.”
“That bald-headed bug isn’t so bad,” remarked Gimp.
“No, I reckon he’s a sort of keeper to ’em. Well, I should be anxiety.Give me the makings,” and he deftly rolled a cigarette from the bag oftobacco and the papers Gimp passed over to him.
“Anything happen while I was away?” Hinkee Dee next asked.
“No. The new ones sort of made themselves to home and they’re gettingthe run of the place. Maybe they’re not as green as they look.”
“Huh! Don’t talk to me! Tenderfoot sticks out all over ’em, Gimp.”
“I admit that. But they’ve been West before, accordin’ to their tell,and done some campin’.”
“With a hired cook I s’pose and a patent electric stove like the one intheir car,” sneered the assistant foreman.
“No, the real thing they say.”
“Yes, let them tell it.”
“Oh, I don’t say they can throw a diamond hitch, or anything likethat,” went on Gimp. “But I’m only tellin’ you p’raps they ain’t asgreen as we first believed. I s’pose it’s up to us to be decent to ’em,seein’ as how their paws--at least the paws of two of ’em--own thisshebang.”
“That doesn’t fit in my pipe,” sententiously observed Hinkee Dee,blowing out a cloud of smoke. “I’ll treat ’em decent, but blamed littleof that. I don’t have to work here!”
“You seem sort of peeved,” observed Gimp, rolling himself a cigarette.
“Well, wouldn’t you be if you’d sat up nights thinkin’ up ways to foolthese cattle thieves, and then had a bunch of mavericks, right off thebaseball field, come along and want all the credit of it? Huh? I guessyes!”
“But you, nor none of us, didn’t solve the cattle mystery,” Gimp said.
“I know we didn’t. But I’m on the track of ’em. I’ve got a theory thatI’m sure’ll work out all right-- Well, what is it? You lookin’ for me?”he broke off, to speak to an approaching cowboy who was galloping up ona dust-flecked steed.
“They’ve gone and done it again, Jim!” the man called.
“Who’s done what?”
“Cattle rustlers--run off a nice bunch from the bottom lands lastnight!”
“Whew!” whistled Gimp, while Hinkee Dee scowled.
Gimp galloped off, and the news soon spread around the ranch that thecattle rustlers had made another raid. Several of the cowboys who wereat liberty joined the posse that was quickly organized. Ned, Bob andJerry, of course, heard what was afoot.
“Say, we didn’t get here any too soon; did we?” asked Ned.
“No, indeed!” agreed Jerry. “It’s lucky they didn’t start a raid whilewe were on the road, or, if we had heard of it, we’d have had to leavethe auto and come on by train to satisfy your folks. The rustlers heldoff just long enough.”
The boys had been a little longer making the trip than they had countedon, owing to a number of minor accidents, but they had made fairly goodtime. That there was a cattle raid the very night of their arrival wasa coincidence that could be viewed in two lights. It was an advantagethat the rustlers had held off this long, but, of course, it wasunfortunate that Mr. Slade and Mr. Baker must suffer new losses.
“I guess some of the gang that was captured must have got loose,” saidNed, “or else they’ve had recruits. Well, they’re up to their oldtricks and we’ve got to try to stop ’em.”
“And here’s a chance to get some first-hand information about how thethieves operate,” cried Bob. “Come on, fellows!”
“I don’t s’pose there’s any objection to us going along; is there?”asked Jerry of the assistant foreman.
“Yes, there is!” was the snapped-out reply. “I can’t be bothered with abunch of tenderfeet around. There’s likely to be shootin’, too, and youmight get in the way of a bullet.”
“We’ve been under fire before,” said Jerry, quietly. “Still----”
“Let the boys go along!” broke in the foreman. “That’s what they’re outhere for--to try to help run down those thieves.”
“A lot they’ll do!” muttered Hinkee Dee.
The boys had been assigned horses as soon as they reached the ranch,and these were quickly saddled. Of Professor Snodgrass little had beenseen since his arrival, as he went afield early in the morning armedwith net and specimen boxes. He was in his element now.
Square Z ranch was a big one. It had the advantage of water as wellas good grass, and it gave range to thousands of cattle divided intoseveral herds which were quartered in various grass sections. Whenone was eaten well down the animals were moved to another to give thefodder a chance to grow again.
The bunch of cattle that had been run off the night the boys arrivedhad been kept on a distant part of the range. They had been moved thereonly a few days before, and after the cowboy guards had remained ashort time they were withdrawn.
The cattle thieves, it seemed, had awaited their opportunity, and hadmade the raid just at the best time for them. A cowboy--one of severalin charge of another herd--following up his runaway pony, had notedthe missing bunch and had come in with the news.
“Well, they started off this way sure enough,” decided Hinkee Dee, whenhe and his helpers had made a tour of the grazing ground. The boyswent with them, keeping well out of the way, however, of the assistantforeman.
“Not that I’m afraid of him though,” declared Ned. “Only I don’t wanta row right off the bat. If he tries to make me knuckle under to himhe’ll find he’s got more than he can handle. Dad gave me a free rein onthis business and I intend to have it.”
“This is the way they led ’em,” said Hinkee Dee, riding along andpointing to the ground.
“I think you’re wrong,” put in the Parson, quietly.
“Wrong? What do you mean?” demanded the assistant foreman, and hisvoice sounded threatening.
“I mean the signs show they went over there,” and he pointed in thedirection of some low hills.
“Huh! that shows how much you know about it!” sneered Hinkee Dee.“There’s no grass left over there and these fellows have to have fodderto keep the cattle a week or more before they move to sell ’em. You’rewrong!”
“I think I’m right, Hinkee.”
“So do I,” chimed in Gimp.
“Sure he’s right,” said several others, and as there seemed to be noone to side with Felton, he shrugged his shoulders and said:
“Well, have your own way, then. But you’ll find I’m right.”
And it did seem so. For though the trail was plain--at least so theboys believed--for part of the distance along which Gimp and the Parsonindicated, it became faint and uncertain when a patch of stony groundwas reached where the foot hills began, and ended at the opening of adeep rocky ravine which was a sort of blind alley.
“What’d I tell you?” crowed Hinkee Dee. “Next time you’ll take myadvice.”
“Well, there’s been cattle along here, that’s sure!” declared theParson, and others said the same.
“Well, if they _were_ here, why aren’t they here _now_?” asked HinkeeDee. “You can see there’s no sign of a stolen bunch. What would be thesense o
f driving cattle over there, anyhow? You couldn’t do anythingwith ’em once you got ’em here, ’ceptin’ maybe coop ’em up in thatravine. They couldn’t live there two days--no grass or water. Theserustlers aren’t fools!”
“Well, there was cattle here, and not long ago,” declared the Parson.
“I s’pose them rustlers drove ’em here and then jumped ’em over themountain on the other side?” sneered the assistant foreman. “Nowyou’ve had your way, let’s go back an’ try mine.”
Shaking their heads over the puzzle, Gimp and the Parson rode back withthe others. But though there were also signs of cattle having beenhurried along the route Hinkee Dee pointed out, the animals themselveswere not to be found, and none of the cowboys had the temerity to say,“I told you so,” to their superior.
“It’s mighty queer what becomes of the cattle,” said Dick Watson, as hewas talking to the boys that night after the return of the unsuccessfulsearch. “If them fellows had an airship I’d say they rode ’em off inthat, for all trails, traces and clues seem to disappear at a certainpoint.”
“Tell us how this thing started,” begged Ned, and the foreman told thestory of the losses to date. It was getting serious.
The next day Ned, Bob and Jerry set off alone to see what they couldfind. They went to the place of the last disappearance of the cattleand investigated as best they could. But they came to the same bafflingend as before.
“I wonder if there could be a way of getting the steers over themountain?” suggested Ned.
“Of course not!” scoffed Jerry. “But it sure is a puzzle.”
“Well, let’s stop, build a fire and have something to eat,” proposedBob.
“His favorite remedy for all troubles,” laughed Jerry.
A week or more passed, and though no trace of the thieves wasdiscovered, no more cattle were stolen. The boys kept up their searchfor clues, but without avail, and several times the cowboys laughedopenly at them.
“They make me mad!” cried Ned. “You’d think we were a lot of children.”
“We ought to give ’em a surprise--startle ’em--get up some sensation toshow we can do something,” declared Bob.
A cowboy came in with the mail, and among the letters for the boys wasa postal. At the reading of it Ned gave a cry of delight.
“Now we can do it!” he cried.
“Do what?” Jerry demanded.
“Give these cowboys a surprise! Our airship has arrived at the railroadstation. This is a notice from the freight agent. Come on, we’ll go forit!”