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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hopalong Cassidy, by Clarence E. Mulford
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Hopalong Cassidy
+
+Author: Clarence E. Mulford
+
+Release Date: December 6, 2011 [EBook #38234]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOPALONG CASSIDY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Janet Kegg, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    Hopalong Cassidy
+
+    BY
+
+    Clarence E. Mulford
+
+
+    Author of
+    The BAR-20 THREE, "TEX", Etc.
+
+    GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers
+
+    By arrangement with A. C. McClurg & Co.
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT
+    BY A. C. MCCLURG & CO.
+    1910
+
+    Published March 12, 1910
+    Second Edition, March 19, 1910
+    Third Edition, March 26, 1910
+    Fourth Edition, May 28, 1910
+    Fifth Edition, July 9, 1910
+    Sixth Edition, January 28, 1911
+
+    Entered at Stationers' Hall, London
+
+    _All Rights Reserved_
+
+
+    _Affectionately Dedicated
+    to My Father_
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER
+
+          I. ANTONIO'S SCHEME
+         II. MARY MEEKER RIDES NORTH
+        III. THE ROUNDUP
+         IV. IN WEST ARROYO
+          V. HOPALONG ASSERTS HIMSELF
+         VI. MEEKER IS TOLD
+        VII. HOPALONG MEETS MEEKER
+       VIII. ON THE EDGE OF THE DESERT
+         IX. ON THE PEAK
+          X. BUCK VISITS MEEKER
+         XI. THREE IS A CROWD
+        XII. HOBBLE BURNS AND SLEEPERS
+       XIII. HOPALONG GROWS SUSPICIOUS
+        XIV. THE COMPROMISE
+         XV. ANTONIO MEETS FRIENDS
+        XVI. THE FEINT
+       XVII. PETE IS TRICKED
+      XVIII. THE LINE HOUSE RE-CAPTURED
+        XIX. ANTONIO LEAVES THE H2
+         XX. WHAT THE DAM TOLD
+        XXI. HOPALONG RIDES SOUTH
+       XXII. LUCAS VISITS THE PEAK
+      XXIII. HOPALONG AND RED GO SCOUTING
+       XXIV. RED'S DISCOMFITURE
+        XXV. ANTONIO'S REVENGE
+       XXVI. FRISCO VISITS EAGLE
+      XXVII. SHAW HAS VISITORS
+     XXVIII. NEVADA JOINS SHAW
+       XXIX. SURROUNDED
+        XXX. UP THE WALL
+       XXXI. FORTUNE SNICKERS AT DOC
+      XXXII. NATURE TAKES A HAND
+     XXXIII. DOC TRAILS
+      XXXIV. DISCOVERIES
+       XXXV. JOHNNY TAKES THE HUT
+      XXXVI. THE LAST NIGHT
+     XXXVII. THEIR LAST FIGHT
+    XXXVIII. A DISAGREEABLE TASK
+      XXXIX. THIRST
+         XL. CHANGES
+        XLI. HOPALONG'S REWARD
+
+
+
+
+HOPALONG CASSIDY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ANTONIO'S SCHEME
+
+
+The raw and mighty West, the greatest stage in all the history of the
+world for so many deeds of daring which verged on the insane, was
+seared and cross-barred with grave-lined trails and dotted with
+presumptuous, mushroom towns of brief stay, whose inhabitants flung
+their primal passions in the face of humanity and laughed in
+condescending contempt at what humanity had to say about it. In many
+localities the real bad-man, the man of the gun, whose claims to the
+appellation he was ready to prove against the rancorous doubting of
+all comers, made history in a terse and business-like way, and also
+made the first law for the locality--that of the gun.
+
+There were good bad-men and bad bad-men, the killer by necessity and
+the wanton murderer; and the shifting of these to their proper strata
+evolved the foundation for the law of to-day. The good bad-men, those
+in whose souls lived the germs of law and order and justice, gradually
+became arrayed against the other class, and stood up manfully for
+their principles, let the odds be what they might; and bitter,
+indeed, was the struggle, and great the price.
+
+From the gold camps of the Rockies to the shrieking towns of the
+coast, where wantonness stalked unchecked; from the vast stretches of
+the cattle ranges to the ever-advancing terminals of the persistent
+railroads, to the cow towns, boiling and seething in the loosed
+passions of men who brooked no restraint in their revels, no one
+section of country ever boasted of such numbers of genuine bad-men of
+both classes as the great, semi-arid Southwest. Here was one of the
+worst collections of raw humanity ever broadcast in one locality; here
+the crack of the gun would have sickened except that moralists were
+few and the individual so calloused and so busy in protecting his own
+life and wiping out his own scores that he gave no heed to the sum
+total of the killings; it was a word and a shot, a shot and a laugh or
+a curse.
+
+In this red setting was stuck a town which we will call Eagle, the
+riffle which caught all the dregs of passing humanity, where men
+danced as souls were freed. Unmapped, known only to those who had
+visited it, it reared its flimsy buildings in the face of God and
+rioted day and night with no thought of reckoning; mad, insane with
+hellishness unlimited.
+
+Late in the afternoon of a glorious day towards this town rode
+Antonio, "broncho-buster" for the H2, a Mexican of little courage,
+much avarice, and great capacity for hatred. Crafty, filled with
+cunning of the coyote kind, shifty-eyed, gloomy, taciturn, and
+scowling, he was well fitted for the part he had elected to play in
+the range dispute between his ranch and the Bar-20. He was absolutely
+without mercy or conscience; indeed, one might aptly say that his
+conscience, if he had ever known one, had been pulled out by the roots
+and its place filled with viciousness. Cold-blooded in his ferocity,
+easily angered and quick to commit murder if the risk were small, he
+embraced within his husk of soul the putrescence of all that was evil.
+
+In Eagle he had friends who were only a shade less evil than himself;
+but they had what he lacked and because of it were entitled to a
+forced respect of small weight--they had courage, that spontaneous,
+initiative, heedless courage which toned the atmosphere of the whole
+West to a magnificent crimson. Were it not for the reason that they
+had drifted to his social level they would have spurned his
+acquaintance and shot him for a buzzard; but, while they secretly held
+him in great contempt for his cowardice, they admired his criminal
+cunning, and profited by it. He was too wise to show himself in the
+true light to his foreman and the outfit, knowing full well that death
+would be the response, and so lived a lie until he met his friends of
+the town, when he threw off his cloak and became himself, and where he
+plotted against the man who treated him fairly.
+
+Riding into the town, he stopped before a saloon and slouched in to
+the bar, where the proprietor was placing a new stock of liquors on
+the shelves.
+
+"Where's Benito, an' th' rest?" he asked.
+
+"Back there," replied the other; nodding toward a rear room.
+
+"Who's in there?"
+
+"Benito, Hall, Archer an' Frisco."
+
+"Where's Shaw?"
+
+"Him an' Clausen an' Cavalry went out 'bout ten minutes ago."
+
+"I want to see 'em when they come in," Antonio remarked, shambling
+towards the door, where he listened, and then went in.
+
+In the small room four men were grouped around a table, drinking and
+talking, and at his entry they looked up and nodded. He nodded in
+reply and seated himself apart from them, where he soon became wrapped
+in thought.
+
+Benito arose and went to the door. "_Mescal, pronto_," he said to the
+man outside.
+
+"D----d _pronto_, too," growled Antonio. "A man would die of alkali in
+this place before he's waited on."
+
+The proprietor brought a bottle and filled the glasses, giving Antonio
+his drink first, and silently withdrew.
+
+The broncho-buster tossed off the fiery stuff and then turned his
+shifty eyes on the group. "Where's Shaw?"
+
+"Don't know--back soon," replied Benito.
+
+"Why didn't he wait, when he knowed I was comin' in?"
+
+Hall leaned back from the table and replied, keenly watching the
+inquisitor, "Because he don't give a d--n."
+
+"You----!" shouted the Mexican, half arising, but the others
+interfered and he sank back again, content to let it pass. But not so
+Hall, whose Colt was half drawn.
+
+"I'll kill you some day, you whelp," he gritted, but before anything
+could come of it Shaw and his companions entered the room and the
+trouble was quelled.
+
+Soon the group was deep in discussion over the merits of a scheme
+which Antonio unfolded to them, and the more it was weighed the better
+it appeared. Finally Shaw leaned back and filled his pipe. "You've got
+th' brains of th' devil, 'Tony."
+
+"Eet ees not'ing," replied Antonio.
+
+"Oh, drop that lingo an' talk straight--you ain't on th' H2 now,"
+growled Hall.
+
+"Benito, you know this country like a book," Shaw continued. "Where's
+a good place for us to work from, or ain't there no choice?"
+
+"Thunder Mesa."
+
+"Well, what of it?"
+
+"On de edge of de desert, high, beeg. De walls are stone, an' so ver'
+smooth. Nobody can get up."
+
+"How can we get up then?"
+
+"There's a trail at one end," replied Antonio, crossing his legs and
+preparing to roll a cigarette. "It's too steep for cayuses, an' too
+narrow; but we can crawl up. An' once up, all h--l can't follow as
+long as our cartridges hold out."
+
+"Water?" inquired Frisco.
+
+"At th' bottom of th' trail, an' th' spring is on top," Antonio
+replied. "Not much, but enough."
+
+"Can you work yore end all right?" asked Shaw.
+
+"_Si_," laughed the other. "I am 'that fool, Antonio,' on th' ranch.
+But they're th' fools. We can steal them blind an' if they find it
+out--well," here he shrugged his shoulders, "th' Bar-20 can take th'
+blame. I'll fix that, all right. This trouble about th' line is just
+what I've been waitin' for, an' I'll help it along. If we can get 'em
+fightin' we'll run off with th' bone _we_ want. That'll be easy."
+
+"But can you get 'em fightin'?" asked Cavalry, so called because he
+had spent several years in that branch of the Government service, and
+deserted because of the discipline.
+
+Antonio laughed and ordered more _mescal_ and for some time took no
+part in the discussion which went on about him. He was dreaming of
+success and plenty and a ranch of his own which he would start in Old
+Mexico, in a place far removed from the border, and where no questions
+would be asked. He would be a rich man, according to the standards of
+that locality, and what he said would be law among the peons. He liked
+to daydream, for everything came out just as he wished; there was no
+discordant note. He was so certain of success, so conceited as not to
+ask himself if any of the Bar-20 or H2 outfits were not his equal or
+superior in intelligence. It was only a matter of time, he told
+himself, for he could easily get the two ranches embroiled in a range
+war, and once embroiled, his plan would succeed and he would be safe.
+
+"What do you want for your share, 'Tony?" suddenly asked Shaw.
+
+"Half."
+
+"What! _Half?_"
+
+"_Si._"
+
+"You're loco!" cried the other. "Do you reckon we're going to buck up
+agin th' biggest an' hardest fightin' outfit in this country an' take
+all sorts of chances for a measly half, to be divided up among seven
+of us!" He brought his fist down on the table with a resounding thump.
+"You an' yore game can go to h--l first!" he shouted.
+
+"I like a hog, all right," sneered Clausen, angrily.
+
+"I thought it out an' I got to look after th' worst an' most important
+part of it, an' take three chances to you fellers' one," replied
+Antonio, frowning. "I said half, an' it goes."
+
+"Run all th' ends, an' keep it all," exclaimed Hall. "An', by God,
+we've got a hand in it, now. If you try to hog it we'll drop a word
+where it'll do th' most good, an' don't you forget it, neither."
+
+"Anton ees right," asserted Benito, excitedly. "Eet ees one reesk for
+Anton."
+
+"Keep yore yaller mouth shut," growled Cavalry. "Who gave you any say
+in this?"
+
+"Half," said Antonio, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Look here, you," cried Shaw, who was, in reality, the leader of the
+crowd, inasmuch as he controlled all the others with the exception of
+Benito and Antonio, and these at times by the judicious use of
+flattery. "We'll admit that you've got a right to th' biggest share,
+but not to no half. You have a chance to get away, because you can
+watch 'em, but how about us, out there on th' edge of h--l? If they
+come for us we won't know nothing about it till we're surrounded. Now
+we want to play square with you, an' we'll give you twice as much as
+any one of th' rest of us. That'll make nine shares an' give you two
+of 'em. What more do you want, when you've got to have us to run th'
+game at all?"
+
+Antonio laughed ironically. "Yes. I'm where I can watch, an' get
+killed first. You can hold th' mesa for a month. I ain't as easy as I
+look. It's my game, not yourn; an' if you don't like what I ask, stay
+out."
+
+"We will!" cried Hall, arising, followed by the others. His hand
+rested on the butt of his revolver and trouble seemed imminent. Benito
+wavered and then slid nearer to Antonio. "You can run yore game all by
+yore lonesome, as _long_ as you _can_!" Hall shouted. "I know a feller
+what knows Cassidy, an' I'll spoil yore little play right now. You'll
+look nice at th' end of a rope, won't you? It's this: share like Shaw
+said or get out of here, an' look out for trouble a-plenty to-morrow
+morning. I've put up with yore gall an' swallered yore insultin'
+actions just as long as I'm going to, an' I've got a powerful notion
+to fix you right here and now!"
+
+"No fightin', you fools!" cried the proprietor, grabbing his Colt and
+running to the door of the room. "It's up to you fellers to stick
+together!"
+
+"I'll be d----d if I'll stand--" began Frisco.
+
+"They want too much," interrupted Antonio, angrily, keeping close
+watch over Hall.
+
+"We want a fair share, an' that's all!" retorted Shaw. "Sit down, all
+of you. We can wrastle this out without no gun-play."
+
+"You-all been yappin' like a set of fools," said the proprietor. "I've
+heard every word you-all said. If you got a mite of sense you'll be
+some tender how you shout about it. It's shore risky enough without
+tellin' everybody this side of sun-up."
+
+"I mean just what I said," asserted Hall. "It's Shaw's offer, or
+nothin'. We ain't playing fool for no Greaser. _Yes_, that's th'
+word--Greaser!" he repeated in answer to Antonio's exclamation. "If
+you don't like it, lump it!"
+
+"Here! Here!" cried Shaw, pushing Hall into a seat. "If you two have
+got anything to settle, wait till some other time."
+
+"That's more like it," growled the proprietor, shuffling back to the
+bar.
+
+"Good Lord, 'Tony," cried Shaw in a low voice. "That's fair enough;
+we've got a right to something, ain't we? Don't let a good thing fall
+through just because you want th' whole earth. Better have a little
+than none."
+
+"Well, gimme a third, then."
+
+"I'll give you a slug in th' eye, you hog!" promised Hall, starting to
+rise again, but Shaw held him back. "Sit down, you fool!" he ordered,
+angrily. Then he turned to the Mexican. "Third don't go; take my offer
+or leave it."
+
+"Gimme a fourth; that's fair enough."
+
+Shaw thought for a moment and then looked up. "Well, that's more like
+it. What do you say, fellers?"
+
+"No!" cried Hall. "Two-ninths, or nothin'!"
+
+"A fourth is two-eighths, only a little more," Shaw replied.
+
+"Well, all right," muttered Hall, sullenly.
+
+"That ees ver' good," laughed Benito, glad that things were clearing.
+All his sympathies were with his countryman, but he hesitated to take
+his part in the face of such odds.
+
+The others gave their consent to the division and Shaw smiled. "Well,
+that's more like it. Now we'll go into this thing an' sift it out.
+Keep mum about it--there's twenty men in town that would want to join
+us if they knowed."
+
+"I'm goin' to be boss; what I say goes," spoke up Antonio. "It's my
+game an' I'm takin' th' most risky end."
+
+"You ain't got sand enough to be boss of anything," sneered Hall.
+"Yore sand is chalk."
+
+"You'll say too much someday," retorted Antonio, glaring.
+
+"Oh, not to _you_, I reckon," rejoined Hall, easily.
+
+"Shut up, both of you!" snapped Shaw. "You can be boss, 'Tony," he
+said, winking at Hall. "You've got more brains for a thing like this
+than any of us. I don't see how you can figger it out like you do."
+
+Antonio laughed in a self-satisfied way, for it was pleasant to hear
+such an admission from the lips of a Gringo, and he was ready to
+discuss things in a better spirit. But he remembered one thing, and
+swore to take payment if the plan leaked out; the proprietor had
+confessed hearing every word, which was not at all to his liking. If
+Quinn should tell, well, Quinn would die; he would see to that, he and
+Benito.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MARY MEEKER RIDES NORTH
+
+
+Mary Meeker, daughter of the H2 owner and foreman, found pleasure in
+riding on little tours of investigation. She had given the southern
+portions her attention first and found, after the newness had worn
+off, that she did not care for the level, sandy stretches of
+half-desert land which lay so flat for miles. The prospect was always
+the same, always uninteresting and wearying and hot. Now she
+determined upon a step which she had wished to take for a long time,
+and her father's request that she should not take it grew less and
+less of a deterrent factor. He had given so much thought and worry to
+that mysterious valley, dropped so many remarks about it, that she at
+last gave rein to her curiosity and made ready to see for herself. It
+was green and hilly, like the rugged Montana she had quitted to come
+down to the desert, and it should be a small Montana to her. There
+were hills of respectable size, for these she saw daily from the ranch
+house door, and she loved hills; anything would be better than the
+limitless sand.
+
+She had known little of restraint; her corner of the world had been
+filled entirely by men and she had absorbed much of their better
+traits. Self-reliant as a cowgirl should be, expert with either Colt
+or Winchester, and at home in the saddle, she feared nothing the
+desert might hold, except thirst. She was not only expert with
+weapons, but she did not fear to use them against men, as she had
+proved on one occasion in wild Montana. So she would ride to the hills
+which called her so insistently and examine the valley.
+
+One bright morning just before the roundup began she went to the
+corral and looked at her horse, a cross between Kentucky stock and
+cow-pony and having in a great degree the speed of the first and the
+hardiness of the last, and sighed to think that she could not ride it
+for days to come. Teuton was crippled and she must choose some other
+animal. She had overheard Doc Riley tell Ed Joyce that the piebald in
+the smaller corral was well broken, and this was the horse she would
+take. The truth of the matter was that the piebald was crafty and
+permitted the saddle to be fixed and himself ridden for varying
+periods of time before showing what he thought of such things. Doc,
+unprepared for the piebald's sudden change in demeanor, had taken a
+tumble, which made him anxious to have his wounded conceit soothed by
+seeing Ed Joyce receive the same treatment.
+
+Mary found no trouble in mounting and riding the animal and she was
+glad that she had overheard Doc, for now she had two horses which were
+thoroughly reliable, although, of course, Teuton was the only really
+good horse on the range. She rode out of the corral and headed for the
+White Horse Hills, scarcely twelve miles away. What if her father had
+warned her not to ride near the lawless punchers who rode the northern
+range? They were only men and she was sure that to a woman they would
+prove to be gentlemen.
+
+The southern boundary of the Bar-20 ran along the top of the hills and
+from them east to the river, and it was being patrolled by three
+Bar-20 punchers, Hopalong, Johnny, and Red, all on the lookout for
+straying cattle of both ranches. Neither Hopalong nor Red had ever
+seen Mary Meeker, but Johnny had upon the occasion of his scout over
+the H2 range, and he had felt eminently qualified to describe her. He
+had finished his eulogistic monologue by asserting that as soon as his
+more unfortunate friends saw her they would lose sleep and sigh often,
+which prophecy was received in various ways and called forth widely
+differing comment. Red had snorted outright and Pete swore to learn
+that a woman was on the range; for Pete had been married, and his wife
+preferred another man. Hopalong, remembering a former experience of
+his own, smiled in knowing cynicism when told that he again would fall
+under the feminine spell.
+
+Red was near the river and Johnny half-way to the hills when Hopalong
+began the ascent of Long Hill, wondering why it was that Meeker had
+made no attempt to cross the boundary in force and bring on a crisis;
+and from Meeker his mind turned to the daughter.
+
+"So there's a woman down here now," he muttered, riding down into an
+arroyo and up the other bank. "This country is gettin' as bad as
+Kansas, d----d if it ain't. First thing we know it'll be nursin'
+bottles an' school houses, an' h--l loose all th' time instead of once
+in a while."
+
+He heard hoofbeats and glanced up quickly, alert and ready for
+trouble, for who would be riding where he was but some H2 puncher?
+
+"What th'----!" he exclaimed under his breath, for riding towards him
+at an angle was Mary Meeker; and Johnny was wrong in his description
+of her, but, he thought, the Kid had done as well as his limited
+vocabulary would allow. She _was_ pretty, pretty as--she was more than
+pretty!
+
+She had seen him at the same time and flashed a quick glance which
+embraced everything; and she was surprised, for he was not only
+passably good-looking, barring the red hair, but very different from
+the men her father had told her made up the outfit of the Bar-20. He
+removed his sombrero instantly and drew up to let her pass, a queer
+expression on his face. Yes, he thought, Johnny had wronged her, for
+no other woman could have such jet-black hair crowning such a face.
+
+"By God!" he whispered, and went no farther, for that was the summing
+up of his whole opinion of her.
+
+"He _is_ a gentleman," she thought triumphantly, for he had proved
+that she was right in her surmise regarding the men of the northern
+ranch. She spurred to pass him and then her piebald took part in the
+proceedings. The prick of the spur awakened in him a sudden desire to
+assert his rights, and he promptly pitched to make up for his hitherto
+gentle behavior. So taken up with what the last minute had brought
+forth she was unprepared for the vicious bucking and when she opened
+her eyes her head was propped against Hopalong's knee and her face
+dripping with the contents of his canteen.
+
+"D--n yore ugly skin!" he was saying to the piebald, which stood
+quietly a short distance away, evidently enjoying the result of his
+activity. "Just you wait! I'll show you what's due to come yore way
+purty soon!" He turned again to the woman and saw that her eyes were
+closed as before. "By God, yore--yore beautiful!" he exclaimed
+triumphantly, for he had found the word at last.
+
+She moved slightly and color came into her cheeks with a sudden rush
+and he watched her anxiously. Soon she moved again and then, opening
+her eyes, struggled to gain her feet. He helped her up and held her
+until she drew away from him.
+
+"What was it?" she asked.
+
+"That ugly cayuse went an' pitched when you wasn't lookin' for it," he
+told her. "Are you hurt much?"
+
+"No, just dizzy. I don't want to make you no trouble," she replied.
+
+"You ain't makin' me any trouble, not a bit," he assured her
+earnestly. "But I'd like to make some trouble for that ornery cayuse
+of yourn. Let me tone him down some."
+
+"No; it was my fault. I should 'a been looking--I never rode him
+before."
+
+"Well, you've got to take my cayuse to get home on," he said. "He's
+bad, but he's a regular angel when stacked up agin that bronc. I'll
+ride the festive piebald, an' we can trade when you get home." Under
+his breath he said, "Oh, just wait till I get on you, you wall-eyed
+pinto! I'll give you what you need, all right!"
+
+"Thank you, but I can ride him now that I know just what he is," she
+said, her eyes flashing with determination. "I've never let a bronc
+get th' best of me in th' long run, an' I ain't goin' to begin now. I
+came up here to look at th' hills an' th' valley, an' I'm not going
+back home till I've done it."
+
+"That's th' way to talk!" he cried in admiration. "I'll get him for
+you," he finished, swinging into his saddle. He loosened the lariat at
+the saddle horn while he rode towards the animal, which showed sudden
+renewed interest in the proceedings, but it tarried too long. Just as
+it wheeled and leaped forward the rope settled and the next thing it
+knew was that the sky had somehow slid under its stomach, for it had
+been thrown over backward and flat on its back. When it had struggled
+to its feet it found Hopalong astride it, spurring vigorously on the
+side farthest from Mary, and for five minutes the air was greatly
+disturbed. At the end of that time he dismounted and led a penitent
+pony to its mistress, who vaulted lightly into the saddle and waited
+for her companion to mount. When he had joined her they rode up the
+hill together side by side.
+
+Johnny, shortly after he had passed Hopalong on the line, wished to
+smoke and felt for his tobacco pouch, which he found to be empty. He
+rode on for a short distance, angry with himself for his neglect, and
+then remembered that Hopalong had a plentiful supply. He could
+overtake the man on the hill much quicker than he could Red, who had
+said that he was going to ride south along the river to see if Jumping
+Bear Creek was dry. If it were, Meeker could be expected to become
+active in his aggression. Johnny wheeled and cantered back along the
+boundary trail, alertly watching for trespassing cattle.
+
+It was not long before he came within sight of the thicket which stood
+a little east of the base of Long Hill, and he nearly fell from the
+saddle in astonishment, for his friend was on the ground, holding a
+woman's head on his knee! Johnny didn't care to intrude, and
+cautiously withdrew to the shelter of the small chaparral, where he
+waited impatiently. Wishing to stretch his legs, he dismounted and
+picketed his horse and walked around the thicket until satisfied that
+he was out of sight of his friend.
+
+Suddenly he fancied that he heard something suspicious and he crept
+back around the thicket, keeping close to its base. When he turned the
+corner he saw the head of a man on the other side of the chaparral
+which lay a little southwest of his position. It was Antonio, and he
+was intently watching the two on the slope of the hill, and entirely
+unaware that he was being watched in turn.
+
+Johnny carefully drew his Colt and covered the Mexican, for he hated
+"Greasers" instinctively, but on Antonio he lavished a hatred far
+above the stock kind. He had seen the shifty-eyed broncho-buster on
+more than one occasion and never without struggling with himself to
+keep from shooting. Now his finger pressed gently against the trigger
+of the weapon and he wished for a passable excuse to send the other
+into eternity; but Antonio gave him no cause, only watching eagerly
+and intently, his face set in such an expression of malignancy as to
+cause Johnny's finger to tremble.
+
+Johnny arose slightly until he could see Hopalong and his companion
+and he smothered an exclamation. "Gosh A'mighty!" he whispered, again
+watching the Mexican. "That's Meeker's gal or I'm a liar! Th'
+son-of-a-gun, keeping quiet about it all this time. An' no wonder th'
+Greaser's on th' trail!"
+
+It was not long before Johnny looked again for Hopalong and saw him
+riding up the hill with his companion. Then he crept forward, watching
+the Mexican closely, his Colt ready for instant use. Antonio slowly
+drew down until he was lost to sight of the Bar-20 puncher, who ran
+swiftly forward and gained the side of the other thicket, where he
+again crept forward, and around the chaparral. When he next caught
+sight of the broncho-buster the latter was walking towards his horse
+and his back was turned to Johnny.
+
+"Hey, you!" called the Bar-20 puncher, arising and starting after the
+other.
+
+Antonio wheeled, leaped to one side and half drew his revolver, but he
+was covered and he let the weapon slide back into the holster.
+
+"What was you doing?"
+
+Antonio's reply was a scowl and his inquisitor continued without
+waiting for words from the other.
+
+"Never mind that, for I saw what you was doing," Johnny said. "An' I
+shore knew what you wanted to do, because I came near doing it to you.
+Now it ain't a whole lot healthy for you to go snooping around this
+line like you was, for I'll plug you on suspicion next time. Get on
+that cayuse of yourn an' hit th' trail south--go on, make tracks!"
+
+The Mexican mounted and slowly wheeled. "You hab drop, now," he said
+significantly. "Nex' time, _quien sabe_?"
+
+Johnny dropped his Colt into the holster and removed his hand from the
+butt. "You're a liar!" he shouted, savagely. "I ain't got th' drop.
+It's an even break, an' what are you going to do about it?"
+
+Antonio shrugged his shoulders and rode on without replying, quite
+content to let things stand as they were. He had learned something
+which he might be able to use to advantage later on and he had
+strained the situation just a little more.
+
+"Huh! Next time!" snorted Johnny in contempt as he turned to go back
+to his horse. "It'll allus be 'nex' time' with that Greaser, 'less he
+gets a good pot shot at me, which he won't. He ain't got sand enough
+to put up a square fight. Now for Red; he'll shore be riding this way
+purty soon, an' that'll never do. Hoppy won't want anybody foolin'
+around th' hills for a while, lucky devil."
+
+More than an hour had passed before he met Red and he forthwith told
+him that he had caught the Mexican scouting on foot along the line.
+
+"I ain't none surprised, Kid," Red replied, frowning. "You've seen how
+th' H2 cows are being driven north agin us an' that means we'll be
+tolerable busy purty soon. Th' Jumping Bear is dry as tinder, an' it
+won't be long before Meeker'll be driving to get in th' valley."
+
+"Well, I'm some glad of that," Johnny replied, frankly. "It's been
+peaceful too blamed long down here. Come on, we'll ride east an' see
+if we can find any cows to turn. Hey! Look there!" he cried, spurring
+forward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE ROUNDUP
+
+
+The Texan sky seemed a huge mirror upon which were reflected the white
+fleecy clouds sailing northward; the warm spring air was full of that
+magnetism which calls forth from their earthy beds the gramma grass
+and the flowers; the scant vegetation had taken on new dress and
+traces of green now showed against the more sombre-colored stems;
+while in the distance, rippling in glistening patches where, disturbed
+by the wind, the river sparkled like a tinsel ribbon flung carelessly
+on the grays and greens of the plain. Birds winged their joyous way
+and filled the air with song; and far overhead a battalion of tardy
+geese flew, arrow-like, towards the cool lakes of the north, their
+faint honking pathetic and continuous. Skulking in the coulees or
+speeding across the skyline of some distant rise occasionally could be
+seen a coyote or gray wolf. The cattle, less gregarious than they had
+been in the colder months, made tentative sorties from the lessening
+herd, and began to stray off in search of the tender green grass which
+pushed up recklessly from the closely cropped, withered tufts.
+Rattlesnakes slid out and uncoiled their sinuous lengths in the warm
+sunlight, and copperheads raised their burnished armor from their
+winter retreats. All nature had felt the magic touch of the warm
+winds, and life in its multitudinous forms was discernible on all
+sides. The gaunt tragedy of a hard winter for that southern range had
+added its chilling share to the horrors of the past and now the cattle
+took heart and lost their weakness in the sunlight, hungry but
+contented.
+
+The winter had indeed been hard, one to be remembered for years to
+come, and many cattle had died because of it; many skeletons, stripped
+clean by coyotes and wolves, dotted the arroyos and coulees. The cold
+weather had broken suddenly, and several days of rain, followed by
+sleet, had drenched the cattle thoroughly. Then from out of the north
+came one of those unusual rages of nature, locally known as a
+"Norther," freezing pitilessly; and the cattle, weakened by cold and
+starvation, had dumbly succumbed to this last blow. Their backs were
+covered with an icy shroud, and the deadly cold gripped their vitals
+with a power not to be resisted. A glittering sheet formed over the
+grasses as far as eye could see, and the cattle, unlike the horses,
+not knowing enough to stamp through it, nosed in vain at the
+sustenance beneath, until weakness compelled them to lie down in the
+driving snow, and once down, they never arose. The storm had raged for
+the greater part of a week, and then suddenly one morning the sun
+shown down on a velvety plain, blinding in its whiteness; and when
+spring had sent the snow mantle roaring through the arroyos and water
+courses in a turmoil of yellow water and driftwood, and when the range
+riders rode forth to read the losses on the plain, the remaining
+cattle were staggering weakly in search of food. Skeletons in the
+coulees told the story of the hopeless fight, how the unfortunate
+cattle had drifted before the wind to what shelter they could find and
+how, huddled together for warmth, they had died one by one. The valley
+along Conroy Creek had provided a rough shelter with its scattered
+groves and these had stopped the cattle drift, so much dreaded by
+cowmen.
+
+It had grieved Buck Peters and his men to the heart to see so many
+cattle swept away in one storm, but they had done all that courage and
+brains could do to save them. So now, when the plain was green again
+and the warm air made riding a joy, they were to hold the calf
+roundup. When Buck left his blanket after the first night spent in the
+roundup camp and rode off to the horse herd, he smiled from suppressed
+elation, and was glad that he was alive.
+
+Peaceful as the scene appeared there was trouble brewing, and it was
+in expectation of this that Buck had begun the roundup earlier than
+usual. The unreasoning stubbornness of one man, and the cunning
+machinations of a natural rogue, threatened to bring about, from what
+should have been only a misunderstanding, as pretty a range war as the
+Southwest had seen. Those immediately involved were only a few when
+compared to the number which might eventually be brought into the
+strife, but if this had been pointed out to Jim Meeker he would have
+replied that he "didn't give a d--n."
+
+Jim Meeker was a Montana man who thought to carry out on the H2 range,
+of which he was foreman, the same system of things which had served
+where he had come from. This meant trouble right away, for the Bar-20,
+already short in range, would not stand idly by and see him encroach
+upon their land for grass and water, more especially when he broke a
+solemn compact as to range rights which had been made by the former
+owners of the H2 with the Bar-20. It meant not only the forcible use
+of Bar-20 range, but also a great hardship upon the herds for which
+Buck Peters was responsible.
+
+Meeker's obstinacy was covertly prodded by Antonio for his own
+personal gains, but this the Bar-20 foreman did not know; if he had
+known it there would have been much trouble averted, and one more
+Mexican sent to the spirit world.
+
+Buck Peters was probably the only man of all of them who realized just
+what such a war would mean, to what an extent rustling would flourish
+while the cowmen fought. His best efforts had been used to avert
+trouble, so far successfully; but that he would continue to do so was
+doubtful. He had an outfit which, while meaning to obey him in all
+things and to turn from any overt act of war, was not of the kind to
+stand much forcing or personal abuse; their nervous systems were
+constructed on the hair-trigger plan, and their very loyalty might set
+the range ablaze with war. However, on this most perfect of mornings
+Meeker's persistent aggression did not bother him, he was free from
+worry for the time.
+
+Just north of Big Coulee, in which was a goodly sized water hole, a
+group of blanket-swathed figures lay about a fire near the chuck
+wagon, while the sleepy cook prepared breakfast for his own outfit,
+and for the eight men which the foreman of the C80 and the Double
+Arrow had insisted upon Buck taking. The sun had not yet risen, but
+the morning glow showed gray over the plain, and it would not be long
+before the increasing daylight broke suddenly. The cook fires crackled
+and blazed steadily, the iron pots hissing under their dancing and
+noisy lids, while the coffee pots bubbled and sent up an aromatic
+steam, and the odor of freshly baked biscuits swept forth as the cook
+uncovered a pan. A pile of tin plates was stacked on the tail-board of
+the wagon while a large sheet-iron pail contained tin cups. The
+figures, feet to the fire, looked like huge, grotesque cocoons, for
+the men had rolled themselves in their blankets, their heads resting
+on their saddles, and in many cases folded sombreros next to the
+leather made softer pillows.
+
+Back of the chuck wagon the eastern sky grew rapidly brighter, and
+suddenly daylight in all its power dissipated the grayish light of the
+moment before. As the rim of the golden sun arose above the low sand
+hills to the east the foreman rode into camp. Some distance behind him
+Harry Jones and two other C80 men drove up the horse herd and enclosed
+it in a flimsy corral quickly extemporized from lariats; flimsy it
+was, but it sufficed for cow-ponies that had learned the lesson of the
+rope.
+
+"All ready, Buck," called Harry before his words were literally true.
+
+With assumed ferocity but real vociferation Buck uttered a shout and
+watched the effect. The cocoons became animated, stirred and rapidly
+unrolled, with the exception of one, and the sleepers leaped to their
+feet and folded the blankets. The exception stirred, subsided, stirred
+again and then was quiet. Buck and Red stepped forward while the
+others looked on grinning to see the fun, grasped the free end of the
+blanket and suddenly straightened up, their hands going high above
+their heads. Johnny Nelson, squawking, rolled over and over and, with
+a yell of surprise, sat bolt upright and felt for his gun.
+
+"Huh!" he snorted. "Reckon yo're smart, don't you!"
+
+"Purty near a shore 'nuf pin-wheel, Kid," laughed Red.
+
+"Don't you care, Johnny; you can finish it to-night," consoled Frenchy
+McAllister, now one of Buck's outfit.
+
+"Breakfast, Kid, breakfast!" sang out Hopalong as he finished drying
+his face.
+
+The breakfast was speedily out of the way, and pipes were started for
+a short smoke as the punchers walked over to the horse herd to make
+their selections. By exercising patience, profanity, and perseverance
+they roped their horses and began to saddle up. Ed Porter, of the
+C80, and Skinny Thompson, Bar-20, cast their ropes with a sweeping,
+preliminary whirl over their heads, but the others used only a quick
+flit and twist of the wrist. A few mildly exciting struggles for the
+mastery took place between riders and mounts, for some cow-ponies are
+not always ready to accept their proper place in the scheme of things.
+
+"Slab-sided jumpin' jack!" yelled Rich Finn, a Double Arrow puncher,
+as he fought his horse. "Allus raisin' th' devil afore I'm all awake!"
+
+"Lemme hold her head, Rich," jeered Billy Williams.
+
+"Her laigs, Billy, not her head," corrected Lanky Smith, the Bar-20
+rope expert, whose own horse had just become sensible.
+
+"Don't hurt him, bronc; we need him," cautioned Red.
+
+"Come on, fellers; gettin' late," called Buck.
+
+Away they went, tearing across the plain, Buck in the lead. After some
+time had passed the foreman raised his arm and Pete Wilson stopped and
+filled his pipe anew, the west-end man of the cordon. Again Buck's arm
+went up and Skinny Thompson dropped out, and so on until the last man
+had been placed and the line completed. At a signal from Buck the
+whole line rode forward, gradually converging on a central point and
+driving the scattered cattle before it.
+
+Hopalong, on the east end of the line, sharing with Billy the posts of
+honor, was now kept busy dashing here and there, wheeling, stopping,
+and manoeuvring as certain strong-minded cattle, preferring the
+freedom of the range they had just quitted, tried to break through the
+cordon. All but branded steers and cows without calves had their
+labors in vain, although the escape of these often set examples for
+ambitious cows with calves. Here was where reckless and expert riding
+saved the day, for the cow-ponies, trained in the art of punching
+cows, entered into the game with zest and executed quick turns which
+more than once threatened a catastrophe to themselves and riders.
+Range cattle can run away from their domesticated kin, covering the
+ground with an awkward gait that is deceiving; but the ponies can run
+faster and turn as quickly.
+
+Hopalong, determined to turn back one stubborn mother cow, pushed her
+too hard, and she wheeled to attack him. Again the nimble pony had
+reason to move quickly and Hopalong swore as he felt the horns touch
+his leg.
+
+"On th' prod, hey! Well, stay on it!" he shouted, well knowing that
+she would. "Pig-headed old fool--_all right_, Johnny; I'm comin'!" and
+he raced away to turn a handful of cows which were proving too much
+for his friend. _"Ki-yi-yeow-eow-eow-eow-eow!"_ he yelled, imitating
+the coyote howl.
+
+The cook had moved his wagon as soon as breakfast was over and
+journeyed southeast with the cavvieyh; and as the cordon neared its
+objective the punchers could see his camp about half a mile from the
+level pasture where the herd would be held for the cutting-out and
+branding. Cookie regarded himself as the most important unit of the
+roundup and acted accordingly, and he was not far wrong.
+
+"Hey, Hoppy!" called Johnny through the dust of the herd, "there's
+cookie. I was 'most scared he'd get lost."
+
+"Can't you think of anythin' else but grub?" asked Billy Jordan from
+the rear.
+
+"Can you tell me anything better to think of?"
+
+There were from three to four thousand cattle in the herd when it
+neared the stopping point, and dust arose in low-hanging clouds above
+it. Its pattern of differing shades of brown, with yellow and black
+and white relieving it, constantly shifted like a kaleidoscope as the
+cattle changed positions; and the rattle of horns on horns and the
+muffled bellowing could be heard for many rods.
+
+Gradually the cordon surrounded the herd and, when the destination was
+reached, the punchers rode before the front ranks of cattle and
+stopped them. There was a sudden tremor, a compactness in the herd,
+and the cattle in the rear crowded forward against those before;
+another tremor, and the herd was quiet. Cow-punchers took their places
+around it, and kept the cattle from breaking out and back to the
+range, while every second man, told off by the foreman, raced at top
+speed towards the camp, there to eat a hasty dinner and get a fresh
+horse from his _remuda_, as his string of from five to seven horses
+was called. Then he galloped back to the herd and relieved his nearest
+neighbor. When all had reassembled at the herd the work of cutting-out
+began.
+
+Lanky Smith, Panhandle Lukins, and two more Bar-20 men rode some
+distance east of the herd, there to take care of the cow-and-calf cut
+as it grew by the cutting-out. Hopalong, Red, Johnny, and three others
+were assigned to the task of getting the mother cows and their calves
+out of the main herd and into the new one, while the other punchers
+held the herd and took care of the stray herd when they should be
+needed. Each of the cutters-out rode after some calf, and the victim,
+led by its mother, worked its way after her into the very heart of the
+mass; and in getting the pair out again care must be taken not to
+unduly excite the other cattle. Wiry, happy, and conceited cow-ponies
+unerringly and patiently followed mother and calf into the press,
+nipping the pursued when too slow and gradually forcing them to the
+outer edge of the herd; and when the mother tried to lead its
+offspring back into the herd to repeat the performance, she was in
+almost every case cleverly blocked and driven out on the plain where
+the other punchers took charge of her and added her to the
+cow-and-calf cut.
+
+Johnny jammed his sombrero on his head with reckless strength and
+swore luridly as he wheeled to go back into the herd.
+
+"What's th' matter, Kid?" laughingly asked Skinny as he turned his
+charges over to another man.
+
+"None of yore d----d business!" blazed Johnny. Under his breath he
+made a resolve. "If I get you two out here again I'll keep you here if
+I have to shoot you!"
+
+"Are they slippery, Johnny?" jibed Red, whose guess was correct.
+Johnny refused to heed such asinine remarks and stood on his dignity.
+
+As the cow-and-calf herd grew in size and the main herd dwindled, more
+punchers were shifted to hold it; and it was not long before the main
+herd was comprised entirely of cattle without calves, when it was
+driven off to freedom after being examined for other brands. As soon
+as the second herd became of any size it was not necessary to drive
+the cows and calves to it when they were driven out of the first herd,
+as they made straight for it. The main herd, driven away, broke up as
+it would, while the guarded cows stood idly beside their resting
+offspring awaiting further indignities.
+
+The drive had covered so much ground and taken so much time that
+approaching darkness warned Buck not to attempt the branding until the
+morrow, and he divided his force into three shifts. Two of these
+hastened to the camp, gulped down their supper, and rolling into their
+blankets, were soon sound asleep. The horse herd was driven off to
+where the grazing was better, and night soon fell over the plain.
+
+The cook's fires gleamed through the darkness and piles of biscuits
+were heaped on the tail-board of the wagon, while pots of beef and
+coffee simmered over the fires, handy for the guards as they rode in
+during the night to awaken brother punchers, who would take their
+places while they slept. Soon the cocoons were quiet in the grotesque
+shadows caused by the fires and a deep silence reigned over the camp.
+Occasionally some puncher would awaken long enough to look at the sky
+to see if the weather had changed, and satisfied, return to sleep.
+
+Over the plain sleepy cowboys rode slowly around the herd, glad to be
+relieved by some other member of the outfit, who always sang as he
+approached the cattle to reassure them and save a possible stampede.
+For cattle, if suddenly disturbed at night by anything, even the
+waving of a slicker in the hands of some careless rider, or a
+wind-blown paper, will rise in a body--all up at once, frightened and
+nervous. The sky was clear and the stars bright and when the moon rose
+it flooded the plain with a silvery light and made fairy patterns in
+the shadows.
+
+Snatches of song floated down the gentle wind as the riders slowly
+circled the herd, for the human voice, no matter how discordant, was
+quieting. A low and plaintive "Don't let this par-ting grieve y-o-u"
+passed from hearing around the resting cows, soon to be followed by
+"When-n in thy dream-ing, nights like t-h-e-s-e shall come a-gain--"
+as another watcher made the circuit. The serene cows, trusting in the
+prowess and vigilance of these low-voiced centaurs to protect them
+from danger, dozed and chewed their cuds in peace and quiet, while the
+natural noises of the night relieved the silence in unobtruding
+harmony.
+
+Far out on the plain a solitary rider watched the herd from cover and
+swore because it was guarded so closely. He glanced aloft to see if
+there was any hope of a storm and finding that there was not,
+muttered savagely and rode away. It was Antonio, wishing that he
+could start a stampede and so undo the work of the day and inflict
+heavy losses on the Bar-20. He did not dare to start a grass fire for
+at the first flicker of a light he would be charged by one or more of
+the night riders and if caught, death would be his reward.
+
+While the third shift rode and sang the eastern sky became a dome of
+light reflected from below and the sunrise, majestic in all its fiery
+splendor, heralded the birth of another perfect day.
+
+Through the early morning hours the branding continued, and the
+bleating of the cattle told of the hot stamping irons indelibly
+burning the sign of the Bar-20 on the tender hides of calves. Mother
+cows fought and plunged and called in reply to the terrified bawling
+of their offspring, and sympathetically licked the burns when the
+frightened calves had been allowed to join them. Cowboys were deftly
+roping calves by their hind legs and dragging them to the fires of the
+branding men. Two men would hold a calf, one doubling the foreleg back
+on itself at the knee and the other, planting one booted foot against
+the calf's under hind leg close to its body, pulled back on the other
+leg while his companion, who held the foreleg, rested on the animal's
+head. The third man, drawing the hot iron from the fire, raised and
+held it suspended for a second over the calf's flank, and then there
+was an odor and a puff of smoke; and the calf was branded with a mark
+which neither water nor age would wipe out.
+
+Pete Wilson came riding up dragging a calf at the end of his rope,
+and turned the captive over to Billy Williams and his two helpers,
+none of them paying any attention to the cow which followed a short
+distance behind him. Lanky seized the unfortunate calf and leaned over
+to secure the belly hold, when someone shouted a warning and he
+dropped the struggling animal and leaped back and to one side as the
+mother charged past. Wheeling to return the attack, the cow suddenly
+flopped over and struck the earth with a thud as Buck's rope went
+home. He dragged her away and then releasing her, chased her back into
+the herd.
+
+"_Hi!_ Get that little devil!" shouted Billy to Hopalong, pointing to
+the fleeing calf.
+
+"Why didn't you watch for her, you half-breed!" demanded the indignant
+Lanky of Pete. "Do you think this is a ten-pin alley!"
+
+Hopalong came riding up with the calf, which swiftly became recorded
+property.
+
+"Bar-20; tally one," sang out the monotonous voice of the tally-man.
+"Why didn't you grab her when she went by, Lanky?" he asked, putting a
+new point on his pencil.
+
+"Hope th' next one heads yore way!" retorted Lanky, grinning.
+
+"Won't. I ain't abusin' th' kids."
+
+"Bar-20; tally one," droned a voice at the next fire.
+
+All was noise, laughter, dust, and a seeming confusion, but every man
+knew his work thoroughly and was doing it in a methodical way, and the
+confusion was confined to the victims and their mothers.
+
+When the herd had been branded and allowed to return to the plain, the
+outfit moved on into a new territory and the work was repeated until
+the whole range, with the exception of the valley, had been covered.
+When the valley was worked it required more time in comparison with
+the amount of ground covered than had been heretofore spent on any
+part of the range; for the cattle were far more numerous, and it was
+no unusual thing to have a herd of great size before the roundup place
+had been reached. This heavy increase in the numbers of the cattle to
+be herded made a corresponding increase in the time and labor required
+for the cutting-out and branding. Five days were required in working
+the eastern and central parts of the valley and it took three more
+days to clean up around the White Horse Hills, where the ground was
+rougher and the riding harder. And at every cutting-out there was a
+large stray-herd made up of H2 and Three Triangle cattle. The H2 had
+been formerly the Three Triangle. Buck had been earnest in his
+instructions to his men regarding the strays, for now was the
+opportunity to rid his range of Meeker's cattle in a way natural and
+without especial significance; once over the line it would be a
+comparatively easy matter to keep them there.
+
+For taking care of this extra herd and also because Buck courted
+scrutiny during the branding, the foreman accepted the services of
+three H2 men. This addition to his forces made the work move somewhat
+more rapidly and when, at the end of each day's cutting-out, the
+stray herd was complete, it was driven south across the boundary line
+by Meeker's men. When the last stray-herd started south Buck rode over
+to the H2 punchers and told them to tell their foreman to let him know
+when he could assist in the southern roundup and thus return the
+favor.
+
+As the Bar-20 outfit and the C80 and Double Arrow men rode north
+towards the ranch house they were met by Lucas, foreman of the C80,
+who joined them near Medicine Bend.
+
+"Well, got it all over, hey?" he cried as he rode up.
+
+"Yep; bigger job than I thought, too. It gets bigger every year an'
+that blizzard didn't make much difference in th' work, neither," Buck
+replied. "I'll help you out when you get ready to drive."
+
+"No you won't; you can help me an' Bartlett more by keeping all yore
+men watchin' that line," quickly responded Lucas. "We'll work
+together, me an' Bartlett, an' we'll have all th' men we want. You
+just show that man Meeker that range grabbin' ain't healthy down
+here--that's all we want. Did he send you any help in th' valley?"
+
+"Yes, three men," Buck replied. "But we'll break even on that when he
+works along th' boundary."
+
+"Have any trouble with 'em?"
+
+"Not a bit."
+
+"I sent Wood Wright down to Eagle th' other day, an' he says th' town
+is shore there'll be a big range war," remarked Lucas. "He said
+there's lots of excitement down there an' they act like they wish th'
+trouble would hurry up an' happen. We've got to watch that town, all
+right."
+
+"If there's a war th' rustlers'll flock here from all over,"
+interposed Rich Finn.
+
+"Huh!" snorted Hopalong. "They'll flock out again if we get a chance
+to look for 'em. An' that town'll shore get into trouble if it don't
+live plumb easy. You know what happened th' last time rustlin' got to
+be th' style, don't you?"
+
+"Well," replied Lucas, "I've fixed it with Cowan to get news to me an'
+Bartlett if anything sudden comes up. If you need us just let him know
+an' we'll be with you in two shakes."
+
+"That's good, but I don't reckon I'll need any help, leastwise not for
+a long time," Buck responded. "But I tell you what you might do, when
+you can; make up a vigilance committee from yore outfits an' ride
+range for rustlers. We can take care of all that comes on us, but we
+won't have no time to bother about th' rest of th' range. An' if you
+do that it'll shut 'em out of our north range."
+
+"We'll do it," Lucas promised. "Bartlett is going to watch th' trails
+north to see if he can catch anybody runnin' cattle to th' railroad
+construction camps. Every suspicious lookin' stranger is going to be
+held up an' asked questions; an' if we find any runnin' irons, you
+know what that means."
+
+"I reckon we can handle th' situation, all right, no matter how hard
+it gets," laughed the Bar-20 foreman.
+
+"Well, I'll be leavin' you now," Lucas remarked as they reached the
+Bar-20 bunk house. "We begin to round up next week, an' there's lots
+to be done before then. Say, can I use yore chuck wagon? Mine is shore
+done for."
+
+"Why, of course," replied Buck heartily. "Take it now, if you want, or
+any time you send for it."
+
+"Much obliged; come on, fellers," Lucas cried to his men. "We're goin'
+home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+IN WEST ARROYO
+
+
+Hopalong was heading for Lookout Peak, the highest of the White Horse
+Hills, by way of West Arroyo, which he entered half an hour after he
+had forded the creek, and was half way to the line when, rounding a
+sharp turn, he saw Mary Meeker ahead of him. She was off her horse
+picking flowers when she heard him and she stood erect, smiling.
+
+"Why, I didn't think I'd see you," she said. "I've been picking
+flowers--see them? Ain't they pretty?" she asked, holding them out for
+his inspection.
+
+"They shore are," he replied, not looking at the flowers at all, but
+into her big, brown eyes. "An' they're some lucky, too," he asserted,
+grinning.
+
+She lowered her head, burying her face in the blossoms and then picked
+a few petals and let them fall one by one from her fingers. "You
+didn't look at them at all," she chided.
+
+"Oh, yes, I did," he laughed. "But I see flowers all th' time, and not
+much of you."
+
+"That's nice--they are so pretty. I just love them."
+
+"Yes. I reckon they are," doubtfully.
+
+She looked up at him, her eyes laughing and her white teeth glistening
+between their red frames. "Why don't you scold me?" she asked.
+
+"Scold you! What for?"
+
+"Why, for being on yore ranch, for being across th' line an' in th'
+valley."
+
+"Good Lord! Why, there ain't no lines for you! You can go anywhere."
+
+"In th' valley?" she asked, again hiding her face in the flowers.
+
+"Why, of course. What ever made you think you can't?"
+
+"I'm one of th' H2," she responded. "Paw says I run it. But I'm awful
+glad you won't care."
+
+"Well, as far as riding where you please is concerned, you run this
+ranch, too."
+
+"There's a pretty flower," she said, looking at the top of the bank.
+"That purple one; see it?" she asked, pointing.
+
+"Yes. I'll get it for you," he replied, leaping from the saddle and
+half way up the bank before she knew it. He slid down again and handed
+the blossom to her. "There."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"See any more you wants?"
+
+"No; this is enough. Thank you for getting it for me."
+
+"Oh, shucks; that was nothing," he laughed awkwardly. "That was shore
+easy."
+
+"I'm going to give it to you for not scolding me about being over th'
+line," she said, holding it out to him.
+
+"No; not for that," he said slowly. "Can't you think of some other
+reason?"
+
+"Don't you want it?"
+
+"Want it!" he exclaimed, eagerly. "Shore I want it. But not for what
+you said."
+
+"Will you wear it because we're friends?"
+
+"Now yo're talking!"
+
+She looked up and laughed, her cheeks dimpling, and then pinned it to
+his shirt, while he held his breath lest the inflation of his lungs
+bother her. It was nice to have a flower pinned on one's shirt by a
+pretty girl.
+
+"There," she laughed, stepping back to look at it.
+
+"Gosh!" he complained, ruefully. "You've pinned it up so high I can't
+see it. Why not put it lower down?"
+
+She changed it while he grinned at how his scheming had born fruit. He
+was a hog, he knew that, but he did not care.
+
+"Oh, I reckon _I'm_ all right!" he exulted. "Shore you don't see no
+more you want?"
+
+"Yes; an' I must go now," she replied, going towards her horse. "I'll
+be late with th' dinner if I don't hurry."
+
+"What! Do you cook for that hungry outfit?"
+
+"No, not for them--just for Paw an' me."
+
+"When are you comin' up again for more flowers?"
+
+"I don't know. You see, I'm going to make cookies some day this week,
+but I don't know just when. Do you like cookies, an' cake?"
+
+"You bet I do! Why?"
+
+"I'll bring some with me th' next time. Paw says they're th' best he
+ever ate."
+
+"Bet I'll say so, too," he replied, stepping forward to help her into
+the saddle, but she sprang into it before he reached her side, and he
+vaulted on his own horse and joined her.
+
+She suddenly turned and looked him straight in the eyes. "Tell me,
+honest, has yore ranch any right to keep our cows south of that line?"
+
+"Yes, we have. Our boundaries are fixed. We gave th' Three Triangle
+about eighty square miles of range so our valley would be free from
+all cows but our own. That's all th' land between th' line an' th'
+Jumping Bear, an' it was a big price, too. They never drove a cow over
+on us."
+
+She looked disappointed and toyed with her quirt.
+
+"Why don't you want to let Paw use th' valley?"
+
+"It ain't big enough for our own cows, an' we can't share it. As it
+is, we'll have to drive ten thousand on leased range next year to give
+our grass a rest."
+
+"Well,--" she stopped and he waited to hear what she would say, and
+then asked her when she would be up again.
+
+"I don't know! I don't know!" she cried.
+
+"Why, what's the matter?"
+
+"Nothing. I'm foolish--that's all," she replied, smiling, and trying
+to forget the picture which arose in her mind, a picture of desperate
+fighting along the line; of her father--and him.
+
+"You scared me then," he said.
+
+"Did I? Why, it wasn't anything."
+
+"Are you shore?"
+
+"Please don't ask me any questions," she requested.
+
+"Will you be up here again soon?"
+
+"If th' baking turns out all right."
+
+"Hang the baking! come anyway."
+
+"I'll try; but I'm afraid," she faltered.
+
+"Of what?" he demanded, sitting up very straight.
+
+"Why, that I can't," she replied, hurriedly. "You see, it's far coming
+up here."
+
+"That's easy. I'll meet you west of th' hills."
+
+"No, no! I'll come up here."
+
+"Look here," he said, slowly and kindly. "If yo're afraid of bein'
+seen with me, don't you try it. I want to see you a whole lot, but I
+don't want you to have no trouble with yore father about it. I can
+wait till everything is all right if you want me to."
+
+She turned and faced him, her cheeks red. "No, it ain't that, exactly.
+Don't ask me any more. Don't talk about it. I'll come, all right, just
+as soon as I can."
+
+They were on the line now and she held out her hand.
+
+"Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye for now. Try to come up an' see me as soon as you can. If
+yo're worryin' because that Greaser don't like me, stop it. I've been
+in too many tight places to get piped out where there's elbow room."
+
+"I asked you not to say nothing more about it," she chided. "I'll come
+when I can. Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye," he replied, his sombrero under his arm. He watched her
+until she became lost to sight and then, suspicious, wheeled, and saw
+Johnny sitting quietly on his horse several hundred yards away. He
+called his friend to him by one wide sweep of his arm and Johnny
+spurred forward.
+
+"Follow me, Johnny," he cried, dashing towards the arroyo. "Take th'
+other side an' look for that Greaser. I'll take this side. Edge off;
+yo're too close. Three hundred yards is about right."
+
+They raced away at top speed, reckless and grim, Johnny not knowing
+just what it was all about; but the word Greaser needed no sauce to
+whet his appetite since the day he had caught Antonio watching his
+friend on the hill, and he scanned the plain eagerly. When they
+reached the other end of the arroyo Hopalong called to him: "Sweep
+east an' back to th' line on a circle. If you catch him, shoot off
+yore Colt an' hold him for _me_. I'm going west."
+
+When they saw each other again it was on the line, and neither had
+seen any traces of Antonio, to Johnny's vexation and Hopalong's great
+satisfaction.
+
+"What's up, Hoppy?" shouted Johnny.
+
+"I reckoned that Greaser might 'a followed her so he could tell tales
+to Meeker," Hopalong called.
+
+Johnny swept up recklessly, jauntily, a swagger almost in the very
+actions of his horse, which seemed to have caught the spirit of its
+rider.
+
+"Caught you that time," he laughed--and Johnny, when in a teasing
+mood, could weave into his laughter an affectionate note which found
+swift pardon for any words he might utter. "You an' her shore make a
+good--" and then he saw the flower on his friend's shirt and for the
+moment was rendered speechless by surprise. But in him the faculty of
+speech was well developed and he recovered quickly. "Sufferin'
+coyotes! Would you look at that! What's comin' to us down here,
+anyway? Are you loco? Do you mean to let th' rest of th' outfit see
+_that_?"
+
+"Calamity is comin' to th' misguided mavericks that get gay about it!"
+retorted Hopalong. "I wear what I feels like, an' don't you forget it,
+neither."
+
+"'In thy d-a-r-k eyes splendor, where th' l-o-v-e light longs to
+dwel-l,'" Johnny hummed, grinning. Then his hand went out. "Good luck,
+Hoppy! Th' best of luck!" he cried. "She's a dandy, all right, but she
+ain't too good for you."
+
+"Much obliged," Hopalong replied, shaking hands. "But suppose you tell
+me what all th' good luck is for. To hear you talk anybody'd think all
+a feller had to do was to ride with a woman to be married to her."
+
+"Well, then take off that wart of a flower an' come on," Johnny
+responded.
+
+"What? Not to save yore spotted soul! An' that ain't no wart of a
+flower, neither."
+
+Johnny burst out laughing, a laugh from the soul of him, welling up in
+infectious spontaneity, triumphant and hearty. "Oh, oh! You bit that
+time! Anybody'd think about right in yore case, as far as _wantin'_
+to be married is concerned. Why, yo're hittin' th' lovely trail to
+matri-mony as hard as you can."
+
+In spite of himself Hopalong had to laugh at the jibing of his friend,
+the Kid. He thumped him heartily across the shoulders to show how he
+felt about it and Johnny's breath was interfered with at a critical
+moment.
+
+"Oh, just wait till th' crowd sees that blossom! Just wait," Johnny
+coughed.
+
+"You keep mum about what you saw, d'y' hear?"
+
+"Shore; but it'll be on my mind all th' time, an' I talk in my sleep
+when anything's on my mind."
+
+"Then that's why I never heard you talk in yore sleep."
+
+"Aw, g'wan! But they'll see th' flower, won't they?"
+
+"Shore they will; but as long as they don't know how it got there they
+can't say much."
+
+"They can't, hey!" Johnny exclaimed. "That's a new one on me. It's
+usually what they don't know about that they talks of most. What they
+don't know they can guess in this case, all right. Most of 'em are
+good on readin' signs, an' that's plain as th' devil."
+
+"But don't you tell 'em!" Hopalong warned.
+
+"No. I won't tell 'em, honest," Johnny replied. He could convey the
+information in a negative way and he grinned hopefully at the fun
+there would be.
+
+"I mean it, Kid," Hopalong responded, reading the grin. "I don't care
+about myself; they can joke all they wants with me. But it ain't
+nowise right to drag her into it, savvy? She don't want to be talked
+about like that."
+
+"Yo're right; they won't find out nothin' from me," and Johnny saw his
+fun slip from him. "I'm goin' east; comin' along?"
+
+"No; th' other way. So long."
+
+"Hey!" cried Johnny anxiously, drawing rein, "Frenchy said Buck was
+going to put some of us up in Number Five so Frenchy an' his four
+could ride th' line. Did Buck say anything to you about it?"
+
+Line house Number Five was too far from the zone of excitement, if
+fighting should break out along the line, to please Johnny.
+
+"He was stringin' you, Kid," Hopalong laughed. "He won't take any of
+th' old outfit away from here."
+
+"Oh, I knowed that; but I thought I'd ask, that's all," and Johnny
+cantered away, whistling happily.
+
+Hopalong looked after him and smiled, for Johnny had laughed and
+fought and teased himself into the heart of every man of the outfit:
+"He's shore a good Kid; an' how he likes a fight!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+HOPALONG ASSERTS HIMSELF
+
+
+Paralleling West Arroyo and two miles east of it was another arroyo,
+through which Hopalong was riding the day following his meeting with
+Mary. Coming to a place where he could look over the bank he saw a
+herd of H2 and Three Triangle cows grazing not far away, and Antonio
+was in charge of them. Hopalong did not know how long they had been in
+the valley, nor how they had crossed the line, but their presence was
+enough. It angered him, for here was open and, it appeared, authorized
+defiance. Not content to let his herds run as they wished, Meeker was
+actually sending them into the valley under guard, presumably to find
+out what would be done about it. The H2 foreman would find that out
+very soon.
+
+The Mexican looked around and wheeled sharply to face the danger, his
+listlessness gone in a flash. He was not there because of any orders
+from Meeker, but for reasons of his own. So when the Bar-20 puncher
+raised his arm and swept it towards the line he sat in sullen
+indifference, alert and crafty.
+
+"You've got gall!" cried Hopalong. "Who told you to herd up here!"
+
+Antonio frowned but did not reply.
+
+"Yo're three miles too far north," continued Hopalong, riding slowly
+forward until their stirrups almost touched.
+
+Antonio shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I ain't warbling for my health!" cried Hopalong. "You start them cows
+south right away."
+
+"I can't."
+
+Hopalong stared. "You can't! Got a sore thumb, mebby! Well, I reckon
+you can, an' will."
+
+"I can't. Boss won't let me."
+
+"Oh, he won't! Well, I feel sorry for yore boss but yo're going to
+push 'em just th' same."
+
+Antonio again shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands in a gesture
+of helplessness.
+
+"How long you been here, an' how'd you get in?"
+
+"'N'our. By de _rio_."
+
+"Oh, yore foreman's goin' to raise h--l, ain't he!" Hopalong snorted.
+"He's going to pasture on us whether we like it or not, is he? He's a
+land thief, that's what he is!"
+
+"De boss ees all right!" asserted Antonio, heatedly.
+
+"If he is he's lop-sided, but he'll be _left_ if he banks on this play
+going through without a smash-up. You chase them cows home an' keep
+'em there. If I find you flittin' around th' ends of th' line or
+herdin' on this side of it I'll give you something to nurse--an'
+you'll be lucky if you can nurse it. Come on, get a-going!"
+
+Antonio waved his arm excitedly and was about to expostulate, but
+Hopalong cut him short by hitting him across the face with his quirt:
+"D--n you!" he cried, angrily. "Shut yore mouth! Get them cows going!
+You coffee-colored half-breed of a Greaser, I've a mind to stop you
+right now. Come on, get a move on!"
+
+The Mexican's face grew livid and he tried to back away, swearing in
+Spanish. Stung to action by the blow, he jerked at his gun, but found
+Hopalong's Colt pushing against his neck.
+
+"Drop that gun!" the Bar-20 puncher ordered, his eyes flashing. "Don't
+you know better'n that? We've put up with yore crowd as long as we're
+going to, an' th' next thing will be a slaughter if that foreman of
+yourn don't get some sense, an' get it sudden. Don't talk back! Just
+start them cows!"
+
+The Mexican could do nothing but obey. His triumph at the success of
+his effort was torn with rabid hatred for the man who had struck him;
+but he could not fight with the Colt at his neck, and so sullenly
+obeyed. As they neared the line Hopalong ceased his personal remarks
+and, smiling grimly, turned to another topic.
+
+"I let you off easy; but no more. Th' next herd we find in our valley
+will go sudden an' hard. If anybody is guardin' it they'll never know
+what hit 'em." He paused for a moment and then continued, cold
+contempt in his voice: "I reckon you had to obey orders, but you won't
+do it again if you know what's good for you. If yore boss, as you
+calls him, don't like what I've done, you tell him I said to drive th'
+next herd hisself. If he ain't man enough to bring 'em in hisself,
+tell him that Cassidy says to quit orderin' his men to take risks he's
+a-scared of."
+
+"He ees brafe; he ain't 'fraid," Antonio rejoined. "He weel keel you
+ef I tell heem what you say."
+
+"Tell him jus' th' same. I'll be riding th' line mostly, an' if he
+wants to hunt me up an' confab about it he can find me any time."
+
+Antonio shrugged his shoulders and rode south, filled with elation at
+his success in stirring up hostility between the two ranches, but his
+heart seethed with murder for the blow. He would carry a message to
+Meeker that would call for harsh measures, and the war would be on.
+
+As the Mexican departed Lanky Smith rode into sight and cantered
+forward to meet his friend.
+
+"What's up?" he asked.
+
+"I don't know, yet," replied Hopalong. "Greasers are such liars I
+don't know what to think," and he related the matter to his companion.
+
+"Lord, but you sent a stiff message to Meeker!" Lanky exclaimed. "You
+keep yore eyes plumb open from now on. Meeker'll be wild, an' th'
+Greaser won't forget that blow."
+
+"Was anybody on th' east end this morning?"
+
+"Shore; me an' Pete," Lanky replied, frowning. "He couldn't get a cow
+acrost without us seein' him--he lied."
+
+"Well, it makes no difference how he got across; he was there, an'
+that's all I care about."
+
+"There's one of his outfit now," Lanky said.
+
+Hopalong looked around and saw an H2 puncher riding slowly past them,
+about two hundred yards to the south.
+
+"Who is he?" Lanky asked.
+
+"Doc Riley. Meeker got him an' Curley out of a bad scrape up north an'
+took them both to punch for him. I hear he is some bad with th' Colt.
+Sort of reckons he's a whole war-party in breech-cloths an' war-paint
+just 'cause he's got his man."
+
+"He's gettin' close to th' line," Lanky remarked.
+
+"Yes, because we've been turnin' their cows."
+
+"Reckon he won't stop us none to speak of."
+
+Doc had stopped and was watching them and while he looked a cow
+blundered out of the brush and started to cross the line. Hopalong
+spurred forward to stop it, followed by Lanky, and Doc rode to
+intercept them.
+
+"G'wan back, you bone-yard!" Hopalong shouted, firing his Colt in
+front of the animal, which now turned and ran back.
+
+Doc slid to a stand, his Colt out. "What do you think you're doing
+with that cow?"
+
+"None of yore business!" Hopalong retorted.
+
+Doc backed away so he could watch Lanky, his hand leaping up, and
+Hopalong fired. Doc dropped the weapon and grabbed at his right arm,
+cursing wildly.
+
+"You half-breed!" cried Hopalong, riding closer. "Next time you gets
+any curious about what I'm doing, you better write. You're a fine
+specimen to pull a gun on me, you are!"
+
+"You'll stop turnin' our cows, or you'll get a pass to h--l!" retorted
+Doc. "We won't stand for it no more, an' when th' boys hears about
+this you'll have all you can take care of."
+
+"I ain't got nothing to do but ride th' line an' answer questions like
+I did yourn," Hopalong rejoined. "I will have lots of time to take
+care of any little trouble that blows up from yore way. But _Meeker's_
+th' man I want to see. Tell him to take a herd across this line, will
+you?"
+
+"You'll see him!" snapped Doc. "An' you'll need to see him first,
+too."
+
+"I don't pot-shoot--I'll leave that for you fellers. All I want is an
+even break."
+
+"You'll get it," replied Doc, wheeling and riding off.
+
+"Things are movin' so fast you better send for Buck," Lanky suggested.
+"Hell'll be poppin' down here purty soon."
+
+"I'll tell him what's going on, but there ain't no use of bringing him
+down here till we has to," Hopalong replied. "We can handle 'em. But I
+reckon Johnny had better go up an' tell him."
+
+"Johnny ought to be riding this way purty quick; he's coming from th'
+hills."
+
+"We'll meet him an' get him off."
+
+They met Johnny and when he had learned of his mission he protested
+against being sent away from the line when things were getting
+crowded. "I don't want to miss th' fun!" he exclaimed. "Send Red, or
+Lanky."
+
+"Red's too handy with th' Winchester; we might need him," Hopalong
+replied, smiling.
+
+"Then you go, Lanky," Johnny suggested. "I'm better'n you with th'
+Colt."
+
+"You're better'n nothing!" retorted Lanky. "You do what you're told,
+an' quick. Nothing will happen while you're gone, anyhow."
+
+"Then why don't you want to go?"
+
+"I don't want th' ride," Lanky replied. "It's too fur."
+
+"Huh!" snorted Johnny. "Too bad about you an' th' ride! Poor old man,
+scared of sixty miles. I'll toss up with you."
+
+"One of you has got to ride to Red an' tell him. He mustn't get caught
+unexpected," Hopalong remarked.
+
+"What do you call?" asked Johnny, flipping a coin and catching it when
+it came down.
+
+"All right, that's fair enough. Heads," Lanky replied.
+
+"Whoop! It's tails!" cried Johnny, wheeling. "I'm going for Red," and
+he was gone before Lanky had time to object.
+
+"Blasted Kid!" Lanky snorted. "How'd I know it was tails?"
+
+"That's yore lookout," laughed Hopalong. "You ought to know him by
+this time. It's yore own fault."
+
+"I'll tan his hide some of these fine days," Lanky promised. "He's too
+fresh," and he galloped off to cover the thirty miles between him and
+the bunk house in the least possible time so as to return as soon as
+he could.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MEEKER IS TOLD
+
+
+When Antonio had covered half of the distance between the line and the
+H2 bunk house he was hailed from a chaparral and saw Benito ride into
+view. He told his satellite what had occurred in the valley, gave him
+a message for Shaw, who was now on the mesa, and cantered on to tell
+Meeker his version of the morning's happenings.
+
+The H2 foreman was standing by the corral when his broncho-buster rode
+up, and he stared. "Where'd you get that welt on th' face?" he
+demanded.
+
+Antonio told him, with many exclamations and angry gestures, that he
+had ridden through the valley to see if there were any H2 cows grazing
+on it, that he had found a small herd and was about to return to his
+own range when he was held up and struck by Hopalong, who accused him
+of having driven the cattle across the line. When he had denied this
+he had been called a liar and threatened with death if he was ever
+again caught on that side of the line.
+
+"By G-d!" cried the foreman. "That's purty high-handed! I'll give 'em
+something to beller about when I finds out just what I want to do!"
+
+"He say, 'Tell that boss of yourn to no send you, send heemself nex'
+time.' He say he weel keel you on sight. I say he can't. He laugh,
+_so_!" laughing in a blood-curdling manner. "He say he keel nex' man
+an' cows that cross line. He ees _uno_ devil!"
+
+"He will, hey!" Meeker exclaimed, thoroughly angered. "We'll give him
+all th' chance he wants when we get things fixed. 'Tony, what did you
+do about getting those two men you spoke of? You went down to Eagle,
+didn't you?"
+
+"_Si, si_," assured the Mexican. "They come, _pronto_. They can keel
+heem. They come to-day; _quien sabe_?"
+
+"I'll do my own killin'--but here comes Doc," Meeker replied. "Looks
+mad, too. Mebby they was going to kill him an' he objected. Hullo,
+Doc; what's th' matter?"
+
+"That Cassidy d--n near blowed my arm off," Doc replied. "Caught him
+turnin' back one of our cows an' told him not to. When I backed off so
+I could keep one eye on his friend he up an' plugs me through my gun
+arm."
+
+"I see; they owns th' earth!" Meeker roared. "Shootin' up my men
+'cause they stick up for me! Come in th' house an' get that wing
+fixed. We can talk in there," he said, glancing at Antonio. "They cut
+'Tony across th' face with a quirt 'cause he was ridin' in their
+valley!"
+
+"Let's get th' gang together an' wipe 'em off th' earth," Doc
+suggested, following Meeker towards the house.
+
+Mary looked up when they entered: "What's th' matter, Dad? Why, are
+you hurt, Doc?"
+
+"Don't ask questions, girl," Meeker ordered. "Get us some hot water
+an' some clean cloth. Sit down, Doc; we'll fix it in no time."
+
+"We better clean 'em up to-morrow," Doc remarked.
+
+"No; there ain't no use of losin' men fighting if there's any other
+way. You know there's a good strong line house on th' top of Lookout
+Peak, don't you?"
+
+"Shore; reg'lar fort. They calls it Number Three."
+
+Mary had returned and was tearing a bandage, listening intently to
+what was being said.
+
+"What's th' matter with getting in that some day soon an' holdin' it
+for good?" asked the foreman. "It overlooks a lot of range, an' once
+we're in it it'll cost 'em a lot of lives to get it back--if they can
+get it back."
+
+"You're right!" cried Doc, eagerly. "Let me an' Curley get in there
+to-night an' hold her for you. We can do it."
+
+"You can't do that. Somebody sleeps in it nights. Nope, we've got to
+work some scheme to get it in th' daylight. They are bound to have it
+guarded, an' we've got to coax him out somehow. I don't know how, but
+I will before many hours pass. Hullo, who's this?" he asked, seeing
+two strangers approach the house.
+
+"Couple of Greasers," grunted Doc.
+
+"Hey, you," cried Meeker through the open door. "You go down to th'
+corral an' wait for me."
+
+"_Si, señor._"
+
+"What's th' matter, Dad?" asked Mary. "How did Doc get shot?"
+
+Meeker looked up angrily, but his face softened.
+
+"There's a whole lot th' matter, Mary. That Bar-20 shore is gettin'
+hot-headed. Cassidy hit 'Tony acrost th' face with a quirt an' shot
+Doc. 'Tony was riding through that valley, an' Doc told Cassidy not to
+drive back a cow of ourn."
+
+She flushed. "There must 'a been more'n that, Dad. He wouldn't 'a shot
+for that. I know it."
+
+"You know it!" cried Meeker, astonished. "How do you know it?"
+
+"He ain't that kind. I know he ain't."
+
+"I asked how you knew it!"
+
+She looked down and then faced him. "Because I know him, because he
+ain't that kind. What did you say to him, Doc?"
+
+Meeker's face was a study and Doc flushed, for she was looking him
+squarely in the eyes.
+
+"What did you say to him?" she repeated. "Did you make a gun-play?"
+
+"Well, by G-d!" shouted Meeker, leaping to his feet. "You know him,
+hey! 'He ain't that kind!' How long have you known him, an' where'd
+you meet him?"
+
+"This is no time to talk of that," she replied, her spirit aroused.
+"Ask Doc what he did an' said to get shot. Look at him; he lied when
+he told you about it."
+
+"I told him to quit driving our cows back," Doc cried. "Of course I
+had my hand on my gun when I said it. I'd been a fool if I hadn't,
+wouldn't I?"
+
+"That ain't all," she remarked. "Did you try to use it?"
+
+Meeker was staring first at one and then at the other, not knowing
+just what to say. Doc looked at him and his mind was made up.
+
+"What'd you do, Doc?" he asked.
+
+"I said: 'What are you doing with that cow?' an' he said it wasn't
+none of my business. I got mad then an' jerked my gun loose, but he
+got me first. I wasn't going to shoot. I was only getting ready for
+him if he tried to."
+
+"How did he know you wasn't going to shoot?" Meeker demanded. "Reckon
+I can't blame him for that. He must be quick on th' draw."
+
+"Quickest I ever saw. He had his gun out to shoot in front of a cow.
+At th' time I thought he was going to kill it. That's what made me get
+in so quick. He slid it back in th' holster an' faced me. I told you
+what happened then."
+
+"Well, we've got to show them fellers they can't fool with us an' get
+away with it," Meeker replied. "An' I've got to have th' use of that
+crick somehow. I'll think of some way to square things."
+
+"Wait, I'll go with you," Doc remarked, following the other towards
+the door.
+
+"You go in th' bunk house an' wait for me. I want to see what them
+Greasers want."
+
+"Wonder how much 'Tony didn't tell," mused the foreman, as he went
+towards the corral. "Reckon Cassidy cut him 'cause he was a Greaser.
+Come purty nigh doing it myself, once. Well, I don't care, but I've
+got to notice plays like that or they'll think I'm scared of 'em. I'll
+go up an' have it out, an' when I get ready I'll show them swaggerin'
+bucks what's what."
+
+When he returned he saw Antonio leaning against his shack, for the
+Mexican was not tolerated by the rest of the outfit and so lived
+alone. He looked at his foreman and leered knowingly, and then went
+inside the building, where he laughed silently. "That's a joke, all
+right! Meeker hiring two of my brothers to watch his cows an' do his
+spying! We'll skin this range before we're through."
+
+Meeker frowned when he caught his broncho-buster's look and he
+growled: "You never did look good, an' that welt shore makes you look
+more like th' devil than ever." He glanced at the house and the frown
+deepened. "So you know Cassidy! That's a _nice_ thing to tell me! I'll
+just go up an' see that coyote, right now," and he went for his horse,
+muttering and scowling.
+
+Antonio knew of a herd of cows and calves which had not been included
+in the H2 roundup, and which were fattening on an outlying range.
+There was also a large herd of Bar-20 cattle growing larger every day
+on the western range far outside the boundaries. Benito was scouting,
+Shaw and the others were nearly ready for work on the mesa, and now
+Meeker had hired Antonio's brothers to help him to be robbed. Added to
+this was the constantly growing hostility along the line, and this
+would blaze before he and Benito had finished their work. Everything
+considered he was very much pleased and even his personal vengeance
+was provided for. Doc had more cause for animosity against Hopalong
+than he had, and if the Bar-20 puncher should be killed some day when
+Doc rode the northern range Doc would be blamed for it. But Meeker had
+not acted as he should have done when two of his men had been hurt on
+the same day, and that must be remedied. The faster things moved
+towards fighting the less chance there would be of the plot becoming
+known.
+
+Antonio was the broncho-buster of the H2 because he was a positive
+genius at the work, and he was a good, all-around cowman when he
+overcame his inherent laziness; but he was cruel to a degree with both
+horses and cattle. Because of his fitness Meeker had overlooked his
+undesirable qualities, which he had in plenty. He was entirely too
+fond of liquor and gambling, was uncertain in his hours, and used his
+time as he saw fit when not engaged in breaking horses. A natural
+liar, exceedingly unclean in his habits, vindictive and with a temper
+dry as tinder, he was shunned by the other members of the outfit. This
+filled his heart with hatred for them and for Meeker, who did not
+interfere. He swore many times that he would square up everything
+some day, and the day was getting closer.
+
+In appearance he was about medium height, but his sloping shoulders
+and lax carriage gave his arms the appearance of being abnormally
+long. His face was sharp and narrow, while his thin, wiry body seemed
+almost devoid of flesh. Like most cowboys he was a poor walker and his
+toes turned in like those of an Indian. Such was Antonio, who longed
+to gamble with Fortune in a dangerous game for stakes which to him
+were large, and who had already suggested to Meeker that the line
+house on Lookout Peak was the key to the situation. It was the germ,
+which grew slowly in the foreman's brain and became more feasible and
+insistent day by day, and it accounted for his fits of abstraction; it
+would not do to fail if the attempt were made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HOPALONG MEETS MEEKER
+
+
+When Meeker was within a mile of the line he met Curley, told him what
+had occurred and that he was going to find Hopalong. Curley smiled and
+replied that he had seen that person less than ten minutes ago and
+that he was riding towards the peak, and alone.
+
+"We'll go after him," Meeker replied. "You come because I want to face
+him in force so he won't start no gun-play an' make me kill him.
+That'd set hell to pop."
+
+Hopalong espied Johnny far to the east and he smiled as he remembered
+the celerity with which that individual had departed after glancing at
+the coin.
+
+"There ain't no flies on th' Kid, all right," he laughed, riding
+slowly so Johnny could join him. He saw Curley riding south and looked
+over the rough plain for other H2 punchers. Some time later as he
+passed a chaparral he glanced back to see what had become of his
+friend, but found that he had disappeared. When he wheeled to watch
+for him he saw Meeker and Curley coming towards him and he shook his
+holster to be sure his Colt was not jammed in it too tightly.
+
+"Well, here's where th' orchestry tunes up, all right," he muttered
+grimly. "Licked th' Greaser, plugged Doc, an' sent word to Meeker to
+come up if he wasn't scared. He's come, an' now I'll have to lick two
+more. If they push me I'll shoot to kill!"
+
+The H2 foreman rode ahead of his companion and stopped when fifty
+yards from the alert line-rider. Pushing his sombrero back on his
+head, he lost no time in skirmishing. "Did you chase my broncho-buster
+out of yore valley, cut his face with yore quirt, an' shoot Doc? Did
+you send word to me that you'd kill me if I showed myself?"
+
+"Was you ever an auctioneer," calmly asked Hopalong, "or a book
+agent?"
+
+"What's that got to do with it?" Meeker demanded. "You heard what I
+said."
+
+"I don't know nothing about yore broncho-buster, taking one thing at a
+time, which is proper."
+
+"What! You didn't drive him out, or cut him?"
+
+"No; why?" asked Hopalong, chuckling.
+
+"He says you did--an' somebody quirted him."
+
+"He's loco--he wasn't in th' valley," Hopalong replied. "Think he
+could get in that valley? Him, or any other man we didn't want in?"
+
+"You're devilish funny!" retorted Meeker, riding slowly forward,
+followed by his companion, who began to edge away from his foreman.
+"Since you are so exact, did you chase him off yore range an' push
+him over th' line at th' point of yore gun?"
+
+"You've got me. Better not come too close--my cayuse don't like
+gettin' crowded."
+
+"That's all right," Meeker retorted, not heeding the warning. "Do you
+mean to tell me you don't know? Yore name's Cassidy, ain't it?" he
+asked, angrily, his determination to avoid fighting rapidly becoming
+lost.
+
+"That's my own, shore 'nuf name," Hopalong answered, and then: "Do you
+mean that cross-eyed, bone-yard of a yellow-faced Greaser I caught
+stealing our range?"
+
+"Yes!" snapped Meeker, stopping again.
+
+"Why didn't you say so, then, 'stead of calling him yore
+broncho-buster?" Hopalong demanded. "How do I know who yore
+broncho-buster is? I don't know what every land pirate does in this
+country."
+
+"Then you shot Doc--do you know who I mean this time?" sarcastically
+asked the H2 foreman.
+
+"Oh, shore. He didn't get his gun out quick enough when he went after
+it, did he? Any more I can tell you before I begins to say things,
+too?"
+
+Meeker, angered greatly by Hopalong's contemptuous inflection and the
+reckless assertiveness of his every word and look, began to ride to
+describe a circle around the Bar-20 puncher, Curley going the other
+way.
+
+"You said you'd kill me when you saw me, didn't you, you--"
+
+Hopalong was backing away so as to keep both men in front of him,
+alert, eager, and waiting for the signal to begin his two-handed
+shooting. "I ain't a whole lot deaf--I can hear you from where you
+are. You better stop, for I've ridden out of tighter holes than this,
+an' you'll shore get a pass to h--l if you crowd me too much!"
+
+     Adown th' road, an' gun in hand,
+     Comes Whiskey Bill, mad Whiskey Bill--
+
+This fragment of song floated out of a chaparral about twenty yards
+behind Hopalong, who grinned pleasantly when he heard it. Now he knew
+where Johnny was, and now he had the whip hand without touching his
+guns; while the youngster was not in sight he was all the more
+dangerous, since he presented no target. Johnny knew this and was
+greatly pleased thereby, and he was more than pleased by the way
+Hopalong had been talking.
+
+The effect of the singing was instant and marked on Meeker and his
+companion, for they not only stopped suddenly and swore, but began to
+back away, glancing around in an endeavor to locate the joker in the
+deck. This they failed to do because Johnny was far too wise to
+advertise his exact whereabouts. Meeker looked at Curley and Curley
+looked at Meeker, both uneasy and angry.
+
+"As I was sayin' before th' concert began," Hopalong remarked,
+laughing shortly, "it's a pass to h--l if you crowd me too much. Now,
+Meeker, you'll listen to me an' I'll tell you what I didn't have time
+to say before: I told that shifty-eyed mud-image of a Greaser that
+th' next herd of yourn to cross th' line should be brought in by you,
+'less you was scared to run th' risks yore men had to take. He said
+you'd kill me for that message, an' I told him you knew where you
+could find me. Now about Doc: When a man pulls a gun on me he wants to
+be quicker than _he_ was or he'll shore get hurt. I could 'a killed
+him just as easy as to plug his gun arm, an' just as easy as I could
+'a plugged both of you if you pulled on me. You came up here looking
+for my scalp an' if you still wants it I'll go away from th' song bird
+in the chaparral an' give you th' chance. I'd ruther let things stay
+as they are, though if you wants, I'll take both you an' Curley,
+half-mile run together, with Colts."
+
+"No, I didn't come up here after your scalp, but I got mad after I
+found you. How long is this going to last? I won't stand for it much
+longer, nohow."
+
+"You'll have to see Buck. I'm obeyin' orders, which are to hold th'
+line against you, which I'll do."
+
+"H'm!" replied Meeker, and then: "Do you know my girl?"
+
+Hopalong thought quickly. "Why, I've seen her ridin' around some. But
+why?"
+
+"She says she knows you," persisted Meeker, frowning.
+
+The frown gave Hopalong his cue, but he hardly knew what to say, not
+knowing what she had said about it.
+
+"Hey, you!" he suddenly cried to Curley. "Keep yore hand from that
+gun!"
+
+"I didn't--"
+
+"You're lying! Any more of that an' I'll gimlet you!"
+
+"What in h--l are you doing, Curley?" demanded Meeker, the girl
+question out of his mind instantly. He had been looking closely at
+Hopalong and didn't know that Curley was innocent of any attempt to
+use his Colt.
+
+"I tell--"
+
+"Get out of here! I've wasted too much time already. Go home, where
+that gun won't worry you. You, too, Meeker! Bring an imitation bad-man
+up here an' sayin' you didn't want my scalp! Flit!"
+
+"I'll go when I'm d----d good and ready!" retorted Meeker, angry
+again. "You're too blasted bossy, you are!" he added, riding towards
+the man who had shot Doc.
+
+     A-looking for some place to land----
+
+floated out of the chaparral and he stiffened in the saddle and
+stopped.
+
+"Come on, Curley! We can't lick pot-shooters. An' let that gun alone!"
+
+"D--n it! I tell you I wasn't going for my gun!" Curley yelled.
+
+"Get out of here!" blazed Hopalong, riding forward.
+
+They rode away slowly, consulting in low voices. Then the foreman
+turned and looked back. "You better be careful how you shoot my
+punchers! They ain't all like Doc, an' they ain't all Greasers,
+neither."
+
+"Then you're lucky," Hopalong retorted. "You keep yore cows on yore
+side an' we won't hurt none of yore outfit."
+
+When they had gone Hopalong wheeled to look for Johnny and saw him
+crawling out of a chaparral, dragging a rifle after him. He capered
+about, waving the rifle and laughing with joy and Hopalong had to
+laugh with him. When they were rid of the surplus of the merriment
+Johnny patted the rifle. "Reckon they was shore up against a marked
+deck that time! Did you see 'em stiffen when I warbled? Acted like
+they had roped a puma an' didn't know what to do with it. Gee, it was
+funny!"
+
+"You're all right, Kid," laughed Hopalong. "It was yore best play--you
+couldn't 'a done better."
+
+"Shore," replied Johnny. "I had my sights glued to Curley's shirt
+pocket, an' he'd been plumb disgusted if he'd tried to do what you
+said he did. I couldn't 'a missed him with a club at that range. I
+nearly died when you pushed Meeker's girl question up that blind
+canyon. It was a peach of a throw, all right. Bet he ain't remembered
+yet that he didn't get no answer to it. We're going to have some
+blamed fine times down here before everything is settled, ain't we?"
+
+"I reckon so, Kid. I'm going to leave you now an' look around by West
+Arroyo. You hang around th' line."
+
+"All right--so long."
+
+"Can you catch yore cayuse?"
+
+"Shore I can; he's hobbled," came the reply from behind a spur of the
+chaparral. "_Stand still, you hen!_ All right, Hoppy."
+
+Johnny cantered away and, feeling happy, began, singing:
+
+     Adown th' road, an' gun in hand,
+       Comes Whiskey Bill, mad Whiskey Bill;
+     A-looking for some place to land
+       Comes Whiskey Bill.
+     An' everybody'd like to be
+     Ten miles away behind a tree
+     When on his joyous, achin' spree
+       Starts Whiskey Bill.
+
+     Th' times have changed since you made love,
+       Oh, Whiskey Bill, oh, Whiskey Bill;
+     Th' happy sun grinned up above
+       At Whiskey Bill.
+     An' down th' middle of th' street
+     Th' sheriff comes on toe-in feet,
+     A-wishing for one fretful peek
+       At Whiskey Bill.
+
+     Th' cows go grazin' o'er th' lea--
+       Pore Whiskey Bill, pore Whiskey Bill;
+     An' aching thoughts pour in on me
+       Of Whiskey Bill.
+     Th' sheriff up an' found his stride,
+     Bill's soul went shootin' down th' slide--
+     How are things on th' Great Divide,
+       Oh, Whiskey Bill?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ON THE EDGE OF THE DESERT
+
+
+Thunder Mesa was surrounded by almost impenetrable chaparrals,
+impenetrable to horse and rider except along certain alleys, but not
+too dense for a man on foot. These stretched away on all sides as far
+as the eye could see and made the desolate prospect all the more
+forbidding. It rose a sheer hundred feet into the air, its sides
+smooth rock and affording no footing except a narrow, precarious ledge
+which slanted up the face of the southern end, too broken and narrow
+to permit of a horse ascending, but passable to a man.
+
+The top of the mesa was about eight acres in extent and was rocky and
+uneven, cut by several half-filled fissures which did not show on the
+walls. Uninviting as the top might be considered it had one feature
+which was uncommon, for the cataclysm of nature which had caused this
+mass of rock to tower above the plain had given to it a spring which
+bubbled out of a crack in the rock and into a basin cut by itself;
+from there it flowed down the wall and into a shallow depression in
+the rock below, where it made a small water hole before flowing
+through the chaparrals, where it sank into the sand and became lost
+half a mile from its source.
+
+At the point where the slanting ledge met the top of the mesa was a
+hut built of stones and adobe, its rear wall being part of a
+projecting wall of rock. Narrow, deep loopholes had been made in the
+other walls and a rough door, massive and tight fitting, closed the
+small doorway. The roof, laid across cedar poles which ran from wall
+to wall, was thick and flat and had a generous layer of adobe to repel
+the rays of the scorching sun. Placed as it was the hut overlooked the
+trail leading to it from the plain, and should it be defended by
+determined men, assault by that path would be foolhardy.
+
+On the plain around the mesa extended a belt of sparse grass, some
+hundreds of feet wide at the narrowest point and nearly a mile at the
+widest, over which numerous rocks and bowlders and clumps of chaparral
+lay scattered. On this pasture were about three score cattle, most of
+them being yearlings, but all bearing the brand HQQ and a diagonal ear
+cut. These were being watched by a careless cowboy, although it was
+belittling their scanty intelligence to suppose that they would leave
+the water and grass, poor as the latter was, to stray off onto the
+surrounding desert.
+
+At the base of the east wall of the mesa was a rough corral of cedar
+poles set on end, held together by rawhide strips, which, put on
+green, tightened with the strength of steel cables when dried by the
+sun. In its shadow another man watched the cattle while he worked in
+a desultory way at repairing a saddle. Within the corral a man was
+bending over a cow while two others held it down. Its feet were tied
+and it was panting, wild-eyed and frightened. The man above it stepped
+to a glowing fire a few paces away and took from it a hot iron, with
+which he carefully traced over the small brand already borne by the
+animal. With a final flourish he stepped back, regarding the work with
+approval, and thrust the iron into the sand. Taking a knife from his
+pocket he trimmed the V notch in its ear to the same slanting cut seen
+on the cattle outside on the pasture. He tossed the bit of cartilage
+from him, stepping back and nodding to his companions, who loosened
+the ropes and leaped back, allowing the animal to escape.
+
+Shaw, who had altered the H2 brand, turned to one of the others and
+laughed heartily. "Good job, eh Manuel? Th' H2 won't know their cow
+now!"
+
+Manuel grinned. "_Si, si_; eet ees!" he cried. He was cook for the
+gang, a bosom friend of Benito and Antonio, slight, cadaverous, and as
+shifty-eyed as his friends. In his claw-like fingers he held a husk
+cigarette, without which he was seldom seen. He spoke very little but
+watched always, his eyes usually turned eastward. He seemed to be
+almost as much afraid of the east as Cavalry was of the west, where
+the desert lay. He ridiculed Cavalry's terror of the desert and
+explained why the east was to be feared the more, for the eastern
+danger rode horses and could come to them [Transcriber's note: Text
+seems to be missing here in the original.] "Hope 'Tony fixes up that
+line war purty soon, eh, Cavalry?" remarked Shaw, suddenly turning to
+the third man in the group.
+
+Cavalry was staring moodily towards the desert and did not hear him.
+
+"Cavalry! Get that desert off yore mind! Do you want to go loco? Who's
+going to take th' next drive an' bring back th' flour, you or
+Clausen?"
+
+"It's Clausen's turn next."
+
+Manuel slouched away and began to climb the slanting path up the mesa.
+Shaw watched him reflectively and laughed. "There he goes again. Beats
+th' devil how scared he is, spending most of his time on th' lookout.
+Why, he's blamed near as scared of them punchers as you are of that
+skillet out yonder."
+
+"We ain't got no kick, have we?" retorted Cavalry. "Ain't he looking
+out for us at th' same time?"
+
+"I don't know about that," Shaw replied, frowning. "I ain't got no
+love for Manuel. If he saw 'em coming an' could get away he'd sneak
+off without saying a word. It'd give him a chance to get away while we
+held 'em."
+
+"We'll see him go, then; there's only one way down."
+
+"Oh, th' devil with him!" Shaw exclaimed. "What do you think of th'
+chances of startin' that range war?"
+
+"From what th' Greaser says it looks good."
+
+"Yes. But he'll get caught some day, or night, an' pay for it with his
+life."
+
+Cavalry shrugged his shoulders. "I reckon so; but he's only a
+Greaser," he said, coldly. "I'd ruther they'd get him out there than
+to follow him here. If he goes, I hope it's sudden, so he won't have
+time to squeal."
+
+"He's a malignant devil, an' he hates that H2 outfit like blazes,"
+replied Shaw. "An' now he's got a pizen grudge agin' th' Bar-20. He
+might let his hate get th' upper hand an' start in to square things;
+if he does that he'll over-reach, an' get killed."
+
+"I reckon so; but he's clever as th' devil hisself."
+
+"Well, if he gets too big-headed out here Hall will take care of him,
+all right," Shaw laughed.
+
+"I don't like th' Greasers he's saddled us with," Cavalry remarked.
+"There's Manuel an' Benito. One of 'em is here all th' time an' close
+to you, too, if you remember. Then he's going to put two or three on
+th' range; why?"
+
+"Suspects we'll steal some of his share, I reckon. An' if he gets in
+trouble with us they'll be on his side. Oh, he's no fool."
+
+"If he 'tends to business an' forgets his grudges it'll be a good
+thing for us. That Bar-20 has got an awful number of cows. An' there's
+th' H2, an' th' other two up north."
+
+"We've tackled th' hardest job first--th' Bar-20," replied Shaw,
+laughing. "I used to know some fellers what said that outfit couldn't
+be licked. They died trying to prove themselves liars."
+
+"Wonder how much money 'Tony totes around on him?" asked Cavalry.
+
+"Not much; he's too wise. He's cached it somewhere. Was you reckonin'
+on takin' it away from him at th' end?"
+
+"No, no. I just wondered what he did with it."
+
+The man at the gate looked up. "Here comes 'Tony."
+
+Shaw and his companion rode forward to meet him.
+
+"What's up?" cried Shaw.
+
+"I have started th' war," Antonio replied, a cruel smile playing over
+his sharp face. "They'll be fightin' purty soon."
+
+"That's good," responded Shaw. "Tell us about it."
+
+Antonio, with many gestures and much conceit, told of the trick he had
+played on Hopalong, and he took care to lose no credit in the telling.
+He passed lightly over the trouble between Doc and the Bar-20 puncher,
+but intimated that he had caused it. He finished by saying: "You send
+to th' same place to-morrow an' Benito'll have some cows for you.
+They'll soon give us our chance, an' it'll be easy then."
+
+"Mebby it will be easy," replied Shaw, "but that rests with you.
+You've got to play yore cards plumb cautious. You've done fine so far,
+but if you ain't careful you'll go to h--l in a hurry an' take us with
+you. You can't fool 'em all th' time, for someday they'll get
+suspicious an' swap ideas. An' when they do that it means fight for
+us."
+
+Antonio smiled and thought how easy it might be, if the outfits grew
+suspicious and he learned of it in time, to discover tracks and other
+things and tell Meeker he was sure there was organized rustling and
+that all tracks pointed to Thunder Mesa. He could ride across the
+border before any of his partners had time to confess and implicate
+him. But he assured Shaw that he would be careful, adding: "No, I
+won't make no mistakes. I hate 'em all too much to grow careless."
+
+"That's just where you'll miss fire," the other rejoined. "You'll
+pamper yore grouch till you forget everything else. You better be
+satisfied to get square by taking their cows."
+
+"Don't worry about that."
+
+"All right. Here's yore money for th' last herd," he said, digging
+down into his pocket and handing the Mexican some gold coins. "You
+know how to get more."
+
+Antonio took the money, considered a moment and then pocketed it,
+laughing. "Good! But I mus' go back now. I won't be out here again
+very soon; it's too risky. Send me my share by Benito," he called over
+his shoulder as he started off.
+
+The two rustlers watched him and Cavalry shook his head slowly. "I'm
+plumb scairt he'll bungle it. If he does we'll get caught like rats in
+a trap."
+
+"If we're up there we can hold off a thousand," Shaw replied, looking
+up the wall.
+
+"Here comes Hall," announced the man at the gate.
+
+The newcomer swept up and leaped from his hot and tired horse. "I
+found them other ranches are keeping their men ridin' over th' range
+an' along th' trails--I near got caught once," he reported. "We'll
+have to be careful how we drives to th' construction camps."
+
+"They'll get tired watchin' after a while," replied the leader. "'Tony
+was just here."
+
+"I don't care if he's in h--l," retorted Hall. "He'll peach on us to
+save his mangy skin, one of these days."
+
+"We've got to chance it."
+
+"Where's Frisco?"
+
+"Down to Eagle for grub to tide us over for a few days."
+
+"Huh!" exclaimed Hall. "Everything considered we're goin' to fight
+like th' devil out here someday. Down to Eagle!"
+
+"We can fight!" retorted Shaw. "An' if we has to run for it, there's
+th' desert."
+
+"I'd ruther die right here fighting than on that desert," remarked
+Cavalry, shuddering. "When I go I want to go quick, an' not be
+tortured for 'most a week." He had an insistent and strong horror of
+that gray void of sand and alkali so near at hand and so far across.
+He was nervous and superstitious, and it seemed always to be calling
+him. Many nights he had awakened in a cold sweat because he had
+dreamed it had him, and often it was all he could do to resist going
+out to it.
+
+Shaw laughed gratingly. "You don't like it, do you?"
+
+Hall smiled and walked towards the slanting trail.
+
+"Why, it ain't bad," he called over his shoulder.
+
+"It's an earthly hell!" Cavalry exclaimed. He glanced up the mesa
+wall. "We can hold that till we starve, or run out of cartridges--then
+what?"
+
+"You're a calamity howler!" snapped Shaw. "That desert has wore a
+saddle sore on yore nerves somethin' awful. Don't think about it so
+much! It can't come to you, an' you ain't going to it," he laughed,
+trying to wipe out the suggestion of fear that had been awakened in
+him by the thought of the desert as a place of refuge. He had found a
+wanderer, denuded of clothes, sweating blood and hopelessly mad one
+day when he and Cavalry had ridden towards the desert; and the sight
+of the unfortunate's dying agonies had remained with him ever since.
+"We ain't going to die out here--they won't look for us where they
+don't think there's any grass or water."
+
+Fragments of Manuel's song floated down to them as they strode towards
+the trail, and reassured that all would be well, their momentary
+depression was banished by the courage of their hearts.
+
+The desert lay beyond, quiet; ominous by its very silence and inertia;
+a ghastly, malevolent aspect in its every hollow; patient,
+illimitable, scorching; fascinating in its horrible calm, sinister,
+forbidding, hellish. It had waited through centuries--and was still
+waiting, like the gigantic web of the Spider of Thirst.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ON THE PEAK
+
+
+Hopalong Cassidy had the most striking personality of all the men in
+his outfit; humorous, courageous to the point of foolishness, eager
+for fight or frolic, nonchalant when one would expect him to be quite
+otherwise, curious, loyal to a fault, and the best man with a Colt in
+the Southwest, he was a paradox, and a puzzle even to his most
+intimate friends. With him life was a humorous recurrence of
+sensations, a huge pleasant joke instinctively tolerated, but not
+worth the price cowards pay to keep it. He had come onto the range
+when a boy and since that time he had laughingly carried his life in
+his open hand, and although there had been many attempts to snatch it
+he still carried it there, and just as recklessly.
+
+Quick in decisions and quick to suspect evil designs against him and
+his ranch, he was different from his foreman, whose temperament was
+more optimistic. When Buck had made him foreman of the line riders he
+had no fear that Meeker or his men would take many tricks, for his
+faith in Hopalong's wits and ability was absolute. He had such faith
+that he attended to what he had to do about the ranch house and did
+not appear on the line until he had decided to call on Meeker and put
+the question before him once and for all. If the H2 foreman did not
+admit the agreement and promise to abide by it then he would be told
+to look for trouble.
+
+While Buck rode towards Lookout Peak, Hopalong dismounted at the line
+house perched on its top and found Red Connors seated on the rough
+bench by the door. Red, human firebrand both in hair and temper, was
+Hopalong's loyal chum--in the eyes of the other neither could do
+wrong. Red was cleaning his rifle, the pride of his heart, a
+wicked-shooting Winchester which used the Government cartridge
+containing seventy grains of powder and five hundred grains of lead.
+With his rifle he was as expert as his friend was with the Colt, and
+up to six hundred yards, its limit with accuracy, he could do about
+what he wished with it.
+
+"Hullo, you," said Red, pleasantly. "You looks peevish."
+
+"An' you look foolish. What you doing?"
+
+"Minding my business."
+
+"Hard work?" sweetly asked Hopalong, carelessly seating himself on the
+small wooden box which lay close to his friend.
+
+"Hey, you!" cried Red, leaping up and hauling him away. "You bust them
+sights an' you'll be sorry! Ain't you got no sense?"
+
+"Sights? What are you going to do with 'em?"
+
+"Wear 'em 'round my neck for a charm! What'd you reckon I'd do with
+'em!"
+
+"Didn't know. I didn't think you'd put 'em on that thing," Hopalong
+replied, looking with contempt at his friend's rifle. "Honest, you
+ain't a-goin' to put 'em on that lead ranch, are you? You're like th'
+Indians--want a lot of shots to waste without re-loadin'."
+
+"I ain't wasting no shots, an' I'm going to put sights on that lead
+ranch, too. These old ones are too coarse," Red replied, carefully
+placing the box out of danger. "Now you can sit down."
+
+"Thanks; please can I smoke?"
+
+Red grunted, pushed down the lever of the rifle, and began to
+re-assemble the parts, his friend watching the operation. When Red
+tried to slip the barrel into its socket Hopalong laughed and told him
+to first draw out the magazine, if he wanted to have any success.
+
+The line foreman took a cartridge from the pile on the bench and
+compared it with one which he took from his belt, a huge, 45-caliber
+Sharps special, shooting five hundred and fifty grains of lead with
+one hundred and twenty grains of powder out of a shell over three
+inches long; a cartridge which shot with terrific force and for a
+great distance, the weight of the large ball assuring accuracy at long
+ranges. Beside this four-inch cartridge the Government ammunition
+appeared dwarfed.
+
+"When are you going to wean yoreself from popping these musket caps,
+Red?" he asked, tossing the smaller cartridge away and putting his own
+back in his belt.
+
+"Well, you've got gall!" snorted Red, going out for his cartridge.
+Returning with it he went back to work on his gun, his friend laughing
+at his clumsy fingers.
+
+"Yore fingers are all thumbs, an' sore at that."
+
+"Never mind my fingers. Have you seen Johnny around?"
+
+"Yes; he was watching one of them new H2 Greasers. He'll go off th'
+handle one of these days, for he hates Greasers worse'n I do, an' that
+coffee face'll drive him to gun-play. He reminds me a whole lot of a
+bull-pup chained with a corral-ful of cats when there's Greasers
+around."
+
+Red laughed and nodded. "Where's Lanky?"
+
+"Johnny said he was at Number Four fixin' that saddle again. He ain't
+done nothin' for th' last month but fix it. Purty soon there won't be
+none of it left to fix."
+
+"There certainly won't!"
+
+"His saddle an' yore gun make a good pair."
+
+"Let up about the gun. You can't say nothin' more about it without
+repeatin' yoreself."
+
+"It's a sawed-off carbine. I'd ruther have a Spencer any day."
+
+"You remind me a whole lot of a feller I once knowed," Red retorted.
+
+"That so?" asked Hopalong, suspiciously. "Was he so nice?"
+
+"No; he was a fool," Red responded, going into the house.
+
+"Then that's where you got it, for they say it's catching."
+
+Red stuck his head out of the door. "On second thought you remind me
+of another feller."
+
+"You must 'a knowed some good people."
+
+"An' he was a liar."
+
+"Hullo, Hop Wah!" came from the edge of the hilltop and Hopalong
+wheeled to see Skinny Thompson approaching.
+
+"What you doing?" Skinny asked, using his stock question for beginning
+a conversation.
+
+"Painting white spots on pink elephants!"
+
+"Where's Red?"
+
+"In th' shack, rubbin' 'em off again."
+
+"Johnny chased that Greaser off'n th' ranch," Skinny offered,
+grinning.
+
+"Good for him!" cried Hopalong.
+
+"Johnny's all right--here comes Buck," Red said, coming out of the
+house. "Johnny's with him, too. Hullo, Kid!"
+
+"Hullo, Brick-top!" retorted Johnny, who did not like his nickname. No
+one treated him as anything but a boy and he resented it at times.
+
+"Did he chase you far?" Hopalong queried.
+
+"I'd like to see anybody chase me!"
+
+Buck smiled. "How are things down here?"
+
+Hopalong related what had occurred and the foreman nodded. "I'm going
+down to see Meeker--he's th' only man who can tell me what we're to
+look for. I don't want to keep so many men down here. Frenchy has got
+all he can handle, an' I want somebody up in Two. So long."
+
+"Let me an' Red go with you, Buck," cried Hopalong.
+
+"Me, too!" exclaimed Johnny, excitedly.
+
+"You stay home, an' don't worry about me," replied the foreman, riding
+off.
+
+"I don't like to see him go alone," Hopalong muttered. "He may get a
+raw deal down there. But if he does we'll wipe 'em off'n th' earth."
+
+"Mamma! Look there!" softly cried Johnny, staring towards the other
+side of the plateau, where Mary Meeker rode past. Red and Skinny were
+astonished and Johnny and Hopalong pretended to be; but all removed
+their sombreros while she remained in sight. Johnny was watching
+Hopalong's face, but when Red glanced around he was staring over the
+hill.
+
+"Gosh, ain't she a ripper!" he exclaimed softly.
+
+"She is," admitted Skinny. "She shore is."
+
+Hopalong rubbed his nose reflectively and turned to Red. "Did you ever
+notice how pretty a freckle is?"
+
+Red stared, for he had only toleration for the fair sex, and his
+friend continued:
+
+"Take a purty girl an' stick a freckle on her nose an' it sort of
+takes yore breath."
+
+Red grinned. "I ain't never took a purty girl an' stuck a freckle on
+her nose, so I can't say."
+
+Hopalong flushed at the laughter and Skinny cried, joyously: "She's
+got two of us already! Meeker's got us licked if he'll let her show
+herself once in a while. Oh, these young fellers! Nothing can rope
+'em so quick as a female, an' th' purtier she is th' quicker she can
+do it."
+
+A warning light came into Hopalong's eyes. "Nobody in this outfit'll
+go back on Buck for all th' purty women in th' world!"
+
+"Good boy!" thought Johnny.
+
+"We've got to watch th' Kid, just th' same," laughed Skinny.
+
+"I'll knock yore head off!" cried Johnny. "You're sore 'cause you know
+you ain't got no chance with women while me an' Hoppy are around!"
+
+Red looked critically at Hopalong and snickered. "If we've got to look
+like him to catch th' women, thank God we don't want 'em!"
+
+"Is that so!" retorted Hopalong.
+
+"Say," drawled Skinny. "Wouldn't th' Kid look nice hobbled with
+matrimony? That is, after he grows up."
+
+"You go to th' devil!"
+
+"Gee, Kid, you look bloodthirsty," laughed Red. "You can fool them
+Greasers easy if you looks like that."
+
+"You go to," Johnny retorted, swinging into the saddle. "I'm going
+along th' line to see what's loose."
+
+"I'll lick you when I see you again!" shouted Red, grinning.
+
+Johnny turned and twirled his fingers at his red-haired friend. "Yah,
+you ain't man enough!"
+
+"Johnny's gettin' more hungry for a fight every day," Hopalong
+remarked. "He's itching for one."
+
+"So was you a few years back, an' you ain't changed none," replied
+Red. "You used to ride around looking for fights."
+
+"To hear you talk, anybody'd think you was a Angel of Peace," Hopalong
+retorted.
+
+"One's as bad as th' other, so shut up," Skinny remarked, going into
+the house for a drink.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BUCK VISITS MEEKER
+
+
+As Buck rode south he went over the boundary trouble in all its
+phases, and the more he thought about it the firmer his resolution
+grew to hold the line at any cost. He had gone to great expense and
+labor to improve the water supply in the valley and he saw no reason
+why the H2 could not do the same; and to him an agreement was an
+agreement, and ran with the land. What Meeker thought about it was not
+the question--the point at issue was whether or not the H2 could take
+the line and use the valley, and if they could they were welcome to
+it.
+
+But while there was any possibility for a peaceable settlement it
+would be foolish to start fighting, for one range war had spread to
+alarming proportions and had been costly to life and property. Then
+there was the certainty that once war had begun, rustling would
+develop. But, be the consequences what they might, he would fight to
+the last to hold that which was rightfully his. He was not going to
+Meeker to beg a compromise, or to beg him to let the valley alone; he
+was riding to tell the H2 foreman what he could expect if he forced
+matters.
+
+When he rode past the H2 corrals he was curiously regarded by a group
+of punchers who lounged near them, and he went straight up to them
+without heeding their frowns.
+
+"Is Meeker here?"
+
+"No, he ain't here," replied Curley, who was regarded by his
+companions as being something of a humorist.
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Since you asks, I reckon he's in th' bunk house," Curley replied.
+"Where he ought to be," he added, pointedly, while his companions
+grinned.
+
+"That's wise," responded Buck. "He ought to stay there more often. I
+hope his cows will take after him. Much obliged for th' information,"
+he finished, riding on.
+
+"His cows an' his punchers'll do as they wants," asserted Curley,
+frowning.
+
+"Excuse me. I reckoned _he_ was boss around here," Buck apologized, a
+grim smile playing about his lips. "But you better change that 'will'
+to 'won't' when you mean th' valley."
+
+"I mean _will_!" Curley retorted, leaping to his feet. "An' what's
+more, I ain't through with that game laig puncher of yourn, neither."
+
+Buck laughed and rode forward again. "You have my sympathy, then," he
+called over his shoulder.
+
+Buck stopped before the bunk house and called out, and in response to
+his hail Jim Meeker came and stood in the door.
+
+The H2 foreman believed he was right, and he was too obstinate to
+admit that there was any side but his which should be considered. He
+wanted water and better grass, and both were close at hand. Where he
+had been raised there had been no boundaries, for it had been free
+grass and water, and he would not and could not see that it was any
+different on his new range. He had made no agreement, and if one had
+been made it did not concern him; it concerned only those who had made
+it. He did not buy the ranch from the old owners, but from a
+syndicate, and there had been nothing said about lines or
+restrictions. When he made any agreements he lived up to them, but he
+did not propose to observe those made by others.
+
+"How'dy, Meeker," said Buck, nodding.
+
+"How'dy, Peters; come in?"
+
+"I reckon it ain't worth while. I won't stay long," Buck replied. "I
+came down to tell you that some of yore cows are crossing our line.
+They're gettin' worse every day."
+
+"That so?" asked Meeker, carelessly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Um; well, what's th' reason they shouldn't? An' what is that 'line,'
+that we shouldn't go over it?"
+
+"Dawson, th' old foreman of th' Three Triangle, told you all about
+that," Buck replied, his whole mind given to the task of reading what
+sort of a man he had to deal with. "It's our boundary; an' yourn."
+
+"Yes? But I don't recognize no boundary. What have they got to do with
+me?"
+
+"It has this much, whether you recognize it or not: It marks th' north
+limit of yore grazin'. _We_ don't cross it."
+
+"Huh! You don't have to, while you've got that crick."
+
+"We won't have th' crick, nor th' grass, either, if you drive yore
+cows on us. That valley is our best grazing, an' it ain't in th'
+agreement that you can eat it all off."
+
+"What agreement?"
+
+"I didn't come down here to tell you what you know," Buck replied,
+slowly. "I came to tell you to keep yore Greasers an' yore cows on
+yore own side, that's whatever."
+
+"How do you know my cows are over there?"
+
+"How do I know th' sun is shining?"
+
+"What do you want me to do?" Meeker asked, leaning against the house
+and grinning.
+
+"Hold yore herds where they belong. Of course some are shore to stray
+over, but strays don't count--I ain't talkin' about them."
+
+"Well, I've punched a lot of cows in my day," replied Meeker, "an'
+over a lot of range, but I never seen no boundary lines afore. An'
+nobody ever told me to keep on one range, if they knowed me. I've run
+up against a wire fence or two in th' last few years, but they didn't
+last long when I hit 'em."
+
+"If you want to know what a boundary line looks like I can show you.
+There's a plain trail along it where my men have rode for years."
+
+"So you say; but I've got to have water."
+
+"You've got it; twenty miles of river. An' if you'll put down a well
+or two th' Jumping Bear won't go dry."
+
+"I don't know nothing about wells," Meeker replied. "Natural water's
+good enough for me without fooling with wet holes in th' ground."
+
+"No; but, by G-d, yo're willin' enough to use them what I put down! Do
+you think I spent good time an' money just to supply _you_ with water?
+Why don't you get yore own, 'stead of hoggin' mine!"
+
+"There's water enough, an' it ain't yourn, neither."
+
+"It's mine till somebody takes it away from me, an' you can gamble on
+that."
+
+"Oh, I reckon you'll share it."
+
+"I reckon I won't!" Buck retorted. "Look here; my men have held that
+range for many years against all kinds of propositions an' didn't get
+pushed into th' discard once; an' they'll go right on holding it. Hell
+has busted loose down here purty often during that time, but we've
+allus roped an' branded it; an' we hain't forgot how!"
+
+"Well, I don't want no trouble, but I've got to use that water, an' my
+men are some hard to handle."
+
+"You'll find mine worse to handle before you gets through," Buck
+rejoined. "They're restless now, an' once they start, all h--l can't
+stop 'em." Meeker started to reply, but Buck gave him no chance. "Do
+you know why I haven't driven you back by force? It wasn't because I
+figgered on what _you'd_ do. It was on account of th' rustling that'll
+blossom on this range just as soon as we get too busy to watch things.
+That's why, but if yo're willing to take a chance with cow thieves, I
+am."
+
+"I'm willing. I've got to have water on my northwest corner," Meeker
+replied. "An' I'm going to have it! If my cows get on yore private
+reservation, it's up to you to drive 'em off; but I wouldn't be none
+hasty doing it if I was you. You see, my men are plumb touchy."
+
+"That's final, is it?"
+
+"I ain't never swallered nothing I ever said."
+
+"All right. I can draw on forty men to fill up gaps, an' I'll do it
+before I let any range jumper cheat me out of what's mine. When you
+buck that line, come ready for trouble."
+
+"Yore line'll burn you before you get through pampering it," retorted
+Meeker, angrily.
+
+"So? We'll pamper anybody that tries to keep us from pampering our
+line. If there are any burns they'll not be salved in _our_ bunk
+house. So long."
+
+Meeker laughed, stretched, and slipped his thumbs in the arm-holes of
+his vest, watching the Bar-20 foreman ride away. Then he frowned and
+snapped his fingers angrily. "We'll keep you busy on yore 'line' when
+I get ready to play th' cards I'm looking for!" he exclaimed. "Th'
+gall of him! Telling me I can't pasture where I wants! By G-d, I'll be
+told I'm using his sunlight an' breathing his air!"
+
+He stepped forward. "Curley! Chick! Dan!"
+
+A moment later the three men stood before him.
+
+"What is it, Jim?" asked Curley.
+
+"You fellers drive north to-morrow. Pick up th' stragglers an' herd
+'em close to that infernal line. Don't drive 'em over till I tell you,
+but don't let none stray south again; savvy? If they want to stray
+north it's none of our business."
+
+"Good!"
+
+"Fine!"
+
+"That's th' way to talk!"
+
+"Don't start nothing, but if trouble comes yore way take care of
+yoreselves," Meeker remarked. "I'm telling you to herd up on our north
+range, that's all."
+
+"Shore; we'll do it!" laughed Curley.
+
+"Is that house on th' peak guarded?" Meeker asked.
+
+"Somebody's there most of th' time," replied Dan Morgan.
+
+"Yes; it's their bunk house now," explained Chick.
+
+"All right; don't forget to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THREE IS A CROWD
+
+
+When Buck reached the line on his return Hopalong was the first man he
+met and his orders were to the point: "Hold this line till h--l
+freezes, drive all H2 cows across it, an' don't start a fight; but be
+shore to finish any that zephyrs up. Keep yore eyes open."
+
+Hopalong grinned and replied that he would hold the line that long and
+then skate on the ice, that any cow found trying to cross would get
+indignant, and that he and trouble were old friends. Buck laughed and
+rode on.
+
+"Red Eagle, old cayuse!" cried the line rider, slapping the animal
+resoundingly. "We're shore ready!" And Red Eagle, to show how ready he
+was to resent such stinging familiarities, pitched viciously and bit
+at his rider's leg.
+
+"Hit her up, old devil!" yelled Hopalong, grabbing his sombrero and
+applying the spurs. Red Eagle settled back to earth and then shot
+forward at top speed along the line trail, bucking as often as he
+could.
+
+It was not long before Hopalong saw a small herd of H2 cows on Bar-20
+land and he rode off to head them. When he got in front of the herd he
+wheeled and dashed straight at it, yelling and firing his Colt, the
+horse squealing and pitching at every jump.
+
+"Ki-yi, yeow-eow-eow-eow!" he yelled, and the herd, terror-stricken,
+wheeled and dashed towards their ranch. He followed to the line and
+saw them meet and terrorize another herd, and he gleefully cried that
+it would be a "shore 'nuf stampede."
+
+"Look at 'em go, old Skyrocket," he laughed. The horse began to pitch
+again but he soon convinced it that play time had passed.
+
+"You old, ugly wart of a cayuse!" he cried, fighting it viciously as
+it reared and plunged and bit. "Don't you know I can lick four like
+you an' not touch leather! There, that's better. If you bite me again
+I'll kick yore corrugations in! But we made 'em hit th' high trail,
+didn't we, old hinge-back?"
+
+He looked up and stiffened, feeling so foolish that he hardly knew
+enough to tear off his sombrero, for before him, sitting quietly in
+her saddle and looking clean through him, was Mary Meeker, a
+contemptuous firmness about her lips.
+
+"Good-afternoon, Miss Meeker," he said, wondering how much she had
+seen and heard.
+
+"I'll not spoil yore fun," she icily replied, riding away.
+
+He stared after her until she had ridden around a chaparral and out of
+his sight, and he slammed his sombrero on the ground and swore.
+
+"D--n th' luck!"
+
+Then he spurred to overtake her and when he saw her again she was
+talking to Antonio, who was all smiles.
+
+"Coffee-colored galoot!" Hopalong muttered, savagely. "I'll spill him
+all over hisself some day, th' squint-eyed mud-image! Th' devil with
+him, if he don't like my company he can amble."
+
+He swept up to them, his hair stirred by the breeze and his right hand
+resting on the butt of his Colt. Antonio was talking when he arrived,
+but he had no regard for "Greasers" and interrupted without loss of
+time.
+
+"Miss Meeker," he began, backing his horse so he could watch the
+Mexican. "I shore hope you ain't mad. Are you?"
+
+She looked at him coldly, and her companion muttered something in
+Spanish; and found Hopalong's eyes looking into his soul, which hushed
+the Spanish.
+
+"You talk United States if you've got anything to say, which you
+ain't," Hopalong commanded and then turned to the woman. "I'm shore
+sorry you heard me. I didn't think you was anywhere around."
+
+"Which accounts for you terrorizing our cows an' calves," she
+retorted. "An' for trying to start a stampede."
+
+Antonio stiffened at this, but did nothing because Hopalong was
+watching him.
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yoreself!" she cried, her eyes flashing
+and deep color surging into her cheeks. "You had no right to treat
+them calves that way, or to start a stampede!"
+
+"I didn't try to start no stampede, honest," he replied, fascinated by
+the color playing across her face.
+
+"You did!" she insisted, vehemently. "You may think it's funny to
+scare calves, but it ain't!"
+
+"I was in a hurry," he replied, apologetically. "I shore didn't think
+nothing about th' calves. They was over on us an' I had to drive 'em
+back before I went on."
+
+"You have no right to drive 'em back," she retorted. "They have every
+right to graze where th' grass is good an' where they can get water.
+They can't live without water."
+
+"They shore can't," he replied in swift accord, as if the needs of
+cattle had never before crossed his mind. "But they can get it at th'
+river."
+
+"You have no right to drive 'em away from it!"
+
+"I ain't going to argue none with you, Miss," he responded. "My orders
+are to drive 'em back, which I'll do."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that you'll keep them from water?" she
+demanded, her eyes flashing again.
+
+"It ain't my fault that yore men don't hold 'em closer to th' river,"
+he replied. "There's water a-plenty there. Yore father's keeping 'em
+on a dry range."
+
+"Don't say anything about my father," she angrily retorted. "He knows
+his business better'n you can tell it to him."
+
+"I'm sorry if I've gone an' said anything to make you mad," he
+earnestly replied. "I just wanted to show you that I'm only obeying
+orders. I don't want to argue with you."
+
+"I didn't come here to argue," she quickly retorted. "I don't want you
+to drive our calves so hard, that's all."
+
+"I'll be plumb tender with 'em," he assured her, grinning. "An' I
+didn't try to scare that other herd, honest."
+
+"I saw you trying to scare them just before you saw me."
+
+"Oh!" he exclaimed, chuckling as he recalled his fight with Red Eagle.
+"That was all th' fault of this ornery cayuse. He got th' idea into
+his fool head that he could throw me, so me an' him had it out right
+there."
+
+She had been watching his face while he spoke and she remembered that
+he had fought with his horse, and believed that he was telling the
+truth. Then, suddenly, the humorous side struck her and brought a
+smile to her face. "I'm sorry I didn't understand," she replied in a
+low voice.
+
+"Then you ain't mad no more?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"No; not a bit."
+
+"I'm glad of that," he laughed, leaning forward. "You had me plumb
+scared to death."
+
+"I didn't know I could scare a puncher so easy, 'specially you," she
+replied, flushing. "But where's yore sombrero?"
+
+"Back where I throwed it," he grinned.
+
+"Where you threw it?"
+
+"Shore. I got sore when you rode away, an' didn't care much what
+happened," he replied, coolly. Then he transfixed the Mexican with his
+keen eyes. "If yo're so anxious to get that gun out, say so or do it,"
+he said, slowly. "That's th' second time."
+
+Mary watched them breathlessly, but Hopalong didn't intend to have any
+fighting in her presence.
+
+"You let it alone before I take it away from you," he said. "An' I
+reckon you better pull out--you ain't needed around here. Go on,
+flit!"
+
+Antonio glanced at Mary for orders and she nodded her head. "I don't
+need you; go."
+
+Hopalong watched him depart and turned to his companion. "What's
+eating him, anyhow?"
+
+"I don't know. I never saw him act that way before."
+
+"H'm. I reckon I know; but he don't want to act that way again," he
+said, decisively. "Greasers are shore funny animals."
+
+"All men are funny," she replied. "Th' idea of being scared by me when
+you ain't afraid of a man like him."
+
+"That's a different kind of a scare, an' I never felt like that
+before. It made me want to kill somebody. I don't want you to get mad
+at me. I like you too much. You won't, will you?"
+
+She smiled. "No."
+
+"Never? No matter what happens?"
+
+"Do you care?"
+
+"Do I care! You know I do. Look at me, Mary!"
+
+"No; don't come any nearer. I must go--good-bye."
+
+"Don't go; let's ride around for a while."
+
+"But 'Tony may tell Dad; an' if he does Dad'll come up here an' make
+trouble. No, I must go."
+
+"Tell 'Tony I want to see him," he replied. "If he says anything I'll
+make him pay for it; an' he won't do it again."
+
+"You mustn't do that! It would make things all th' worse."
+
+"Will you come up again to-morrow?"
+
+She laughed. "That'll be too soon, won't it?"
+
+"Not by a blamed sight."
+
+"Well, I don't know. Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye," he said, holding out his hand.
+
+She gave him her hand and then tried to push him away. "No, no! No, I
+say! I won't come any more if you do that!"
+
+Despite her struggles he drew her to him and kissed her again and
+again.
+
+"I hate you! I hate you!" she cried, her face the color of fire. "What
+made you do it! You've spoiled everything, an' I'll never see you
+again! I hate you!" and she wheeled and galloped away.
+
+He spurred in pursuit and when he had overtaken her he grasped her
+horse by the bridle and stopped her. "Mary! Don't be mad--I love you!"
+
+"Will you let me go?" she demanded, her face crimson.
+
+"Not till you say yo're not mad."
+
+"Please let me go," she replied, looking in his eyes, "I'm not mad at
+you; but you mustn't do that again. Won't you let me go before some
+one sees us?"
+
+He released her and she impulsively put her hand on his arm. "Look
+out--an' watch 'Tony," and she was gone.
+
+"Yo're th' best girl ever rode a cayuse," he muttered, joyously.
+"'Look out--an' watch 'Tony,'" he cried. "What do I care about that
+Greaser? I can clean out th' whole gang now. Just let 'em start
+something."
+
+When he neared the place where his sombrero lay he saw Johnny in the
+act of picking it up, and Johnny might take a notion to make a race
+out of it before giving it up. "Hey, you!" Hopalong cried, dashing
+forward, "gimme that cover!"
+
+"Come an' get it; I don't want it," Johnny retorted. "What made you
+lose it?"
+
+"Fighting."
+
+"Fighting! Fighting who?"
+
+"Just fighting, Kid."
+
+"Ah, come on an' tell me," begged Johnny. Then, like a shot: "Was it
+that Greaser?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Who was it?"
+
+"None of yore business," laughed Hopalong, delighted to be able to
+tease him.
+
+"All right!" Johnny cried. "You wait; th' boys will be glad to learn
+about you an' her!"
+
+Hopalong's hand shot out and gripped his friend's shoulder. "Don't you
+say a word about it, do you hear?"
+
+"Shore. I was only fooling," replied Johnny. "Think I tell them kind
+of things! Yo're a big fool, you are."
+
+"I was too quick, Kid. I know yo're a thoroughbred. An' now I'll tell
+you who I was fighting. Its was Red Eagle. He got a fit of pitching,
+an' I had to take it out of him."
+
+"I might 'a knowed it," responded Johnny, eying the tracks in the
+sand. "But I reckoned you might 'a had a run-in with that Greaser. I
+was saving him for myself."
+
+"Why do you hate him so much more'n th' other Greasers?"
+
+"Never mind that now. I'll tell you after I get him."
+
+"Have you seen Buck since he came back?"
+
+"No; why?"
+
+Hopalong told him what the foreman had said and his friend grinned.
+"The good old days are coming back again, Hoppy!" he exulted. "Now I
+can kick th' shirt off'n that Greaser, can't I, if he gets gay?"
+
+"If he don't kick yourn off first."
+
+"I'd like to see him try it; or you, either! Mebbe you'd like to try
+it now?"
+
+"Shoo, fly! Shoo, fly," laughed Hopalong.
+
+"Where are you going now?" asked Johnny.
+
+"Where I please."
+
+"Shore. I knowed that. That's where you want to go," grinned Johnny.
+"But where do you want to go?"
+
+"Where I can't go now."
+
+"Ah, shut up! Come on. I'll go with you."
+
+"Well, I'm going east to tell th' fellers what Buck said."
+
+"Go ahead. I'm with you," Johnny said, wheeling.
+
+"I didn't ask you to come."
+
+"I didn't ask you to go," retorted Johnny. "Here," he said, holding
+out a cigar and putting another in his mouth. "Have a smoke; they're
+all right."
+
+"Where the devil did you get 'em?"
+
+"Up in Number Five."
+
+"In Number Five!"
+
+"Shore. Frenchy, th' son-o'-a-gun, had three of 'em hid over th'
+windy," Johnny explained. "I hooked 'em."
+
+"So I reckoned; did you take 'em all?"
+
+"Was you going up?"
+
+"No; but did you?"
+
+"Well, I looked good, but I didn't see none to leave."
+
+"You wait till he finds it out," Hopalong warned.
+
+"He won't do nothing," assured Johnny, easily. "Anyhow, yo're as
+guilty as me. He ain't got no right to cache cigars when we can't get
+to town for any. Besides, he's afraid of me."
+
+"Scared of you! Oh, Lord, that's good!"
+
+"Quit fooling an' get started," Johnny said, kicking his friend's
+horse.
+
+"You behave, or I'll get that Greaser to lick you good," threatened
+Hopalong as he quieted Red Eagle.
+
+"Huh! He don't like fights."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because my grub is his poison; get a-going."
+
+They cantered eastward, driving back Meeker's cows whenever they were
+found too close to the line or over it, and it was not long before
+they made out Lanky riding towards them. He had not yet seen them and
+Johnny eagerly proposed that they prepare an ambush and scare him.
+
+"He don't scare, you fool," replied Hopalong. "A joke is a joke, but
+there ain't no use getting shot at when you can't shoot back. No use
+getting killed for a lark."
+
+"He might shoot, mightn't he," Johnny laughed. "I didn't think about
+that."
+
+Lanky looked around, waved his hand and soon joined them. "I see yo're
+taking care of th' Kid, Hopalong. Hullo, Kid."
+
+"Go to blazes!" snorted Johnny.
+
+"Has he been a good boy, Hoppy?"
+
+"No more'n usual. He's looking for Antonio."
+
+"_Again_?" asked Lanky, grinning. "Ain't you found him yet?"
+
+"Ah, go on. I'll find him when I want him," Johnny retorted.
+
+When Lanky had heard Buck's orders he frowned.
+
+"We'll hold it all right. Wait for Billy, he'll be along purty soon. I
+left him chasing some cows."
+
+"Got yore saddle so it'll stay together for more'n ten minutes at a
+time?" asked Johnny.
+
+"I bought Billy's old one," Lanky replied. "Got anything to say about
+it?"
+
+Billy Williams, pessimist by nature and choice, rode up and joined
+them and, laughing and joking, they rode towards the Peak, to see if
+Buck had any further orders. But they had not gone far before Hopalong
+stopped and thought. "You go on. I'll stay out here an' watch things."
+
+"I'm with you, Hoppy," Johnny offered. "You fellers go on; me an'
+Hopalong'll take care of th' line out here."
+
+"All right," replied Lanky. "So long."
+
+A few minutes later Johnny turned in his saddle. "Hey, Billy!" he
+shouted.
+
+"What?"
+
+"Has Lanky paid you for that saddle, yet?"
+
+"Shore; why?"
+
+"Oh, nothing. But yo're lucky."
+
+Billy turned and said something to Lanky and they cantered on their
+way.
+
+"Hey, Hoppy; don't you tell Frenchy about them cigars," Johnny
+suddenly remarked some time later.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+HOBBLE BURNS AND SLEEPERS
+
+
+The western part of the Bar-20 ranch was poor range and but few cattle
+were to be found on it until Big Coulee had been reached. This portion
+of the ranch fed quite a large number of cattle, many of which were
+outlaws, but because of the heavy work demanded on the more fertile
+southern and eastern sections it was the custom with Buck to pay
+little attention to the Big Coulee herds; if a man rode up there once
+in a while he was satisfied. This time it was Skinny who was to look
+over the condition of affairs around Number Two, which was not far
+from Big Coulee.
+
+Detouring here and there he took his own time and followed the general
+direction of the western line, and about four hours after he had
+quitted the Peak he passed line house Number Two and shortly afterward
+stopped on the rim of the coulee, a brush-grown depression of a score
+of acres in extent, in which was a pond covering half an acre and fed
+by springs on the bottom, its outlet being a deep gorge cut in the
+soft stone. Half a mile from the pond the small stream disappeared in
+the sand and was lost.
+
+He rode through the coulee without seeing a single cow and an
+exploration lasting over an hour resulted no better. Beyond a bear
+track or two among the berry bushes he saw no signs of animal life.
+This did not disturb him because he took it for granted that the herds
+had wandered back to where the grass was better. Stopping at the line
+house to eat, he mounted and rode towards the hills to report to
+Hopalong.
+
+Suddenly it struck him that he had seen no cow tracks in the mud
+around the water hole and he began to hunt for cattle. Using Pete's
+glasses constantly to sweep the plain for the missing herds, it was
+not until he had reached a point half-way to the Peak that his search
+was rewarded by seeing a calf far to the east of him. Watching it
+until it stood out boldly to his sight he followed an impulse and rode
+towards it to examine it at close range.
+
+Upon getting near it he saw that it bore the V notch of the H2 cut in
+its ear, and that it was not branded. He thought it strange that an H2
+"sleeper" should be so far from home, without a mother to lead it
+astray, and he roped it to look more closely at the notch. His opinion
+was that it had been done very recently, for the cartilage had not yet
+dried on the edges. Releasing the animal he mounted and started for
+the line, muttering to himself.
+
+As he swung into the line trail he saw a lame cow limping around a
+thicket and he spurred forward, roped and threw it, this time giving
+no thought to the ears, for its brand was that of the Bar-20. He
+looked at the hocks and found them swollen and inflamed, and his
+experience told him that it had been done by hobbles. This, to him,
+explained why the calf was alone, and it gave him the choice of two
+explanations for the hobbling and the newly cut ear notch on the calf.
+Either the H2 was sleepering Bar-20 calves for their irons later on,
+or rustlers were at work. It seemed incredible that any H2 puncher
+should come that distance to make a few sleepers--but the herd had not
+been to the water hole! He was greatly wrought up and it was none the
+more pleasant to be unable to say where the blame lay. There was only
+one thing to do and that was to scout around and try to find a clue to
+the perpetrators--and, perhaps, catch the thieves at work. This proved
+to be unfruitful until he came to North Hill, where he found a cow
+dead from gunshot. He put spurs to his horse and rode straight for the
+Peak, which he reached as night fell and as Hopalong, Red, Pete, and
+Lanky were eating supper and debating the line conditions.
+
+Skinny joined them and listened to the conversation, wordless, nodding
+or shaking his head at the points made. When he had finished eating he
+leaned back against his saddle and fumbled for tobacco and pipe,
+gazing reflectively into the fire, at which he spat. Hopalong turned
+in time to see the act and, knowing Skinny's peculiarities, asked
+abruptly: "What's on yore mind, Skinny?"
+
+"Little piece of h--l," was the slow reply, and it gained the
+attention of the others at once. "I saw a H2 sleeper, up just above
+th' Bend and half way between it an' th' line."
+
+"That so!" exclaimed Hopalong.
+
+"Long way from home--starting in young to ramble," Red laughed. "Lazy
+trick, that sleepering."
+
+"This here calf had a brand new V--hadn't healed yet," Skinny
+remarked, lighting his pipe. "An' it didn't--_puff_--have
+no--_puff_--mother," he added, significantly.
+
+"Huh, weaned, you chump--but that fresh V is shore funny."
+
+"Go on, Skinny," ordered Hopalong, eagerly.
+
+"I found its mother an hour later--hobble-burned an' limping; an' it
+wasn't no H2 cow, neither; it was one of ourn."
+
+"Rustling!" cried Hopalong.
+
+"Th' H2 is doing it," contradicted Red, quickly.
+
+"They wouldn't take a chance like that," replied Hopalong.
+
+"There ain't no rule for taking chances," Red rejoined. "Some men'll
+gamble with h--l itself--you, for instance, in gun-play."
+
+"What else?" demanded Hopalong of Skinny.
+
+"That Big Coulee herd ain't up there, an' hain't been near th' water
+hole for so long th' mud's smooth around the edges of th' pond; kin
+savvy?"
+
+"It's rustlers, by G-d!" cried Hopalong, looking triumphantly at Red.
+
+"An' I found a dead cow--shot--on th' upper end of North Hill," Skinny
+added.
+
+"H2!" Red shouted. "They're doing it!"
+
+"Yes, likely; it was an H2 cow," Skinny placidly explained.
+
+"Why in h--l can't you tell things in a herd, 'stead of stringin' 'em
+out like a stiff reata trailing to soften!" Red cried. "Yo're the
+damndest talker that ever opened a mouth!"
+
+Skinny took the pipe from his mouth and looked at Red.
+
+"I allus get it all out, don't I? What are you kicking about?"
+
+"Yes, you do; like a five thousand herd filtering through a two-foot
+gate!"
+
+"Mebby th' herd drifted to th' valley," Pete offered.
+
+"Mebby nothing!" Red retorted. "Why, we can't drive 'em down here
+without 'em acting loco about it."
+
+"Cows are shore fool animals," Pete suggested in defence.
+
+"There's more than cows that are fool animals," Red snapped, while
+Skinny laughed to see Pete get his share.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sixteen miles to the southeast of the Peak, Meeker sat on a soap box
+and listened, with the rest of his outfit, to what Curley was
+saying,--"an' when I got down a good ways south I found two young
+calves bellering for their maws. They was sleepers; an' an hour later
+I found them same maws bellering for them calves--they was limping
+a-plenty an' their hocks looked burned--hobble burns."
+
+Meeker mused for a moment and then arose. "You ride that range
+regular, an' be cautious. Watch towards Eagle. If you catch any
+sons-of-skunks gamboling reckless, an' they can't explain why they are
+flitting over our range, shoot off yore gun accidental--there won't be
+no inquest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HOPALONG GROWS SUSPICIOUS
+
+
+The eastern sky grew brighter and the dim morning light showed a group
+of men at breakfast on the Peak. They already had been given their
+orders and as soon as each man finished eating he strode off to where
+his horse was picketed with the others, mounted, and rode away. Pete
+had ridden in late the night before and was still sleeping in the
+house, Hopalong not wishing to awaken him until it was absolutely
+necessary.
+
+Red Connors, riding back to the house from the horse herd, drew rein
+for a final word. "I'm going out to watch that unholy drift of
+Meeker's cows, just this side of th' half-way point. They was purty
+thick last night when I rode in. I told Johnny to keep on that part of
+th' line, for I reckon things will get too crowded for one man to
+handle. Th' two of us can take care of 'em, all right. You knows where
+you can find us if you need us."
+
+"I don't like that drift, but I'll stay here an' give Pete an hour
+more sleep," Hopalong replied. "Buck didn't know just when he'd be
+down again, but I'm looking for him before noon, just th' same."
+
+"Well, me an' Johnny'll stop th' drift. So long," and Red cantered
+away, whistling softly.
+
+Hopalong kicked out the fire and walked restlessly around the plateau,
+puzzled by the massing of the H2 cows along the line. The play was
+obvious enough on its face, for it meant that Meeker, tired of
+inaction, had decided to force the issue by driving into the valley.
+But Hopalong, suspicious to a degree, was not satisfied with that
+solution.
+
+On more than one occasion he had searched past the obvious and found
+deeper motives, and to this ferment of thought he owed his life many
+times. He, himself, essentially a schemer and trusting no one but the
+members of his outfit, accused others of scheming and bent his mind to
+outwit them. Buck often irritated him greatly, for the foreman,
+optimistic and believing all men honest until they proved to be
+otherwise, held that Meeker thought himself to be in the right and so
+was justified in his attempt to use the valley. Hopalong believed that
+Meeker was not square, that he knew he had no right to the valley and
+was trying to steal range; he maintained that the wiser way was to
+believe all men crooked and put the burden on them of proving
+otherwise; then he was prepared for anything.
+
+A better cow-man than Buck Peters never lived; he knew the cattle
+industry thoroughly, was honest, fair, and fearless, maintained an
+even temper and tried to avoid fighting until the last ditch had been
+reached. But it was an indisputable fact that Hopalong Cassidy had
+proved himself to be the best man on the ranch when danger threatened.
+He grasped situations quickly and clearly and his companions looked to
+him for suggestions when the sky was clouded by impending conflict.
+Buck realized that his line-foreman was eminently better qualified to
+handle the skirmish line than himself, that Hopalong could carry out
+things which would fall flat if any one else attempted them. Back of
+Buck's confidence was the pleasing knowledge that no man had ever yet
+got in the first shot against Hopalong on an "even break," and that
+when his puncher's gun exploded it was all over; this is why Hopalong
+could, single-handed, win out in any reasonable situation.
+
+While Hopalong turned the matter over in his mind he thought he saw a
+figure move among the chaparrals far to the south and he whipped out
+his glasses, peering long and steadily at the place. Then he put them
+away and laughed softly. "You can't fool me, by G-d! I'll let you make
+yore play--an' if Pete don't kill a few of you I'm a liar. Here are
+th' shells--pick out th' pea."
+
+Returning to the house he shook Pete. "Hey, get up!"
+
+Pete bounded up, wide awake in an instant. "Yes?"
+
+"Put on yore clothes an' come outside a minute," he ordered, going
+out.
+
+Pete finished buttoning his vest when he joined his friend, who was
+pointing south. "Pete, they're playing for this house, an' I can't
+stay--Red an' Johnny may need me any minute. Down there a Greaser is
+watching this house. Meeker is massing his cows along th' line for two
+reasons; he's trying to draw us away from here so he can get in, an'
+he's going to push over th' line if he falls down here. You stay in
+that shack. Don't leave it for a second, understand? Stop anybody that
+comes up here if you have to kill him. But don't leave this house for
+nothing, savvy?"
+
+"Go ahead. I savvy."
+
+Hopalong vaulted to his saddle and started away. "I'll get somebody to
+help you as soon as I can," he called.
+
+"Don't need anybody!" Pete shouted, going inside and barring the door.
+
+Hopalong was elated by the way he had forestalled Meeker, and also
+because it was Pete who guarded the house. He knew his companions only
+as a man can know friends with whom he has lived for nearly a score of
+years. Red was too good a fighter to be cooped up while trouble
+threatened in the open; Johnny, rash and hot-tempered, could be
+tempted to leave the house to indulge in personal combat if taunted
+enough, and he, too, was too good a man in a _mêlée_ to remain on the
+Peak. The man for the house was Pete, for he was accurate enough for
+that short range, he was unemotional and did not do much thinking for
+himself when it ran counter to his instructions; he had been told to
+stay in the house and hold it, and that, Hopalong felt certain, he
+would do.
+
+"Pete'll hold 'em with one leg in th' air if they happen to be taking
+a step when he sees 'em," he laughed.
+
+But Pete was to be confronted with a situation so unexpected and of
+such a nature that for once in his life he was going to forget
+orders--and small blame to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE COMPROMISE
+
+
+It was night and on the H2 sickly, yellow lights gleamed from the
+ranch houses. From the bunk house came occasional bursts of song, the
+swinging choruses thundering out on the night air, deep-toned and
+strong. In the foreman's quarters the clatter of dishes was soon
+stilled and shortly afterward the light in the kitchen could be seen
+no more. A girl stood in the kitchen door for a moment and then,
+singing, went inside and the door closed. The strumming of a guitar
+and much laughter came from Antonio's shack, for now he had Juan and
+Sanchez to help him pass the time.
+
+Meeker emerged from a corral, glanced above him for signs of the
+morrow's weather, and then stood and gazed at the Mexican's shack.
+Turning abruptly on his heel he strode to the bunk house and smiled
+grimly as the chorus roared out, for he had determined upon measures
+which might easily change the merriment to mourning before another day
+passed. He had made up his mind to remain inactive no longer, but to
+put things to the test--his outfit and himself against the Bar-20.
+
+He entered the building and slamming the door shut behind him, waited
+until the chorus was finished. When the last note died away he issued
+his orders for the next day, orders which pleased his men, who had
+chafed even more than he under the galling inaction, since they did
+not thoroughly understand the reasons for it.
+
+"I had them cows herded up north for th' last three days so they'd be
+ready for us when we wanted 'em," he said, and then leaped at the door
+and jerked it open, peering about outside. The guitar was still
+strumming in the Mexican's shack and he recognized the voices of three
+in the singing. Turning, he beckoned Doc Riley to him and the two
+stepped outside, closing the door behind them. Great noise broke out
+within the house as his orders were repeated and commented on. Meeker
+and Doc moved to the corner of the building and consulted earnestly
+for several minutes, the foreman gesticulating slowly.
+
+"But Juan said they had a man to guard it," Doc replied.
+
+"Yes; he told me," Meeker responded. "I'm going to fix that before I
+go to bed--we've got to coax him out on some excuse. Once we get him
+out of th' house we can cover him, an' th' rest'll be easy. I won't be
+able to be with you--I'll have to stay outside where I can move around
+an' look out for th' line trouble, an' where they can see me. But you
+an' Jack can hold it once you get in. By G-d, you _must_ get in, an'
+you _must_ hold it!"
+
+"We'll do it if it's possible."
+
+"That's th' way to talk. Th' boys seem pleased about it," Meeker
+laughed, listening to the joy loose in the house.
+
+"Pleased! They're tickled plumb to death," Doc cried. "They've got so
+sore about having to keep their guns quiet that when they cut
+loose--well, something's due to happen."
+
+"I don't want that if there's any other way," Meeker replied
+earnestly. "If this thing can be done without wholesale slaughter
+we've got to do it that way. Remember, Doc, this whole country is
+backing Peters. He's got thirteen men now, an' he can call on thirty
+more in two days. Easy is th' way, easy."
+
+"I'll spend th' next hour pounding that into their hot heads," Doc
+replied. "They're itching for a chance to square up for everything.
+They're some sore, been so for a couple of days, about that line house
+being guarded--they get sore plumb easy now, you know."
+
+"Well, good-night, Doc."
+
+"Good-night, Jim."
+
+Meeker went towards his own house and as he neared the kitchen door a
+deep-throated wolf-hound bayed from the kennels, inciting a clamorous
+chorus from the others. Meeker shouted and the noise changed to low,
+deep, rumbling growls which soon became hushed. Chains rattled over
+wood and the fierce animals returned to their grass beds to snarl at
+each other. The frightened crickets took up their song again and
+poured it on the silence of the night.
+
+The foreman opened the door and strode through the kitchen and into
+the living room, his eyes squinting momentarily because of the light.
+His daughter was sitting in a rocking chair, sewing industriously, and
+she looked up, welcoming him. He replied to her and, dexterously
+tossing his sombrero on a peg in the wall where it caught and hung
+swinging, walked heavily to the southern window and stood before it,
+hands clasped behind his back, staring moodily into the star-stabbed
+darkness. Down the wind came the faint, wailing howl of a wolf,
+quavering and distant, and the hounds again shattered the peaceful
+quiet. But he heard neither, so absorbed was he by his thoughts. Mary
+looked at him for a moment and then took up her work again and resumed
+sewing, for he had done this before when things had gone wrong, and
+frequently of late.
+
+He turned suddenly and in response to the movement she looked up,
+again laying her sewing aside. "What it is?" she asked.
+
+"Trouble, Mary. I want to talk to you."
+
+"I'm always ready to listen, Daddy," she replied. "I wish you wouldn't
+worry so. That's all you've done since we left Montana."
+
+"I know; but I can't help it," he responded, smiling faintly. "But I
+don't care much as long as I've got you to talk it over with. Yo're
+like yore mother that way, Mary; she allus made things easy, somehow.
+An' she knew more'n most women do about things."
+
+"Yo're my own Daddy," she replied affectionately. "Now tell me all
+about it."
+
+"Well," he began, sitting on the table, "I'm being cheated out of my
+rights. I find lines where none exist. I'm hemmed in from water, th'
+best grazing is held from me, my cows are driven helter-skelter, my
+pride hurt, an' my men mocked. When I say I must have water I'm told
+to go to th' river for it, twenty miles from my main range, an' lined
+with quicksands; an' yet there is water close to me, water enough for
+double th' number of cows of both ranches! It is good, clean water,
+unfailing an' over a firm bottom, flowing through thirty miles of th'
+best grass valley in this whole sun-cursed section. Two hundred miles
+in any direction won't show another as good. An' yet, I dassn't set my
+foot in it--I can't drive a cow across that line!"
+
+He paused and then continued: "I'm good an' sick of it all. I ain't
+going to swaller it no longer, not a day. Peace is all right, but not
+at th' price I'm paying! I'd ruther die fighting for what's mine than
+put up with what I have since I came down here."
+
+"What are you going to do?" she asked quietly.
+
+"I'm going to have a force on that line by to-morrow night!" he cried,
+gradually working himself into a temper. "_I'm_ going to hold them
+hills, an' th' springs at th' bottom of 'em. _I'm_ going to use that
+valley an' I'll fight until th' last man goes under!"
+
+"Don't say that, Daddy," she quickly objected. "There ain't no line
+worth yore life. What good will it do you when yo're dead? You can get
+along without it if it comes to that. An' what'll happen to me if you
+get killed?"
+
+"No, girl," he replied. "You've held me back too long. I should 'a
+struck in th' beginning, before they got so set. It would 'a been
+easier then. I don't like range wars any more'n anybody, but it's
+come, an' I've got to hold up my end--an' my head!"
+
+"But th' agreement?" she queried, fearful for his safety. She loved
+her father with all her heart, for he had been more than a father to
+her; he had always confided in her and weighed her judgment; they had
+been companions since her mother died, which was almost beyond her
+memory; and now he would risk his life in a range war, a vindictive,
+unmerciful conflict which usually died out when the last opponent
+died--and perhaps he was in the wrong. She knew the fighting ability
+of that shaggy, tight-lipped breed of men that mocked Death with
+derisive, profane words, who jibed whether in _mêlée_ or duel with as
+light hearts as if engaged in nothing more dangerous than dancing. And
+she had heard, even in Montana, of the fighting qualities of the
+outfit that rode range for the Bar-20. If they must be fought, then
+let it be for the right principles and not otherwise. And there was
+Hopalong!--she knew in her heart that she loved him, and feared it and
+fought it, but it was true; and he was the active leader of his
+outfit, the man who was almost the foreman, and who would be in the
+thickest of the fighting. She didn't purpose to have him killed if he
+was in the right, or in the wrong, either.
+
+"Agreement!" he cried, hotly. "Agreement! I hear that every time I say
+anything to that crowd, an' now you give it to me! Agreement be
+d----d! Nason never said nothing about any agreement when he told me
+he had found a ranch for me. He wouldn't 'a dealt me a hand like that,
+one that'd give me th' worst of it in a show-down! He found out all
+about everything before he turned over my check to 'em."
+
+"But they say there is one, an' from th' way they act it looks that
+way."
+
+"I don't believe anything of th' sort! It's just a trick to hog that
+grass an' water!"
+
+"Hopalong Cassidy told me there was one--he told me all about it. He
+was a witness."
+
+"Hopalong h--l!" he cried, remembering the day that Doc had been shot,
+and certain hints which Antonio had let fall.
+
+"Father!" she exclaimed, her eyes flashing.
+
+"Oh, don't mind me," he replied. "I don't know what I'm saying half
+th' time. I'm all mixed up, now-a-days."
+
+"I believe he was telling the truth--he wouldn't lie to me," she
+remarked, decisively.
+
+He looked at her sharply. "Well, am I to be tied down by something I
+don't know about? Am I to swaller everything I hear? _I_ don't know
+about no agreement, except what th' Bar-20 tells me. An' if there was
+one it was made by th' Three Triangle, wasn't it?--an' not by Nason or
+me? Am I th' Three Triangle? Am I to walk th' line on something I
+didn't make? _I_ didn't make it!--oh, I'm tired arguing about it."
+
+"Well, even if there wasn't no agreement you can't blame them for
+trying to keep their land, can you?" she asked, idly fingering her
+sewing. "The land is theirs, ain't it?"
+
+"Did you ever hear of free grass an' free water?"
+
+"I never heard of nothing else till I came down here," she admitted.
+"But it may be different here."
+
+"Well, it ain't different!" he retorted. "An' if it is it won't stay
+so. What goes in Montanny will go down here. Anyhow, I don't want
+their land--all I want is th' use of it, same as they have. But
+they're hogs, an' want it all."
+
+"They say it ain't big enough for their herds."
+
+"Thirty-five miles long, and five miles wide, in th' valley alone, an'
+it ain't big enough! Don't talk to me like that! You know better."
+
+"I'm only trying to show it to you in every light," she responded.
+"Mebby yo're right, an' mebby you ain't; that's what we've got to find
+out. I don't want to think of you fightin', 'specially if yo're wrong.
+Suppose yo're killed,--an' you might be. Ain't there some other way to
+get what you want, if yo're determined to go ahead?"
+
+"Yes, I might be killed, but I won't go alone!" he cried savagely.
+"Fifty years, man an' boy, I've lived on th' range, taking every kick
+of fortune, riding hard an' fightin' hard when I had to. I ain't no
+yearling at any game about cows, girl."
+
+"But can't you think of some other way?" she repeated.
+
+"I've got to get that line house on th' hill," he went on, not
+heeding her question. "Juan told me three days ago, that they've put a
+guard in it now--but I'll have it by noon to-morrow, for I've been
+thinking hard since then. An' once in it, they can't take it from me!
+With that in my hands I can laugh at 'em, for I can drive my cows over
+th' line close by it, down th' other side of th' hill, an' into th'
+valley near th' springs. They'll be under my guns in th' line house,
+an' let anybody try to drive 'em out again! Two men can hold that
+house--it was built for defence against Indians. Th' top of th' hill
+is level as a floor an' only two hundred yards to th' edge. Nobody can
+cross that space under fire an' live."
+
+"If they can't cross it an' live, how can _you_ cross it, when th'
+house is guarded? An' when th' first shot is fired you'll have th'
+whole outfit down on you from behind like wild fire. Then what'll you
+do? You can't fight between two fires."
+
+"By G-d, yo're right! Yo're th' brains of this ranch," he cried, his
+eyes squinting to hide his elation. He paced back and forth, thinking
+deeply. Five minutes passed, then ten, and he suddenly turned and
+faced her, to unfold the plan he had worked out the day before. He had
+been leading up to it and now he knew how to propose it. "I've got it.
+I've got it! Not a shot, not a single shot!"
+
+"Tell me," she said smiling.
+
+He slowly unfolded it, telling her of the herds waiting to be driven
+across the line to draw the Bar-20 men from the Peak, and of the part
+she was to play. She listened quietly, a troubled frown on her face,
+and when he had finished and asked her what she thought of it she
+looked at him earnestly and slowly replied:
+
+"Do you think that's fair? Do you want _me_ to do that?"
+
+"What's unfair about it? They're yore enemies as much as they are
+mine, ain't they? Ain't everything fair in love an' war, as th' books
+say?"
+
+"In war, perhaps; but not in love," she replied in a low voice,
+thinking of the man who wore her flower.
+
+"Now look here!" he cried, leaning forward. "Don't you go an' get soft
+on any of that crowd! Do you hear?"
+
+"We won't mix love an' war, Daddy," she said, decisively. "You take
+care of yore end, that's war; an' let me run my part. I'll do what I
+want to when it comes to falling in love; an' I'll help you to-morrow.
+I don't want to do it, but I will; you've got to have th' line house,
+an' without getting between two fires. I'll do it, Daddy."
+
+"Good girl! Yo're just like yore mother--all grit!" he cried, going
+towards the door. "An' I reckon I won't have to take no hand in _yore_
+courting," he said, grabbing his sombrero. "Yo're shore able to run
+yore own."
+
+"But _promise_ me you won't interfere," she said, calmly, hiding her
+triumph.
+
+"It's a go. I'll keep away from th' sparking game," he promised. "I'm
+going out to see th' boys for a minute," and the door slammed,
+inciting the clamor of the kennels again, which he again hushed.
+"D--n 'em!" he muttered, exultantly. "They tried to hog th' range, an'
+then they want my girl! But they _won't_ hog th' range no more, an'
+I'll put a stop to th' courting when she plays her cards to-morrow,
+an' without having any hand in it. Lord, I win, every trick!" he
+laughed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ANTONIO MEETS FRIENDS
+
+
+Before daylight the next morning Antonio left the ranch and rode
+south, bearing slightly to the west, so as not to leave his trail in
+Curley's path. He was to meet some of Shaw's men who would come for
+more cattle. When a dozen miles southwest of the ranch house he espied
+them at work on the edge of an arroyo. They had a fire going and were
+re-branding a calf. Far out on the plain was a dead cow, the calf's
+mother, shot because they had become angered by its belligerency when
+it had gone "on th' prod." They had driven cow and calf hard and when
+they tried to separate the two the mother had charged viciously,
+narrowly missing one of them, to die by a shot from the man most
+concerned. Meanwhile the calf had run back over its trail and they had
+roped it as it was about to plunge over the bank of the arroyo.
+
+"You fools!" yelled Antonio, galloping towards them. "Don't you know
+better'n to blot on this range! How many times have I told you that
+Curley rides south!"
+
+"He never gets this far west--we've watched him," retorted Clausen,
+angrily.
+
+"Is that any reason why he can't!" demanded the Mexican. "How do we
+know what he'll do?"
+
+"Yes!" rejoined Clausen. "An' I reckon he can find that steep-bank
+hollow with th' rope gate, can't he? Suppose he finds th' herds you
+holds in it for us--what then?"
+
+"It's a whole lot farther west than here!" retorted Antonio, hotly.
+"They never go to Little Muddy, an' if they do, that's a chance we've
+got to take. But you can wait till you get to th' mesa before you
+change brands, can't you!"
+
+"Aw, close yore pie-sump!" cried Frisco. "Who th' devil is doing this,
+anyhow? You make more noise than Cheyenne on th' Fourth of July!"
+
+"What right have you fellers got to take chances an' hobble _me_ with
+trouble?"
+
+"Who's been doing all th' sleepering, hey?" sarcastically demanded
+Dick Archer. "Let Meeker's gang see the God-forsaken bunch of sleepers
+running on their range an' you'll be hobbled with trouble, all right."
+
+Through laziness, carelessness, or haste calves might not be branded
+when found with branded cows. Feeling was strong against the use of
+the "running iron," a straight iron rod about eighteen inches long
+which was heated and used as a pencil on the calf's hide, and a man
+caught with one in his possession could expect to be dealt with
+harshly; it was a very easy task to light a fire and "run" a brand,
+and the running iron was easily concealed under the saddle flap. But
+it was not often that a puncher would carry a stamping iron, for it
+was cumbersome. With a running iron a brand could be changed, or the
+wrong mark put on unbranded cattle; but the stamping iron would give
+only one pattern.
+
+When a puncher came across an unbranded calf with its branded mother,
+and the number which escaped the roundup was often large, he branded
+it, if he had an iron; if he did not have the iron he might cut the
+calf's ears to conform to the notch in its mother's ears. When the
+calf was again seen it might have attained its full growth. In that
+case there was no branded mother to show to whom it belonged; but its
+cut ears would tell.
+
+These unbranded, ear-cut calves were known as "sleepers" and, in
+localities where cattle stealing was being or had been carried on to
+any extent, such sleepering was regarded with strong suspicion, and
+more than one man had paid a dear price for doing the work.
+
+The ear mark of the H2 was a V, while the Bar-20 depended entirely on
+the brand, and part of its punchers' saddle equipment was a stamping
+iron.
+
+Cowmen held sleepering in strong disfavor because it was an easy
+matter for a maverick hunter or a rustler to drive off these sleepers
+and, after altering the ear cut, to brand them with his own or some
+strange brand; and it was easy to make sleepers.
+
+In the case of rustling the separation of branded calves and mothers
+was imperative, for should any one see a cow of one brand with a calf
+of another, it was very probable that a committee of discretionary
+powers would look into the matter. Hobbling and laming mothers and
+then driving away the calves were not the only ways of separating them
+and of weaning the calves, for a shot was often as good a way as any;
+but as dead cows, if found, were certain to tell the true story, this
+was not generally employed.
+
+"Yes," laughed Frisco. "What about th' sleepers?"
+
+They were discreetly silent about the cow they had killed, for they
+were ashamed of having left such a sign; but they would not stand
+Antonio's scorn and anger, and that of the other members of the band,
+and so said nothing about it.
+
+"Where's th' mother of this calf?" demanded the Mexican, not heeding
+the remarks about sleepers.
+
+"Hanged if I know," replied Clausen, easily; "an' hanged if I care--we
+can leave _one_ cow, I reckon."
+
+"Got many for us this time?" asked Archer as they rode west, driving
+before them the newly branded calf.
+
+"Not many," replied Antonio. "It's risky, with Curley loose. We won't
+be able to do much till th' fighting starts."
+
+When they reached their destination they came to a deep, steep-walled
+depression, exit from which was had at only one end where a narrow
+trail wound up to the plain. Across this trail at its narrowest point
+was stretched a lariat.
+
+The depression itself was some ten acres in extent and was well
+covered with grass, while near the southwest corner was a muddy pool
+providing water for the herd which was now held captive.
+
+Clausen rode down and removed the rope, riding into the basin to
+hasten the egress of the herd. When the last cow had scrambled out and
+joined its fellows, Archer and Frisco drove them west, leaving Clausen
+to say a few final words with Antonio before joining them.
+
+"How's th' range war coming on?"
+
+"Fine!" laughed Antonio. "Meeker's going to attack th' line house on
+th' Peak, though what good it'll do him is more than I can figure out.
+I put it in his head because it'll start th' fight. I had to grin when
+I heard Meeker and Doc planning it last night--they're easy."
+
+"Gee!" laughed Clausen. "It's a stiff play. Who's going to win?
+Meeker?"
+
+"Meeker's going to get th' licking of his life. I know that Bar-20
+gang, every one. I've lived down here for some time, an' I know what
+they've done. Don't never get in a six-shooter argument with that
+feller Cassidy; an' if his friend Connors tells you to stop under
+eight hundred yards, you do it, an' trust to yore tongue, or Colt.
+He's th' devil hisself with a Winchester."
+
+"Much obliged--but I ain't so bad that way myself. Well, I'm going to
+ooze west. Got any word for Shaw?"
+
+"I'll send word by Benito--I'll know more about it to-morrow."
+
+"All right," and Clausen was being jerked over the scenery by his
+impatient mount.
+
+Antonio wheeled and rode at a gallop, anxious to be found on northern
+range, and eager to learn the result of his foreman's attack.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Salem," once a harpooner on a whaling vessel, now cook for the H2,
+drove home from Eagle in the chuck wagon, which contained food
+supplies for his ranch. He was in that state hovering between tears
+and song, which accounts for the winding trail his wagon wheels left,
+and also for him being late. He had tarried in Eagle longer than he
+should have, for he was reluctant to quit the society of his several
+newly made friends, who so pleasantly allowed him to "buy" for them.
+When he realized how the time had flown and that his outfit would be
+clamoring for the noonday meal, such clamoring being spicy and
+personal in its expression, he left the river trail before he should
+and essayed a shorter way home, chanting a sea song.
+
+     A pirate bold, on th' Spanish Main--
+       Set sail, yo-ho, an' away we go--
+
+"Starboard yore helm, you lubbers!" he shouted when the horses headed
+towards Mexico. Then he saw a large bulk lying on the sand a short
+distance ahead and he sat bolt upright.
+
+"There she blows! No, blast me, it's a dead cow!"
+
+He drove closer to it and, stopping the team, staggered over to see
+what had killed it.
+
+"D--n me, if it ain't shot in th' port eye!" he ejaculated. "If I find
+the lubber what's sinkin' our cows, I'll send him to Davy Jones'
+locker!"
+
+He returned to the wagon and steered nor' by nor' east, once more
+certain of his bearings, for he knew the locality now, and sometime
+later he saw Curley riding towards him.
+
+"Ahoy!" he yelled. "Ahoy, you wind-jammer!"
+
+"What's eating you? Why are you so late?" demanded Curley,
+approaching. "You needn't say--I know."
+
+"Foller my wake an' you'll see a dead cow," cried Salem. "Deader'n
+dead, too! Shot in th' starboard--no, was it starboard? Now, d----d if
+I know--reckon it was in th' port eye, though I didn't see no port
+light; aye, 'twas in th' port--"
+
+"What in h--l do I care what eye it was!" shouted Curley. "Where is
+it?"
+
+"Eight knots astern. Shot in th' port eye, an', as I said, deader'n
+dead. Flew our flag, too."
+
+Curley, believing that the cook had seen what he claimed, wheeled
+abruptly and galloped away to report it to Meeker.
+
+"Hey! Ain't you going to _see_ it?" yelled Salem, and as he received
+no reply, turned to his team. "Come on, weigh anchor! Think I want to
+lay out here all night? 'A-sailing out of Salem town,--'" he began,
+and then stopped short and thought. "I _knowed_ it!--it _was_ th' port
+eye! Same side th' flag was on!" he exclaimed, triumphantly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE FEINT
+
+
+On the boundary line alert and eager punchers rode at a canter to and
+fro, watching the herds to the south of them, and quick to turn back
+all that strayed across the line. Just east of the middle point of the
+boundary Red and Johnny met and compared notes, and both reported the
+same state of affairs, which was that the cattle came constantly
+nearer.
+
+Johnny removed his field glasses from his eyes.
+
+"There's punchers with that herd, Red. Three of 'em."
+
+"I reckoned so."
+
+"Wonder what they think they're going to do?"
+
+"We'll know purty soon."
+
+"They're coming this way."
+
+"If you had th' brains of a calf you'd know they wouldn't go south."
+
+"Think they're going to rush us?" Johnny asked, eagerly.
+
+"No; course not!" retorted Red. "They're going to make 'em stand on
+their heads!"
+
+Johnny began to hum--
+
+     Joyous Joe got a juniper jag,
+     A-jogging out of Jaytown;
+     Joyous Joe got a juniper jag--
+
+"We'll show that prickly pear from Montanny some fine points."
+
+"Now, look here, Kid; don't you let 'em get a cow across th' line.
+Shoot every one, but keep yore eyes on th' gang."
+
+"'Joyous Joe got a juniper jag,--' Come on, you half-breeds!"
+
+"Wonder where Hopalong is?" Red asked.
+
+"Up on th' Peak, I reckon. _Hey_, Billy!" he yelled. "Here comes
+Billy, Red."
+
+"I guessed as much when you yelled; if you don't yell away from my ear
+next time I'll kick yore pants over yore hat. D----d idiot, you!"
+
+"Hullo, Billy," cried Johnny, ignoring Red's remarks. "Just in time
+for th' pie. Where's Hopalong?"
+
+"In th' hills."
+
+"You get along an' tell him what's doing out here," ordered Red. "Go
+lively!"
+
+"Reckon I'd better stay an' give you a hand; you'll need it before
+long," Billy replied.
+
+"You know what Hopalong said, don't you?" blazed Red. "What do you
+think me an' th' Kid are made of, anyhow? You go on, an' quick!"
+
+"Send Johnny," Billy suggested, hopefully.
+
+"Why, you coyote!" cried Johnny, excitedly. "Th' idea! You go on!"
+
+"Yo're a pair of hogs," grumbled Billy, riding off. "I'll get square,
+someday. Hope they lick you!"
+
+"Run along, little boy," jeered Johnny. "Oh, gee! Here they come!" he
+cried as Billy rode behind the chaparral. "Look at 'em!"
+
+"_Let_ 'em come!" cried Billy, returning. "We'll lick 'em!"
+
+"Get out of here!" shouted Red, drawing his Winchester from its
+sheath. "For G-d's sake, do what yo're told! Want to let Meeker win
+out?"
+
+"Nope; so long," and Billy galloped away.
+
+"That ain't a herd!" cried Johnny, elated. "That's only a handful.
+It's a scrawny looking bunch, men an' all. Come on, you coyotes!" he
+yelled, waving his rifle.
+
+"You chump; this ain't the real play--it's a blind, a wedge," Red
+replied. "They're pushing a big one through somewhere else."
+
+"I'm shore glad Billy went, an' not me," Johnny remarked.
+
+"There's Morgan," Red remarked. "I know his riding."
+
+"Bet you won't know it when th' show's over. An' there's Chick, too.
+He needs a licking. You won't know his riding, neither."
+
+The herd came rapidly forward and the men who were guarding it waved
+their sombreros and urged it on. Red, knowing that he would be crowded
+if he waited until the cows were upon him, threw his rifle to his
+shoulder and began to shoot rapidly, and cow after cow dropped, and
+the rush was stopped. Before the H2 men could get free from the
+panic-stricken herd Red and Johnny were within a hundred yards of them
+and when they looked up it was to see Red covering them, while Johnny,
+pleased by the reduced range, was dropping more cows.
+
+"Stop!" Red shouted, angrily.
+
+"Huh!" exclaimed Johnny, looking up. "Oh, I thought you was talking to
+me," he muttered, and then dropped another cow.
+
+"What in h--l do you think yo're doing?" yelled Morgan.
+
+"Just practising," retorted Johnny. He quickly swung his rifle on
+Chick. "Hands up! No more of that!"
+
+"You've got gall, shooting our cows!" replied Chick.
+
+"Get 'em up, boy!" snapped Johnny, and Chick slowly raised his arms,
+speaking rapidly.
+
+"What do you take us for!" shouted Ed Joyce, frantic at his
+helplessness.
+
+"Coyotes," replied Red. "An' since coyotes don't ride, you get off'n
+them cayuses, _pronto_."
+
+"Like h--l!" retorted Ed.
+
+Johnny's rifle cracked and Ed tumbled off his dead horse, and when he
+arose the air was blue.
+
+"Nex' gent say 'I,'" called Johnny.
+
+"I'll be d----d if I'll stand for that!" yelled Morgan, reaching for
+his gun. The next thing he knew was that the air was full of comets,
+and that his horse was dead.
+
+Chick sullenly dismounted and stood watching Red, who was now in
+vastly better spirits, since the H2 rifles were on the horses and too
+far away from their owners to be of any use. The range was too great
+for good revolver shooting even if they could get them into action.
+
+"Watch 'em," said Red, firing. Chick's horse, stung to frenzy by the
+wound, kicked up its heels and bolted, leaving the three punchers
+stranded ten miles from home.
+
+"Turn around an' hit th' back trail," ordered Red. "No back talk!"
+
+"I'll bust you wide open, someday, you red-headed wart!" threatened
+Dan, shaking his fist at the grinning line man. "That's a h--l of a
+thing to do, that is!"
+
+"Shut up an' go home. Ain't you got enough?" shouted Red.
+
+"Just wait, you half-breed!" yelled Ed Joyce.
+
+"That's two with th' waiting habit," laughed Johnny.
+
+"What do--" began Chick, stepping forward.
+
+"Shut up! Who told you to open yore face!" cried Red, savagely. "Get
+home! G'wan!"
+
+"Walk, you coyotes, walk!" exulted Johnny.
+
+He and his companion watched the three angry punchers stride off
+towards the H2 and then Red told Johnny to ride west while he,
+himself, would go east to help his friends if they should need him.
+They had just begun to separate when Johnny uttered a shout of joy.
+Antonio had joined the trio of walkers and they were pulling him from
+his horse. He waved his arms excitedly, but Chick had him covered. Dan
+and Ed were already on the animal and they quickly pulled Chick up
+behind them, narrowly watching the Mexican all the while. The horse
+fought for some time and then started south, the riders shouting while
+Antonio, still waving his arms, plodded homeward on foot.
+
+Great joy filled Johnny's heart as he gloated over the Mexican's
+predicament. "Hoof it, you greasy snake! Kick up th' dust, you lazy
+lizard!"
+
+"They can't get in th' game again for some time, till they get
+cayuses," remarked Red. "That makes four less to deal with, counting
+th' Greaser as a whole man."
+
+"Three an' a third," corrected his companion. "He acts like he had all
+eternity to get nowhere--look at him! Let's go down an' rope him. He's
+on th' prod now--we can have a lot of fun."
+
+"If I go down there it'll be to plug him good," Red replied. "You hang
+around out here for a while. I'm goin' west--Pete's in that house
+alone--so long, Kid."
+
+Johnny grinned a farewell to Antonio and followed instructions while
+his friend rode towards the Peak to assist Pete, the lonely, who as it
+happened, would be very glad to see him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+PETE IS TRICKED
+
+
+Pete Wilson grumbled, for he was tiring of his monotonous vigil, and
+almost hoped the H2 would take the house because of the excitement
+incident to its re-capture. At first his assignment had pleased, but
+as hour after hour passed with growing weariness, he chafed more and
+more and his temper grew constantly shorter.
+
+With the exception of smoking he had exhausted every means of passing
+the time; he knew to a certainty how many bushes and large stones were
+on the plateau, the ranges between him and distant objects, and other
+things, and now he had to fall back on his pipe.
+
+"Wish some son-of-a-thief would zephyr up an' start something," he
+muttered. "If I stays in this fly-corral much longer I'll go loco. A
+couple of years back we wouldn't have waited ten minutes in a case
+like this--we'd 'a chased that crowd off th' range quick. What's
+getting into us has got me picking out th' festive pea, all right."
+
+He stopped at the east window and scrutinized the line as far as he
+could see the dim, dusty, winding trail, hoping that some of the
+outfit would come into sight. Then he slid the Sharps out of the
+window and held it on an imaginary enemy, whom he pretended was going
+to try to take the house. While he thought of caustic remarks, with
+which to greet such a person, he saw the head of a horse push up into
+view over the edge of the hill.
+
+Sudden hope surged through him and shocked him to action. He cocked
+the rifle, the metallic clicks sweet to his ears. Then he saw the
+rider, and it was--Mary Meeker.
+
+Astonishment and quick suspicion filled his mind and he held the
+weapon ready to use on her escort, should she have one. Her horse
+reared and plunged and, deciding that she was alone, and ashamed to be
+covering a woman, he slid the gun back into the room, leaning it
+against the wall close at his hand, not losing sight of the rider for
+a moment.
+
+"Now, what th' devil is she doing up here, anyhow?" he puzzled, and
+then a grin flickered across his face as the possible solution came to
+him. "Mebby she wants Hopalong," he muttered, and added quickly,
+"Purty as blazes, too!" And she did make a pretty picture even to his
+scoffing and woman-hating mind.
+
+She was having trouble with her mount, due to the spurring it was
+getting on the side farther from the watcher. It reared and plunged,
+bucking sideways, up-and-down and fence-cornered, zig-zagging over the
+ground forward and back, and then began to pitch "stiff-legged."
+Pete's eyes glowed with the appreciation of a master rider and he was
+filled with admiration, which soon became enthusiastic, over her
+saddle-ease and cool mastery. She seemed to be a part of the horse.
+
+"She'd 'a been gone long ago if she was fool enough to sit one of them
+side saddle contraptions," he mused. "A-straddle is th' only--_Good!_
+All right! Yo're a stayer!" he exclaimed as she stepped from one
+stirrup and stood up in the other when the animal reared up on its
+hind legs.
+
+He glanced out of the other windows of the house and fell to watching
+her again, his face darkening as he saw that she appeared to be
+tiring, while her mount grew steadily worse. Then she "touched
+leather," and again and again. Her foot slipped from the stirrup, but
+found it again, while she frantically clung to the saddle horn.
+
+"Four-legged devil!" Pete exclaimed. "Wish _I_ was on you, you ornery
+dog! Hey! Don't you bite like that! Keep yore teeth away from that leg
+or I'll blow yore d----d head off!" he cried wrathfully as the animal
+bit viciously several times at the stirrup leather. "I'll whale th'
+stuffin' outen you, you wall-eyed clay-bank! Yo're too bronc for _her_
+to ride, all right."
+
+Then, during another and more vicious fit of stiff-legged pitching the
+rider held to the saddle horn with both hands, while her foot, again
+out of the stirrup, sought for it in vain. She was rapidly losing her
+grip on the saddle and suddenly she was thrown off, a cry reaching
+Pete's ears. The victorious animal kicked several times and shook its
+head vigorously in celebration of its freedom and then buck-jumped
+across the plateau and out of sight down the hill, Pete strongly
+tempted to stop its exuberance with a bullet.
+
+Pete glanced at the figure huddled in the dust and then, swearing
+savagely and fearing the worst, threw down the bar and jerked open the
+door and ran as rapidly as his awkward legs would take him to see what
+he could do for her, his hand still grasping his rifle. As he knelt
+beside her he remembered that he had been told not to leave the house
+under any circumstances and he glanced over his shoulder, and just in
+time to see a chap-covered leg disappear through the doorway. His
+heart sank as the crash of the bar falling into place told him that he
+had been unworthy of the trust his best friend had reposed in him. It
+was plain enough, now, that he had been fooled, to understand it all
+and to know that as he left the house one or more H2 punchers had
+sprinted for it from the other side of the plateau.
+
+Red fury filled him in an instant and tearing the revolver from the
+girl's belt he threw it away and then, grasping her with both hands,
+he raised her up as though she weighed nothing and threw her over his
+shoulder, sprinting for the protection of the hillside, which he
+reached in a few bounds. Throwing her down as he would throw a bag of
+flour he snarled at her as she arose and brushed her clothes. Years
+ago in Pete's life a woman had outraged his love and trust and sent
+him through a very hell of sorrow; and since then he had had no love
+for the sex--only a bitter, scathing cynicism, which now found its
+outlet in words.
+
+"Yo're a nice one, you are!" he yelled. "You've done yore part! Yo're
+all alike, every d----d one of you--Judas wasn't no man, not by a
+d----d sight! You know a man won't stand by an' see you hurt without
+trying to help you--an' you play it against him!"
+
+She was about to retort, but smiled instead and went on with her
+dusting.
+
+"Tickled, hey! Well, you watch an' see what _we_ do to coyotes! You'll
+see what happens to line-thieves down here!"
+
+She looked up quickly and suspected that instead of averting a fight
+she had precipitated one. Both Hopalong and her father were in as much
+danger now as if she had taken no part in the trouble.
+
+Pete emptied his revolver into the air as rapidly as he could work the
+hammer and hurriedly reloaded it, all the time watching his prisoner
+and the top of the hill. Three quick reports, muffled by distance,
+replied from Long Hill and he turned to her.
+
+"Now why don't you laugh?" he gritted savagely. He caught sight of her
+horse grazing calmly further down the hill and his Sharps leaped to
+his shoulder and crashed. The animal stiffened, erect for a moment,
+and then sank slowly back on its quivering haunches and dropped.
+
+"_You_ won't pitch no more, d--n you!" he growled, reloading.
+
+Her eyes snapped with anger and she caught at her holster. "You
+coward! You coward!" she cried, stamping her foot. "To kill that
+horse, an' steal my gun--afraid of a woman!" she taunted. "Coward!"
+
+"I'll pull a snake's fangs rather than get bit by one, when I can't
+shoot 'em!" he retorted, stung by her words. "You'll see how big a
+coward I am purty soon--an' you'll stay right here an' see it, too!"
+
+"_I_ won't run away," she replied, sitting down and tucking her feet
+under her skirts. "_I'm_ not afraid of a coward!"
+
+Another shot rang out just over the top of Stepping Stone Hill and he
+replied to it. Far to the west a faint report was heard and Pete knew
+that Skinny was roweling the lathered sides of his straining horse.
+Yet another sounded flatly from the direction of the dam, the hills
+multiplying it into a distant fusillade.
+
+"Hear 'em!" he demanded, fierce joy ringing in his voice. "Hear 'em!
+You've kicked th' dynamite, all right--you'll smell th' smoke of yore
+little squib clean down to yore ranch house!"
+
+"That's grand--yo're doing it fine," she laughed, strangling the fear
+which crept slowly through her. "Go on--it's grand!"
+
+"It'll be a whole lot grander when th' boys get here an' find out
+what's happened," he promised. "There'll be some funerals start out
+from what's left of yore ranch house purty soon."
+
+"Ki-i-i-e-e-p! Ki-ip ki-ip!" came the hair-raising yell from the top
+of Stepping Stone Hill, and Pete withheld the rest of his remarks to
+reply to it in kind. Suddenly Red Connors, his quirt rising and
+falling, bounded over the top of the hill and shot down the other side
+at full speed. Close behind him came Billy Williams, who rode as
+recklessly until his horse stepped into a hole and went down, throwing
+him forward like a shot out of a catapult. He rolled down the hill
+some distance before he could check his impetus and then, scrambling
+to his feet, drew his Colt and put his broken-legged mount out of its
+misery before hobbling on again.
+
+Red slid to a stand and leaped to the ground, his eyes on the woman,
+but his first thought was for the house. "What's th' matter? Why ain't
+you in that shack? Didn't Hopalong tell you to hold it?" he demanded.
+Turning to Mary Meeker he frowned. "What are you doing up here? Don't
+you know this ain't no place for you to-day?"
+
+Pete grasped his shoulder and swung him around so sharply that he
+nearly lost his balance, crying: "Don't talk to her, she's a d----d
+snake!"
+
+Red's hand moved towards his holster and then stopped, for it was a
+friend who spoke. "What do you mean, d--n you? Who's a snake? What's
+wrong here, anyhow?"
+
+Billy limped up and stood amazed at the strange scene, for besides the
+presence of the woman, his friends were quarrelling and he had never
+seen that before. Seeing Mary look at him he flushed and sneaked off
+his sombrero, ashamed because he had forgotten it.
+
+Pete swiftly related all that had occurred, and ended with another
+curse flung at his prisoner, who looked him over with a keen, critical
+glance and then smiled contemptuously.
+
+"That's a fine note!" Red cried, his sombrero also coming off. He
+looked at Mary and saw no fear in her face, no sign of any weakness,
+but rather a grimness in the firmness of her lips and a battling light
+in her eyes, which gained her immunity from his tongue, for he admired
+grit. "Here, you, stop that cussing! You can't cuss no woman while I'm
+around!" he cried hotly. "Hopalong'll break you wide open if he hears
+you. Cussing won't do no good; what we want is thinking, an'
+fighting!" Catching sight of Billy, who looked self-conscious and a
+little uncomfortable, he cried: "An' what's th' matter with you?"
+
+Billy jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the dead
+horse and Red, following the motion, knew. "By th' Lord, you got off
+easy! Pete, you watch yore prisoner; keep her out of danger, an'
+there'll be lots of it purty soon. We'll get th' house for you."
+
+"Send up to Cowan's saloon; he had some dynamite, an' if we can get
+any we can blow them sneaks off th' face of th' earth," Pete
+exclaimed, his anger and shame urging him against his better nature.
+"Go ahead. I'll take th' chances using th' stuff--I lost th' house."
+
+The pathetic note of self-condemnation in his last words stopped Red's
+reprimand and he said, instead: "We'll talk about that later. But
+don't you lose no sleep--they can't hold it, dynamite or no dynamite.
+We'll have it before sundown."
+
+Dynamite! Mary caught her breath and sudden fear gripped her heart.
+Dynamite! And two men were in the house, Doc Riley and Jack Curtis,
+men who would not be there if she had not made it possible for
+them--she was responsible.
+
+"Here comes Skinny!" cried Billy, waving his arm.
+
+"An' here's Hopalong!" joyously cried Pete, elated, for he pinned his
+faith in his line-foreman's ability to get out of any kind of a hole,
+no matter how deep and wide. "Now things 'll happen! We're going to
+get busy _now_, all right!"
+
+The two arrived at the same instant and both asked the same question.
+Then Hopalong saw Mary and he was at her side in a trice.
+
+"Hullo! What are _you_ doing up here?" he cried in astonishment.
+
+"I'm a prisoner--of _that_!" she replied, pointing at Pete.
+
+Hopalong wheeled. "What! What have you been doing to her? Why ain't
+you in th' house, where you belongs?"
+
+Pete told him, briefly, and he turned to the prisoner, a smile of
+admiration struggling to get through his frown. She looked at him
+bravely, for now was the crisis, which she had feared, and welcomed.
+
+"By th' Lord!" he cried, softly. "Yo're a thoroughbred, a fighter from
+start to finish. But you shouldn't come up here to-day; there's no
+telling, sometimes, where bullets go after they start." Turning, he
+said, "Pete, you chump, stay on this side of th' hill an' watch th'
+house. Billy, lay so you can watch th' door. Red, come with me. An' if
+anybody gets a shot at them range stealers, shoot to kill. Understand?
+Shoot to kill--it's time."
+
+"Dynamite?" queried Pete, hopefully. "I'll use it. Cowan--"
+
+Hopalong stared. "Dynamite! Dynamite! We ain't fighting 'em that way,
+even if they are coyotes. You go an' do what I told you."
+
+"Yes, but--"
+
+"Shut up!" snapped Hopalong. "I know how you feel _now_, but you'll
+think different to-morrow."
+
+"Let's swap th' girl for th' house," suggested Skinny, grinning. "It's
+a shore cinch," he added, winking at Billy, who laughed.
+
+Hopalong wheeled to retort, caught Skinny's eye closing, and laughed
+instead. "I reckon that would work all right, Skinny. It'd be a good
+joke on 'em to take th' house back with th' same card they got it by.
+But this ain't no time for joking. Pete, you better stay here an'
+watch th' window on this side; Billy, take th' window on th' south
+side. Skinny can go around west an' Red'll take th' door. They won't
+be so joyous after they get what's coming their way. This ain't no
+picnic; shoot to kill. We've been peaceful too blamed long!"
+
+"That's th' way to talk!" cried Pete. "If we'd acted that way from th'
+very first day they crossed our line we wouldn't be fighting to
+capture our own line house! You know how to handle 'em all right!"
+
+"Pete, how much water is in there?" Hopalong asked.
+
+"'Bout a hatful--nobody brought me any this morning, th' lazy cusses."
+
+"All right; they won't hold it for long, then. Take yore places as I
+said, fellers, an' get busy," he replied, and then turned to Mary.
+"Where's yore father? Is _he_ in that house?"
+
+"I don't know--an' I wouldn't tell if I did!"
+
+"Say, yo're a regular hummer! Th' more you talk th' better I like
+you," he laughed, admiringly. "You've shore stampeded me worse than
+ever--I'm so loco I can't wait much longer--when are you going to
+marry me? Of course you know that you've got to someday."
+
+"Indeed I have _not_!" she retorted, her face crimson. "If you wait
+for me to marry you you will die of old age! An' I'm shore somebody's
+listening."
+
+"Then _I'll_ marry _you_--of course, that's what I meant."
+
+"Indeed you _won't!_"
+
+"Then th' minister will. After this line fighting is over I won't
+wait. I'll just rope you an' drive you down to Perry's Bend to th'
+hobbling man, if you won't go any other way. We'll come back a team.
+Oh, I mean just what I say," and she knew that he did, and she was
+glad at heart that he thought none the less of her for the trick she
+had played on Pete. He seemed to take everything as a matter of
+course, and as a matter of course was going to re-take the house.
+
+"You just _dare_ try it! Just _dare!_" she cried, hotly.
+
+"Now you have gone an' done it, for I never take a dare, _never_," he
+laughed. "It's us for th' sky pilot, an' then th' same range for life.
+Yo're shore purty, an' that fighting spunk doubles it. You can begin
+to practise calling yourself Mrs. Hopalong Cassidy, of th' Bar-20."
+
+Pete fired, swore, and turned his head. "How th' devil can I hit a
+house with all that fool talk!" and the two, suddenly realizing that
+Pete had been ordered to remain close by, looked foolish, and both
+laughed.
+
+"It gets on my nerves," Pete growled, and then: "Here comes Johnny
+like a greased coyote."
+
+They looked and saw Johnny tearing down Stepping Stone Hill as if he
+were afraid that the fighting would be over before he could take a
+hand in it. When he came within hailing distance he stood up in his
+stirrups, shouting, "What's up?" and then, seeing Pete, understood.
+Leaping from the saddle he jerked his rifle out of the sheath and ran
+to him, jeering. "Oh, you Pete! Oh you d----d fool!"
+
+"Hey, Johnny! How's things east?" Hopalong demanded.
+
+Johnny stopped and hastily recounted how he and Red had driven back
+the herd, adding: "Her dad is out there now looking at his dead
+cows--I saw him when I came back from East Arroyo. An' I saw them
+three punchers ride over that ridge down south; and they shore made
+good time. Say, how did they get Pete out?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"I'll tell you that later--Pete, you go an' tell Red to come here, an'
+take his place. We can't swap Mary for th' house, but we can swap her
+dad! Mary, you better go home--this won't be no place for you in a
+little while. Where's yore cayuse?" he asked, looking around.
+
+"It's down there--he shot it," she replied, nodding at Pete.
+
+"Shot it? Lord, but he must 'a been mad! Well, you can get
+square--Pete, where's yore cayuse?"
+
+"How th' devil do _I_ know!" Pete blazed, indignantly. "_I_ wasn't
+keeping track of no cayuse after they got th' house!"
+
+"It's down there on th' hill--see it?" volunteered Johnny. "Shall I
+get it?" he asked, grinning at the disgruntled Pete.
+
+"Yes; an' strip th' fixings off her cayuse while yo're about
+it--lively."
+
+Johnny vaulted into his saddle and loped down the hill, shortly
+returning with Mary's saddle and bridle in front of him and Pete's
+horse at the end of his rope. Hopalong quickly removed Pete's saddle
+and put the other in its place, Pete eloquent in his silence, and
+Johnny manifestly pleased by the proceedings.
+
+"Now you can ride," Hopalong smiled, helping her into the saddle.
+"Pete don't care at all--he ain't saying a word," whereat Pete said a
+word, several of them in fact, under his breath and vowed that he
+would kill the men in the house to get square.
+
+"I'll send it back as soon as I can," she promised, and then, when
+Hopalong leaned closer and whispered something to her, she flushed and
+spurred the animal, leaving him standing in a cloud of dust, a smile
+on his face.
+
+Johnny, grinning until his face threatened to be ruptured, wheeled on
+Pete. "Yo're a lucky fool, even if you did go an' lose th' house for
+us--wish she'd ride _my_ cayuse!"
+
+Pete replied in keeping with his feelings now that there was no woman
+present, and walked away to change places with Red, who soon came up.
+Then the three mounted and cantered east to find the H2 foreman,
+Johnny mauling "Whiskey Bill" in his exuberance. Suddenly he turned in
+his saddle and slapped his thigh: "I'll bet four cents to a tooth
+brush that she's telling her dad to get scarce. She heard what you
+said, Hoppy!"
+
+"Right! Come on!" exclaimed Hopalong, spurring into a gallop, his
+companions racing behind, spurring and quirting to catch him.
+
+"Say, Red, she's a straight flush," Johnny shouted to his companion.
+"Can't be beat--if she turns Hoppy down I'm next in th' line-up!"
+
+"You don't want no wife--you wants a nurse!" Red retorted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE LINE HOUSE RE-CAPTURED
+
+
+After Chick, Dan Morgan, and Ed Joyce had commandeered Antonio's horse
+and left him on foot they rode as rapidly as they could to the corrals
+of their ranch, where they saddled fresh mounts and galloped back to
+try conclusions with the men who had humbled them. They also wished to
+find their foreman, who they knew was somewhere along the line. Chick
+rode to the west, Dan to the east, and Ed Joyce straight ahead;
+intending to search for Meeker and then ride together again.
+
+Meanwhile Antonio, tired of walking, returned to the line and lay in
+ambush to waylay the first Bar-20 puncher to ride past him, hoping to
+get a horse and also to leave a dead man for the Bar-20 to find and
+lay the blame on the H2. He knew that his rustler allies had scouts in
+the chaparrals and were ready to run off a big herd as soon as
+conditions were propitious, and he was anxious to give them the word
+to begin.
+
+It chanced, however, that Ed Joyce was the first man to approach the
+Mexican, and he paid dearly for being a party to taking Antonio's
+horse. The dead man would not inflame the Bar-20, but the H2, and the
+results would be the same in the end. Mounting Ed's horse Antonio
+galloped north into the valley through West Arroyo so as to leave
+tracks in the direction of the Bar-20, intending to describe a
+semi-circle and return to his ranch by way of the river trail, leaving
+the horse where the trail crossed the Jumping Bear. By going the
+remainder of the way on foot he would not be seen on the horse of the
+murdered puncher, which might naturally enough stray in that
+direction, and so be free from suspicion.
+
+Lanky Smith, wondering why none of his friends had passed him on the
+line, followed the trail west to see if things were as they should be.
+He was almost in sight of a point opposite West Arroyo, his view being
+obstructed by chaparrals, when he heard a faint shot, and spurred
+forward, his rifle in the hollow of his arm ready for action. It could
+mean only one thing--one of his friends was shooting H2 cows, and
+complications might easily follow. When he had turned out of an arroyo
+which made part of the line for a short distance he saw a body huddled
+on the sand several hundred feet ahead of him. At that instant Meeker,
+with Chick and Dan close at his heels, came into view on the other
+side, saw the body and, drawing their own conclusions, opened a hot
+fire on the Bar-20 puncher, riding to encircle him. Surprised for an
+instant, and then filled with rage because they had killed one of his
+friends, as he thought, he returned their fire and raced at Chick, who
+was now some distance from his companions. Dan and Meeker wheeled
+instantly and rode to the aid of their friend, and Lanky's horse
+dropped from under him. Luckily for him he felt a warning tremor go
+through the animal and jerked his feet free from the stirrups as it
+sank down, quickly crawling behind it for protection.
+
+Immediately thereafter Chick lost his hat, then the use of his right
+arm, followed by being deprived of the services of a very good
+cow-pony, for Lanky now had a rest for his rifle and while his
+marksmanship was not equal to that of his friend Red, it was good
+enough for his present needs. Dan Morgan started to shout to his
+foreman and then swore luridly instead, for Lanky was pleased to drill
+him at five hundred yards, the bullet tearing a disconcerting hole in
+Dan's thigh.
+
+Meeker had been most zealously engaged all this time in making his
+rifle go off at regular intervals, his bullets kicking up the dust,
+humming viciously about Lanky's head, and thudding into the carcass of
+the dead horse. Then Lanky swore and shook the blood from his cheek,
+telling Meeker what he thought about the matter. Settling down again
+he determined to husk Meeker's body from its immortal soul, when he
+found his magazine empty. Reaching to his belt for the wherewithal for
+the husking he discovered the lamentable fact that he had only three
+cartridges left for the Winchester, and the Colt was more ornamental
+than useful at that range. To make matters worse both Chick and Dan
+were now sitting up wasting cartridges in his direction, while Meeker
+seemed to have an unending supply. Just then the H2 foreman found his
+mark again and rendered his enemy's arm useless. At that point the
+clouds of misfortune parted and Hopalong, Red and Johnny at his heels,
+whirled into sight from the west, firing with burning zeal.
+
+Meeker's horse went down, pinning its rider under it; Dan Morgan threw
+up his arms as he sat in the saddle, for his rifle was shattered;
+Chick, popping up his good arm first, arose from behind his fleshy
+breastwork and announced that he could not fight, although he
+certainly wanted to; but Meeker said nothing.
+
+Riding first to Lanky, his friends joked him into a better humor while
+they attended to his wounds. Then they divided to extend the
+wound-dressing courtesy. First they tried to kill a man, then to save
+him; but, of course, they desired mostly to render him incapable of
+injuring them and as long as this was accomplished it was not
+necessary to deprive him of life.
+
+Hopalong, being in command, went over to look at the H2 foreman and
+found him unconscious. Dragging him from under the body of his horse
+Hopalong felt along the pinned leg and found it was not broken.
+Pouring a generous amount of whiskey down the unconscious man's throat
+he managed to revive him and then immediately disarmed him. Meeker
+complained of pains in his groin, not by words but by actions. His
+left leg seemed paralyzed and would not obey him. Hopalong called Red,
+who took the injured man up in front of him, where Hopalong bound his
+hands to the pommel of the saddle.
+
+Meeker preserved a stolid silence until Lanky joined them and then his
+rage poured out in a torrent of abuse and accusations for the killing
+of Ed Joyce. Lanky retorted by asking who Ed Joyce was, and wanted to
+know whose body he had found just before Meeker had come onto the
+scene. When he found that they were the same he explained that he had
+not seen it before Meeker had, which the H2 foreman would not believe.
+Red captured Dan Morgan's horse and led it up. After Chick and Dan had
+been helped to mount the Bar-20 men's horses, placed before the
+saddles and bound there, all started towards Lookout Peak, Lanky
+riding Dan's horse.
+
+When they had arrived at their destination Meeker suddenly realized
+what he was to be used for and stormed impotently against it. He heard
+the intermittent firing around the plateau and knew that Doc and Jack
+still held the house, and believed they could continue to hold it,
+since the thick adobe walls were impenetrable to rifle fire.
+
+"Well, Meeker, it's you for th' house," Hopalong remarked after he had
+sent Red to stop the fire of the others. "You got off d----d lucky
+to-day; th' next time you raise the dickens along our line we'll pay
+yore ranch houses a visit in a body an' give you something to think
+about. We handled you to-day with six of us up north, an' what th'
+whole crowd can do you can guess. Now walk up there an' tell them
+range-jumpers to vamoose th' house!"
+
+"They'll shoot me before they sees who I am," Meeker retorted,
+sullenly. "If yo're so anxious to get 'em out, do it yoreself--I don't
+want 'em."
+
+By this time the others were coming up and heard Meeker's words, and
+Hopalong, turning to Skinny and Billy, curtly ordered them to mount.
+"Take this royal American fool up to th' bunk house to Buck. Tell Buck
+what's took place down here, an' also that we're going to shoot h--l
+out of th' fellers in th' house before he sees us. After that those of
+us who can ride are going down to th' H2 an' clean up that part of th'
+game, buildings an' all. Go on, lively! Red, Johnny, Pete; cover th'
+windows an' fill that shack plumb full of lead. It's clouding up now
+an' when it gets good an' dark we'll bust in th' door an' end it.
+Skinny, you come back again, quick, with all th' grub an' cartridges
+you can carry. Meeker started this, but _I'm_ going to finish it an'
+do it right. There won't be no more line fights down here for a long
+time to come."
+
+"I reckon I'll have to order 'em out," Meeker growled. "What'll you do
+to 'em if I do?"
+
+"Send 'em home so quick they won't have any time to say 'good-bye,'"
+Hopalong rejoined. "We've seen too much of you fellers now. An' after
+I send 'em home you see that they stays away from that line--we'll
+shoot on sight if they gets within gunshot of it! You've shore had a
+gall, pushing us, you an' yore hatful of men an' cows! If it wasn't
+for th' rustling we'd 'a pushed you into th' discard th' day I found
+yore Greaser herding on us."
+
+Meeker, holding his side because of the pain there from the fall,
+limped slowly up the hill, waving his sombrero over his head as he
+advanced.
+
+"What do you want now?--_Meeker!_" cried a voice from the building.
+"What's wrong?"
+
+"Everything; come on out--we lose," the foreman cried, shame in his
+voice.
+
+"Don't you tell us that if you wants us to stay here," came the swift
+reply. "We're game as long as we last, an' we'll last a long time,
+too."
+
+"I know it, Doc--" his voice broke--"they've killed Ed an' captured
+Chick, Dan, an' me. I'd say fight it out, an' I'd fight to th' end,
+only they'll attack th' ranch house if we do. We're licked, _this
+time!_"
+
+"First sensible words you've said since you've been on this range,"
+growled Lanky. "You was licked before you began, if you only knowed
+it. An' you'll get licked _every_ time, too!"
+
+"Well, we'll come out an' give up if they'll let us all go, including
+you," cried Doc. "I ain't going to get picked off in th' open while
+I've got this shack to fight in, not by a blamed sight!"
+
+"It's all right, Doc," Meeker replied. "How's Jack?" he asked,
+anxiously, not having heard Doc's companion speak.
+
+"Wait an' see," was the reply, and the door opened and the two
+defenders stepped into sight, bandaged with strips torn from their
+woollen shirts, the remains of which they did not bother to carry
+away.
+
+"Who played that gun through th' west window?" asked Doc, angrily.
+
+"Me!" cried Skinny, belligerently. "Why?"
+
+"Muzzle th' talk--you can hold yore pow-wow some other time,"
+interposed Hopalong. "You fellers get off this range, an' do it quick.
+An' stay off, savvy?"
+
+Meeker, his face flushed by rage and hatred for the men who had so
+humiliated him, climbed up on Dan's horse and Dan was helped up
+behind. Then Chick was helped to mount in front of his foreman and
+they rode down the hill, followed by Doc and Jack. The intention was
+to let Dan ride to the ranch after they had all got off the Bar-20
+range, and send up the cook with spare horses. Just then Doc
+remembered that he and Jack had left their mounts below when they
+walked up the hill to take the house, and they went after them.
+
+At this instant Curley was seen galloping up and he soon reported what
+Salem had seen. Meeker flew into a rage at this and swore that he
+would never give in to either foe. While Curley was learning of the
+fighting, Doc and his companion returned on foot, reporting that their
+horses had strayed, whereupon Meeker got off the horse he rode and
+told Doc and Chick to ride it home, Curley being despatched for
+mounts, while the others sat down on the ground and waited.
+
+When Curley returned with the horses he was very much excited, crying
+that during his absence Salem had seen six men run off a herd of
+several hundred head towards Eagle and had tried to overtake them in
+the chuck wagon.
+
+"God A'mighty!" cried Meeker, furiously. "Ain't I got enough, _now_!
+Rustling, an' on a scale like that! Peters was right after all about
+th' rustling, d--n him. A whole herd! Why didn't they take th' rest,
+an' th' houses, an' th' whole ranch? An' Salem, th' fool, chasing 'em
+in th' chuck wagon! Wonder they didn't take him, too."
+
+"I reckon he wished he had his harpoon with him," Chick snorted, the
+ridiculousness of Salem's action bringing a faint grin to his face,
+angry and wounded as he was. "He's the locoedest thing that wears
+pants in this section, or any other!"
+
+"It was a shore fizzle all around," Meeker grumbled. "But I ain't
+through with that line yet--no, by th' Lord, I ain't got started yet!
+But this rustling has got to be cleaned up first of all--th' line can
+wait; an' if we don't pay no attention to th' valley for a while
+they'll think we've given it up an' get off their guard."
+
+"Shore!" cried Dan, whose fury had been aroused almost to madness by
+the sting of the bitter defeat, and who itched to kill, whether
+puncher or rustler it little mattered; he only wanted a vent for his
+rage.
+
+"We'll parade over that south range like buzzards sighting carrion,"
+Meeker continued, leading the way homeward. "I ain't a-going to get
+robbed all th' time!"
+
+"Wonder if Smith did shoot Ed?" queried Dan, thoughtfully. "There was
+quite a spell between th' shot I heard an' us seeing him, an' he acted
+like he had just seen Ed. But it's tough, all right. Ed was a blamed
+good feller."
+
+"Who did shoot him, then?" snapped Meeker, savagely. "There's no
+telling what happened out there before we got there. Here, Curley, you
+ain't full of holes like us--you ride up there an' get him while we go
+home. He's laying near that S arroyo right close to th' line--th' one
+we scouted through that time."
+
+"Shore, I'll get him," replied Curley, wheeling. "See you later."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ANTONIO LEAVES THE H2
+
+
+On the H2 Jim Meeker rolled and muttered in his sleep, which had been
+more or less fitful because of his aching groin and strained leg.
+Gazing confusedly about him he sat bolt upright, swearing softly at
+the pain and then, realizing that he was where he should be, grumbled
+at the kaleidoscopic dreams that had beset him during his few hours of
+sleep, and glanced out of the window. Hastily dressing he strode to
+the kitchen door, calling his daughter as he passed her room, and
+looked out. The bunk house and the corrals were beginning to loom up
+in the early light and the noise in the cook shack told him that Salem
+was preparing breakfast for the men. He did not like the looks of the
+low, huge, black cloud east of him and as he figured that it would not
+pass over the ranch houses unless the wind shifted sharply he suddenly
+stared at a corral and then hastened back to his room for the Colt
+which lay on the floor beside his bunk. He had seen a man flit past
+the further corral, speed across the open, and disappear behind the
+corral nearest to the bunk house. This ordinarily would have provoked
+no further thought, for his men were crazy-headed enough to do
+anything, but while rustling flourished, and so audaciously, and while
+a line war was on, it would stand prompt investigation.
+
+Peering again from the door, Colt in hand, Meeker slipped out silently
+and ran to the corral wall as rapidly as his injuries would allow.
+When he reached it he leaned close to it and waited, his gun levelled
+at the corner not ten feet from him. Half a minute later and without a
+sound a man suddenly turned it, crouching and alertly watching the
+bunk house and cook shack at his left, and then stopped with a jerk
+and reached to his thigh as he became aware that he was being watched
+at such close range. Straightening up and smothering an exclamation he
+faced the foreman and laughed, but to Meeker's suspicious ears it
+sounded very much forced and strained.
+
+"No _sabe_ Anton?" asked the prowler, smiling innocently and raising
+his hand from the gun.
+
+Meeker stood silent and motionless, the Colt as steady as a rock, and
+a heavy frown covered his face as he searched the evil eyes of his
+broncho-buster, whose smile remained fixed.
+
+"No _sabe Anton_?" somewhat hastily repeated the other, a faint trace
+of anxiety in his voice, but the smile did not waver, and his eyes did
+not shift. He began to realize that it was about time for him to leave
+the H2, for he knew that few things grow so rapidly as suspicion. And
+he knew that the outfit would do very little weighing in his case.
+
+Meeker slowly lowered his weapon and swore; he did not like the
+prowling any better than he did the smile and the laugh and the
+treacherous eyes.
+
+"I no savvy why yo're flitting around th' scenery when you should
+ought to be in bed," he replied, his words ominously low and distinct.
+"You've shore had a narrow squeak, for I came nigh on to letting drive
+from th' door on a gamble. An' I'll own that I'm some curious as to
+why yo're prowling around so early before breakfast. It ain't a whole
+lot like you to be out so early before grub time. What dragged you
+from th' bunk so d----d early, anyhow?"
+
+Antonio rolled a cigarette to gain time, being elaborately exacting,
+and thought quickly for an excuse. Tossing the match in the air and
+letting the smoke curl slowly from his nostrils he grinned pleasantly.
+"I no sleep--have bad dreams. I wake up, _uno_, _dos_ times an' teenk
+someteeng ees wrong. Then I ride to see. Eet ees soon light after that
+an' I am hungry, so I come back. Eet ees no more, at all."
+
+"Oh, it ain't!" retorted the foreman, still frowning, for he strongly
+doubted the truth of what he had heard, so strongly that he almost
+passed the lie. "It's some peculiar how this ranch has been shedding
+dreams last night, all right. However, since I had some few myself I
+won't say I had all there was loose. But you listen to me, an' listen
+good, too. When I want any scouting done before daylight I'll take
+care of it myself, savvy? An' if yo're any wise you'll cure yoreself
+of th' habit of being out nights percolating around when you ought to
+be asleep. You ain't acted none too wide awake lately an' yore string
+of cayuses has shore been used hard, so I want it stopped, an' stopped
+_sudden_; hear me? I ain't paying you to work nights an' loaf days an'
+use up good cayuses riding hell-bent for nothing. You ain't never
+around no more when I want you, so you get weaned of flitting around
+in th' night air like a whip-poor-will; you might go an' catch
+malaria!"
+
+"I no been out bafo'--Juan, he tell you that ees so, _si_."
+
+"Is that so? I sort of reckon he'd tell me anything you want him to if
+he thought I'd believe it. Henceforth an' hereafter you mind what
+_I've_ just told _you_. You might run up against some rustler what you
+don't know very well, an' get shot on suspicion," Meeker hazarded, but
+he found no change in the other's face, although he had hit Antonio
+hard, and he limped off to the ranch house to get his breakfast,
+swearing every time he put his sore leg forward, and at the ranch
+responsible for its condition.
+
+Antonio leaned against the corral wall and smoked, gazing off into
+space as the foreman left him, for he had much to think about. He
+smiled cynically and shrugged his shoulders as he shambled to his
+shack, making up his mind to leave the H2 and join Shaw on the mesa as
+soon as he could do so, and the sooner the better. Meeker's remark
+about meeting strange rustlers, thieves he did not know, was very
+disquieting, and it was possible that things might happen suddenly to
+the broncho-buster of the H2. Soon emerging from his hut he walked
+leisurely to the fartherest corral and returned with his saddle and
+bridle. After holding a whispered consultation with Juan and Sanchez,
+who both showed great alarm at what he told them, and who called his
+attention to the fact that he had lost one of the big brass buttons
+from the sleeve of his coat, the three walked to the cook shack for
+their breakfast, where, every morning, they fought with Salem.
+
+"Here comes them Lascars again to fill their holds with white man's
+grub," the cook growled as he espied them. "If I was th' old man I'd
+maroon them, or make 'em walk th' plank. Here, _you_! Get away from
+that bench!" he shouted, running out of the shack. "That's _my_ grub!
+If you ain't good enough to eat longside of th' crew, d----d if you
+can eat with th' cook! Some day I'll slit you open, tail to gills, see
+if I don't! Here's yore grub--take it out on th' deck an' fight for
+it," and Salem, mounting guard over the bench, waved a huge butcher
+knife at them and ordered them off. "Bilgy smelling lubbers! I'll run
+afoul of 'em some morning an' make shark's food out of th' whole lot!"
+
+Meanwhile Meeker, finding his breakfast not yet ready, went to
+Antonio's shack and glanced in it. The bunk his broncho-buster used
+was made up, which struck him as peculiar, since it was well known
+that Antonio never made up his bunk until after supper. As he turned
+to leave he espied the saddle and saw that the stirrups were streaked
+with clay. "Now what was he doing over at th' river last night?" he
+soliloquized. Shrugging his shoulders he wheeled and went to the bunk
+house, where he stumbled over a box, whacking his shins soundly. His
+heartfelt and extemporaneous remarks regarding stiff legs and
+malicious boxes awakened Curley, who sat up and vigorously rubbed his
+eyes with his rough knuckles. Grunts and profanity came from the other
+bunks, Dan swearing with exceptional loquacity and fervor at his
+wounded thigh.
+
+"Somebody'll shore have to lift me out like a baby," he grumbled.
+"I'll get square for this, all right!"
+
+"Aw, what you cussing about?" demanded Chick, whose arm throbbed with
+renewed energy when he sat up. "How'd you like to have an arm like
+mine so you can't use it for grub, hey?"
+
+"You an' yore arm can--"
+
+"What's matter, Jim?" interrupted Curley, dropping his feet to the
+floor and groping for his trousers. "You got my pants?" he asked Dan,
+whereupon Dan told him many things, ending with: "In th' name of
+heaven what do I want with pants on this leg! I can't get my own on,
+let alone yourn. Mebby Chick has put 'em on his scratched wing!" he
+added, with great sarcasm, whereupon Curley found them under his bunk
+and muttered a profane request to be told why they had crawled so far
+back.
+
+"Yo're a hard luck bunch if yo're as sore as me," growled Meeker,
+kicking the offending box out of doors. "I cuss every time I hobble."
+
+"Oh, I ain't sore, not a bit--I'm feeling fine," exulted Curley,
+putting one foot into a twisted trouser leg while he hopped
+recklessly about to keep his balance, Dan watching him enviously. He
+grabbed Chick's shoulder to steady himself and then arose from the
+floor to find Chick calling him every name in the language and
+offering to whip him with one hand if he grabbed the wounded arm
+again.
+
+"Aw, what's th' matter with you!" he demanded, getting the foot
+through without further trouble. "I didn't stop to think, you chump!"
+
+"Why didn't you?" snapped Chick, aggressively.
+
+"Curley, yo're a plain, d----d nuisance--get outside where you'll have
+plenty of room to get that other leg in," remarked Dan.
+
+"Not satisfied with keeping us all awake by his cussed snoring an'
+talking, he goes an' _hops_ right on my bad arm!" Chick remarked. "He
+snores something awful, Jim; like a wagon rumbling over a wooden
+bridge; an' he whistles every lap."
+
+"You keep away from _me_, you cow!" warned Doc, weighing a Colt in his
+hand by the muzzle. "I'll shore bend this right around yore face if
+you don't!"
+
+"Aw, go to th' devil! Yo're a bunch of sore-heads, just a bunch of--"
+Curley snapped, his words becoming inaudible as he went out to the
+wash bench, where Meeker followed him, glad to get away from the
+grunting, swearing crowd inside.
+
+"Curley," the foreman began, leaning against the house to ease his
+thigh and groin, "that Greaser of our'n is either going _loco_, or he
+is up to some devilment, an' I a whole lot favors th' devilment. I
+thought of telling him to clean out, get off th' range an' stay off,
+but I reckon I'll let him hang around a while longer to see just what
+his game is. Of course if he is crooked, it's rustling. I'd like an
+awful lot to ketch him rustling; it'd wipe out a lot of guessing, an'
+him at th' same time."
+
+"They're all of 'em crooked," Curley replied, refilling the basin.
+"Every blasted one, an' he's worse than all th' others--he's a
+coyote!"
+
+"Yes, I reckon you ain't far from right," replied Meeker. "Well,
+anyway, I put in a bad night an' rolled out earlier'n usual. I looked
+out an' saw somebody sneaking around th' corral, an', gettin' my gun,
+I went after him hot foot. It was Antonio, an' when I asks for whys
+an' wherefores, he gives me a fool yarn about having a dream. He woke
+up an' was plumb scared to death somebody was running off with th'
+ranch, an', being so all-fired worried about th' safety of th' ranch
+he's too lazy to work for, he just couldn't sleep, but had to get up
+an' _saddle his cayuse_ an' _ride_ around th' corrals to see if it was
+here. Now, what do you think of that?"
+
+"Huh!" snorted Curley. "He don't care a continental cuss about this
+ranch or anybody on it, an' never did."
+
+"Which same I endorses; it shore was a sudden change," Meeker replied,
+glancing at the Mexican's shack. "I looked in his hut an' saw his bunk
+hadn't been used since night afore last, so he must 'a had his dreams
+then. There was yaller clay on his stirrups--he must 'a been scared
+somebody was going to run off with th' river, too. Now he shore was
+rampaging all over creation last night--he didn't have no dreams nor
+no sleep in that bunk last night, nohow. Now, th' question is, where
+was he, an' what th' devil was he doing? I'd give twenty-five dollars
+if I knowed for shore."
+
+"That's easy!" snorted Curley, trying to get water out of his ear.
+"Where'd I 'a been last night if I wasn't broke? Why, down in Eagle
+having a good time--there's lots of good times in that town if you've
+got th' price of more than a look-in. Or, mebby, he was off seeing his
+girl, his _dulce_, as he calls her. That's a good way to pass th'
+evening, too." Then, seeing the frown on Meeker's face he swiftly
+contradicted himself, realizing that it was no time for jesting. "Why,
+it looks to me like he might be a little interested in some of th'
+promiscuous cattle lifting that's going on 'round here. I'll pump him
+easy so he won't know what I'm driving at."
+
+"Yes, you might do that if yo're shore you won't scare him away, but I
+want you to pass th' horse corral, anyhow, an' see what horse he rode.
+See how hard he pushed it riding around th' corrals, an' if there's
+any yellow clay on its legs. Don't let him see you doing it or he'll
+get gun-shy an' jump th' country. I'm going up to breakfast--Mary's
+calling me."
+
+Curley looked up. "Shore I'll do it. Holy cats! It's raining some on
+th' hills, all right. Look yonder!"
+
+"Yes. I saw it this morning early. It passed to th' northeast of us.
+I'll be back soon," and the foreman limped away. "Hey, Curley," he
+called over his shoulder for Antonio's benefit, "take a look at them
+sore yearlings in th' corral," referring to several calves they had
+quarantined.
+
+"All right, Jim. They was some better last night. I don't think it's
+anything that's catching."
+
+"O-o-h!" yawned Jack in the doorway. "Seems like I just turned
+in--gosh, but I'm sleepy."
+
+"Nothing like cold water for that feeling," laughed Curley. "We stayed
+up too late last night talking it over. Hullo, Chick; still going to
+lick me one-handed?"
+
+"You get away from that water, so I can wash one-handed," replied
+Chick. "But you shouldn't ought to 'a done that. No, Jack--go ahead;
+but I'm next. Hey, Dan!" he cried, laughing, "shall I bring some water
+in to you?"
+
+"I won't stay here an' listen to such language as Dan's ripping off,"
+Curley grinned, starting away. "I'm going up to look at them sick
+yearlings in Number Two corral."
+
+True to his word Curley looked the animals over thoroughly and then
+dodged into the horse corral, where he quickly examined the horses as
+he passed them, alert for trouble, for a man on foot takes chances
+when he goes among cow-ponies in a corral. Not one of the animals
+forming Antonio's _remuda_ appeared to have been ridden and it was not
+until he espied Pete, Doc's favorite horse, that he found any signs.
+Pete's hair was roughened and still wet from perspiration, there was a
+streak of yellow clay along its belly on one side but none on its
+hoofs, and dried lather still clung to its jaws. Pete made no effort
+to get away, for he was one of the best trained and most intelligent
+animals on the ranch, a veteran of many roundups and drives, and he
+knew from experience that he would not be called on to do double duty;
+he had done his trick while the others rested.
+
+"An' you know I ain't a-going to ride you, hey?" Curley muttered.
+"You've had yore turn, an' you know you won't be called on to-day, you
+wise old devil. Pete, some people say cayuses ain't got no sense, that
+they can't reason--they never knowed you, did they? Well, boy, you'll
+have yore turn grazing with th' rest purty soon."
+
+He returned to the bunk house and spent a few minutes inside and then
+sauntered easily towards the ranch house, where the foreman met him.
+
+"So there wasn't no clay on his hoofs, hey?" Meeker exclaimed. "Some
+on his belly, an' none on his hoofs. Hum! I reckon Pete was left by
+hisself while th' Greaser wrastled with th' mud. Must 'a thought he
+was prospecting. Well, he's a liar, an' a sneak; watch him close, an'
+tell th' rest to do th' same. Mebby we'll get th' chance soon of
+stretching his yellow neck some bright morning. I'll be down purty
+soon to tell you fellers where to ride."
+
+Curley returned to the wash bench and cleansed his hands, and because
+the cold water felt so good, he dipped his face into it again, blowing
+like a porpoise. As he squilgeed his face to lessen the duty of the
+overworked towel, he heard a step and looked up quickly. Antonio was
+leaning against the house and scowling at him, for he had looked
+through a crack in the corral wall and had seen Pete being examined.
+
+"Eet ees _bueno_ thees mornin'," the Mexican offered.
+
+"What's good?" Curley retorted, staring because of Antonio's unusual
+loquacity.
+
+"_Madre de Dios_, de weatha."
+
+"Oh, salubrious," replied Curley, evading a hole in the towel. "Plumb
+sumptuous an' highfalutin', so to speak. You had a nice night for
+Eagle, all right. Who-all was down there?"
+
+"Antone not en Eagle--he no leev de rancho," the Mexican replied,
+surprised. He hesitated as if to continue and Curley noticed it.
+
+"What's on yore mind, 'Tony? What's eating you? _Pronto_, I'm hungry.
+Next!"
+
+"No nex'--I no _sabe_."
+
+"You talkee likum Chinee!" retorted Curley. "Why don't you learn how
+to talk English? It's easy enough. An' what do you want, anyhow,
+getting so friendly all of a sudden?"
+
+Antonio hesitated again. "What you do een de corral thees mornin'?"
+
+"Oh, I was looking at them yearlings--they was purty bad, but they're
+gettin' along all right. What do you think about 'em?"
+
+"No; een de _beeg_ corral."
+
+"Oh, you do!" snapped Curley. "Well, I remembered you was riding
+around this morning before sun-up so I reckoned I'd look in an' see if
+you rid my cayuse, which you didn't, an' which is good for you. I
+ain't a whole lot intending to go moping about on no tired-out bronc,
+an' don't you forget it, neither. An' seeing as how it ain't none of
+your d----d business what I do or where I go, that's about all for
+you."
+
+"You no spik true--_Pah_! eet ees a lie!" cried the Mexican excitedly,
+advancing a step, and running into the wash water and a fist, both of
+which met him in the face. Curley, reaching for his holster and
+finding that he had forgotten to buckle it on, snatched the Remington
+from Antonio's sheath while the fallen man was half dazed. Pointing it
+at the Mexican's stomach, he ordered him up and then told him things.
+
+"I reckon you got off easy, Greaser--th' next time you calls me a liar
+shoot first, or there'll be one less unwashed, shifty-eyed coyote of a
+Greaser to ride range nights."
+
+Antonio, drenched and seething with fury, his discolored face working
+with passion and his small, cruel eyes snapping, sprang to the wall
+and glared at the man who had knocked him down. But for the gun in
+Curley's hand there would have been the flash of a knife, but the
+Remington was master of the situation. Knife throwing is a useful art
+at times, but it has its limitations. Cursing in Spanish, he backed
+away and slunk into his shack as Doc Riley stuck his head out of the
+bunk house doorway, hoping to be entertained.
+
+"Worth while hanging 'round, Curley? Any chance of seeing a scrap?"
+Doc asked, eying the gun in his friend's hand.
+
+"You could 'a seen th' beginning of a scrap a couple of minutes
+earlier," Curley replied. "I didn't give him a chance to throw. Why,
+he was out all night on Pete, yore cayuse--rode him hard, too. He
+said--"
+
+"My Pete! Out all night on Pete!" yelled Doc, taking a quick step
+towards Antonio's hut, the door of which slammed shut, whereupon Doc
+shouted out his opinions of "Greasers" in general and of Antonio in
+particular. "Is that right?" he asked, turning to Curley. "Was he out
+on Pete?"
+
+"He shore was--used him up, too."
+
+"I'll break every bone in his yaller carcass!" Doc shouted, shaking
+his fist at the hut. "Every time I see him I want to get my gun going,
+an' it's getting worse all th' time. Unwashed pup! I'll fill him full
+of lead pills surer than anything some of these days, you see if I
+don't!"
+
+"If you don't I will," replied Curley. "I just don't know why I didn't
+then because--"
+
+"Four bells--grub pile!" rang out the stentorian voice of Salem, who
+could shout louder than any man on the ranch, and the conversation
+came to an abrupt end, to be renewed at the table.
+
+When Antonio heard the cook's shout he opened the door a trifle and
+then, seeing that the coast was clear, picked up the bundle which
+contained his belongings, shouldered his saddle, slipped his rifle
+under his arm, and ran to the corral. Juan and Sanchez had been there
+before him and he found that they not only had taken four of the best
+horses, but that they had also picketed two good ones for him, and had
+driven off the remainder to graze, which would delay pursuit should it
+be instituted. Saddling the better of the two, he left the other and
+cantered northwest until hidden from the sight of any one at the
+ranch, and then galloped for safety.
+
+Meeker, returning to the bunk house, found his men in far better humor
+than they were in when he left them, although the death and burial of
+Ed Joyce and the other misfortunes of the day before had quieted them
+a little. As he entered the room he heard Salem in the cook shack,
+droning a mournful dirge-like air as he slammed things about.
+
+"Hey, cook!" shouted the foreman, standing in the door of the gallery.
+"Cook!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!"
+
+"You are shore you didn't recognize none of them thieves that ran off
+our herd yesterday?"
+
+"Nary a one, sir. They was running with all sails set two points off
+my port bow, which left me astarn of 'em. I was in that water-logged,
+four-wheeled hulk of a chuck wagon an' I couldn't overhaul 'em, sir,
+'though I gave chase. I tried a shot with th' chaser, but I was
+rolling so hard I couldn't hull 'em. But I'll try again when I'm
+sober, sir."
+
+"All right, Salem," laughed Meeker. "Curley, you take yore regular
+range. Doc, suppose you take th' west, next to Curley? Chick an' Dan
+will have to stay here till they get well enough to ride, an' I'll
+need somebody on th' ranch after yesterday, anyhow. Jack, how do you
+feel? Good! Ride between here an' Eagle. I'm going to go down to that
+town an' see what I can find out."
+
+"But I can ride, Jim," offered Chick, eagerly. "This arm won't bother
+me much. Let me stick close to Doc, or one of th' boys. Maybe they
+might need me, Jim."
+
+"You stay right here, like I said. We'll have to wait till we're all
+right before we can get down to work in earnest. An' every one of you
+look out for trouble--shoot first an' talk after." He turned again to
+the gallery. "Salem, kill a cow an' sun cure th' meat; we might want
+it in a hurry sometime soon. That'll be one cow they don't get,
+anyway."
+
+"Who's going to ride north, Jim?" asked Doc.
+
+"Nobody; th' Bar-20 has been so d----d anxious to turn our cows an' do
+our herding for us, an' run th' earth, we'll just let 'em for a while.
+Not much danger of any rustlers buzzing reckless around _that_
+neighborhood; they'll earn all they steal if they get away with it."
+
+     I saw her face grow cold in death,
+     I saw her--
+
+came Salem's voice in a new wail. Meeker grabbed a quirt and, leaping
+to the gallery, threw it. The song stopped short and other words,
+less tuneful, finished the cook's efforts.
+
+"You never mind what you saw!" shouted the foreman. "If you can't sing
+anything but graveyard howls, you shut up yore singer!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+WHAT THE DAM TOLD
+
+
+About the time Meeker caught Antonio prowling around the corral,
+Hopalong stepped out of the line house on the Peak and saw the
+approaching storm, which gladdened him, notwithstanding the fact that
+he and Red would ride through it to the bunk house. The range was fast
+drying up, the grass was burning under the fierce heat of the sun, and
+the reservoir, evaporating as rapidly as it was supplied, sent but
+little water down the creek through the valley. This storm, if it
+broke over the valley, promised to be almost a flood, and would not
+only replenish the water supply, but would fortify the range for quite
+a while against the merciless sun.
+
+After he had sent Meeker and his men on their homeward journey he
+ordered all but Red to report to Buck at the bunk house, believing
+that the line fighting was at an end for a while, at least. But to
+circumvent any contingency to the contrary, he and Red remained to
+guard the house and discuss the situation. The rest of the line riders
+were glad to get away for a day, as there was washing and mending to
+be done, clothes to be changed, and their supply of cartridges and
+tobacco to be replenished.
+
+After throwing his saddle on his horse he went back to the house to
+get his "slicker," a yellow water-proof coat, and saw Red gathering up
+their few belongings.
+
+"Going to rain like th' devil, Red," he said. "We'll get soaked before
+we reach th' dam, but it'll give th' grass a chance, all right. It's
+due us, an' we're going to get it."
+
+Red glanced out of the window and saw the onrushing, low black mass of
+clouds. "Gee! I reckon yes! Going to be some fireworks, too."
+
+Hopalong, slipping into the hideous slicker, followed Red outside and
+watched him saddle up. "It'll seem good to be in th' house again with
+all th' boys, an' eat cook's grub once more. I reckon Frenchy an' some
+of his squad will drift in--Johnny said he was going to ride out that
+way on his way back an' tell 'em all th' news."
+
+"Yes. Mind yore business, Ginger!" Red added as his horse turned its
+head and nipped at his arm, half in earnest and half in playful
+expostulation. Ginger could not accustom himself to the broad, hind
+cinch which gripped his soft stomach, and he was wont to object to it
+in his own way. "Yes, it's going to be a shore enough cloud-burst!"
+Red exclaimed, glancing apprehensively at the storm. "Mebby we better
+take th' hill trail--we won't have no cinch fording at th' Bend if
+_that_ lets loose before we get there. We should 'a gone home with th'
+crowd last night, 'stead of staying up here. I knowed they wouldn't
+try it again--it's all yore fault."
+
+"Oh, yo're a regular old woman!" retorted Hopalong. "A wetting will do
+us good--an' as for th' ford, I feel like having a swim."
+
+The close, humid air stirred and moaned, and fitful gusts bent the
+sparse grass and rustled across the plateau, picking up dust and
+sending it eddying along the ground. A sudden current of air whined
+around the corners of the line house, slamming the door violently and
+awakening the embers of the fire into a mass of glowing coals, which
+crackled and gave off flying sparks. Several larger embers burst into
+flame and tumbled end over end across the ground, and Hopalong,
+running them down, stamped them out, returning and kicking dust over
+the fire, actuated by the plainsman's instinct. Red watched him and
+grinned.
+
+"Of course that cloud-burst won't put the fire out," he remarked,
+sarcastically, although he would have done the same thing if his
+friend had not.
+
+"Never go away an' leave a fire lit," Hopalong replied, sententiously,
+closing the banging door and fastening it shut. A streak of lightning
+quivered between earth and clouds and the thunder rolled in many
+reverberations along the cliffs of the valley's edge, to die out on
+the flat void to the west. Down the wind came the haunting wail of a
+coyote, sounding so close at hand that Red instinctively reached for
+his rifle and looked around.
+
+"Take _mine_!" jeered Hopalong, mounting, having in mind the greater
+range of his weapon. "You'll shore need it if you want to get that
+feller. Gee, but it's dark!"
+
+It was dark and the air was so charged with electricity that blue
+points of flame quivered on the ears of their horses.
+
+"We're going to get h--l!" shouted Red above the roar of the storm.
+"Every time I spits I make a streak in th' air--an' ain't it hot!"
+
+One minute it was dark; another, the lightning showed things in a
+ghastly light, crackling and booming like a huge fireworks exhibition.
+The two men could feel the hearts of their horses pounding against
+their sides, and the animals, nervous as cats, kept their ears moving
+back and forth, the blue sparks ghostly in the darkness.
+
+"Come on, get out of this," shouted Hopalong. "D--n it, there goes my
+hat!" and he shot after it.
+
+For reply Red spurred forward and they rode down the steep hill at a
+canter, which soon changed to a gallop, then to a dead run. Suddenly
+there came a roar that shook them and the storm broke in earnest, the
+rain pouring down in slanting sheets, drenching them to the skin in a
+minute, for their slickers were no protection against that deluge.
+Hopalong stripped his off, to see it torn from his grasp and disappear
+in the darkness like a frightened thing.
+
+"Go, then!" he snapped. "I was roasting in you, anyhow! I won't have
+no clothes left by th' time I hits th' Bend--which is all th' better
+for swimming."
+
+Red slackened pace, rode at his friend's side, their stirrups almost
+touching, for it was safer to canter than to gallop when they could
+not see ahead of them. The darkness gradually lessened and when they
+got close to the dam they could see as well as they could on any dull
+day, except for a distance--the sheets of water forbade that.
+
+"What's that?" Hopalong suddenly demanded, drawing rein and listening.
+A dull roar came from the dam and he instinctively felt that something
+was radically wrong.
+
+"Water, of course," Red replied, impatiently. "This is a _storm_," he
+explained.
+
+Hopalong rode out along the dam, followed by Red, peering ahead.
+Suddenly he stopped and swore.
+
+"She's _busted_! Look there!"
+
+A turbulent flood poured through a cut ten feet wide and roared down
+the other side of the embankment, roiled and yellow.
+
+"Good G-d! She's a goner shore!" cried Red excitedly.
+
+"It shore is--_No_, Red! It's over th' stone work--see where that
+ripple runs? We can save it if we hustle," Hopalong replied, wheeling.
+"Come on! Dead cows'll choke it--get a move on!"
+
+When Buck had decided to build the dam he had sent for an engineer to
+come out and look the valley over and to lay out the lines to be
+followed. The west end, which would be built against the bluff, would
+be strong; but Buck was advised to build a core of rubble masonry for
+a hundred feet east of the centre, where the embankment must run
+almost straight to avoid a quicksand bottom. This had been done at a
+great increase over the original estimate of the cost of the dam, but
+now it more than paid for itself, for Antonio had dug his trench over
+the rubble core--had he gone down a foot deeper he would have struck
+it and discovered his mistake.
+
+Hopalong and Red raced along the dam and separated when they struck
+the plain, soon returning with a cow apiece dragging from their
+lariats, which they released and pushed into the torrent. The bodies
+floated with the stream and both men feared their efforts were in
+vain. Then Hopalong uttered a shout of joy, for the carcasses,
+stranding against the top of the masonry core, stopped, the water
+surging over them. Racing away again they dragged up more cows until
+the bodies choked the gap, when they brought up armfuls of brush and
+threw them before the bodies. Then Red espied a shovel, swore
+furiously at what it told him, and fell to throwing dirt into the
+breach before the brush. He had to take it from different places so as
+not to weaken the dam, and an hour elapsed before they stopped work
+and regarded the results of their efforts with satisfaction.
+
+"Well, she's there yet, and she'll stay, all right. Good thing we
+didn't take th' hill trail," Hopalong remarked.
+
+"Somebody cut it, all right," Red avowed, looking at the shovel in his
+hands. "_H2_! Hoppy, see here! This is _their_ work!"
+
+"Shore enough H2 on th' handle, but Meeker an' his crowd never did
+that," Hopalong replied. "I ain't got no love for any of 'em, but
+they're too square for this sort of a thing. Besides, they want to use
+this water too much to cheat themselves out of every chance to get
+it."
+
+"You may be right--but it's d----d funny that we find their shovel on
+th' job," Red rejoined, scowling at the brand burned into the wooden
+handle.
+
+"What's that yo're treading on?" Hopalong asked, pointing to a bright
+object on the ground.
+
+Red stooped and then shouted, holding up the object so his friend
+could see it. "It's a brass button as big as a half-dollar--bet it
+belonged to th' snake that used this shovel!"
+
+"Yo're safe. I won't bet you--an' Antonio was th' only one I've seen
+wearing buttons like that in these parts," Hopalong replied. "I'm
+going to kill him on sight!" and he meant what he said.
+
+"Same here, th' ornery coyote!" Red gritted.
+
+"That Greaser has had me guessing, but I'm beginning to see a great
+big light," Hopalong remarked, taking the button and looking it over.
+"Yep, it's hissen, all right."
+
+"Well, we've filled her," Red remarked after a final inspection.
+
+"She'll hold until to-morrow, anyhow, or till we can bring th' chuck
+wagon full of tools an' rocks down here," Hopalong replied. "We'll
+make her solid for keeps when we begin. You better take th' evidence
+with you, Red, an' let Buck look 'em over. It's a good thing Buck
+spent that extra money putting in that stone core! Besides losing th'
+reservoir we'd have had plenty of dead cows by this time if it wasn't
+for that."
+
+"An' that Greaser went an' picked out the weakest spot in th' whole
+thing, or th' spot what would be th' weakest if that wall wasn't
+there," Red remarked. "He ain't no fool, but a stacked deck can beat a
+good head time after time."
+
+When they reached the ford they found a driftwood-dotted flood roaring
+around the bend, three times as wide as it was ordinarily, for the
+hills made a watershed that gave quick results in such a rain.
+
+"Now Red Eagle, old cayuse, here's where you swim," Hopalong laughed,
+riding up stream so he would not be carried past the bottom of the
+hill trail on the farther side. Plunging in, the two horses swam
+gallantly across, landing within a few feet of the point aimed at, and
+scrambled up the slippery path, down which poured a stream of water.
+
+When they reached the half-way point between the ford and the ranch
+houses the storm slackened, evolving into an ordinary rain, which
+Hopalong remarked would last all day. Red nodded and then pointed to a
+miserable, rain-soaked calf, which moved away at their approach.
+
+"Do you see that!" he exclaimed. "Our brand, an' Meeker's ear notch!"
+
+"That explains th' shovel being left on th' dam," quickly replied
+Hopalong. "It would be plumb crazy for th' H2 to make a combination
+like that ear notch an' our brand, an' you can gamble they don't know
+nothing about it. Th' gent that left Meeker's shovel _for us to find_
+did that, too. You know if any of th' H2 cut th' dam they wouldn't
+forget to take th' shovel with 'em, Red. It's Antonio, that's who it
+is. He's trying to make a bigger fight along th' line an' stir things
+up generally so he can rustle promiscuous. Well, we'll give all our
+time to th' rustling end from now on, if I have got any voice in th'
+matter. An' I hope to th' Lord I can get within gun range of that
+coyote of a Greaser. Why, by th' A'mighty, I'll go down an' plug him
+on his own ground just as soon as I can get away, which will be
+to-morrow! That's just what I'll do! I'll stop his plays or know th'
+reason why."
+
+"An' I'm with you--you'll take a big chance going down there alone,"
+Red replied. "_After_ Meeker hears what we've got to say he'll be
+blamed glad we came."
+
+An hour later they stopped at the ranch house, a squat, square
+building, flat of roof, its adobe walls three feet thick and
+impenetrable to heat. Stripping saddles and bridles from their
+streaming mounts, they drove the animals into a large corral and ran
+to the bunk house, where laughter greeted their appearance.
+
+"Swimming?" queried Johnny, putting aside his harmonica.
+
+"Hey, you! Get out of here an' lean up against th' corral till you
+shed some of that water!" cried Lanky, the wounded, watching the
+streams from their clothes run over the floor. "We'll be afloat in a
+minute if you don't get out--we ain't no fishes."
+
+"You shut up," retorted Red. "We'll put you out there to catch what
+water we missed if you gets funny," he threatened, stripping as
+rapidly as he could. He hung the saturated garments on pegs in the
+gallery wall and had Pete rub him down briskly, while Billy did the
+same for his soaked companion.
+
+Around them were their best friends, all laughing and contented,
+chaffing and exchanging personal banter with each other, engaged in
+various occupations, from sewing buttons on shirts to playing cards
+and mending riding gear. Snatches of songs burst forth at odd
+intervals, while laughter was continually heard. This was the
+atmosphere they loved, this repaid them for their hard work, this and
+the unswerving loyalty, the true, deep affection, and good-natured
+banter that pricked but left no sting. Here was one of the lures of
+the range, the perfect fellowship that long acquaintance and the
+sharing of hard work and ubiquitous danger breeds among the members of
+a good, square outfit. Not one of them ever counted personal safety
+before duty to his ranch and his companions, taking his hard life
+laughingly and without complaint, generous to a fault, truthful and
+loyal and considerate. There was manhood for you, there was contempt
+for restricting conventions, for danger; there was a unity of thought
+and purpose that set the rough-spoken, ready-fighting men of the
+saddle and rope in a niche by themselves, a niche where fair play,
+unselfishness, and a rough but sterling honor abides always. Their
+occupation gave more than it exacted and they loved it and the open,
+wind-swept range where they were the dominating living forces.
+
+Buck came in with Frenchy McAllister and Pie Willis and grinned at his
+crowd of happy "boys," who gave warm welcome. The foreman was not
+their "boss," their taskmaster, but he was their best friend, and he
+shared with them the dangers and joys which were their lot,
+sympathetic in his rough way, kind and trusting.
+
+Hopalong struggling to get his head through a dry shirt, succeeded,
+and swiftly related to his foreman the occurrences of the morning,
+pointing to the shovel and button as the total exhibit of his proofs
+against the Mexican. The laughter died out, the banter was hushed, and
+the atmosphere became that of tense hostility and anger. When he had
+ceased speaking angry exclamations and threats filled the room, coming
+from men who always "made good." When Red had told of the H2-Bar-20
+calf, an air of finality, of conviction, settled on them; and it
+behooved Antonio to hunt a new range, for his death would be sudden
+and merciless if he met any of the Bar-20 outfit, no matter when or
+where. They never forgot.
+
+After brief argument they came to the decision that he was connected
+with the rustling going on around them, and this clinched his fate.
+Several, from the evidence and from things which they had observed and
+now understood, were of the opinion that he was the ringleader of the
+cattle thieves, the head and the moving spirit.
+
+"Boys," Buck remarked, "we won't bother about th' line very much for a
+while. It's been a peaceable sort of a fracas, anyhow, an' I don't
+expect much further trouble. If H2 cows straggle across an' yo're
+right handy to 'em an' ain't got nothing pressing to do, drive 'em
+back; but don't look for 'em particularly. There won't be no more
+drives against us for a long time. We've got to hunt rustlers from now
+on, an' hunt hard, or they'll get too numerous to handle very easy.
+Let th' cows take care of themselves along th' river, Frenchy, an' put
+your men up near Big Coulee, staying nights in Number Two. Pete an'
+Billy will go with you. That'll protect th' west, an' there won't be
+no rustling going on from th' river, nohow. Don't waste no time
+herding--put it all in hunting. Hopalong, you, Johnny, Red, an' Skinny
+take th' hills country an' make yore headquarters in Number Three an'
+Four. Lanky will stay up here until he can handle hisself good again.
+I'll ride promiscuous, but if any of you learn anything you want me to
+know, leave it with Lanky or th' cook if you can't find me. Just as
+soon as we have anything to go on, we'll start on th' war path hot
+foot an' clean things up right an' proper."
+
+"What'll we do if we catches anybody rustling?" asked Johnny, assuming
+an air of ignorance and curiosity, and ducking quickly as Red swung at
+him.
+
+"Give 'em ten dollars reward an' let 'em go," Buck grinned.
+
+"Give me ten if I brings th' Greaser to you?"
+
+"I'll fine you twenty if you waste that much time over him," Buck
+replied.
+
+"Whoop!" Johnny exulted. "Th' good old times are coming back again!
+Remember Bye-an'-Bye an' Cactus Springs, Buckskin an' Slippery
+Trendley? Remember th' good old scraps? Now we'll have something else
+to do besides chasing cows an' wiping th' rust off our guns!"
+
+Lanky, who took keen delight in teasing the youngster, frowned
+severely. "Yo're just a fool kid, just a happy idiot!" he snorted, and
+Johnny looked at him, surprised but grinning. "Yes, you are! I never
+seen such a bloody-minded animal in all my born days as you! After all
+th' fighting you've gone an' got mixed up in, you still yap for more!
+You makes me plumb disgusted, you do!"
+
+"He _is_ awful gory," remarked Hopalong soberly. "Just a animated
+massacre in pants."
+
+"Regular Comanche," amended Red, frowning. "What do you think about
+him, Frenchy?"
+
+"I'd ruther not say it," Frenchy replied. "You ask Pie--he ain't
+scared of nothing, massacre _or_ Comanche."
+
+Johnny looked around the room and blurted out, "You all think th' same
+as me, every one of you, even if you are a lot of pussy-cats, an' you
+know it, too!"
+
+"Crazy as a locoed cow," Red whispered across the room to Buck, who
+nodded sorrowfully and went into the cook shack.
+
+"You wait till I sees Antonio an' you'll find out how crazy I am!"
+promised Johnny.
+
+"I shore hopes he spanks you an' sends you home a-bawling," Lanky
+snorted. "You needs a good licking, you young cub!"
+
+"Yah, yah!" jibed Johnny. "Needing an' getting are two different
+tunes, grand-pop!"
+
+"You wasn't down here, was you, Frenchy, when Johnny managed to rope a
+sleepy gray wolf that was two years old, an' tried to make a pet out
+of him?" asked Hopalong, grinning at his recollection of the affair.
+
+"No!" exclaimed Frenchy in surprise. "Did he do it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he did it; with a gun, after th' pet had torn his pants off
+an' chewed him up real well. He's looking for another, because he says
+that was too mean a beast to have any luck with."
+
+Buck stepped into the room again. "Who wants to go with me to th' dam
+in th' wagon?" he asked. "I want to look at that cut an' fix it for
+keeps if it needs fixing. All right! All right! Anybody'd think I
+asked you to go to a dance," he laughed. "Pete, you an' Billy an' Pie
+will be enough."
+
+"Can't we ride alongside?" asked Pie. "Do we have to sit in that
+thing?"
+
+"You can walk, if you want to. I don't care how you go," Buck
+replied, stepping into the rain with the three men close behind him.
+Soon the rattling of the wagon was heard growing fainter on the plain.
+
+The banter and the laughter ran on all the rest of the morning. After
+dinner Hopalong built a fire in the huge stove and put a ladleful of
+lead on the coals, while Frenchy and Skinny re-sized and re-capped
+shells from the boxes on the wall. Hopalong watched the fire and
+smoked the bullet moulds, while Lanky managed to measure powder and
+fill the shells after Frenchy and Skinny had finished with them.
+Hopalong filled the moulds rapidly while Johnny took out the bullets
+and cooled them by dropping them into cold rain water, being cautioned
+by Hopalong not to splash any water into the row of moulds. As soon as
+he found them cool enough, Johnny wiped them dry and passed them on to
+Red, who crimped them into the charged shells. Soon the piles of
+cartridges grew to a goodly size, and when the last one had been
+finished the crowd fell to playing cards until supper was ready.
+Hopalong, who had kept on running bullets, sorted them, and then
+dropped them into the boxes made for each size. Finally he stopped and
+went to the door to look for signs of the morrow's weather.
+
+"Clearing up in th' west an' south--here comes Buck an' th' others,"
+he called over his shoulder. "How was it, Buck?" he shouted, and out
+of the gathering dusk came the happy reply:
+
+"Bully!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+HOPALONG RIDES SOUTH
+
+
+The morning broke clear and showed a clean, freshened plain to the men
+who rode to the line house on the Peak, there to take up their
+quarters and from there to ride as scouts. Hopalong sent Red to ride
+along the line for the purpose of seeing how things were in that
+vicinity and, leaving the others to go where they wished, struck south
+down the side of the hill, intending to hunt Antonio on his own
+ground. Tied to his saddle was the shovel and in his pocket he carried
+the brass button, his evidence for Meeker. As he rode at an easy lope
+he kept a constant lookout for signs of rustling. Suddenly he leaned
+forward and tightened his knee grip, the horse responding by breaking
+into a gallop, while its rider took up his lariat, shaking it into a
+long loop, his twisting right wrist imparting enough motion to it to
+keep it clear of the vegetation and rocks.
+
+A distant cow wheeled sharply and watched him for a moment and then,
+snorting, its head down and its tail up, galloped away at a speed not
+to be found among domesticated cattle. It was bent upon only one
+thing--to escape that dreaded, whirling loop of rawhide, so pliant
+and yet so strong. Hopalong, not as expert as Lanky, who carried a
+rope nearly sixty feet long and who could place it where he wished,
+used one longer than the more common lariats.
+
+The cow did its best, but the pony steadily gained, nimbly executing
+quick turns and jumping gullies, up one side of a hill and down the
+other, threading its way with precision through the chaparrals and
+deftly avoiding the holes in its path. Closer and closer together came
+the pursued and pursuers, and then the long rope shot out and sailed
+through the air, straight for the animal's hind legs. As it settled, a
+quick upward jerk of the arm did the rest and there was a snubbing of
+rope around the saddle horn, a sudden stopping and dropping back on
+haunches on the part of the pony, and the cow went down heavily. The
+rider did not wait for the horse to get set, but left the saddle as
+soon as the rope had been securely snubbed, and ran to the side of his
+victim.
+
+The cow was absolutely helpless, for the rope was taut, the
+intelligent pony leaning back and being too well trained to allow the
+least amount of slack to bow the rawhide closer to the earth.
+Therefore Hopalong gave no thought to his horse, for while cinches,
+pommel, and rope held, the small, wiry, wild-eyed bundle of galvanic
+cussedness would hold the cow despite all its efforts to get up.
+
+"Never saw _that_ brand before, an' I've rid all over this country for
+a good many years, too," he soliloquized. "There sure ain't no HQQ
+herd down this way, nor no place close enough for a stray. Somebody
+is shore starting a herd on his own hook; from th' cows on this range,
+too.
+
+"By th' great horned spoon! I can see Bar-20 in them marks!" he cried,
+bending closer. "All he had to do was to make a H out of th' Bar,
+close up th' 2, an' put a tail on th' O! Hum--whoop! There is H2 in
+it, too! Close th' 2 an' add a Q, an' there you are! I don't mind a
+hog once in a while, but working both ranches to a common mark is
+shore too much for me. Stealing from both ranches an' markin 'em all
+HQQ!"
+
+He moved up to look at the ears and swore when he saw them. "D--n it!
+That's all I want to know! Mebby a sheriff wouldn't get busy on th'
+evidence, but I ain't no sheriff--I'm just a plain cow-punch with good
+common sense. Meeker's cut is a V in one ear--here I finds a slant
+like Skinny saw, an' in both ears. If that don't cut under Meeker's
+notch I'm a liar! All framed up to make a new herd out of our cows.
+Just let me catch some coyote with a running iron under his saddle
+flap an' see what happens!"
+
+He quickly slacked the rope and slipped off the noose, running as fast
+as he could go to his pony, for some cows get "on the prod" very
+easily, and few cows are afraid of a man on foot; and when a
+long-horned Texas cow has "its dander up," it is not safe for an
+unmounted man to take a chance with its horns, unless he is willing to
+shoot it down. This Hopalong would not do, for he did not want to let
+the rustlers know that the new brand had been discovered. Vaulting
+into his saddle he eluded the charge of the indignant cow and loped
+south, coiling up his rope as he went.
+
+Half an hour after leaving the HQQ cow he saw a horseman ahead of him,
+threading his way through a chaparral. As Hopalong overtook him the
+other emerged and stopped, uncertain whether to reach for his gun or
+not. It was Juan, who had not gone to Mesa overnight, scouting to
+learn if any new developments had taken place along the boundary. Juan
+looked at the shovel and then at the puncher, his face expressionless.
+
+Hopalong glanced at the other's cuff, found it was all right, and then
+forced himself to smile. "Looking for rustlers?" he bantered.
+
+"_Si._"
+
+"What! There ain't no rustlers loose on this range, is there?" asked
+Hopalong, surprised.
+
+"_Quien sabe?_"
+
+"Oh, them sleepers were made by yore own, lazy outfit, an' you might
+as well own up to it," Hopalong grinned, deprecatingly. "You can fool
+Meeker, all right, he's easy; but you can't throw dust in my eyes like
+that. On th' level, now, ain't I right? Didn't you fellers make them
+sleepers?"
+
+Juan shrugged his shoulders. "_Quien sabe?_"
+
+"That '_Quien sabe_' is th' handiest an' most used pair of words in
+yore cussed language," replied Hopalong grinning. "Ask one of you
+fellers something you don't want to tell an' it's '_Quien sabe?_'
+ain't it?"
+
+"_Si_," laughed the Mexican.
+
+"I thought so," Hopalong retorted. "You can't tell me that any gang
+that would cut a dam like they did ourn wouldn't sleeper, an' don't
+you forget it, neither!"
+
+Juan's face cleared for a moment as he gloated over how Antonio's
+scheme had worked out, and he laughed. "No can fool you, hey?" Then he
+pressed his knee tighter against his saddle skirt and a worried look
+came into his eyes.
+
+Hopalong took no apparent notice of the action, but he saw it, and it
+sent one word burning through his brain. They were riding at a walk
+now and Hopalong, not knowing that Juan had left the H2, suggested
+that they ride to the ranch together. He was watching the Mexican
+closely, for it would not be unusual for a man in Juan's position to
+try to get out of it by shooting. The Mexican refused to ride south
+and Hopalong, who was determined to stay with his companion until he
+found out what he wanted to know, proposed a race to a barranca that
+cut into the plain several hundred yards ahead. He would let Juan beat
+him, and all the way, so he could watch the saddle flap, and if this
+failed he would waste no more time in strategy, but would find out
+about it quickly. Juan also declined to race, and very hurriedly, for
+the less his saddle was jolted the better it would be for him. He knew
+Hopalong's reputation as a revolver fighter and would take no chances.
+
+"That ain't a bad cayuse you got there. I was wondering if it could
+beat mine, what's purty good itself. Is it very bronc?" he asked,
+kicking the animal in the ribs whereupon it reared and pranced.
+Juan's left hand went to the assistance of his knee, his right grasped
+the cantle of his saddle, where it was nearer the butt of his Colt,
+and a look of fear came into his eyes.
+
+Hopalong watched his chance and as the restive animal swung towards
+him he spurred it viciously, at the same time crying: "Take yore hand
+from off that flap, you d----d cow-lifter!"
+
+The command was unnecessary, for a thin, straight rod of iron slipped
+down and stuck in the sand, having worked loose from its lashings.
+Mexican-like, Juan had put off until to-morrow to heat it and bend a
+loop in one end for more secure fastening.
+
+At the instant it fell Juan leaned back and dropped over on the far
+side of his horse, his right leg coming up level with his enemy, and
+reached for his gun, intending to shoot through the end of the holster
+and save time. But he went farther than he had intended, not stopping
+until he struck the earth, his bullet missing Hopalong by only a few
+inches.
+
+The Bar-20 puncher slipped his Colt back into the sheath and, leaning
+down, deftly picked up the iron and fastened it to his saddle. Roping
+the Mexican's horse he continued on his way to the H2, leaving Juan
+where he had fallen.
+
+When he arrived at the ranch he turned the horse into the corral and
+started to ride to the bunk house; but Salem, enjoying a respite from
+cooking and washing dishes, saw him and started for him on an awkward
+run, crying:
+
+"Where'd you git that hoss? Where'd you clear from, an' who are you?"
+
+"Th' cayuse belongs to Meeker--Juan was riding it. Is anybody around?"
+
+"I'm around, ain't I, you fog-eyed lubber! Where's th' Lascar? Who are
+you?"
+
+"Well, Duke, I'm from th' Bar-20, an' my name is Hop--"
+
+"Weigh anchor an' 'bout ship! You can't make this port, you
+wind-jamming pirate!"
+
+"I want to see yore foreman. This is his shovel, an' I--"
+
+"Then where'd you get it, hey? How'd you get his--"
+
+"Hang it!" interrupted Hopalong, losing his patience. "I tell you I
+want to see Meeker! I want to see him about some--"
+
+"An' where's th' coolie that rid that hoss?" demanded the cook,
+belligerently.
+
+"You won't see that thief no more. That's one of th' things I want
+to--"
+
+"Hooray!" cried Salem. "Was he drowned, or shanghaied?"
+
+"Was he what? What are you talking about, anyhow? Where did you ever
+learn how to talk Chinese?"
+
+"What! Chinese! You whale-bellied, barnacle-brained bilge pirate, I've
+got a good notion--"
+
+"Say, is there anybody around here that ain't loco? Are they all as
+crazy as you?" Hopalong asked.
+
+Salem grabbed up one of the bars of the corral gate and, roaring
+strange oaths, ran at the stranger, but Hopalong spurred his horse and
+kept clear of the pole while Salem grew short winded and more profane.
+Then the puncher thought of Mary and cantered towards the ranch house
+intending to ask her where he could find her father, thus combining
+business with pleasure. Salem shook the pole at him and then espied
+the saddled horse in the corral. He disliked horses as much as they
+disliked him, so much, in fact, that he said the only reason he did
+not get out of the country and go back to the sea was because he had
+to ride a horse to do it. But any way was acceptable under the present
+exigencies, so he clambered into the saddle after more or less effort
+and found it not quite roomy enough for one of his growing corpulency.
+Shouting "Let fall!" he cantered after the invader of his ranch,
+waving the pole valiantly. He did not see that the ears of his mount
+were flattened or that its eyes were growing murderous in their
+expression, and he did not know that the lower end of the pole was
+pounding lustily against the horse's legs every time he waved the
+weapon. All he thought about was getting his pleasant duty over with
+as soon as possible, and he gripped the pole more firmly.
+
+Hopalong looked around curiously to see what the cook was doing to
+make all that noise, and when he saw he held his sides. "Well, if th'
+locoed son-of-a-gun ain't after me! Lord! Hey, stranger," he shouted,
+"if you want him to run fast, take hold of his tail an' pull it three
+times!"
+
+He was not averse to having a little fun at the tenderfoot's expense
+and he deferred his visit to the house to circle around the angry cook
+and shout advice. Instead of laying the reins against his mount's neck
+to turn it, Salem jerked on them, which the indignant animal instantly
+resented. It had felt all along that it was being made a fool of and
+imposed upon, but now it would have a sweet revenge. Leaping forward
+suddenly it stopped stiff-legged and arched its back several times
+with all the force it was capable of; but it could have stopped
+immediately after the first pitch, for Salem, still holding to the
+pole, executed a more or less graceful parabola and landed in a
+sitting posture amid much dust.
+
+"_Whoof!_ What'd we strike?" he demanded dazedly. Then, catching sight
+of the cause of his flight, which was at that moment cropping an
+overlooked tuft of grass as if it were accustomed to upsetting
+pole-waving cooks, Salem scrambled to his feet and ran at it, getting
+in one good whack before the indignant and groping pony could move.
+
+"There, blast you!" he yelled. "I'll show you what you get for a trick
+like that!" Turning, and seeing Hopalong laughing until the tears ran
+down his face, he roared, "What are you laughing at, d--n you?"
+
+A rope sailed out and tightened around Salem's feet and he once more
+sat down, unable to arise this time, because of Hopalong's horse,
+which backed slowly, step by step, dragging the captive, who was now
+absolutely helpless.
+
+"Now I want to talk to you for a few minutes, an' I'm going to,"
+Hopalong remarked. "Will you listen quietly or will you risk losing
+th' seat of yore pants? You've _got_ to listen, anyhow."
+
+"Wha--what----go ahead, only stop th' headway of yore craft! Lay to!
+I'm on th' rocks!"
+
+Laughing, Hopalong rode closer to him. "Where's Antonio?"
+
+"In h--l, I hope, leastwise that's where he ought to be."
+
+"Well, I just sent his friend Juan there--had to; he toted a running
+iron an'--"
+
+"Did you? Did you?" cried Salem in accents of joy. "Why didn't you say
+so before! Come in an' splice th' main brace, shipmate! That cross
+between a nigger an' a Chinee is in Davy Jones' locker, is he? Hey,
+wait till I get these lashings cast off--yo're a good hand after all.
+Come in an' have some grog--best stuff this side of Kentucky, where it
+was made."
+
+"I ain't got time," replied Hopalong, smiling. "Where's that Greaser
+broncho-buster?"
+
+"Going to send _him_ down too? D--n my tops'ls, wish I knowed! He
+deserted, took shore leave, an' ain't reported since. Yo're
+clipper-rigged, a regular AB, you are! Spin us th' yarn, matey."
+
+Hopalong told him about the dam and the shooting of Juan and gave him
+the shovel and button for Meeker, Salem's mouth wide open at the
+recital. When he had finished the cook grabbed his stirrup and urged
+him towards the grog, but Hopalong laughingly declined and, looking
+towards the ranch house, saw Jim Meeker riding like mad in their
+direction.
+
+"What do you want?" blazed the foreman, drawing rein, his face dark
+with anger.
+
+"I want to plug Antonio, an' his friend Sanchez," Hopalong replied
+calmly. "I just caught Juan with a running iron under his saddle flap
+an' I drilled him for good. Here's th' iron."
+
+"Good for you!" cried Meeker, taking the rod. "They've jumped, all of
+'em. I'm looking for 'em myself, an' we're all looking for coyotes
+toting these irons. I'm glad you got one of 'em!"
+
+"Antonio scuttled their dike--here's th' shovel he did it with,"
+interrupted Salem eagerly. "An' here's th' button off th' Greaser's
+jacket. He left it by th' shovel. My mate, here, is cruising to fall
+in with 'em, an' when he does there'll be--"
+
+"Why, that's _my_ shovel!" cried Meeker. "An' that's his button, all
+right."
+
+Hopalong told him all about the attempt to cut the dam and when he had
+ceased Meeker swore angrily. "Them Greasers are on th' rustle, shore!
+They're trying to keep th' fighting going on along th' line so we'll
+be too busy to bother 'em in their stealing. I've been losing cows
+right an' left--why, they run off a herd of beef right here by th'
+houses. Salem saw 'em. They killed cows down south an' covered my
+range with sleepers an' lame mothers. How did you come to guess he
+had an iron?"
+
+Hopalong told of the HQQ cow he had found and, dismounting, traced the
+brand in the sand, Meeker bending over eagerly.
+
+"You see this Bar-20?" he asked, pointing it out, and his interested
+companion interrupted him with a curse.
+
+"Yes, I do; an' do _you_ see this H2?" he demanded. "They've merged
+our brands into one--stealing from both of us!"
+
+"Yes. I figgered that out when I saw th' mark; that's one of th'
+things I came down to tell you about," Hopalong replied, mounting
+again. "An' Red an' me found a Bar-20 calf with a V ear notch, too.
+That proves what th' dam was cut for, don't it?"
+
+"Why didn't I drop that coyote when I caught him skulking th' other
+morning!" growled Meeker, regretfully. "He had just come back from
+yore dam then--had yaller mud on his cayuse an' his stirrups. Out all
+night on a played-out bronc, an' me too thick to guess he was up to
+some devilment an' shoot him for it! Oh, h--l! I thought purty hard of
+you, Cassidy, but I reckon we all make mistakes. Any man what would
+stop to think out th' real play when he found that shovel is square."
+
+"Oh, that's all right. I allus did hate Greasers, an' mebby that was
+why I suspected him, that an' th' button."
+
+Meeker turned to the cook. "Where's Chick an' Dan?" he asked,
+impatiently. "I ain't seen 'em around."
+
+"Why, Chick rid off down south an' Dan cleared about an hour ago."
+
+"What! With that leg of hissen!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir; he couldn't leave it behind, you know, sir."
+
+"All right, Cassidy; much obliged. I'll put a stop to th' rustling on
+_my_ range, or know th' reason why. D--n th' day I ever left
+Montanny!" Meeker swore, riding towards the ranch house.
+
+"Say, I hope you find them Lascars," remarked Salem. "Yo're th' boy
+that'll give 'em what they needs. Wish you had caught 'em all four
+instead of only one."
+
+Hopalong smiled. "Then they might 'a got me instead."
+
+"No, no, siree!" exclaimed the cook. "You can lick 'em all, an' I'll
+gamble on it, too! But you better come in an' have a swig o' grog
+before you weighs anchor, matey. As I was saying, it's th' best grog
+west of Kentucky. Come on in!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+LUCAS VISITS THE PEAK
+
+
+When Hopalong returned to the line house on the Peak he saw Johnny and
+Skinny talking with Lucas, the C80 foreman, and he hailed them.
+
+"Hullo, Lucas!" he cried. "What are you doing down here?"
+
+"Glad to see you, Hopalong," Lucas replied, shaking hands. "Came down
+to see Buck, but Lanky, up in th' bunk house, said he was off
+somewhere scouting. From what Lanky said I reckon you fellers had a
+little joke down here last week."
+
+"Yes," responded Hopalong, dismounting. "It was a sort of a joke,
+except that somebody killed one of Meeker's men. I'll be blamed if I
+know who done it. Lanky says he didn't an' he don't have to deny a
+thing like that neither. Looks to me like he caught some brand-blotter
+dead to rights, like I did a little while ago, an' like he got th'
+worst of th' argument. Lanky would 'a told me if he did it, an' don't
+you forget it, neither."
+
+"What's that about catching somebody dead to rights?" eagerly asked
+Johnny.
+
+"Who was it?" asked Skinny.
+
+"Juan. He toted a running iron an' I caught him just after I looked
+over a cow with a new brand--"
+
+"Did you get him good?" quickly asked Johnny. "Did he put up a fight?"
+
+"Yes; an' what was th' brand?" Skinny interposed.
+
+"Here, here!" laughed Hopalong. "I reckon I'll save time if I tell you
+th' whole story," and he gave a short account of his ride, interrupted
+often by the inquisitive and insistent Johnny.
+
+"An' who is Salem?" Johnny asked.
+
+"Meeker's cook."
+
+"What did Meeker say about it when you told him?"
+
+"Gimme a chance to talk an' I'll tell you!" and Johnny remained silent
+for a moment. Finally the story was told and Johnny, who had been
+swearing vengeance on all "Greasers," asked one more question,
+grinning broadly:
+
+"An' what did Mary say?"
+
+"You say Meeker lost a whole herd?" asked Lucas. "Let me tell you
+there's more people mixed up in this rustling than we think. But I'll
+tell you one thing; that herd didn't go north, unless they drove ten
+miles east or west of our range."
+
+"Well, I reckon it's under one man, all right," Hopalong replied. "If
+it was a lot of separate fellers running it by themselves there'd 'a
+been a lot of blunders an' some few of 'em would 'a been shot before
+Juan went. It's a gang, all right. But why th' devil did they turn
+loose that H2 rebranded cow, that HQQ that I found? They might 'a
+knowed it would cause some hot thinking when it was found. That cow is
+just about going to lick 'em."
+
+"Stray," sententiously remarked Skinny.
+
+"Shore, that's what it was," Lucas endorsed.
+
+"An' do you know what that means?" asked Hopalong, looking from face
+to face. "It means that they can't be holding their herds very far
+away. It's three to one that I'm right."
+
+"Mebby they're down in Eagle," suggested Johnny hopefully, for Eagle
+would be a good, exciting proposition in a fight.
+
+"No, it ain't there," Hopalong replied. "There's too many people down
+there. They would all know about it an' want a share in th' profits;
+but it ain't a whole lot foolish to say that Eagle men are in it."
+
+"Look here!" cried Skinny. "Mebby that HQQ is their road brand--that
+cow might 'a strayed from their drive. They've got to have some brand
+on cows they sell, an' they can't leave ours on an' get back alive."
+
+"You are right, but not necessarily so about th' road brand," Hopalong
+rejoined. "But that don't tell us where they are, does it?"
+
+"We've got to hunt HQQ cows on th' drive," Johnny interposed as Skinny
+was about to speak. "I'll go down to Eagle an' see if I can't get on
+to a drive. Then I'll trail th' gang all th' way an' back to where
+they hangs out. That'll tell us where to go, all right."
+
+"You keep out of Eagle--you'd be shot before you reached Quinn's
+saloon," Hopalong said. "No; it ain't Eagle, not at all. See here,
+Lucas; have you watched them construction camps along that railroad?
+There ain't a better market nowhere than them layouts; they don't ask
+no questions if th' beef is cheap."
+
+"Yes, I've watched th' trails leading to 'em."
+
+"Why, they wouldn't cross yore range!" Hopalong cried. "They'd drive
+around you an' hit th' camp from above; they ain't fools. Hey! I've
+got it! They can't go around th' Double Arrow unless they are willing
+to cross th' Staked Plain, an' you can bet they ain't. That leaves th'
+west, an' there's a desert out there they wouldn't want to tackle.
+They drive between th' desert an' yore range."
+
+"If they drive to th' camps, yo're right without a doubt," Skinny
+remarked. "But mebby they are driving south--mebby they're starting a
+ranch along th' Grande, or across it."
+
+"Well, we'll take th' camps first," Hopalong replied. "Lucas, can you
+spare a man to look them camps over? Somebody that can live in 'em a
+month, if he has to?"
+
+"Shore. Wood Wright is just th' man."
+
+"No, he ain't th' man," contradicted Hopalong quickly. "Anybody that
+wears chaps, or walks like he does would arouse suspicion in no time,
+an' get piped out some night. This man has got to have business up
+there, like looking for a job. Say! Can you get along without yore
+cook for a while? If you can't we will!"
+
+"You bet yore life I can!" exulted Lucas. "That's good. He can get a
+job right where th' meat is used, an' where th' hides will be kicking
+around. He goes to-morrow!"
+
+"That's th' way; th' sooner th' better," Hopalong responded. "But we
+won't wait for him. We'll scout around lively down here an' if we
+don't find anything he may. But for th' Lord's sake, don't let him
+ride a cayuse into that camp that has brands of this section. Cowan
+will be glad to lend you his cayuse; he got it up north too far to
+make 'em suspicious."
+
+"Yes; I reckon that'll be about the thing."
+
+"Here comes Red," Johnny remarked. "Hey, Red, Hoppy got Juan this
+morning. Caught him toting a straight iron!"
+
+"Johnny, you get away lively an' tell Frenchy to scout west," Hopalong
+ordered. "You can stay up in Number Two with them to-night, but come
+down here again in th' morning. Red, to-morrow at daylight we go west
+an' comb that country."
+
+"That's th' way," remarked Lucas, mounting. "Get right at it. Have you
+got any word for Buck? I'll go past th' house an' leave it if you
+have."
+
+"Yes; tell him what we've talked over. An' you might send yore outfit
+further west, too," Hopalong responded. "I'll bet a month's pay we
+end this cow-lifting before two more weeks roll by. We've got to!"
+
+"Oh, yes; I near forgot it--Bartlett thinks we-all ought to get
+together after th' rustling is stopped an' shoot that town of Eagle
+plumb off th' earth," Lucas said. "It's only a hell hole, anyhow, an'
+it won't do no harm to wipe it out." He looked around the group. "What
+do you fellers think about it?" he asked.
+
+"Well, we might, then; we've got too many irons in th' fire now,
+though," Hopalong replied. "Hey, Johnny! Get a-going! We'll talk about
+Eagle later."
+
+"I'm forgetting lots of things," laughed Lucas. "We had a little fight
+up our way th' other day. Caught a feller skinning one of Bartlett's
+cows, what had strayed over on us. Got him dead to rights, too. He put
+up a fight while he lasted. Said his name was Hawkins."
+
+"Hawkins!" exclaimed Hopalong. "I've heard that name somewhere."
+
+"Why, that's th' name on th' notice of reward posted in Cowan's," Red
+supplied. "He's wanted for desertion from th' army, an' for other
+things. They want him bad up at Roswell, an' they'll pay for him, dead
+or alive."
+
+"Well, they won't get him; he ain't keeping good enough," Lucas
+replied. "An' we don't want that kind of money. So long," and he was
+off.
+
+"So you got Juan," Red remarked. "You ought to have took him alive--we
+could get it all out of him an' find out where his friends are hanging
+out."
+
+"He went after his gun, an' he had an iron," Hopalong replied. "I
+didn't know he had left Meeker, an' I didn't stop to think. You see,
+he was a brand-blotter."
+
+"What's Meeker going to do about th' line?" Red asked.
+
+"Nothing for a while; he's too worried an' busy looking after his
+sleepers. He ain't so bad, after all."
+
+"Say," remarked Skinny, thoughtfully. "Mebby that gang is over east,
+like Trendley was. There's lots of water thereabouts, an' good grass,
+too, in th' Panhandle. Look how close it is to Fort Worth an' th'
+railroad."
+
+"Too many people over there," Hopalong replied. "An' _they_ know all
+about th' time we killed Trendley an' wiped out his gang. They won't
+go where they are shore we'll look."
+
+"If I can get sight of one of them Greasers I'll find out where they
+are," Red growled. "I'll put green rawhide around his face if I have
+to, an' when he savvys what th' sun is going to do to that hide an'
+him, he'll talk, all right, an' be glad of th' chance."
+
+"To hear you, anybody would think you'd do a thing like that,"
+Hopalong laughed. "I reckon he'd drop at eight hundred, clean an' at
+th' first shot. But, say, green rawhide wouldn't do a thing to a man's
+face, would it! When it shrunk he'd know it, all right."
+
+"Crush it to a pulp," Skinny remarked. "But who is going to cook th'
+supper? I'm starved."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hopalong awakened suddenly and listened and found Red also awake.
+Hoofbeats were coming towards the house and Hopalong peered out into
+the darkness to see who it was, his Colt ready.
+
+"Who's that?" he challenged, sharply, the clicks of his gun ringing
+clear in the night air.
+
+"Why, me," replied a well-known voice. "Who'd you think it was?"
+
+"Why didn't you stay up in Number Two, like I told you? What's wrong?"
+
+"Nothing," Johnny replied, stripping off his saddle and bridle.
+
+"An' you came all th' way down here in th' dark, just to wake us up?"
+Hopalong asked, incredulously. "Twenty miles just for that!"
+
+"No. I ain't got here yet--I'm only half way," Johnny retorted. "Can't
+you see I'm here? An' I didn't care about you waking up. I wanted to
+get here, an' here I am."
+
+"In th' name of heaven, are you drunk, or crazy?" asked Red. "Of all
+th' d--n fools I ever--"
+
+"Oh, shut up, all of you!" growled Skinny, turning over in his bunk.
+"Lot of locoed cusses that don't know enough to keep still! Let th'
+Kid alone, why don't you!" he muttered, and was sound asleep again.
+
+"No, I ain't drunk or crazy! Think I was going to stay up there when
+you two fellers are going off scouting to-morrow? Not by a jugful! I
+ain't letting nothing get past me, all right," Johnny rejoined.
+
+"Well, you ain't a-going, anyhow," muttered Hopalong, crawling into
+his bunk again. "You've got to stay with Skinny--" he did not speak
+very loud, because he knew it would cause an argument, and he wished
+to sleep instead of talk.
+
+"What'd you say?" demanded Johnny.
+
+"For G-d's sake!" marvelled Red. "Can't nobody go an' scratch
+'emselves unless th' Kid is on th' ground? Come in here an' get to
+sleep, you coyote!"
+
+     Adown th' road, his gun in hand,
+     Comes Whiskey Bill, mad Whiskey--
+
+Johnny hummed. "Hey! What you doing?" he yelled, leaping back.
+
+"You heave any more guns on my face an' you'll find out!" roared
+Skinny, sitting up and throwing Johnny's Colt and belt to the floor.
+"Fool infant!"
+
+"Tumble in an' shut up!" cried Red. "We want some sleep, you sage
+hen!"
+
+"Yo're a lot of tumble-bugs!" retorted Johnny, indignantly. "How did I
+know Skinny had his face where I threw my gun! He's so cussed thin I
+can't hardly see him in daylight, th' chalk mark! Why didn't he say
+so? Think I can see in th' dark?"
+
+"I don't talk in my sleep!" retorted Skinny, "or go flea-hopping
+around in th' dark like a--"
+
+"_Shut up!_" shouted Hopalong, and silence at last ensued.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+HOPALONG AND RED GO SCOUTING
+
+
+As Hopalong and Red rode down the slope of the Peak the rays of the
+sun flashed over the hills, giving promise of a very hot day. They
+were prepared to stay several days, if need be, on the semi-arid plain
+to the west of them, for it would be combed thoroughly before they
+returned. On they loped, looking keenly over the plain and
+occasionally using their field glasses to more closely scrutinize
+distant objects, searching the barrancas and coulees and threading
+through mesquite and cactus growths. Hopalong momentarily expected to
+find signs of what they were looking for, while Red, according to
+his habit, was consistently contradictory in his words and
+disproportionately pessimistic.
+
+Moving forward at a swinging lope they began to circle to the west and
+as they advanced Hopalong became eager and hopeful, while his
+companion grumbled more and more. In his heart he believed as Hopalong
+did, but there had to be something to talk about to pass the time more
+pleasantly; so when they met in some barranca to ride together for a
+short distance they exchanged pleasantries.
+
+"Yo're showing even more than yore usual amount of pig-headed
+ignorance to-day," Hopalong grumbled. "Yore blasted, ingrowing
+disposition has been shedding cussedness at every step. I'll own up to
+being some curious as to when it's going to peter out."
+
+"As if that's any of yore business," retorted Red. "But I'll just tell
+you, since you asks; it's going to stop when I get good an' ready,
+savvy?"
+
+"Yo're awful cheerful at times," sarcastically snorted his companion.
+
+Red's eyes had been roving over the plain and now he raised his
+glasses and looked steadily ahead.
+
+"What's that out there? Dead cow?" he asked, calmly.
+
+Hopalong put his glasses on it instantly. "Cow?" he asked,
+witheringly. "No; it's an over-grown lizard! Come on," he cried,
+spurring forward, Red close behind him.
+
+Riding around it they saw that it bore the brand of the H2, and
+Hopalong, dismounting, glanced it over quickly and swore.
+
+"Shot in th' head--what did I tell you!"
+
+"You didn't have to get off yore cayuse to see that," retorted Red.
+"But get on again, an' come along. There's more out here. I'll take
+th' south end of this--don't get out of hearing."
+
+"Wait! Wonder why they shot it, instead of driving it off after they
+got it this far?" Hopalong mused.
+
+"Got on th' prod, I reckon, leaving its calf an' being run so hard.
+I've seen many a one I'd like to have shot. Looks to me like they hang
+out around that water hole--they drove it that way."
+
+"You can bet yore head they didn't drive it straight to their
+hang-out--they ain't doing nothing like that," Hopalong replied. "They
+struck south after they thought they had throwed off any pursuit. They
+drove it almost north, so far; savvy?"
+
+"Well, they've got to have water if they're holding cows out on this
+stove," Red rejoined. "An' I just told you where th' water is."
+
+"G'wan! Ten cows would drain that hole in two days!" Hopalong
+responded. "They've also got to have grass, though mebby you never
+knew that. An' what about that herd Meeker lost? They wouldn't circle
+so far to a one-by-nothing water hole like that one is."
+
+"Well, then, where'll they find grass an' water out here?" demanded
+Red, impatiently. "Th' desert's west, though mebby you never knew
+that!"
+
+"Red, we've been a pair of fools!" Hopalong cried, slapping his thigh
+by way of emphasis. "Here we are skating around up here when Thunder
+Mesa lays south, with plenty of water an' a fair pasture on all sides
+of it! That's where we'll go."
+
+"Hoppy, once in a great while you do show some intelligence, an'
+you've shown some now; but we better go up to that water hole first,"
+Red replied. "We can swing south then. We're so close to it now that
+there ain't nothing to be gained by not taking a look at it. Mebby
+we'll find a trail, or something."
+
+"Right you are; come on. There ain't no use of us riding separate no
+more."
+
+Half an hour later Hopalong pointed to one side, to a few half-burned
+greasewood and mesquite sticks which radiated like the spokes of a
+wheel.
+
+"Yes, I saw 'em," Red remarked. "They couldn't wait till they got home
+before they changed th' brand, blamed fools."
+
+"Yes, an' that explains th' HQQ cow I discovered," Hopalong quickly
+replied. "They got too blamed hasty to blot it an' it got away from
+'em."
+
+"Well, it shore beats th' devil how Meeker had to go an' stir up this
+nest of rattlers," Red grumbled, angrily.
+
+"If these fellers hang out at Thunder Mesa an' drive to th' railroad
+camps we ought to strike their trail purty close to th' water hole,"
+Hopalong remarked. "It's right in their path."
+
+Red nodded his head. "Yes, we ought to."
+
+An hour later they rode around a chaparral and came within sight of
+the water hole, which lay a few hundred yards away. As they did so a
+man rode up out of the depression and started north, unconscious of
+his danger.
+
+The two men spurred to overtake him, both drawing their rifles and
+getting ready for action. He turned in his saddle, saw them, and
+heading westward, quirted and spurred his horse into a dead run, both
+of his pursuers shouting for him to stop as they followed at top
+speed. He glanced around again and, seeing that they were slowly but
+surely gaining, whipped up his rifle and fired at them several times,
+both replying. He kept bearing more and more to the west and Red rode
+away at an angle to intercept him. Ten minutes later the fleeing man
+turned and rode north again, but Red had gained fifty yards over
+Hopalong and suddenly stopping his horse to permit better shooting, he
+took quick aim and fired. The pursued man found that his horse was
+useful only as a breastwork as Red's report died away, and hastily
+picked himself up and crawled behind it.
+
+"Look out, Red!" warned Hopalong as he flung himself off his horse and
+led it down into a deep coulee for protection. "That's Dick Archer,
+an' he can shoot like th' very devil!"
+
+Red, already in a gully, laughed. "An' so can I."
+
+"Hey, I'm going around on th' other side--look out for him," Hopalong
+called, starting away. "We can't waste no more time up here than we
+has to."
+
+"All right; go ahead," Red replied, pushing his sombrero over the edge
+of the gully where the rustler could see it; and he laughed softly
+when he saw the new hole in it. "He shore can shoot, all right," he
+muttered. Working down the gully until he came to a clump of
+greasewood he crawled up the bank and looked out at the man behind
+the dead horse, who was intently watching the place where he had seen
+Red's sombrero. "I knowed Eagle was holding cards in this game," Red
+remarked, smiling grimly. "Wonder how many are in it, anyhow?"
+
+Hearing the crack of a gun he squinted along the sights of his
+Winchester and waited patiently for a chance to shoot. Then he heard
+another shot and saw the rustler raise himself to change his position,
+and Red fired. "I knowed, too, that Hoppy would drive him into range
+for me, even if he didn't hit him. Wonder what Mr. Dick Archer thinks
+about _my_ shooting about now? Ah!" he cried as the smoke from his
+second shot drifted away. "Got you again!" he grunted. Then he dropped
+below the edge of the gully and grinned as he listened to the bullets
+whining overhead, for the rustler, wounded twice inside of a minute by
+one man, was greatly incensed thereby and petulantly bombarded the
+greasewood clump. He knew that he was done for, but that was no reason
+why he shouldn't do as much damage as he could while he was able.
+
+"Bet he's mad," grinned Red. "An' there goes that Sharps--I could tell
+Hoppy's gun in a fusillade."
+
+Crawling back up the gully to his first position Red peered out
+between some gramma grass tufts and again slid his rifle to his
+shoulder, laughing softly at the regular reports of the Sharps.
+
+A puff of smoke enveloped his head and drifted behind him as he worked
+the lever of his rifle and, arising, he walked out towards the
+prostrate man and waved for his friend to join him. As he drew near
+the rustler struggled up on one elbow, and Red, running forward with
+his gun raised half-way to his shoulder, cried: "Don't make no
+gun-play, or I'll blow you apart! Where's th' rest of yore gang?"
+
+"Go to h--l!" coughed the other, trying to get his Colt out, for his
+rifle was empty. He stiffened and fell flat.
+
+Ten minutes later Hopalong and Red were riding southwest along a plain
+and well beaten trail, both silent and thoughtful. And at the end of
+an hour they saw the ragged top of Thunder Mesa towering against the
+horizon. They went forward cautiously now and took advantage of the
+unevenness of the plain, riding through barrancas and keeping close to
+chaparrals.
+
+"Well, Red, I reckon we better stop," Hopalong remarked at last, his
+glasses glued to his eyes. "No use letting them see us."
+
+"Is that smoke up there?" asked Red.
+
+"Yes; an' there's somebody moving around near th' edge."
+
+"I see him now."
+
+"I reckon we know all that's necessary," Hopalong remarked. "That
+trail is enough, anyhow. Now we've got to get back to th' ranch
+without letting them fellers see us."
+
+"We can lead th' cayuses till we can get in that barranca back there,"
+Red replied. "We won't stick up so prominent if we do that. After we
+make it we'll find it easy to keep from being seen if we've any
+caution."
+
+Hopalong threw himself out of the saddle. "Dismount!" he cried. "That
+feller up there is coming towards this end. He's their lookout, I
+bet."
+
+They remained hidden and quiet for an hour while the lookout gazed
+around the plain, both impatient and angry at the time he gave to his
+examination. When he turned and disappeared they waited for a few
+minutes to see if he was coming back, and satisfied that the way was
+clear, led their horses to the barranca and rode through it until far
+enough away to be safe from observation.
+
+Darkness caught them before they had covered half of the distance
+between the mesa and the ranch, and there being no moon to light the
+way, they picketed their mounts, had supper, and rolling up in their
+blankets, spent the night on the open plain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+RED'S DISCOMFITURE
+
+
+On their return they separated and Red, coming to an arroyo, rode
+along its edge for a mile and then turned north. Ten minutes after he
+had changed his course he espied an indistinct black speck moving
+among a clump of cottonwoods over half a mile ahead of him, and as he
+swung his glasses on it a cloud of smoke spurted out. His horse
+reared, plunged, and then sank to earth where it kicked spasmodically
+and lay quiet. As the horse died Red, who had dismounted at the first
+tremor, threw himself down behind it and shoved his rifle across the
+body, swearing at the range, for at that distance his Winchester was
+useless. A small handful of sand flew into the air close beside him
+with a vicious spat, and the bullet hummed away into the brush as a
+small pebble struck him sharply on the cheek. A few seconds later he
+heard the faint, flat report.
+
+"It's a clean thousand, an' more," he growled. "Wish I had Hopalong's
+gun. I'd make that feller jump!"
+
+He looked around to see how close he was to cover and when he glanced
+again at the cottonwoods they seemed to be free of an enemy. Then a
+shot came from a point to the north of the trees and thudded into the
+carcass of the horse. Red suddenly gave way to his accumulated anger
+which now seethed at a white heat and, scrambling to his feet, ran to
+the brush behind him. When he gained it he plunged forward to top
+speed, leaping from cover to cover as he zig-zagged towards the man
+who had killed Ginger, and who had tried his best to kill him.
+
+He ran on and on, his rifle balanced in his right hand and ready for
+instant use, his breath coming sharply now. Red was in no way at home
+out of the saddle. His high-heeled, tight-fitting boots cramped his
+toes and the sand made running doubly hard. He was not far from the
+cottonwoods; they lay before him and to his right.
+
+Turning quickly he went north, so as to go around the plot of ground
+on which he hoped to find his accurate, long-range assailant, and as
+he came to a break in the hitherto close-growing brush he stopped
+short and dropped to one knee behind a hillock of sand, the rifle
+going to his shoulder as part of the movement.
+
+Several hundred yards east of him he saw two men, who were hastily
+mounting, and running from them was a frightened calf. One of the pair
+waved an arm towards the place where Ginger lay and as he did so a
+puff of smoke lazily arose from behind the hillock of sand to the west
+and he jumped up in his saddle, his left arm falling to his side.
+Another puff of smoke arose and his companion fought his wounded and
+frightened horse, and then suddenly grasped his side and groaned. The
+puffs were rising rapidly behind the hillock and bullets sang sharply
+about them; the horse of the first man hit leaped forward with a
+bullet-stung rump. Spurring madly the two rustlers dashed into the
+brush, lying close along the necks of their mounts, and soon were lost
+to the sight of the angry marksman.
+
+Red leaped up, mechanically refilling the magazine of his rifle, and
+watched them out of sight, helpless either to stop or pursue them. He
+shook his rifle, almost blind with rage, crying: "I hope you get to
+Thunder Mesa before _we_ do, an' stay there; or run into Frenchy an'
+his men on yore way back! If I could get to Number Two ahead of you
+you'd never cross that boundary."
+
+As he returned to his horse his rage cooled and left him, a quiet,
+deep animosity taking its place, and he even smiled with savage
+elation when he thought how he had shot at eight hundred yards--they
+had not escaped entirely free from punishment and his accuracy had
+impressed them so much that they had not lingered to have it out with
+him, even as they were two to one, mounted, and armed with long-range
+rifles. And he could well allow them to escape, for he would find them
+again at the mesa, if they managed to cross the line unseen by his
+friends, and he could pay the debt there.
+
+He swore when he came to the body of his horse and anger again took
+possession of him. Ginger had been the peer of any animal on the
+range and, contrary to custom, he had felt no little affection for it.
+At cutting out it had been unequalled and made the work a pleasure to
+its rider; at stopping when the rope went home and turning short when
+on the dead run it had not been excelled by any horse on the ranch. He
+had taught it several tricks, such as coming to him in response to a
+whistle, lying down quickly at a slap on the shoulder, and bucking
+with whole-hearted zeal and viciousness when mounted by a stranger.
+Now he slapped the carcass and removed the saddle and bridle which had
+so often displeased it.
+
+"Ginger, old boy," he said, slinging the forty-pound saddle to his
+shoulder and turning to begin his long tramp towards the dam, "I shore
+hate to hoof it, but I'd do it with a lot better temper if I knowed
+you was munching grass with th' rest of the cavvieyh. You've been a
+good old friend, an' I hates to leave you; but if I get any kind of a
+chance at th' thief that plugged you I'll square up for you good an'
+plenty."
+
+To the most zealous for exercise, carrying a forty-pound
+double-cinched saddle for over five miles across a hot, sandy plain
+and under a blazing, scorching sun, with the cinches all the time
+working loose and falling to drag behind and catch in the vegetation,
+was no pleasant task; and add to that a bridle, full magazine rifle,
+field glasses, canteen, and a three-pound Colt revolver swinging from
+a belt heavily weighted with cartridges, and it becomes decidedly
+irksome, to say the least. Red's temper can be excused when it is
+remembered that for years his walking had been restricted to getting
+to his horse, that his footwear was unsuited for walking, that he had
+been shot at and had lost his best horse. Each mile added greatly to
+his weariness and temper and by the time he caught sight of Hopalong,
+who rode recklessly over the range blazing at a panic-stricken coyote,
+he was near the point of spontaneous combustion.
+
+He heaved the saddle from him, kicked savagely at it as it dropped,
+for which he was instantly sorry, and straightened his back slowly for
+fear that any sudden exertion would break it. His rifle exploded,
+twice, thrice; and Hopalong sat bolt upright and turned, his rifle
+going instinctively to his shoulder before he saw his friend's waving
+sombrero.
+
+The coyote-chaser slid the smoking Sharps into its sheath and galloped
+to meet his friend who, filling the air with sulphurous remarks, now
+seated himself on the roundly cursed saddle.
+
+Hopalong swept up and stopped, grinning expectantly and, to Red,
+exasperatingly. "Where's yore cayuse?" he asked. "Why are you toting
+yore possessions on th' hoof? Are you emigrating?"
+
+Red's reply was a look wonderfully expressive of all the evils in
+human nature, it was fairly crowded with murder and torture, and
+Hopalong held his head on one side while he weighed it.
+
+"Phew!" he exclaimed in wondering awe. "Yo're shore mad! You'd freeze
+old Geronimo's blood if he saw that look!"
+
+"An' I'll freeze yourn; I'll let it soak into th' sand if you don't
+change yore front!" blazed Red.
+
+"What's the matter? Where's Ginger?"
+
+A rapid-fire string of expletives replied and then Hopalong began to
+hear sensible words, which more and more interspersed the profanity,
+and it was not long before he learned of Red's ride along the arroyo's
+rim.
+
+"When I turned north," Red continued, wrathfully, "I saw something in
+them dozen cottonwoods around that come-an'-go spring; an' then what
+do you think happened?" he cried. Not waiting for any reply he
+continued hastily: "Why, some murdering squaw's dog went an' squibbed
+at me at long range! With me on my own ranch, too! An' he killed
+Ginger first shot. He missed me three straight an' _I_ couldn't do
+nothing at a thousand an' over with this gun."
+
+"Th' d--n pirate!" exclaimed Hopalong, hotly.
+
+"I was a whole lot mad by that time, so I jumped back into th' brush
+an' ran for th' grove, hoping to get square when I got in range. After
+I'd run about a thousand miles I came to th' edge of th' clearing west
+of th' trees an' d----d if I didn't see two fellers climbing on their
+cayuses, an' some hasty, too. Reckon they didn't know how many friends
+I might have behind me. Well, I was some shaky from running like I
+did, an' they was a good eight hundred away, but I let drive just th'
+same an' got one in th' arm, th' other somewhere else, an' hit both of
+their cayuses. I wish I'd 'a filled 'em so full of holes they couldn't
+hang together, th' thieves!"
+
+"I'd shore like to go after them, Red," Hopalong remarked. "We could
+ride west an' get 'em when they pass that water hole if you had a
+cayuse."
+
+"Oh, we'll get 'em, all right--at th' mesa," Red rejoined. "I'm so
+tired I wouldn't go now if I could. Walking all th' way down here with
+that saddle! You get off that cayuse an' let me ride him," he
+suggested, mopping his face with his sleeve.
+
+"What! Me? _Me_ get off an' walk! I reckon not!" replied Hopalong, and
+then his face softened. "You pore, unfortunate cow-punch," he said,
+sympathetically. "You toss up yore belongings an' climb up here behind
+me. I'll take you to th' dam, where Johnny has picketed his cayuse.
+Th' Kid's going in for a swim; said he didn't know how soon he'd get a
+chance to take a bath. We can rustle his cayuse for a joke--come on."
+
+"Oh, wait a minute, can't you?" Red replied, wearily. "I can't lift my
+legs high enough to get up there--they're like lead. That trail was
+hell strung out."
+
+"You should 'a cached yore saddle an' everything but th' gun an' come
+down light," Hopalong remarked. "Or you could a' gone to th' line an'
+waited for somebody to come along. Why didn't you do that?"
+
+"I ain't leaving that saddle nowhere," Red responded. "Besides I was
+too blamed mad to stop an' think."
+
+"Well, don't wait very long--Johnny may skin out if you do," Hopalong
+replied, and then, suddenly: "Just where was it you shot at them
+snakes?" Red told him and Hopalong wheeled as if to ride after them.
+
+"Here, you!" cried Red, the horseless. "Where th' devil are you going
+so sudden?"
+
+"Up to get them cow-lifters that you couldn't, of course," his
+companion replied. "I'm shore going to show you how easy it is when
+you know how."
+
+"Like h--l you are!" Red cried, springing up, his lariat in his hand.
+"Yo're going to stay right here with me, that's what yo're going to
+do! I've got something for you to do, you compact bundle of gall! You
+try to get away without me and I'll make you look like an interrupted
+spasm, you wart-headed Algernon!"
+
+"Do you want 'em to get plumb away?" cried the man in the saddle,
+concealing his mirth.
+
+"I want you to stick right here an' tote me to a cayuse!" Red
+retorted, swinging the rope. "_I'm_ going to be around when anybody
+goes after them Siwashes, an' don't you forget it. There ain't no
+hurry--we'll get 'em quick enough when we starts west. An' if you try
+any get-away play an' leave me out here on my two feet with all these
+contraptions, I'll pick you off'n that piebald like hell greased with
+calamity!"
+
+Hopalong laughed heartily. "Why, I was only a-fooling, Red. Do you
+reckon I'd go away an' leave you standing out here like a busted-down
+pack mule?"
+
+"I hoped you was only fooling, but I wasn't taking no chances with a
+cuss like you," Red replied, grinning. "Not with this load of woe, you
+bet."
+
+"Say, it's too bad you didn't have my gun up there," Hopalong said,
+regretfully. "You could 'a got 'em both then, an' had two cayuses to
+ride home on."
+
+"Well, _I_ could 'a got 'em with it," Red replied, grinning, his good
+nature returning under the chaffing. "But you can't hit th' mesa with
+it over six hundred. They'd 'a got away from you without getting hit."
+
+Hopalong laughed derisively and then sobered and became anxious.
+"Yo're right, Red, yo're right," he asserted with tender solicitude.
+"Now you get right up here behind me an' I'll take you to th' dam
+where th' Kid is. Pore feller," he sighed. "Well, I ain't a-wondering
+after all you've been through. It was enough to make a _strong_-minded
+man loco." He smiled reassuringly. "Now climb right up behind me,
+Reddie. Gimme yore little saddle an' yore no-account gun--Ouch!"
+
+"I'll give you th' butt of it again if you don't act like you've made
+th' best of them gravy brains!" Red snorted. "Here, you lop-eared
+cow-wrastler--catch this!" throwing the saddle so sudden and hard that
+Hopalong almost lost his balance from the impact. "Now you gimme a
+little room in front of th' tail--I ain't no blasted fly."
+
+Hopalong gave his friend a hand and Red landed across the horse's
+back, to the instant and strong dislike of that animal, which showed
+its displeasure by bucking mildly.
+
+"Glory be!" cried Hopalong, laughing. "Riding double on a bucking
+hinge ain't no play, is it? Suppose he felt like pitching real
+strong--where would you be with that tail holt?"
+
+"You bump my nose again with th' back of yore head an' you'll see how
+much play it is!" Red retorted. "Come on--pull out. We ain't glued
+fast. Th' world moves, all right, but if yo're counting on it sliding
+under you till th' dam comes around you're way off; it ain't moving
+that way. Hey! Stop that spurring!"
+
+"I'll hook 'em in you again if you don't shut up!" Hopalong promised,
+jabbing them into the horse, which gave one farewell kick, to Red's
+disgust, and cantered south with ears flattened.
+
+"Whoop! I'm riding again!" Red exulted.
+
+"I'm glad it wasn't Red Eagle they went an' killed," Hopalong
+remarked.
+
+"Red Eagle!" snorted Red, indignantly. "What good is this cayuse,
+anyhow? Ginger was worth three like this."
+
+"Well, if you don't like this cayuse you can get off an' hoof it, you
+know," Hopalong retorted. "But I'll tell you what you know a'ready;
+there ain't no cayuse in this part of th' country that can lose him in
+long-distance running. He ain't no fancy, parlor animal like Ginger
+was; he don't know how to smoke a cig or wash dishes, or do any of th'
+fool things yore cayuse did, but he is right on th' job when it comes
+to going hard an' long. An' it's them two things that tell how much a
+cayuse is worth, down here in this country. If I could 'a jumped on
+him up there when they made their get-away from you, me an' th' Sharps
+would 'a fixed 'em. They wouldn't be laughing now at how easy you
+was."
+
+"They ain't laughing, not a bit of it--an' they won't even be able to
+swear after I get out to th' mesa," Red asserted. "Have you seen Buck,
+or anybody 'cept th' Kid?"
+
+"Yes. I told Buck an' Frenchy about it, an' Skinny, too," Hopalong
+replied. "Buck an' Frenchy went north along th' west line to get th'
+boys from Number Two. Buck says we'll go after 'em just as soon as we
+can get ready, which most of us are now. Pore Lanky; he's got to stay
+home an' pet his wounds--Buck said he couldn't go."
+
+"Did Buck say who was going an' who was going to stay home?"
+
+"Yes; you, Johnny, Billy, Pete, Skinny, Frenchy, me, Buck, an' Pie
+Willis are going--th' rest will have to watch th' ranch. That makes
+nine of us. Wonder how many are up that mesa?"
+
+"There'll be plenty, don't you worry," Red replied. "When we go after
+anybody we generally has to mix up with a whole company. I wouldn't be
+a whole lot surprised if they give us an awful fight before they peter
+out. They'll be up in th' air a hundred feet. We'll have plenty to do,
+all right."
+
+"Well, two won't be there, anyhow--Archer an' Juan. I bet we'll find
+most of th' people of Eagle up there waiting for us."
+
+"Lord, I hope they are!" cried Red. "Then we can clean up everything
+at once, town an' all."
+
+"There's th' Kid--see th' splash?" Hopalong laughed. "He shore is
+stuck on swimming. He don't care if there's cotton-mouths in there
+with him. One of them snakes will get him some day, an' if one does,
+then we'll plant him, quick."
+
+"Oh, I dunno. I ain't seen none at th' dam," Red replied. "They don't
+like th' sand there as much as they do th' mud up at th' other end,
+an' along th' sides. Gee! There's his cayuse!"
+
+Johnny dove out of sight, turned over and came up again, happy as a
+lark, and saw his friends riding towards him, and he trod water and
+grinned. "Hullo, fellers. Coming in?--it's fine! Hey, Red. We're all
+going out to Thunder Mesa as soon as we can! But what are you riding
+double for? Where's yore cayuse?" Something in Red's expression made
+him suspicious of his friends' intentions and, fearing that he might
+have to do some walking, he made a few quick strokes and climbed out,
+dressing as rapidly as his wet skin would permit.
+
+Red briefly related his experience and Johnny swore as he struggled
+through his shirt. "What are you going to do?" he asked, poking his
+head out into sight.
+
+"I'm going to ride yore cayuse to th' line house--you ain't as tired
+as me," replied Red.
+
+"Not while I'm alive, you ain't!" cried Johnny, running to his horse.
+Then he grinned and went back to his clothes. "You take him an' rope
+th' cayuse I saw down in that barranca--there's two of 'em there,
+both belonging to Meeker. But you be shore to come back!"
+
+"Shore, Kid," Red replied, vaulting into the saddle and riding away.
+
+Johnny fastened his belt around him and looked up. "Say, Hoppy," he
+laughed, "Buck said Cowan sent my new gun down to th' bunk house
+yesterday. He's going to bring it with him when he comes down
+to-morrow. But I only got fifty cartridges for it--will you lend me
+some of yourn if I run short?"
+
+"Where did Cowan get it?"
+
+"Why, don't you remember he said he'd get me one like yourn th' next
+time he went north? He got back yesterday--bought it off some feller
+up on th' XS. Cost me twenty-five dollars without th' cartridges. But
+I've got fifty empties I can load when I get time, so I'll be all
+right later on. Will you lend me some?"
+
+"Fifty is enough, you chump," laughed Hopalong. "You won't get that
+many good chances out there."
+
+"I know; but I want to practise a little. It'll shoot flatter than my
+Winchester," Johnny grinned, hardly able to keep from riding to the
+bunk house to get his new gun.
+
+Red rode up leading a horse. "That's a good rope, Kid, 'though th'
+hondo is purty heavy," he said, saddling the captured animal. "Is Buck
+going to bring down any food an' cartridges when he comes?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; three cayuses will pack 'em. We can send back for more if we
+stay out there long enough to need more. Buck says that freak spring
+up on top flows about half a mile through th' chaparral before it
+peters out. What do you know about it, Red?" Hopalong asked.
+
+"Seems to me that he's right. I think it flows through a twisting
+arroyo. But there'll be water enough for us, all right."
+
+"I got a .45-120 Sharps just like Hopalong's, Red," Johnny grinned.
+"He said he'd lend me fifty cartridges for it, didn't you, Hoppy?"
+
+"Well, I'll be blamed!" exclaimed Hopalong. "First thing _I_ knowed
+about it, if I did. I tell you you won't need 'em."
+
+"Where'd you get it?" asked Red.
+
+"Cowan got it. I told you all about it three weeks ago."
+
+"Well, you better give it back an' use yore Winchester," replied Red.
+"It ain't no good, an' you'll shoot some of us with it, too. What do
+_you_ want with a gun that'll shoot eighteen hundred? You can't hit
+anything now above three hundred."
+
+"Yo're another--I can, an' you know it, too. Three hundred!" he
+snorted. "Huh! Here comes Skinny!"
+
+Skinny rode up and joined them, all going to the Peak. Finally he
+turned and winked at Johnny.
+
+"Hey, Kid. Hopalong ought to go right down to th' H2 while he's got
+time. He hadn't ought to go off fighting without saying good-bye to
+his girl, had he?"
+
+"She'd keep him home--wouldn't let him take no chances of getting
+shot," Red asserted. "Anyhow, if he went down there he'd forget to
+come back."
+
+"Ow-wow!" cried Johnny. "You hit him! You hit him! Look at his face!"
+
+"He shore can't do no courting while he's away," Skinny remarked. "He
+wouldn't let Red go with him when he went to give Meeker th' shovel,
+an' I didn't know why till just now."
+
+"You go to blazes, all of you!" exclaimed Hopalong, red and
+uncomfortable. "I ain't doing no courting, you chump! An' Red knows
+why I went down there alone."
+
+"Yes; you gave me a fool reason, an' went alone," Red retorted. "An'
+if that ain't courting, for th' Lord's sake what is it? Or is she
+doing all of it, you being bashful?"
+
+"Yes, Hoppy; tell us what it is," asked Skinny.
+
+"Oh, don't mind them, Hoppy; they're jealous," Johnny interposed.
+"Don't you make no excuses, not one. Admit that yo're courting an'
+tell 'em that yo're going to keep right on a-doing it an' get all th'
+honey you can."
+
+Red and Skinny grinned and Hopalong, swearing at Johnny, made a quick
+grab for him, but missed, for Johnny knew the strength of that grip.
+"I ain't courting! I'm only trying to--trying to be--sociable; that's
+all!"
+
+"Sociable!" yelled Red. "Oh, Lord!"
+
+"It must be nice to be sociable," replied Johnny. "Since you ain't
+courting, an' are only trying to be sociable, then you won't care if
+we go down an' try it. Me for th' H2!"
+
+"You bet; an' I'm going down, too," asserted Red, who was very much
+afraid of women, and who wouldn't have called on Mary Meeker for a
+hundred dollars.
+
+Hopalong knew his friend's weakness and he quickly replied: "Red, I
+dare you to do that. I dare you to go down there an' talk to her for
+five minutes. When I say talk, I don't mean stammer. I dare you!"
+
+"Do you dare _me_?" asked Johnny, quickly, glancing at the sun to see
+how much time he had.
+
+"Oh, I ain't got time," replied Red, grinning.
+
+"You ain't got th' nerve, you mean," jeered Skinny.
+
+"I dare you, Red," Hopalong repeated, grimly.
+
+"I asked you if you dared _me?_" hastily repeated Johnny.
+
+"_You!_ Not on yore life, Kid. But you stay away from there!" Hopalong
+warned.
+
+"Gee--wish you'd lend me them cartridges," sighed Johnny. "Mebbe
+Meeker has got some he ain't so stingy with," he added, thoughtfully.
+
+"I'll lend you th' cartridges, Kid," Hopalong offered. "But you stay
+away from th' H2. D'y hear?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+ANTONIO'S REVENGE
+
+
+While Red had been trudging southward under his saddle and other
+possessions a scene was being enacted on a remote part of the H2 range
+which showed how completely a cowboy leased his very life to the man
+who paid him his monthly wage, one which serves to illustrate in a way
+how a ranchman was almost a feudal lord. There are songs of men who
+gave up their lives to save their fellows, one life for many, and they
+are well sung; but what of him who risks his life to save one small,
+insignificantly small portion of his employer's possessions, risks it
+without hesitation or fear, as a part of his daily work? What of the
+man who, not content with taking his share of danger in blizzard,
+fire, and stampede, on drive, roundup, and range-riding, leaps
+fearlessly at the risk of his life to save a paltry head or two of
+cattle to his ranch's tally sheet? Such men were the rule, and such a
+one was Curley, who, with all his faults, was a man as a man should
+be.
+
+Following out his orders he rode his part of the range with alertness,
+and decided to explore the more remote southwestern angle of the
+ranch. Doc had left him an hour before to search the range nearer
+Eagle and would not be back again until time to return to the ranch
+house for the night. This was against Meeker's orders, for they had
+been told to keep together for their own protection, but they had
+agreed that there was little risk and that it would be better to
+separate and cover more ground.
+
+The day was bright and, with the exception of the heat, all he could
+desire. His spirits bubbled over in snatches of song as he cantered
+hither and yon, but all the time moving in the general direction of
+the little-ridden territory. On all sides stretched the same
+monotonous view, sage brush, mesquite, cactus, scattered tufts of
+grass, and the brown plain, endless, flat, wearying.
+
+The surroundings did not depress him, but only gradually slowed the
+exultant surge of his blood and, as he hummed at random, an old
+favorite came to him out of the past, and he sung it joyously:
+
+      My taste is that of an aristocrat,
+        My purse that of a pauper:
+      I scorn the gold her parents hold--
+        But shore I love their daughter.
+      Hey de diddle de, hey de dee,
+        But shore I love their daughter.
+
+      When silvery nights my courting light
+        An' souls of flowers wander,
+      Then who's to blame if I loved th' game
+        An' did not pause to ponder?
+      Hey de diddle de, hey de dee,
+        An' did not pause to ponder.
+
+      Her eyes are blue, an' oh, so true--
+        Th' words were said ere thought, Lad.
+      Her father swore we'd meet no more--
+        But I am not distraught, Lad.
+      Hey de diddle de, hey de de--
+        But I am not distraught, Lad.
+
+He ceased abruptly, rigidly erect, staring straight ahead as the
+significance of the well trodden trail impressed itself on his mind.
+He was close to the edge of a steep-walled basin; and leading to it
+was a narrow, steep gully, down which the beaten trail went. Riding
+closer he saw that two poles were set close to the wall of the gully,
+and from one of them dangled a short, frayed hempen rope. There was a
+water hole in the basin, surrounded by a muddy flat, and everywhere
+were the tracks of cattle.
+
+As he hesitated to decide whether or not it would be worth while to
+ride through the depression he chanced to look south, and the question
+decided itself. Spurring savagely, he leaned forward in the saddle,
+the wind playing a stern song in his ears, a call to battle for his
+ranch, his pride, and his hatred for foul work. He felt the peculiar,
+compelling delight, the surging, irresistible intoxication of his kind
+for fighting, the ecstasy of the blood lust, handed down from his
+Saxon forefathers.
+
+A mile ahead of him was a small herd of cattle, being driven west by
+two men. Did he stop to return to the ranch for assistance? Did he
+count the odds? Not he, for he saw the perpetrators of the insults he
+and his companions had chafed under--the way was clear, the quarry
+plain, and he asked naught else.
+
+They saw him coming--one of them raised a pair of glasses to his eyes
+and looked closely at him and from him all around the plain. All the
+time they were driving the cattle harder, shouting and whipping about
+them with their rawhide quirts; and constantly nearer came the cowboy,
+now standing up in his stirrups and lashing his straining mount
+without mercy. Soon he thought he recognized one of the herders, and
+he flung the name on the whistling wind in one contemptuous shout:
+"_Antonio!_ D--n his soul!" and fell to beating the horse all the
+harder.
+
+It was Antonio, and a puff of smoke arose from the Mexican's shoulder
+and streaked behind, soon followed by another. Curley knew the rifle,
+a .40-90 Sharps, and did not waste a shot, for he must be on equal
+terms before he could hope to cope with it. Another puff, then another
+and another, but still he was not hit. Now he drew his own rifle from
+its holster and hazarded a shot, but to no avail. Then the second
+herder, who had not as yet fired, snatching the rifle from Antonio's
+hands and, checking his horse, leaped off and rested the weapon across
+the saddle. Taking deliberate aim, he fired, and Curley pitched out of
+the saddle as his horse stumbled and fell. The rider scrambled to his
+feet, dazed and hurt, and ran to his horse, but one look told the
+story and he ended the animal's misery with a shot from his Colt.
+
+The herder and the cattle were rapidly growing smaller in the distance
+but the Mexican rode slowly around the man on foot, following the
+circumference of a large circle and shooting with calm deliberation.
+The bullets hummed and whined viciously past the H2 puncher, kicking
+up the dust in little spurts, and cold ferocity filled his heart as he
+realized the rustler's purpose. He raised his own rifle and fired--and
+leaded the barrel. When he had fallen the barrel had become choked
+with sand and dust and he was at the mercy of his gloating enemy, who
+would now wipe out the insult put upon him at the bunk house. Slowly
+Antonio rode and carefully he fired and then, seeing that there was
+something wrong with Curley's rifle, which the puncher threw aside, he
+drew closer, determined to shoot him to pieces.
+
+Curley was stung with rage now. He knew that it was only a question of
+waiting until the right bullet came, and scorning to hug the sand for
+the "Greaser" he held in such contempt, and vaguely realizing that
+such an act would not change the result, he put all his faith in a
+dash. He ran swiftly towards his astonished enemy, who expected him to
+seek what cover the dead horse would give him, Colt in hand, cursing
+at every jump and hoping to be spared long enough to get within range
+with his six-shooter, if only for one shot. Antonio did not like this
+close work and cantered away, glancing back from time to time. When
+Curley finally was forced to stop because of exhaustion the rider also
+stopped and slipped off his horse to have a rest for the rifle. Curley
+emptied the Colt in a futile, enraged effort to make a lucky hit while
+his enemy calmly aimed from across the saddle. Hastily reloading the
+Colt as he ran, the puncher dashed forward again, zig-zagging to avoid
+being hit. There was a puff of gray smoke, but Curley did not hear
+the report. He threw one arm half up as if to ward off the shot and
+pitched forward, face down in the dust, free from all pain and strife.
+
+Antonio fired again and then cautiously drew nearer to his victim, the
+rifle at the ready. Turning shortly he made a quick grab at his horse,
+fearing that it might leave him on foot to be caught by some wandering
+H2 puncher. Springing into the saddle he rode forward warily to get a
+closer look at the man he had murdered, proud of his work, but fearful
+that Curley was playing dead.
+
+When assured that he had nothing to fear from the prostrate form, he
+rode close. "Knock me down, will you!" he gritted, urging the horse to
+trample on the body, which the animal refused to do. "Call me an
+unwashed Greaser coyote, hey! Come out looking for us, did you? Well,
+you found us, all right, but a h--l of a lot of good it did you, you
+American dog! You ain't saying a word, are you, you carrion? You ain't
+got no smart come-back now, an' you ain't throwing no wash water on
+me, are you?"
+
+He started and looked around nervously, fearful that he might be
+caught and left lying on the sand as he had left Curley. One or two of
+the H2 outfit carried single-shot rifles which shot as far if not
+farther than his own, and the owners of them knew how to shoot.
+Wheeling abruptly he galloped after the herd, looking back constantly
+and thinking only of putting as great a distance as possible between
+himself and the scene of the killing.
+
+A lizard crawled out of a hillock and stared steadily at the quiet
+figure and then, making a tentative sortie, disappeared under the
+sand; but the man who had sung so buoyantly did not mind it, he lay
+wrapped in the Sleep Eternal. He had died as he had lived, fearlessly
+and without a whimper.
+
+Late in the afternoon Doc Riley, sweeping on a circling course, rode
+through chaparrals, alert even after his fruitless search, looking
+around on all sides, and wondered if Curley and he would meet before
+they reached the ranch proper. Suddenly something caught his eye and
+he stood up in the stirrups to see it better, a ready curse leaping
+from his lips. He could not make out who it was, but he had fears and
+he spurred forward as hard as he could go. Then he saw the horse and
+knew.
+
+Riding close to the figure so as to be absolutely sure, he knew beyond
+a hope of mistake and looked around the plain, his expression
+malevolent and murderous.
+
+"Curley! Curley!" he cried, leaping off his horse and placing a heavy,
+kindly hand on the broad, sloping shoulder of the man who had been his
+best friend for years. "So they got you, lad! They got you! In God's
+name, why did I leave you?" he cried in bitter self-condemnation.
+"It's my fault, it's my fault, lad!" He straightened up suddenly and
+glared around through tear-dimmed eyes. "_But by th' living God I'll
+pay them for this,_ I'll pay them for this! D--n their murdering
+souls!"
+
+He caught sight of an empty cartridge shell and snatched it up
+eagerly. ".40-90, by G-d! That's Antonio's! Curley, my lad, I'll get
+him for you--an' when I _do_! I'll send his soul to th' blackest pit
+in h--l, an' send it _slow!_"
+
+He noticed and followed the tracks in the sand, reading them easily.
+He found the Winchester and quickly learned its story, which told him
+the whole thing. Returning to the body of his friend he sat by it
+quietly, looking down at it for several minutes, his sombrero in his
+hand.
+
+"Well, wishing won't do no good," he muttered, dismounting. "I'll take
+you home, lad, an' see you put down too deep for coyotes to bother
+you. An' I'll square yore scores or join you trying."
+
+He lifted the body across the withers of his horse and picked up the
+Colt. Mounting, he rode at a walk towards the bunk house, afire with
+rage and sorrow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For the third time Meeker strode to the door of the bunk house and
+looked out into the darkness, uneasy and anxious. Chick sauntered over
+to him and leaned against the frame of the door. "They'll show up
+purty soon, Jim," he remarked.
+
+"Yes. I reckon so--Salem!" the foreman called. "Put their grub where
+it'll keep warm."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir. I was just thinking I ought to. They're late, ain't
+they, sir?" he asked. "An' it's dark, too," he added, gratis.
+
+"Why, is it, Salem?" queried Dan, winking at Jack Curtis, but Salem
+disappeared into the gallery.
+
+"Listen!--I hear 'em!" exclaimed Chick.
+
+"You hear one of 'em," corrected Meeker, turning to the table to
+finish drinking his coffee. "Hey, Salem! Never mind warming that
+grub--rustle it in here. One of 'em's here, an' he'll be starved,
+too."
+
+Suddenly Chick started back with an exclamation as Doc Riley loomed up
+in the light of the door, carrying a body over his shoulder. Stepping
+into the room while his friends leaped to their feet in amazement and
+incredulity, he lowered his burden to a bench and faced them, bloody
+and furious.
+
+"What's th' matter?" exclaimed Meeker, the first to find his voice,
+leaping forward and dropping the cup to the floor. "Who did that?"
+
+Doc placed his sombrero over the upturned face and ripped out a savage
+reply. "Antonio! Yore broncho-buster! Th' snake that's raising all th'
+devil on this range! Here--see for yoreself!" tossing the cartridge
+shell to his foreman, who caught it clumsily, looked at it, and then
+handed it to Dan. Exclamations and short, fierce questions burst from
+the others, who crowded up to see the shell.
+
+"Tell me about it, Doc," requested Meeker, pacing from wall to wall.
+
+"He was shot down like a dog!" Doc cried, his rage sweeping over him
+anew in all its savagery. "I saw th' whole thing in th' sand, plain as
+day. Th' Greaser got his cayuse first an' then rode rings around him,
+keeping out of range of Curley's Colt, for Curley had leaded his
+rifle. It was Colt against Sharps at five hundred, that was what it
+was! He didn't have a show, not a measly show for his life! Shot down
+like _a dog!_"
+
+"Where'd it happen?" asked Chick, breathlessly, while the low-voiced
+threats and imprecations swelled to an angry, humming chorus.
+
+"Away down in th' southwest corner," replied Doc, and he continued
+almost inaudibly, speaking to himself and forgetful of the others. "Me
+an' him went to school together an' I used to lick every kid that
+bullied him till he got big enough to do it hisself. We run away
+together an' shared th' same hard luck. We went through that Sioux
+campaign together, side by side, an' to think that after he pulled out
+of _that_ alive he had to be murdered by a yaller coward of a Greaser!
+If he'd been killed by a human being an' in a fair fight it would be
+all right; but by that coyote--it don't seem possible, not noway. I
+licked th' feller that hurt him on his first day at school--I'm going
+to kill th' last!
+
+"Meeker," he said, coming to himself and facing the angry foreman,
+"I'm quitting to-night. I won't punch no more till I get that Greaser.
+I take up that trail at daylight an' push it to a finish even if it
+takes me into Mexico--it's got to be him or me, now."
+
+"You don't have to quit _me_ to do that, an' you _know_ it!" Meeker
+cried. "I don't care if yo're gone for six months--yore pay goes on
+just th' same. He went down fighting for me, an' I'll be everlastingly
+condemned if I don't have a hand in squaring up for it. Yo're going on
+special duty for th' H2, Doc, an' yore orders are to get Antonio.
+Why, by th' Lord, I'll take up th' trail with you, Doc, an' with th'
+rest of th' boys behind me. This ranch can go galley-west an' crooked
+till we get that snake. Dan an' Salem stays with my girl an' to watch
+th' ranch--th' rest of us are with you--we're as anxious as you to
+push him Yonder, Doc."
+
+"If I can get him alive, get my two hands on his skinny neck," Doc
+muttered, his fingers twitching, "I'll kill him slow, so he'll feel it
+longer, so he'll be shore to know why he's going. I want to _feel_ his
+murdering soul dribble hell-wards, an' let him come back a couple of
+times so I can laugh in his yaller face when he begs! I want to get
+him--_so!_" and Chick shuddered as the knotted, steel-like fingers
+opened and shut, for Doc was half devil now. While Chick stared, the
+transformed man walked over to the bench and picked up the body in his
+brawny arms and strode into the blackness--Curley was going to lie in
+the open, with the stars and the sky and the sighing wind.
+
+"God!" breathed Chick, looking around, "I never saw a man like _that_
+before!"
+
+"I hope he gets what he wants!" exclaimed Dan, fiercely.
+
+"You fellers get yore traps ready for a chase," Meeker ordered as he
+strode to the door of the gallery. "Fifty rounds for six-shooters an'
+fifty for rifle, an' plenty of grub. It's a whole lot likely that th'
+Greaser headed for his gang, an' we've got to be ready to handle
+everything that comes up. Hey, Salem!" he shouted.
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!" replied Salem, who had just come in from one of the
+corrals and knew nothing of what had occurred.
+
+"Did you cure that beef I told you to?" demanded the foreman.
+
+"Yes, sir; but it ain't had time to cure--th' weather's not been
+right. Howsomever, I smoked some. That'll be ship-shape."
+
+"Well, have it on our cayuses at daylight. Did you cut this beef in
+strips, or in twenty-pound chunks, like you did th' last?"
+
+"Strips, _little_ strips--I ain't trying to sun-cure no more big
+hunks, not me, sir."
+
+Meeker turned and went towards the outer door.
+
+"Don't waste no time, boys," he said. "Get all th' sleep you can
+to-night--you'll need it if I reckon right. Good-night," and he
+stepped out into the darkness. "D--n them dogs!" he muttered,
+disappearing in the direction of the kennels, from which came
+quavering, long-drawn howls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+FRISCO VISITS EAGLE
+
+
+Eagle did not thoroughly awaken until the sun began to set, for it was
+not until dark that its inhabitants, largely transient, cared to
+venture forth. Then it was that the town seethed, boldly, openly,
+restrained by nothing save the might of the individual.
+
+Prosperity had blessed the town, for there had been an abrupt and
+pleasing change in local conditions since the disagreement between the
+two ranches north of the town had assumed warlike aspect. Men who
+heretofore had no standing with the proprietors of the town's places
+of amusement and who had seldom been able to pay for as much liquor as
+they were capable of drinking, now swaggered importantly where they
+pleased, and found welcome where formerly it had been denied them; for
+their hands were thrust deep into pockets from which came the cheerful
+and open-sesame clinking of gold. Even Big Sandy, who had earned his
+food by sweeping out the saloons and doing odd jobs about them, and
+who was popularly believed to be too lazy to earn a better living by
+real work, now drank his fill and failed to recognize a broom when he
+saw it. While the inhabitants could not "get in" on the big plums
+which they were certain were being shaken down on the range, they
+could and did take care of the windfalls, and thrived well. They would
+stay in town until their money was gone and then disappear for a week,
+and return to spend recklessly. It is not out of place to state, in
+passing, that numerous small herds bearing strange brands frequently
+passed around the town at a speed greater than that common to drives,
+and left clouds of dust on the southeastern horizon.
+
+The town debated the probable whereabouts of ten men who had suddenly
+disappeared in a body, along with Antonio of the H2. It was obvious
+what they were doing and the conjectures were limited as to their
+whereabouts and success. For a while after they had left one or two
+had ridden in occasionally to buy flour and other necessities, and at
+that time they had caused no particular thought. But now even these
+visits had ceased. It was common belief that Quinn knew all about
+them, but Quinn for good reasons was not urged to talk about the
+matter. Big Sandy acted as though he knew, which increased his
+importance for a time, and discredited him thereafter.
+
+While the citizens had been able to rustle as they pleased they had
+given but little thought to the ten men, being too busy to trail. But
+now that the H2 punchers rode range with rifles across their arms
+rustling had become very risky and had fallen off. Then it was that
+the idlers renewed their conjectures about Shaw and his men and
+thrashed that matter over and over again. The majority being, as we
+have said, transients, knew nothing about Thunder Mesa, and those who
+did know of it were silent, for Shaw and some of his companions knew
+only one way to close a man's mouth, and were very capable.
+
+So it happened that about noon of the day Curley lost his life six men
+met in the shadow cast by the front of the "Rawhide" a hundred yards
+from Quinn's, and exercised squatter sovereignty on the bench just
+outside the door, while inside the saloon Big Sandy and Nevada played
+cards close to the bar and talked in low tones. When they were aware
+of the presence of those on the bench they played silently and
+listened. The six men outside made up one of the groups of the town's
+society, having ridden in together and stuck together ever since they
+had arrived, which was wise.
+
+Big Sandy and Nevada made a team more feared than any other
+combination. The former, while fair with weapons, was endowed with
+prodigious strength; by some it was hailed as being greater than that
+of Pete Wilson, the squat giant of the Bar-20, whose strength was
+proverbial, as it had good right to be. Nevada was the opposite type,
+slender, short, wiry, and soft-spoken, but the quickest man in town on
+the draw and of uncertain temper.
+
+Chet Bates, on the bench, replied to a companion and gave vent to his
+soft, Southern laugh. "Yuh still wondering 'bout thet man Shaw, an'
+th' othas?"
+
+"Nothing else to do, is there?" retorted Dal Gilbert. "We can't run no
+more cattle, can we?"
+
+"I reckon we can't."
+
+"They're running a big game an' I want to get in it," remarked John
+Elder. "Frisco was allus friendly. We've got to go trailing for 'em."
+
+"Yes; an' get shot," interposed George Lewis. "They're ten to our six.
+An' that ain't all of our troubles, neither. We'll find ourselves in a
+big fight some day, an' right here. Them ranches will wake up, patch
+up their troubles, an' come down here. You remember what Quinn said
+about th' time Peters led a lot of mad punchers agin Trendley an' his
+crowd, don't you? In a day he can raise men enough to wipe this town
+off th' map."
+
+"Yuh forget, suh, that they are fighting foh principles, an' men who
+fight foh principles don't call truces," said Chet Bates.
+
+"You've said that till it's old," laughed Sam Austin.
+
+"_I_ say we've got to keep our eyes open," warned Lewis.
+
+"Th' devil with that!" broke in Con Irwin. "What _I_ want to know is
+how we're going to get some of th' easy money Shaw's getting."
+
+"We'll have to wait for one of his men to come to town an' trail him
+back," replied Gilbert.
+
+"What do you say that we try to run one more good herd an' then scout
+for them, or their trails?" asked Irwin.
+
+"Heah comes somebody," remarked Chet, listening.
+
+The sound of galloping grew rapidly louder and soon they saw Frisco
+turn into the street and ride towards them. As they saw him a quiet
+voice was heard behind them and looking up, they saw Nevada smiling at
+them. "Get him drunk an' keep him away from Quinn's," he counselled.
+
+They exchanged looks and then Elder stepped out into the street and
+held up his hand. "Hullo, Frisco!" he cried.
+
+"Where yuh been keeping yuhself foh so long?" asked Chet, affably.
+"Holed up som'ers?"
+
+"Hullo, fellers," grinned Frisco, drawing rein.
+
+"Everybody have a drink on me," laughed Chet. "Ah'm pow'ful thirsty."
+
+Frisco was escorted inside to the bar, where Chet did the honors, and
+where such a spirit of hospitality and joviality surrounded him that
+he forgot how many drinks he had taken. He dug up a handful of gold
+and silver and spread it out on the bar and waved at the bartender.
+"Bes' you got--ver' bes'," he grinned. "Me an' my fren's want th' ver'
+bes'; don't we, fellers? I got money--helluva lot of money--an' thersh
+more where it came from, ain't that so, boys?"
+
+When the noise had subsided he turned around and levelled an unsteady
+finger at the bartender. "I never go--back onsh fren', never. An'
+we're all frensh--ain't we, fellers? Tha's right. I got s'more
+frensh--good fellesh, an' lots of money cached in sand."
+
+"Ah'll bet yuh have!" cried Chet.
+
+"You allus could find pay-dirt," marvelled Nevada, glancing warningly
+around him. "Yo're a fine prospector, all right."
+
+Frisco stared for a moment and then laughed loudly and leaned against
+the bar for support. "Proshpector! Proshpector! W'y, we earned tha's
+money--run a helluva lot of risks. Mebby tha's Bar-20 outfit'll jump
+us an' make us fight 'em. No; they can't jump us--they can't get up at
+us!"
+
+"On a mesa, shore!" whispered Elder to Lewis.
+
+"Wha's you shay?"
+
+"Said they couldn't lick you."
+
+"Who couldn't--lick us?"
+
+"Th' Bar-20," explained Elder.
+
+Frisco rubbed his head and drew himself up, suspicion percolating
+through his muddled brain. "Never shaid nozzing 'bout no Bar-Twensh!"
+he asserted, angrily. "Nozzing 'tall. I'm going out of here--don't
+like you! Gotta get some flour an' ozzer stuff. Never shaid nozzing
+'bout--" he muttered, staggering out.
+
+Nevada turned to Elder. "You go with him an' quiet his suspicions.
+Keep him away from Quinn, for that coyote'll hold him till he gets
+sober if you don't. This is the chance we've been wanting. Don't try
+to pump him--his trail will be all we need."
+
+"Wonder what mesa they're on?" asked Lewis.
+
+"Don't know, an' don't care," Nevada replied. "We'll find out quick
+enough. There's eight of us an' we can put up a stiff argument if they
+won't take us in. You know they ain't going to welcome us, don't
+you?"
+
+"Hey, go out th' back way," growled Big Sandy, interposing his huge
+bulk between Bates and the door. "An' don't let Frisco see you near a
+cayuse, neither," he added.
+
+Nevada walked quickly over to his friend and said a few hurried words
+in a low voice and Big Sandy nodded. "Shore, Nevada; he might try
+that, but I'll watch him. If he tries to sneak I'll let you know
+hasty. We're in this to stay," and he followed the others to the door.
+
+Nevada turned and faced the bartender. "Mike, you keep quiet about
+what you saw an' heard to-day; understand? If you don't, me an' you
+won't fit in this town at th' same time."
+
+Mike grinned. "I forgot how to talk after one exciting day up in
+Cheyenne, an' I ain't been drunk since, neither."
+
+"Yo're a wise man," replied the other, stepping out by the back door
+and hastening up the street where he could keep watch over Quinn's
+saloon. It was an hour before he caught sight of Frisco, and he was
+riding west, singing at the top of his lungs. Then Quinn slipped into
+his corral and threw a saddle on a horse.
+
+"Drop it!" said a quiet voice behind him and he turned to see Nevada
+watching him.
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded Quinn, ominously.
+
+"Let loose of that cayuse an' go back inside," was the reply.
+
+"You get th' h--l out of here an' mind yore own--" Quinn leaped aside
+and jerked at his Colt; but was too late, and he fell, badly wounded.
+Nevada sprang forward and disarmed him and then, mounting, galloped
+off to join his friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+SHAW HAS VISITORS
+
+
+When Frisco reached the edge of the clearing around the mesa he saw
+Antonio and Shaw toiling cautiously up the steep, precarious trail
+leading to the top, and he hailed vociferously. Both looked around,
+Antonio scowling and his companion swearing at their friend's
+condition. Frisco's pack horse, which he had sense enough to bring
+back, was loaded down with bags and packages which had been put on
+recklessly, inasmuch as a slab of bacon hung from the animal's neck
+and swayed to and fro with each step; and the animal he rode had a
+bartender's apron hanging down before its shoulders.
+
+"Had a rip-snorting time--rip-snorting time," he announced pleasantly,
+in a roar. "Salubrious--rip-snorting--helluva time!"
+
+"Nobody'd guess it!" retorted Shaw. "Look at them bundles! An' him an
+expert pack-horse man, too. An' that cayuse with a shirt! For anybody
+that can throw as neat a diamond hitch as him, that pack horse is a
+howling disgrace!"
+
+"Hang th' pack horse!" growled Antonio. "I bet th' whole town knows
+our business now! He ought to be shot. Where you going?"
+
+"Down to help him up," Shaw replied. "He'll bust his fool neck if he
+wrestles with that trail alone. You go on up an' send a couple of th'
+boys down to bring up th' grub," he ordered, starting down the path.
+
+"Let him bust his fool neck!" cried the Mexican. "He should 'a done
+that before he left."
+
+"What's th' ruction?" asked Clausen, looking down over the edge at the
+Mexican.
+
+"Oh, Frisco's come back howling drunk. Go down an' help him tote th'
+grub up. Shaw said for somebody else to help you."
+
+"Hey, Cavalry," cried Clausen. "Come on an' gimme a hand," and the two
+disappeared down the trail.
+
+The leader returned, heralded by singing and swearing, and pushed
+Frisco over the mesa top to sprawl full-length on the ground. Shaw
+looked down at him with an expression of anger and anxiety and then
+turned abruptly on his heel as a quavering snore floated up from the
+other.
+
+"Here, Manuel!" he called, sharply. "Take my glasses an' go out to
+yore lookout rock. Look towards Eagle an' call me if you see anybody."
+
+The Mexican shuffled away as Cavalry and Clausen, loaded down,
+appeared over the edge of the mesa wall and dropped their loads at
+Shaw's feet.
+
+"What did you tell him to get?" asked Clausen, marvelling.
+
+"What do you think I told him to get?" snapped Shaw.
+
+"I don't know, seeing what he brought back," was the reply.
+
+Shaw examined the pile. "G-d's name, what's all this stuff?" he
+roared. "Bacon! An' all th' meat we want is down below. Canned milk!
+Two bottles XXX Cough Syrup, four bottles of whiskey, bottle vaniller
+extract, plug tobacco, an' three harmonicas! Is _that_ flour!" he
+yelled, glaring at a small bag. "Twenty pounds! Five pounds of salt!"
+
+"I reckon he bought all th' cartridges in town," Cavalry announced,
+staggering into sight with a box on his shoulder. "Lord, but it's
+heavy!"
+
+"Twenty pounds of flour to last nine men a month!" Shaw shouted,
+kicking at the bag. "An' look at this coffee--two pounds! I'll teach
+him a lesson when he gets sober."
+
+"Well, he made up th' weight in th' cartridges," Cavalry grinned. He
+grasped Shaw's arm. "What's got into Manuel?"
+
+The leader looked and sprinted to the lookout rock, where Manuel was
+gesticulating, and took the glasses. Half a minute later he returned
+them to the Mexican and rejoined his companions near the pile of
+supplies.
+
+"What is it?" asked Cavalry.
+
+"Some of our Eagle friends. Mebby they want cards in this game, but
+we'll waste little time with 'em. Post th' fellers along th' edge,
+Clausen, an' you watch th' trail up. Keep 'em covered while I talks
+with 'em. Don't be slow to burn powder if they gets to pushing
+things."
+
+"They trailed Frisco," growled Cavalry.
+
+"Shore; oh, he was a great success!" snapped Shaw, going to the edge
+of the mesa to await the eight newcomers, his men finding convenient
+places along the top of the wall, their rifles ready for action.
+
+They did not have long to wait for soon Nevada and Chet Bates rode
+into the clearing and made for the trail.
+
+"That's far enough, Nevada!" shouted Shaw, holding up his hand.
+
+"Why, hullo, Shaw!" cried the man below. "Yo're up a good tree, all
+right," he laughed.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Can we ride up, or do we have to take shank's mare?"
+
+"Neither."
+
+"Well, we want some water after that ride," replied Nevada.
+
+"Plenty of it below. Nobody asked you to take that ride. What do you
+want, anyhow?"
+
+"Why, when Frisco said you was out here we thought we'd drop in on you
+an' pay you a little visit."
+
+"You have paid us a little visit. Call again next summer."
+
+"Running many cows?" asked Nevada.
+
+"Nope; educating coyotes. Didn't see none, did you?"
+
+Nevada exchanged a few words with his companion and then looked up
+again. "I reckon you need us, Shaw. Eight more men means twice as many
+cows; an' we can all fight a little if th' ranches get busy out here."
+
+"We're crowded now. Better water up an' hit th' back trail. It's hard
+riding in th' dark."
+
+"We didn't come out here for a drink," replied Nevada. "We came out to
+help you rustle, which same we'll do. I tell you that you need us,
+man!"
+
+"When I need you I'll send for you. _Adios._"
+
+"You ain't going to let us come up?"
+
+"Not a little bit. Pull yore stakes an' hit th' back trail. _Adios!_"
+
+"Well, we'll hang around to-night an' talk it over again to-morrow.
+Mebby you'll change yore mind. So long," and the two wheeled and
+disappeared into the chaparrals, Nevada chuckling. "I didn't spring
+that little joker, Chet, because it's a good card to play last. When
+we tell him that we won't let nobody come down off'n th' mesa it'll be
+after we can't do nothing else. No use making him mad."
+
+Up on the mesa Shaw wheeled, scowling. "I knowed that fool would fire
+off something big! Why can't he get drunk out here, where it's all
+right?"
+
+"That Nevada is a shore bad proposition," Clausen remarked.
+
+"So'm I!" snapped Shaw. "He can't come up, an' pursooant to that idee
+I reckon you an' Hall better arrange to watch th' trail to-night."
+
+He walked away and paced slowly along the edge of the wall, studying
+every yard of it. He had done this thing before and had decided that
+no man sat a saddle who could scale the sheer hundred feet of rock
+which dropped so straight below him. But somehow he felt oppressed,
+and the sinking sun threw into bold relief the furrows of his
+weather-beaten, leathery face and showed the trouble marks which sat
+above his eyes. At one part of the wall he stopped and peered over,
+marshalling imaginative forces in attack after attack against it. But
+at the end he smiled and moved on--that was the weakest point in his
+defence, but he would consider himself fortunate if he should find no
+weaker defence in future conflicts. As he returned to the hut he
+glanced at the lookout rock and saw Manuel in his characteristic pose,
+unmoving, silent, watchful.
+
+"I'm getting as bad as Cavalry and his desert," he grumbled. "Still,
+they can't lick us while we stay up here."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+NEVADA JOINS SHAW
+
+
+Late in the forenoon of the day after Nevada had argued with Shaw,
+Manuel shifted his position on the lookout rock and turned to face the
+hut. "Señor! Señor Shaw! He ees here."
+
+Shaw strode to the edge of the mesa and looked down, seeing Nevada
+sitting quietly on a horse and looking up at him. Manuel, his duty
+performed, turned and looked eastward, shrinking back as Shaw stepped
+close to him. Lying prone along the edge half a dozen men idly
+fingered rifles as they covered the man below, Antonio's face in
+particular showing intense aversion to any more recruits.
+
+"Morning, Shaw," shouted Nevada. "Going to let us come up?"
+
+The leader was about to reply when he felt a tug at his ankle and saw
+Manuel's lips moving. "What is it, Greaser?"
+
+"Look, Señor, look!" whispered the frightened Mexican, pointing
+eastward. "Eet ees de Bar-20! They be here _poco tiempo_!"
+
+"Shut up!" retorted Shaw in a whisper, glancing east, and what he saw
+changed his reply to the man below. "Well, Nevada, we are purty
+crowded up here as it is, but I'll ask th' boys about it. They ain't
+quite decided. Be back in a minute," and he stepped back out of sight
+of those below and waved his companions to him. Briefly stating the
+facts he asked that Nevada and his force be allowed up to help repulse
+the Bar-20, and the men who only a short time before had sworn that
+they would take in no partners nodded assent and talked over the new
+conditions while their leader again went to the edge.
+
+"We can get along without you fellers," he called down, "but we don't
+reckon you'll cut any hole in our profits as long as you do yore share
+of work. If yo're willin' to share an' share alike, in work, grub,
+profits, an' fighting, why I reckon you can come up. But I'm leader
+here an' what I says goes; are you agreeable?"
+
+"That's fair," Nevada replied. "Th' harder th' work th' bigger th'
+pay--come on, boys," he cried, turning and waving his arm. "We're in!"
+
+While the newcomers put their horses in the corral and toiled
+carefully up the steep trail Manuel stared steadily into the east and
+again saw the force that had filled him with fear. Hall, who was now
+watching with him, abruptly arose and returned to the hut, reporting:
+"Seven men out there--it's th' Bar-20, all right, I reckon"; and
+almost immediately afterward Manuel found a moving speck far to the
+east which Shaw's powerful glasses soon showed to be three pack horses
+driven by two men.
+
+Nevada looked curiously about him as he gained his goal and then
+sought a place in the hut for his bunk. This, however, was full, and
+he cast around outside to find the best place for his blankets.
+Finding it, he stepped to the spring and had just quenched his thirst
+when he saw Shaw standing on a ledge of rock above him, looking down.
+"What is it, Shaw?" he asked.
+
+"Well, you fellers shore enough raised h--l, now didn't you!" demanded
+the leader, a rising anger in his voice. "Yo're a fine collection of
+fools, you are--"
+
+"What do--"
+
+"--Leading that Bar-20 gang out here by th' nice, plain trail you
+left," Shaw continued, sarcastically, not heeding the other's
+explosive interjection. "That's a nice thing to saddle us with! D--n
+it, don't you know you've queered th' game for good?"
+
+"Yo're drunk!" retorted Nevada, heatedly. "We came up from th' south!
+How th' devil could that crowd hit _our_ trail?"
+
+"They must 'a hit southwest on a circle," lied Shaw. "Manuel just now
+saw 'em pass a clearing an' heading this way--nine of 'em!"
+
+"Th' devil!" exclaimed Nevada. "How many are up here now?" he asked
+quickly.
+
+"Sixteen."
+
+"All right! Let 'em come!" cried the other. "Sixteen to nine--it's
+easy!" he laughed. "Look here; we can clean up them fellers an' then
+raid their ranch, for there's only four left at home. We can run off a
+whopping big herd, sell 'em, an' divvy even. Then we separates,
+savvy? Why, it couldn't be better!"
+
+Shaw showed his astonishment and his companion continued. "Th' H2 is
+shy men, an' th' C80 and th' Double Arrow is too far away to bother
+us. As soon as we lick this aggregation of trouble hunters, what's
+left will ride hell-bent for that valley. Then th' biggest herd ever
+rustled in these parts, a trip to a new range, an' plenty of money to
+spend there."
+
+"That sounds good--but this pleasing cleaning-up is due to be full of
+knots," Shaw rejoined. "Them nine men come from th' craggiest outfit
+of high-toned gun-artists in these parts, an' you can bet that they
+are th' pick of th' crowd! Cassidy, Connors, Peters--an' they've got
+forty friends purty nigh as bad, an' eager to join in. I ain't no ways
+a quitter, but this looks to me like Custer's Last Stand, us being th'
+Custers."
+
+"Ah, yo're loco!" retorted Nevada. "Look here! Send a dozen picked men
+down quick an' let 'em lose 'emselves in th' chaparral, far back. When
+th' terrible man-killers of th' great Bar-20 get plugging this way,
+our trouble-gang slips up from behind an' it's all over! Go on, before
+it's too late! Or one of us will ride like th' devil to Eagle for
+help--but it's got to be quick! You say I got you in this, which I
+know well I didn't, but now I'll get you out an' put you in th' way of
+a barrel of money."
+
+The crack of a rifle sounded from the plain and the next instant
+Clausen dashed up, crying, "Manuel tried to cut an' run, but somebody
+down below dropped him off'n th' trail. They're all around us!"
+
+"Good for th' somebody!" cried Shaw. "I'll kill th' next man that
+tries to leave us--that goes, so pass it along." Then he turned to
+Nevada, a sneer on his face. "That means anybody riding for help,
+too!" and he backed away.
+
+Hall turned the corner, looking Nevada squarely in the eyes. "Say,
+Shaw, wonder what's got into Archer? He's been gone a long time for
+that trip."
+
+"Reckon he's got tired an' quit," replied Shaw.
+
+"You know he ain't that kind!" Hall cried, angrily.
+
+"All right, all right. If he comes back an' finds out what's up he'll
+probably hustle to Eagle for some of th' boys," Shaw responded.
+Neither would ever see Dick Archer again--his bones were whitening
+near a small water hole miles to the north, as Hopalong and Red could
+testify.
+
+"As long as one of us is outside we've got a chance," Nevada remarked.
+"How're we fixed for grub, Hall?"
+
+"Got enough jerked beef to last us a month," and Hall departed.
+
+A shot hummed over Nevada's head and, ducking quickly, he followed
+Hall. Close behind him went Shaw, muttering. "Well, it had to come
+sometime--an' we're better fixed than I ever reckoned we'd be. Now
+we'll see who gets wiped out!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+SURROUNDED
+
+
+Above, a pale, hot sky with only a wisp of cloud; below, a semi-arid
+"pasture," scant in grass, seamed by tortuous gullies and studded with
+small, compact thickets and bulky bowlders. A wall of chaparral,
+appearing solid when viewed from a distance, fenced the pasture, and
+rising boldly from the southwest end of the clearing a towering mass
+of rock flung its rugged ramparts skyward. Nature had been in a sullen
+mood when this scene had been perpetrated and there was no need of men
+trying to heighten the gloomy aspect by killing each other. Yet they
+were trying and had been for a week, and they could have found no
+surroundings more in keeping with their occupation.
+
+Minute clouds of smoke spurted from the top of the wall and from the
+many points of vantage on the pasture to hang wavering for an instant
+before lazily dissipating in the hot, close air. In such a sombre
+setting men had elected to joke and curse and kill, perhaps to die;
+men hot with passion and blood-lust plied rifles with deliberate
+intent to kill. On one side there was fierce deep joy, an exultation
+in forcing the issue, much as if they had tugged vainly at a leash and
+suddenly found themselves free. They had been baited, tricked, robbed,
+and fired upon and now, their tormentors penned before them, there
+would be no cessation in their efforts to wipe out the indignities
+under which they had chafed for so long a time.
+
+On the other side, high up on a natural fortress which was considered
+impregnable, lay those who had brought this angry pack about them.
+There was no joy there, no glad eagerness to force the battle, no
+jokes nor laughter, but only a grim desperation, a tenacious holding
+to that which the others would try to take. On one side aggression; on
+the other, defence. Fighters all, they now were inspired by the
+merciless end always in their minds; they were trapped like rats and
+would fight while mind could lay a plan or move a muscle. Of the type
+which had out-roughed, out-fought for so long even the sturdy, rough
+men who had laid the foundation for an inland empire amid dangers
+superlative, they knew nothing of yielding; and to yield was to die.
+It was survivor against survivor in an even game.
+
+"Ah, God!" moaned a man on the mesa's lofty rim, staggering back
+aimlessly before he fell, never to rise again. His companions regarded
+him curiously, stolidly, without sympathy, as is often the case where
+death is constantly expected. Dal Gilbert turned back to his rifle and
+the problems before him. "So you've gone, too. An' I reckon we'll
+follow"--such was Chet Bates' obituary.
+
+In a thicket two hundred yards south of the mesa Red Connors worked
+the lever of his rifle, a frown on his face. "I got him, all right. Do
+you know who he is?"
+
+"No; but I've seen him in Eagle," replied Hopalong, lowering the
+glasses. "What's worrying me is water--my throat's drying awful."
+
+"You shouldn't 'a forgot it," chided Red. "Now we've got to go without
+it all day."
+
+Hopalong ducked and swore as he felt of his bleeding face. "Purty
+close, that!"
+
+"Mind what yo're doing!" replied Red. "Get off my hand."
+
+"This scrap is shore slow," Hopalong growled. "Here we've been doing
+this for a whole week, all of us shot up, an' only got two of them
+fellers."
+
+"Well, yo're right; but there ain't a man up there that ain't got a
+few bullet holes in him," Red replied. "But it is slow, that's shore."
+
+"I've got to get a drink, an' that's all about it," Hopalong asserted.
+"I can crawl in that gully most of th' way, an' then trust a
+side-hopping dash. Anyhow, I'm tired of this place. Johnny's got th'
+place for _me_."
+
+"You better stay here till it's dark, you fool."
+
+"Aw, stay nothing--so long," and Hopalong, rifle in hand, crawled
+towards the gully. Red watched the mesa intently, hoping to be able to
+stop some of the firing his rash friend was sure to call forth.
+
+Twenty minutes passed and then two puffs of smoke sailed against the
+sky, Red replying. Then half a dozen puffs burst into sight. A faint
+shout came to Red's ears and he smiled, for his friend was safe.
+
+As Hopalong gained the chaparral he felt himself heartily kicked and,
+wheeling pugnaciously, looked into Buck Peters' scowling face. "Yo're
+a healthy fool!" growled the foreman. "Ain't you got no sense at all?
+Hereafter you flit over that pasture after dark, d'y hear!"
+
+"He's th' biggest fool I ever saw, an' th' coolest," said a voice in
+the chaparral at the left.
+
+"Why, hullo, Meeker," Hopalong laughed, turning from Buck. "How do you
+like our little party now?"
+
+"I'm getting tired of it, an' it's some costly for me," grumbled the
+H2 foreman. "Bet them skunks in Eagle have cleaned out every head I
+owned." Then he added as an afterthought: "But I don't care a whole
+lot if I can see this gang wiped out--_Antonio_ is th' coyote _I'm_
+itching to stop."
+
+"He'll be stopped," replied Hopalong. "Hey, Buck, Red's shore
+thirsty."
+
+"He can stay thirsty, then. An' don't you try to take no water to him.
+You stay off that pasture during daylight."
+
+"But it was all my fault--" Hopalong began, and then he was off like a
+shot across the open, leaping gullies and dodging around bowlders.
+
+"Here you!" roared Buck, and stopped to stare, Meeker at his side. A
+man was staggering in circles near a thicket which lay a hundred yards
+from them. He dropped and began to crawl aimlessly about, a good
+target for the eager rifles on the mesa. Bullets whined and shrilled
+and kicked up the dust on the plain, but still the rushing Bar-20
+puncher was unhit. From the mesa came the faint crackling of rifle
+fire and clouds of smoke hovered over the cover sheltering Red
+Connors. Here and there over the pasture and along the chaparral's rim
+rifles cracked in hot endeavor to drive the rustlers from their
+positions long enough to save the reckless puncher. Buck and Meeker
+both were firing now, rapidly but carefully, muttering words of hope
+and anxiety as they worked the levers of their spurting guns. Then
+they saw Hopalong gain the prostrate man's side, drag him back to
+cover, and wave his arm. The fire from the mesa was growing weaker and
+as it stopped Hopalong, with the wounded man on his back, ran to the
+shelter of a gully and called for water.
+
+"He's th' best man in this whole country!" cried Meeker, grabbing up a
+canteen and starting to go through the chaparral to give them water.
+"To do that for one of _my_ men!"
+
+"I've knowed that for nigh onto fifteen years," replied Buck.
+
+Near the Eagle trail Billy Williams and Doc Riley lay side by side,
+friendly now.
+
+"I tell you we've been shooting high," Doc grumbled. "It's no cinch
+picking range against that skyline."
+
+"Hey! Look at Hopalong!" cried Billy, excitedly. "Blamed idiot--why,
+he's going out to that feller. Lord! Get busy!"
+
+"That's Curtis out there!" ejaculated Doc, angrily. "They've got him,
+d--n 'em!"
+
+"My gun's jammed!" cursed Billy, in his excitement and anger standing
+up to tear at the cartridge. "I allus go an'--" he pitched sideways to
+the sand, where he lay quiet.
+
+Doc dropped his rifle and leaped to drag his companion back to the
+shelter of the cover. As he did so his left arm was hit, but he
+accomplished his purpose and as he reached for his canteen the Bar-20
+pessimist saved him the trouble by opening his eyes and staring
+around. "Oh, my head! It's shore burning up, Doc!" he groaned. "What
+th' devil happened that time, anyhow?"
+
+"Here; swaller this," Doc replied, handing him the canteen.
+
+"Who got me?" asked Billy, laying the vessel aside.
+
+"How do I know? Whoever he was he creased you nice. His friends got me
+in th' arm, too. You can help me fix it soon."
+
+"Shore I will! We can lick them thieves, Doc," Billy expounded without
+much interest. "Yessir," he added.
+
+"You make me tired," Doc retorted. "You talking about being careful
+when you stand up in plain sight of them fellers like you just did."
+
+"Yes, I know. I was mad, an' sort of forgot about 'em being able to
+shoot at me--but what happened out there, anyhow?"
+
+Doc craned his neck. "There's Cassidy now, in that gully--Meeker's
+just joined him. Good men, both of 'em."
+
+"You bet," replied Billy, satisfied. "Yessir, we can lick 'em--we've
+got to."
+
+On the west side of the mesa, back in the chaparral and out of sight
+of the rustlers, Pie Willis lay face down in the sand, quiet. Near him
+lay Frenchy McAllister, firing at intervals, aflame with anger and a
+desire to kill. Opposite him on the mesa, a scant three hundred yards
+away, two rustlers gloated and fired, eager to kill the other puncher,
+who shot so well.
+
+"That other feller knows his business, Elder," remarked Nevada as a
+slug ricochetted past his head. "Wonder who he is."
+
+"Wonder _where_ he is," growled Elder, firing at a new place. "He's
+been shifting a lot. Anyhow, we got one. There's so much smoke down
+there I can't seem to place him. Mebby--" he fell back, limp, his
+rifle clattering down a hundred feet of rock.
+
+Nevada looked at him closely and then drew back to a more secure
+position. "We're even, stranger, but we ain't quits, by a good deal!"
+He swore. _Zing-ing-ing!_ "Oh, you know I moved, do you!" he gritted.
+"Well, how's _that_!" _Spat_! a new, bright leaden splotch showed on
+the rock above his head and hot lead stung his neck and face as the
+bullet spattered. "I'll get you yet, you coyote!" he muttered,
+changing his position again. "Ah, _h--l_!" he sobbed and dropped his
+rifle to grasp his right elbow, shattered by a Winchester .45. Pain
+shot through every fibre of his body and weakened him so he could not
+crawl for shelter or assistance. He swayed, lost his balance and
+swayed further, and as his side showed beyond the edge of his rocky
+rampart he quivered and sank back, helpless, pain-racked, and bleeding
+to death from two desperate wounds.
+
+"We was--tricked--up here!" he moaned. "That must--be Red--Connors out
+there. Ah!" _Spat! Chug! Spat!_ But Nevada did not hear them now.
+
+Down in the chaparral, Frenchy, getting no response to his shots,
+picked up his glasses and examined the mesa. A moment later he put
+them back in the case, picked up his rifle and crawled towards his
+companion.
+
+"Pie!" he called, touching the body. "Pie, old feller! I got 'em both
+for you, Pie--got 'em--" screened by the surrounding chaparral he
+stood up and shook a clenched fist at the sombre, smoke-wreathed pile
+of rock and shouted: "An' they won't be all! Do you hear, you thieves?
+_They won't be all!_"
+
+Lying in a crack on the apex of a pinnacle of rock a hundred yards
+northwest of the mesa Johnny Nelson cursed the sun and squirmed around
+on the hot stone, vainly trying to find a spot comparatively cool,
+while two panic-stricken lizards huddled miserably as far back in the
+crack as they could force themselves. Long bright splotches marked the
+stone all around the youthful puncher and shrill whinings came to him
+out of the air, to hurtle away in the distance ten times as loud and
+high-pitched. For an hour he had not dared to raise his head to aim,
+and his sombrero, which he had used as a dummy, was shot full of
+holes. Johnny, at first elated because of his aerial position, now
+cursed it fervently and was filled with disgust. When he had begun
+firing at sunrise he had only one man to face. But the news went
+around among the rustlers that a fool had volunteered to be a target
+and now three good shots vied with each other to get the work over
+with quickly, and return to their former positions.
+
+"I reckon I can squirm over th' edge an' drop down that split," Johnny
+soliloquized, eying a ragged, sharp edge in the rock close at hand.
+"Don't know where it goes to, or how far down, but it's cool, that's
+shore."
+
+He wriggled over to it, flattened as much as possible, and looked over
+the edge, seeing a four-inch ledge ten feet below him. From the ledge
+it was ten feet more to the bottom, but the ledge was what interested
+him.
+
+"Shore I can--just land on that shelf, hug th' wall an' they can't
+touch me," he grinned, slipping over and hanging for an instant until
+he stopped swinging. The rock bulged out between him and the ledge,
+but he did not give that any thought. Letting go he dropped down the
+face of the rock, shot out along the bulge and over his cherished
+ledge, and landed with a grunt on a mass of sand and debris twenty
+feet below. As he pitched forward to his hands he heard the metallic
+warning of a rattlesnake and all his fears of being shot were knocked
+out of his head by the sound. When he landed from his jump he was on
+the wrong side of the crevice and among hot lead. Ducking and dodging
+he worked back to the right side and then blew off the offending
+rattler's head with his Colt. Other rattlers now became prominent and
+Johnny, realizing that he was an unwelcome guest in a rattlesnake den,
+made good use of his eyes and Colt as he edged towards the mouth of
+the crevice. Behind him were rattlers; before him, rustlers who could
+and would shoot. To say that he was disgusted is to put it mildly.
+
+"Cussed joint!" he grunted. "This is a measly place for me. If I stay
+I get bit to death; if I leave I get shot. Wonder if I can get to that
+ledge--ugh!" he cried as the tip of a rattler's tail hung down from it
+for an instant. "Come on! Bring 'em all out! Trot out th' tarantulas,
+copper heads, an' Gilas! Th' more th' merrier! Blasted snake
+hang-out!"
+
+He glanced about him rapidly, apprehensively, and shivered. "No more
+of this for Little Johnny! I'll chance th' sharp-shooters," he yelled,
+and dashed out and around the pile so quickly as to be unhit. But he
+was not hit for another reason, also. Skinny Thompson and Pete Wilson,
+having grown restless, were encircling the mesa by keeping inside the
+chaparral and came opposite the pinnacle about the time Johnny
+discovered his reptilian neighbors. Hearing the noise they both
+stopped and threw their rifles to their shoulders. Here was a fine
+opportunity to lessen the numbers of the enemy, for the rustlers,
+careless for the moment, were peering over their breastwork to see
+what all the noise was about, not dreaming that two pairs of eyes
+three hundred yards away were calculating the range. Two puffs of
+smoke burst from the chaparral and the rustlers ducked out of sight,
+one of them hard hit. At that moment Johnny made his dash and caused
+smiles to flit across the faces of his friends.
+
+"We might 'a knowed it was him!" laughed Skinny. "Nobody else would be
+loco enough to pick out that thing."
+
+"Yes; but now what's he doing?" asked Pete, seeing Johnny poking
+around among the rocks, Colt in hand.
+
+"Hunting rustlers, I reckon," Skinny replied. "Thinks they are
+tunnelling an' coming up under him, I suppose. Hey! Johnny!"
+
+Johnny turned, peering at the chaparral.
+
+"What are you doing?" yelled Skinny.
+
+"Hunting snakes."
+
+Skinny laughed and turned to watch the mesa, from which lead was
+coming.
+
+"Can you cover me if I make a break?" shouted Johnny, hopefully.
+
+"No; stay where you are!" shouted Pete, and then ducked.
+
+"Stop yelling and move about some or you'll get us both hit," ordered
+Skinny. "Them fellers can _shoot_!"
+
+"Come on; let's go ahead. Johnny can stay out there till dark an' hunt
+snakes," Pete was getting sarcastic. "Wonder if he reckons we came
+here to get shot at just to hunt snakes!"
+
+"No; we'll help him in," Skinny replied. "You'll find th' rattlers
+made it too hot for him up there. Start shooting."
+
+Johnny hearing the rapid firing of his friends, ran backwards, keeping
+the pinnacle between him and his enemies as long as he could. Then,
+once out of its shelter, he leaped erratically over the plain and
+gained a clump of chaparral. He now had only about a hundred yards to
+go, and Johnny could sprint when need was. He sprinted. Joining his
+friends the three disappeared in the chaparral and two disgusted
+rustlers helped a badly wounded companion to the rough hospital in the
+hut at the top of the mesa trail.
+
+Johnny and his friends had not gone far before Johnny, eager to find a
+rustler to shoot at, left them to go to the edge of the chaparral and
+while he was away his friends stumbled on the body of Pie Willis.
+Johnny, moving cautiously along the edge of the chaparral, soon met
+Buck and Hopalong, who were examining every square foot of the mesa
+wall for a way up.
+
+"Hullo, Johnny!" cried Hopalong. "What you doing here? Thought you was
+plumb stuck on that freak rock up north."
+
+"I was--an' _stuck_, for shore," grinned Johnny. "That rock is a nest
+of snakes, besides being a fine place to get plugged by them fellers.
+An' hot!"
+
+"How'd you get away?"
+
+"Pete an' Skinny drove 'em back an' I made my get-away. They're in th'
+chaparral somewhere close," Johnny replied. "But why are you
+telescoping at th' joker? Think you see money out there?"
+
+"Looking for a place to climb it," Hopalong responded. "We're
+disgusted with this long-range squibbing. You didn't see no breaks in
+th' wall up where you was, did you?"
+
+"Lemme see," and Johnny cogitated for a moment. Then his face cleared.
+"Shore I did; there's lots of cracks in it, running up an' down, an' a
+couple of ledges. I ain't so shore about th' ledges, though--you see I
+was too busy to look for ledges during th' first part of th' seance,
+and I dassn't look during th' last of it. There was three of 'em
+a-popping at me!"
+
+"Hey, Johnny!" came a hail; "Johnny!"
+
+"That's Pete an' Skinny--Hullo!" Johnny shouted.
+
+"Come here--Pie Willis is done for!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Pie--Willis--is--done--for!"
+
+The three turned and hastened towards the voice, shouting questions.
+They found Skinny and Pete standing over the body and sombreros came
+off as the foreman knelt to examine it. Pie had been greatly liked by
+the members of the outfit he had lately joined, having been known to
+them for years.
+
+"Clean temple shot," Buck remarked, covering the face and arising.
+"There's some fine shots up on that rock. Well, here's another reason
+why we've got to get up there an' wipe 'em out quick. Pie was a white
+man, square as a die and a good puncher--I wouldn't have asked for a
+better pardner. You fellers take him to camp--we're going to find a
+way to square things if there is one. No, Pete, you an' Johnny carry
+him in--Skinny is going with us."
+
+Buck, Hopalong, and Skinny returned to the edge of the pasture and the
+foreman again swept the wall through his glasses. "Hey! What's that? A
+body?"
+
+Hopalong looked. "Yes, two of 'em! I reckon Pie died game, all right."
+
+"Well, come on--we've got to move along," and Buck led the way north,
+Skinny bringing up the rear. Next to Lanky Smith, at present nursing
+wounds at the ranch, Skinny was the best man with a rope in the Bar-20
+outfit and the lariat he used so deftly was one hundred and fifty feet
+in length, much longer than any used by those around the mesa. Buck
+had asked him to go with them because he wished to have his opinion as
+to the possibility of getting a rope up the mesa wall.
+
+When they came opposite the rock which had sheltered Johnny they
+sortied to see if that part of the mesa was guarded, but there was no
+sign of life upon it. Then, separating, they dashed to the midway
+cover, the thicket, which they reached without incident. From there
+they continued to the pinnacle and now could see every rock and seam
+of the wall with their naked eyes. But they used the glasses and after
+a few minutes' examination of the ledges Hopalong turned to his
+companions. "Just as Johnny said. Skinny, do you reckon if you was
+under them to-night that you could get yore rope fast to th' bottom
+one?"
+
+"Shore; that's easy. But it won't be no cinch roping th' other,"
+Skinny replied. "She sticks out over th' first by two feet. It'll be
+hard to jerk a rope from that narrow foothold."
+
+"Somebody can hang onto you so you can lean out," Buck replied. "Pete
+can hold you easy."
+
+"But what'll he hold on to?"
+
+Hopalong pointed. "See that spur up there, close to th' first ledge?
+He can hitch a rope around that an' hang to th' rope. I tell you it's
+_got_ to be done. We can't lose no more men in this everlasting
+pot-shooting game. We've got to get close an' clean up!"
+
+"Well, I ain't saying nothing different, am I?" snapped Skinny. "I'm
+saying it'll be hard, an' it will. Now suppose one of them fellers
+goes on sentry duty along this end; what then?"
+
+"We'll solve that when we come to it," Hopalong replied. "I reckon if
+Red lays on this rock in th' moonlight that he can drop any sentry
+that stands up against th' sky at a hundred yards. We've got to try
+it, anyhow."
+
+"_Down!_" whispered Buck, warningly. "Don't let 'em know we're here.
+Drop that gun, Hoppy!"
+
+They dropped down behind the loose bowlders while the rustler passed
+along the edge, his face turned towards the pinnacle. Then, deciding
+that Johnny had not returned, he swept the chaparral with a pair of
+glasses. Satisfied at length that all was well he turned and
+disappeared over a rocky ledge ten feet from the edge of the wall.
+
+"I could 'a dropped him easy," grumbled Hopalong, regretfully, and
+Skinny backed him up.
+
+"Shore you could; but I don't want them to think we are looking at
+this end," Buck replied. "We'll have th' boys raise th' devil down
+south till dark an' keep that gang away from this end."
+
+"I reckon they read yore mind--hear th' shooting?" Skinny queried.
+
+"That must be Red out there--I can see half of him from here,"
+Hopalong remarked, lowering his glasses. "Look at th' smoke he's
+making! Wonder what's up? Hear th' others, too!"
+
+"Come on--we'll get out of this," Buck responded. "We'll go to camp
+an' plan for to-night, an' talk it over with th' rest. I want to hear
+what Meeker's going to do about it an' how we can place his men."
+
+"By thunder! If we _can_ get up there, half a dozen of us with Colts,
+an' sneak up on 'em, we'll have this fight tied up in a bag so quick
+they won't know what's up," Skinny remarked. "You can bet yore life
+that if there's any way to get a rope up that wall I'll do it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+UP THE WALL
+
+
+Pipes were glowing in the shadows away from the fire, where men lay in
+various attitudes of ease. A few were examining wounds while others
+cleaned rifles and saw that their revolvers were in good condition.
+Around the fire but well back from it four men sat cross-legged, two
+others stretched out on their elbows and stomachs near them.
+
+"You say everything is all right on th' ranch?" asked Buck of a man
+who, covered with alkali, had just come from the Bar-20. "No trouble,
+hey?"
+
+"Nope; no trouble at all," replied Cross, tossing his sombrero aside.
+"Lucas an' Bartlett each sent us four men to help out when they
+learned you had come out here. We shipped four of 'em right on to th'
+H2, which is too short-handed to do any damage to rustlers."
+
+"Much obliged for that," spoke up Meeker, relief in his voice. "I'm
+blamed glad to hear things are quiet back home--but I don't know how
+long they'll stay that way with Eagle so close."
+
+"Well, Eagle ain't a whole lot anxious to dip in no more," laughed
+Cross, looking at the H2 foreman. "Leastawise, that's what Lucas said.
+He sent a delegation down there which made a good impression. There
+was ten men in it an' they let it be known that if they came back
+again there would be ten more with 'em. In that case Eagle wouldn't be
+no more than a charred memory. Since Quinn died, being shot hard by
+Nevada, who I reckons is out here, th' town ain't got nobody to tell
+it how to do things right, which is shore pleasant."
+
+"You bring blamed good news--I'm glad Lucas went down there," Buck
+replied. "I can't tell as good news about us out here, yet. We've had
+a hard time for a week. They got Pie to-day, an' most of us are shot
+up plentiful. Yo're just in time for th' festival, Cross--we're going
+to try to rush 'em to-night an' get it over. We reckon Skinny an' Pete
+can get us a way up that wall before dawn."
+
+"Me for th' rush," laughed Cross. "I'm fresh as a daisy, which most of
+you fellers ain't. How many of 'em have you got so far? Are there many
+still up there?"
+
+"We've got four of 'em that I knows of, an' how many of 'em died from
+their wounds I can't say," replied Hopalong. "But a whole lot of 'em
+have been plugged, an' plugged hard."
+
+"But how many are up there still able to fight?"
+
+"I should say about nine," Hopalong remarked, thoughtfully.
+
+"Ten," corrected Red. "I've been watching th' positions an' I know."
+
+"About nine or ten--they shift so nobody can really tell," Buck
+replied. "I reckon we've seen 'em all in Eagle, too."
+
+"Frenchy got Nevada an' another to-day, on th' west side," Johnny
+interposed.
+
+"I'm glad Nevada is gone--he's a terror in a mix-up," Cross rejoined.
+"Best two-handed gun man in Eagle, he was."
+
+"Huh!" snorted Johnny. "Stack him up against Hoppy an' see how long
+he'd last!"
+
+"I said in Eagle!" retorted Cross.
+
+Buck suddenly stood up and stretched. "You fellers all turn in now an'
+snatch some sleep. I'm going out to see how things are with Billy.
+I'll call you in time. Doc, you an' Curtis are too shot up to do any
+climbing--you turn in too. When I come back I'll wake you an' send you
+out to help Billy watch th' trail. Where's Red?"
+
+"Over here--what do you want?" came from the shadows.
+
+"Nothing, only get to sleep. I reckoned you might be off somewheres
+scouting. Skinny, where's yore rope? Got that manilla one? Good! Put
+three more hemp lariats out here where I can find 'em when I come
+back. Now don't none of you waste no time; turn in right now!" He
+started to walk away and then hesitated, turning around. "Doc, you an'
+Curtis better come with me now so you won't lose no time hunting
+Billy in th' dark when yore eyes are sleepy--it's hard enough to find
+him now in th' dark, when I'm wide awake. You can get yore sleep out
+there--he'll wake you when yo're needed."
+
+The two punchers arose and joined him, Doc with his left arm bandaged
+and his companion with three bandages on him. When they joined Buck
+Doc protested. "Let me go with you an' th' rest of th' boys, Peters,
+when you go up that wall. I came out here to get th' Greaser that
+murdered Curley, an' I hate to miss him now. If I can't climb th' boys
+will be glad to pull me up, an' it won't take no time to speak of. My
+gun arm is sound as a dollar--_I_ want that Greaser!"
+
+Buck glanced at Meeker, who refused to give any sign of his thoughts
+on the matter. "Well, all right, Doc. But if we should have to fight
+as soon as we get up an' don't have no time to pull you after us,
+you'll miss everything. But you can do what you want."
+
+"I'll just gamble on that. I ain't hurt much, an' if I can't climb
+I'll manage to get in th' scrap someway, even if I has to hunt up
+Billy," replied Doc, contentedly, returning to the fire.
+
+Buck and his companion moved away into the darkness while those around
+the fire lay down to get a few hours' rest, which they needed badly.
+George Cross, who was not sleepy, remained awake in a shadow and kept
+guard, although none was needed.
+
+Buck and Curtis found Billy by whistling and the wounded H2 puncher
+found a place to lie down and was soon asleep, while the foreman and
+his friend sat up, watching the faint glow on the mesa, the camp-fire
+of the besieged. Once they heard the clatter of a rifle from the head
+of the trail and later they saw a dim figure pass quickly across the
+lighted space. They were content to watch on such a night, for the air
+had cooled rapidly after the sun went down and the sky was one
+twinkling mass of stars.
+
+Twice during the wait Buck disappeared into the black chaparral close
+at hand and struck a match under his coat to see the time, and on the
+last occasion he returned to Billy, remarking: "Got half an hour yet
+before I leave you. Are you sleepy?"
+
+"No, not very; my head hurts too much to sleep," Billy replied,
+re-crossing his legs and settling himself in a more comfortable
+position. "When you leave I'll get up on my hoofs so I won't feel like
+dosing off. I won't wake Curtis unless I have to--he's about played
+out."
+
+"You wake him when you think I've been gone half an hour," Buck
+ordered. "It'll take him some time to get his eyes open--we mustn't
+let any get away. They've got friends in Eagle, you know."
+
+"Wish I could smoke," Billy remarked, wistfully.
+
+"Why, you can," replied Buck, quickly. "Go back there in th' chaparral
+an' get away with a pipeful. I'll watch things till you come back, an'
+if I need you quick I can call. You've got near half an hour--make th'
+best of it."
+
+"Here's th' gun--much obliged, Buck," and Billy disappeared, leaving
+the foreman to plan and watch. Buck glanced at the sleeping man
+occasionally when he heard him toss or mutter and wished he could let
+him sleep on undisturbed.
+
+Suddenly a flash lighted up the top of the trail for an instant and
+the sharp report of a rifle rang out loudly on the still, night air.
+Buck, grabbing the Winchester, sprang to his feet as an excited chorus
+came from the rustlers' stronghold. Then he heard laughter and a few
+curses and quiet again ensued.
+
+"What was that, Buck?" came a low, anxious hail from behind.
+
+The foreman laughed softly and replied: "Nothing, Billy, except that
+th' guard up there reckoned he saw something to shoot at. It's funny
+how staring at th' dark will get a feller seeing things that ain't.
+Why, had yore smoke so soon?" he asked in surprise as Billy sat down
+beside him.
+
+"Shore," replied Billy. "Two of 'em. I reckon yore time is about up.
+Gimme th' gun now."
+
+"Well, good luck, Billy. Better move up closer to th' trail if you can
+find any cover. You don't want to miss none. So long," and Billy was
+alone with his sleeping companion.
+
+When the foreman returned to the camp he was challenged, and stopped,
+surprised. "It's Peters," he called.
+
+"Oh, all right. Time to go yet?" asked Cross, emerging from the
+darkness.
+
+"Purty near; but I thought I told you to go to sleep?"
+
+"I know, but I ain't sleepy, not a bit. So I reckoned I'd keep watch
+over th' rest of th' gang."
+
+"Well, since yo're wide awake, you help me knot these ropes an' let
+th' others have a few minutes more," Buck responded, picking up
+Skinny's fifty-foot lariat and placing it to one side. He picked up
+the three shorter ropes and threw one to his companion. "Put a knot
+every foot an' a half--make 'em tight an' big."
+
+In a few minutes the work was finished and Buck awakened the sleeping
+men, who groped their way to the little stream close by and washed the
+sleep out of their tired eyes, grabbing a bit of food on their return
+to the fire.
+
+"Now, fellers," said the foreman, "leave yore rifles here--it's Colts
+this trip, except in Red's case. Got plenty of cartridges? Everybody
+had a drink an' some grub? All right; single file after me an' don't
+make no noise."
+
+When the moon came up an hour later Red Connors, lying full length on
+the apex of the pinnacle which Johnny had tried and found wanting,
+watched an indistinct blurr of men in the shadow of the mesa wall. He
+saw one of them step out into the moonlight, lean back and then
+straighten up suddenly, his arm going above his head. The silence was
+so intense that Red could faintly hear the falling rope as it struck
+the ground. Another cast, and yet another, both unsuccessful, and
+then the fourth, which held. The puncher stepped back into the shadow
+again and another figure appeared, to go jerking himself up the face
+of the wall. While he watched the scaling operations Red was not
+missing anything on the top of the mesa, where the moon bathed
+everything in a silvery light.
+
+Then he saw another figure follow the first and kick energetically as
+it clambered over onto the ledge. Soon a rope fell to the plain and
+the last man up, who was Skinny, leaned far out and cast at the second
+ledge, Pete holding him. After some time he was successful and again
+he and his companion went up the wall. Pete climbed rapidly, his heavy
+body but small weight for the huge, muscular arms which rose and fell
+so rapidly. On the second ledge the same casting was gone through
+with, but it was not until the eighth attempt that the rope stayed up.
+Then Red, rising on his elbows, put his head closer to the stock of
+his rifle and peered into the shadows back of the lighted space on the
+rocky pile. He saw Pete pull his companion back to safety and then,
+leaping forward, grasp the rope and climb to the top. Already one of
+the others was part way up the second rope while another was squirming
+over the lower ledge, and below him a third kicked and hauled, half
+way up the first lariat.
+
+"String of monkeys," chuckled Red. "But they can't none of 'em touch
+Pete in that sort of a game. Wonder what Pete's doing?" he queried as
+he saw the man on the top of the mesa bend, fumble around for a
+moment, and then toss his arm out over the edge. "Oh, it's a knotted
+rope--he's throwing it down for th' others. Well, Pete, old feller,
+you was th' first man to get--_Lord_!"
+
+He saw Pete wheel, leap forward into a shadow, and then a heaving,
+twisting, bending bulk emerged into the moonlight. It swayed back and
+forth, separated into two figures and then became one again.
+
+"They're fighting, rough an' tumble!" Red exclaimed. "Lord have mercy
+on th' man who's closing with that Pete of ourn!"
+
+He could hear the scuffling and he knew that the others had heard it,
+too, for Skinny was desperately anxious to wriggle over the edge,
+while down the line of ropes the others acted like men crazed. Still
+the pair on the mesa top swayed back and forth, this way and that,
+bending, twisting, and Red imagined he could hear their labored
+breathing. Then Skinny managed to pull himself to the top of the wall
+and sprang forward, to sink down from a kick in the stomach.
+
+"God A'mighty!" cried Red excitedly. "Who is it that can give Pete a
+fight like that? Well, I'm glad he's so busy he can't use his gun!"
+
+Skinny was crawling around on his hands and knees as Buck's head arose
+over the edge. The foreman, well along in years, and heavy, was too
+tired to draw himself over the rim without a moment's rest. He had no
+fear for Pete, but he was worried lest some rustler might sound an
+alarm. Skinny now sat up and felt for his Colt, but the foreman's
+voice stopped him. "No shooting, yet! Want to tell 'em what's up? You
+let them fellers alone for a minute, an' give me a hand here."
+
+Pete, his steel-like fingers darting in for hold after hold, managed
+to jerk his opponent's gun from its sheath and throw it aside, where
+Skinny quickly picked it up. He was astonished by the skill and
+strength of his adversary, who blocked every move, every attempt to
+get a dangerous hold. Pete, for a man reputed as being slow, which he
+was in some things, was darting his arms in and out with remarkable
+quickness, but without avail. Then, realizing that his cleaner living
+was standing him in good stead, and hearing the labored breathing of
+the rustler, he leaped in and clinched. By this time Hopalong and
+three more of the attacking force had gained the mesa top and were
+sent forward by the foreman, who was now intent upon the struggle at
+hand.
+
+"It's Big Sandy!" Hopalong whispered to Skinny, pausing to watch for a
+moment before he disappeared into the shadows.
+
+He was right, and Big Sandy, breathless and tired, was fighting a
+splendid fight for his life against a younger, fresher, and stronger
+man. The rustler tried several times for a throat hold but in vain,
+and in a fury of rage threw his weight against his opponent to bear
+him to the ground, incautiously bringing his feet close together as he
+felt the other yield. In that instant Pete dropped to a crouch, his
+vice-like hands tightened about Big Sandy's ankles, and with a sudden,
+great surge of his powerful back and shoulders he straightened up and
+Sandy plunged forward to a crashing fall on the very edge of the mesa,
+scrambled to his feet, staggered, lost his balance, and fell backwards
+a hundred feet to the rocks below.
+
+The victor would have followed him but for Buck, who grasped him in
+time. Pete, steady on his feet again, threw Buck from him by one sweep
+of his arms and wheeled to renew the fight, surprise flashing across
+his face at not seeing his opponent.
+
+"He's down below, Pete," Buck cried as Johnny, white-faced, crawled
+over the edge.
+
+"What was that?" exclaimed the Kid. "Who fell?"
+
+"Big Sandy," replied the foreman. "He--" the report of a shot cut him
+short. "Come on!" he cried. "They're at it!" and he dashed away,
+closely followed by Johnny and Pete as Jim Meeker came into view. The
+H2 foreman slid over the mesa rim, leaped to his feet and sprinted
+forward, Colt in hand, to be quickly lost in the shadows, and after
+him came Red Connors, the last.
+
+Down below Doc, hearing a thud not far from him, hurried around a spur
+of rock in the wall, sick at heart when he saw the body. Bending over
+quickly he recognized the mass as once having been Big Sandy, and he
+forthwith returned to the rope to be pulled up. When he at last
+realized that his friends had forgotten him there was loud, lurid
+cursing and he stamped around like a wild man, waving a Colt in his
+right hand. Finally he dropped heavily on a rock, too enraged to
+think, and called the attacking force, collectively and individually,
+every name that sprang to his lips. As he grew calmer he arose from
+the rock, intending to join Billy and Curtis at the other end of the
+pasture, and as he took a step in that direction he heard a sharp
+click and a pebble bounced past him. He stepped backwards quickly and
+looked up, seeing a figure sliding rapidly down the highest rope. He
+was immediately filled with satisfaction and easily forgave his
+companions for the anxiety they had caused him, and as he was about to
+call out he heard a Spanish oath. Slipping quickly and noiselessly
+into the deeper shadow at the base of the wall he flattened himself
+behind the spur of rock close to the rope, where he waited tensely, a
+grim smile transforming his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+FORTUNE SNICKERS AT DOC
+
+
+Antonio was restless and could not sleep. He turned from side to side
+on the ground near the fire before the hut and was one of the first to
+run to the top of the trail when the guard there discharged his rifle
+at nothing. Returning to his blanket the Mexican tried to compose
+himself to rest, but was unsuccessful. Finally he arose, picked up his
+rifle, and slouched off into the shadows to wander about from point to
+point.
+
+Cavalry, coming in from his post to get a drink, caught sight of the
+Mexican before he was swallowed up by the darkness and, suspicious as
+ever of Antonio, forgot the drink and followed.
+
+After wandering about all unconscious of espionage Antonio finally
+drifted to the western edge and seated himself comfortably against a
+bowlder, Cavalry not fifty feet away in a shadow. Time passed slowly
+and as the Mexican was about to return to the fire he chanced to
+glance across the mesa along a moon-lighted path and stiffened at what
+he saw. A figure ran across the lighted space, silently, cautiously,
+Colt in hand, and then another, then two together, and the Mexican
+knew that the enemy had found a way up the wall and were hurrying
+forward to fight at close quarters, to effect a surprise on the
+unsuspecting men about the fire and in the hut. There remained,
+perhaps, time enough for him to escape and he arose and ran north,
+crouching as he zig-zagged from cover to cover, cautious and alert.
+
+Cavalry, because of his position, had not seen the flitting punchers
+and, his suspicions now fully aroused, he slipped after the Mexican to
+find out just what he was going to do. When the firing burst out
+behind him he paused and stood up, amazed. As he struggled to
+understand what it meant he saw three men run past a bowlder at his
+left and then he knew, and still hesitated. He was not a man who
+thought quickly and his first natural impulse, due to his army
+training, was to try to join his friends, but gradually the true
+situation came to him. How many men there were in the attacking force
+he did not know, but he had seen three after the fighting had begun;
+and it was evident that the cowmen would not rush into the lion's jaws
+unless they were strong enough to batter down all resistance. Four of
+his friends were dead, another had evidently deserted, and the
+remainder were all more or less severely wounded--there could be no
+hope of driving the ranchmen back, and small chance of him being able
+to work through their line to join his friends. There remained only
+one thing to be done, to save himself while he might.
+
+As he moved forward slowly and cautiously to find a way down the wall
+he remembered the Mexican's peculiar actions and wondered if he had a
+hand in helping the cowmen up.
+
+Meanwhile Antonio, reaching the edge of the open space where Pete and
+Big Sandy had fought, saw Red Connors appear over the rim and dash
+away to join in the fighting. Waiting long enough to assure himself
+that there were none following Red he ran to the edge and knelt by the
+rope. Leaving his rifle behind and seeing that the flap of his holster
+was fastened securely, he lowered himself over, sliding rapidly down
+to the first ledge. Here he spent a minute, a minute that seemed an
+eternity, hunting for the second rope in the shadows, found it and
+went on.
+
+Sliding and bumping down the rough wall he at last reached the plain
+and, with a sigh of relief, turned to run. At that instant a figure
+leaped upon him from behind and a hand gripped his throat and jerked
+him over backwards. Antonio instinctively reached for his Colt with
+one hand while he tore at the gripping fingers with the other, but he
+found himself pinned down between two rocks in such a manner that his
+whole weight and that of his enemy was on the holster and made his
+effort useless. Then, terrified and choking for breath, he dug wildly
+at the vice-like fingers which not for a moment relaxed, but in vain,
+for he was growing weaker with each passing second.
+
+Doc leaned forward, peering into the face before him, his fingers
+gripping with all their power, gripping with a force which made the
+muscles of the brawny forearm stand out like cords, his face
+malevolent and his heart full of savage joy. Here was the end of his
+hunt, here was the man who had murdered Curley in cold blood,
+cowardly, deliberately. The face, already dark, was turning black and
+the eyes were growing wide open and bulging out. He felt the surge of
+the Mexican's pulse, steadily growing weaker. But he said no word as
+he watched and gloated, he was too intent to speak, too centred upon
+the man under him, too busy keeping his fingers tight-gripped. He
+would make good his threat, he would keep his word and kill the
+murderer of his best friend with his naked hand, as he had sworn.
+
+Up above the two, Cavalry, working along the edge, had come across
+Antonio's rifle and then as he glanced about, saw the rope. Here was
+where the cowmen had come up and here was where he could go down. From
+the way the shooting continued he knew that the fight was desperate
+and he believed himself to be cut off from his friends. He hated to
+desert in the face of the enemy, to leave his companions of a
+dangerous business to fight for their lives without him, but there was
+only one thing to do since he could not help them--he must save
+himself.
+
+Dropping his rifle beside the other he lowered himself over the edge
+and slid rapidly down. When half-way down the last rope his burning
+hands slipped and he fell head over heels, and landed on Doc, knocking
+him over and partially stunning him. Cavalry's only idea now was to
+escape from the men who, as he thought, were guarding the rope and,
+hastily picking himself up, he dashed towards the chaparral to the
+west as fast as he could run, every moment expecting to feel the hot
+sting of a bullet. At last, when the chaparral closed about him he
+plunged through it recklessly and ran until sheer exhaustion made him
+drop insensible to the sand. He had run far, much farther than he
+could have gone were it not for the stimulus of the fear which gripped
+him; and had he noticed where he was going he would have known that he
+was running up a slope, a slope which eventually reached a level
+higher than the top of the mesa. And when he dropped if he had been
+capable of observation he would have found himself in a chaparral
+which arose above his head, and seen the narrow lane through it which
+led to a great expanse of sand, tawney and blotched with ash-colored
+alkali, an expanse which stretched away to the desolate horizon.
+
+Shortly after Cavalry's descent Antonio stirred, opened his eyes,
+stared vaguely about him and, feeling his bruised and aching throat,
+staggered to his feet and stumbled to the east, hardly conscious of
+what he was doing. As he proceeded his breath came easier and he began
+to remember having seen Doc lying quiet against a rock. He hesitated a
+moment as he wondered if Doc was dead and if so, who had killed him.
+Then he swore because he had not given him a shot to make sure that he
+would not rejoin his friends. Hesitating a moment he suddenly decided
+that he would be better off if he put a good distance between himself
+and the mesa, and ran on again, eager to gain the shelter of the
+chaparral.
+
+When Doc opened his eyes and groped around he slowly remembered what
+had occurred and his first conscious act was to look to see if his
+expected victim were dead or alive. It did not take him long to
+realize that he was alone and his hand leaped for his Colt as he
+peered around. Limping out on the plain he caught sight of the running
+Mexican, rapidly growing indistinct, and hazarded two shots after him.
+Antonio leaped into a new speed as though struck with a whip and
+cursed himself for not having killed the H2 puncher when he had the
+chance. A moment more and he was lost in the thickets. Doc tried to
+follow, but his leg, hurt by Cavalry's meteoric descent, was not equal
+to any great demand for speed and so, turning, he made his way towards
+the camp to get a horse and return to take up the Mexican's trail.
+
+He lost an hour in this, a feverishly impatient hour, punctuated with
+curses as he limped along and with an unsparing quirt once he was
+astride. What devilish Humpty Dumpty had cheated him this time? "All
+the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty
+together again"--they couldn't if he once caught up with the Mexican.
+He laughed grimly and swore again as the cranky beast beneath him
+shied a pain into his sore leg. "Go on, you!" he yelled, as he swept
+up to where the ropes still dangled against the wall. "Th' Mexican
+first," he muttered. The world was not big enough to hide the murderer
+of Curley, to save him from his just deserts. The two trails lay plain
+before him in the brilliant moonlight and his pony sprang forward
+toward the spot where Antonio had disappeared in the chaparral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+NATURE TAKES A HAND
+
+
+When Hopalong caught up with his four companions he was astonished by
+the conditions on the mesa. Instead of a bowlder-strewn, rocky plain
+as he had believed it to be he found himself on a table-land cut and
+barred by fissures which ran in all directions. At one time these had
+been open almost to the level of the surrounding pasture but the winds
+had swept sand and debris into the gashes until now none were much
+more than ten feet deep. Narrow alleyways which led in every
+direction, twisting and turning, now blocked and now open for many
+feet in depth, their walls sand-beaten to a smoothness baffling the
+grip of one who would scale them, were not the same in a fight as a
+comparatively flat plain broken only by miscellaneous bowlders and
+hummocks. There could be no concerted dash for the reason that one
+group of the attacking force might be delayed until after another had
+begun to fight. And it was possible, even probable, that the turns in
+the alleyways might be guarded; and once separated in the heat of
+battle it would be easy enough to shoot each other. Instead of a
+dashing fight soon to be over, it looked as though it would be a
+deadly game of hide and seek to wear out the players and which might
+last for an indefinite length of time. It was disconcerting to find
+that what had been regarded as the hardest part of the whole affair,
+the gaining of the mesa top, was the easiest.
+
+"Here, fellows!" Hopalong growled. "We'll stick together till we get
+right close, an' then if we have time an' these infernal gorges don't
+stop us, we may be able to spread out. We've got to move easy, too. If
+we go galloping reckless we'll run into some guard an' there won't be
+no surprise party on Thunder Mesa. We can count on having light,
+though not as much as we might have, for th' moon won't go back on us
+till th' sun fades it."
+
+"It's light enough," growled Skinny. "Come on--we've got to go ahead
+an' every minute counts. _I_ didn't think we'd lose so much time
+roping them knobs an' getting up."
+
+They moved forward cautiously in single file, alert and straining eyes
+and ears, and had covered half of the distance when a shot was heard
+ahead and they listened, expecting an uproar. Waiting a minute and
+hearing nothing further, they moved on again, angry and disgruntled.
+Then another shot rang out and they heard Billy and Curtis reply.
+
+"Shooting before daylight, before they get their morning's grub,"
+grumbled George Cross.
+
+"Yes; sort of eye-opener, I reckon," softly laughed Chick Travers,
+who was nervous and impatient. "Get a move on an' let's start
+something," he added.
+
+As they separated to take advantage of a spoke-like radiation of
+several intersecting fissures another shot rang out ahead and there
+was an angry _spat_! close to Hopalong's head. Another shot and then a
+rattling volley sent the punchers hunting cover on the run, but they
+were moving forward all the time. It was a case of getting close or be
+killed at a range too great for Colts, and their rifles were in the
+camp. Had the light been better the invaders might have paid dearly
+right there for the attack.
+
+Confusion was rife among the defenders and the noise of the shouts and
+firing made one jumble of sound. Bullets whistled along the fissures
+in the dim light and hummed and whizzed as they ricochetted from wall
+to wall. As yet the attacking force had made no reply, being too
+busily occupied in getting close to lose time in wasting lead at that
+range, and being only five against an unknown number protected by a
+stone hut and who knew every bowlder, crevice, and other points of
+vantage.
+
+Hopalong slid over a bowlder which choked his particular and personal
+fissure and saw Jim Meeker sliding down the wall in front of it. And
+as Meeker picked himself up Skinny Thompson slid down the other wall.
+
+"Well, I'm hanged!" grunted Hopalong in astonishment.
+
+"Same here," retorted Skinny. "What you doing 'way over here?"
+
+"Thought you was going to lead th' other end of th' line!" rejoined
+Hopalong.
+
+"This is it--yo're off yore range."
+
+"Well, I reckon not!" Hopalong responded, indignantly.
+
+"An' say, Meeker, how'd you get over here so quick?" Skinny asked,
+turning to the other. "You was down below when I saw you last."
+
+"_Me?_ Why, I just follered my nose, that's all," Meeker replied,
+surprised.
+
+"You've got a blamed crooked nose, then," Skinny snorted, and turned
+to Hopalong. "Why don't you untangle yoreself an' go where you belong,
+you carrot-headed blunderer!"
+
+"Hang it! I tell you I--" Hopalong began, and then ducked quickly.
+"Lord, but somebody's got us mapped out good!"
+
+"Well, some of our fellers have started up--hear 'em over there?"
+exclaimed Skinny as firing broke out on the east. "Them's Colts, all
+right. Mebby it's plumb lucky for us it _ain't_ so blamed light, after
+all; we'll have time to pick our places before they can see us real
+good."
+
+"Pick our places!" snorted Hopalong. "Get tangled up, you mean!" he
+added.
+
+"Hullo! What you doing, fellers?" asked a pained and surprised voice
+above them. "Why ain't you in it?"
+
+"For th' love of heaven--it's Frenchy!" cried Hopalong. "Skinny, I
+reckon them Colts you heard belonged to th' rustlers. _We're_ all here
+but a couple."
+
+"Didn't I leave you over east about five minutes ago, Frenchy?"
+demanded Skinny, his mouth almost refusing to shut.
+
+"Shore. I'm east--what's eating at you?" asked Frenchy.
+
+"Come on--get out of this!" ordered Hopalong, scrambling ahead. "You
+foller me an' you'll be all right."
+
+"We'll be back to th' ropes if we foller you," growled Skinny. "Of all
+th' locoed layouts I ever run up against this here mesa top takes th'
+prize," he finished in disgust.
+
+Bullets whined and droned above them and frequently hummed down the
+fissure to search them out, the high, falsetto whine changing quickly
+to an angry _spang_! as they struck the wall a slanting blow. They
+seemed to spring away again with renewed strength as they sang the
+loud, whirring hum of the ricochette, not the almost musical, sad note
+of the uninterrupted bullet, but venomous, assertive, insistent. The
+shots could be distinguished now, for on one side were the sharp
+cracks of rifles; on the other a different note, the roar of Colts.
+
+"This ain't no fit society for six-shooters," Meeker remarked in a low
+voice as they slid over a ridge, and dropped ten feet before they knew
+it.
+
+"For th' Lord's sake!" ejaculated Hopalong as he arose to his feet.
+"Step over a rock an' you need wings! Foller a nice trail an' you
+can't get out of th' cussed thing! Go west an' you land east, say
+'so-long' to a friend an' you meet him a minute later!"
+
+"We ought to have rifles in this game," Meeker remarked, rubbing his
+knee-cap ruefully.
+
+"Yes; an' ladders, ropes, an' balloons," snorted Skinny.
+
+"Send somebody back for th' guns," suggested Frenchy.
+
+"Who?" demanded Hopalong. "Will _you_ go?"
+
+"Me? Why, I don't want no rifle!"
+
+"Huh! Neither do I," remarked Skinny. "Here, Frenchy, give me a boost
+up this wall,--take my foot!"
+
+"Well, don't wiggle so, you piece of string!"
+
+"That's right! Walk backwards! I ain't no folding step-ladder! How do
+you think I'm going to grab that edge if you takes me ten feet away
+from it?"
+
+_Spang! Spang! Zing-ing-ing!_
+
+"Here, you! Lemme down! Want me to get plugged!" yelled Skinny,
+executing ungraceful and rapid contortions. "Lower me, you fool!"
+
+"Let go that ridge, then!" retorted Frenchy.
+
+During the comedy Hopalong had been crawling up a rough part of the
+wall and he fired before he lost his balance. As he landed on Meeker a
+yell rang out and the sound of a rifle clattering on rock came to
+them. "I got him, Skinny--go ahead now," he grunted, picking himself
+up.
+
+It was not long until they were out of the fissure and crawling down
+a bowlder-strewn slope. As they came to the bottom they saw a rustler
+trying to drag himself to cover and Meeker fired instantly, stopping
+the other short.
+
+"Why, I thought _I_ stopped him!" exclaimed Hopalong.
+
+"Reckon you won't rustle no more cows, you thief," growled Meeker,
+rising to his knees.
+
+Hopalong pulled him down again as a bullet whizzed through the space
+just occupied by his head. "Don't you get so curious," he warned.
+"Come on--I see Red. He's got his rifle, lucky cuss."
+
+"Good for him! Wish I had mine," replied Meeker, grinning at Red, who
+wriggled an elbow as a salutation. In his position Red could hardly be
+expected to do much more, since two men were waiting for a shot at
+him.
+
+"Well, you can get that gun down there an' have a rifle," Hopalong
+suggested, pointing to the Winchester lying close to its former owner.
+"You can do it, all right."
+
+"Good idea--shoot 'em with their own lead," and the H2 foreman
+departed on his hands and knees for the weapon.
+
+"I hit one--he's trying to put his shoulder together," cried Red,
+grinning. "What makes you so late--I was th' last one up, an' I've
+been here a couple of hours."
+
+"Yo're a sinful liar!" retorted Hopalong. "We stopped to pick
+blackberries back at that farm house," he finished with withering
+sarcasm.
+
+"You fellers had time to get married an' raise a family," Red replied.
+He ducked and looked around. "Ah, you coyote--hit him, but not very
+hard, I reckon."
+
+It was daylight when Pete, on the other end of the line, turned and
+scourged Johnny. "Ain't you got no sense in yore fool head? How can I
+see to shoot when you kick around like that an' fill my eyes with
+dirt! Come down from up there or I'll lick you!"
+
+"Ah, shut up!" retorted Johnny with a curse. "You'd kick around if
+somebody nicked _yore_ ear!"
+
+"Well, it serves you right for being so unholy curious!" Pete replied.
+"You come down before he nicks yore eye!"
+
+"Not before I get square--_Wow!_" and Johnny came down rapidly.
+
+"Where'd he get you that time?"
+
+"None of yore business!" growled Johnny.
+
+"I told you to come--"
+
+"Shut up!" roared Johnny, glaring at him. "Wish I had that new Sharps
+of mine!"
+
+"Go an' get it, Kid. Yo're nimble," Pete responded. "An' bring up some
+of th' others, too, while yo're about it."
+
+"But how long will this fight last, do you reckon?" the other asked,
+with an air of weighing something.
+
+"All day with rifles--a week without 'em."
+
+"Shore yo're right?"
+
+"Yes; go ahead. There'll be some of th' scrap left for you when you
+get back."
+
+"All right,--but don't you get that feller. I want him for what he did
+to me," and Johnny hastened away. He returned in fifteen minutes with
+two rifles and gave one of them to his companion.
+
+"They're .45-70's--an' full, too," he remarked. "But I ain't got no
+more cartridges for 'em."
+
+"How'd you get 'em so quick?"
+
+"Found 'em by th' rope where we come up--didn't have to stop; just
+picked 'em up an' came right back," Johnny laughed. "But I wonder how
+they got there?"
+
+"Bet four dollars an' a tooth-pick they means that two thieves got
+away down them ropes. Where's Doc?"
+
+"Don't know--but I don't think anybody pulled him up here."
+
+"Then he might 'a stopped them two what owned th' rifles--he would be
+mad enough to stay there a month if Red forgot him."
+
+"Yes; waiting to lick Red when he came down," and Johnny crawled up
+again to his former position. "Now, you cow-stealing coyote, watch
+out!" As he settled down he caught sight of his foreman. "Hullo, Buck!
+What you doing?"
+
+"Stringing beads for my night shirt," retorted Buck. "You get down
+from up there, you fool!"
+
+"Can't. I got to pay for--" he ducked, and then fired twice. "Just
+missed th' other ear, Pete. But I made him jump a foot--plugged him
+where he sits down. He was moving away. An' blamed if he ain't a
+Greaser!"
+
+"Yes; an' you took two shots to do it, when cartridges are so scarce,"
+Pete grumbled.
+
+At first several of the rustlers had defended the hut but the
+concentrated fire of the attacking force had poured through its north
+window from so many angles that evacuation became necessary. This was
+accomplished through the south window, which opened behind the natural
+breastwork, and at a great cost, for Con Irwin and Sam Austin were
+killed in the move.
+
+The high, steep ridge which formed the rear wall of the hut and
+overlooked the roof of the building ran at right angles to the low
+breastwork and extended from the north end of the hut to the edge of
+the mesa, a distance of perhaps fifty feet. On the side farthest from
+the breastwork it sloped to the stream made by the spring and its
+surface was covered with bowlders. The rustlers, if they attempted to
+scale its steep face, would be picked off at short range, but they
+realized that once the enemy gained its top their position would be
+untenable except around the turn in the breastwork at the other side
+of the mesa. In order to keep the punchers from gaining this position
+they covered the wide cut which separated the ridge from the enemy's
+line, and so long as they could command this they were safe.
+
+After wandering from point to point Hopalong finally came to the edge
+of the cut and found Red Connors ensconced in a narrow, shallow
+depression on a comparatively high hummock. While they talked his
+eyes rested on the ridge across the cut and took in the possibilities
+that holding it would give.
+
+"Say, Red, if we could get up on that hill behind th' shack we'd have
+this fight over in no time--see how it overlooks everything?"
+
+"Yes," slowly replied Red. "But we can't cross this barranca--they
+sweep it from end to end. I tried to get over there, an' I know."
+
+"But we can try again," Hopalong replied. "You cover me."
+
+"Now don't be a fool, Hoppy!" his friend retorted. "We can't afford to
+lose you for no gang of rustlers. It's shore death to try it."
+
+"Well, you can bet I ain't going to be fool enough to run twenty yards
+in th' open," Hopalong replied, starting away. "But I'm going to look
+for a way across, just th' same. Keep me covered."
+
+"All right, I'll do my best--but don't you try no dash!"
+
+But the rustlers had not given up the idea of holding the ridge
+themselves, and there was another and just as important reason why
+they must have it; their only water was in the hut and the spring. To
+enter the building was certain death, but if they could command the
+ridge it would be possible to get water, for the spring and rivulet
+lay on the other side at its base. Hall, well knowing the folly of
+trying to scale the steep bank under fire, set about finding another
+way to gain the coveted position. He found a narrow ledge on the face
+of the mesa wall, at no place more than eight inches wide, and he
+believed that it led to the rear of the ridge. Finding that the wall
+above the narrow foothold was rough and offered precarious finger
+holds, he began to edge along it, a hundred feet above the plain. When
+he had almost reached the end of his trying labors he was discovered
+by Billy and Curtis, who lay four hundred yards away in the chaparral,
+and at once became the target for their rifles. Were it not for the
+fact that they could not shoot at their best because of their wounds
+Hall would never have finished his attempt, and as it was the bullets
+flattened against the wall so close to him that on two occasions he
+was struck by spattering lead and flecks of stone. Then he moved
+around the turn and was free from that danger, but found that he must
+get fifty yards north before he could gain the plateau again. To make
+matters worse the ledge he was on began to grow narrower and at one
+place disappeared altogether. When he got to the gap he had to cling
+to the rough wall and move forward inch by inch, twice narrowly
+missing a drop to the plain below. But he managed to get across it and
+strike the ledge again and in a few minutes more he stepped into a
+crevice and sat down to rest before he pushed on. When he looked
+around he found that the crevice led northeast and did not run to the
+ridge, and he swore as he realized that he must go through the enemy's
+line to gain the position. He would not risk going back the way he had
+come, for he was pretty well tired out. He thought of trying to get to
+the other end of the mesa so as to escape by the way the attacking
+force had come up, but immediately put it out of his mind as being too
+contemptible for further consideration. He arose and moved forward,
+seeking a way up the wall of the crevice--and turning a corner, bumped
+into Jim Meeker.
+
+There was no time for weapons and they clinched. Meeker scorned to
+call for help and Hall dared make no unnecessary noise while in the
+enemy's line and so they fought silently. Both tried to draw their
+Colts, Meeker to use his either as a gun or a club, Hall as a club
+only, and neither succeeded. Both were getting tired when Hall slipped
+and fell, the H2 foreman on top of him. At that instant Buck Peters
+peered down at them from the edge of the fissure and then dropped
+lightly. He struck Hall over the head with the butt of his Colt and
+stepped back, grinning.
+
+"There'll be a lot more of these duets if this fight drags out very
+long," Buck said. "This layout is shore loco with all its hidden
+trails. Have you got a rope, Jim? We'll tie this gent so he won't hurt
+hisself if you can find one."
+
+"No. Much obliged, Peters," Meeker replied. "Why, yes I have, too.
+Here, use this," and he quickly untied his neck-kerchief and gave it
+to his friend. Buck took the one from around Hall's neck and the two
+foremen gave a deft and practical exhibition of how to tie a man so he
+cannot get loose. Meeker took the Winchester from Hall's back, the
+Colt and the cartridge belt, and gave them to Buck, laughing.
+
+"Seventy-three model; .44 caliber," he explained. "You'll find it
+better than th' six-shooter, an' you'll have plenty of cartridges for
+it, too."
+
+"But don't you want it?" asked Buck, hesitating.
+
+"Nope. I left one around th' corner here. I can get along with it till
+I get my own from th' camp."
+
+"All right, Jim. I'll be glad to keep this--it'll come in handy."
+
+"Tough luck, finding them fellers in such a strong layout," Meeker
+growled, glancing around at the prisoner. "Ah, got yore eyes open,
+hey?" he ejaculated as Hall glared at him. "How many of you fellers
+are up here, anyhow?"
+
+"Five thousand!" snapped Hall. "It took two of you to get me!" he
+blazed. "Got my guns, too, ain't you? Hope they bust an' blow yore
+cussed heads off!"
+
+"Thanks, stranger, thanks," Buck replied, turning to leave. "But
+Meeker had you licked good--I only hurried it to save time. Coming,
+Jim?"
+
+"Shore. But do you think this thief can get loose?"
+
+Buck paused, searching his pockets, and smiled as he brought to light
+a small, tight roll of rawhide thongs. "Here, this'll keep him down,"
+and when they had finished their prisoner could move neither hands nor
+feet. They looked at him critically and then went away towards the
+firing, the rustler cursing them heartily.
+
+"What's th' matter, Meeker?" asked Buck suddenly, noticing a drawn
+look on his companion's face.
+
+"Oh, I can't help worrying about my girl. She ain't scared of nothing
+an' she likes to ride. She's too purty to go breezing over a range
+that's covered with rustling skunks. I told her to stay in th' house,
+but--"
+
+"Well, why in thunder don't you go back where you can take care of
+her?" Buck demanded, sharply. "She's worth more than all th' cows an'
+rustlers on earth. You ain't needed bad out here, for we can clean
+this up, all right. You know as long as there are fellers like us to
+handle a thing like this no man with a girl depending on him has
+really got any right to take chances. I never thought of it before, or
+I'd 'a told you so. You cut loose for home to-day, an' leave us to
+finish this."
+
+"Well, I'll see how things go to-morrow, then. I can pull out th' next
+morning if everything is all right out here." He hesitated a moment,
+looking Buck steadily in the eyes, a peculiar expression on his face.
+"Peters, yo're a white man, one of th' whitest I ever met, an' you've
+got a white outfit. I don't reckon we'll have no more trouble about
+that line of yourn, not nohow. When we settle down to peace an'
+punching again I'm going to let you show me how to put down some wells
+at th' southern base of yore hills, like you said one day. If I can
+get water, a half as much as you got in th' Jumping Bear, I'll be
+fixed all right. But I want to ask you a fair question, man to man. I
+ain't no real fool an' I've seen more than I'm supposed to, but I want
+to be shore about this, dead shore. What kind of a man is Hopalong
+Cassidy when it comes to women?"
+
+Buck looked at him frankly. "If I had a daughter I wouldn't want a
+better man for her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+DOC TRAILS
+
+
+Doc had not gone far into the chaparral before he realized that his
+work was going to be hard. The trail was much fainter than it would
+have been if the Mexican were mounted; the moonlight failed to
+penetrate the chaparral except in irregular patches which made the
+surrounding shadows all the deeper by contrast; what little he saw of
+the trail led through places far too small and turning too sharply to
+permit being followed by a man on horseback, and lastly, he expected
+every minute to be fired upon, and at close range. He paused and
+thought a while--Antonio would head for Eagle, that being the only
+place where he could get assistance, and there he would find friends.
+Doc picked his way out of the labyrinth of tortuous alleys and finally
+came to a comparatively wide lane leading southeast. He rode at a
+canter now and planned how he would strike the fugitive's trail
+further down, and after he had ridden a few miles he was struck by a
+thought that stopped him at once.
+
+"Hang it all, he might 'a headed for them construction camps or for
+one of th' north ranches, to steal a cayuse," he muttered. "Th' only
+safe thing for me to do is to jump his trail an' stop guessing, an'
+even then mebby he'll get me before I get him. That's a clean gamble,
+an' so here goes," wheeling and retracing his course. When he again
+found the trail at the place he had quit it, he dismounted and crawled
+along on his hands and knees in order to follow the foot-prints among
+the shadows. Then some animal bounded up in front of him and leaped
+away, and as he turned to look after it he caught sight of his horse
+standing on its hind legs, and the next instant it was crashing
+through the chaparral. Drawing his Colt and cursing he ran back in
+time to see the horse gain an alleyway and gallop off. Angered
+thoroughly he sent a shot after it and then followed it, finally
+capturing it in a blind alley. Roundly cursing the frightened beast he
+led it back to where he had left the trail and, keeping one hand on
+the reins, continued to follow the foot-prints. Day broke when he had
+reached the edge of the chaparral and he mounted with a sigh of relief
+and rode forward along the now plainly marked trail.
+
+As he cantered along he kept his eyes searching every possible cover
+ahead of and on both sides of him, watching the trail as far ahead as
+he could see it, for the Mexican might have doubled back to get a
+pursuer as he rode past. After an hour of this caution he slapped his
+thigh and grinned at his foolishness.
+
+"Now ain't I a cussed fool!" he exclaimed. "A regular, old-woman of a
+cow-puncher! That Greaser won't do no doubling back or ambushing.
+He'll shore reckon on being trailed by a bunch an' not by a locoed,
+prize-winning idiot. Why, he's making th' best time he can, an' that's
+a-plenty, too. Besides he ain't got no rifle. Lift yore feet, you
+four-legged sage hen," he cried, spurring his horse into a lope. He
+mechanically felt at the long rifle holster at the saddle flap and
+then looked at it quickly. "An' no rifle for _me_, neither! Oh, well,
+that's all right, too. I don't need any better gun than he's got, th'
+coyote. Canteen full of water an' saddle flaps stuffed with grub. Why,
+old cayuse, if you can do without drinking till we get back to th'
+mesa we'll be plumb happy. Wonder when you was watered last?"
+
+The trail had been swinging to the north more and more and when Doc
+noted this fact he grinned again.
+
+"Nice fool I'd 'a been hunting for these tracks down towards Eagle,
+wouldn't I? But I wonder where he reckons he's going, anyhow?"
+
+Sometime later he had his answer, for he found himself riding towards
+a water hole and then he knew the reason for the trail swinging north.
+He let his mount drink its fill and while he waited he noticed a torn
+sombrero, then a spur, and further away the skeleton of a horse.
+Looking further he saw the skeleton of a man, all that the coyotes had
+left of the body of Dick Archer, the man killed by Red on the day when
+he and Hopalong had discovered that Thunder Mesa was inhabited. He
+pushed around the water hole and then caught sight of something in the
+sand. Edging his mount over to it he leaned down from the saddle and
+picked up a Colt's revolver, fully loaded and as good as the day
+Archer died. That air contained no moisture. As he slipped it in a
+saddle bag he spurred forward at top speed, for on the other side of a
+hummock he saw the head and then the full figure of a man plodding
+away from him, and it was Antonio.
+
+The fugitive, hearing hoofbeats, looked back and then dropped to one
+knee, his rifle going to his shoulder with the movement.
+
+"Where in h--l did _he_ get a rifle?" ejaculated Doc, forcing his
+horse to buck-jump and pitch so as to be an erratic target. "He didn't
+have none when _I_ grabbed him! Th' devil! That cussed skeleton back
+there gave _me_ a six-shooter, an' _him_ a rifle!"
+
+There was a dull smothered report and he saw the Mexican drop the gun
+and rock back and forth, apparently in agony, and he rode forward at
+top speed. Jerking his horse to its haunches he leaped off it just as
+Antonio wiped the blood from his eyes and jerked loose his Remington
+six-shooter. But his first shot missed and before he could fire again
+Doc grappled with him.
+
+This time it was nearly an even break and Doc found that the slim
+figure of his enemy was made up of muscles of steel, that the lazy
+Greaser of the H2 ranch was, when necessary, quick as a cat and filled
+with the courage of desperation. It required all of Doc's attention
+and skill to keep himself from being shot by the other's gun and when
+he finally managed to wrest the weapon loose he was forced to drop it
+quickly and grab the same hand, which by some miracle of speed and
+dexterity now held a knife, a weapon far more deadly in hand-to-hand
+fighting. Once when believing himself to be gone the buckle of his
+belt stayed the slashing thrust and he again fought until the knife
+was above his head. Then, suddenly, two fingers flashed at his eyes
+and missed by so close a margin that Doc's eyebrows were torn open and
+his eyes blinded with blood. Instinct stronger than the effect of the
+disconcerting blindness made him hold his grip on the knife hand, else
+he would have been missing when his foreman looked for him at the
+mesa. He dug the fingers of his left hand, that had gripped around the
+Mexican's waist, into his enemy's side and squeezed the writhing man
+tighter to him, wiping the blood from his eyes on the shirt of the
+other. As he did so he felt Antonio's teeth sink into his shoulder and
+a sudden great burst of rage swept over him and turned a man already
+desperate into a berserker, a mad man.
+
+The grip tightened and then the brawny, bandaged left arm quickly
+slipped up and around the Mexican's neck, pressing against the back of
+it with all the power of the swelling, knotted muscles. A smothered
+cry sobbed into his chest and he bent the knife hand back until the
+muscles were handicapped by their unnatural position and then,
+suddenly releasing both neck and hand, leaped back a step and the next
+instant his heavy boot thudded into the Mexican's stomach and he
+watched the gasping, ghastly-faced rustler sink down in a nerveless
+heap, fighting desperately for the breath that almost refused to
+return.
+
+Doc wiped his eyes free of blood and hastily bound his neck-kerchief
+around the bleeding eyebrows. As he knotted the bandage he stepped
+forward and picked up both the revolver and knife and threw them far
+from him. Glancing at the rifle he saw that it had burst and knew that
+the greased, dirty barrel had been choked with sand. He remembered how
+Curley's rifle had been leaded by the same cause and fierce joy surged
+through him at this act of retributive justice. He waited patiently,
+sneering at the groaning Mexican and taunting him until the desperate
+man had gained his feet.
+
+Doc stepped back a pace, tossing the burst rifle from him, and grinned
+malignantly. "Take yore own time, Greaser. Get all yore wind an'
+strength. _I_ ain't no murderer--I don't ride circles around a man an'
+pot-shoot him. I'm going to kill you fair, with my hands, like I said.
+Th' stronger you are th' better I'll feel when I leave you. An' if you
+should leave me out here on th' sand, all right--but it's got to be
+fair."
+
+When fully recovered Antonio began the struggle by leaping forward,
+thinking his enemy unprepared. Doc faced him like a flash and bent
+low, barely escaping the other's kick. They clinched and swayed to and
+fro, panting, straining, every ounce of strength called into play.
+Then Doc got the throat hold again and took a shower of blows
+unflinchingly. His eyebrows, bleeding again, blinded him, but he could
+feel if he could not see. Slowly the resistance weakened and finally
+Doc wrestled Antonio to his knees, bending over the Mexican and slowly
+tightening his grip; and the man who had murdered Curley went through
+all he had felt at the base of the mesa wall, at last paying with his
+life for his career of murder, theft, fear, and hypocrisy.
+
+Doc arose and went to his horse. Leading the animal back to the scene
+of the struggle he stood a while, quietly watching the Mexican for any
+sign of life, although he knew there would be none.
+
+"Well, bronc, Curley's squared," he muttered, swinging into the saddle
+and turning the animal's head. "Come on, get out of this!" he
+exclaimed, quirting hard. As he passed the water hole he bowed to the
+broken skeleton. "Much obliged, stranger, whoever you was. Yore last
+play was a good one."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+DISCOVERIES
+
+
+When the two foremen entered the firing line again they saw Red
+Connors and they cautiously went towards him. As they came within
+twenty feet of him Buck chanced to glance across the cut and what he
+saw brought a sudden smile to his face.
+
+"Meeker, Red has got that spring under his gun!" he exclaimed in a low
+voice. "They can't get within ten feet of it or within ten feet of th'
+water at any point along its course. This is too good to bungle--wait
+for me," and he ran out of sight around a bend in the crevice, Meeker
+staring across at the spring, his eyes following the rivulet until it
+flowed into the deep, narrow cut it had worn in the side of the mesa.
+
+Red looked around. "Why, hullo, Meeker! Where's Buck? Thought I heard
+him a minute ago. If you have got any water to spare I can use some of
+it good. Some thief drilled my canteen when I went fooling along this
+barranca, an' I ain't got a drop left."
+
+Meeker began to move closer to him, Red warning him to be careful, and
+adding, "Three of them fellers ain't doing nothing but watch this
+cut. Scared we'll get across it an' flank 'em, I reckon."
+
+"Do you know that yo're covering their water supply?" Meeker asked,
+handing his canteen to his thirsty companion. "They can't get to it as
+long as you stay here. That's why they're after you so hard."
+
+Red wiped his lips on his sleeve and sighed contentedly. "It's blamed
+hot, but it's wet. But is that right? Am I keeping 'em thirsty?
+Where's th' water?"
+
+"Shore you are; it's right over there--see that little ditch?" Meeker
+replied, pointing.
+
+_Bing! Spat!_
+
+The H2 foreman dropped his arm and grinned. "They're watching us purty
+close, ain't they? Didn't miss me far, at that," showing his companion
+a torn sleeve and a lead splotch on the rock behind him.
+
+"Not a whole lot. Two of them fellers can shoot like blazes. Yo're
+plumb lucky," Red responded. "If you'd showed more'n yore sleeve that
+time they'd 'a hit you." He looked across the cut and puckered his
+brow. "Well, if that's where their water is they don't get none. Mebby
+we can force 'em out if we watches that spring right smart."
+
+"Here comes Buck now, with Skinny."
+
+"It's too good a card to lose, Skinny," the Bar-20 foreman was saying
+as he approached. "You settle some place near here where you can pot
+anybody that tries for a drink. Mebby this little trick wins th' game
+for us--_quien sabe?_ Hullo, Red; where's yore side pardner?"
+
+"Oh, he went prospecting along this barranca to see if he could get
+across," Red replied. "He wants to get up on top of that ridge behind
+th' shack. Says if he can do it th' fight won't last long. See how it
+overlooks their layout?"
+
+Buck looked and his eyes glistened. "An' he's right, too, like he is
+generally. That's th' key, an' it lies between them an' th' spring.
+Beats all how quick that feller can size up a hand. If he could play
+poker as well as he can fight he could quit working for a living."
+
+"Yes; yo're shore right," Red replied.
+
+Several shots rang out from the breastwork and the bullets hummed past
+them down the cut. A burst of derisive laughter replied fifty yards to
+their right and a taunt followed it. More shots were fired and
+answered by another laugh and taunt, inducing profanity from the
+marksman, and then Hopalong called to Red. "Six out of seven went
+plumb through my sombrero, Red, when I poked it out to find if they
+was looking. They was. Purty good for 'em, eh?"
+
+"Too blamed good to suit me--lucky yore head wasn't in it," Red
+replied.
+
+Hopalong, singing in stentorian voice an original version of "Mary and
+Her Little Lamb" in which it seemed he aspired to be the lamb, finally
+came into view with a perforated sombrero in his hand, which he eyed
+ruefully. "A good roof gone up, but I didn't reckon everybody was
+looking my way," he grumbled. "Somebody shore has got to pay for that
+lid, too," then he glanced up, saw Meeker, and looked foolish.
+"Howd'y, Meeker; what's new, Buck?"
+
+"Hey, Hoppy! Did you know I was covering their drinking water?" asked
+Red, triumphantly.
+
+"I knowed you was covering some of it, but you needn't take on no airs
+about it, for you didn't know it," Hopalong retorted. "What I want to
+know is why you wasn't covering _me_, like you said you would!" he
+cried, eying Red's sombrero, which lay at his feet. "It's all yore
+fault that my Stetson's bust wide open, an' that being so, we'll just
+swap, right now, too!" suiting the action to the words.
+
+"Hey! Gimme that war-bonnet, you bunch of gall!" yelled Red kicking at
+his tormentor and missing. "Gimme that, d'y hear!"
+
+"Give you a punch in th' eye, you sheep!" retorted Hopalong, backing
+away. "Think you can get away with a play like that after saying you
+was going to cover me? _I_ ain't no papoose, you animated carrot!"
+
+"Gimme that Stetson!" Red commanded, starting to arise. There was a
+sharp hum and he dropped back again, blood flowing from his cheek,
+that being the extent of his person he had so inadvertently exposed.
+"There, blank you! See what you made me do! Going to drop that hat?"
+
+"Why don't you give 'em a good shot at you? That ain't no way to treat
+'em--but honest, Red, you shouldn't get so excited over a little thing
+like that," Hopalong replied. "Now, I'll leave it to Meeker,
+here--hadn't I ought to take his roof?"
+
+Meeker laughed. "Th' Court reserves its decision, but possession is
+nine points in law."
+
+"Huh! Possession is everything. Since I can keep it, why, then,
+according to th' Court, th' hat belongs to me. Hear that, Red?"
+
+"Yes, I hear it! An' if I wasn't so cussed busy I'd show you how long
+you'd keep it," Red rejoined. "I'll bet you a hat you don't keep it a
+day after we get this off'n our hands. Bow-legged Algernon, you!"
+
+"Done--then I'll have two hats; one for work an' one to wear when I'm
+visiting," Hopalong laughed. "But you've got th' best of th' swap,
+anyhow. That new lid of yourn, holes an' all, is worth twice as much
+as this wool thing I'm getting for it. My old one is a _hat!_"
+
+Red refused to lower his dignity by replying and soon fired. "Huh!
+Reckon that feller won't shoot no more with his right hand."
+
+"Say, I near forgot to tell you Meeker captured one of them fellers
+out back; got him tied up now," Buck remarked, relating the incident,
+Meeker interrupting to give the Bar-20 foreman all the credit.
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Red. "It's a rope necktie for him. An' one less to
+shoot at me."
+
+"An' _you_ here, Buck!" cried Hopalong in surprise. "Come on, lead th'
+way! How do you know he was th' only one to get behind us! Good
+Lord!"
+
+"Gosh, yo're right!" Buck exclaimed, running off. "Come on, Jim. We're
+a pair of fools, after all!"
+
+At the other end of the line Chick Travers and George Cross did as
+well as they could with their Colts, but found their efforts
+unavailing. Their positions were marked by the rustlers and they had
+several narrow escapes, both being wounded, Cross twice. Ten yards
+west of them Frenchy McAllister was crawling forward a foot at a time
+from cover to cover and so far he had not been hit. His position also
+had been marked and he was now trying to find a new one unobserved,
+where he could have a chance to shoot once without instantly being
+fired upon. Pete and Johnny had separated, the latter having given up
+his attempt to make the rustler pay for his wounded ear. He had
+emptied the magazine of the rifle he had found and now only used his
+Colt. As he worked along the firing line he saw Frenchy ten yards in
+front of him, covered nicely by a steep rise in the ground.
+
+"How are you doing out there, Frenchy?" he asked in a low voice.
+
+"Not very good; wish I had my rifle," came the soft-spoken reply.
+
+"I had one that I found, but I used up all th' cartridges there was in
+th' magazine."
+
+"What kind an' caliber?"
+
+".45-70 Winchester. I found it by th' ropes. Pete says he reckoned
+some rustler must have left it behind an' got away down th'--"
+
+"Get it for me, Kid, will you?" interrupted Frenchy, eagerly. "I
+plumb forgot to leave my belt of rifle cartridges back in th' camp.
+Got it on now, an' it's chock full, too. Hurry up, an' I'll work back
+to you for it."
+
+"What luck! In a second," Johnny exulted, disappearing. Returning with
+the rifle he handed it to his friend and gazed longingly at the
+beltful of rifle cartridges. "Say, Frenchy," he began. "You know we'll
+all have our rifles to-night, an' you've got more cartridges for that
+than you can use before then. It won't be more than three hours before
+we send for ours. Suppose you gimme some of them for Pete--he's got
+th' mate to that gun, an' can't use it no more because it's empty."
+
+"Shore, Kid," and Frenchy slipped a handful of cartridges out of his
+belt and gave them to Johnny. "With my compliments to Pete. What was
+that you was saying about rustlers an' th' ropes?"
+
+Johnny told of Pete's deductions regarding the finding of the rifles
+and Frenchy agreed with them, and also that Doc had taken care of the
+owners of the weapons when they had reached the plain.
+
+"Well, I'm going further away from them thieves now that I've got
+something to shoot with," Frenchy asserted. "They won't be looking for
+any of us a hundred yards or more farther back. Mebbe I can catch some
+of 'em unawares."
+
+"I'll chase off an' give Pete these pills," Johnny replied. "He'll be
+tickled plumb to death. He was cussing bad when I left him."
+
+George Cross, crawling along a steep, smooth rock barely under the
+shelter of a bowlder, endeavored to grasp the top, but under-reached
+and slipped, rolling down to the bottom and in plain sight of the
+rustlers. As his companion, Chick Travers, tried to help him two shots
+rang out and Cross, sitting up with his hands to his head, toppled
+back to arise no more. Chick leaped up and fired twice at one of the
+marksmen, and missed. His actions had been so sudden and unexpected
+that he escaped the return shot which passed over him by a foot as he
+dropped back to cover. Somehow the whole line seemed to feel that
+there had been a death among them, as evidenced by the burst of firing
+along it. And the whole line felt another thing; that the cartridges
+of the rustlers were getting low, for they seemed to be saving their
+shots. But it was Hopalong who found the cause of the diminishing
+fire. After hunting fruitlessly with the two foremen and finding that
+Hall was the only man to get back of the firing line he left his two
+companions in order to learn the condition of his friends. As he made
+his way along the line he chanced to look towards the hut and saw four
+rifles on the floor of it, and back of them, piled against the wall,
+was the rustlers' main supply of ammunition. Calling out, he was
+answered by Pete, who soon joined him.
+
+"Pete, you lucky devil, turn that rifle through th' door of th' shack
+an' keep it on them cartridges," he ordered. "They ain't been shooting
+as fast as they was at first, an' there's th' reason for it. Oh, just
+wait till daylight to-morrow! They won't last long after that!"
+
+"They won't get them cartridges, anyhow," Pete replied with
+conviction.
+
+"Hey, fellers," cried a voice, and they looked around to see Chick
+Travers coming towards them. "Yore man Cross has passed. He rolled off
+his ledge an' couldn't stop. They got him when he hit th' bottom of
+it."
+
+"D--n 'em!" growled Hopalong. "We'll square our accounts to-morrow
+morning. Pete, you watch them cartridges."
+
+"Shore--" _Bang!_ "Did you see that?" Pete asked, frantically pumping
+the lever of his rifle.
+
+"Yes!" cried Chick. "Some feller tried to get in that south window!
+Bet he won't try again after that hint. Hear him cuss? There--Red must
+'a fired then, too!"
+
+"Good boy, Pete!--keep 'em out. We'll have somebody in there after
+dark," Hopalong responded. "They've got th' best covers now, but we'll
+turn th' table on 'em when th' sun comes up to-morrow."
+
+"Here comes Buck an' Meeker," remarked Chick. "Them two are getting a
+whole lot chummy lately, all right. They're allus together."
+
+"That's good, too. They're both of 'em all right," Hopalong replied,
+running to meet them. Chick saw the three engage in a consultation and
+look towards the hut and the ridge behind it, Buck and Meeker nodding
+slowly at what Hopalong was saying. Then they moved off towards the
+west where they could examine the building at closer range.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+JOHNNY TAKES THE HUT
+
+
+As the day waned the dropping shots became less and less frequent and
+the increasing darkness began to work its magic. The unsightly plain
+with its crevices and bowlders and scrawny vegetation would soon be
+changed into one smooth blot, to be lighted with the lurid flashes of
+rifles as Red and Pete fired at irregular intervals through the south
+windows of the hut to keep back any rustler who tried to get the
+ammunition within its walls. Two were trying and had approached the
+window just as a bullet hummed through it. They stopped and looked at
+each other and moved forward again. Then a bullet from Pete's rifle,
+entering through the open door, hummed out the window and struck
+against the rocky ridge.
+
+"Say! Them coyotes can see us through that windy," remarked Clausen.
+"Th' sky at our backs is too light yet."
+
+"They can't see us standing here," objected Shaw.
+
+"Then what are they shooting at?"
+
+"Cuss me if I know. Looks like they was using th' winder for a
+target. Reckon we better wait till it gets darker."
+
+"If we wait till it's dark we can sneak in through th' door,"
+suggested Clausen. "If we go in crawling we ain't likely to stop no
+shot high enough to go through that windy."
+
+"You can if you wants, but I ain't taking no chances like that, none
+whatever."
+
+Another shot whined through the window and stopped with an angry spat
+against the ridge. Shaw scratched his head reflectively. "It shore
+beats me why they keeps that up. There ain't no sense to it," he
+declared in aggrieved tones. "They don't know nothing about them
+cartridges in there."
+
+"That's it!" exclaimed Clausen, excitedly. "I bet a stack of blues
+they do know. An' they're covering somebody going in to steal 'em. Oh,
+h--l!" and he slammed his hat to the ground in bitter anger. "An' us
+a-standing here like a couple of mired cows! I'm going to risk it."
+
+"Wait," advised Shaw. "Let's try a hat an' see if they plug at it."
+
+"Wait be d----d! My feet are growing roots right now. I'm going in,"
+and Clausen broke away from his friend and ran towards the hut, a
+crouching run, comical to look at but effective because it kept his
+head below the level of the window; without pausing in his stride his
+body lengthened into a supple curve as he plunged head foremost
+through the window, landing on the cabin floor with hands and feet
+bunched under him, his passing seen only as a fleeting, puzzling
+shadow, by the watchful eyes outside.
+
+Across the cut Johnny was giving Red instructions and turned to leave.
+"Th' cut is full of shadows an' th' moon ain't up yet. Now, remember,
+one more shot through that window--I'm going to foller it right in.
+Get word to Pete as soon as you can, though I won't pass th' door.
+He's only got three cartridges left an' he'll be getting some anxious
+about now. So long."
+
+"So long, an' good luck, Kid," Red replied.
+
+Johnny wriggled across the cut on his stomach, picking out the shadows
+and gaining the shelter of the opposite bank, stood up, and ran to the
+hut. Red fired and then Johnny cautiously climbed through the window
+and dropped to the floor.
+
+He had anticipated Clausen by the fraction of a second. As his feet
+touched the floor the noise of Clausen's arrival saluted him and the
+startled Johnny jerked his gun loose and sent a shot in the other's
+direction, leaping aside on the instant. The flash of the discharge
+was gone too quickly for him to distinguish anything and the
+scrambling sound that followed mystified him further. That there had
+been no return shot did not cause him to dance with joy, far
+otherwise; it made him drop silently to his stomach and hunt the
+darkest part of the hut, the west wall. He lay still for a minute,
+eyes and ears strained for a sound to tell him where to shoot. Then
+Red called to him and wanted an answer, whereupon Johnny thought of
+things he ached to call Red. Then he heard a low voice outside the
+south window, and it called: "Clausen, Clausen--what happened? Why
+don't you answer?"
+
+"Oh, so my guest is Clausen, hey?" Johnny thought. "Wonder if Clausen
+can see in th' dark? 'Nother d----d fool wanting an answer! I'll bet
+Clausen is hugging th' dark spots, too. Wonder if I scared him as much
+as he scared me?"
+
+The suspense was becoming too much of a strain and, poking his Colt
+out in front of him, he began to move forward, his eyes staring ahead
+of him at the place where Clausen ought to be.
+
+Inch by inch he advanced, holding his breath as well as he could,
+every moment expecting to have Clausen salute him in the face with a
+hot .45. Johnny was scared, and well scared, but it only proves
+courage to go on when scared stiff, and Johnny went on and along the
+wall he thought Clausen was using for a highway.
+
+"Wonder how it feels to have yore brains blowed out," he shivered.
+"For God's sake, Clausen, make a noise--sneeze, cough, choke, yell,
+anything!" he prayed, but Clausen remained ominously silent. Johnny
+pushed his Colt out farther and poked it all around. Touching the wall
+it made a slight scraping sound and Johnny's blood froze. Still no
+move from Clausen, and his fright went down a notch--Clausen was
+evidently even more scared than he was. That was consoling. Perhaps he
+was so scared that he couldn't pull a trigger, which would be far more
+consoling.
+
+"Johnny! Johnny! Answer, can't you!" came Red's stentorian voice,
+causing Johnny to jump a few inches off the floor.
+
+"Clausen! Clausen!" came another voice.
+
+"For God's sake, answer, Clausen! Tell 'em yo're here!" prayed Johnny.
+"Yo're d----d unpolite, anyhow."
+
+By this time he was opposite the door and he wondered if Pete had been
+told not to bombard it. He stopped and looked, and stared. What was
+that thing on the floor? Or was it anything at all? He blinked and
+moved closer. It looked like a head, but Johnny was taking no chances.
+He stared steadily into the blackest part of the hut for a moment and
+then looked again at the object. He could see it a little plainer now,
+for it was not quite as dark outside as it was in the building; but he
+was not sure about it.
+
+"Can't fool me, you coyote," he thought. "Yo're hugging this wall as
+tight as a tick on a cow, a blamed sight tighter than I am, an' in
+about a minute I'm going to shoot along it about four inches from th'
+floor. I'd just as soon get shot as be scared to death, anyhow. Mebby
+we've passed each other! An' Holy Medicine! Mebby there's two of 'em!"
+
+He regarded the object again. "That shore looks like a head, all
+right." He felt a pebble under his hand and drawing back a little he
+covered the questionable object and then tossed the pebble at it.
+"Huh, if it's a head, why in thunder didn't it move?"
+
+There were footsteps outside the south window and he listened, the
+Colt ready to stop any one rash enough to look in, Clausen or no
+Clausen.
+
+"Where's Clausen, Shaw?" said a voice, and the reply was so low Johnny
+could not make it out.
+
+"Yes; that's just what I want to know," and Johnny stared in frowning
+intentness at the supposed head. He moved closer to the object and by
+dint of staring thought he saw the head and shoulders of a man face
+down in a black, shallow pool. Then his hand became wet and he jerked
+it back and wiped it on his sleeve; he could hardly believe his
+senses. As he grasped the significance of his discovery he grinned
+sheepishly and moved back to the north wall, where no rustler's bullet
+could find him. "Lord! An' I got him th' first crack! Got him shooting
+by ear!"
+
+"Johnny! Johnny!" came Red's roar, anxious and querulous.
+
+Johnny wheeled and shook his Colt out of the window, for the moment
+forgetting the peril of losing sight of the opening in the other wall.
+"I'll Johnny _you_, you blankety-blank fool!" he shouted. Then he
+heard a curse at the south window and turned quickly, his Colt
+covering the opening. "An' I'll Johnny you too, you cow-stealing
+coyotes! Stick yore thieving heads in that windy an' holler for yore
+Clausen! _I_ can show you where he is, an' send you after him if
+you'll just take a look! Want them cartridges, hey? Well, come an' get
+'em!"
+
+A bullet, fired at an angle through the window, was the reply and
+several hummed through the open door and glanced off the steep sides
+of the ridge. Waiting until they stopped coming he dropped and
+wriggled forward along the west wall, feeling in front of him until he
+touched a box. Grasping it he dragged the important cartridges to him
+and then backed to the north window with them.
+
+He fell to stuffing his pockets with the captured ammunition and then
+stopped short and grinned happily. "Might as well _hold_ this shack
+an' wait for somebody to look in that windy. They can't get me."
+
+He dropped the box and walked to the heavy plank door, slamming it
+shut. He heard the thud of bullets in it as he propped it, and
+laughed. "Can't shoot through them planks, they're double thick." He
+smelled his sticky fingers. "An' they're full of resin, besides."
+
+He stopped suddenly and frowned as a fear entered his mind; and then
+smiled, reassured. "Nope; no rustling snake can climb up that
+ridge--not with Red an' Pete watching it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+THE LAST NIGHT
+
+
+Fifty yards behind the firing line of the besiegers a small fire
+burned brightly in a steep-walled basin, casting grotesque shadows on
+the rock walls as men passed and re-passed. Overhead a silvery moon
+looked down at the cheerful blaze and from the cracks and crevices of
+the plain came the tuneful chorus of Nature's tiny musicians, sounding
+startlingly out of place where men were killing and dying. A little
+aside from the others three men in consultation reached a mutual
+understanding and turned to face their waiting friends just as Pete
+Wilson ran into the lighted circle.
+
+"Hey, Johnny is in th' hut with th' cartridges," he exclaimed, telling
+the story in a few words.
+
+"Good for th' Kid!"
+
+"It's easy now, thanks to him."
+
+"Why didn't he tell us he was going to try that?" demanded Buck.
+"Taking a chance like that on his own hook!"
+
+"Scared you wouldn't let him," Pete laughed. "Red an' me backed him up
+with our rifles th' best we could. He had a fight in there, too,
+judging from th' shot. He had me an' Red worried, thinking he might 'a
+been hit, but he was cussing Red when I left."
+
+"Well, that helps us a lot," Buck replied. "Now I want three of you to
+go to camp an' bring back grub, rifles, an' cartridges. Pete, Skinny,
+Chick--yo're th' ones. Leave yore canteens here an' hustle! Hopalong,
+you an' Meeker go off somewhere an' get some sleep. I'll call you
+before it gets light. Frenchy, me an' you will take all th' canteens
+at hand an' fill 'em while we've got time. They won't be able to see
+us now. We'll pass Red an' get his, too. Come on."
+
+When they returned they dropped the dripping vessels and began
+cleaning their Colts. That done they filled their pipes and sat
+cross-legged, staring into the fire. A snatch of Johnny's exultant
+song floated to them and Buck smiled, laying his pipe aside and
+rising. "Well, Frenchy, things'll happen in chunks when th' sun comes
+up. Something like old times, eh? There ain't no Deacon Rankin or
+Slippery Trendley here--" he stopped, having mentioned a name he had
+promised himself never to say in Frenchy's presence, and then
+continued in a subdued voice, bitterly scourging himself for his
+blunder. "They're stronger than I thought, an' they've shot us up
+purty well, killed Willis an' Cross, an' made fools of us for weeks on
+th' range; but this is th' end of it all. _We_ deal to-morrow, an' we
+cut th' cards to-night."
+
+Frenchy was strangely silent, staring fixedly at the fire. Buck
+glanced at him in strong sympathy, for he knew what his slip of the
+tongue had awakened in his friend's heart. Frenchy had adored his
+young wife and since the day he had found her foully murdered in his
+cabin on the Double Y he had been another man. When the moment of his
+vengeance had come, when he had her murderer in his power and saw his
+friends ride away to leave him alone with Trendley that day over in
+the Panhandle, to exact what payment he wished, then he had become his
+old self for a while, but it was not long before he again sank into
+his habitual carelessness, waiting patiently for death to remove his
+burden and make him free. His vengeance did not bring him back his
+wife.
+
+Buck shook his head slowly and affectionately placed a heavy hand on
+his friend's shoulder. "Frenchy, won't you ever forget it? It hurts me
+to see you this way so much. It's over twenty years now an' day after
+day I've grieved to see you so unhappy. You paid him for it in yore
+own way. Can't you forget it now?"
+
+"Yes; I killed him, an' slow. He never thought a man could make th'
+payment so hard, not even his black heart could realize it till he
+felt it," Frenchy replied, slowly and calmly. "He took th' heart out
+of me; he killed my wife and made my life a living hell. All I had
+worth living for went that day, an' if I could kill him over again
+every day for a year it wouldn't square th' score. I reckon I ain't
+built like other men. You never heard me whimper. I kept my poison to
+myself an' tried to do the best that was in me. An' you ain't never
+heard me say what I'm going to tell you now. I never believed in
+hunches, but something tells me that I'll leave all this behind me
+before another day passes. I felt it somehow when we left th' ranch
+an' it's been growing stronger every hour since. If I do pass out
+to-morrow, I want you to be glad of it, same as I would be if I could
+know. I'm going back to th' line now an' watch them fellers. So long."
+
+The two men, bosom friends for thirty years, looked in each other's
+eyes as they grasped hands, and it was Buck's eyes that grew moist and
+dropped first. "So long, Frenchy--an' good luck, as you see it."
+
+The foreman watched his friend until lost in the darkness and he
+thought he heard him singing, but of this he was not sure. He turned
+and stared at the fire for a minute, silent, immovable, and then
+breathed heavily.
+
+"I never saw anybody carry a grief so long, never," he soliloquized.
+"I reckon it sort of turned his brain, coming so sudden an' in such a
+damnable way. I know it made me see red for a week. If I had only
+stayed there that day! When he got Trendley in th' Panhandle I hoped
+he would change, an' he did for a while, but that was all. He lived
+for that alone, an' since then I reckon he's felt he hadn't nothing to
+do with his life. He has been mixed up in a bunch of gun-arguments
+since then; but he didn't have no luck. Well, Frenchy, I hate to lose
+a friend like you, but here's better luck to-morrow, luck as you see
+it, friend!"
+
+He kicked the fire together and was about to add fuel when he heard
+two quick shots and raised his head to listen. Then a ringing whoop
+came from the front and he recognized Johnny's voice. He heard Red
+call out and Johnny reply and he smiled grimly as he went towards the
+sounds. "Reckon somebody tried to get in that shack, like a fool. He
+must 'a been disgusted. How that Kid shore does love a fight!"
+
+     Joyous Joe got a juniper jag,
+       A-jogging out of Jaytown,
+
+came down the wind.
+
+"Did you get him, Kid?" cried Buck from the firing line.
+
+"Nope; got his hat, though--but I shore got Clausen an' all of their
+cartridges!"
+
+"Can you keep them shells alone?"
+
+"_Can_ I? _Wow_, ask th' other fellers! An' I'm eating jerked
+beef--sorry I can't give you some."
+
+"Shut up about eating, you pig!" blazed Red, who was hungry.
+
+"You'll eat hot lead to-morrow, all of you!" jeered a rustler's voice.
+
+Red fired at the sound. "Take yourn now!" he shouted.
+
+"You can't hit a cow!" came the taunt, while other strange voices
+joined in.
+
+Buck found Red and ordered him to camp to get some sleep before Pete
+and the others returned, feeling that he and Frenchy were enough to
+watch. Red demurred sleepily and finally compromised by lying down at
+Buck's side, where he would be handy in case of trouble. Buck waited
+patiently, too heavily laden with responsibility to feel the need of
+rest, and when he judged that three hours had passed began to worry
+about the men he had sent to camp. Drawing back into a crevice he
+struck a match and looked at his watch.
+
+"Twelve o'clock!" he muttered. "I'll wake Red an' see how Frenchy is
+getting on. Time them fellers were back too."
+
+Frenchy changed his position uneasily and peered at the distant
+breastwork, hearing the low murmur of voices behind it. All night he
+had heard their curses, but a new note made him sit up and watch more
+closely. The moon was coming up now and he could see better. Suddenly
+he caught the soft flash of a silver sombrero buckle and fired
+instantly. Curses and a few shots replied and a new, querulous voice
+was added to the murmur, a voice expressing pain.
+
+"I reckon you got him," remarked a quiet voice at his side as Buck lay
+down beside him. The foreman had lost some time in wandering along the
+whole line of defence and was later than he had expected.
+
+"Yes; I reckon so," Frenchy replied without interest, and they lapsed
+into silence, the eloquent silence of men who understand each other.
+They heard a shot from below and knew that Billy or Curtis was about
+and smiled grimly at the rising murmur it caused among the rustlers.
+Buck glanced at the sky and frowned. "There can't be more'n five or
+six left by now, an' if it wasn't for th' moon I'd get th' boys
+together an' rush that bunch." He was silent for a moment and then
+added, half to himself, "but it won't be long now, an' we can wait."
+
+Distant voices heralded the return of Pete and his companions and the
+foreman arose. "Frenchy, I'm going to place th' boys an' start things
+right away. We've been quiet too long."
+
+"Might as well," Frenchy replied, "I'm getting sleepy--straining my
+eyes too much, I reckon, trying to see a little better than I can."
+
+"Here's th' stuff, Buck," Skinny remarked as the foreman entered the
+circle of light. "Two days' fighting rations, fifty rounds for th'
+rifles an' fifty for th' Colts. Chick is coming back there with th'
+rifles."
+
+"Good. Had yore grub yet?" Buck asked. "All right--didn't reckon you'd
+wait for it. What kept you so long? You've been gone over three
+hours."
+
+"We was talking to Billy an' Curtis," Skinny remarked. "They're
+anxious to have it over. They've been spelling each other an' getting
+some sleep. We saw Doc's saddle piled on top of th' grub when we got
+to camp. It wasn't there when we all left th' other night. Billy says
+Doc came running past last night, saddled up an' rode off. He got back
+this afternoon wearing a bandage around his head. He didn't say where
+he had been, but now he is at th' bottom of th' trail waiting for a
+shot, so Billy says. Pete reckons he went after somebody that got
+down last night, one of them fellers that left their rifles up here by
+th' ropes."
+
+"Mebby yo're right," replied Buck, hurriedly. "Get ready to fight. I
+ain't going to wait for daylight when this moonlight will answer.
+Pete, Skinny, Chick--you get settled out on th' east end, where me an'
+Frenchy will join you. We'll have this game over before long."
+
+He strode away and returned with Hopalong and Meeker, who hastily ate
+and drank and, filling their belts with cartridges and taking their
+own rifles from the pile Chick had brought, departed toward the cut
+with orders for Red to come in.
+
+Pete and his companions moved away as Frenchy, shortly followed by
+Red, came in and reported.
+
+"Eat an' drink, lively. Red, you get back to yore place an' take care
+of th' cut," Buck ordered. "Frenchy, you come out east with th' rest.
+There's cartridges for you both an' there's yore own rifle, Frenchy."
+
+"Glad yo're going to start things," chewed Red through a mouthful of
+food. "It's about time we show them fellers we can live up to our
+reputations. Any of 'em coming my way won't go far."
+
+Frenchy filled his pipe and lighted it from a stick he took out of the
+fire and as it began to draw well he stepped quickly forward and held
+out his hand. "Good luck, Red. They can't fight long."
+
+"Same to you, Frenchy," Red cried, grasping the hand. "Yo're right,
+there. You look plumb wide awake, like Buck--how'd you do it?"
+
+Frenchy laughed and strode after his foreman, Red watching him. "He's
+acting funny--reckon it's th' sleep he's missed. Well, here goes," and
+he, too, went off to the firing line.
+
+     --An' aching thoughts pour in on me,
+       Of Whiskey Bill,
+
+came Johnny's song from the hut--and the fight began again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+THEIR LAST FIGHT
+
+
+A figure suddenly appeared on the top of the flanking ridge, outlined
+against the sky, and flashes of flame spurted from its hands, while
+kneeling beside it was another, rapidly working a rifle, the roar of
+the guns deafening because of the silence which preceded it. Shouts,
+curses, and a few random, futile shots replied from the breastworks,
+its defenders, panic-stricken by the surprise and the deadly accuracy
+of the two marksmen, scurrying around the bend in their
+fortifications, so busy in seeking shelter that they failed to make
+their shots tell. Two men, riddled by bullets, lay where they had
+fallen and the remaining three, each of them wounded more than once,
+crouched under cover and turned their weapons against the new factors;
+but these had already slid down the face of the ridge and were
+crawling along the breastwork, alert and cautious.
+
+In front of the rustlers heavy firing burst out along the cowmen's
+line and Red Connors, from his old position above the cut, swung part
+way around and turned his rifle against the remnant of the defenders
+at another angle, and fired at every mark, whether it was hand, foot,
+or head; while Johnny, tumbling out of the south window of the hut,
+followed in the wake of Hopalong and Meeker. The east end of the line
+was wrapped in smoke, where Buck and his companions labored zealously.
+
+Along the narrow trail up the mesa's face a man toiled heavily and it
+was not long before Doc Riley opened fire from the rear. The three
+rustlers, besieged from all sides, found their positions to be most
+desperate and knew then that only a few minutes intervened between
+them and eternity. They had three choices--to surrender, to die
+fighting, or to leap from the mesa to instant death below.
+
+Shaw, to his credit, chose the second and like a cornered wolf goaded
+to despair leaped up and forward to take a gambler's chance of gaining
+the hut. Before him were Hopalong, Meeker, Johnny, and Doc. Doc was
+hastily reloading his Colt, Johnny was temporarily out of sight as he
+crawled around a bowlder, and Hopalong was greatly worried by
+ricochettes and wild shots from the rifles of his friends which
+threatened to end his career. Meeker alone was watching at that moment
+but his attention was held by the rustler near the edge of the mesa
+who was trying to shrink himself to fit the small rock in front of him
+and to use his gun at the same time.
+
+Shaw sprang from his cover and straight at the H2 foreman, his foot
+slipping slightly as he fired. The bullet grazed Meeker's waist, but
+the second, fired as the rustler was recovering his balance, bored
+through Meeker's shoulder. The H2 foreman, bending forward for a shot
+at the man behind the small rock, was caught unawares and his balance,
+already strained, was destroyed by the shock of the second bullet, and
+he flopped down to all fours. Shaw sprang over him just as Hopalong
+and Johnny caught sight of him and he swung his revolver on Hopalong
+at the moment when the latter's bullet crashed through his brain.
+
+Buck Peters, trying for a better position, slipped on the rock which
+had been the cause of the death of George Cross and before he could
+gain his feet a figure leaped down in front of him and raised a Colt
+in his defence, but spun half way around and fell, shot through the
+head. A cry of rage went up at this and a rush was made against the
+breastworks from front and side. Frenchy McAllister's forebodings had
+come true.
+
+Sanchez, finding his revolver empty and with no time to reload, held
+up his hands. Frisco, blinded by blood, wounded in half a dozen
+places, desperate, snarling, and still unbeaten, wheeled viciously,
+but before he could pull his trigger, Hopalong grasped him and hurled
+him down, Johnny going with them. Doc, a second too late, waved his
+sombrero. "Come on, it's all over!"
+
+In another second the rushing punchers from the front slid and rolled
+and plunged over the breastwork and eyed the results of their fire.
+
+Meeker staggered around the corner and leaned against Buck for
+support. "My G-d! This is awful! I didn't think we were doing so much
+damage."
+
+"I did!" retorted Buck. "I know what happens when my outfit burns
+powder. Where's Red?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"Here I am," replied a voice behind him.
+
+"All right; take that Greaser to th' hut, somebody," the foreman
+ordered. "Johnny, you an' Pete take this feller there, too," pointing
+to Frisco. "He's th' one that killed Frenchy. Hopalong, take Red, an'
+bring in that feller me an' Meeker tied up in that crevice, if he
+ain't got away."
+
+Hopalong and Red went off to bring in Hall and Buck turned to the
+others. "You fellers doctor yore wounds. Meeker, yo're hard hit," he
+remarked, more closely looking at the H2 foreman.
+
+"Yes. I know it--loss of blood, mostly," Meeker replied. "An' if it
+hadn't been for Cassidy I'd been hit a d----d sight harder. Where's
+Doc? He knows what to do--_Doc_!"
+
+"Coming," replied a voice and Doc turned the corner. He had a limited
+knowledge of the work he was called upon to do, and practice, though
+infrequent, had kept it more or less fresh.
+
+"Reckon yo're named about right, Doc," Buck remarked as he passed the
+busy man. "You got me beat an' I ain't no slouch."
+
+"I'd 'a been a real Doc if I hadn't left college like a fool to punch
+cows,--you've got to keep still, Jim," he chided.
+
+"Hey, Buck," remarked Hopalong, joining the crowd and grinning at the
+injured, "we've got that feller in th' shack. When th' feller I
+grabbed out here saw him he called him Hall. Th' other is Frisco an'
+th' Greaser ain't got no name, I reckon. How you feeling, Meeker? That
+was Shaw plugged you."
+
+"Feeling better'n him," Meeker growled. "Yo're a good man to work
+with, Cassidy."
+
+"Well, Cassidy, got any slugs in you?" affably asked Doc, the man
+Hopalong had wounded on the line a few weeks before. Doc brandished a
+knife and cleaning rod and appeared to be anxious to use them on
+somebody else.
+
+"No; but what do you do with them things?" Hopalong rejoined, feeling
+of his bandage.
+
+"Take out bullets," Doc grinned.
+
+"Oh, I see; you cut a hole in th' back an' then push 'em right
+through," Hopalong laughed. "Reckon I'd ruther have 'em go right
+through without stopping. Who's that calling?"
+
+"Billy an' Curtis. Tell 'em to come up," Buck replied, walking towards
+the place where Frenchy's body lay.
+
+Hopalong went to the edge and replied to the shouts and it was not
+long before they appeared. When Doc saw them he grinned pleasantly and
+drew them aside, trying to coax them to let him repair them. But
+Billy, eying the implements, sidestepped and declined with alacrity;
+Curtis was the victim.
+
+"After _him_ th' undertaker," Billy growled, going towards the hut.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+A DISAGREEABLE TASK
+
+
+Two men, Hall and Frisco, sat with their backs against the wall of the
+hut, weaponless, wounded, nervous, one sullen and enraged, the other
+growling querulously to himself about his numerous wounds. The third
+prisoner, the Mexican, was pacing to and fro with restless strides,
+vicious and defiant, his burning eyes quick, searching, calculating.
+It seemed as though he was filled with a tremendous amount of energy
+which would not let him remain quiet. When his companions spoke to him
+he flashed them a quick glance but did not answer; thinking, scheming,
+plotting, he missed not the slightest movement of those about him.
+Wounded as he was he did not appear to know it, so intent was he upon
+his thoughts.
+
+Hall, saved from the dangers of the last night's fight, loosed his
+cumulative rage frequently in caustic and profane verbal abuse of his
+captors, his defeat, his companions, and the guard. Frisco, courageous
+as any under fire, was dejected because of the wait; merely a
+difference of temperament.
+
+The guard, seated carelessly on a nearby rock, kept watch over the
+three and cogitated upon the whole affair, his Colt swinging from a
+hand between his knees. Twenty paces to his right was a stack of
+rifles and Sanchez, lengthening his panther stride with barely
+perceptible effort, drew nearer to them on each northward lap. He
+typified the class of men who never give up hope, and as he gained
+each yard he glanced furtively at the guard and then estimated the
+number of leaps necessary to reach the coveted rifles. His rippling
+muscles were bunching up for the desperate attempt when the guard
+interfered, the sharp clicks of his Colt bringing the Mexican to an
+abrupt stop. Sanchez shrugged his shoulders and wheeling, resumed his
+restless walk, being careful to keep it within safe limits.
+
+Hall, lighting his pipe, blew a cloud of smoke into the air and looked
+at the guard, who was still cogitating.
+
+"How did you fools finally figger we was out here?"
+
+Hopalong looked up and smiled. "Oh, we just figgered you fools would
+be here, and would stay up here. Yore friend Antonio worked too hard."
+
+Hall carefully packed his pipe and puffed quickly. "I knowed he'd
+bungle it, d----d Greaser. It was th' Greasers that busted up th'
+game. Sixteen men an' four of 'em Greasers. By G-d, if we was all
+white men we'd 'a given you fellers a hot tune to dance to. Greasers
+are all cowards, any--"
+
+"You lie!" snapped Sanchez, stepping forward.
+
+"Stop it!" shouted Hopalong, half arising, his Colt on the two. "You
+keep peaceful--there's been too much fighting now. But if them other
+Greasers had been like this one here I reckon you wouldn't 'a lost
+nothing by having 'em."
+
+"What happened to Cavalry an' Antonio?" asked Hall. "Did you get 'em
+when you came up?"
+
+"They got down th' way we came up--Doc trailed th' Greaser an' got him
+at that water hole up north," Hopalong replied. "Don't know nothing
+about th' other feller. Reckon he got away, but one don't make much
+difference, anyhow. He'll never come back to this country."
+
+"Say, how much longer will it take yore friends to do th' buryin'
+act?" asked Frisco, irritably. "I'm plumb tired of waiting--these
+wounds hurt like blazes, too."
+
+"Reckon they're coming now," was the reply. "I hear--yes, here they
+are."
+
+"I owe you ten dollars, Hall," Frisco remarked, trivial things now
+entering his mind. "Reckon you won't get it, neither."
+
+"Oh, pay me in h--l!" Hall snapped.
+
+"Yes," Buck was saying, "he shore was white. He knowed he was going
+an' he went like th' man he was--saving a friend. 'Tain't th' first
+time Frenchy McAllister's saved my life, neither."
+
+Frisco glanced around and his face flashed with a look of recognition,
+but he held his tongue; not so with Curtis, who stared at him in
+surprise and stepped forward.
+
+"Good G-d! It's Davis! What ever got you into this?"
+
+"Easy money an' a gun fight," Davis, alias Frisco, replied.
+
+"Tough luck, tough luck," Curtis muttered slowly.
+
+"D--n tough, if you asks me," Frisco growled.
+
+"What happened to th' others?" Curtis asked, referring to three men
+with whom he and Frisco had punched and prospected several years
+before.
+
+"Little Dan went out in that same gun fight, Joe Baird was got by th'
+posse next day, an' George Wild an' I got into th' mountains an' was
+separated. I got free after a sixty-mile chase, but I don't know how
+George made out. We had stuck up a gold caravan an' killed two men
+what was with it. They was th' only fellers to pull their guns against
+us."
+
+"Well, I'm d----d!" ejaculated Curtis. "An' so that crowd went bad!"
+
+"Say, for th' Lord's sake, get things moving," cried Hall, angrily.
+"If we've got to die make it quick--or else shoot that infernal
+Greaser--he's got on my nerves with his tramp, tramp, tramp! Wish I'd
+'a gone with Shaw 'stead of waiting for my own funeral."
+
+Buck surveyed them. "Got anything to say?"
+
+"Not me--I've had mine," replied Frisco, toying with a bandage. Then
+he started to say something but changed his mind. "Oh, well, what's
+th' use! Go ahead."
+
+"Don't drag it out," growled Hall. "Say, you got _my_ rope there?" he
+demanded suddenly, eying the coils slung over Skinny's shoulder. "No,
+you ain't. I want my own, savvy?"
+
+"Oh, we ain't got time to hunt for no ropes," rejoined Skinny. "One's
+as good as another, ain't it?"
+
+"Yes, I reckon so--hustle it through," Hall replied, sullenly.
+
+"Go ahead, you fellers," ordered Hopalong as some of his friends went
+first down the trail after the two sent to the camp for the horses.
+"Come on, Sanchez! Fall in there!"
+
+When the procession reached the bottom of the trail Buck halted it to
+wait for the horses and his prisoners took one more look around.
+
+"Say, Peters, where's th' cayuses we had in that corral?" asked Hall,
+surprised.
+
+"Oh, we got them out th' first night--we wasn't taking no chances,"
+replied the foreman. "They're somewhere near th' camp now."
+
+As the horse herd was driven up Sanchez made his last play. All were
+intent upon tightening cinches, the more intent because of the
+impending and disagreeable task, when he slipped like a shadow through
+the group and throwing himself across a likely looking pinto (he knew
+the horse), headed in a circular track for the not too distant
+chaparral.
+
+"_Take_ him, Red!" shouted Buck, who was the first to recover.
+
+Red's rifle leaped to his shoulder and steadied; in three more jumps
+the speedy pinto would have shielded Sanchez, clinging like a burr to
+the further side; but the rifle spoke once and the fleeing Mexican
+dropped and lay quiet on the sand.
+
+Hopalong rode out to him and glancing at the still form, wheeled and
+returned. "Got him clean, Red."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A group of horsemen rode eastward towards the chaparral and as it was
+about to enclose them one of the riders bringing up the rear turned in
+his saddle and looked back at two dangling forms outlined against the
+darker background of the frowning mesa, two where he had expected to
+see three.
+
+"Well, th' rustling is over," he remarked. "Say, that Greaser wasn't
+no coward. I reckoned Greasers was all yaller dogs."
+
+"Have you known many of 'em?" asked Skinny, quietly.
+
+"No," replied Chick. "Didn't ever see none till I came down here.
+Reckon there ain't many up in Montanny. But I heard lots about 'em.
+_He_ was all grit! I allus reckoned they was coyotes, an' mostly
+scared."
+
+"If you stay down here for long you'll meet some more that ain't
+cowards," Skinny replied. "I have--more'n once. A Greaser is a man,
+same as me an' you, an' I've known some that would look th' devil
+hisself in th' eye an' call him a liar."
+
+"Gee!" exclaimed Chick, thoughtfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+THIRST
+
+
+The stars grow dim and a streak of color paints the eastern sky,
+sweeping through the upper reaches of the darkness and tingeing the
+earth's curtain until the dim gray light outlines spectral yuccas and
+twisted, grotesque cacti leaning in the hushed air like drunken
+sentries of some monstrous army. The dark carpet which stretched away
+on all sides begins to show its characteristics and soon develops into
+greasewood brush. As if curtains were drawn aside objects which a
+moment before were lost to sight in the darkness emerge out of the
+light like ghosts, bulky, indistinct, grotesque, and array themselves
+to complete the scene.
+
+The silence seems to deepen and become strained, as if in fear of what
+is to come; the dark ground is now gray and tawny in places and the
+vegetation is plain to the eye. Then out of the east comes a flash and
+a red, coppery sun flares above the horizon, molten, quivering,
+blinding; the cool of the night swiftly departs and a caldron-like
+heat bursts upon the plain. The silence seems almost to shrink and
+become portentous with evil, the air is hushed, the plants stand
+without the movement of a leaf, and nowhere is seen any living
+creature. The whole is unreal, a panorama, with vegetation of wax and
+a painted, faded blue sky, the only movement being the shortening
+shadows and the rising sun.
+
+Across the sand is an erratic trail of shoe prints, coming from the
+east. For a dozen yards it runs evenly and straight, then a few close
+prints straggle to and fro, zig-zagging hither and yon for a distance,
+finally going on straight again. But the erratic prints grow more
+frequent and become more pronounced as they go on, circling and
+weaving, crossing, re-crossing and doubling back as their maker
+staggered hopelessly on his way, urged only by the instinct of thirst,
+to find water, if it were only a mouthful. The trail is here blurred,
+for he fell, and the prints of his hands and knees and shoe-tips tell
+how he went on for some distance. He gained his feet here and threw
+away his Colt, and later his holster and belt.
+
+The sun is overhead now and the sand shimmers, the heated air
+quivering and glistening, and the desolate void takes on an air of
+mystery and fear, and death. No living thing moves across the
+heat-cursed sand, but here is a tangled mass of sand and clay and
+greasewood twigs, in the heart of which mice sleep and wait for night,
+and over there is a hillock sheltering lizards. Stay! Under that
+greasewood bush a foolish gray wolf is waiting for night--but he has
+little to fear, for he can cover forty miles between dark and dawn,
+and his instinct is infallible; no wandering trail will mark his
+passing, but one as straight as the flight of a bullet. The shadows
+shrink close to the stems of the plants and the thin air dances with
+heat.
+
+Behind that clump of greasewood, back beyond those crippled cacti, a
+man staggers on and on. His hair is matted, his fingers bleeding from
+digging frantically in the sand for water; his lips, cracked and
+bleeding and swollen, hide the shrivelled, stiff tongue which clicks
+against his teeth at every painful step. His eyelids are stiff and the
+staring, unblinking eyes are set and swollen. He clutches at his
+throat time and time again,--a drowning sensation is there. Ha! He
+drops to his knees and digs frantically again, for the sand is moist!
+A few days ago a water hole lay there. He throws off his shirt and
+finally staggers on again.
+
+His tongue begins to swell and forces itself beyond the swollen,
+festering lips; the eyelids split and the protruding eyeballs weep
+tears of blood. His skin cracks and curls up, the clefts going
+constantly deeper into the flesh, and the exuding blood quickly dries
+and leaves a tough coating over the wounds. Wherever the exudation
+touches it stings and burns, and the cracks and clefts, irritated more
+and more each minute, deepen and widen and lengthen, smarting and
+nerve-racking with their pain.
+
+There! A grove of beautiful green trees is before him, and in it a
+fountain splashes with musical babbling. He yells and dances and then,
+casting aside the rest of his clothes, staggers towards it. Water,
+water, at last! Water and shade! It grows indistinct, wavers--and is
+gone! But it must be there. It was there only a moment ago--and on and
+on he runs, hands tearing at his choking, drowning throat. Here is
+water--close at hand--a purling, cold brook, whispering and tinkling
+over its rocky bed--he jumps into it--it moved! It's over there, ten
+paces to his right. On and on he staggers, the stream just ahead. He
+falls more frequently and wavers now. Oh, for just a canteen of water,
+just a swallow, just a drop! The gold of the world would not buy it
+from him--just a drop of water!
+
+He is dying from within, from the inside out. The liquids of his body
+exude through the clefts and evaporate. His brain burns and bands of
+white-hot steel crush his throbbing head and his burning lungs. No
+amount of water will save him now--only death, merciful death can end
+his sufferings.
+
+Water at last! Real water, a noisome pool of stagnant liquid lies at
+the bottom of a slight depression, the dregs of a larger pool
+concentrated by evaporation. Around it are the prints of many kinds of
+feet. It is water, water!--he plunges forward into it and lies
+motionless, half submerged. A grayback lizard darts out of the
+greasewood near at hand, blinks rapidly and darts back again, glad to
+escape the intolerable heat.
+
+Cavalry had escaped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+CHANGES
+
+
+With the passing of the weeks the two ranches had settled down to
+routine duty. On the H2 conditions were changed greatly for the better
+and Meeker gloated over his gushing wells and the dam which gave him a
+reservoir on his north range, the early completion of which he owed
+largely to the experience and willing assistance of Buck and the
+Bar-20 outfit.
+
+It was getting along towards Fall when a letter came to the Bar-20
+addressed to John McAllister. Buck looked at it long and curiously.
+"Wonder who's writing to Frenchy?" he mused. "Well, I've got to find
+out," and he opened the envelope and looked at the signature; it made
+him stare still more and he read the letter carefully. George
+McAllister, through the aid of the courts, had gained possession of
+the old Double Y in the name of its owners and was going to put an
+outfit on the ground to evict and hold off those who had jumped it. He
+knew nothing about ranching and wanted Frenchy McAllister, who owned
+half of it, to take charge of it and to give him the address of Buck
+Peters, the other half-owner. He advised that Peters' share be bought
+because the range was near a railroad and was growing more valuable
+every day.
+
+Buck's decision was taken instantly. Much as he disliked to leave the
+old outfit here was the chance he had been waiting for without knowing
+it. He would never have set foot on the Double Y during Frenchy's
+lifetime because of loyalty to his old friend. Had he at any time
+desired possession of the property he and his friends could have taken
+it and left court actions to the other side. But Frenchy was gone, and
+he still owned half of a valuable piece of property and one that he
+could make pay well. He was getting on in years and it would be
+pleasant to have his cherished dream come true, to be the over-lord
+and half-owner of a good cattle ranch and to know that when he became
+too old to work with any degree of pleasure he need not worry about
+his remaining years. If he left the Bar-20 one of his friends would
+take his place and he was sure it would be Hopalong. The advancement
+in pay and authority would please the man whom he had looked upon as
+his son. And perhaps it would bring to Hopalong that which now kept
+his eyes turned towards the H2. Yes, it was time to go to his own and
+let another man come into _his_ own; to move along and give a younger
+man a chance.
+
+He replied to George McAllister at length, covering everything, and
+took the letter to the bunk house to have it mailed.
+
+"Billy," he said, "here's a letter to go to Cowan's th' first thing
+to-morrow. Don't forget."
+
+Buck started the fall work early and pushed it harder than usual for
+he wished to have everything done before the new foreman took charge.
+The beef roundup and drives were over with quickly, considering the
+time and labor involved, and when the chill blasts of early Winter
+swept across the range and whined around the ranch buildings Buck
+smiled with the satisfaction which comes with work well done. George
+McAllister, failing to buy Buck's interest, now implored him to go to
+the Double Y at once and take charge, which he had promised to do in
+time to become familiar with conditions on the winter-bound northern
+range before the new herds were driven to it.
+
+As yet he had told his men nothing of his plans for fear they would
+persuade him to stay where he was, but he could tell Meeker, and one
+crisp morning he called at the H2 and led its foreman aside. When he
+had finished Meeker grasped his hand, told him how sorry he was to
+lose so good a friend and neighbor, and how glad he was at that
+friend's good fortune.
+
+"I hope Cassidy _is_ th' man to take yore place, Peters," he remarked,
+thoughtfully. "He's a good man, th' best in th' country, white,
+square, and nervy. I've had my eyes on him for some time an' I'll back
+him to bust anything he throws his rope on. He can handle that ranch
+easy an' well."
+
+"Yo're right," replied Buck, slowly. "He ain't never failed to make
+good yet. Whoever th' boys pick out to be foreman will be foreman,
+for th' owners have left that question with me. But Meeker, it's like
+pulling teeth for me to go up to Montana without him. I can't take him
+'less I take 'em all, an' I've got reasons why I can't do that. An' I
+ain't quite shore he'd go with me now--yore ranch holds something that
+ties him tight to this range. He'll be lonely up in our ranch house,
+an' it's plenty big enough for two," he finished, smiling
+interrogatively at his companion.
+
+"Well, I reckon it'll not be lonely if he wants to change it," laughed
+Meeker. "Leastawise, them's th' symptoms plentiful enough down here. I
+was dead set agin it at first, but now I don't want nothing else but
+to see my girl fixed for life. An' when I pass out, all I have is
+hers."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+HOPALONG'S REWARD
+
+
+Seven men loitered about the line house on Lookout Peak, wondering why
+they, the old outfit, had been told to await their foreman there. Why
+were the others, all good fellows, excluded? What could it mean?
+Foreboding grew upon them as they talked the matter over and when Buck
+approached they waited eagerly for him to speak.
+
+He dismounted and looked at them with pride and affection and a trace
+of sorrow showed in his voice and face when he began to talk.
+
+"Boys," he said, slowly, "we've got things ready for snow when it
+comes. Th' cattle are strong an' fat, there's plenty of grass curing
+on th' range, an' th' biggest drive ever sent north from this ranch
+has been taken care of. There's seven of you here, two on th' north
+range, an' four more good men coming next week; an' thirteen men can
+handle this ranch with some time to spare.
+
+"I've been with you for a long time now. Some of you I've had for over
+twelve years, an' no man ever had a better outfit. You've never turned
+back on any game, an' you've never had no trouble among yoreselves.
+You've seen me sending an' getting letters purty regular for some
+time, an' you've been surprised at how I've pushed you to get ready
+for winter. I'm going to tell you all about it now, an' when I've
+finished I want you to vote on something," and they listened in dumb
+surprise and sorrow while he told them of his decision. When he had
+finished they crowded about him and begged him to stay with them,
+telling him they would not allow him to leave. But if he must go, then
+they, too, must go and help him whip a wild and lawless range into
+submission. He would need them badly in Montana, and nowhere could he
+get men who would work and fight so hard and cheerfully for him as his
+old outfit. They would not let him talk and he could not if they
+would, for there was something in his throat which choked and pained
+him. Johnny Nelson and Hopalong were tugging at his shoulders and the
+others stormed and pleaded and swore, tears in the eyes of all. He
+wavered and would have thrown away all his resolutions, when he
+thought of Hopalong and the girl. Pushing them back he told them he
+could not stay and begged them, as they loved him, to consider his
+future. They looked at one another strangely and then realized how
+selfish they were, and said so profanely.
+
+"_Now_ yo're my old outfit," he cried, striking while the iron was
+hot. "I've told you why I must go, an' why I can't take _all_ of you
+with me, an' why I won't take a few an' leave th' rest. Don't think I
+don't want you! Why, with you at my back I'd buck that range into
+shape in no time, an' chase th' festive gun-fighters off th' earth.
+Mebby some day you can come up to me, but not now. Now I want th' new
+foreman of th' Bar-20 to be one of th' men who worked so hard an'
+loyally an' long for me an' th' ranch. I want one of you to take my
+place. Th' owners have left th' choice to me, an' say th' man I
+appoint will be their choice; an' I ain't a-going to do it--I can't do
+it. One last favor, boys; go in that house an' pick yore foreman. Go
+now, an' I'll wait for you here."
+
+"We'll do it right here--Red Connors!" cried Hopalong.
+
+"Hopalong!" yelled Red and Johnny in the same voice, and only a breath
+ahead of the others. "Hopalong! Hopalong!" was the cry, his own voice
+lost, buried, swept under. He tried to argue, tried to show that he
+was unfit, but he could make no headway, for his exploits were shouted
+to convince him. As fast as he tried to speak some one remembered
+something else he had done--they ranged over a period of ten years and
+from Mexico to Cheyenne; from Dodge City and Leavenworth to the
+Rockies.
+
+Buck laughed and clapped his hands on Hopalong's shoulders. "I appoint
+you foreman, an' you can't get out of it, nohow! Lemme shake hands
+with th' new foreman of th' Bar-20--I'm one of th' boys now, an' glad
+to get rid of th' responsibility for a while. Good luck, son!"
+
+"No you ain't going to get rid of 'em," laughed Hopalong, but serious
+withal. "Yo're th' foreman of this ranch till you leave us--ain't he,
+boys?" he appealed.
+
+Buck put his hands to his ears and yelled for less noise. "All right,
+I'll play at breaking you in--'though th' Lord knows I can't show you
+nothing you don't know now. My first order under these conditions is
+that you ride south, Hopalong, an' tell th' news to Meeker, an' to his
+girl. An' tell 'em separate, too. An' don't forget I want to see you
+hobbled before I leave next month--tell her to make it soon!"
+
+Hopalong reddened and grinned under the rapid-fire advice and chaffing
+of his friends and tried to retort.
+
+Johnny sprang forward. "Come on, fellers! Put him on his cayuse an'
+start him south! We've got to have _some_ hand in his courting,
+anyhow!"
+
+"Right!"
+
+"Good idea!"
+
+"Look out! _Grab_ him, Red!"
+
+"Up with him!"
+
+"We ought to escort him on his first love trail," yelled Skinny above
+the uproar. "Come on! _Saddles_, boys!"
+
+"Like h--l!" cried Hopalong, spurring forward his nettlesome mount.
+"You've got to grow wings to catch me an' Red Eagle! _Go, bronc!_" and
+he shot forward like an arrow from a bow, cheers and good wishes
+thundering after him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Buck moved about restlessly in his sleep and then awakened suddenly
+and lay quiet as a hand touched his shoulder. "What is it? Who are
+you?" he demanded, ominously.
+
+"I reckoned you'd like to know that yo're going to be best man in two
+weeks, Buck," said a happy voice. "She said a month, but I told her
+you was going away before then, an' you _might_, you know. I shore
+feel joyous!"
+
+The huge hand of the elder man closed over his in a grip which made
+him wince. "Good boy, an' good luck, Hoppy! It was due you an' I
+knowed you'd win. Good luck, an' happiness, son!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hopalong Cassidy, by Clarence E. Mulford
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