CHAPTER IX.
THE LONE RANCHO.
Well, that was an odd meal, that refection of water-soaked biscuit andcanned corned beef, with flood water as a beverage. Perhaps in all theadventures of the Border Boys, when in after years they came to recallthem, no scene stood out quite so strikingly.
For one thing, Coyote Pete alone, of the party, possessed any sort ofwardrobe. The professor was clad in his “barber pole” pajamas. Ralphboasted a shirt and Walt Phelps possessed the same with the addition ofa pair of socks, which latter hardly fulfilled requirements so far as acovering for his nether limbs was concerned.
From time to time the Border Boys had to look at each other and burstout laughing. Only the professor viewed the matter in a serious light.
“Suppose we should meet some ladies,” he asked indignantly.
“Reckon thar ain’t many of ’em hereabouts,” ventured Coyote, spreadinga big slice of beef on a bit of soggy bread. “The burros is ther onlyrepresentatives of the gentle sex fer a good many miles, I opinion.”
The burros, relieved of their packs, which had been swept away, waggedtheir ears appreciatively at this, and continued browsing on the short,coarse grass which grew in patches here and there, and which the boyswere delighted to see seemed also to be palatable to the horses.
Ralph and the others had already related how the terrified animalshad been recaptured without difficulty early that day. In fact, acircumstance which has often been noted was their good fortune, namely,that panic-stricken horses in lonely, wild countries, will actuallyseek human companionship,—provided, of course, that they have alreadybeen domesticated. As for the burros, their loud “hee-haws” hadresounded all night.
Ralph also explained how the idea of the mirror heliograph came to him.The lad who, as has been explained, was a bit of a dandy, was horrifiedto discover the abbreviated state of his wardrobe. But a search ofhis shirt pocket revealed his pocket-mirror with its folding brushand comb fittings. The railroad king’s son had at once set to work tomake himself presentable about the head at least, and was combing hishair neatly and wondering how Jack and Pete had fared, when the suncaught the mirror and it flashed blindingly into his eyes. This gavehim the idea of flashing it in all directions in the hope that theothers, if within sight, would catch its glint. Then came the happythought of telegraphing with the bit of glass by alternately coveringand uncovering it. The idea had met with the warm approval of theprofessor and Walt Phelps, although, perhaps, even they had not beenover sanguine of results.
“Well,” said Jack at length, after the events of the night and thefollowing incidents had been discussed and re-discussed, “what are wegoing to do now?”
“Get clothes,” cried Ralph, without an instant’s hesitation, regardinghis bare legs disparagingly.
“By all means, yes,” agreed the professor.
Coyote Pete grinned.
“Jack,” said he, “will you be so kind as ter step ter the telephoneand tell the Blue Front Store to send up a few samples of men’sfurnishings?”
All but the professor burst into a roar of laughter at this sally.
“At any rate,” suggested Walt Phelps, “we’re not likely to get held up.”
“Not so sure about that,” said the professor, “I have the money beltcontaining most of our finances around my waist. I always sleep with itthere.”
“Hooray!” shouted the boys, who, up to that moment had not once thoughtof the important question of finances. It struck them now withsobering force.
“By George!” cried Jack, “if it hadn’t been for your foresight,professor, we might have been penniless as well as wardrobeless.”
“That’s right,” agreed Coyote Pete, “and ther chance that you’d standof being helped out by the greasers would be about ther same as asnowflake ’ud have on a red-hot cook stove.”
“My idea is to lose no time in striking out for a town or village wherewe can get some clothes, even if they are only Mexican garments,”announced Jack.
“And food, too,” put in Walt Phelps, who liked to get his three meals aday, “we’ll be on starvation diet if we don’t stock up on that.”
After more discussion it was agreed to follow up the dry bed of theriver, as the professor’s map showed a small village some distance upa stream which, though unnamed on the map, seemed to be the one onwhose banks they now were. This decision reached, no time was lost inmounting. There was no saddling to be done, for the saddles had beenswept off with most of the rest of their outfit.
“If you ever catch me camping in the dry bed of a river again you arewelcome to hang me to a sour apple tree,” grumbled Walt Phelps, as hemounted.
“I reckon I’m ter blame fer it all,” volunteered Coyote Pete, “but Inever thought as how that far-off storm would affect us in the plains.That must have bin a jim-dandy of a cloudburst.”
“I’d hate to have been any closer to it than we were,” laughed Jack.“If we had been, we’d have been going yet, I imagine.”
“I heard of a cloudburst once that did some good, though,” struck inPete; “ther thing happened to a friend of mine in Californy. He wuz aminer, Jefferson Blunt by name.
“Wall, sir, Jeff had struck such all-fired bad luck up on theStanislaus River that he’d about concluded to pull out for otherregions when, all of a sudden, one night up came a storm, and in themiddle of it there come the all-firedest cloudburst that Jeff had everheard of. It picked up his cabin and floated Jeff off down the river,a-going like a blue streak. He thought every minute that he’d hearGabriel’s trumpet and see ther golden stairs, but that little old cabinwas well built and watertight, and it floated like a boat.
“It must hev been hours, Jeff says, afore he felt ther thing give abump and stop. As soon as he dared he opened ther door and peeked out.He wuz in a part uv ther country he’d never seen. It was all cliffs andbig trees and very imposing, and ther like of that,—that ‘imposing’ isJeff’s word.
“Wall, Jeff he steps out of his sea-going shack and looks about him,and ther first thing he sees is a big streak of ore just a-glitter withgold and stuck, like a band of yaller ribbon along ther cliff faceabove his head.
“Jeff had bin so unlucky that first he thinks it’s jes’ fool’s gold andnot the real article. But he soon convinces himself thet he’s struckit rich at last. Wall, ter make a long story short, Jeff files a claimand in a few y’ars is a rich man, and what d’ye s’pose he called thermine?”
“‘The Cloud Burst,’ of course!” cried Jack.
“How’d yer guess it?” asked Pete. “But yer right, and thet’s ther onlycloudburst I ever hearn’ of, thet brought anybody any luck.”
“Personally, if I could find a pair of trousers,” wailed the professor,“I should esteem their possession almost above even such a luckydiscovery as you have related.”
“I think I’d trade it right now for a porter-house steak and trimmings,brown gravy and green corn, and——”
“See here,” put in Ralph, with assumed indignation, “if you don’t shutup I’ll, I’ll——”
“Go right home,” chuckled Walt teasingly; “you’d be a fine sight inthat rig. I’ll bet the folks back east would have you put in thecalaboose.”
But by noon the gay spirits of the boys were considerably toned down.No sign of a town had yet come in sight and they were all hot, hungryand tired. The odd procession, with the burros tagging along behind,looked disconsolate enough as it followed the windings of the river.The shallow aftermath of the flood steamed and simmered under the hotsun, sending up unpleasant odors,—yet they had to drink it or gowithout.
By way of cheering the party up, Coyote Pete began to sing—or ratherwail—in the high-pitched voice affected by cow-punchers singing totheir cattle:
“O-ho-wa-hay da-own upon the Su-wahanee River, Fa-har, fa-har a-way——”
But before he could begin the next line Ralph struck in with:
“There’s where our pants are floating ever; There’s where they’r
e gone to stay!”
In the general roar of laughter which followed, the “grouch” which hadsettled down on the tired wayfarers vanished like the spring snow undera burst of sunlight.
With a shout the boys, their troubles forgotten in an outburst of thatgood nature that makes the whole world kin, plunged forward, theirshirt tails flying.
“Yip-yip-ye-ee!”
The joyous yell filled the air. And then it broke off into a realcheer, for, on surmounting the summit of a small eminence, they sawbelow them, not more than a mile off, a small adobe house of unusualtype, for it had two stories. It was surrounded by a grove of greenwillows which delighted the eye tired by the endless gray-greenstretches of grease-wood savannahs.
Even the dignified professor joined in the enthusiasm, and in a minutea cavalcade was bearing down on the place at breakneck speed. As theyneared it in a thunder of hoofs and a cloud of yellow dust, a dooropened and the figure of a gaunt Mexican, with long, shaggy, blackhair hanging straight and lank to his shoulders, stepped out. His nextmove halted the leaders of the party abruptly.
He jerked a long-barreled rifle to his shoulder and pointed itthreateningly.
“Mira rurales!” he yelled to some one within the house.
“No rurales! Americanos!” cried Coyote Pete.
The effect was magical. The man’s startled air changed, and with asheepish smile he stepped forward as Jack and Ralph, who were inadvance, drew rein.
“What did he mean by rurales, I wonder?” asked Ralph of Jack in a lowtone as the others loped up.
“Why, rurales are a species of police. Rangers, they are calledsometimes. They are wild chaps, mostly recruited from the ranks ofbrigands and highwaymen. The government pays them a high figure to begood and keep law and order.”
“But this man seemed to fear them.”
“Maybe he has reason to. But we can’t be particular. At any rate, weare a strong enough party to look after our own hands. But see, herecomes his wife. I guess, after all, he is nothing more unlawful than acattle rancher in a small way, who perhaps, once-in-a-while takes anunbranded calf or two from his neighbor’s estates.”
The woman who joined the man, who by this time had set down the rifle,was a stout, slatternly-looking creature in a greasy cotton wrapper.She shot out a few rapid words in a low voice to the other, who repliedin equally low tones. So far as Jack, who was closest, could judge, thewoman seemed to be protesting against something, and the man stillingher objections.
Coyote Pete as spokesman now advanced, and in Spanish asked if theycould obtain lodging and refreshment for themselves and their stock.