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CHAPTER XVII.
THE SHREWD OLD FOX

“He’s wise to the game!” Jimmy whispered close to Ned’s ear, as they all stood and stared at the puncher who held the dead carrier pigeon in his hands.

It must have been a great shock for Ally Sloper. For the first time he realized just how suspicion had come to fall upon his head; and with the note which he had sent out fastened to the leg of that same messenger bird in their possession, those in charge of Double Cross Ranch during the absence of the owners knew to a certainty of his guilt.

Some movement on the part of the scouts must have told him he was being observed, for he suddenly turned his head and looked straight at them.

Ned knew there was danger of the baffled conspirator becoming furiously angry and attempting something wicked. He might be ready to take all sorts of chances, if he could but vent his rage upon those whom he suspected must have been the main cause of his defeat.

It happened that Ned was holding his rifle in his hands at the time, being about to clean it, and he instinctively threw the muzzle of it forward, so that he covered the puncher.

Although Sloper had known that he was under the ban, and suspicion directed toward him, as yet no one had thought to take his gun away. The weapon hung from his side where it could be reached in a fraction of a second, should an occasion suddenly arise calling for action.

Knowing the clever way these cowmen have of using their tools, Ned did not mean that he and his chums should be made victims to the ungovernable rage of a “caught in the trap” schemer.

“Hold up your hands, quick now, Sloper!” was what he told the other; and if he had taken a page from the life of a cowboy Ned could not have put his demand in plainer language, for this was the customary salutation of one puncher meeting another whom he had cause to believe had evil designs on his life.

The man hesitated at first. He looked on the scouts as tenderfeet, and it galled him terribly to have to submit to being ordered around by a mere boy. But there was something about Ned’s way of speaking, not to mention the businesslike air of his frowning rifle, that warned him it would be a pretty risky thing to defy the scout master.

Besides, there were three more fellows in khaki close behind Ned, doubtless with other guns that could be brought to bear on him like a flash, if so be he ventured to disobey. And treacherous scoundrel though he might be, Ally Sloper valued his miserable life.

So he dropped the bird and elevated both hands above his head, showing that he surrendered to superior force and conditions which he was powerless to change.

“Jack!” called out Ned, keeping his eyes riveted on the man and never swerving that threatening rifle a fraction of an inch.

“On deck, Ned,” came the answer, close to his shoulder.

“Step out there and relieve Sloper of his gun. Be careful not to get between us, remember. If he’s going to be allowed to walk around till Harry’s uncle comes back to settle his case, I don’t think it’s wise he should go armed. Men sometimes get mad and do things they’re sorry for afterwards. You hear what I’m saying, Sloper. There’s no harm going to come to you until Colonel Job comes back; but it’s just as well that your claws are trimmed. And if you know what’s good for you, don’t try any kind of slippery trick on us. I can shoot to hit, and I will. Get that?”

“Oh! that’s all right,” replied the other, in an apparently careless tone, though his face was drawn with anger and his eyes blazed with the venom of a panther at bay, “keep right along with your little circus. It gives you some fun and it don’t hurt me any. Somebody’s been killin’ one of my birds, and that’s what I’m huffy about.”

Ned waited until Jack had stepped forward and whipped the heavy revolver out of its leather holster before he went on to say anything further. When this had been accomplished he proceeded to tell the man something more.

“A hawk was your undoing, Sloper. It pounced on your bird and was going to make a meal of it, when one of my chums used his gun to knock the pirate over. Then we found a little note fastened to the bird’s leg. I have that note here, and mean to give it to the Colonel when he gets back. I won’t say what it contains; there’s no need of it with you. But we expect that Colonel Haines will have little trouble in fastening the guilt on the right party, after he sees the handwriting and compares it with that of the punchers working for him. And then it’ll be good-bye for some one.”

“Yes,” declared Jimmy, hotly, determined to have his say in the matter, “and the same feller ought to thank his lucky stars if he gets away from here without being treated to a rope necklace, or given a coat of tar and feathers. I’ve heard that men have been up against that sort of medicine out here for less things than tryin’ to turn the herds of their employers over to the cattle rustlers.”

The puncher looked at Jimmy, and his upper lip drew back with what was more like a snarl than anything else.

“You got to prove a thing first,” he snapped. “It’s easy to say that a man’s gone bad, but my word’s as good as the next one. Wait and see what the Kunnel thinks. You’re all down on me, I know, but you don’t see me shakin’ in my boots, do ye? Somebody hooked one of my birds, I’m asayin’, and used it to send a message with. That’s all there is to the thing. It ain’t agoin’ to bother me any, I’m atellin’ ye.”

“Oh! Chunky told us you’d give us that sort of a yarn,” Jimmy declared, “but it don’t go down one little bit. We’re on to your curves, Mr. Sloper, let me tell you. You’ll sing small when the Colonel comes home.”

“Rats! Nobody’ll be gladder to meet him than me!” asserted the other, with a great showing of effrontery that Ned knew was only assumed.

Ned felt that the chances were anything he said in trying to show the man what an offense he had been guilty of in betraying his employer would be wasted; but he could not resist the temptation to tell him something about scout law, and how boys are being taught in these days to be faithful to their trust above all things. What he took it upon himself to say, in the most pleasant way he could, may have glanced off the other’s thick hide, just as water does from a duck’s back. Still, there could be no telling; and at some future time possibly some of the plain truths spoken by the scout master on that occasion were liable to rise up in the mind of Ally Sloper to haunt him.

He did not make any reply when Ned finished, only to scowl and remark:

“S’posen I c’n trot along now, without anybody borin’ me in the back?”

“As if a scout would ever be guilty of shooting anybody in the back!” Jimmy indignantly burst out with.

“Yes, go about your business, Sloper,” Ned told him, “and if I was you I’d have as little to do with the boys as possible the balance of the day. They’re talking some about you, and it might be your wisest policy not to wander away to any lonely place, because I wouldn’t put it past them to take things into their hands before the Colonel comes back.”

The look that appeared on the puncher’s face was as black as a thundercloud. Instinctively he clapped his hand at his side and then gritted his teeth when it only came in contact with an empty holster. A cowboy without his ready gun is somewhat of a helpless individual, from the fact that he has come to depend wholly on it in times of trouble.

“If I was heeled I wouldn’t ask favors o’ any man,” he grumbled, “and as it is I reckons I’ll have to cave and fight shy of the crowd. The lot’s set agin me anyhow, and I’ll have to change my berth, no matter what the Kunnel says.”

With that he turned on his heel and strode away. Jimmy looked after him, and then drew a long breath.

“Huh! talk to me about nerve,” he exploded, “that dub has got them all beat half a mile, and then some. But say, d’ye really think he’ll hang around till the Colonel comes home?”

“Chances are he’ll beat it before the afternoon gets old,” Jack asserted.

“Ought we to let him sneak away, Ned?” asked Harry. “Why not lock him up somehow, and keep him from skipping out?”

“Well, in the first place, it isn’t our business to play keeper to Sloper,” the scout master replied. “There are plenty of fellows here to attend to his case and I feel that I’ve done my whole duty when I warned him not to try and leave the ranch until your uncle gets home, Harry. If Chunky and Skinny and the rest think his room would be better than his company or take a notion to give him a warm coat of tar and feathers, it’s none of our affair.”

“Yes, I can see you sitting around and doing nothing while such a nasty job is on,” Jack remarked, with a shake of his head. “I know you too well for that, Ned. If you saw them taking Sloper out and carrying a bag and a kettle along, I’m justly certain you’d call a halt on the operation and stand between the skunk and the boys who wanted to give him what he deserved.”

Ned made no reply to this accusation. Perhaps he knew there was considerable of truth back of it, and that, if such a case did come about, he would be strongly tempted to try and restrain the angry and indignant punchers.

The boys loitered around all morning. No one seemed able to do any particular work, save look after the cattle in the stockade, carrying water and seeing that they had some hay to keep them quiet. When the two stockmen returned from the station they would have to decide whether it were safe to drive the herds to the feeding grounds again, and watch them for a while, so as to guard against further trouble.

So noon came and went. Jimmy had no complaint to make on the score of lack of food. He told his chums he was making up for lost time; and the grinning Chinese cook was only too well pleased to dance attendance on the scout, whom he seemed to fancy more than any of the others.

Half of the afternoon dragged away, and it was understood that possibly in two more hours they could expect the absent owners of the ranch to show up, unless detained by something not down on the bills.

It was a very hot afternoon, and as they had not been oversleeping of late, the four scout chums found themselves nodding as they sat on the shady side of the verandah. Jimmy had crawled into the one hammock and refused to budge. He declared that his sleep had been so wretched lately that he had a whole lot to make up.

Now and then one of them would arouse enough to ask some drowsy question, after which they would relapse into silence once more.

This sleepy condition of things was suddenly disturbed by loud shouts, and what seemed to be a rushing about on the part of excited cow punchers.

Even Jimmy raised his fiery head from the hammock to call out:

“What’s the bloomin’ row about now? Is that the way they always act when the Colonel shows up in the distance? Well, I ain’t agoin’ to climb out of this snug hammock to go gallopin’ over the hot plain just to yell and swing my hat. You’ll have to excuse me, fellers.”

“But I don’t believe it’s the Colonel coming at all!” declared Jack. “Look at the way the boys are jumping for their horses, will you? And there’s some snatching up belts with guns, and ropes as well. It’s something else that’s happened.”

“I wouldn’t be much surprised if that Sloper’s nerve had begun to fail him as the time drew near for my uncle to come back, and that he’s skipped out, taking chances of being overhauled and strung up, rather than to face Colonel Job.”

“Whoop! you’re right, Harry, for there he goes lickety-split right now!” cried Jimmy, eagerly pointing with an extended hand.

Looking in that direction they could all see a solitary figure on horseback, speeding over the sun-kissed plain with all the haste possible. It was undoubtedly Ally Sloper, who had finally reached the conclusion that as he would be kicked off the place anyway after his employer had been convinced of his guilt, perhaps he had better not wait upon the order of his going but take a hasty departure.

He was spurring his pony “for keeps” as Jimmy observed. Shortly afterwards a bunch of the punchers broke away from the saddle corral and went swiftly in the wake of the fleeing reprobate.

“Look at him wavin’ his hat at the crowd!” exclaimed Jimmy. “Sure I’d hate to be in his boots right now. There must be some hosses just as good in that bunch, and look at ’em ride, will you? I kind of think Ally will be sorry for showin’ such a lot of hurry to clear out. He must a got cold feet athinkin’ of facin’ his boss. He’s made a big mistake, I’m tellin’ you.”

Ned said nothing, but he had read the treacherous puncher as a shrewd rascal, and had an idea Ally Sloper must know what he was doing.

“He gave ’em a good run for their money, boys,” Jimmy loudly declared, “just look how tired their poor old ponies seem to be, aholdin’ their heads hangin’ low, like they’d covered forty miles. But I don’t see our friend, Ally, among them. And I guess now he must have got his medicine.”

“Wait and ask Skinny there, who’s heading the lot,” Jack advised him; for he noticed the little smile on Ned’s face and believed the scout master was not so positive as Jimmy seemed to be regarding the outcome of the mad race.

Skinny looked gloomy and, indeed, there were few smiles among the seven who had so gleefully started out in his company to overhaul the fugitive and give him a little token of their warm regard.

“Did you overtake him, Skinny?” Harry called out as the returning band trotted past, their ponies lagging fearfully.

“Not so’s you could notice the same, sir,” replied the stout puncher who answered to so misleading a name.

“Then his broncho was better than any of your mounts, I suppose?” Harry continued.

The cow punchers started grumbling at a great rate, and said some pretty ugly things about the absent one.

“Seems like he was too slick for us, sir,” Skinny went on to say, dejectedly. “Co’se we might a cort up with Ally if things’d a been right and proper; but say, it wasn’t long before he started to run away from the hull outfit, and we reckons as how the old fox he must a doped all the ponies but his own mount!”

CHAPTER XVIII.
MORE TROUBLE AHEAD

It turned out that what the dejected Skinny had said was the truth. Even the ponies that had not taken part in the chase of Ally Sloper were found to be showing plain signs of being sick. There could be no doubt but what the sly fox had laid his plans carefully, and also found an opportunity to carry the same out. He must have managed to give each broncho something in his feed that would within a certain time weaken him, especially if subjected to any violent exercise calculated to start the animal sweating freely.

Those who had pursued the fleeing puncher had kept their own for a short time, and then noticed that no matter how they urged their mounts on they were being slowly distanced. The extravagant gestures of derision on the part of Sloper also aroused suspicion; and when their ponies began to show unmistakable signs of playing out, what seemed to be the truth dawned upon them.

“It was a mighty clever ruse, I’m thinking,” Jack remarked, as he and his chums went out to see the sick ponies.

“Are they poisoned and will they all die?” Harry asked one of the punchers, with keen regret in his voice, as he watched the actions of the sick animals.

“Oh! we reckons it ain’t so bad as that there,” replied the cowboy, “they been locoed with some weed that Ally, he must a carried around with him, meanin’ to use the same when the right time came along. But Miss Haines she give us some stuff outen the Kunnel’s medicine chest, ’case, yuh see, he’s somethin’ o’ a vetranary surgeon; and they seem to be pickin’ up a bit a’ready.”

An hour later the expected party was discovered heading for the ranch buildings, but not a solitary puncher went circling out to meet them. This fact must have given rise to considerable wonder on the part of the two stockmen, who knew the ways of cow punchers so well. Their astonishment was unbounded when they arrived at the stockade and saw the herds penned up.

First of all, they greeted the scouts warmly. As Harry was the representative of his father, whom the stockmen hoped to induce to join them in putting more money into their enterprise, so as to enlarge the scope of their business, it was only natural that he should be shown the utmost consideration, in order that a favorable report be taken back when he returned home.

But then Harry was the nephew of both stockmen, so to speak, and they would have welcomed him warmly for that fact alone.

When they heard all that had happened and how the lucky finding of the dead homing pigeon with its telltale message had betrayed the plans of the conspirators, they could hardly express their feelings toward the scouts.

Of course there followed the hasty moonlight ride out on the range, the round-up of the cattle that was not ordered, the fight with the rustlers, and last, but not least, the clever way in which Ally Sloper had made his escape so as to avoid facing his late employers.

It was soon decided to keep the herds confined until the following morning, when they would be driven forth once more to their several grazing grounds. They must be guarded day and night for the time being, and orders were given to all hands to shoot straight in case another raid were attempted.

Colonel Haines was very angry over the way things were going. He feared that if those reckless rustlers were allowed to hold forth in the strip of land bordering the Colorado, they would continue to take toll from the herds of the Double Cross Ranch, and that this might in some way serve to make Harry carry an unfavorable report back to his rich father.

And so the stockmen put their heads together and decided that the time had come to make a determined effort to rid the country of the lawless cattle thieves. In the morning they would send a messenger to the nearest town with a note to the sheriff, demanding that he come straightway out with an armed posse and begin a systematic search for the hiding place of the gang. It must be war to the knife after this between the cow-punchers and the rustlers, who must be made to realize that it would be too hot for them in that “neck of the woods.”

In the morning everyone was up before sunrise, for there was plenty to be attended to on this day. The four scouts determined to ride out in a bunch with Chunky and see the prize herd taken back to the vicinity of Washout Coulie. Then they could employ the balance of the day to suit themselves, perhaps in looking for game that was to be found in the hills near by.

The ponies had all recovered from their sickness. Whatever it had been that the treacherous puncher had dosed them with, either the effect had worn off or else the horse medicine which Mrs. Haines had taken from her husband’s chest must have counteracted the drug. No one was more pleased to learn this fact than Harry, who had a very tender heart and disliked to see even animals suffer.

Jimmy enjoyed that morning ride greatly. He soon caught the spirit of the range, and mounted on the back of his calico pony he drove this way and that, shouting louder than any seasoned puncher, slapping his quirt and doing bravely in assisting to keep the cattle bunched on the drive.

Everything seemed to be quiet around the coulie that had been the scene of their spirited engagement with the rustler gang some thirty hours and more previously.

After the severe lesson that had been taught the thieving pack, it was firmly believed they would remain in hiding for some time now, waiting for the excitement to blow over and the punchers to get careless again.

At the same time, when the scouts started to leave the coulie, bent on skirmishing around to see if they could scare up anything worth while in the shape of game, Chunky thought it his duty to warn them to keep their eyes about them all the while.

“They’re a slick article, boys,” he remarked, seriously, for he had already come to like the chums exceedingly, while the feeling of interest was just as warm on their part; “and since they know by now from Ally that ’twas you as spoiled their plans, they might have it in for you. If so be you run up against any strange punchers, don’t have anything to do with the same. They might be rustlers, ’case you know all these here cattle thieves has been on ranches, some time ’r other, and got fired because they didn’t play fair. Keep your eyes peeled all the time.”

“That’s what all scouts mean to do, Chunky,” advised Jimmy, promptly. “Their motto is ‘be prepared,’ even if they don’t always live up to the same. But we’ll try to keep our eyes on the watch for signs of trouble. See you later, boys! So-long!”

Jimmy was rapidly picking up range ways. All he needed to make him a regular puncher, he imagined, was a cowboy suit with sheepskin chaps and a real range hat, to take the place of the campaign headgear that as a scout he always wore.

Already the calico pony was showing signs of being conquered. Jimmy had a masterful way about him, being a bit reckless, and the animal, no doubt, began to understand that, as his new rider seemed bent on keeping up the fight to the bitter end, it might be the best policy to seem to yield. But Ned, still having in mind the white eyes that struck him as treacherous, warned Jimmy not to trust his mount too far.

They rode for miles along the foot of the hills. Ned never failed to keep track of the distance and the points of the compass. When they considered that it was time to head toward home they could depend on the scout master to tell them just where the ranch buildings lay, and about how much distance separated them from home.

Up to that time they had not come across any signs of game, a fact that caused Jimmy to express himself as very much disappointed; for their lunch had been a scanty one, according to his mind, and he indulged in high hopes that if they could only knock over an antelope or a deer while the rest were resting, he could start a cooking fire and fix up a little snack to allow him to hold out until suppertime arrived.

Ned, who had been closely observing their surroundings for some little time now, gave it as his opinion that they might find something in the shape of quarry if they left the plain and turned into the scrub that covered the slope of the hills.

“It looks like our last chance for to-day, boys,” he announced, “and because our chum, Jimmy here, has set his heart so much on taking home some game, we might make one more try. If nothing shows up in half an hour we’ll call the hunt off for to-day and come again some other time. Are you all agreeable?”

There was no dissenting voice.

Half an hour may have seemed like a very short time to Jimmy, who disliked to give anything up on which he had set his heart; but he realized that Ned was always a better judge of things than he could ever hope to be. Besides, their ponies had begun to exhibit slight signs of weariness, not having fully recovered from the effects of the weed they had eaten, and which had made them sick. As the ranch buildings were a good many miles away, they must not force the ponies too hard if they hoped to be home by sunset.

This was only the first of many trips the scouts had planned to cover during their stay at the cattle ranch. They meant to exhaust the resources of the country for good times, and Jack was figuring on adding largely to his collection of wild animals’ pictures while there. He had interested Jimmy in the matter, so that he could count on company and assistance in his excursions by day and night in search of fitting subjects.

They turned their ponies at the brush and started to comb it, being constantly on the watch for signs of a leaping deer aroused from a noonday nap in the shade.

The going was inclined to be rough, so that they had to be careful not to let their mounts trip and throw them.

Ned knew that what little air there was stirring came in their faces, which was a favorable sign; but it is doubtful whether any of the others noticed this fact, as they were not in the same class as the scout master when it came to understanding the elements that go to make a successful stalk.

Still no game obliged them by jumping out of some shady covert, which Jimmy considered mighty mean, when his stomach was fairly clamoring for food. When the nature of their surroundings showed a considerable change, and instead of mere brush and a scraggy growth of trees they found rocks surrounding them, with miniature canyons opening up all around, Ned began to think they had gone far enough.

He yielded, however, to Jimmy’s pleading when the latter suggested that they fasten the ponies in a thicket and advance a short distance on foot.

“It looks good to me up yonder,” Jimmy was saying feverishly. “I’m most sure now I glimpsed somethin’ movin’, which might have been a browsin’ Rocky Mountain big horn sheep, if they have such down here; or, again p’raps, it was a grizzly bear, or a four-legged venison feedin’. Let’s take a turn up there and if we don’t raise a solitary thing, why, I’ll give in and go back home empty-handed, feelin’ like a dog with his tail between his legs.”

Ned certainly would not think of letting Jimmy make that little excursion alone, nor did he feel like allowing only one other to accompany the would-be mighty hunter. Chunky had warned them particularly against getting scattered while exploring the country roundabout.

“Where one goes all must follow!” he said, positively.

“Bully for you, Ned,” Jimmy declared joyously. “The more the merrier they say; and Jack and me’ll be glad to have the whole bunch along.”

“How about the ponies, Ned; do you think it is safe to leave them here?” Harry wanted to know, a little anxious about the safety of their mounts; because a twelve-mile hike did not appeal to him just then.

“I don’t think anything or anybody would be apt to bother them,” Jack remarked, although no one had asked his opinion on the subject.

“Sure they won’t,” asserted the eager Jimmy, making his jaws work as though in imagination he were already enjoying a tender venison steak alongside of a splendid camp fire.

“We’ll have to risk a little,” Ned admitted, as he dismounted, and once more looked to see that his rifle was in condition for immediate use.

They found places where the ponies could be tied, and the animals evidently did not object to the rest in the least, if their actions were any judge.

“’Tis meself that’s thinkin’ the dope Ally Sloper gave Spot here, as I’ve renamed Satan, must have taken the heart out of the critter, because he’s been as gentle as you please all day,” Jimmy remarked, as he patted the calico pony; but Ned only shook his head without making any reply, for he had seen the ears flattened and noted the half-inclination on the part of the pony to bite at the hand that was caressing its wet neck and withers.

Presently they started up the canyon toward the spot where Jimmy still declared he believed he had seen an object move, which must be game of some sort. All conversation having been positively tabooed by Ned, Jimmy could only take it out in sundry grins and vigorous nods of his head as they proceeded.

Everybody was tuned up to a tense state of excitement as they reached the bend of the rock wall and then carefully crept around the same. Unless Jimmy had made a mistake, or was willfully deceiving them, they must speedily discover the animal he claimed to have sighted. All sorts of speculations were doubtless rife in their minds concerning its nature; one hoped it would prove to be a deer; another may have had a monster grizzly in view while caressing his repeating rifle; while Jack, who carried his little camera along with him, would have been highly pleased could he have snapped off a big-horn sheep in the act of leaping from crag to crag somewhere up there along the high canyon walls.

Nothing loomed up, though Ned went further than his prudence dictated, in order to satisfy Jimmy. The latter’s face had fallen forty-five degrees, and he was shaking his head gloomily as he stared around, looking in vain for favorable signs.

Ned was even about to open his mouth and give the order that would take the little party back to where they had left their mounts tied, when he heard something like a stone falling back of him.

Remembering that the canyon had narrowed there, like the neck of a bottle, Ned turned suddenly on his heels. If he expected to discover any sort of wild game slinking off, he was greatly in error. What he did see caused a spasm of alarm to dart through the scout master’s brave heart.

Up on a shelf of rock, just over the narrow part of the defile, several figures of men could be seen. They looked like ordinary cowboys, but when Ned recognized Ally Sloper and Coyote Smith, yes, and Lefty Louie as well among them, he understood that instead they were a part of the rustler gang that he and his chums had been instrumental in cheating out of their intended prey!