CHAPTER II
MISSING PAPERS
Nort and Dick lost no time following their cowboy cousin, Bud, outsidethe ranch house, and each of the three lads, as well as Mr. Merkel andhis associates, had caught up one of the heavy revolvers that werenever far from their hands. For, as has been said of the West, a mandoesn't always need a gun out there, but when he does need it, he needsit "mighty bad and mighty sudden."
The boy ranchers were taking no chances.
"What's the matter, Slim?" asked Bud as he rushed outside and saw agroup of cowboys near the foreman. They were vaulting to the saddlesof their horses which had hurriedly been turned out of the home corral.
"Rustlers!" cried Nort. "Is it rustlers, Slim?"
"Might be, for all I can tell," was the answer. "I saw some men ridingalong out there, and when I called to know who they were they didn'tanswer, which was suspicious in itself. Then I told 'em to stop untilI could get a look at 'em, but they turned and made off, and that wasworse, so I fired a couple of times after 'em."
"Where are they now?" asked Dick.
"That's what we're going to find out; son," was the foreman's grimanswer. "You there, Babe?" he called to his fat assistant, whorejoiced in the diminutive nickname.
"All there is of me," was the sighing answer. "Stand still there, youslab-sided chunk of salt pork!" he called to his horse, which wasnervously swerving about. And Babe Milton was too heavy to be a quickmounter. He needed special attention on the part of his steed.
"Let's go, fellows!" cried Bud to his cousins, and, not waiting for thepermission of Mr. Merkel, the lads saddled their horses and startedafter the foreman and his cowboys who had gotten a flying start.
"What do you imagine it is?" asked Nort as he rode between his brotherand cousin, while they urged their steeds on to catch up to those aheadof them.
"Haven't any idea," answered Bud, glancing back to note that his fatherand the visiting ranchmen had gone into the house. Probably Mr. Merkeland the others knew the matter could safely be left to the cowboys.
Bud and his cousins rode fleet ponies, and they were more than at homein their saddles, so it did not take them long to reach the bunch ofcowboys riding across the plains ahead of them, on the trail of themysterious night visitors.
"Any idea who they were, Slim?" asked Bud, guiding his horse alongsidethat of the foreman.
"Not the least in the world. But they're up to no good or theywouldn't have veered off at the first hail. There's somethingsuspicious in that."
"I should say so," agreed Nort.
"Couldn't be any sheep herders coming so soon, to turn their nibblerson our land; could it?" Dick wanted to know. He spoke of "our land,"for he and his brother owned a small ranch in partnership with Bud.
"No, I don't reckon it was the sheep herders themselves," said Slim,"but it might be some of their bunch coming to size things up. Thegovernment never made a worse mistake than to throw this Indian landopen to everybody. Them fellers at Washington should have barred thesheep men!"
To hear Slim talk you would have imagined that he could go toWashington and regulate matters all by himself. But if you understandthe feeling of western cattle men and horse men against sheep herdersit will make it easier to comprehend.
"Well, if any of 'em try to come to Happy Valley," said Bud, "they'llwish they'd stayed out."
"That's right!" chimed in Nort and Dick.
Suddenly one of the cowboys on the outer fringe of the riding posseuttered a low cry and exclaimed:
"There they are--off to the left!"
As he spoke the moon came out from behind ragged clouds and disclosedtwo horsemen riding at full speed across the prairie.
"After 'em, fellows!" cried Slim, and he fired some shots in the air.
The boy ranchers put spurs to their steeds--not cruelly but with agentle touch to let the horses know a burst of speed was needed--andthe race was quickly taken up.
And while it is on I will beg a moment or so of the time of my newreaders to make them acquainted with the heroes of this story. Asrelated in the first book of this series, called "The Boy Ranchers; orSolving the Mystery at Diamond X," Nort and Dick Shannon, easterncousins of Bud Merkel, went to the ranch of his father, Diamond X, tospend their vacation. While there certain mysterious happeningsoccurred. Dr. Hendryx Wright, a college scientist, with a party ofhelpers, was discovered digging not far from Diamond X. At first itwas thought he was after a lost gold mine, but later it was disclosedthat he was after the bones of a prehistoric monster for the collegemuseum.
The part that Del Pinzo, a rascally half-breed, played in this searchand the activities of the boy ranchers, are fully set forth. Nort andDick liked it so at Diamond X that they took up their home with Bud,and became partners with him, their father buying them a share in aranch located in "Happy Valley," as the boys called it.
Following the exciting times related in the first volume, the boyranchers went to camp, they took the trail and also helped pursue aband of Yaqui Indians who escaped from their Mexican reservation, andthe details of those activities will be found in the volumesspecifically named for each line of activity. The book immediatelypreceding this is called "The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians; or, Onthe Trail of the Yaquis."
They had not long returned from helping to defeat these marauders, andrescue Rosemary and her brother Floyd, when the news came about thegovernment lands being thrown open. Then had followed the alarm in thenight, and the chase, which was now on.
Forward toward the two lone figures spurred the boy ranchers and theircowboy companions. Several more shots rang out, slivers of flamespitting harmlessly into the air, for until more was known of thecharacter of the fugitives, no one desired to fire directly at them.Though in the West it was the custom to shoot first and inquireafterward, Slim Degnan knew it was not always a wise policy. Innocentmen might be injured.
However the two fugitives were either such poor riders, or their steedswere so tired, or, possibly, it was a combination of both causes, thatthe outfit from Diamond X was not long in overhauling them.
"Look out for shots!" warned Snake Purdee, who was now in the lead withSlim.
But the two figures whose horses were rapidly slowing to a walk, showedno signs of fight. Indeed the larger of the two men cried:
"We surrender, gentlemen!"
In the half light of the moon Bud, Nort and Dick looked at each otheron hearing that voice. It brought back to them very vividly a pictureof strenuous times.
"Don't let 'em shoot, Professor!" chimed in another voice. "If I onlyhad my long poker here----"
"Be quiet, Zeb," spoke the one who had offered to surrender. "Youaren't attending the school furnace now."
"I only wish I was," came the rueful comment.
"Did you hear that?" spoke Bud to his cousins.
"It's Professor Wright!" exclaimed Nort and Dick in a sort of surprisedduet.
"But what's he doing here, and at night, and why did he run?" asked Bud.
However, these questions could be answered later. Just now Slim andhis bunch of cowboys were interested in discovering the object ormotive of the strangers of the night--strangers in that the foremen andhis helpers had not recognized the identity of the two men. And, infact, Professor Wright--he of the pre-historic monster fame--was theonly one known to the boys, and then only by his voice. Who "Zeb"might be they could only guess.
"Except that I'd say, first shot, he was janitor in some small collegewhere the professor taught," remarked Nort, and this proved to be thecase.
"What do you want?" queried Slim of the two former fugitives, thoughreally they were that no longer, being now surrounded by the cowboys.
"We were looking for the ranch of Mr. Merkel--Diamond X it is called, Ibelieve," said the taller of the two strange riders.
"Well, you're running away from it," commented Snake Purdee.
"And why did you fire at us?" asked Slim.
"Gentlemen, I didn't fire. I am P
rofessor Hendryx Wright, and this ismy helper, Zeb Tauth. He is the janitor at my school, and I havebrought him out west with me. I have a small party accompanying me andwe are going to make another search for fossil bones as I did oncebefore at Diamond X ranch. I was looking for the place in thedarkness, having left my other men and supplies some distance back,when you suddenly set after us. I took you for horse thieves----"
"Just what we sized _you_ up as," laughed Slim, who now had recognizedthe professor, though Zeb was a stranger. "Mighty sorry to havetroubled you," went on the foreman, "but we couldn't take any chances."
"Especially with the sheep herders likely to swoop down on us and spoileverything," added Bud.
"Hello, boys! Are you there?" exclaimed Professor Wright as herecognized the voice of the lad. "You say someone had been stealingyour sheep?"
"Shades of Zip Foster! Never that!" cried Bud, calling upon a sort ofmythical patron saint whose identity he jealously concealed from hiscousins. "When we start herding sheep, Professor, the world will turnthe other way."
"We'll explain later," suggested Nort. "If you're going to stop withus, Professor, turn around and come back."
"Gladly," answered the scientist. "But I have left my men and theoutfit some miles back, awaiting word as to whether or not I couldlocate your ranch, and----"
"I'll send a man to bring 'em up," offered the foreman. "Mighty funny,though, about you not firing at me," he added, as the horses wereturned back toward Diamond X. "Are you sure your friend didn't?" heasked the professor.
"Zeb doesn't know one end of a gun from the other," said the scientist."As for me--I have none."
"Mighty queer!" muttered Snake. "Somebody fired all right."
"Must have been another party," suggested Bud. "Maybe you chased thewrong bunch, Slim."
"Maybe I did, Bud," admitted the foreman, "though I didn't think therewas two bunches. If there was----"
He did not finish what he intended to say, for his mind was busy withseveral thoughts engendered by the news that the hated sheep men mightcome to a land so far held sacred to horses and cattle.
"Yes, it's mighty queer," said Slim musingly, as they turned in towardthe corral not far from the ranch house. "Some one fired at me just asthe chase began, and if it wasn't the professor----"
Mr. Merkel, followed by some of his ranchmen neighbors, came hurryingfrom the house. Framed in the lighted doorway stood Ma Merkel and Nell.
"That you, Slim?" asked the owner of Diamond X.
"That's me," was the reply.
"Did you get 'em?"
"Well, in a way, yes," came the slow reply. "They turned out to befriends of yours."
"_Friends?_" questioned Mr. Merkel sharply.
"It's Professor Wright," explained Bud.
"Then you've got the wrong parties!" cried Mr. Merkel. "There's been arobbery here!"
"A _robbery_!" chorused the boy ranchers.
"Yes! In the excitement somebody got in the ranch house and ransackedmy safe."
"Did they get much?" Dick asked.
Amid a silence Mr. Merkel answered:
"They took the papers that prove my right to lands along Spur Creek!"
"Spur Creek!" fairly shouted Bud. "That's where they're going to openthe Indian holdings--where the sheep men will first head for, and if wecan't control that opening our range won't be worth a hill of beans!Are you sure the papers are gone, Dad?"
"I'm only too sure, son," was the grim answer.