CHAPTER XXV.
ADRIAN MAKES A STAND.
As the hay flamed up like magic there arose a great commotion. Men couldbe heard shouting to one another. Fortunately Mr. Comstock was equal tothe occasion. He hurried this way and that, calling at the top of hisvoice; and for a small man he certainly had astonishingly loud vocalattainments.
"Stay where you are, every man I stationed by the corral! This is atrick to get you away, so they can force a gap, and let the stock out!Shoot every sneaking wolf you see trying to injure the corral! Leave therest to me! Adrian, would you care to come with me, and see if we canget a crack at the cowardly coyote who put a match to my haystackyonder?"
"I'd like nothing better, Uncle!" cried the boy, aroused by all thesehappenings, and with his mind made up that, given a chance, he, wouldsurely do some sort of bodily injury to the treacherous hound; for ofall things the boy detested, a fellow who could turn on the hand thatfed him and strike his benefactor in the back, was the worst.
"Donald, you stick it out here, and perhaps you'll get your chancesooner than we may!" called the ex-manager over his shoulder, as he ranhastily away, heading so as to switch around to the other side of theburning hay; which Adrian understood to mean that he anticipateddiscovering the firemaker starting operations in connection with one ofthe other high stacks.
Already the flames were leaping wildly upward, and beginning to roar. Atleast they served as a huge torch, by means of which the defenders ofthe corrals would be able to cover quite a fair stretch of territorywith their eyes, and detect the approach of any suspicious body ofraiders, upon whom they could open fire without compunction, once theywere sure it could not be the sheriff's posse.
As he ran Adrian was on the lookout for any kind of slinking figure thatmight be discovered near the haystacks, perhaps with a flaming torch inhand; though a simple match was really all that would be needed to startanother of those conflagrations, so dry was the hay.
If he had the good luck to set eyes on such an object he believed thatnothing would hold him back from sending a bullet at the incendiary; forby now the boy had become indignant at the way these Walkers were tryingto rule or ruin the entire country, and would welcome a chance to letone of the brood know that he did not mean to stand their ways of doingthings.
"You head toward that one on the right!" said Mr. Comstock, hastily, asthe two of them paused, the better to look around, and decide on whathad better be done in order to stop this work of wanton destruction.
This of course meant that they should separate; and turning sharplyaside Adrian bent low, and ran toward the stack to which he had beendirected.
As he did so he heard the positive report of a pistol, and actually feltthe wind caused by the passage of a bullet, so close did it come to hisleft arm. That told him there was an enemy hiding behind the haystack towhich he had been sent by his uncle; and seeing him coming with suchevident hostile intent, the fellow had fired. Perhaps he had missedhitting the crouching boy because Adrian kept dodging to the right andto the left as he had seen an old Indian-fighter do once upon a time,when a crazy puncher had shot a comrade, and was brought to bay over hisdead pony.
Then again, it might be that the man did not really want to do the boyserious injury, and was only trying to frighten him off. It was as muchas a warning that the unseen enemy had his range, and the next shotwould be more exacting.
Adrian did not stand there irresolute. He knew when to act, and how togo about it. The first thing he did when that shot sounded, and he knewhe had been the target at which the missile had been sent, was to rollover upon the ground as though he had been hit.
Almost as soon as he landed he was pushing himself in shape so as tolook over the slight knob of ground just in front of where he lay, andwatch the spot from which that little puff of smoke had leaped. It wasalongside the haystack to which he had been sent by Uncle Fred; and thechances seemed to be that the fellow who fired must be the one whosehand had already put a match to the blazing heap.
Thus looking, Adrian believed he saw the slightest of movements amidstthe hay. This seemed to tell him that the other must be peering outagain, to see whether the coast were clear, so that he could either beata hasty retreat, or else continue his work of destroying the feed, byusing which the cattle might be kept shut up for days at a time in theenclosures.
Determined to teach him a lesson the boy pulled the trigger of hisrifle, having taken a quick snap judgment on the spot where he believedthe other to be hidden.
His expectations were more than realized, for instantly there was awhoop, and from behind the stack a whirling figure came in sight. It wasone of the "suspects" and from the way he kept clawing at his left armthe boy guessed that his lead had found its billet all right.
He gained his feet, and with rifle ready for more work if necessary,started to hasten toward where the fellow was dancing about, shriekingwith the pain of his wound, and all else forgotten.
About the same time Mr. Comstock came running up.
"Got him, did you, Adrian?" he called out, in more or less exultation;for he had been sorely badgered of late by these fellows who had thebacking of Mrs. Fred, and really snapped their fingers at his authority.
"Help! Mr. Comstock, get a tourniquet on, and stop this bleeding or I'ma goner! Oh! quick, sir! Don't let me go under in this way like a dog! Iwas a fool to turn against you just because she blarneyed me. Save mefirst, and punish me afterwards!" was what the fellow called out, thepain of his wound causing him to show actual terror, and bringing outthe yellow streak in his makeup.
The stockman, seeing that the second stack had not as yet been fired,did take hold, and with a few dextrous twists of a stout handkerchiefput a temporary stop to the loss of blood.
"You deserve all you've got, and more too, Burke," he said sternly; "butI'm going to give you one more chance after all this row is done with.Perhaps this may be a lesson that'll be the turning point of your life,because you used to have some good points about you. Adrian, will youstay here, keeping out of sight all that's possible, and aiming to hitevery time you see any one creeping around this field?"
"What will you be doing, Uncle Fred?"
"First of all," called back Mr. Comstock, "I'll take this young fool tothe bunk house, fix his arm, and then leave him under charge of CharleyMoo. It reduces the snakes to three; and my next job will be to takehold of the rest of the bunch, unless they skip out on seeing what'shappened to Burke here."
Adrian was satisfied with the way things seemed to be progressing. Whatif one stack of the precious hay had gone up in smoke, there was morethan enough left for their purposes; and present necessities ruled thehour just then.
He patrolled his post, keeping out of sight as much as possible. All thewhile he was listening to catch any strange sounds coming from thevicinity of the corrals or the bunk house. He wondered how Mr. Comstockwould come out when he started to make prisoners of the other threetreacherous ones; and whether in so doing he might not come in contactwith his wife, who would be apt to side with the men, and try tooverthrow the authority of the ex-manager.
But Adrian believed Uncle Fred had determined to make one great fightfor his manliness, and would refuse to do what his strong-minded wifesaid, even though she threatened him with the anger of her whole tribeof relations, those lawless Walkers of whom the entire country wasringing.
Still, there did not seem to be anything unusual happening; at leastAdrian, holding out there in defense of the hay, failed to hear anystrange racket, such as would very likely have accompanied a trial ofstrength between the two parties.
He suspected that possibly the other three fellows had slunk away,fearing under the new conditions that had arisen, the mistress would beunable to defend them, should matters come to a crisis.
The boy did not delude himself with the thought that the worst must beover. Up to now they had only had to deal with the sympathizers of theWalkers, those snakes in the grass who had remained in the employ of Mr.Comstock bec
ause his wife refused to countenance their discharge, andwho were all the while taking secret pay from Hatch Walker, ready at anymoment to betray their trust.
Between this hour and dawn there was a strong likelihood that the mainbody of rustlers meant to get busy, and spring all manner of surprisesupon those who had the defense of Bar-S Ranch in charge.
It might seem strange that the Walkers would thus openly attack a ranch,when by such action they ran the risk of being classed as genuineoutlaws, if any one could be found bold enough to complain about them tothe proper authorities.
The truth of the matter was, as Adrian suspected, that in this coming ofthe owner of Bar-S Ranch upon the scene, these men could see an enteringwedge calculated to weaken the power of Hatch's sister, and possiblystart the avalanche rolling that was fated to swamp them eventually.
The energetic and fearless way in which the three boys had taken hold,followed the stampeded cattle, watched until they caught the rustlersoff their guard, and then not only made them prisoners, but actuallydrove the stolen herd all the way home--this must have made a deepimpression on Hatch Walker. He knew that extraordinary measures must betaken to stem this tide in the beginning; or else it was bound to gathersuch irresistible headway that he and his followers would be swept outof sight.
By degrees Adrian concluded that the hay was no longer in such dangerthat he need remain there constantly to guard it. He made up his mind tohave another puncher sent out to that post, preferring on his ownaccount to be nearer the cattle, and consequently the point of mostdanger.
Accordingly he made his way toward the corrals, being careful to givethe call that had been arranged between the defenders, so that theymight not shoot one another by mistake.
Donald was glad to have him back.
"I heard about what you did," he said, as he squeezed his chum's hand."Uncle Fred brought that wounded chap past here; and he said you did itfor him."
"But what about the other three?" demanded Adrian; "Uncle Fred told mehe wanted to get back here so as to make prisoners of the rest of thebatch."
"Well, they seem to have disappeared," replied Donald; "nobody knowswhether they scented trouble, and slipped away; or if Mrs. Comstock hashidden them in the ranch house, meaning to turn a sly trick later on;but let's hope the sheriff'll get along here before the worst happens."