CHAPTER XI
AN INTERRUPTED JOURNEY
The yells of the Pony Rider Boys, instead of inducing Chops to stoponly caused him to run the faster. Stacy Brown was soon at thetail-end of the procession. Tad was in the lead, Ned Rector closeupon his heels, with Walter Perkins a good thirty yards behind Ned.
"Stop, you ninny!" shouted Tad. "Come back here."
"N-n-nassir," floated back the voice of the guide. Chops had enough.He was more frightened than ever before in his life. He believedthat the fat boy had really had the dream, and that trouble wasbrewing for Billy Veal.
"We'll never get him," gasped Rector.
"Yes, we shall. Get your rope. We'll have him. We'll chase him allnight but we'll land him. Chops! Oh, Chops!"
"Save your breath," jeered Ned.
"I'm going to. Oh, what I won't do to that guide when I do catchhim!" gritted Tad.
"Yes, when you do."
Butler put on a fresh burst of speed, touching the ground only withhis toes, as he ran, leaving Ned still farther behind.
"Gracious, I didn't think Tad could sprint like that," gasped Rector.
"Wait for me," howled Chunky, now far to the rear.
The boys got to laughing so heartily at this that Chops gained severalrods on them, but Tad quickly closed up the gap and was soon drawingdown on Billy Veal at a killing pace. The guide was a good runner,but he did not have the staying powers possessed by Tad Butler. Tad,no doubt, could have run all night had such a thing been necessary,for he was a strong, healthy boy with not an ounce of extra flesh onhis body, and his muscles were of the quality of pliant steel.
Tad now drew out to one side and a few minutes later he passed theman they were chasing, though Veal did not know of this. The coloredman came tearing along at almost express train speed, when Tad's ropewriggled through the air. The throw was a true one. The loop landedfairly over the head and shoulders of Chops, was drawn taut by therunner himself, and in the next instant Billy Veal stood pivoting onhis head on the ground.
"Gracious, I hope he hasn't broken his neck," cried Tad. "I--Ididn't think he would go down so heavily as that."
"Where is he? Where is, the guide?" shouted Ned Rector, coming upwith a splendid burst of speed, and not breathing hard at all.
"Look out, or you'll step on him," warned Tad.
"Where is he?" repeated Ned.
"Chops is standing on his head just ahead of you behind those bushes.Get hold of him so I can let up on the rope."
With a yell of triumph, Ned threw himself on the colored man, who wastoo dazed from the shock of his fall to offer much resistance.
At this juncture Walter Perkins came in on a trot, followed after aninterval of a minute or so by the shouting, puffing fat boy.
"You are to blame for this, Chunky," growled Ned, trying to be stern.
"It strikes me that you are sitting on Chops yourself. You surelycan't blame me for that," retorted Stacy.
"Here, you, get up and come back to camp with us," commanded Tad.
"Yes, Chops, the gnomes will get you out here," reminded Stacy.
"Stop it! You'll have him on the run again," rebuked Tad.
Chops looked up, wide-eyed.
"Hit jes' lak dat, fer fae'," muttered Billy. "Ah done seen demmyself."
"There! What did I tell you?" demanded Chunky triumphantly. "He'seen dem himself.' Did they have biscuit in their mouths, Chops?"
"Yassir, nassir. He ain't say nuffin' 'tall. He jess look lak dat."The guide made big staring eyes, as if peering at something in aworld unseen by the rest.
"Say, quit that! You'll give me the creeps soon," declared Ned."Are we going to take him back to camp or must I sit on him all therest of the night?"
"Let him up, Ned," nodded Tad, recoiling his rope. "If you try torun, Billy, I'll rope you again. Do you want me to rope you somemore?"
"Yassir, nassir."
Chops was shivering as he got up and started slowly back towardscamp, casting apprehensive glances at every bush he passed. A wildyell from the bushes bordering the trail they were following nearlysent the guide off on another sprint. He surely would have run hadnot Tad grabbed him by the arm and given him a shaking.
"Stacy Brown, if you do that again you will have to answer to theProfessor. Fun is fun, but the fun's all played out of this affair.Come along here, Billy."
Billy was marched into camp, set down by the fire, and ordered toremain there till told to get up. The Professor tried to assume astern expression, but the attempt was a failure, finally ending in achuckle, in which Chunky, who had just arrived, joined with hisfamiliar "haw, haw, haw."
"Oh, stop it!" commanded Ned. "You make me think I'm back among theMissouri mules. What are we going to do with this fellow,Professor?"
"I'll tell you what to do with him," spoke up Chunky. "Give him atostie wostie--in other words, a petrified biscuit, and tuck him inhis li'l crib where the little gnomes can't tickle his feet, andhe'll be all right after he gets to sleep," suggested the fat boywithout so much as the suggestion of a smile on his face.
"Guide, you must not take the jokes of these young men seriously.They were just fooling," began the Professor.
"They? You mean Stacy Brown," interrupted Ned.
"I wasn't fooling anyone. He saw them himself. Didn't you see thegnomes sitting on a rock, Chops, and didn't they make faces at youbecause you were running away?" persisted the fat boy.
Billy nodded weakly, moistening his lips with his tongue andswallowing a lump in his throat. Such a hopeless expression offright appeared on his face that the boys, unable to contain theirmirth longer, uttered shouts of laughter, in which the dignifiedProfessor joined.
"You see! I told you so," nodded Stacy.
"Young man, I shall have to ask you to cease playing pranks on theguide. We can ill afford to be without a guide in this wilderness oftrees and rocks."
"A guide?" laughed Tad.
"Yes, a guide."
"Too bad we haven't one," muttered Stacy.
"It is to you I am speaking, Master Stacy. You must not tantalizeBilly. Let him alone. Have I your promise that you will do so?"
"If I promise I have to, don't I?" questioned the fat boy.
"Certainly you do."
"Then I guess I won't promise," he replied after a brief reflection.
The Professor gave it up with a shrug of his shoulders. He asked theguide if they should tie him up for the night or if he would lie downand behave himself. Billy decided that he would prefer the latter,so they left it that way. Chops was then permitted to return to hisduties, getting the camp to rights for the night, but it was observedthat he gave a nervous little jump every time he heard an unusualsound.
"I'll bet he sees more than a black cat in his sleep tonight," Tadconfided to Rector.
"I don't care what he sees so long as he doesn't snore. And I giveyou due notice that if Chunky persists in snoring as he has beendoing lately either he or I will have to sleep out in the bushes outof sound of the camp. Why, Tad, I am on the verge of nervousprostration from loss of sleep," declared Ned.
"You surely look it, too," replied Tad with a grin.
"If Stacy chases Chops out of camp again I am quite positive that itwill be Stacy Brown who will sleep in the bushes," resumed Ned in atone of voice loud enough for Stacy to hear.
"Not so that anyone will notice it, he won't," called back the fatboy.
The night passed uneventfully. On the morrow, bright and early, theparty continued their journey into the heart of the mountains. Thatday being Saturday, according to their usual practice, the PonyRiders went into camp to remain until Monday morning. This also gavethe ponies a much-needed rest.
For this weekend stay, the tents were pitched in a deep, sombrecanyon, that reminded the boys of Bright Angel Gulch in the GrandCanyon where they had encountered so many exciting experiences.
It was near the middle of the forenoon on Sunday when a strangerwalked i
nto camp, moving in long, determined strides. In the crookof his right arm he carried a rifle. The boys greeted the newcomerpleasantly, at the same time offering him the hospitality of a cup ofcoffee.
"I don't want no coffee," grunted the stranger, with a recklessdisregard for the English language. "I want a heap sight more ofyou, though."
"First, may I ask who you are?" questioned Tad Butler.
"I'm not here to answer questions. I reckon you'll have to answersome instead."
"Let's have the questions, then," smiled Tad. "But if you won'tanswer questions why should you expect it of us?"
"Because I'm an officer, and I'm here on business."
"Business! What business?" blurted Stacy, jumping up. "Are youafter Chops?"
"Humph! More likely I'm after all of you," rejoined the stranger."But that depends."
"If you are an officer I wish you had happened along a couple of daysago," said Tad. "We had a lot of trouble with an imitation bad man,Smoky Griffin. Know him?"
"No. I'm not that kind of an officer."
"He's a corporal in the Home Guards," guessed Chunky.
"My man," broke in Professor Zepplin, with extreme dignity, "willyou be good enough to explain just what your business is?"
"Yes. I'm a government officer, and I've come to give you notice toquit, and right smart at that. It's your move, and you'll have toget up and dust out of these parts. If you don't, I'll lock you upin jail, to start with. Then, after you've waited a few months forthe court to sit, you'll find that you have worse medicine to take.Is that plain enough?"
"I--I don't understand your attitude," stammered Professor Zepplin.
"Mebby this will mean something to you," said the newcomer, holdingup a furry object.
"What is it?"
"Looks like the paw of the black cat that I dreamed I saw chasing thethree-legged rat through the field of red clover," declared Stacy.
Tad motioned to the fat boy to be silent.
"It is a deer's foot, isn't it?" he asked.
"You've guessed it, young man."
The thought came to some of them that perhaps they had a crazy man todeal with. The Professor decided to humor their caller.
"Very interesting, very interesting," he nodded. "You shot him, eh?"
"I did not."
"No? Then I do not understand what particular interest attaches tothe foot."
"I reckon you would if you wanted to. You've seen it before,"grunted the man.
"I beg to differ with you. I have not seen a deer foot, let alonethe animal belonging to it, in some months. Why do you insist uponthis?"
"Because one of your party shot the deer. You've got deer inside ofyou at this particular minute and--"
Stacy rubbed his stomach and rolled his eyes.
"I wish I had," murmured the fat boy.
"Now just what do you want to say to us?" demanded the Professor,considerably irritated.
"That you'll have to get off this Ridge right quick or it'll be theworse for you," announced the stranger in a commanding voice.