it,stood them up against a tree, for there were a few scattering treesgrowing down there, and tied them to the trunk hard and fast.
They both struck matches and held them up before their faces to see ifthey could recognize them, but they had never seen them before.
One of them, fearing that he would be recognized, very promptly blew outthe light and mattered something in Spanish, so from that Fred and Terryjudged that they were Mexicans--one, at least--and Fred took Terry asideand whispered to him that there must be other men mixed up in it; sothey concluded to build a fire some ten feet off from them and then goback inside the enclosure and conceal themselves in the grass to watch,for they knew that nobody could go up to the tree to release the mentied there without being seen by the light of the fire.
The fire was built up against an old dead log, which, being dry and wellseasoned, burned readily, and in some places blazed up some ten feet ormore high. Some of the cowboys, seeing the light of the fire a half mileaway, came down to see what it meant.
Fred and Terry recognized them and they waited to watch their movements.One of them went up and talked with one of the men who was bound to thetree.
Both of them suspected their loyalty, but they proved to be true.
They looked around to find Fred and Terry, and several times used thesignals that Fred had given them.
When Fred and Terry returned their signals they came toward them,looking carefully for them.
When they found them one of them asked:
"Boss, did you tie up those fellows?"
"Yes," said Terry, "and there's another one lying back there in thegrass with a broken head, but all the same we tied him by his hands andfeet to keep him from getting away."
Just then they heard the man groaning and calling to his pals, and thetwo cowboys followed the sound of his voice and soon found him, hehaving recovered consciousness. They picked him up and brought him downnear the fire.
There all four of them denied that they had done anything wrong.
Each claimed that he had nothing to do with cutting out the wire, deniedthat he was driving the cattle and, of course, claimed to be innocent ofany wrong-doing.
"Well," said Fred, "I hope you will be able to prove your innocence incourt, for that is where you are going."
Then Fred turned on the two cowboys and asked them why they had leftthat corner of the ranch unguarded.
"Boss," one of them said, "there wasn't enough of us to reach down sofar, and we thought that it would be safe to let it alone and to-morrowreport it, but as soon as we saw the light we came down to investigateit."
Both of them thought that that excuse was reasonable, and Fred told themthat they were expected to be vigilant in the discharge of their workand that they would employ more cowboys.
"Now you two can lie down here and sleep while we keep watch."
"Boss, we'll watch while you sleep," was the reply.
"No, we are going to keep watch ourselves. At daylight I want one of youto make your way back to the barn and hitch up a team, bring down a coilof wire and the necessary tools to repair this gap and then take theprisoners back to town.
"Fred," said Terry, "why not tell them to bring a coil of rope."
"What do you want with a rope, Terry?"
"Oh, Judge Lynch always has use for a rope for cattle thieves. I willact as sheriff, if you don't wish to have anything to do with it.Generally I am opposed to lynching, but this is a fair case."
"No, Terry, I don't believe in that. I'm sorry that, instead ofcapturing them, we didn't shoot them and thus get rid of them withoutcalling in Judge Lynch."
The prisoners, of course, heard every word that the boys uttered. Thefact is, they were both talking for their benefit. The cowboys, though,thought that they were in earnest and they would see a lynching, so whenthe dawn of day began to appear in the east Fred sent one of the cowboysback to the barn with instructions to bring down a coil of barb wire anda coil of rope.
One of the prisoners, tied to the tree, begged that Mr. Fearnot wouldcome up to the tree and let him talk with him.
Fred did so, and the fellow said that if he wouldn't punish him andwould release him, he would leave the country and never show up thereagain.
"Oh, yes; but it is bad policy to let a cattle thief go loose, after hehas been caught in the act."
Then the others began making similar promises, and never did men beg fortheir lives as hard as they did.
One of the cowboys was sent off for wire and rope, and while he was gonea farmer came by, making an early start for Crabtree.
The road passed within a couple of hundred yards of where the men weretied to the tree, and he heard them talking as well as noticed the smokefrom the fire which Fred and Terry had built out there.
He left his team in the road, and coming into the woods, there learnedthe whole secret of the situation.
He knew Fred and Terry, for he had frequently stopped at their ranch, sohe, on his way to town, notified every farmer and ranchman whom hepassed that Fearnot and Olcott were going to hang four cattle thievesdown at the lower end of their ranch.
Everybody who heard the news wanted to see the lynching, so they camedown there. Fred told them that he had no idea of taking the law in hisown hands, and that he intended taking the prisoners into town andturning them over to the sheriff. All the prisoners, being Mexicans,whom the farmers throughout that section hated like poison, stood ingreat danger of being hanged at once by the angry ranchmen; but Fredrefused to permit it. He bargained with one of them to take them in hiswagon to Crabtree, and then mounted his horse and started off ahead ofthem. They were bound hard and fast, so they could give the farmer notrouble.
"Terry," said he before he left, "you must see to the careful repairingof the fence and keep a watch over everything. I am going to see if Ican find a good electrician to come out and electrify the wires in thisfence, so when they attempt to cut this fence again some of them willget knocked off the face of the earth." So he put spurs to his horse andstarted off. He knew he could reach Crabtree about two hours ahead ofthe prisoners.
The party of rough fellows, farmers and cowboys, went along with thewagon, and before they had gone three miles they took the prisoners fromthe farmer and strung them up in some timber along the roadside; so whenthe farmer reached Crabtree he had no prisoners, and he told a harrowingtale to Fred of how the men had taken the prisoners from him and strungthem up.
"Well, well, well," he ejaculated. "I am sorry for that; not that Idon't think they deserved it, but I don't believe in that sort of thing.Now, I want you to come with me to the sheriff and several responsiblecitizens and tell that story to them, for I don't want to be accused ofhaving anything to do with the matter, other than capturing thethieves."
The farmer told his story to the sheriff, which official, accompanied byseveral citizens, as well as some deputies, rode down there toinvestigate the matter.
Meanwhile Fred went in search of an electrician. There was only one inthe city, and he had charge of the city electrical lighting, so hecouldn't go down to the ranch and electrify the wires around the entirerange, for it wouldn't do to perform that feat unless some one was leftin charge of the city's plant.
Fred bargained with him to communicate with some competent electricianin some other city and get him to come down to the ranch and stay forone month, saying that he would pay him well for his services.
Fred rode down the other road that ran parallel with the railroad track,reaching home, after hard riding, a little after dark.
Early the next morning when Fred went to the store he found some four orfive cowboys who had just arrived, having come in to put in applicationsfor employment as cowboys.
Said a big, brawny fellow, who measured six feet and two inches inheight:
"Mr. Fearnot, we hear that you have added a thousand more cattle to yourherd, and we know that you need more cowboys. We are all trainedranchmen and cowboys, and understand the business from A to Z. Just setus to work at once, and
there'll be no more cattle thieving around here,for we know just how to deal with them."
Fred did not like the looks of any one in the party. Their faces showedplainly that they were certainly devotees of the jug, so he said:
"Gentlemen, of course we will need more cowboys, for it is our intentionto add still another thousand head of cattle to our herd; but we reallycan't employ another man until we first investigate his former life. Wedon't want any man in our employ who drinks whisky. Neither Mr. Olcottnor myself ever touch the stuff, and I never took a drink of anythingintoxicating in my life, so I don't want any one around me who does."
"Well," said the big fellow, "I never was drunk in my life, I have takenwhisky moderately whenever I felt like it ever since I was of age, so ifyou give me a job I'll agree never to take a drink as long as I am onthe place."
But Fred