CHAPTER XXIX

THE ROUND-UP

“Well,” began Professor Snodgrass, whose strange appearance on account of his ragged and unshaven condition was a source of fascination to the boys, “I suppose you know about how I went away?”

“Out of the tent, yes,” assented Jerry. “We were awakened by hearing you yell for help, and Bob here thought,” he added, grinning, “that one of the big moths might have carried you away.”

“Not so bad as that!” laughed the professor; “though some of the moths were very large and most beautiful specimens. I went out, without waking any of you, and I was moving about with my net, my lantern and my specimen boxes, when I suddenly felt myself grabbed from behind. I heard the sound of low voices and at once it flashed into my mind that the rustlers had me. I had no chance to use my revolver.

“I called as loudly as I could, and when I said ‘they’ had me I thought you boys, if you heard me at all, would understand.”

“We didn’t though, at least not for some time,” remarked Ned.

“But no sooner had I cried out for help than someone clapped a hand over my mouth and I couldn’t make a loud sound. Then I was bound and gagged and stretched out on something by which I was pulled along the ground. It seemed like a big sled.”

The boys uttered exclamations of surprise.

“What’s the matter?” Mr. Snodgrass asked.

“Nothing, only that we saw the marks of the log runners of the stone-boat on which you were carried away,” explained Jerry. “We tried to trace the strange marks,” he said, describing them, “but we failed.”

“Yes, a stone-boat,” agreed the narrator. “But they didn’t use it for hauling stone after they used it to give me an unexpected ride.”

“What did they use it for?” Ned asked.

“To haul cattle on.”

“Cattle!” cried the boys.

“Yes. They had a sort of fence built around the edge of the big, low, flat stone-boat. They would load it with cattle in the ravine and by means of pulleys and rope work it through the secret passage. That was done so the cattle would make no mark on the ground, telling in what direction they had been taken.”

“It sounds pretty complicated,” said Jerry. “But maybe it’s easy when you come to the details. What about the secret passage in the ravine? We suspected one but we couldn’t discover it.”

“I’d better tell my story in sequence,” suggested the professor. “Throughout the night I was hauled along on this stone-boat, as I later discovered it to be, and I couldn’t see where I was going. When daylight came those who had captured me halted in a pleasant little, but well hidden, valley where hundreds of cattle were pastured. There was a sort of camp, around a group of rude buildings, and in one of these I was locked.

“To make a long story short I had been captured by the cattle rustlers as a spy. They had seen you boys come to camp and they guessed you were on their trail. They planned to get you all, but my going out in the night upset their plans, and they took me. Then events occurred to change their plans.

“That they were the cattle thieves who had me was soon proved to my satisfaction. A few days after I had been made prisoner I saw early one morning, some of the rustlers driving into the valley some of the steers from the Square Z ranch. I recognized the brand.”

“What did they do with them?” asked Ned, eagerly.

“Held them in the valley a few days, changed the brand marks, and drove them away again. The valley was so well hidden in the mountains that I believe no one, save the thieves, knew of it.

“After about a week, during which time I was kept in the shack, I was allowed to go about at will. But when I tried to get out of the valley I found it was impossible. The sides were steep and dangerous to climb. There were but two entrances and both were guarded night and day. One was that by which the cattle were driven in, and the other where they went out. Both were well concealed by winding paths leading through dense forests, and though I found both, I could not get past the guards.”

“But you finally escaped,” said Bob.

“Yes. I’ll tell you how. As I said, after a while I was allowed to go about as I pleased, and when I found out I could not escape I began to collect specimens. And what wonderful ones there were in the valley!

“In time the rustlers paid little attention to me and, as I seemed engrossed in my collecting, they talked freely before me. It was in this way that I learned the ravine was connected with the valley by a secret passage.

“When they made a cattle raid they would drive the steers up near the V-shaped end of the gorge. There the cattle would be held together until, ten or fifteen at a time they were put on the stone-boat and hauled through the secret opening, leaving no trace.”

“But how is the opening hidden?” asked Jerry.

“By means of a great wooden door covered with concrete on the outside, so that it looks like part of the rocky wall,” answered the professor. “I know about the location of it. It should be easy to find.”

“We’ll have a try at it!” murmured Jerry. “But how did you manage to get away, Professor?”

“By a stroke of good luck. The rustlers had brought in some of the choice cattle from Square Z, and as they had a market to which the steers must be sent in a hurry they decided to get them out of the valley after dark. I saw then my chance to escape. There were, lying about the camp, any number of old hides, taken off the cattle that had died or been slain for food. I wrapped one of these about me one dark night when the herd was to be driven out, and mingled with the cattle. It was taking a chance, I knew, but I managed to keep from being trampled on and went in the midst of the cattle through the woods to the secret outlet of the valley. Once outside I lay down under a bush to wait until morning. My one regret was that I had to leave behind my lovely specimens. But I dared not carry them.

“Since that night I have been tramping about trying to find Square Z ranch. But I must have gone away from it instead of toward it for I became lost. My clothes and shoes began to wear out. I managed to get enough berries and roots to live on, for I had made a careful study of botany and knew what was best for me. But I was so hungry for a ham sandwich!” said the professor, pathetically.

“Have another!” begged Bob, offering one.

The professor munched it while concluding his narrative. He had wandered on and on, finally becoming so footsore, weary and ragged that he was the tramp the boys beheld him. But in his misery he did not forget his collection mania and made boxes of bark to hold his specimens.

Finally, he reached the great rock, not knowing where he was and scarcely able to go on. Then he had heard the hum of the aircraft engine above him, and had recognized the ship of his friends.

“You are to be congratulated on getting away from those rustlers,” said Jerry. “It wasn’t easy, I imagine.”

“Indeed it wasn’t,” said the professor fervently, and the boys admired him for his pluck.

Not that he had ever lacked it, but his was a restful life, compared to theirs, and he seldom had need to show what he could do in a strenuous way. Though once, when Jerry had been in danger from a wild animal on one of their trips, the professor, armed only with a light gun which he used to bring down birds without injuring their plumage, rushed up and fired in the animal’s face, delaying the attack long enough for Ned to kill the beast.

“They watched me pretty closely,” went on the scientist. “But when I began collecting bugs and spiders, of which there is a wonderful variety in the valley, they began to think I was a bit out of my head,” he said with a chuckle. “Then, thinking me harmless and simple, they did not keep such a close espionage over me, and----”

“You fooled ’em good and proper!” exclaimed Bob, admiringly. “We couldn’t have done it half as well.”

“Not much!” declared Jerry. “We’d have probably tried to concoct some elaborate scheme to escape, and they’d have found it out right away. But the professor’s simple trick worked.”

“I didn’t exactly intend it for a trick,” said the scientist, who was the soul of honesty and fair-dealing. “I really did make a good collection while I was held a prisoner in the valley.”

“And have you really learned the secret of the mysterious ravine and just how the cattle rustlers work?” asked Ned.

“I think I have. Of course I haven’t seen the actual secret door, but I believe I can show you how to find it.”

“And the reason the marks of the cattle always stopped before the end of the gorge was reached was because they put the beasts on the stone-boat and dragged them over the remaining distance,” said Jerry. “It was a clever trick, but it’s been found out.”

“But not by us,” put in Ned, gloomily. “We have fallen down all along on this job.”

“Well, you found me, and that’s as good as finding the secret, for I can tell it to you!” exclaimed the professor. “If you hadn’t found me you might never have discovered what you wanted. So, you see, it is the same, one way or the other.”

“I wonder if we can catch the thieves?” mused Bob.

“I think you can,” the professor said. “They didn’t seem to have any idea of giving up their dishonest raids, and, doubtless, they’ll pay another visit to Square Z.”

“Then we must go back and get ready for a round-up!” exclaimed Jerry. “Are you sure you can lead us to the secret valley, Professor?”

“All we’ll have to do will be to go to the gorge, find the hidden door and go through a tunnel-like passage that leads through the base of the mountain. It is the dried bed of an ancient stream, I take it.”

The airship never made better time than in getting back to the ranch, and the surprise created by the return of Professor Snodgrass, ragged and with bristly, unshaven face, was great. Everyone, from the foreman to the least of the laborers, was thrown into a state of excitement.

It was not until after Professor Snodgrass had been shaved by the ranch barber, and had put on some garments that were not in tatters because of his long tramp through forest and brush, that Watson really got at the facts of the professor’s abduction and subsequent escape.

“And so you have discovered the camping place of the rustlers!” exclaimed the foreman, gleefully.

“Well, the professor knows where it is,” Jerry remarked.

“You made good only just in time,” went on Mr. Watson.

“Why?” Ned inquired.

“Because there was another raid last night. The biggest yet. I was just going to send your father word. Instead, I’ll wait and we’ll round-up these thieves. It’s the best news I’ve heard yet! But we must be lively now.”

“Oh, if they have just taken some more cattle they will not move or dispose of them for some time,” said the professor. “They will have to change the brand and arrange for their sale.”

“That’s a part I’d like to know,” said the foreman. “How do they dispose of the stolen stock?”

But this the professor could not tell.

“All hands that can be spared for the round-up!” was the general cry the next morning, and Hinkee Dee was so busy seeing to the men that he had no time to be sarcastic or to sneer at the Motor Boys, in case he had been so disposed. In fact, he did not even notice them, though the other cowboys praised them warmly for their rescue of the professor--an act that would be, it was hoped, the means of wiping out the gang of outlaws.

“Where’s the Parson?” asked Hinkee Dee, as he was marshalling his forces, for he was to lead the party, the foreman having some business to attend to at the ranch that required his presence there.

“He rode to town,” volunteered Gimp.

“Huh! That’s a nice thing to do when he knew I wanted him on this round-up!” snapped Hinkee Dee. “Here, you Gimp, ride after him and tell him to come back at once. No, never mind. I’ll need you. Just tell him to follow us when he comes back,” he called to the foreman, who promised to do so.

“The Parson knew he’d be needed. I don’t see why he went away at a time like this without telling me,” fumed Hinkee Dee. “We’re short-handed as it is. Where’s Munson? He’ll be of some help, even if he has a stiff leg.”

“He went in to town right after Parson did,” someone said.

“Well, this is a nice thing!” stormed Hinkee Dee. “Why didn’t they make a regular party of it? But we won’t wait. Come on, and we’ll round-up this gang.”

It was arranged that the boys and the professor should go on ahead in the airship, to locate and open, if possible, the secret door. The cowboys would follow, go through the passage and surprise, if they could, the rustlers in their very possession of the stolen cattle. It would be good evidence against them.

“I wonder what made Munson and the Parson go off just before the time for the raid?” asked Bob, as he and his chums, with the professor, were in the airship, speeding toward the mysterious gulch.

“Oh, just a coincidence,” suggested Ned. Jerry did not give an opinion, but he had his own ideas.