CHAPTER XXIV
CONCLUSION
"Get back to that herd!" commanded the foreman sharply. "All of you!Tad, you stay with me. The girl has fallen and struck her head on theflagging. I don't think she is seriously hurt."
Not understanding the meaning of it all, the cowmen drew back andslouched to their ponies. Most of them were off duty at the time, sothey took their way back to camp to be ready for whatever emergencymight arise.
Not a man of them spoke until they had staked their ponies and seatedthemselves around the camp-fire. Such a silence was unusual among thecowboys. Ned and Walter, who had followed them in, were standing aside,equally silent and thoughtful.
Shorty Savage was the first to speak.
"What's it all about? That's what I'd like to know," he asked.
"You won't find out from me," answered Curley.
"Big-foot thinks he winged a spook," said a voice.
"Allee samee," chuckled Pong, who had been taking in the scene withmouth and eyes agape.
Big-foot fixed him with a baneful eye.
"I said I'd forget you were the cook some day," said he. "I'm forgettingit, now, faster'n a broncho can run!"
Pong's pigtail bobbed up and down like the streaming neckkerchief of acowboy in saddle as he dived for the protection of the trail wagon.
"I reckon he can understand king's English when he wants to," laughedShorty. "Now how about that spook, Big-foot?"
Sanders stood up, hitched his trousers and tightened his belt a notch.
"Reckon we've all gone plumb daffy, fellows. I'm the champeen dummy ofthe bunch."
The cowpunchers laughed heartily.
"But was she a spook?" persisted Shorty.
"She were not. She were a woman--a friend of the boss."
Shorty whistled.
"Lucky for me I missed her. I was rattled, or I'd never taken thatshot."
"Who is she?" asked Curley.
"One of the young women from the Ox Bow. It gets me what she was doingin that spook place alone at night. I----"
"W-o-w!"
The exclamation was uttered by a familiar voice, at the sound of whichthe cowmen sprang to their feet.
"It's the gopher!" they cried.
"Chunky!" shouted Ned and Walter, running forward with a yell.
"I fell in," wailed the fat boy.
At sight of him the cowboys yelled with merriment. Chunky's clothes weretorn. He was covered with dirt from head to foot, and his face was sogrimy as to be scarcely recognizable.
Big-foot was staring at him in amazement. Striding forward, he graspedthe lad roughly by the shoulder, jerking him into the full light of thecamp-fire.
"Where you been, gopher?" he demanded sternly.
"I fell in," stammered the boy.
"Where?"
"Some kind of a well. It was in the bushes just outside the back door. Iwent there to hide. I fell down to the bottom and went to sleep."
"Just like him. Have anything to eat down there?" jeered Ned Rector.
"When I woke up it was dark. Then I found another hole--a passage. Itwent both ways. Guess one end went under the church. I followed it theother way, and came out near where the steers are bedded down."
"Hold on a minute. Let's get this straight," interrupted Curley. "Youmean you found an underground passage at the bottom of the old well? Isthat it?"
Chunky nodded.
"And the opening was near the spring at the point of rocks just abovethe herd?"
"Yes. But I had to dig out through a brush heap."
"Huh! Not such a terrible mystery, after all," sniffed Curleycontemptuously.
"How came that underground passage there? What's it for?" askedBig-foot.
"Probably dug out in Indian times. I'll bet it has saved the scalp ofmore than one old fellow. There's an opening into it from the churchsomewhere, you can depend upon that. I'm thinking, too, that the wellwas a bluff--that it wasn't intended for water at all. We'll smash themystery of the adobe church before we pull out of here to-morrow, see ifwe don't."
"I come mighty near doing for one of them," added Big-foot Sandersruefully.
"Got anything to eat?" interrupted Stacy Brown.
"For goodness' sake, boys, take your fat friend over to the chuck wagonand fill him up. He's like a Mexican steer--he'll bed down safer whenhe's full of supper."
* * * * *
In the meantime, another scene was being enacted off at the Ox Bowranch--a scene that was to add still another chapter to the romance ofthe trail.
Tad Butler was sitting alone in the darkness on the steps of the McCluremansion. The boy, chin in hands, was lost in thought. Stallings hadcarried Ruth Brayton in his arms all the way to the ranch where she hadsoon revived.
After leaving her, the foreman and Colonel McClure had locked themselvesin the library, where they remained in consultation for more than anhour.
"How is Miss Ruth?" asked the boy eagerly, when Stallings finally cameout.
"Better than in many months," answered the foreman. There was a new notein his voice.
"I'm so glad," breathed Tad.
"Old man," began Stallings, slapping Tad on the shoulder, "come alongwith me. We'll lead our ponies back to camp and talk. I presume you areaching to know what all this mystery means?" laughed the foreman.
"Naturally, I am a bit curious," admitted Tad.
"It means, Pinto, that not only have you rendered a great service to Mr.Miller and his herd, but you have done other things as well."
"I've mixed things up pretty well, I guess."
"No. You have solved a riddle, and made me the happiest man in the LoneStar State. Miss Brayton and I have known each other almost sincechildhood. When I was in Yale----"
"You a college man!" exclaimed Tad in surprise.
"Yes. We were engaged. My people were quite wealthy; but, in a panic,some years ago, father lost everything, dying soon after. Miss Brayton'sfamily then refused their consent to our marriage. I determined to seekmy fortune in the growing West. My full name is Robert StallingsHamilton, though I never had used the middle name until I adopted itwhen I became a cowboy. But to return to Miss Brayton. Ruth was taken toEurope, and then sent to her uncle here. Her trouble preyed on her mindto such an extent that she grew 'queer.' She had heard that I was acattle man, somewhere in the West. Strangely enough, when in her moods,she developed a strong antipathy to herds of cattle. Whenever a herd wasnear, Ruth would slip from the house and steal away to them in thenight, A stampede usually followed. It's a wonder she wasn't shot.Whether or not she caused these intentionally, Ruth does not know----"
"And that is the mystery?" asked Tad.
"Yes."
"It is the strangest story I ever heard," said the boy quietly.
"What I was about to say, is that the herd will go on without me.Colonel McClure is sending his own foreman through with it instead. Ruthand I are to be married at once, and we shall go to my little ranch inMontana."
In view of the fact that Stallings was severing his connection with theherd, Professor Zepplin decided to do likewise.
Next morning, at sunrise, Bob Stallings, with Miss Ruth, by his side,both radiantly happy, rode out to the camp. The Pony Rider Boys hadpacked their kits and loaded their belongings on their ponies.Regretfully they bade good-bye to the cowmen.
Tad's parting with Big-foot was most trying. In the short time they hadbeen together, a strong affection had grown up between the two. Theplainsman had been quick to perceive Tad's manly qualities, and the boy,in his turn, had been won by the big, generous nature of the man. Theyparted, each vowing that they must see each other again.
As the great herd moved slowly northward, three cheers were proposed forBob Stallings and Miss Brayton. This the cowboys gave with a will,adding a tiger for the Pony Rider Boys.
The trail wagon, pulling out at the same time, held a grinning Chinaman,huddled in the rear.
"Good-bye, Pong!" shouted the lads.
"Allee samee," chuckled the cook, shaking hands with himselfenthusiastically.
And here for a time we will take leave of the Pony Rider Boys, whosefurther exciting experiences will be chronicled in the next volume,entitled: "The Pony Rider Boys in Montana; Or, the Mystery ofthe Old Custer Trail." This will be a story of adventure, full ofabsorbing interest and thrilling incidents. The reader will then go overthe same trails that General Custer rode in the wilder days.
The End.
* * * * *
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