CHAPTER XIVTHE LOST TRAIL“I am going back to the round-up, then over to see Malcolm Hornby,” announced Joe Bindloss after returning from the stable, where he had gone to see for himself how the prisoners had escaped. “I hate the critter, but if we stock owners don’t get together and organize to wipe out these thieves we shan’t have any stock left by the end of the season.”“I’ll go with you,” offered Tom Gray.“Sure, if you like. Pete, you and Idaho are to ride with us, leaving the rest here to protect the ranch. We mustn’t leave the place alone again, but there’s got to be some better protecting than there was last night,” warned Bindloss. “I’ll bet every steer on my ranch that if Lieutenant Wingate had been on his feet they wouldn’t have got away—alive!”“Tom, I am going, too,” announced Grace.“Rough riding, girlie,” reminded Tom.“Yes, I know. But I don’t mind. Elfreda will remain with Hippy who will be all right if someone doesn’t fire more bullets into him. She and Nora may be trusted to take good care of him. Perhaps Emma would like to go, too, especially if that big cowboy Pete is to accompany us,” added Grace laughingly.“Come along. You won’t be satisfied unless you do,” agreed Tom. “I will speak to Bindloss about it.”Grace said that there was no need to do that, and suggested further that she thought she might be of some assistance to the searchers, but the Overland girl did not explain what she meant by her last remark, nor did Tom think twice about it. His mind was troubled.Emma answered the question of her joining the party before it was asked by announcing that she was going to ride with Two-gun Pete and Mr. Bindloss.Arrangements were quickly made and after the situation had been explained to Lieutenant Wingate, Nora and Emma, the rancher and his party mounted their ponies, leaving Sierra in charge of the ranch with another cowboy and Sam Conifer to assist him.“Do as well as ye did last night when ye let them fellers git away an’ ye prob’bly’ll git yer fool haid shot off,” warned Sam as Jim swung into his saddle.“That’s all right so long as we leave another wuss fool heah at the ranch,” gave back Jim, and the party galloped away.It was a hard ride, especially for Emma and Grace, but both girls stood up under it remarkably well. Only one stop was made and that was at a spring to water the ponies, after which the journey was resumed. The rancher and his party reached their destination about the middle of the afternoon, where the same scenes were being enacted as on the previous day. Cattle were milling and bawling, and above the roar came the calls of the cowpunchers, clear and distinct.The herd engaged in the milling was much smaller than before because so many head had been cut out and sent to graze at another place, there to be guarded by men who would see to it that they neither got away nor were stolen, for these cattle soon were to be driven to market.At Bindloss’s direction, the men of the party separated and rode out to question the cowmen about Stacy, and after every man there had been interviewed, the searchers returned to the knoll where the girls were awaiting them.“He hasn’t been here since last night,” Tom informed them. “The last seen of him was when he was riding up towards that knoll yonder where you see the red bushes. Whether or not he came back, no one seems to know.”“Then he possibly rode into the mountains and got lost,” suggested Emma. “That would be just like Stacy.”“I wish I might believe that it was nothing worse,” answered Grace. “What is your idea, Mr. Bindloss?”“That’s a fair question, and I’ll give you a fair answer. It is my hunch that the bunch that attacked the ranch is concerned in this case too. I’m going over to see Hornby, and you folks can either wait here for me or return to the ranch.”Grace asked permission to accompany him, which was rather begrudgingly granted, she thought. Emma elected to stay and watch the herding, and more especially to watch Two-gun Pete’s antics with his mustang and tell him he was the finest horseman in the world. Emma had told that same thing to nearly every one of Old Joe Bindloss’s punchers, and some day it was destined to result in a lively man-to-man fight.The ride to Hornby’s ranch occupied less than an hour, and Grace observed that Bindloss hailed the log cabin where Hornby lived, while still some little distance away. Judy answered the call and looked her amazement when she saw who the callers were.“Pap’s got an awful grouch on today. You’d better light out of here hot-foot, Pap Bindloss.”“Judy, I’m going to see your father. Where may I find him?”“I reckon right heah! What do ye want?” The voice belonged to Malcolm Hornby.Grace observed the man with keen interest. Hornby was short and wiry, his eyes keen, but revealing a vicious temper, while his face, probably from exposure to the open, was like wrinkled parchment. Yet he was not an old man, perhaps not more than fifty, with a quick, nervous manner that made one feel he would be a dangerous opponent in a fight.“I want to talk with you, Hornby. Can we talk in private?” asked Bindloss. “I want to talk with you about two things. The first is about a young friend of mine named Stacy Brown who disappeared from the round-up last night, pony and all. I want your judgment, too. You know these hills better than I do.”“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout it. Why do ye come heah? Ye don’t think I stole him, do ye?” The question was put with savage emphasis.“Don’t be foolish, Hornby. I need your advice, for I’m plumb locoed on this business,” urged the rancher.“Is that all ye got to say?”“No. I have something else to say. Hornby, we’re neighbors, not very good ones, but we’re neighbors just the same, and neighbors should stand together. I suppose the rustlers have been at your herd as well as mine.”“I reckon if they keeps on I won’t have a steer on four feet left,” growled Hornby.“Then will you join in with me, turn your men over and make a big drive with me to rid this part of the country of all those critters?”“I reckon you an’ me couldn’t hitch up fer anything. We’d be for shootin’ each other up ’fore we’d got out of the valley. You’ve got a rotten temper, an’ when I’m riled up I ain’t no good company either. Who be these folks that ye say is yer friends?”“They are my friends, and that’s all that need be said,” retorted Bindloss with some heat, for he did not like the tone nor the insinuation in Hornby’s reply.While the men were talking, Grace had dismounted and she and Judy had strolled away and engaged in earnest conversation, during which Grace told her all that had happened at the Circle O ranch. What Grace especially wanted to convey was that, knowing the mountains as she did, Judy might be able to assist them in finding out what had happened to Stacy. Judy shook her head saying that she couldn’t. Grace closed the subject instantly and walked back to Bindloss.“Man!” cried the owner of the Circle O. “The ruffians not only tried to steal the ponies right out of my corral, but they shot my place all up and hit my friend, Lieutenant Wingate. He caught two of them and shot some others, I reckon, but the two got away later on with the assistance of their friends. I’ve reached my limit, Hornby. The next thing I know I’ll be killing somebody.”“Providin’ they don’t git ye first,” leered Hornby. “I said ye had a rotten temper, and ye’ve proved it. Nope, Joe, you an’ me can’t hitch up nohow. I’ll run my own shebang and I reckon ye can do the same with yours or quit. I don’t give a dad-blasted rap which ye do. And as fer thet Lootenant friend of yours, tell him he’d better watch out and not git too handy with thet gun o’ hissen, fer thar’s some rough fellers in these mountains thet’d make hash of him instanter if ever they sot eyes on him. This ain’t no place for dudes, Joe Bindloss, an’ ye knows it as well as I do. Thet’s all I got to say to ye.”Malcolm Hornby turned on his heel and strode into the house, ordering Judy to follow him. Judy, with lowered eyes, followed obediently without another word to Grace.“How strangely that girl acts today, Mr. Bindloss,” wondered Grace as she mounted her mustang and trotted away with the rancher.“Judy’s all right. The trouble is that old Hornby is wearing her down with his ornery temper until she is ’bout ready to bust out. I hope she doesn’t, because if she does it’ll be a bad day for Pap.”“Has she no mother?”“Mother died when she was a kid. That was ’bout the time I lost my wife. But I don’t altogether understand what’s got into Judy. She’s acting mighty queer.”Grace nodded.“There’s your man Jim up there,” said Bindloss, pointing to the foothills where the Overland guide was seen working about. At Grace’s suggestion they rode to him. “Find it?” called the rancher as he and Grace approached.“I thought as I had, but thar’s been so many cattle an’ so many hosses that it’s a lost trail. The fellers say that Stacy war seen here’bouts. If he’s smart he’s left some sort o’ trail, but I’ll be shot if I kin find it.”“He would not think of that,” answered Grace.The pair rode on into the valley, both silent and thoughtful, and for the rest of the afternoon watched the work of rounding up. Just before dark Grace joined by Emma rode over to the foothills to see what Jim was accomplishing. He was now nowhere to be seen. Though Emma wanted to ride up farther into the hills, Grace decided that it would not be prudent, for night was coming on.They ate their supper with cowboys beside a little campfire, and shortly after that started homeward, accompanied by Mr. Bindloss and two of the men. Two-gun Pete was one of the party.All were pleased to learn, on their arrival at the ranch, that Hippy had been sitting up and was coming along. Pop Skinner too, Elfreda said, was out of danger. Even the ranch-house had improved under the repairs that had been made that day.Sam Conifer they found pacing about restlessly. He was full of eager questions about Jim, and seemed disturbed when they told him that his partner probably had found a trail and was following it.On the following morning, with no tidings of the old guide, Sam asked permission to go in search of Jim. Permission was readily granted, and Sam was soon galloping away.Conifer did not return until the late afternoon of the next day. He was riding hard when the Overlanders discovered him, and reeled in his saddle as he rode up to the ranch-house.“Somethin’s happened to Jim!” he cried. “I found whar it happened, and then I lost the trail. They’ve got him! They’ve got him, folks!”“Sam! Sam! You have been hurt!” cried Nora. There was blood on Sam Conifer’s face, and the left arm hung limp at his side. Before they could assist him, Sam essayed to dismount and pitched to the ground in a dead faint.
“I am going back to the round-up, then over to see Malcolm Hornby,” announced Joe Bindloss after returning from the stable, where he had gone to see for himself how the prisoners had escaped. “I hate the critter, but if we stock owners don’t get together and organize to wipe out these thieves we shan’t have any stock left by the end of the season.”
“I’ll go with you,” offered Tom Gray.
“Sure, if you like. Pete, you and Idaho are to ride with us, leaving the rest here to protect the ranch. We mustn’t leave the place alone again, but there’s got to be some better protecting than there was last night,” warned Bindloss. “I’ll bet every steer on my ranch that if Lieutenant Wingate had been on his feet they wouldn’t have got away—alive!”
“Tom, I am going, too,” announced Grace.
“Rough riding, girlie,” reminded Tom.
“Yes, I know. But I don’t mind. Elfreda will remain with Hippy who will be all right if someone doesn’t fire more bullets into him. She and Nora may be trusted to take good care of him. Perhaps Emma would like to go, too, especially if that big cowboy Pete is to accompany us,” added Grace laughingly.
“Come along. You won’t be satisfied unless you do,” agreed Tom. “I will speak to Bindloss about it.”
Grace said that there was no need to do that, and suggested further that she thought she might be of some assistance to the searchers, but the Overland girl did not explain what she meant by her last remark, nor did Tom think twice about it. His mind was troubled.
Emma answered the question of her joining the party before it was asked by announcing that she was going to ride with Two-gun Pete and Mr. Bindloss.
Arrangements were quickly made and after the situation had been explained to Lieutenant Wingate, Nora and Emma, the rancher and his party mounted their ponies, leaving Sierra in charge of the ranch with another cowboy and Sam Conifer to assist him.
“Do as well as ye did last night when ye let them fellers git away an’ ye prob’bly’ll git yer fool haid shot off,” warned Sam as Jim swung into his saddle.
“That’s all right so long as we leave another wuss fool heah at the ranch,” gave back Jim, and the party galloped away.
It was a hard ride, especially for Emma and Grace, but both girls stood up under it remarkably well. Only one stop was made and that was at a spring to water the ponies, after which the journey was resumed. The rancher and his party reached their destination about the middle of the afternoon, where the same scenes were being enacted as on the previous day. Cattle were milling and bawling, and above the roar came the calls of the cowpunchers, clear and distinct.
The herd engaged in the milling was much smaller than before because so many head had been cut out and sent to graze at another place, there to be guarded by men who would see to it that they neither got away nor were stolen, for these cattle soon were to be driven to market.
At Bindloss’s direction, the men of the party separated and rode out to question the cowmen about Stacy, and after every man there had been interviewed, the searchers returned to the knoll where the girls were awaiting them.
“He hasn’t been here since last night,” Tom informed them. “The last seen of him was when he was riding up towards that knoll yonder where you see the red bushes. Whether or not he came back, no one seems to know.”
“Then he possibly rode into the mountains and got lost,” suggested Emma. “That would be just like Stacy.”
“I wish I might believe that it was nothing worse,” answered Grace. “What is your idea, Mr. Bindloss?”
“That’s a fair question, and I’ll give you a fair answer. It is my hunch that the bunch that attacked the ranch is concerned in this case too. I’m going over to see Hornby, and you folks can either wait here for me or return to the ranch.”
Grace asked permission to accompany him, which was rather begrudgingly granted, she thought. Emma elected to stay and watch the herding, and more especially to watch Two-gun Pete’s antics with his mustang and tell him he was the finest horseman in the world. Emma had told that same thing to nearly every one of Old Joe Bindloss’s punchers, and some day it was destined to result in a lively man-to-man fight.
The ride to Hornby’s ranch occupied less than an hour, and Grace observed that Bindloss hailed the log cabin where Hornby lived, while still some little distance away. Judy answered the call and looked her amazement when she saw who the callers were.
“Pap’s got an awful grouch on today. You’d better light out of here hot-foot, Pap Bindloss.”
“Judy, I’m going to see your father. Where may I find him?”
“I reckon right heah! What do ye want?” The voice belonged to Malcolm Hornby.
Grace observed the man with keen interest. Hornby was short and wiry, his eyes keen, but revealing a vicious temper, while his face, probably from exposure to the open, was like wrinkled parchment. Yet he was not an old man, perhaps not more than fifty, with a quick, nervous manner that made one feel he would be a dangerous opponent in a fight.
“I want to talk with you, Hornby. Can we talk in private?” asked Bindloss. “I want to talk with you about two things. The first is about a young friend of mine named Stacy Brown who disappeared from the round-up last night, pony and all. I want your judgment, too. You know these hills better than I do.”
“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout it. Why do ye come heah? Ye don’t think I stole him, do ye?” The question was put with savage emphasis.
“Don’t be foolish, Hornby. I need your advice, for I’m plumb locoed on this business,” urged the rancher.
“Is that all ye got to say?”
“No. I have something else to say. Hornby, we’re neighbors, not very good ones, but we’re neighbors just the same, and neighbors should stand together. I suppose the rustlers have been at your herd as well as mine.”
“I reckon if they keeps on I won’t have a steer on four feet left,” growled Hornby.
“Then will you join in with me, turn your men over and make a big drive with me to rid this part of the country of all those critters?”
“I reckon you an’ me couldn’t hitch up fer anything. We’d be for shootin’ each other up ’fore we’d got out of the valley. You’ve got a rotten temper, an’ when I’m riled up I ain’t no good company either. Who be these folks that ye say is yer friends?”
“They are my friends, and that’s all that need be said,” retorted Bindloss with some heat, for he did not like the tone nor the insinuation in Hornby’s reply.
While the men were talking, Grace had dismounted and she and Judy had strolled away and engaged in earnest conversation, during which Grace told her all that had happened at the Circle O ranch. What Grace especially wanted to convey was that, knowing the mountains as she did, Judy might be able to assist them in finding out what had happened to Stacy. Judy shook her head saying that she couldn’t. Grace closed the subject instantly and walked back to Bindloss.
“Man!” cried the owner of the Circle O. “The ruffians not only tried to steal the ponies right out of my corral, but they shot my place all up and hit my friend, Lieutenant Wingate. He caught two of them and shot some others, I reckon, but the two got away later on with the assistance of their friends. I’ve reached my limit, Hornby. The next thing I know I’ll be killing somebody.”
“Providin’ they don’t git ye first,” leered Hornby. “I said ye had a rotten temper, and ye’ve proved it. Nope, Joe, you an’ me can’t hitch up nohow. I’ll run my own shebang and I reckon ye can do the same with yours or quit. I don’t give a dad-blasted rap which ye do. And as fer thet Lootenant friend of yours, tell him he’d better watch out and not git too handy with thet gun o’ hissen, fer thar’s some rough fellers in these mountains thet’d make hash of him instanter if ever they sot eyes on him. This ain’t no place for dudes, Joe Bindloss, an’ ye knows it as well as I do. Thet’s all I got to say to ye.”
Malcolm Hornby turned on his heel and strode into the house, ordering Judy to follow him. Judy, with lowered eyes, followed obediently without another word to Grace.
“How strangely that girl acts today, Mr. Bindloss,” wondered Grace as she mounted her mustang and trotted away with the rancher.
“Judy’s all right. The trouble is that old Hornby is wearing her down with his ornery temper until she is ’bout ready to bust out. I hope she doesn’t, because if she does it’ll be a bad day for Pap.”
“Has she no mother?”
“Mother died when she was a kid. That was ’bout the time I lost my wife. But I don’t altogether understand what’s got into Judy. She’s acting mighty queer.”
Grace nodded.
“There’s your man Jim up there,” said Bindloss, pointing to the foothills where the Overland guide was seen working about. At Grace’s suggestion they rode to him. “Find it?” called the rancher as he and Grace approached.
“I thought as I had, but thar’s been so many cattle an’ so many hosses that it’s a lost trail. The fellers say that Stacy war seen here’bouts. If he’s smart he’s left some sort o’ trail, but I’ll be shot if I kin find it.”
“He would not think of that,” answered Grace.
The pair rode on into the valley, both silent and thoughtful, and for the rest of the afternoon watched the work of rounding up. Just before dark Grace joined by Emma rode over to the foothills to see what Jim was accomplishing. He was now nowhere to be seen. Though Emma wanted to ride up farther into the hills, Grace decided that it would not be prudent, for night was coming on.
They ate their supper with cowboys beside a little campfire, and shortly after that started homeward, accompanied by Mr. Bindloss and two of the men. Two-gun Pete was one of the party.
All were pleased to learn, on their arrival at the ranch, that Hippy had been sitting up and was coming along. Pop Skinner too, Elfreda said, was out of danger. Even the ranch-house had improved under the repairs that had been made that day.
Sam Conifer they found pacing about restlessly. He was full of eager questions about Jim, and seemed disturbed when they told him that his partner probably had found a trail and was following it.
On the following morning, with no tidings of the old guide, Sam asked permission to go in search of Jim. Permission was readily granted, and Sam was soon galloping away.
Conifer did not return until the late afternoon of the next day. He was riding hard when the Overlanders discovered him, and reeled in his saddle as he rode up to the ranch-house.
“Somethin’s happened to Jim!” he cried. “I found whar it happened, and then I lost the trail. They’ve got him! They’ve got him, folks!”
“Sam! Sam! You have been hurt!” cried Nora. There was blood on Sam Conifer’s face, and the left arm hung limp at his side. Before they could assist him, Sam essayed to dismount and pitched to the ground in a dead faint.