Boy Scouts on the Open Plains; Or, The Round-Up Not Ordered Read online

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  "But ain't yuh meanin' tuh pay me anything fo' shootin'up my pets thisaway?" Harkness demanded.]

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  BOY SCOUTS ON THE OPEN PLAINS

  OR

  THE ROUND-UP NOT ORDERED

  By

  G. HARVEY RALPHSON

  Author of

  BOY SCOUTS IN THE CANAL ZONE BOY SCOUTS IN THE NORTHWEST BOY SCOUTS IN A MOTOR BOAT BOY SCOUTS IN A SUBMARINE

 

  Chicago M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY

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  Copyright 1914 by M. A. Donohue & Co. CHICAGO

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  Contents

  I. OVER THE EDGE II. LUCKY JIMMY III. THE HELPING HAND IV. PICKING UP POINTS V. AROUND THE CAMP FIRE VI. THE WOLF PACK VII. EVERYBODY BUSY VIII. AN UNWELCOME GUEST IX. THE HOMING PIGEON X. AT DOUBLE CROSS RANCH XI. THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS XII. NIPPING A MUTINY XIII. AT WASHOUT COULIE XIV. STAMPEDING THE PRIZE BUNCH XV. JIMMY'S UNWILLING RIDE XVI. AFTER THE RUSTLERS' RAID XVII. THE SHREWD OLD FOX XVIII. MORE TROUBLE AHEAD XIX. AT BAY IN THE CANYON XX. SMOKED OUT XXI. IN THE HANDS OF THE RUSTLERS XXII. COMING OF THE REAL BOSS--CONCLUSION

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  Boy Scouts on the Open Plains

  CHAPTER I.

  OVER THE EDGE.

  "'Tis meself that calls this pretty tough mountain climbin', and meathinkin' all the while the road to Uncle Job's cattle ranch would takeus along the bully open plain all the way!"

  "Hold your horses, Jimmy; we've got to about the end of this hillclimbing. After we cross this divide it's going to be the kind oftravel you mention, all on the level. One more town to pass through,and then we strike out for the ranch. Any minute now we ought toglimpse the low country through this canyon that we've been followingover the ridge."

  "There it is right now, Ned, and let me tell you I'm glad myself thatthis hard work is nearly over with. Whew! did you ever see a prettierpicture than this is, with the whole country spread out like a big map?"

  "And that's where we aim to spend some little time, is it, boys?" askeda third one of the four boys who, leading a loaded pack burro apiece,had been climbing a range of rocky mountains away down in a corner ofNevada not a great distance from the Arizona border.

  "Yes, that's going to be our stamping ground, Jack, for some littletime to come. My uncle Job Haines has his ranch away over theresomewhere or other, in the hazy distance. His partner, another uncle ofmine, James Henshaw, is with him in the business--you know my motherwas married twice, and this last gentleman is the brother of her firsthusband, which is how I come to have so many uncles. What d'ye say toresting up a bit here before we start down the grade, Ned?"

  The way three of them turned toward the other young fellow was evidenceenough in itself to show that he must be the leader of the littlecompany, which was in fact the truth.

  All of the mountain climbers were wearing rather faded but serviceablekhaki suits, which with the leggins and campaign hats proved that theymust belong to some troop of Boy Scouts. But it was many days' journeyfrom their present surroundings to the scene of their home activities,for they belonged in New York City.

  Those of our young readers who have had the pleasure and privilege ofpossessing one or more of the previous volumes connected with thisseries of stories will readily recognize the four lads as old andvalued acquaintances. For the sake of the few who may not have enjoyedmeeting the lively quartette before, a few sentences of introductionmay be necessary before going on further. And while they are restingboth themselves and their pack animals, at the same time drinking inthe magnificent scenery that was spread out before them, looking towardthe southeast, it would seem to be a fitting opportunity for thisservice.

  The leader of the little party was Ned Nestor, who also served asassistant scout master of the troop, having duly qualified for theoffice according to the rules of the organization. He was a good hunterand tracker, and possessed a wide knowledge of woodcraft in its bestsense.

  Some time previous to this Ned had been given various chances to workfor the Secret Service of the Government at Washington, and hadconducted himself in such a manner as to win the confidence of theauthorities. They realized that there were many opportunities when abright lad might accomplish things unsuspected where a man would be aptto slip up. And judging from the success which had on most occasionsfollowed Ned's taking up a case, it appeared as though this might havebeen a wise move.

  One of the other boys, a short chap with red hair and a freckled face,often acted as Ned's assistant in these dangerous adventures. His namewas Jimmy McGraw, and at one time he had been a regular tough littleBowery boy in New York, until he happened to meet Ned under strangeconditions, and was virtually adopted by the other's father, so that henow made his home with the Nestors. Jimmy could not entirely shake offsome of the old habits; and this accounted for his making use of alittle slang now and then, when trying to express himself forcibly.

  The third lad was named Jack Bosworth. Jack was a splendid chum,faithful as the needle can be to the pole, and as brave as he wasrobust. His father being a rich corporation lawyer and capitalist, theboy had been allowed to do pretty much as he chose. Fortunately Jackwas a true scout in every sense of the word, and could be depended uponto keep out of mischief. He believed Ned Nestor to be the finest patrolleader that ever wore the khaki and was ready to follow his lead, nomatter where it took him.

  Harry Stevens, the fourth and last of the quartette, was inclined to bea student rather than a lover of the trail and hunters' camp. His hobbyseemed to lie along the study of wild animals' habits, and also thehistory of the ancient Indian tribes that, centuries back, were knownto have inhabited the southwestern portion of our country. He had keptharping all the while upon the subject of the strange Zunis, the Hopis,and the Moquis, all of whom he knew had descended from the originalcliff-dwellers. And he hoped before going back home again to find achance to investigate some of their quaint rock dwellings high up inthe cliffs bordering the wonderful Colorado Canyon.

  Harry was really on his way to the ranch of his uncles. Not being inany hurry he and his chums had first visited San Francisco, and thenLos Angeles. While here they somehow conceived the rather singular ideaof crossing the desert afoot, in order to have new experiences, and beable to say that they knew what it was to find themselves alone on asandy tract that stretched as far as the eye could see in everydirection.

  What remarkable adventures had come their way while carrying out thisscheme have a
lready been set down in the pages of the volume justpreceding this book, under the title of "Boy Scouts in Death Valley,"so there would be no need of our repeating any of the exciting episodeshere. They had purchased the four burros from a discouraged party ofmen who were prospecting for gold in the mountains to the west of theparched valley of the evil name.

  Since they managed to escape from Death Valley, after almost leavingtheir bones there as the penalty of their rashness, some days hadpassed; in fact it was now a week later. They had done considerabletraveling in that time, and overcome all obstacles with theiraccustomed ability.

  All of them had grown weary of so much mountain climbing, and Jimmyreally voiced the united sentiment of the party when he declared thathe was yearning for a chance to see the open plain, with grass insteadof the eternal blistering sand, and mottes of trees dotting the picturewith pleasing bunches of green that would be a relief to their torturedeyes.

  So they sat there and talked of the past, as well as tried to lift theveil that hid the immediate future, as though anxious to know whatawaited them in the new life to which they were hastening.

  Finally Ned Nestor arose and stretched himself, as he remarked:

  "I think we'd better be on our way, fellows, if we hope to get downthere to the level before night comes along. The sun's headed for thewest, you notice, and as this ridge will shut him out from us early, wehaven't any too much time."

  "I guess you're about right there, Ned," commented Jack; "and for one Iwant to say I'd be right glad to make camp at the foot of themountains. We can't say good-bye to these rocky backbones of the regionany too soon to please me."

  The four burros had rested after their arduous climb, and there was notthe least difficulty about getting them started moving. In fact theyseemed to already scent the grass of the plains below, so differentfrom anything that had been encountered thus far on the trip, and wereshowing signs of a mad desire to reach the lowlands.

  Several times Ned had to caution one of the others about undue haste.

  "Hold your burro in more, Jimmy," he would say; "there are too manyprecipices on our trail to take chances of his slipping, and draggingyou over with him. To be sure mules and donkeys are clever aboutkeeping their footing and almost equal Rocky Mountain sheep, or thechamois of the Alps that way; but they can stumble, we know, and itmight come at a bad time. They're wild to get down out of this; but forone I don't care to take a short cut by plunging over a three hundredfoot precipice. Easy now, Teddy; behave yourself, old boy. That's anugly hole we're passing right now, and we want to go slow."

  Jimmy himself was apt to be a reckless sort of a chap; and many a timedid Ned have to check his impatience in days gone by. Jack, too, oftendid things without sufficient consideration, though he could holdhimself in on occasion; while Harry seldom if ever had to be cautioned,for he was inclined to be slow.

  They often found themselves put to it to make progress, for while theyfollowed what seemed to be a trail over the ridge, it had been seldomused, and many obstructions often blocked the way.

  Once they had to get wooden crowbars and pry a huge boulder loose thathad fallen so as to completely block progress. Fortunately it had beeneasy to move it a few inches at a time, until they sent it into a gulfthat yawned alongside the trail, to hear it crash downward for hundredsof feet, and make the face of the mountain quiver under the shock.

  In this fashion they had managed to get a third of the way down fromthe apex of the ridge, and Ned, comparing the time with the progressmade, announced it as his opinion that he believed they would be easilyable to make the bottom before night came on.

  "That sounds all to the good to me, Ned," declared Jimmy, with a broadgrin on his freckled face.

  "Hope you're a true prophet, that's all," said Harry.

  "I agree with Ned," Jack broke in with, "and say, we ought to make thefoot of the range before night, the way we're going, unless we hit upagainst some bad spot that'll hold us up worse than we've struck yet."

  "That isn't likely to happen," Ned observed, "because the further downwe get the easier the going ought to be."

  "But I notice that the holes are just as deep," Harry told him.

  "And a fall would jolt a feller as hard too, seems like," Jimmyadmitted as he craned his neck to look over at a place where the trailwas only a few feet wide with a blank wall on the right and an emptyvoid on the left.

  Harry nervously caught his breath, and called out:

  "Better be careful there, Jimmy, how you bend over and look down. Youmight get dizzy and take a lurch or the frisky burro give a lug justthen and upset you. We all think too much of you to want to gather upyour remains down at the bottom of a precipice."

  Jimmy laughed and seemed pleased at the compliment. He did not againbother about looking over, but occupied himself with managing his packanimal, which kept showing an increasing desire to hasten. At one pointNed had stopped to tighten the ropes that held the pack on his burro,and in some manner Jimmy managed to get at the head of the littleprocession that wound, single file, down that steep mountain trail.

  It was Ned's intention to assume the lead again at the firstopportunity, when he could pass the others. Meantime he thought hecould keep an observant eye on Jimmy, so as to restrain him in case hebegan to show any sign of rashness.

  After all it was not so much Jimmy's fault that it happened, but thefact that his burro had quite lost its head in the growing desire toget down to the green pastures from which it had been debarred so verylong, and for which it was undoubtedly hungering greatly.

  That the unlucky animal should chance to make that stumble just at thetime of passing another narrow place in the trail, where the conditionsagain caused them to move in single file, was one of those strangehappenings which sometimes spring unannounced upon the unwary traveler.

  Jimmy at one time even walked along with the end of the rope woundabout his waist in a lazy fashion; but Ned had immediately told himnever to think of doing such a thing again, when there was even theslightest chance of the burro slipping over the edge of the slopingplatform and dragging his master along. But right then Jimmy had such arigid clutch upon the rope that he did not seem to know enough to letgo when the pack animal stumbled, tried to cling desperately to therocky edge, and then vanished from sight into the gulf.

  In fact Jimmy's first idea seemed to be a desire to drag the totteringanimal back to safety, and it was because he was tugging for all he wasworth on the rope that he was pulled over the edge himself.

  The other three scouts seemed to be petrified with horror when they sawtheir plucky but rash chum dragged over. None of them could jump to hisassistance on account of the burros being in the way and plunging andkicking wildly, as though terrified at the fate that had overtakentheir mate.

  Ned was at the end of the line, and Harry, though not far from the spotwhere the terrible accident happened, seemed to be too terrified toknow what to do, until it was all over, and poor Jimmy had vanishedfrom their view.