Boy Ranchers; Or, Solving the Mystery at Diamond X

  Produced by Al Haines

  [Frontispiece: missing from book]

  THE

  BOY RANCHERS

  OR

  _Solving the Mystery at Diamond X_

  By

  WILLARD F. BAKER

  Author of "The Boy Ranchers in Camp,""The Boy Ranchers on the Trail," etc.

  _ILLUSTRATED_

  NEW YORK

  CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

  THE BOY RANCHERS SERIES

  By WILLARD F. BAKER

  12mo. Cloth. Frontispiece

  THE BOY RANCHERS or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X

  THE BOY RANCHERS IN CAMP or The Water Fight at Diamond X

  THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL or The Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers

  _Other Volumes in Preparation_

  CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York

  COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY

  COPPLES & LEON COMPANY

  THE BOY RANCHERS

  Printed in U. S. A.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I "SOME RIDIN'!" II A CALL FOB HELP III A MYSTERIOUS SEARCH IV SUSPICIONS V HITTING THE TRAIL VI THE RUSTLERS VII A CRY IN THE NIGHT VIII "THE PROFESSOR'" IX "WHAT DOES IT MEAN?" X DEL PINZO XI BAD BUSINESS XII RIDING HERD XIII THE ATTEMPT FOILED XIV THE STAMPEDE XV LOST XVI THE VISION XVII THE NIGHT CAMP XVIII QUEER OPERATIONS XIX PRISONERS XX THE DIAMOND X BRAND XXI THE ESCAPE XXII BACK TO THE RANCH XXIII CLOSING IN XXIV THE FIGHT XXV THE TRICERATOPS

  THE BOY RANCHERS

  CHAPTER I

  "SOME RIDIN'!"

  Two riders slumped comfortably in their saddles as the ponies slowlyambled along. The sun was hot, and the dust stifling, a cloud of itforming a floating screen about the horsemen and progressing with themdown the trail.

  One of the riders, a tall, lanky and weather-beaten cowboy, taking along breath, raised his voice in what he doubtless intended to be asong.

  It was, however, more a cry of anguish as he bellowed forth:

  "Leave me alone with a rope an' a saddle, Fold my spurs under my haid! Give me a can of them sweet, yaller peaches, 'Cause why? My true-love is daid!"

  "Bad as all that; is it, Slim?" asked the other, who, now that he hadpartly emerged from the cloud of dust, could be seen as a lad of aboutsixteen. He, like the other, older rider, was attired cowboy fashion.

  "Eh? What's that, Bud?" inquired the lanky one, seeming to arouse asif from a day dream. "See suthin'?"

  "Nope. I was just sort of remarking about that sad song, and----"

  "Oh, shucks! _That_ wa'n't sad!" declared Slim Degnan, foreman of theDiamond X ranch. "Guess I wa'n't really payin' much attention to whatI was singin', but if you want a real sad lament----"

  "No, I don't!" laughed Bud Merkel, whose father was the owner ofDiamond X ranch. "Not that I blame you for feeling sort of down andout," he added.

  "Oh, I don't feel _bad_, Bud!" came the hasty rejoinder. "We did havemore'n a ride than I figgered on, but I don't aim to put up no kick.It's all in the day's work. You don't seem to mind it."

  "I should say not! We had a bully time. I'd spend another night outin the open if we had to. I like it!"

  "Yes, you seem to take to it like a duck does to water," added Slim."But it's a shame to mention ducks in the same chapter with thisatmosphere! Zow hippy! But it's hot an' dusty an' thirsty! Comealong there, you old hunk of jerked beef!" he added to his pony, givinga gentle reminder with the spurs and pulling on the reins. The ponymade a feeble attempt to increase its gait, but it was no more than anattempt.

  The animal that was ridden by Bud--a pinto--started to follow theexample of the other.

  "Regular mud-turtle gallop," commented the foreman.

  "They'll go faster when they top the rise, and see the corral,"commented Bud.

  "An' smell water! That's what I want, a long, sizzling, sozzling drinkof water!" cried Slim, whose name fitted him better than did hisclothes. Then he broke forth again with:

  "Oh, leave me alone with a rope an' a saddle----"

  Slowly the riders plodded along. The sun seemed to grow more hot andthe dust more thick. As they approached a hill, beyond which lay thecorral and ranch buildings of Diamond X, Bud drew rein, thus haltinghis pony.

  "Let's give 'em a breather before we hit the hill," he suggested to theforeman.

  "I'm agreeable, son," was the foreman's easy comment as he slung oneleg over the saddle and sat sideways.

  Slim Degnan and Bud had ridden off to look for a break in one of themany long lines of wire fences that kept the stock of Diamond Xsomewhat within bounds, and it had taken longer to locate and repairthe break than they had counted on.

  They had been obliged to remain out all night--not that this wasunusual, only they had not exactly prepared for it--and, inconsequence, did not have all the ordinary comforts. But, as Bud hadsaid, he had not minded it. However, the ponies were rather used up,and the riders in the same condition, and it was with equal feelings ofrelief that they came within sight of the last hill that lay betweenthem and the ranch.

  "Well, might as well mosey along," spoke Slim, at length. "Sooner weget some water inside us, an' th' ponies, th' better we'll all be."

  "I reckon," agreed Bud. "But I don't believe Zip Foster could havedone the job any quicker than we did."

  "Who?" queried Slim, with a quizzical look at his companion.

  "Zip Foster," answered Bud.

  "Never heard of him. What outfit does he ride for?" asked the foreman,but he saved Bud the embarrassment of answer by suddenly rising in hissaddle and looking off in the distance.

  Bud had his own reasons for not answering that seemingly naturalquestion, and he was glad of the diversion, though he was not at onceaware of what had caused it. But he followed the direction of theforeman's gaze, and, like him, saw arising in the still air, about twomiles away, a thin thread of smoke--a mere wisp, as though it haddangled down from some fleecy cloud. But the smoke was ascending andwas not the beginning of a fog descending.

  "Can't be any of our boys," murmured Slim. "They aren't out onround-up yet. An' it's too early for grub."

  "Indians?" questioned Bud. Sometimes the bucks from a neighboringreservation felt the call of the wild, and slipped out to have aforbidden feast on some cattleman's stock, only to be brought up with around turn by the government soldiers.

  "Don't think so," remarked Slim. "They don't have much chance t'practice their wiles, but, with all that, they know enough not t' makea fire that smokes. Must be some strangers. If it's any of themornery sheep men," he exclaimed, "I'd feel like----"

  "They wouldn't dare!" exclaimed Bud, for being the son of acattle-ranchman he had come to dislike and despise the sheep herders,whose flocks ate so closely as to ruin the feeding range for steers.The sheep would crop grass down to the very roots, setting back itsgrowth for many months.

  "No, I don't reckon it would be sheepers," murmured Slim. "Wa'al,mebby they know at the ranch. We'll be headin' home now, I guess.Come on there, you old tumble-bug!" he called to his horse, and then heraised his voice and roared:

  "Leave me alone with a rope an' a saddle, Fold my spurs under my haid! Give me a can of them sweet, yaller peaches, 'Cause why? My true-love is daid!"

  Slim's horse started off on a lope, freshened by the rest, and Bud'sfollowed. They topped the rise, and, then as the animals came withinsight and smell of their stables, and caught the whiff of ever-welcomewater, they dashed down the slope toward the green valley in whichnestled the corral and buildings of Diamond X ranch.

  "If I wasn't
so doggoned tired," said Slim to Bud as they prepared topull up on reaching the corral, "I'd ride over after supper, and seewhat that smoke was. I don't perzactly like it."

  "Maybe I'll go," offered Bud. "If it _should_ happen to be sheepers,dad'll want to know it."

  "He shore will, son. But--Zow hippy! What's going on here?" criedSlim. He pointed toward the corral of the ranch--a fenced-off fieldwhere the cowboys kept their string of ponies when the animals were notin use. Here, too, spare animals were held against the time of need.

  Just now a crowd of cowboys surrounded this corral. Some were perchedon the rails of the fence, and others leaned over. Some were swingingtheir hats as though in encouragement, and one was rapidly emptying hisgun on the defenseless air, which was further torn and shattered bywild yells.

  As the two wayfarers neared the corral, there dashed from among thecattle punchers surrounding it an exceedingly fat cowboy, whose face,wreathed in smiles, was also wet with perspiration. He swung his hataround in a circle and yelled shrilly:

  "Some ridin', boys! Some ridin'! Go to it!"

  "What's the matter, Babe?" asked Slim, of his assistant who had thusgiven vent to his feelings.

  "Go look! It's so good I don't want to spoil it!" laughed the fat one."Two tenderfoots--Oh, my--Hole me up, somebody!" he begged. "Someridin'!"

  Bud had a glimpse, in the corral, of a youth about his own age, flyingrapidly around the enclosure on the back of a bucking bronco. The ladwas holding on with both arms around the horn of the saddle.

  "Get him off!" cried Bud in a high pitched voice, as he recognized thepony to which the strange lad was clinging. "Tartar will kill him!Get him off!"