CHAPTER XII
IN SPITE OF ALL
Nort and Bud stared at Dick for several seconds without makingany remark. They were sitting on their ponies, completely baffledby the manner in which the trail of the rustlers had suddenly"petered out." And they had been about to turn and go back tocamp when Dick made his enthusiastic remark.
"A watch tower?" repeated Bud.
"Sure!" declared his cousin. "We used to build 'em when Ibelonged to the Boy Scouts. Remember, Nort?"
"Sure! It begins to come back to me. We used to bind saplingstogether and make quite a high perch. The idea was that you mightbe able to see your way if you got lost," he explained to Bud.
"Not a bad idea, either," commented the western lad. "I begin tosee your drift, as the wind said to the snowstorm. You mean tobuild a sort of high platform up by the reservoir, Dick?"
"Yes, a watch tower of logs, strong enough to hold one or twofellows. You could make ladders so's we could reach the topplatform, or we could scramble up if we left hand and foot holdswhere we lopped the branches off saplings."
"That's right!" cried Bud, now almost as enthusiastic as was hiscousin. "And with a good pair of glasses, or a telescope such asdad has at the ranch, we could see all over the valley."
"Let's make it!" cried Nort, and the matter was settled asquickly as that.
Something of the excitement that had moved them must have beenvisible on the faces of the boys when they returned to camp, forOld Billee, greeting them in the absence of the other cowboys,asked:
"Did you land 'em, Bud?"
"Who; the rustlers? No. Couldn't see where they'd vanished to anymore than, as one of the boys said, as if an airship had beenused. But we got an idea, Billee."
"They're valuable--sometimes," agreed the veteran cow punchercautiously.
"We hope this one is going to be!" frankly laughed Bud. "We'regoing to build a watch tower, and take turns staying up in itwith a telescope. We can see almost the whole valley if we gethigh enough, and as there aren't many patches of woodland wherethe rascals can hide, we hope to spot the rustlers as soon asthey begin their tricks."
"Well, you may do it," and again the cowboy was very cautious. "Inever heard of cattle rustlers bein' caught that way, but whenother means fail, try suthin' diffrunt! We'll tackle th' tower!"
And as the other cowboys, even Four Eyes, pronounced the schemeworth trying, it was put into operation. Mr. Merkel, to whom Budcommunicated his idea over the telephone, rather laughed at it.
"How about nights?" asked the ranchman. "No matter how high youare up after dark you can't see any better."
"But most of the raids of the rustlers have been in daylight,"declared Bud.
"It's about fifty-fifty," his father told him. "However, it won'tdo any harm to try it. Only don't fall off that watch tower ofyours. I'll come out and look at it when you get it done."
The boy ranchers and their cow punchers started work the nextday. Dick and Nort remembered, in a dim way, how, as Boy Scouts,they had helped erect towers, hastily constructed of saplings.Their recalled knowledge, together with the natural adaptabilityand skill of the cowboys, finally succeeded in there beingevolved, and erected, on the aide of the valley rather apretentious tower. "It must look like an oil well derrick from adistance," observed Nort, when it was al most completed.
"What do we care how it looks, if it does the trick?" retortedBud. "From that perch, and with this telescope dad let me take, Ican tell the color of a cow clear to the end of our valley."
There was no question but what the watch tower did provide anexcellent vantage point. From its top platform, reached by rudeladders, any unusual movement in the entire valley could be seenduring the day.
It was planned that the boys--and by this I mean the hiredcowboys also--should take turns in being on watch in the towerduring certain periods each day. A schedule was drawn up by Budand his cousins, and put into operation as soon as the tower wascompleted.
"And now we'll catch the rustlers at work!" boasted Bud.
But alas for their hopes! In spite of all their precautions, andsetting at naught the hard work of constructing the tower, therewas another raid on the cattle in Happy Valley, about a weekafter the wooden perch had been set up.
It was not a disastrous raid, and only a half score of steerswere driven off from one of the more distant herds. But the raidtook place, and at night. It was discovered one morning, just asBud was going up into the tower, where a seat and sheltered placehad been built.
"They fooled us, Bud," said Old Billee, riding in from a distantpart of the valley.
"Fooled us? How?"
"They let us watch by day, an' they come an' robbed by night!Another bunch of steers gone!"
"Well--by Zip Foster!" cried Bud, slamming his hat down on theground. "I'm getting tired of this!"