The Broncho Rider Boys with Funston at Vera Cruz

  CHAPTER III.

  BILLIE LOSES HIS NERVE.

  Broncho Billie was not a rapid walker. In fact, if there was anyone thing in which Billie was not a success, it was walking. Hecould ride a horse all day, but when it came to depending uponhis own legs as a means of locomotion, he was a dead failure.

  Therefore he walked slowly along, counting the ties as he went.

  "They certainly do lay 'em thick," he mused after some minutes."Three hundred and one, three hundred and two, three hundred andthree, three hundred and four, three hun----"

  He stopped short and looked behind him.

  "I sure thought I heard some one," he muttered. "It must havebeen a bird."

  He turned and started forward.

  "Let's see, where was I? Oh, yes, three hundred and five, threehundred and six, three hundred and----"

  Again he stopped, but did not turn around. Instead he stoopeddown as though to pick up a stone, which enabled him to lookbackward between his knees.

  He caught a movement in the grass at the edge of the right ofway.

  "I thought so," he muttered. "Now to find out who it is, and whathe wants."

  He picked up a small stone and threw it at a tall cactus whichgrew near the track some distance ahead.

  "Good shot," he said aloud as the stone hit the stalk. "I wonderif I could do it again."

  He stooped down and picked up another stone, taking a good lookbackward from his stooping position. There was not a movement toindicate the presence of a living thing.

  "This is getting on my nerves," the boy mused as he picked upseveral small stones and again walked forward. "I don't mindbeing followed by a white man, but I'm a whole lot leary of thesegreasers. They're bad enough when they're friendly."

  Then aloud, as he threw a couple of stones: "I'll never getanywhere if I don't make better time than this. I'll just sprinta few."

  Suiting the action to the word, he started on a run.

  Almost immediately he was aware of a soft pat-pat in his rear. Hehad heard a similar sound in the wilds of Wyoming and herecognized it at once.

  It was the footfall of a four-legged animal.

  "So!" he ejaculated. "I wonder what it is. If there were wolvesdown here I would say it was a wolf, but I don't believe thereare." Then a minute later, "Well, whatever it is, I'm going tofind out."

  He whipped out his automatic and turned suddenly.

  As before, not a single living thing was in sight, only in thegrass a movement as before.

  Without a moment's aim, he fired a single shot at the spot. Itwas an act born of fear and Billie knew it, but for the life ofhim he could not have done otherwise, so nervous had he become.

  The report was followed by a cry of pain and an instant laterthere came running directly toward him out of the tall grass afigure so weird that Billie stood as one paralysed.

  The figure was that of a man not more than two feet high, withlong arms and a head of diminutive size. While it stood uprightat times, at others it came forward on all fours. To Billie itseemed a cross between a man and a monkey.

  Gathering his wits in an instant, Billie would have firedagain--in fact, raised his revolver to do so, when the strangecreature fell to its knees and raised its hands in supplication.

  "By George!" exclaimed the lad as he stood with lowered weapon."What kind of a thing is this? I wonder if it can talk?"

  Then as he took a step toward it: "I'm not going to hurt you.Come here."

  The creature arose to its feet and came slowly toward him. As itdid so Billie noticed that blood was running from a wound in itsscalp.

  "Poor thing," he said. "That must have been where the bullet hithim. It was a close shave."

  "Can you talk?" he finally asked.

  The strange creature turned its head to one side and eyed himclosely, but no sound came from its lips.

  "It must be an ape of some sort," mused the boy; "but how did itbecome so tame?"

  He slowly returned his automatic to its holster, thinking in themeantime how he could dress the creature's wound; but no soonerhad his hand left his weapon than the ape sprang at him with theutmost fury. It landed on his shoulder, wound its legs about hisneck, and with its long arms made a wild grab for the revolver.

  Then began a strange and terrible struggle for the possession ofthe weapon. Even as he fought the beast, Billie realized that insome manner the ape had learned to fear firearms, but whether ithad ever learned to use them he could not venture a guess. Hefelt certain if he could draw the weapon and point it at the ape,it would at once cringe in fear. What might happen if the apeshould get possession of it, he could only imagine.

  For a youth of eighteen, there were few whom Billie met that werehis match physically, but this diminutive man-animal held him asin a vise. Billie exerted every ounce of his strength to freehimself from the terrible hold, while the ape fought even morefiercely to retain its grip and to gain possession of the weapon.

  It was a weird and fearful struggle waged there in the stillnessof the tropical woodland--a stillness broken only by theoccasional wild scream of the ape, or the hoarse breathing of theboy as he fought to free himself from that horrible grasp.

  The struggle must have lasted for two or three minutes--to Billieit seemed hours--when by a sudden wrench the lad managed to freehis left arm sufficiently to get the beast by the throat. For aninstant it loosed its hold on his right arm and that act decidedthe battle.

  Finding his right arm free, Billie seized his revolver andwithout drawing it from the holster pulled the trigger.

  At the sound of the shot, the ape uttered a plaintive cry,relaxed its hold upon the lad and fell upon its knees on theground with its hands raised in supplication as previously.

  "I ought to shoot you," declared the lad between his gasps forbreath as he drew the weapon from its holster and pointed it atthe animal, "but I won't. I'll take you with me and maybe I cansell you for enough to pay me for the scare you've given me. Now,march!"

  He pointed with his finger down the track, but the beast wouldnot stir.

  "Don't you intend to do what I tell you?"

  The animal perked up his head and kept his eye upon the revolver.

  "Well," exclaimed Billie as he drew a long breath, "this is thelimit. I can't make you mind and I won't hurt you. I guess theonly thing I can do is to go and leave you."

  Suiting the action to the word, Billie turned and started downthe track, his revolver still in his hand.

  He had not gone more than a dozen steps, before he heard the softpat-pat behind him, and on looking back could see nothing but thewaving grass to indicate the whereabouts of his erstwhileassailant.

  "So I am to be followed, am I? Well, all right." Then, as anafterthought: "I wonder how I can catch him when I want him. Iwonder if this will do," and he raised his weapon and pointed ittoward the moving grass.

  With the same plaintive cry which Billie had come to recognizeas one of fear, the animal ran toward him and sank to his knees.

  Billie smiled.

  "It's all right, old chap. As long as I know how to handle you,why you can follow me right back to the train."

  Again he started down the track at a brisk walk, it having justoccurred to him that there might be something doing at the otherend of his journey.

  Twenty minutes later he reached the station at Pitahaya where hehad expected to find Adrian and the three Mexicans awaiting him,but, as we know, they had gone on to the scene of the wreck. Notrealizing just what had happened, but always on the alert for theunexpected, Billie, therefore, began an inspection of thestation.

  It did not take him long to discover that Pitahaya was littlemore than a siding with a one-room building, which was used as afreight house and a waiting room. It did not even boast of astation master.

  "There must be some reason for having a building here," he mused."There must be some sort of a settlement around somewhere. Butwhat's that to me? I might as well be jogging along towardsPachuca."

  Then he
bethought him of the ape, which he had no mind to loseafter his exciting experience. But the animal was nowhere to beseen.

  "I wonder if I could raise him with a shot," soliloquizedBillie.

  He raised his weapon, which he still carried in his hand, andfired aimlessly, while he turned his eyes in various directions,but there was nothing to be seen.

  "Oh, well," he thought, "what's the difference? He'd just be anuisance anyway. I might as well be trudging along."

  He jumped off the station platform and proceeded down the track,filling the magazine to his automatic as he went. Then havingfinished the task, he returned it to his holster and once morebegan counting the ties.

  "One, two, three, four, five, six----"

  Bing! And a stone whistled by his head.

  Billie turned, and as he did so a second stone from the samesource struck him on the temple, and he fell to the ground.

  A second later the ape sprang from a palm beside the station andran toward him, stopping every few feet to see if the lad wouldrise.

  When within a few feet of the prostrate lad the animal made aleap and landed upon his body. In another instant it had gainedpossession of Billie's weapon, which it examined curiously for amoment, ere it sprang away and stationed itself some two rodsdistant, where it sat watching with the weapon aimed directly athim.

  For perhaps five minutes the two retained their relativepositions and then Billie began to regain consciousness. Severaltimes he moved uneasily and then he suddenly sat up and lookedaround.

  "I wonder what happened," he finally thought, and then he becameconscious of a pain in his head.

  He raised his hand to the aching spot and his fingers encountereda big lump.

  The truth came upon him like a flash. He dropped his hand to hisholster, and sprang to his feet.

  As he did so he caught sight of the ape and found himself lookinginto the business end of his own weapon.

  With a yell he dropped to the ground as though the expected hadhappened.

  But when no shot followed, he began to regain his wits and laystill trying to figure out once more just how much the ape mightknow about the use of the weapon.

  He remembered the old saying that a gun was a dangerous weaponwithout lock, stock or barrel, because a man killed his wifewith the ramrod; and so he figured that an animal which hadintelligence enough to throw a stone and knock him senseless,might have sense enough to fire a revolver.

  "If I only knew something about his history," soliloquizedBillie, "I might be able to guess how much he knew. But he is aperfect stranger to me. I don't even know his name."

  After several minutes and nothing had happened, Billie decided tomake some effort to get away.

  "I might as well be shot as to be prisoner to an ape," hethought, and so he arose to a sitting posture and surveyed thescene.

  There sat the ape as before, with the automatic pointed atBillie, but with a puzzled look upon its face. When the ladfinally arose, the ape appeared still more puzzled and at length,turning the weapon away from Billie, looked into the muzzle.

  "That settles it," exclaimed Billie. "He doesn't know how to fireit. I'll go and take it away from him."

  He started toward the animal, which at once pointed the revolverin Billie's direction. There came a sharp report and a bulletwhizzed by the boy's head.

  "Worse and more of it," exclaimed Billie. "He doesn't know how touse the thing, but he's liable to shoot me as long as I stay inrange. I'll just make myself scarce."

  Stooping down, he picked up a good-sized stone and hurled it atthe ape and then, without waiting to see the result of his throw,jumped into the jungle which lined both sides of the track,determined to make a detour and if possible lose his unpleasantcompanion.

  He had not run far before he realized that the ape was following,but this he did not mind. There were plenty of trees betweenthem, and he felt sure he would soon be able to reach some sortof a habitation, when he suddenly found himself on the edge of adeep basin into which he plunged before he was able to gain hisequilibrium.