CHAPTER XVII.--THE TIME FOR THE ROUND-UP.
"Sure," Jimmie answered. "Shoot the cat!"
"Well, keep your light on him, and wait until I can get where I can seehim. The cat frequently resents being wounded."
"Cripes!" cried Jimmie. "Don't shoot unless you kill him, for he'll jumpat me then for sure. He's angry now--hear him pound with his tail? Ifired all my loads at him an' he dodged the bullets."
"You couldn't shoot craps!" scorned Frank.
The panther, a great brute made ferocious by the excitement of the fire,and probably scorched a little, could now be heard moving in thebranches of a tree not far from that in which Jimmie was perched. In amoment Frank reached a point from which the beast's face could be seen.
He thought to himself that it looked like a tiger head fastened againsta gray cloud with unseen pins. Jimmie's searchlight brought the evilface, the cruel eyes, the back-sloping ears, the faintly-moving jaws,out into strong relief, as the circle of flame was only large enough tocover the face.
The beast heard Frank moving in the bushes below and turned its head tolook, at the same time crouching low, as if to spring.
The first bullet struck him fair in the throat, the second entered thehead just above the eyes, the third, coming so rapidly on the othersthat the three reports seemed to merge into one, entered the body overthe heart. The great beast was dead when the body struck the ground.
Jimmie was not long in getting down to Frank's side and grasping him bythe shoulders in a hug which threatened to end in a scuffle.
"Get away!" Frank said. "Suppose there's another cat here? If there ishe'll get one of us through your foolishness."
"There were two," Jimmie said, coolly, "but I killed one."
"How did you get here?" was the next question, asked as the boys turnedtoward the camp.
"How do you think I got here?" returned Jimmie.
"Walked!" laughed Frank.
"Yes, I walked."
Jimmie stopped and rubbed his legs with careful hands.
"I'm all wore out!" he said. "I can't walk any farther to-night."
"All right," Frank said, with a grin. "I'll leave you both lights tokeep the cats off with, and my gun, and come out after you in themorning after breakfast."
"Oh, my eats!" Jimmie cried. "Lead me to something that will sustainlife! I'm starving, I tell you."
"You walked all the way?" asked Frank.
"Sure! Forty miles at least."
"Where are the others?"
"Pat, Jack and the Chink Scout? Pat came up just before I started,riding on a burro, an' in the custody of a small party of rangers, whothought he had been setting fires. The rangers went into camp overthere, all tired out, an' Jack an' Pat settled down with them. I runaway."
"They don't know where you are?" asked Frank.
"Nix know!" replied the boy.
"But how did you ever get through the burning forest?" asked Frank,hardly believing the boy's story of his long walk.
"This 'burn' is only a mile wide," Jimmie said. "I walked on the southedge of it. Say, there are plenty of lives lost! Bears, an' cats, an'all that. I guess this will be an agreeable place to live in about aweek--not!"
The boy was indeed "all in," as he expressed it. He had walked sinceearly morning through a tangled forest black with smoke, through anatmosphere burned and smoked out of its life-giving qualities. And allthis exertion in order that he might be near his chum, Nestor.
Fortune had favored the lad, and he had at last blundered on the campwhere Ned had taken refuge, otherwise he might have died in the forestfrom hunger and exhaustion, or been devoured by some of the savagebeasts which had followed him all day.
"Where's Ned?" Jimmie asked, as they stood before the little row oftents.
"Asleep," was the reply, "and you let him alone for to-night. He's beenhaving a lively time. But how in the name of all that's wonderful didyou ever find your way here?" the boy added.
"I don't know," was the reply. "I knew that Ned would be wherever thefire was, and so started east. Not so very long ago I heard a couple ofshots, and that directed me toward the camp. Who was hurt?"
Frank explained, briefly, what had taken place, hunted up a liberal mealfor the boy, and then saw him settled for the night.
Ned's astonishment at seeing the boy in the morning may well beimagined.
"Huh!" Jimmie said. "You thought you would fool me out of all the fun!"
Ned laughed and asked about the others, finally informing Jimmie that hewas leaving that morning for San Francisco by the aeroplane route.
"Then I'm goin'!" declared the boy. "I'm not goin' to be chucked intothe discard again."
"You'll have to sit in Frank's lap," grinned Ned, "and the machine maytip over with such a load, at that."
"I guess it didn't tip over when Frank and Jack an' yours truly run it,"Jimmie replied. "Anyway, I'm goin' with you."
Before leaving for Missoula, where he was to surrender the aeroplane toFrank, Ned had another long talk with Mr. Green, whose wound was not soserious as it had been considered the night before. The forester toldhim what he knew of the men under the leadership of Greer, saying thathe might have arrested Greer at any time during the month, and, what ismore, convicted him of smuggling both Chinamen and opium over theborder.
"But what good would it have done?" Green went on. "The conspirators inWashington, or New York, or San Francisco would have chosen anotherleader, and the game would have gone on as before."
"That is very true," Ned admitted, "and still, it seems to me that thetime to round the fellows up has come!"
"Do you give that as an order?" asked the other, a flash of excitementshowing in his face.
"Yes," was the reply.
"But some of them have gone to Portland with the Chinks--some to Frisco,I think. What about that?"
"If you can spare men," Ned said, "follow them."
"You're on!" laughed Green. "I've been waiting for some such orders fora long time. You're on!"
"And follow on to Frisco as soon as you can," Ned continued. "Addressme, or look for me, if you are able to be about after you get there, atthe Federal building."
"I'll be there in a week," Green said, his eyes showing the joy of thecoming fight with the outlaws, "and I'll have a bunch of prisoners withme."
The forester hesitated a moment, as the importance of the proposed movecame to him, then faced Ned with a hesitating look. It was plain to theboy that Green wanted to ask a question which he believed to be eitherpersonal or impertinent.
"Is there something else?" Ned asked.
Green still hesitated, his eyes on the ground.
"Are you sure of your clues?" he asked, then.
"I think so," was the reply.
"Because, you see," Green went on, "the government doesn't want any trapsprung until the whole bilin' is within reaching distance. After thegood work you have done here, I wouldn't like to have you order theround-up and then find that the men you wanted were still out on therange."
"Thank you for your frankness," Ned replied.
"I just want to be sure that you are sure," smiled Green. "It would mixthings for me to make these arrests and have the big ones get away, now,wouldn't it?"
"Indeed it would," Ned admitted, "but I think it is safe to go ahead aswe planned a moment ago."
"All right!" Green said, but there was still doubt in his eyes.
"And I'll accept all the responsibility," Ned added.
"I have a suggestion to make," Green said, then. "Why not go on toFrisco in the aeroplane and ask for instructions? You can make the tripin the airship in no time, but it is a long ride by rail."
"I think," Ned replied, with a laugh, "that the game will be ripe justabout the time I get to Frisco by rail. Besides, I don't want theoutlaws to know that I'm going to the city. They would know it if theysaw the aeroplane making for the coast. Well, if I leave Franknavigating it in this district they will think I am still here. Don'tyou see?"
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bsp; "Go it!" laughed Green. "I reckon you know what you're about."
"Anyway," Ned said, "I've got to play the game in my own way if I playit at all."
"I see," observed Green, and the two parted.
The aeroplane had not been damaged at all by the fire, but Ned went overit carefully before attempting a start. Sawyer, trembling with fright,was brought out to show where he had meddled with the machinery.
"I didn't harm it any," the prisoner said.
"There are some burrs missing," Ned said.
Sawyer brought half a dozen out of a pocket and passed them to Ned witha reluctant hand.
"I neglected to tell you that I had them in my pocket," he said.
"What did Green say to you this morning?" asked Ned, screwing the burrson where they were needed.
"He says he won't be hard on me, if I tell all I know about the men whoare doing these tricks," was the reply.
"You told me all you know?" asked Ned.
"Yes, there is nothing else to tell. I'm so glad to think that Green isnot going to die from the wound I gave him that I'll do everything in mypower to bring the men who put me up to this to punishment."
"Sure you can identify the man who hired you?"
"Dead certain," was the reply.
"Then I'll have one of the men bring you to Frisco," Ned said. "You willbe wanted there."
"All right; anything the government wants goes!"
In half an hour the three boys, Ned, Frank and Jimmie, were on theaeroplane, sailing through the clear air of a splendid summer morning.Below they could see the long, narrow strip of land which had been sweptby the fires. Off to the north was the British frontier, with LakeKintla glimmering in the sunshine.
"Aren't we going back to that lake cavern again?" asked Frank.
"Not just now," Ned replied.
"I didn't know that you got all you wanted in there," Frank went on. "Ihad an idea that you were trying to identify the man we found deadthere."
"I think I learned all there was to learn there," Ned replied.
"He spent a lot of time in there before he went to Frisco," Jimmie said."He made me go in there with him, and I didn't like it."
"And so no one will ever know who the dead man was?" asked Frank.
"I have been given a name," Ned said, "a name to call him by, but Idon't exactly like to accept the information, considering the sourcefrom which it came."
The aeroplane drifted to the west and north easily under the steadypulse of the motors, and the plateau where Jimmie had left the boys andthe foresters was soon in sight.
"I wonder if they're all alive?" said Jimmie.
"What could happen to them?" demanded Frank.
"Oh," Jimmie replied, with biting sarcasm, "there is nothing here toharm 'em! This is a pink tea, this is! This is a church fair, where youget ices made out of the cream they skim off the cistern!"
"You're getting nutty!" Frank said, with a grin.
"When I left 'em," Jimmie went on, "the boys an' the foresters werewondering if the outlaws would come back an' kill 'em one by one or justblow up the caves underneath the plateau an' send 'em up in the airwithout any good means of gettin' down."
"Then we'll look them up," Ned said.
The great divide lay down below, and the plateau was in plain sight,with the early sunshine streaming over it. When the aeroplane circledabout it a shout came up to Ned's ears, then a shot, and the powdersmoke drifted lazily upward in the clear air.
"Somethin' doin'!" Jimmie cried. "Suppose we go down an' see."