CHAPTER IX
WHAT HAPPENED TO PEG
"Then you think the same as I do, eh, Bob?" asked the saddle boy, as ifpleased.
"Well, now a heap of things seem to point that way, Frank," replied theother, slowly. "Only for the life of me I can't get it through my poorold head just why a girl like that would want to carry on in such aqueer way."
"Nor me, either," laughed his chum. "That's something else for us tolie awake nights puzzling our wits over. Everything around thisThunder Mountain just seems to be plastered with mystery--who littleLopez is; what he, or she may be doing away off here in the canyons ofthe Rockies; and more particularly the mystery of the mountain that thereds look on as sacred; where Mendoza and his band of rustlers havegone with those stolen horses; and also who the prospectors can be thatthis pile of grub was meant for--it's all a blank, that's what!"
"Say, I guess that's pretty near the way it sizes up," grumbled Bob."I don't like to run against a stone wall like this. If I was alonenow, d'ye know what I'd likely be doing, Frank?"
"Well, say, perhaps I might hit close to the bull's-eye, since I'vecome to know you pretty well these days, Bob," replied the other. "Iwouldn't be surprised one bit but what you'd go rushing after Lopez,and demand to know all about it. But Bob, I look at it in anotherlight. That's his own private business."
"I suppose so; and I was brought up to mind my own affairs, too," saidBob.
"Wouldn't you put up a great howl now," continued Frank, "if somebodygrabbed hold of you, and insisted on your giving him the whole story ofyour life, where you were born, what your dad did for a living, whenyou cut your first tooth, how much it cost your father to let yougallop around the country in the saddle with me, and all that? Say,honest now, would you knuckle down like a meek kid; or give thequestioner to understand that he was poking his nose into affairs thatdidn't concern him one whit?"
Thereupon Bob laughed heartily.
"I give up, Frank," he admitted. "You go at a fellow, and put him in ahole as a lawyer might. We'll just let little Lopez alone, no matterwhether he's girl or boy; the grub-getter of prospectors; or agent forthat sly Mendoza, the cattle-rustler. And, on the whole, I reckonwe've got about all the business we can attend to right now on ourhands."
"That sure sounds good to me, Bob," said Frank, turning once more toget his horse, the task of securing the grizzly's claws having beencompleted.
Naturally enough, while the excitement was on, both horses hadexhibited the greatest alarm, even though they were out of sight behindsome trees. The near presence of that terrible monster had caused themto strain at their ropes, prance wildly, and try in every way possibleto break loose; but those lariats had been selected with a view towonderful strength. After the death of the grizzly the animals hadgradually quieted down.
Ten minutes later, and the two saddle boys were slowly picking theirway along the gully, heading upward. Frank, as one born to thecountry, and familiar with many of its peculiarities, amused himself bypointing out to his comrade the various positive signs that as a rulemarked these strange water-courses.
"You see, Bob," he remarked, "this is really what might be called a_barranca_."
"Yes, I've heard you tell about them before," observed the other.
"Most of the year it's only a dry ravine, with high walls; but once ina while there happens to be a tremendous downpour of rain in themountains, when a heavy cloud breaks against the wall above. When thatcomes about, this gully is going to be bank-full of roaring, rushingwater; and anything caught by the flood is apt to be battered andbruised and drowned before it's swept out below."
"Whew!" observed Bob, with a shrug of the shoulders. "Let's hope then,that the next cloud-burst will have the kindness to hold off till weget out of this hole. If it caught us here, Frank, I reckon we'd justhave to let our nags shift for themselves, and take to climbing thesides. And wouldn't I hate to lose Domino the worst way; even if hedoes give me a raft of trouble at times?"
Frank patted the satiny flank of Buckskin affectionately, as he said:
"And it would just about break me up if anything happened to thisfellow, Bob. I've tried heaps of mounts, seeing that we always havehundreds on the ranch; but I never threw a leg over one I fancied likemy Buckskin. Why, there are times, Bob, when the game little fellowseems next door to human to me. We understand each other right well.He knows what I'm saying now; listen to him whinny, soft-like, at me."
Possibly Bob, knowing considerable about horses himself, may have had astrong suspicion that the animal understood the touch of his youngmaster's hand much more readily than he did spoken words; but this wasa subject which he never debated with Frank. The latter had a habit oftalking confidentially with his horse, and seemed satisfied to believethe animal understood.
Slowly they made their way along. Now and then Frank would dismount toexamine the rocks and scanty earth that formed the trail over whichthey were passing.
"Always plenty of signs to tell that horses have been going along hereoff'n on, both ways--stacks of 'em," he announced, when perhaps an hourhad elapsed since they left the scene of the encounter with the grizzly.
The ravine, or gully, which he called a _barranca_, had graduallychanged its character. It was now more in the nature of a canyon;though there were still places where the walls, instead of toweringhigh above their heads, sloped gradually upwards.
"Smart horses could easy climb out of here up that rise," remarkedFrank, thoughtfully eyeing one of these places.
"Are you thinking that perhaps we'd better get out with our nags, whilewe have the chance, and leave them, while we keep up the game on foot?"asked Bob, suspecting that his chum might be considering such a move.
"Well," remarked the other, "it stands to reason that our horses aren'tgoing to be of much use in the mountains. If we shook 'em now, we'd beable to climb almost anywhere, and peek into places we'd never be ableto find as long as we stuck to our mounts. So, if you're of the samemind, Bob, we'll try and find a place where we might rope 'em out, an'take the chances of finding 'em again when we're done poking around."
"I hope then, none of the rustlers will run across them while we'reaway," said Bob, as he looked across a deep little pool that lay justat the foot of a very high slope; and then fastened his gaze on apeculiarly twisted cedar that seemed to cling to the bank, half way up.
"Leave that to me, my boy," returned his chum, confidently. "I'll makesure they leave no trail behind to catch the eye of a horseman ridingpast. Besides, we're not dead sure, you know, that the rustlers havereally got a camp around these diggings. P'raps now, they just pushthrough the canyon to get to some other point across the divide. Or itmay be a favorite trail for them to carry off the cattle they rustle.In some hidden valley, you see, they can change the brands; and thenopenly drive the steers to a shipping station on the railroad."
"All right, then," agreed his companion, who was ready to put theutmost faith in any plan proposed by his saddle chum. "We'll keep oureyes peeled for a chance to get the horses out of this place. Here's aslope they might climb, as you say; but it looks as if they'd have toswim that pool first."
"No use trying it," remarked Frank, casting a rapid glance upward towhere, at a distance of possibly a hundred feet, he could see littlebushes growing on the edge of the top of the rise, which slope formedan angle of something like forty-five degrees; "sure to be betterplaces further on, where the holding is firmer."
"And yet," remarked Bob, suddenly, "horses have made this climb only ashort time ago, Frank!"
"What makes you say that?" asked the other, interested at once.
"Why, there are tracks going up slantingly, you see; and even if I amnext door to a greenhorn I can tell that the marks look fresh," Bobdeclared, pointing.
"Say, I take a back seat, Bob," Frank remarked, laughingly. "That'sthe time you saw my lead, and went me one better. Sure there have beenhorses climbing that slope--one, two, three of 'em. And Lopez, he hadonly two; so i
t can hardly be him. I wonder now if that measlytenderfoot, Peg----"
"Look up yonder!" interrupted Bob, suddenly pointing again. "I saw thebushes moving along the edge of the top there. Somebody's got an eyeon us right now, Frank. D'ye reckon it could be one of those rustlers;and would they try to hold us up so as to get our mounts?"
Bob instinctively snatched his rifle, and began to make ademonstration, as though half tempted to shoot. His action looked sodecidedly hostile that it naturally created something of a panic in thebreast of the unknown who was lying concealed behind the fringe ofbushes.
They saw a sudden hasty movement, as though, in alarm, the hidden onehad started to change his position. Then something not down on thebills occurred.
The loose earth at the edge of the top of the long slope seemed to giveway in a treacherous manner. Immediately a human figure came intoview, struggling, clawing desperately, and trying in every way possibleto clutch at something firm in order to halt his downward progress.
But it was all of no avail. A second figure attempted to grasp theimperiled one in time, but evidently failed to secure a firm hold. Andso the fellow started to roll down the slope. He came much after themanner in which a bag of corn might turn over and over. Sometimes hewas head-first; and then again resuming the side motion, he whirledaround in a way that was enough to make anyone dizzy.
All the while he kept letting out shrill squeals of real alarm; asthough the prospect of a final plunge into that deep dark pool at thebase filled him with dread.
By some rare chance the rolling man struck the twisted little cedarthat tried to keep its dying hold on the scanty soil half way up therise. Caught by the seat of his stout trousers on one of the scrubbytree's broken branches, the unfortunate one was suspended in midair,kicking, floundering and yelling at a tremendous rate.
"Say!" exclaimed Frank, when he was able to catch his breath again,"What d'ye think of that, now? Our friend Peg is so glad to see us hecouldn't wait to walk down, but tried to skate. And see what'shappened to him! Next thing he wants is a bath; and I sure reckon he'sdue for one when that cedar pulls out its last root. Wow!"