CHAPTER XVI
THE WRONG PONY
“What’s that noise?” asked Gimp, seated with the other cowboys, most ofwhom were smoking.
“What noise?” asked the Parson, lazily flicking the ashes from hiscigarette.
“Sounds like a lot of firecrackers going off.”
The cowboys, roused from their noon-day _siesta_, had risen frombenches or from sprawling positions on the grass, and were gazing about.
“I don’t _see_ anything,” observed Gimp.
“Nor I,” said the Parson. “But I hear it. It’s a sort of crackling.”
The noise grew louder.
“Sometimes,” said Hen Dalton, still softly, “quick rifle fire makesthat noise. Once I was in----”
He stopped suddenly. The Parson had looked up and his surprised gesturemade the others do likewise.
In the sky was an object. It was growing larger. It was from thisobject that the noise seemed to come.
“Boys! Boys!” ejaculated Gimp. “Do you s’pose--do you s’pose it’s oneof them--one of them--airships?”
“Huh!” contemptuously remarked Hinkee Dee. “More like a couple ofturkey buzzards having a family quarrel.”
They were all standing with craned necks looking up at the object inthe sky, momentarily growing larger. Now it began to circle aboutinstead of keeping in a straight line.
“Maybe it’s a balloon,” ventured an old cowboy. “I seen one at a faironce and it busted and the feller come down head fust and----”
“Balloons don’t carry sewing machines to make a noise like that!”contemptuously murmured Gimp.
“Then what is it?” came a general cry.
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” was Gimp’s calm rejoinder. “She’s going tocash in right soon, I reckon.”
The object--the noise--came nearer. It was the airship of Ned, Bob andJerry swooping down on Square Z ranch.
“It can’t be!” ejaculated the Parson.
“Huh!” was all that came from Hinkee Dee.
And then, with engine shut off, and on outstretched wings of varnishedcanvas, the airship volplaned down to earth.
As it came to a stop, under the application of the brake, afterrolling over the ground toward the semicircle of amazed cowboys, thethree lads leaped out, snatching from their heads the leather and steelhelmets.
“Well--I’m--I’m--lassoed!” gasped the foreman.
“Just what I thought!” chuckled Gimp.
“It’s them!” murmured the Parson.
“Huh!” was all that Hinkee Dee uttered.
“We didn’t find ’em,” announced Jerry, stepping forward, and his tonewas as casual as though he had announced his lack of success in lookingfor some lost chickens.
“Find ’em? Find who?” the foreman asked sharply.
“The cattle thieves,” went on Jerry with a smile. “We had an idea thatthey might have gone up in a balloon, seeing they didn’t leave anytracks anywhere. But they’re not up in the clouds.”
“Do you boys--do you mean to say you’ve been up there?” and Dick Watsonpointed toward the blue sky.
“Well, not exactly _all_ the way up,” was the answer. “But we hit aboutfive thousand feet, just for a practice spin.”
“Would anybody else like to try?” asked Ned.
“Not on your life!” cried Gimp, as Bob stepped forward, and the cowboybacked away.
“Look here! look here!” and the foreman seemed laboring under the stressof great excitement. “Do you--you gentlemen mean to say you really havebeen up in that thing? It isn’t one of these--er--slight-of-hand tricks,is it?”
“Hardly,” laughed Jerry, and he noted the difference in the tone of theforeman. “Here, we’ll show you how it’s done.”
In another minute the boys were back in their seats, and the airship,headed down a long, level stretch, was under way once more, thepropellers flashing in the sun and the engine spitting fire.
Once more it arose in the air, like a great bird, and then, flying ata low elevation, so the cowboys could better observe them, Ned, Boband Jerry circled about in the air over their heads. They did figure8s, they looped the loop, going higher for this, of course, and then,shutting off the engine, they volplaned down, coming to rest in almostthe same spot where they had first landed.
“Now do you believe?” asked Jerry as he and his chums advanced towardthe marveling throng.
“By stirrups! We just can’t help it--that’s great!” cried the foreman,and the others murmured their assents.
“What do you think of ’em now?” asked Gimp of Hinkee Dee, as they wentwith the others to get a closer view of the airship.
“Huh! A bunch of stuck-up tenderfeet--that’s all they are! They maybelearned that trick in a circus and pulled it off on us to make us feelhow little we know.”
“You couldn’t do it,” said the Parson, grimly.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to. A cow pony is good enough for me, or I canwalk when I have to.” And with that Hinkee Dee stalked away.
But the others did not conceal their admiration and amazement at thefeat of the boys. They crowded about, asked all sorts of questions, andsome of the cowboys patted the parts of the craft as though soothing arestive horse of a new species.
“Well, I see you arrived,” remarked Mr. Munson, who came up when thecuriosity of the cowboys was about satisfied.
“Did you know they were up to this?” demanded the foreman.
“Well, I did see ’em tinkering with some contraption over in thewoods,” admitted the cattle buyer as he called himself. “But I thoughtI’d let ’em surprise you.”
Professor Snodgrass, who had come back, his specimen boxes filled, sawthe gleaming wings of the airship and called:
“Oh, boys, are you going to make another flight? I want to go up, forI have an idea there is a new species of high-flying butterfly in thisregion and I’d like to get a specimen.”
“We’ll take you up after we’ve had something to eat,” said Bob.
“Fine!” cried the professor. “I’ll get my long-handled net ready. Someof those butterflies are very shy in the upper air currents.”
“Do you mean to say you’re going up in _that_?” asked the Parson.
“Why not?” counter queried Professor Snodgrass. “I’ve done it before.”
There was a murmur of surprise, and it was easy to see that theprofessor had advanced greatly in the estimation of the cowboys.
The putting together of the airship, and its use by the boys made quitea diversion at Square Z ranch, where novelties were rare. The cowboyslost so much time from their routine work looking up at the clouds fora sight of the craft that Dick Watson finally requested the boys tomake their flights at times when the employees were at liberty, or elsekeep from circulating over the cattle ranges.
Professor Snodgrass went up not once but several times, and made choicecaptures of upper air insects. Jerry and his chums tried to inducesome of the cowboys to take a flight with them. But though Gimp almostallowed himself to be persuaded he finally backed out, amid the jeersof his fellows.
The boys were in high spirits for the airship accomplished all theyexpected it would in the way of gaining them more consideration. Thecowboys treated them as more than equals. They could not ask enoughquestions about the workings of the airship, and few of them wouldbelieve that it was not like a balloon, and that, somehow or other,compressed gas caused it to rise.
Jerry tried to illustrate by scaling a piece of tin in the air, theflat surface corresponding to the surface of the airship’s wings, andits motion sustaining it, just as the motion of the airship, impartedto it by the propeller kept the machine up. As soon as the forwardmotion ceased down came the tin, just as down came the aeroplane.
But the cowboys were all incredulous in general, though Gimp and theParson had some idea of the theories involved.
As for Hinkee Dee, while he was plainly impressed, he did not become atall friendly. Instead of being sarcastic, he was just
plain mean andinsulting.
“Well, we’ll get him yet,” declared Jerry. “He can’t hold off forever.”
“I wonder what makes him this way?” asked Bob. “Is he afraid we’lldiscover the cattle thieves?”
“Looks that way,” replied Ned. “I guess he wants to solve the mysteryhimself. But he’d better get busy.”
“He hasn’t done anything that I can see--except talk,” put in Jerry.
“No,” agreed Ned. “It’s queer. But we haven’t done much ourselves. Isay! let’s get busy, now we’ve had our fun in the airship.”
“All right,” assented Jerry. “We’ll take a trip to-morrow over to theplace where we ran up against a stone wall last time.”
“In the airship?” asked Bob.
“No. Not this time. The ponies will do.”
It was boots and saddles early the next morning, the boys taking theirlunch with them.
“Good luck!” called the foreman after them. “If you don’t find therustlers, at least you’ve kept ’em away since you came, except for thatone raid.”
When he went out to the corral a little later and observed a pony therehe exclaimed to Gimp:
“Who’s horse is Jerry riding?”
“His own, ain’t he?”
“There’s his pony now,” said the foreman. “Where’s Go Some?”
“By stirrup!” cried the cowboy. “Jerry’s taken the wrong pony. That impGo Some will turn wild after he’s been ridden a few hours--he alwaysdoes. And the fellow that’s on his back--well, I wouldn’t give much forhis hide!” and he started off on a run.