CHAPTER XXII
BUD'S DISCOVERY
Once it became evident that catching the rustlers was likely tobe the work of a long chase on the trail, the whole party ofpursuers came to a halt beside the boy ranchers. And after somerapid talk of what might lay beyond their stopping place, in alonely, wild and desolate section of the defile, the conversationswitched to what had surprised Bud and his cousins--the absenceof the cattle.
"I s'posed they were driving the steers ahead of 'em all along,"admitted North "They drove the animals off our ranch, and Ididn't think but what they were hazing 'em along to some placewhere they could change or blur the brands, and then sell 'em."
"That's what I thought, too," acknowledged Dick.
"Well, I must say I didn't think much about it," confessed Bud."When I saw Del Pinzo and his gang in there all I wanted to dowas to come to hand-grips with 'em. I forgot all about thecattle. But after we'd chased along a bit I did begin to wonderwhere my animals were--_our_ animals, I should say," hecorrected himself with a glance at his cousins. However, theyunderstood.
"They must have gotten the cattle over to Double Z, or whereverit is they dispose of 'em," suggested Dick.
"They couldn't--not in this short time," declared Slim. "Wefollowed 'em too close. Besides, there isn't a sign of any cattlehaving been here, nor in that place where we surprised th' headGreaser and his gang. Not a sign of cattle!"
He looked up and down the gorge, as did the other cowboys. Butnot even the sharpest eye could detect the faintest "sign" of thesteers having been driven along the passage.
"They must have them hidden somewhere," said Dick. "We'd bettergo back to the place where the sign petered out. There must besome opening there out of the main canyon."
"If there is it's so well hid that it takes sharper eyes thanI've got to find it," declared Snake, and he was noted for hisfar-seeing and clear vision.
"Go _back_!" exclaimed North impulsively. "We aren't goingback, are we, until we get Del Pinzo and his gang?"
"Shoot 'em up--that's what I advise!" cried Yellin' Kid. Therewas a moment's pause, and Bud spoke.
"We're got two things to do," said the boy rancher. "One is toget our cattle back, and the other is to nab the rustlers. Butit's more important to get the cattle, I think.
"If we don't do that our ranch experiment will be a failure," hewent on. "But, of course, for the sake of other ranchers, itwould be a mighty good thing if we could put Del Pinzo and hisrustler crowd out of business."
"Can't we do both?" asked Nort.
"That's what I was coming to," his cousin continued. "If we canget on the trail of the hidden steers--for hidden they are, I'msure--we can haze them back to the valley. Then we can keep onafter this crowd," and he nodded toward the winding trail thatled down the narrow defile.
"Then you think we'd better go back!" asked Dick.
"Let's see what Slim says" answered Bud. Naturally he would turnto his father's foreman for advice.
"Oh, you're leavin' it t' me, are you?" asked Slim, as hefinished rolling his cigarette, a feat he could accomplish withone hand. Then he lighted it, took a satisfying puff and went on:"If you ask my advice I'd say to go back an' see if you can'tlocate the cattle. As Bud remarks, they're dollars an' cents. Th'rustlers aren't, though it would be a mighty good stunt t' wipe'em off th' face of this cow country. But maybe we can attend to_them_ later."
"Turn back she is!" exclaimed Bud, accepting, as did the others,the advice of Slim as being final. "We'll see if we can find thecattle, and then haze them to a safe place. After that we'll nabDel Pinzo and his bunch--if we can," he added, as a savingclause.
"Suits me!" remarked Yellin' Kid, taking off his hat and lookingat the two bullet holes. "That nabbin' part is what I want t'play at," and his grin suggested that when he and the Greaser metthere would be some interesting happenings.
It having been thus decided that the pursuit would be abandonedfor the time being, a sort of council of war was held to settleon the next course.
"I say grub!" exclaimed Bud, knowing that the suggestion wouldcome with better grace from him than from some of the men whowere working for him and his father. "Let's eat!"
There was no debate on this question and when the ponies hadbeen turned loose to graze on what scanty grass they could find,a fire was made and preparations started for feeding the hungryposse. For they were that--both hungry and a posse, bent on thecapture of the lawless rustlers. Though, for the time, righteousrevenge was given over to the more practical side of thequestion--getting back the cattle.
Probably you do not need to be told that little time was wastedover the meal, simple as it was. Cowboys, on the trail, orotherwise engaged in their work of the ranch or range, do notspend much time over the pleasures of the appetite. There is atime for feasting, and a time for chasing cattle rustlers, andthere was no sense in combining the two. That, evidently, was thethought in the minds of Bud and his friends, for they hurriedthrough their eating, and, having rested the horses, were soon insaddles again.
"Now," remarked Bud, talking the matter over with Slim, "what isthe best plan?"
"To get back, as fast as we can, t' th' place where we saw th'last signs of th' cattle," was the foreman's answer. "Theunravelin' of th' skein of mystery, t' use a poetical expression,Bud, is there!"
They all agreed with this view of it, and after a short ride downthe defile, to see, if by chance, any of the Del Pinzo crowdmight be in evidence, or returning, the back trail was taken.
"We aren't going to discover much this day," observed Bud, as herode slowly along between Nort and Dick.
"Why, did you see a black rabbit?" Nort asked, remembering whathad happened when a similar incident occurred, just before thestrange events narrated in the chapter preceding this.
"No, I didn't see a black jack," Bud answered. "But it won't belong until dark, for we don't get the full benefit of theafternoon sun down in this gorge. And we can't do anything exceptby daylight. No use looking for sign in the dark."
"That's right," agreed Nort. "But I was afraid it was a blackrabbit you'd seen."
"As if we didn't have enough bad luck without that," commentedDick. "It's as bad, losing your herd as it is not to have enoughwater to give 'em what they need," and he referred to the timewhen, by the efforts of this same Del Pinzo, the supply for thereservoir of Happy Valley was cut off.
"Oh, well, it might be worse," observed Bud, with a sort ofcheerful, philosophical air, for he was of rather a happydisposition.
"How?" asked Snake, for he was rather "sore" because Del Pinzoand the rustlers had escaped. Perhaps Snake felt that he mighthave gone in and captured the outlaws single-handed when he wason the lone spying expedition.
"Well, I might never have had any cattle for those fellows tosteal," went on Bud. "But say, boys," he went on, as they came toa place where the trail seemed to divide. "Let's take this otherroad back. It looks a bit easier, and we want to favor the poniesall we can."
"Go ahead," advised Slim, to whom Bud looked for confirmation ofhis plan. "Anything that makes it easier for th' horses makes itmore sure for us. And we may have a long hunt ahead of us."
The care taken by the boy ranchers and their friends of theiranimals was not exaggerated, nor unusual. In the West so muchdepends on a man's horse--his comfort and very life, often--thatit is a foolish fellow, indeed, who will not bestow at least somethought and care on his horse. The animal becomes a trustedcompanion and friend to the cowboys and prospectors.
So, in order, as he hoped, to provide an easier means of gettingback to the place they wished to reach, Bud led the way along adifferent trail on the retreat.
It was practically a retreat, though one they had selected forthemselves, since the outlaws had distanced them.
It was rather a dejected bunch of boy ranchers and their friendsthat were now back-trailing. There was not much talk, after theexcitement of the attack which had "petered out," and even Bud,gay and cheerful as he usually was, now seemed to h
ave little tosay.
It was Dick who startled them all by suddenly exclaiming:
"Look ahead there! Isn't that a man on the trail?" He, with Nortand Bud were in advance of the others. Dick pointed toward theplace where he thought he saw something suspicious.
"I don't glimpse anything," observed Nort.
"Nor I," said his cousin.
"He's gone now," Dick stated. "But I did see some one, and I'malmost sure it was a Greaser. Looked just like one of theirhats."
"What is it!" called Slim, for he caught snatches of the ratherexcited talk of the boys.
"Dick thought he saw one of the Del Pinzo gang," answered Bud.
"Maybe he's the fellow I cracked on the head," suggested Snake.For they had lost sight of that individual in the mad rush intothe canyon, and had not seen him when they turned back.
"Say, wouldn't it be a good thing to capture him?" asked Budeagerly. "We could make him tell where the others are, and whereour cattle are hidden."
"If we can get him," conceded Slim.
"There he is again!" cried Dick. "Come on, fellows!"
Disregarding, or forgetting the travel-weary horses, the ranchlad urged his own steed ahead at as rapid a pace as the animalcould be induced to develop in a spurt.
"Take it easy!" advised Nort to his brother, but he might as wellhave called to the wind, for Dick was off and away.
"I don't see anything!" cried Bud, and though he had lookedeagerly forward at Dick's call he had glimpsed neither hat norface of any personage who might be suspected of being one of theDel Pinzo gang.
But, even with that, Bud was not going to miss a chance to be inat the finish of whatever was about to happen, so he spurred hisanimal forward.
"Come on, boys!" cried Slim to his comrades. "We can't let thoseyoungsters tackle this game alone--'specially when if there's oneof the rustlers there may be more. _Pronto_!"
He galloped forward, as did the others, along the new trail thatBud had suggested taking. But Dick was in the lead, and, in a fewseconds, was out of sight beyond an outcropping ledge of rock,which narrowed the trail at this particular point.
"Watch your step there, boys!" cried Snake, as he saw What waslikely to prove a bad turning. "I don't see how Dick got aroundit as he did, taking it at the gallop," he went on.
And, as it happened, Dick had not exactly made it, for when Budand Nort reached the dangerous turn, slightly after Dick haddisappeared abound it, they saw no sight of their companion.
"Pull up!" cried Bud sharply. "There's something wrong!" Nort wasbeginning to think so himself, and he hauled his steed back withsuch good will and energy that the animal was almost on itshaunches.
"Where in the world did he go?" cried Bud.
Nort asked the same question, for there lay the narrow trailbefore them, running along a ledge, with a shelving bank of shaleand sand on one side and a towering face of rock on the other.
Snake Purdee raced at such speed around the turn, in spite of hisown admonition to the boy ranchers, that the cowboy nearly randown Bud and Nort.
"Where's Dick?" cried Snake, at once aware that the stout lad wasnot in sight.
"He's vamoosed--somewhere," said Bud. "Maybe he met-up with thatGreaser and----"
At that moment, however, there came a cry, unmistakably ofdistress, seemingly from some distance ahead and down below thehigh and narrow trail on which the party had come to a halt.
"There's Dick now!" cried Nort, recognizing his brother's voice.
"Where in the world is he?" asked Bud, looking about.
In answer Snake pointed down the sloping bank of shale and sand,and there, at the bottom, was Dick, half buried in the softmaterial, and his horse, with twisted saddle, was standing nearby, looking rather the worse for wear. And if the countenance ofthe animal had been visible it would doubtless have shown painedsurprise.
"What's' the matter? What you doing down there?" called Nort tohis brother, as Dick proceeded to extricate himself from the sandand shale that covered him almost to his neck.
"You don't s'pose I'm down here for fun, do you?" floated up thesomewhat sarcastic answer. "I came around that turn too fast andthe horse just sat down at the edge and slid here. It's lucky I'mnot killed!"
"It sure is!" agreed Slim. "You want to take a strange traileasy, boy. Are you hurt--or your horse?"
Dick was about two hundred feet below them at the foot of theslope. He got up and limped over to his animal.
"Guess he's all right," was the reply.
"How about you?" asked Bud, for Dick had followed the realwesterner's habit of looking first to his steed.
"Oh, I'm scratched up a bit, and lame," was the rueful reply,"but I guess nothing is busted unless it's one of my girths."
The others watched him, while he straightened his saddle, whichhad slipped around under the horse. Then Dick called up:
"It's all right. I can ride him, I reckon," which he proved byvaulting into the saddle.
"How am I going to get back up there, though?" he asked. "It's asslippery as an iceberg."
"You can't get up," Snake called down. "Don't try it. The trail uphere goes along the same direction as the one down there. Keep onit until we join you."
Which Dick did, his pony, fortunately, proving to have sufferedno injuries in the unexpected slide down the hill. And thus, by anarrow margin, was an accident diverted. For had the slope downwhich Dick plunged, because of taking the turn too suddenly, beenof rock, both he and the horse might have been badly hurt, if notkilled.
"Keep a lookout for that Greaser," called Dick up to his chumsabove him.
"I don't believe you saw any," retorted Slim. "There aren't anysigns of him here."
Nor were there, though the cowboys made careful scrutiny. Andafterward Dick admitted that he might have mistaken thefluttering of a bush for the hat of someone he thought a memberof Del Pinzo's gang. In a short time the upper path merged intothe trail below, and Dick rejoined his friends, exhibiting somescratches sustained in his perilous slide.
Together the posse rode on, making a trail back to the maindefile, and out of the one down which the Greaser and his ganghad turned, where they had been discovered by Dick. And thenBud's prediction came true. The sun, which never shone directlyinto the main canyon for any great length of time, began to set,bringing gloom into the defile long before it would make itsappearance on the level country up above.
Seeing the gathering darkness, Slim advised calling a halt, andthis was done several miles beyond the place where the last traceof the stolen cattle had been observed.
"Shall we camp here!" asked Bud, deferring to the foreman, as wasnatural under the circumstances.
"We've got grass and water," Slim remarked, indicating a springtoward which, even then, some of the horses were hastening."Water for the ponies and us, grass for the animals, and thereought to be some grub left."
"There is," said Snake Purdee, who had assumed, or been given (itdid not much matter which) the office of commissary. "We broughtalong plenty."
"And we may need it before we reach the end of the trail,"remarked Bud. "I don't believe it's going to be easy to findwhere those cattle disappeared to."
"There's only two ways, or at th' most three, in which they couldbe kept away from us," said Slim, as he slid from his saddle.
"What are they?" asked Dick, who, like his brother, was alwayseager to learn from a true son of the West, such as was theforeman of Diamond X.
"Well," Slim resumed, "they've either been driven down some sidepassage, or gorge, such like as we found Del Pinzo in, or theywere back-tracked to th' open an' driven off there th' same nightthey was run off."
"That might be," admitted Bud. "I didn't think of a back track."
"Well, I did," Slim said, "but the signs of it was so faint Ipassed it up."
A back trail, I might explain, is where an animal, or several ofthem, or even a human, for that matter, turns and retraces theway first traveled. A fox, fleeing before the hounds, will oftendo this
, and as the scent does not indicate the direction inwhich Reynard is running, the dogs are often deceived.
But in the case of the fox the imprints of the animal's paws areso light that perhaps only with a microscope could it be toldwhen he had "back-tracked." Except, of course, in some placewhere soft mud might retain the impression of both trails.
In the case of a large body of cattle, also, though the scentwould not be relied upon, it would be difficult for the casual,or, in some cases, even the trained observer, to say where theherd had been turned and driven back over the same courseoriginally taken.
Thus pursuers would be baffled. And when to this is added thefact that the floor of the gorge was of rock, in the main, whichdid not take, or retain, any impressions, the puzzle was all themore difficult to solve.
"Well, we'll see what happens in the morning," observed Bud, aspreparations for the camp went on.
The usual watches were set that night, two of the posse beingconstantly on guard. It was rather nervous work for the boyranchers, especially Nort and Dick, as they started at everychance sound which seemed to echo so loudly in the darkness. Andonce Dick, who was taking the tour of duty with Yellin' Kid,suddenly fired at an object he saw moving.
It was only a luckless coyote, as was evidenced by the howl ofpain that followed the report of Dick's gun, and then the nightwas made hideous and sleepless, for the time, by the chorus ofweird howls from the other slinking beasts who were hangingabout, hoping for something to eat.
However, it was nearly morning when Dick did his shooting, and alittle later they all turned out for an early breakfast, the odorof the coffee and sizzling bacon producing an aroma finer thanthat of the most costly French perfume.
"And now for the day's work!" exclaimed Bud, when they were oncemore ready to set off on the trail.
"And may we find something!" was the fervent petition of Dick.
Off they started, refreshed by the night's halt and eager forwhat lay before them.
I shall not weary you by a recital of all the minor incidents ofthe day, how they found many false trails and leads, several ofwhich at first seemed promising, but all of which led to nothing.
It was Bud who made the real discovery which, eventually, led tothe solving of the mystery. Bud had alighted from his pony, whenthe halt was made for the noonday lunch, and was climbing up theside of the rocky hill which extended for miles and formed onewall of the gorge.
"Looking for gold?" asked Dick, as he saw his cousin pick up andexamine several rocks.
"Sure!" was the laughing answer. "Might find the bones of anotherTriceratops, too!"
Bud reached forward to pick up something else, and a rock slippedfrom beneath his foot. He had been resting heavily on it, and thesudden lurch threw him backward. To save himself he clutched atthe nearest object, which happened to be a bush growing in theside of the hill. For a moment it seemed that this would save thelad from at least sliding down the declivity, but the bush wasnot deeply rooted and, in another moment pulled out in the ranchboy's hands. He flung up his arms, and almost toppled overbackward, but managed to throw himself forward, and then he sliddown several feet.
"Hurt!" called up Dick, ready to hasten to his cousin's aid.
"No, but my shoes are full of gravel. Next time I come up a placelike this I----"
Bud suddenly ceased speaking, and began to scramble up the sideof the shale-covered hill almost as fast as he had slid down.Then, as he reached the place whence the bush had pulled out heseemed to be looking into some crevice or opening.
A moment later he turned, looked down on the party gathered inthe defile below him, and shouted:
"I've found 'em! I've found 'em! Here they are, in one of thequeerest places you can imagine! Come up here and look!"