CHAPTER XXIV
THE FIGHT
The boy ranchers, meaning this time Nort and Dick, as distinguishedfrom Bud, felt that they were on their mettle--that they were being putto a severe test. They had ridden out from the mysterious camp of theprofessors, and now they were to ride back to it, leading the raidingparty. True, they had come out at night, and under the stress ofexcitement, so that it was not easy to determine the trail back.
But as the boys rode alone, each at the head of a cavalcade that wasbeginning to diverge, they felt the full measure of responsibility.One of them must make good--must pick up the obscure trail leading tothe rendezvous of the cattle rustlers.
It was Dick who proved the lucky one this time. The party led by Nortwas out of sight among the many hills and swales, when Dick, ridingpast a water hole, stopped suddenly.
"The trail goes in that way," he said. "I'm sure of it. Blackiestopped here when we were riding out, to get a drink."
"Are you sure he stopped here?" asked Babe, who was with Dick's party.
"Positive! He stopped in such a hurry that I slid off and fell, andthis excited him so I had quite a job holding him."
In an instant one of the cowboys was out of his saddle and lookingcarefully at the ground.
"The kid's right!" he exclaimed. "There's been some sort of a fracashere."
In that country, where rains were infrequent, and travel light, marksremained for a long time on the dry ground.
"I'm sure it was here," declared Dick, "and we came out that way." Hepointed toward some distant hills.
"Well, we'll take a chance on it," said Babe. "Light a fire, fellows."
In a few minutes a column of smoke was ascending, and two of thecowboys, holding a blanket over it, moved the cloth to one side atintervals, so that puffs of the dark vapor arose and floated upward.
"That'll call 'em," observed Babe, who sat on his horse directingoperations, at the same time scanning the horizon for answering signalsfrom Nort's party.
"Won't the rustlers see these and skip out?" asked Dick, as the smokepuffs went up thick and fast.
"Don't believe so," spoke Babe. "If they do see 'em they'll only thinkthey're camp fires, or round-up blazes."
"We'll do the rounding-up," grimly commented Snake Purdee. "But ofcourse these fellows may be on the lookout. Can't hardly expect muchelse after they come to know that their prisoners have skipped, and theGreaser has gone back to his baby days, eating paregoric! Oh, myspurs! That was slick!"
"There they are!" suddenly cried Dick, as he descried other smokesignals going up, about three miles away. And in a short time thererode up to the waiting ones the members of the other party.
"Dick says this is the trail in," remarked Babe, detailing our hero'sreasons for his statement.
"Yes, he's right," assented Nort. "We did come this way."
"All right then! Go to it, boys!" commanded Mr. Merkel, and the partyrode off.
As they advanced, the configuration of the ground became more and morefamiliar to the two boys. They passed places which they had riddenover in approaching the half-hidden valley, before they fairly stumbledon it and were captured.
"I reckon we're getting warm," decided Mr. Merkel, after several hoursof cautious riding. "Some of you fellows better take it on foot forhalf a mile or so, and see what you can locate. We'll wait for youhere."
Two cowboys, leaving their horses rather reluctantly, formed an advancescouting party, and the others waited down in a little swale. In lessthan half an hour the two scouts had returned, and their manner showedsuppressed excitement.
"We located 'em," said one. "They're in the next valley.'
"What are they doing?" asked Bud.
"We didn't stop to see that," was the answer. "As soon as we saw thewhite tents we came back."
"All right," said Mr. Merkel grimly, "now we've got 'em! Spread out,boys, and don't do any shooting unless it's absolutely necessary. Wejust want to capture the rascals. But be sure your guns are in workingorder."
Most of the cowboys knew this without looking, but Bud, Nort and Dickmade a careful inspection of their weapons.
Proceeding cautiously, the cavalcade approached. Some had been sent onin advance, to circle about and approach the valley from the far side,thus enabling it to be surrounded.
Two shots, fired at a brief interval, was to be a signal from theadvance party, led by Slim, that they were in place, and ready toattack.
"There! One shot!" suddenly cried Bud, as a sharp report cut the air.
It was followed, almost immediately, by another.
"Come on, boys!" cried Mr. Merkel, and there was a general leaping tosaddles. Bud and his cousins were not a bit behind the cowboys and alittle later, amid shouts, the two parties rode at a fast clip down theslopes toward the mysterious camp.
"Look! There are your cattle!" cried Nort to Mr. Merkel, as severalsteers were seen, standing in a bunch near some queer piece ofapparatus that looked like a derrick.
"That's right!" shouted the cattleman, for he had caught sight of theanimals bearing the Diamond X brand. "But what in the name of sourdough biscuits are they doing?" he asked. "If these are rustlersthey're the queerest ones I ever saw!"
"Well, they're rustlers all right!" yelled several of the cowboys."Come on, fellows! Let's get at 'em!"
"Right you are, Buddy!" rang out savage, exultant yells on all sides.The cowboys wished for nothing better than to come to hand grips withlawless men who stole the fruit of others' labor. "Treat 'em rough!"
"Sit tight and ride hard!" called Bud to Nort and Dick. "There's goingto be some hot work!" and he spoke to his pony, which leaped forward asif he, too, wanted to get into the fight.
"Will we need our guns?" asked Dick.
"Better have 'em handy!" advised Nort, as his hand went to the leatherholster at his hip.
"Look at 'em!" shouted Bud. "They're going to fight us all right!"
Indeed, it did appear that the party in the camp established by theprofessors, taken by surprise as they were, meant to resist to theutmost. Men could be seen running back to the tents, whence somereappeared with guns or big .45s. Others, including the two professorsthemselves, remained at the scene where some of the Diamond X cattlewere attached by ropes to the apparatus that looked like the derrick.
"Are they trying to brand your cattle over again, Bud?" asked Dick ashe and his cousin rode alongside of the young rancher.
"I don't know," was the answer. "If they are, they're going about itin a new way. I wonder what they are up to, anyhow?"
Well might he ask that, for as the raiding party made its rush into thevalley several men near the professors, were urging forward the steersthat were harnessed, or yoked together in some manner, to cause them toact as a lifting force. By means of ropes rigged over the derrick-likestructure, something heavy was being hoisted from a great hole in theground.
The steers, unused to this work, for which gentle oxen might have beenadmirably fitted, were acting wildly, and the Greasers, and othercampers, were having their hands full. This with the shouts of theattacking party, the thud of the feet of many galloping horses and thefiring of shots into the air by the wildly enthusiastic cowboys fromDiamond X, made the place one of great confusion.
"Rout 'em out, boys!"
"Haze 'em into the brook!"
"Cut out our cattle!"
"Rope 'em an' hog-tie 'em!"
These were only a few of the many directions that were yelled at thetops of voices as the boy ranchers and their friends swept onward downthe valley, converging on the band of men they believed to be cattlerustlers, if not something worse.
"Hands up, there!"
"Drop those guns!"
These commands came sternly from Mr. Merkel, Babe and Slim, while Dickand Nort, riding beside Bud, felt a wild thrill as they realized thatthey were to have a part in this strenuous fight. To possible dangerthey gave not a thought.
But if the attacking
party thought everything was to be easy, it wasnot long before this idea vanished. After the first surprise, theGreasers, and other rough characters in the camp of the professors,regained their nerve, and prepared to fight. There were shouts inhissing Spanish, and Del Pinzo was observed to be rallying hisfollowers.
Bud and his cousins had a glimpse of this wily Mexican leaping on hishorse, and, surrounded by a number of evil-looking men, riding straightfor the invaders.
"They're coming!" cried Nort.
"I see 'em!" muttered Dick.
"Keep together!" advised Bud in a wild cry. "Stay with me, and we'llride right through 'em!"
Several weapons popped, and two or three saddles were emptied, one onthe side of the Diamond X forces. Nort and Dick heard bulletswhistling in the air over their heads, and though they may have ducked,instinctively, they did not after the first two or three of thesenerve-racking experiences.
"Come on! Come on!" yelled Bud to his cousins, as they saw Del Pinzoand his gang of Greasers spurring toward them.
Nort and Dick touched their horses lightly, and the spirited poniessprang forward. Dick had a glimpse of the two professors, and one ortwo other men, standing by the derrick structure as though dazed at thesudden turn in affairs. Some of the helpers were endeavoring to quietthe harnessed cattle.
"Ride 'em down, boys! Ride 'em down!" yelled Mr. Merkel.
"You said it!" shouted Slim Degnan, and Babe added his voice to thedin, the while starting one of the verses of his cowboys' song.
"Crack!"
That was a gun going off close to the ear of Dick. He leaned overslightly in his saddle, fearing he had been hit. But in anotherinstant he realized that Bud had fired, with a pistol held so close tothe eastern lad's ear as nearly to deafen him.
"Well, I got him, anyhow!" yelled Bud, and Dick saw a man who had beenriding at Del Pinzo's side drop his gun and clasp his right hand in hisleft. "That's what I wanted to do--disarm him. No need to shoot tokill!" Bud went on.
Dick saw a Mexican riding straight at him, and the boy endeavored tobring his weapon to bear as Bud had done. But just as the boy rancherwas going to pull the trigger something else happened. He felt himselfflying over the head of his pony, and the next moment came heavily tothe ground, while blackness closed his eyes. Dick was out of the fight.
The battle between the cowboys and the Greasers now waged hotly. Gunscracked on both sides and more than one saddle was emptied. Thisbefore the two forces actually came together. And come together theydid, with the thud of horses and men meeting, as when two rivalfootball elevens clash on the gridiron. Only this was more desperate.
Nort had a glimpse of Dick being unhorsed and left behind in a silent,huddled heap on the ground. A wave of sorrow, and then a wild feelingof revenge, swept through Nort's heart. He sent his pony ahead with arush, endeavoring to wheel him to attack the man at whom Dick had beenriding when unseated.
"Look out!" Bud yelled.
Nort turned in time to see Del Pinzo himself bearing down on himastride of a powerful black horse. The Greaser was yelling and wavinghis gun, from the muzzle of which smoke floated.
"I'll get him!" yelled Nort, savagely. He swerved his own weapon,bringing it to bear on the evilly smiling Mexican, and Nort's own facelit up in a grim smile, for he thought to revenge Dick.
But the next instant he felt a burning, stinging pain across hisforehead and a second later his eyes saw nothing, while he wasconscious that they were filled with blood that streamed from his wound.
"I'm shot!" was the thought that flashed through Nort's mind.
He endeavored to pull up his pony, conscious that he was losing controlover the animal. He wanted his eyes to see where he was heading.
By a great effort of will Nort caught up his gun in his bridle hand,and with his right wiped away as much of the blood as he could from hiseyes. A great emotion of thankfulness passed over him as he found thathe could still see, though dimly.
He caught sight of Del Pinzo still spurring toward him, but the nextmoment a curious change took place.
"Let me have him!" Nort heard Bud yell, seemingly from a greatdistance, though, in reality from a position directly behind him. Thenas his vision dimmed again, Nort caught a fleeting sight of a lassowhirling and writhing through the air toward the Greaser.
Del Pinzo tried in vain to dodge it, but his horse was traveling toofast. Then, as darkness again closed down on poor Nort he had a visionof the Greaser, covered with blood, shouting and wildly jerking hisarms and legs, being pulled from the saddle to the ground, his gungoing off harmlessly as he was yanked along.
"Bud got him!" was the thought that flashed through Nort's mind, andthen all became black, and he felt some one helping him down out of hissaddle.
"Where's Dick? I'm not much hurt!" Nort heard himself murmuring,though, to tell the truth, he did not know for certain whether he wasmortally wounded or not. "Look after Dick! Are they beating us?" heasked, though he could not see to whom he was talking.
"Dick's all right," answered a voice that Nort recognized as that ofBabe. "It's you we're worried about."
"Nothing much the matter with me," spoke Nort, as his hand again wentto his head. Then he found that a bullet had creased its way acrosshis forehead, cutting a long gash, but making a wound that was onlysuperficial, though it bled profusely.
"Are we getting licked?" demanded Nort anxiously, as more shotsresounded in the valley, and he could hear the yells of cowboys, theclashing of bodies one against the other and the lowing of the cattle.
"No, we've got 'em on the run!" exulted Babe. "Come on, till I leadyou to water, and you can wash off that blood. You look bad that way,even if you aren't hurt much!"
"Are you sure Dick's all right?" Nort asked.
"Sure! His horse stumbled and threw him. He's limping over this waynow."
"Good!" murmured Nort, and his heart felt better.
But the fighting was not over yet. Driven partly from the valley atthe first rush of the boy ranchers and their friends from Diamond X,the Greasers and Mexican cowboys returned with a rush. This took placewhen Nort was trying to rid himself of some of the blood that hadflowed freely from the gash on his head.
"There goes Yellin' Kid!" cried Babe, as he darted away from Nort'sside.
"Killed?" asked the boy, who could not see just then, as some water gotin his eyes.
"Killed? Shucks, no!" yelled Babe exultantly. "He rode into oneGreaser and knocked him seven ways from Sunday, and roped another,yankin' him out of the saddle! Oh, boy!" and with a yell Babe ran tojoin in the fray.
Nort cleared his face of blood and water long enough to see SnakePurdee keel over out of his saddle as a bullet struck him, though itafterward developed that the cowboy was not badly hurt.
Slim was slightly wounded, and Mr. Merkel had a narrow escape. Butthough the Diamond X bunch took hard knocks they gave harder ones. Nordid the professors escape scathless, for Mr. Wright was grazed by aspent bullet, and his helper was horned by one of the wild steers.
"There they go! We've made 'em run for cover!" shrilly cried Yellin'Kid as he spurred after the last of the lawless men. "Yip! Yippy!There they go!"
And go the rascals did--that is, those who were not wounded or captured.