CHAPTER XXII
TO THE RESCUE
There was no use wasting any time or sympathy over the dead cattle.They were dead beyond a doubt, a fact which was easily proved. Andyet, as before, there was not a sign of anything that showed how theyhad met their death. The bodies lay in a natural position, as thoughthe animals had been overcome when grazing and had sunk gently down.Or as if they had succumbed to some gentle poison that brought apainless death.
"Well, if this isn't the limit!" cried Bud while his cousins looked athim and at each other with wonder on their faces.
"Of all the rotten things to do!" snapped out Nort. "To kill thesepoor cattle! Why doesn't that gang fight like men if they want to givebattle--not spray their dirty poison gas around dumb beasts?"
"It is pretty rotten," agreed Dick.
Bud was carefully scanning the ground in the vicinity of the deadcattle, at the same time cautiously sniffing the air to detect anypossible taint. But he seemed to discover nothing. Dick and Nortfollowed his example, but were unable to come upon any clew.
However, not far from where the half dozen valuable animals had droppeddead there was a little crack or rift in the earth. It was a sort ofopening between two long ridges of rocks, there being an outcropping ofstone at this point. It was part of the two ridges which, suddenlyrising higher, formed the walls of Smugglers' Glen farther to thesouth. Dick was the first to notice it.
"See anything there?" asked Bud, noting that his cousin was bendingover the cleft in the surface.
"No, I can't see anything and I can't smell anything," he added, as hebent closer.
"But I can hear something!" added Nort.
"Hear something?" questioned Bud.
"Yes, the sound of running water down there. Listen!"
He bent with his ear over the crack in the rocks. And in the silence,broken only by the slight movements of their ponies, from which theyhad dismounted, the boys heard the murmur as of water flowing along farunder ground.
"I'm afraid that doesn't mean anything," said Bud when he had signifiedthat he, too, heard the ripple. "Dad said there were a lot ofunderground streams around here. This one must come from the littlebrook that flows through Smugglers' Glen. It takes a dip down underthe rocks and comes to the surface again farther on."
"I guess you're right," admitted Dick. "It doesn't mean anything. ButI didn't know there was underground water in this section."
"Oh, yes, plenty of it," Bud added. "I've seen other places with rockfissures like this where you could hear water bubbling along beneaththe surface."
"Then this goes into the discard," spoke Nort, meaning that it wasuseless to form any theory about the mysterious deaths if it was to bebased on the underground streams.
"But we'd better get on to the cave mine!" cried Bud. "If thosefellows are at their poison gas game again, it's likely that SamTarbell and the fellows we left on guard are in as bad shape as thesecows. Darn the luck, anyhow!"
"That's what I say!" chimed in Nort as the three hastened to where theyhad left their ponies. "Just as we thought we were sitting pretty,with nothing to worry about, along comes this! Wonder how they workedthe game, anyhow?"
"They must have got back in the cave--probably from the end where theyran out the time we chased 'em with our gas masks on," said Dick."They sneaked up on our fellows, let loose a cloud of gas, put them outof business and then came down here to kill the cows."
"But that's what I can't understand," said Bud. "Why should they go tothe trouble of killing cows? Cows can't spy on those gold minejumpers. Cows can't get out any gold. It's all so useless, thiskilling of our beasts."
"I guess they're just natural devils as Billee claims," suggested Nort."But we'll pay 'em back!"
"You bet we will!" exclaimed Bud. "And now to the rescue! We've gotto save Sam and his crowd if we can!"
They galloped their ponies in the direction of the Glen, and reachedthe opening to the sinister defile in record time. Nor did they stopto dismount. Rough as was the way, they rode their mounts up thevalley until they came within sight of the cave. Nor were theystopped, and they detected no gas, though they were on the alert for it.
"Maybe it's a false alarm," suggested Nort. "Maybe our fellows didn'tsuffer from a gas attack after all."
"Well, the cows certainly did!" exclaimed his brother.
However their worst fears were realized when, as they flung themselvesoff their horses at the mouth of the cave they saw, just within, theprostrate forms of Sam Tarbell and his companion guards. Stark andsilent the men lay there.
"We're too late!" muttered Bud sorrowfully.
"They're all dead!" echoed Nort.
"This is Death Valley sure enough!" came gloomily from Dick.
There was a movement within the cave. There sounded the rattlingechoes of dislodged stones.
"Some one's coming!" murmured Bud, drawing his gun.
A moment later there emerged from the cavern the form of Old Tosh. Hedid not appear surprised to see the boys, nor to note the prostrateforms of the men. In one hand he held a bottle of his Elixer andwaving it over his head he cried:
"I'm just in time! Come on, boys, help me! We'll save 'em yet!"