CHAPTER XVI.

AFTER THE RUSTLERS' RAID.

As the other herds came in the excitement grew intense. Cattle were lowing, men shouting and horses whinnying at such a rate that the two boys changing their mind, had to make their way out to the corral to see the last of the great drive by moonlight.

By degrees things quieted down, though there would be more or less uneasiness manifested among the impounded cattle throughout the night.

The punchers were a noisy lot. Dozens of questions flowed in upon Chunky, Dutch and the other two who managed to bring in the prize herd. This was after the news was circulated that the rustlers had been in the act of making off with the cattle in Washout Coulie at the time the Double Cross boys arrived on the scene.

There was much bitter lamentation heard among the unlucky ones, because they had been cheated out of all the fun. They could have a drive at any time, but a genuine encounter with the bold rustlers was something worth while.

Ned saw that Ally Sloper was playing his part as though he meant to rehabilitate himself in the good graces of the owners of the ranch after his recent unfortunate break. He even boasted of having wounded at least a couple of the cattle thieves with his fire; though Ned knew only too well that this was untrue, since the other had shot too high for any such damage to follow.

"He's got his nerve with him, seems like," Jimmy had remarked, as having been joined by Harry and Jack, he and Ned stood there watching the last of the cattle being driven into the big enclosure that would be patrolled during the remainder of the night, so that nothing could happen to break the corral fence and scatter the inmates over the plain.

"That's more than Lefty Louie had then," remarked Jack.

"He went out with your crowd, didn't he?" Ned asked.

"Went out, yes, but he didn't come back with us," replied the other scout.

"Huh! I just thought that sneak would beat it, given half a chance," said Jimmie.

"One of the first things I did," Harry spoke up, "after getting in was to hunt around to see if the other three came back; and not a sign can you find of one of the bunch."

"You mean Coyote Smith, Bob Caruso and Tinplate George?" Ned inquired.

"All slipped away the first chance they got," Harry continued, in a disgusted voice. "I guess they must have seen that the game was up, and thought they might have to swing from some telegraph pole if the punchers took a notion they'd played fast and loose."

"Can you blame them?" asked Ned.

"Well, perhaps not so much; and besides, it cleans out the sneaky element among the punchers of the Double Cross outfit," Harry admitted. "But Uncle Job will have a heap to hear when he gets back from his journey. You don't think those men will dare come close in here and try to steal the cattle right out of the corral, do you, Ned?"

"I should say there wasn't one risk in a thousand that way," answered the scout leader, immediately; "they know that we'll be on guard, and chances are they've got too healthy a respect for the shooting abilities of these scrappy Double Cross punchers to want to get into a regular fight with them."

"But all the same Chunky means to keep on the watch; he'll have the stockade well guarded, won't he, Ned?" Harry continued.

"That has all been arranged for," Ned told him; "and you can make up your mind there'll be nothing doing until morning. Fact is, I'm more suspicious that Ally Sloper being up to some sly trick than that his friends will dare pounce down on the ranch in the night.

"I hope Chunky hasn't changed his mind about that snake!" Jimmy ventured. "Just because he helped drive the herd, and goes around boasting how he did such great shakes in shooting up the rustler gang, isn't any proof that he's reformed."

"Chunky is on to his capers, never you fear, Jimmy," declared Jack, "and ten to one he means to have Sloper watched every minute of the time till dawn. If he tries to slip away, he'll run up against a snag right off. It may be a piece of lead that stops his exit, or the loop of a lariat. You can count on seeing him among us when the call to breakfast comes."

"Oh! I wish it was now!" Jimmy was heard to mutter, "all this work seems to have made me as hungry as a wolf; and it's been an _awful_ long time since they flagged me to a meal."

"Cheer up, Jimmy," Ned told him, "because I've got some good news for you."

"Did the lady tell Chin Chin Charley to give the boys some grub after they came in from the drive, Ned; is that the good news you want to tell me?" Jimmy eagerly demanded, looking anxiously at his chum.

"There goes the big gong right now," interrupted Jack, "and the boys are trooping for the grub tent as if they know what to expect after doing night duty. So get a move on, Jimmy; if you don't want to find everything cleared out and only a bare table left."

Jimmy was off like a flash. When the other scouts entered the place where meals were served, they discovered him busily at work.

"Saved you places alongside me!" he called out; "and say, there's plenty of chow for everybody. That Chink knows his business, and I'm goin' to be great friends with him all the time we're here."

"It takes you to make up to the cook, Jimmy," laughed Jack.

"That's all right," replied the other, with a broad grin, "sure it's a wise boy that knows which side of his bread is buttered. And Chin Chin Charley is the boss cook, let me tell you right now. I ain't much in that line myself, but then I know a good thing when I run across it. And don't the rest of you get jealous if you see how thick me'n him are expectin' to be; ain't we, Chin Chin?"

The slant-eyed Mongolian must have already taken quite a liking for jolly, good-natured Jimmy, for upon being thus appealed to he nodded his head until his pigtail bobbed up and down, smiled affably, and was heard to murmur:

"Much good frien's, Jimmy, me; heap like Melicanboy; much eat; come back more many times, alle samee!"

Apparently Jimmy was in for a good time while staying at the Double Cross Ranch, and he believed in starting things right by making sure that the food supply would be unlimited.

After the midnight supper had been disposed Of the punchers strolled forth again. Ned and Chunky were in consultation, for the puncher, knowing that Mrs. Haines had somehow conceived the idea that the young scout leader had a long head for a boy and could be depended on in an emergency, realized that it was the right thing to put certain things up to him. Of course, Chunky knew best what should be done, and Ned quickly told him to exercise his own judgment in the matter of guarding the big stockade in which the cattle had been shut up.

The boys were all tired after such a long and arduous experience. Even Jack, who as a rule could stand for almost anything, admitted that he could hardly put one foot in front of the other, he felt so stiff.

"That's because I'm not used to being so long in the saddle and playing the game they have out here," he acknowledged, "but given a chance, and we'll show our friends, the punchers, that scouts can ride pretty decently. I'm going to pick up all the kinks of the job while I'm on it; and before we leave here we ought to know how to throw a rope, drop a steer, use the branding iron on his flank, and ride the trickiest broncho there is to a stand-still."

"That's me," asserted Jimmy, like a flash. "He's a spotted little devil, too, and his name, sure it's Satan, or if it ain't it ought to be. He beat me out in the first clash and run me all the way home, like a blue streak; but there's another day acomin', don't you forget it; and that score between Jimmy McGraw and Satan has got to be rubbed out. I'm on to his curves now and I'll sting him, or it's me chased to the tall timber. You hear me warble, boys!"

"Then we'll expect to have lots of fun out of the circus, Jimmy," said Harry, "because they've been telling me that calico pony has got the meanest name around here. Some of the boys heard you boasting about how you could manage any animal, and they just couldn't help running that beast in on you. But if Uncle Job had been here I don't think they'd have dared to take the risk. You might have been killed."

"He didn't get me off and that's some comfort," muttered Jimmy, grimly, "I'm a good sticker, you see."

"Yes, I noticed that it was hard work to get you away from that table," Jack remarked, with a chuckle.

They had been given comfortable quarters on the ground floor, for the ranch house really boasted of two stories in part. Cots took the place of beds, but they seemed to be all that might be desired; and, as Jack said, were a thousand per cent better than the hard ground, or the hot sand of the desert, which had been their resting place ever since they left Los Angeles, in that ramshackle automobile that had played them false on the journey and had to be abandoned.

It was expected that the two owners of the ranch would possibly return by the following afternoon, when the stirring news could be told. Until then Ned had considered that, perhaps, no action should be taken in connection with Ally Sloper, except that the suspect must be kept under surveillance, so that he might not damage the property in any way. The Colonel would know how to deal with him though in all probability a discharge would be the limit of his punishment.

The night passed without any alarm.

"Sure they had a lesson they won't forget for some time," Jimmy declared in the morning, as the four scouts were talking matters over.

They had had considerable trouble in coaxing the said Jimmy to get out of his comfortable bed. He declared in a sleepy voice that he had been cheated out of much repose lately, and needed rest the worst kind. Argument and pleading seeming to have no effect, Ned finally solemnly assured him that they would eat up every bit of breakfast, no matter how they suffered afterwards for it, unless he immediately started dressing. That did the business, for Jimmy believed Ned meant what he threatened, and that there would be a famine in the land.

It was a fine morning and they enjoyed looking out at the scene from the wide and long verandah. The many buildings, the stockade now filled with hundreds of the impounded stock, the horse corrals where the ponies roamed when not in use, or out grazing on the range--all these and more made up a pleasant picture that seemed to promise the boys a most enjoyable time while at Double Cross Ranch.

Of course, Harry had some important business to transact with his uncle but it was not going to interfere at all with their having a great time. It seemed that they had interested Mr. Stevens in the ranch and its possibilities of enlargement, with greater capital; and the well-to-do automobile maker of New York City had sent his son out to see what he thought of the idea, depending wholly on Harry's report as to whether he went into the scheme or not.

This being the case it was plain to be seen that Harry was bound to be treated like a young prince while he and his chums were at the ranch and that nothing would be deemed too good for them.

As breakfast was not ready when the boys issued forth, much to the disappointment of Jimmy, who acted as though he had not eaten for two days, they started to look around a little.

"We might as well get acquainted with the lay of things," said Jack, "because it looks as if we were going to hang out here some little time now. And I want to say, in the beginning, that I expect to be feeling right sore when the time comes to tip our hats to Double Cross Ranch."

Jimmy gave a grunt at hearing that.

"That's nothin'," he asserted, with a twinkle in his blue eyes, "seems to me all of us are pretty much that way right now. And is it to be wondered at, when we took a twenty-five mile run last night without bein' seasoned to the saddle. But given time, and we'll get as tough as any puncher around. I think we've done right well for a pack of greenhorns."

"There, your mentioning that word pack makes me think of our burros and their loads," remarked Ned. "I wonder what became of them."

"I remember seeing one of the punchers leading the donkeys into the stable," Harry went on to say, "and p'raps we might find them there. Let's stroll in and see if Teddy'd know us again, the rascal."

And as the others were agreeable, they sauntered over to the stable where some of the cowboys' mounts were kept at times, and which usually housed the saddles and other trappings of the puncher band belonging to the ranch.

It just happened by accident that all of the scouts stopped talking as they approached the long, low building, outside of which could be seen the stout rail at which throughout the day ponies could be seen hitched, sometimes as many as a dozen or a score at a time.

Ned was in the van, and as he stepped into the doorway of the stable he came to a sudden stop and held up his hand in a warning way that the others instantly recognized as a signal for them to halt in their tracks.

No one said a single word, only Jimmy, who was lagging along in the rear, pushed forward as though anxious to get in line, so as to see what it was that had excited the attention of the scout master.

A number of ponies were in the stalls, as well as the donkeys that the boys had brought all the way from Death Valley, and which they had purchased from a party of dejected prospectors desirous of returning home.

There was a man there also, whose back was turned toward them, but whom they immediately recognized as Ally Sloper, the suspected ally of the rustler gang. He had taken down the three packs that came with the burros and belonged to the scouts, and appeared to be eagerly searching the same, evidently bent on learning what they might contain.

It happened that just at the very moment the scouts stood there in the open doorway, Sloper made a discovery that caused him to give vent to a low cry of anger and amazement.

When Ned saw what he held in his hand he did not wonder that the spy was shocked. It was nothing more nor less than the dead homing pigeon the hawk had pounced on, and which with its fateful message had afterwards fallen into the possession of the four scouts, thus putting them wise to the fact that there was treachery afloat at the cattle ranch.

When Ally Sloper saw the nature of his find he understood how it came that his clever game had gone against him so heavily, with the prize herd saved from the rustlers' raid.