CHAPTER XXIII

LETTERS FROM HOME

The boys started at these words. The professor in the hands of the cattle thieves!

“But--but!” stammered the surprised Ned. “If they took him, why didn’t they take us? We weren’t far away from where they made the professor a prisoner, to judge by his voice. It sounded very plainly.”

“Sound carries a good distance in this clear air,” said the foreman. “He might have been half a mile away.”

“Besides, they didn’t know you were there,” put in Gimp. “You say the professor went out of the tent?”

“Yes, to look for some moths. He’s been collecting them of late. And they grabbed him while we slept,” explained Ned.

“Well, that accounts for it,” went on the cowboy. “The rustlers were abroad that night on top of the mountain, maybe getting ready to make another raid on us. They came upon the professor, who probably didn’t notice ’em, and they nabbed him before he knew what was going on. It’s as plain as a long-eared rabbit. But we’ll get after the rascals!”

“That’s what!” declared the foreman.

“You can’t do much there at night,” Jerry said.

“No. But we can get a start, which is something, and be on the ground bright and early in the morning,” replied Mr. Watson. “The more time we lose the worse for the professor. I know that trail in the dark as well as in daylight. Where’s Hinkee Dee?” he asked.

“Makin’ a new lariat the last I seen of him,” answered Gimp.

“Send him here, will you? I’m going to leave him in charge while I go off on this expedition with some of you boys. I’ve had enough of this business. I’ll get them rustlers or bust a leg! It’s bad enough to have ’em steal our cattle, but when they take to kidnappin’ a nice man, like Professor Snodgrass, it’s time something was done.”

A curious friendship had sprung up between the rough foreman and the gentle professor which accounted for the warmth of Mr. Watson’s talk.

“Hink,” he said shortly, when his assistant came in, “we’ve got bad news. More of those rustler’s doin’s. It’s got to stop! I want you to take hold here until I come back,” and he explained what had taken place and outlined his plans.

“Get off that shipment that’s to go to-morrow,” he added, “and I’ll be back as soon as I can make it. I won’t come without the professor either, if I can help it,” he said grimly.

“We’ll be with you after we’ve had something to eat,” said Bob, for it was then near the supper hour.

“You’re not to go back to-night!” declared the foreman. “You’ve done enough and you’re tuckered out. Get a good night’s sleep and you can ride up and join us in the morning. Bring along plenty of grub, for we may have to stay a few days. We’ll prepare to camp out. You say you left your tent there?”

“Yes, for we counted on going back,” Jerry answered.

Arrangements were quickly made to get the cowboys, under the leadership of the foreman, off on their trip.

“I wish I was going along!” exclaimed Mr. Munson, as he limped around the room where the talk had been going on.

“Why aren’t you?” asked Hinkee Dee in some surprise. “They’ll need every man they can get, and the boss has signed up more of the cowboys to go with him than I like to see leave the ranch. It makes us short-handed.”

“I don’t see how I can go,” replied the cattle buyer. “My leg doesn’t seem to be getting on as well as I expected. It pains me a lot and if I go up there, where the trail is steep, I might have to walk. I couldn’t do that very well now,” and he limped more than ever. “I’d be more of a hindrance than a help.”

“Well, I reckon there’s something in that,” agreed the assistant foreman. “Do as you think best.”

“Then I’ll stay until my leg gets better.”

“Hadn’t you better let the doctor look at it?” asked Jerry with a wink, seen only by his chums.

“Yes, I think I shall,” was Munson’s cool answer. “I’ll ride in to town and let the doc have a look some day if it doesn’t heal soon. It doesn’t hurt me to ride on the level.”

“What do you suppose his game is--playing off like that?” asked Ned of his tall chum when the three were by themselves.

“I wish I knew,” Jerry replied. “But I’m going to find out. He has some reason for wanting to stay around this ranch, and if it hasn’t to do with cattle stealing I’m very much mistaken.”

“That’s right,” chimed in Bob.

The little cavalcade of cowboys, headed by the foreman, left the ranch singing and shouting, one of the more excitable firing off his revolver.

Ned, Bob and Jerry kept pretty much to themselves that night, as Hinkee Dee was in charge. Even though the parents of the boys owned Square Z, the surly fellow might make it unpleasant for them. He had not become at all friendly as had the others.

“Where are you going?” asked Bob of Jerry, as he saw the tall lad saunter outside.

“Just to have a look around,” was the answer. “I rather want to see what our friend Munson is up to.”

“Want any company?” asked Ned.

“Thank you, no. It will be better for one to do this. He might get suspicious.”

Jerry came back an hour later, shaking his head.

“Nothing doing,” he reported. “He just sat playing cards with the other cowboys for a while, and then took a walk around. I followed, but all he did was to saunter here and there, star-gazing as nearly as I could make out.”

“He’s up to some game,” decided Bob, and his chums agreed with him.

The night passed uneventfully, and after an early breakfast Ned, Bob and Jerry started for the mountain again. They made better time on this trip, and reached the site of the camp in mid-afternoon. No one was about, but another tent had been pitched near theirs, and through a note left in a conspicuous place by the foreman the boys learned that Watson and the others were off making a search. He advised the three boys to stay in camp until the return of the party.

The chums did not want to do this--they wanted to be “on the job,” as Ned declared, but they decided it was best to obey the wishes of a more experienced person.

“We can be getting grub ready for them,” suggested Bob, who, to do him justice, was as anxious to have others partake of the good viands he so enjoyed as he was to eat them himself.

His plan was voted a good one by his chums, and, having had considerable experience in the way of preparing meals, they got up a good one, that was much appreciated by the tired cowboys who came in just before dusk.

“Well, this is a surprise!” exclaimed the foreman as he smelled the savory odors. “In a way it makes up for our disappointment.”

“Then you didn’t find a trace of him?” asked Jerry.

“Not a trace.”

“Did you see queer marks?” Bob queried.

The foreman nodded silently, his mouth full of bread and bacon.

“What were they?”

“Stone-boat,” sententiously replied Mr. Watson.

“Stone-boat?” repeated Bob.

“Yes. A stone-boat is a sort of platform of heavy planks nailed crossways to two logs. It’s easy to roll a big stone on this, as it’s up only a few inches from the ground. Then you hitch some horses to the front end, and pull the stone-boat along. It’s an easy way of hauling heavy weights over dry ground. Of course, when there’s snow you can call it a stone-sled if you like. But that’s what made the marks you saw.”

“And did they drag the professor on a stone-boat?” was Jerry’s question.

“I think not,” and the foreman shook his head. “It was a pretty big stone-boat, to judge by the marks. Most likely someone has been building a sort of wall around a water hole, and had to haul the stone quite a way. I don’t think it had anything to do with the professor.”

The search was renewed early the next morning, and kept up for two days without success. There was no trace of the professor and none of the rustlers. A careful examination was made of the land lying to the west of the ravine, but nothing was revealed that would help solve the mystery.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to give up,” regretfully remarked the foreman after the third day, when their provisions were almost gone. “We’ve made a good search. They’ve either--well, done away with the poor professor somehow, carried him far off, or else they’re hiding with him in some cave in these mountains. And the land knows there are so many we’d never be able to search them all. We did go through a few.”

There seemed nothing else to do, and the cavalcade slowly wended its way down the mountain. The boys felt as though they were coming away from the funeral of their dear friend. It was like leaving him behind.

“But I’m not going to give up!” exclaimed Jerry. “We haven’t solved the cattle mystery yet, and we’re going to have another whack at that. Incidentally, we can look for the professor, too.”

“It does you credit, boys,” said the foreman. “But I don’t believe you’ll have any success.”

The mail was in when the boys got back to Square Z ranch. Each one had a letter, and when Jerry had finished his from his mother he looked at the faces of Ned and Bob.

“You don’t seem to have good news,” he remarked.

“We haven’t,” admitted Ned. “Dad wants us to come home!”