Boy Ranchers in Death Valley; Or, Diamond X and the Poison Mystery Read online

  CHAPTER III

  ON THE TRAIL

  Slowly the owner of Diamond X began to speak.

  "That's just about what I'd expect of you boys," remarked Mr. Merkelwith a smile as he surveyed the lads. "But I can't let you run yourheads into a noose."

  "That's just what they would be doing if they tried to ride herd inDeath Valley," came ominously from the veteran puncher.

  "Watch me get him!" whispered Bud to his cousins. Then, addressing OldBillee he went on: "I don't reckon, if we hit the trail for Dad's newDot and Dash ranch--I don't reckon you'll come with us; willyou--Billee?" and he drawled the last few words with a wink at Nort andDick.

  "Who, me? Go out there with you if your Pa thinks he'll let you? Isthat what you asted me?" demanded Billee Dobb, sharply.

  "You heard me the first time!" chuckled Bud. "What say?"

  "Course I'll go with you an' you know it!" snapped the old man. "Hu!What you think I am, anyhow?"

  "But you just said you vamoosed from Death Valley because you wereafraid," said Bud.

  "Well, what I mean I _was_ afraid!" admitted Billee. "It was a mightyskeery feelin', I'm tellin' you, to start out in the mornin' an' notknow whether you'd come acrost some dead puncher 'fore you'd riddenhalf way round the herd. I sure was scared!"

  "Then why would you be willing to go back?" asked Nort.

  "To look after you kids--that's why--if so be your Pa thinks it fittento send you out to Dot and Dash. An' you heard me, too, the firsttime!" snapped Billee with a trace of temper which was unusual in hisgentle nature.

  "Well, I don't believe I'm going to send them--that's the answer to onequestion," said Mr. Merkel. "After what you told me, Billee, I can'tsee that it would be wise to take a chance. I'll put up with my loss,and----"

  "Did you pay much for the new ranch, Dad?" asked Bud.

  "Well, I thought I was getting a bargain," his father relied. "Butmaybe I'm going to be left holding the bag after all. It strikes menow that Barter was pretty anxious and quick to sell. I ought to havesmelled a rat, but I didn't. And, by and large, it was a pretty goodsum I paid. But, as I said, I'm willing to lose if----"

  "You aren't going to lose, Uncle Henry!" cried Nort.

  "Not if we have anything to say about it!" chimed in his brother.

  "And you got to count on me!" added Bud.

  "The smallest roosters always have the loudest crow!" chuckled SnakePurdee.

  "Hey, you! Cut that out!" growled Yellin' Kid. "There ain't a yallerstreak in these boys an' you know it!"

  "Course I know it!" chuckled Snake. "I was only kiddin'! Me, I aim togo 'long with 'em an' see what caused them mysterious killin's. Sure,I'm goin'!"

  "Go easy, boys!" chuckled Billee. "If you all leave Diamond X, how'sSlim an' Babe goin' to run things?"

  "Don't fool yourselves!" snapped the lanky foreman. "I run Diamond X'fore any of you fellers ever forked a bronc an' I can do it again."

  "He's got me!" chimed in Babe.

  "Ho! Ho!" chuckled Yellin' Kid. "You must 'a' been readin' the funnypapers!"

  There was an ominous note, now, in some of the voices and Mr. Merkel,knowing how easily tempers of even the best of punchers are ruffled,interposed a soothing word or two.

  "This isn't getting us anywhere," he said. "If what Billee states istrue, and I know he is telling the truth as he sees it, or as he heardit, why, I'm not going to send anybody to Dot and Dash."

  "Oh, Dad!" cried Bud, beseechingly, while Nort and Dick chimed in with:

  "Uncle Henry, we just _got_ to go!"

  "We'll have another talk about it," went on the ranch owner. "This isall news to me, Billee, and surprising news, too. I don't know what todo. I wish I had heard some of these stories before I went to LosPompan."

  "You'd 'a' heard 'em all right if you had asted me," said the old man,thoughtfully scratching his head near where a bald spot was plainlyshowing. "But I had no idea you'd ever locate there."

  "Oh, I won't _locate_ there!" Mr. Merkel made haste to say. "I'd neverlive anywhere else than at Diamond X--my wife wouldn't move. But Ijust have to branch out and this struck me as being a good place tostart."

  "Ain't no better place in all the west for raisin' cattle than theneighborhood of Los Pompan," interposed Billee. "And if it wasn't forwhat happened in Death Valley I'd be there yet."

  "But what, actually, did happen?" asked Bud.

  "That's what I don't know--what nobody knows," said Billee, "and that'swhat makes it all the more mysterious. Shucks! If we could 'a' foundout what caused the deaths it would have been easy to stop it--whetherit was Indians, rustlers or some disease. But we couldn't find out.That was the trouble, boys," and his voice sank to a whisper, "wecouldn't find out."

  "Then we will!" cried Bud.

  "You'll do what?" asked his father.

  "We'll solve the mystery of Death Valley. Come on, Dad," he pleaded,"you just got to let us go!"

  "I'll think about it," was all Mr. Merkel would say, and there was amore serious air about him than he had worn in many a day.

  Gone, now, on the part of the boy ranchers, was any interest they mayhave had in the coming rodeo at Palmo. All their talk and ideascentered about what the ranch owner had told them, and the bad newsblurted out by Billee Dobb. While Mr. Merkel went in the house, wherehe talked to his wife and daughter, speaking only sketchily of theresult of his trip and Billee's remarks, the boys began to question theveteran puncher. It developed that other hands on Diamond X had alsoheard rumors of sinister stories about Dot and Dash.

  "But we never had no reason, before, for speakin' of 'em," remarkedSquinty Lewis. And that, generally, was the sentiment. But though hecould not have guessed his employer was on a mission to Los Pompan,Billee reproached himself for not having sounded a warning.

  "Do you honestly mean to say, Billee," asked Bud while his cousinslistened eagerly, "that there wasn't any way of tellin' how thosepunchers and the cattle died?"

  "Absolutely not, boy!" was the reply. "They'd be all right one day,and the next they'd be dead."

  "Maybe lightning struck 'em," suggested Nort.

  "Lightning leaves a mark," Billee replied. "Besides, these things--Imean the deaths--would happen in clear weather. We didn't have manystorms, though lightning did kill some cows and I remember one puncherwho cashed in his chips that way. He was a nasty looking object, too,let me tell you. But Death Valley don't depend on lightning to getyou. There's some other way."

  "Well, we're going to find out what it is!" declared Bud and hiscousins backed him up so forcefully that, in the end, Mr. Merkel atlast consented to the boy ranchers going to Dot and Dash, at least tolook the place over.

  "I'm not going to ask you to try and sell it for me, so I won't bestuck," the ranchman said after his decision was made. "I'm not goingto palm off a death-dealing place on somebody the way Barter, so itappears, loaded me up with it. But I don't yet admit anything iswrong. However, if you boys find there is, just close up shop andwe'll forget it."

  "No, Dad, we won't!" said Bud in a low voice, but with greatdetermination.

  "What'll you do then?"

  "We'll find that death-dealing ghost and lay him, or her or whatever itis!" cried the lad.

  "And we'll be with you from the drop of the hat until the last gun isfired," cried Nort, while Dick nodded his agreement.

  "Well, I like to hear you talk that way," Mr. Merkel said. "But I dohope nothing happens," he added anxiously, when the boys left to makepreparations for taking the trail to Death Valley.

  "Something is bound to happen!" said Billee, who had been present whenthe decision was made. "But maybe these boys'll be able to beat thegame. They cleaned up the Chinese smugglers and beat the rustlers, sothey may cheat this mysterious death--whatever it is."

  "Hush!" warned Mr. Merkel, for the old man, in the rancher's privateoffice, had spoken rather loudly. "I don't want my wife and Nell tohear. They'd never let the boys go, and I'm not sur
e I should, either."

  "I'm going to be with them," Billee said, as if that meant a lot, andit really did.

  "I'll send Yellin' Kid and Snake Purdee, too," decided Mr. Merkel.

  "Yes," agreed Billee, "and it's going to be hard to beat that bunch.Well, maybe the curse has died out, but I'm afraid not--I'm afraidnot," he added with an ominous shake of his head as he went to thecorral to arrange about selecting the horses for the coming trip.

  Los Pompan was about a week's ride, by easy stages, from Diamond X, andwhile the trip could have been made by train or auto, the boys decidedto take their horses. Considerable in the way of supplies must betaken, and, after all, an auto is not of much use, even theever-dependable flivver, in riding herd, a round-up or cutting out abunch of cattle for shipment. Albeit most of the ranchers owned carswhich came in handy for going to and fro from town, or getting in foodand supplies to the ranch house.

  "We may be able to pick up a cheap, second-hand car after we get outthere," remarked Nort when his brother and Bud were talking plans overwith him a few days before the start. This was after they had decidedto ride their ponies to Death Valley rather than take the rusty andtrusty old Tin Lizzie which they owned and which carried them back andforth between Happy Valley and Diamond X.

  "Yes, we may need a car to run down this mysterious death-dealing forcethat Billee sets such a store by," agreed Bud.

  Final preparations were made. The boy ranchers, with Billee, Snake andYellin' Kid were to take over Dot and Dash. Mrs. Merkel and Nell saidtheir good-byes, happily unaware of the dangerous phase of theundertaking. As for the boys, they would not admit it was dangerous.To them it was a great lark.

  "I only hope they'll sing the same tune after they've seen some of thethings I've seen," remarked Old Billee. "But I'll stick by 'em to thelast!"

  "On our way!" cried Bud, the morning of the start, when their ponieshad been saddled and extra mounts, carrying packs, were loaded withfood and supplies.

  "Hit the trail!" echoed Nort.

  "And we'll come back with its scalp!" added Dick, referring, though notspecifically, to the mystery.

  "Good-bye, boys," said Mr. Merkel in a low voice. "And--take care ofyourselves," he added as he clasped firmly the hands of his son andnephews. "Don't take any risks."

  "No, sir!" they promised. But Mr. Merkel took that for what it wasworth.

  So they were on the trail at last, setting out with high hopes andlight hearts for Death Valley.

  "Where's that outfit heading for?" asked a passing puncher from CircleT ranch, the nearest to Diamond X, and a place owned by Thomas Ogden,who was quite friendly with Mr. Merkel.

  "That outfit?" questioningly repeated Babe Milton, sizing up the manand noting that he was a stranger, "that bunch is going to Los Pompanto take over a new ranch the boss bought." It was no secret--half thepeople around Palmo knew what Mr. Merkel had done, though they had notheard the sinister reports of Death Valley.

  "To Los Pompan, eh?" murmured the puncher, looking at the cloud of dustwhich hovered over the cavalcade of the boy ranchers. "Los Pompan,"and he seemed unusually interested.

  "Know anything about it?" asked Babe.

  "Who, me? Not a thing!" and, putting spurs to his mount he was off andaway.

  "I don't want to be impolite," murmured Babe as he watched the puncherdisappear in a cloud of dust, "but I think you're a liar!"

  Meanwhile the boy ranchers were on the trail. What they would find inDeath Valley not even Billee Dobb could tell.