CHAPTER XX
THE DECISION
Roy’s breakfast was flavored with the tale of his moonlight ride to Harver’s Gully. Between bites he told the story of his meeting with Froud and of the rustler’s strange insistence that he did not know Checkered Shirt.
“You say Froud wasn’t riding one of our horses?� Teddy asked.
“No. He was sitting on a bronc I never saw before. One of his own, or maybe one he rustled from another outfit. Somehow, he seemed puzzled after he had me covered, as if he didn’t know what to do with me. Took him a mighty long time to decide to bring me to Harver’s Gully.�
Neither Mr. Manley nor Teddy had yet taken to their beds, having reached the X Bar X but an hour before Roy. All night they had spent in looking for the missing youth, and at last they had decided he might have returned home. They were about to start on another search when Roy rode into the yard.
“Say, Dad, did you find that flivver?� Roy asked, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied sigh. A strip of adhesive tape marked the spot where the bullet had torn his ear.
“We did,� the ranchman stated. “Teddy marked it in a ditch. Wasn’t hardly worth sweepin’ up. They’d stripped it clean and smashed the motor to pieces with a wrench. Bug Eye was seein’ red. He could hardly talk. By golly, if the same gang is doin’ all this dirty work, they’ve got an awful lot to settle for!�
“I’ll tell a maverick they have!â€� Roy declared hotly. “And they’ll settle, too! Froud made a mistake when he brought me over to Harver’s Gully. I’ve got an idea that the gang’s headquarters is around there some place. Teddy, you and I will have to take a ride over there soon. It’s right on a deep part of the river, you know, and we might get a few fish—though the kind of fish I’d like to get can’t be caught with a hook and line.â€�
It was eight o’clock before Roy threw himself upon his bed and gave himself over to the blissful luxury of complete relaxation. The others who had joined in the chase, including of course Mr. Manley and Teddy, were likewise catching up on some sleep. At twelve o’clock the ranch yard presented a strangely deserted appearance. When usually the cowboys would be yelling loudly for Sing Lung to hurry up with that grub, now from the bunk-house sounded only the snores of punchers sunk deep in slumber. Those who had not gone on the night ride stayed as silent as possible, out of respect for their fatigued brothers. But it would have taken a salvo of twenty-one guns to awaken those buckers.
At four o’clock Roy opened his eyes full upon a beam of sunlight that shot through his window and played upon his face. Automatically he turned upon his side, then saw that in the bed across from him Teddy still slept peacefully. Reaching over, Roy gently raised the window shade, so that the sun now shone upon Teddy. The boy moved restlessly, threw his hand over his eyes, then turned and saw his brother grinning at him.
“What time?� he asked in a monotone.
“Six-thirty! You going to sleep all day? I’ve been up hours. Had lunch and went for a ride with Curly.�
“Curly? You mean Nell?�
“No, I mean Ethel. Why?�
“Oh, nothing.� Then, when he saw the grin on his brother’s face, Teddy turned to the wall with a snort of disgust.
“Don’t be silly! You just woke up yourself. Six-thirty! Humph! I’ll bet it’s about twelve o’clock. Well—â€� as he looked at a watch on the chair beside him—“it’s only a little after four, anyway. I knew you were kidding.â€�
“Yes, you did! I noticed that as soon as I said I’d been riding with Curly. But say, we’d better get up.�
“Wait a minute. I want to ask you a few questions about Froud, Roy. You say he got sore when you mentioned Checkered Shirt?�
“I’ll tell a maverick he did! There’s something up between those two. I wish we could come across that hombre in the cross-word puzzle laundry-piece!�
“He probably’s got another by now. Even rustlers have got to change their shirts once in a while. But, seriously, what made you think that Harver’s Gully is headquarters for Froud’s gang?�
“Because, didn’t he head right for there? And then when we got there he seemed sort of sorry he’d come. He thought I knew too much for the good of his health. Golly, Ted, when you rode by that grove of trees I sure held my breath! Froud had his gun stuck hard into my ribs, and if you had taken it into your head to ride in I’d be strummin’ a harp right now.�
“Oh, well, if I had come in, Froud might have beat it off. Can’t tell. Roy, you should have seen that flivver! The top was ripped completely off. Two tires were flat. The motor was a wreck. It looked as though it had been struck by lightning.�
“Wonder what they did all that for? I suppose you didn’t find the dresses Mrs. Ball sent over?�
“Not a trace. Looked like a spite job to me. Bug Eye said the same. If he ever catches the gang who held him up, he’ll spite ’em!�
“Did he go back to the 8 X 8?�
“No; he’s asleep in the bunk-house. He wants to have another look for the thieves, I guess. If his boss thinks it’s the same gang that stole his cattle, he’ll let Bug Eye search all he wants to—and maybe help him. I’ve got a hunch that something is bound to break soon. The people around these parts are pretty sick and tired of having those roughnecks play fast and loose with their property.â€�
“You said a mouthful! Come on! Let’s hit the deck. We’ve got plenty to do.�
“Think we ought to have another go at the dance tonight?�
“Not me! Anyway, the evening dresses of Nell and Ethel are lost, and so they won’t be so keen for it. We’ll just let it slide. Things are going to be pretty lively here from now on. There won’t be much time for dancing.�
Springing from his bed, Roy walked to the bathroom and doused his head and face with cold water. Teddy did the same, and after “slicking up� a bit the two boys made for the yard. Mr. Manley was standing talking to Nick Looker when Roy and Teddy approached.
“Roy,� his father called, “c’mere a second, will you? Want to ask you some more about that scar-faced friend of yours. Whereabouts in Harver’s Gully did he take you?�
“Well, there’s a grove of quakermasts down on the near side of the river. If you keep on going, you’d come to a small rise, from which you could see for a good distance on either side. I rode over there only last fall.�
“Yore dad said you had an idee the rustlers hang out around there,� Nick stated. “That so, Roy?�
“I don’t know whether it’s so or not, Nick; but that’s what I think. As I told dad, Froud seemed kind of sorry he’d brought me to the gully. Then he ducked as soon as he could without waiting to fight it out with me, though I winged him in the arm after he’d nicked me here,â€� and Roy pointed to his ear. “He’s got to have that arm of his treated some place, or he’ll get poisoned. The nearest doctor is over at Hawley. Say, I think I’ll—â€�
“Telephone to him to hold a man with a wounded arm?� Teddy interrupted. “I thought of that, too. Go ahead, Roy. Myself, I don’t figure much on getting Froud that way. But it won’t do any harm to try.�
Mr. Manley said they would wait there while Roy telephoned. When the boy returned his face bore a disappointed look.
“Doc said he’d been there early this morning and gone,â€� Roy declared. “We might have had a chance if I had called up sooner. Well—â€�
“The doc couldn’t have held him,� Mr. Manley broke in. “Suppose it happened to be the wrong man? Doc ’ud be in a fine fix then. No, boys, we’ve got to work this thing out for ourselves. No use foolin’ around. The thing to do is to ride that varmint down an’ snub his horns so he can’t do no more damage. Seems to me he’s got a streak of real meanness in him. Didn’t do him no good a-tall to steal that flivver. He just wanted to act up. Well, his time will come. An’ when it does, he’s got an awful lot to account for!�
Bug Eye made his appearance at six o’clock. He had slept off his wild anger at finding his flivver wantonly wrecked, but still the indignity of being made to walk all those miles to the X Bar X smouldered within him. A cowboy’s legs are not for walking, they are to keep him steady on a horse.
Upon being told of Roy’s adventure with Froud, Bug Eye asked Mr. Manley for a horse to ride after the rustler, but he was persuaded to calm down and sit tight for a bit.
“This waitin’ gets on my nerves,� he proclaimed to the world in general. “If I had my way, I’d get a gang together an’ stick so close to that hoss-thief’s neck that his feet would bust through the soles of his shoes.�
“Yea, an’ have his head for cover, pronto,� Nick sneered, “with twenty head of yore cattle, our three horses, an’ Pete knows how much else. Then where’d we be? No sir, the thing to do is to go about this thing like you was eatin’ custard pie. Soft an’ easy, but sure to get there. We don’t want no more flare-backs. Twice we almost stumbled on their heels, an’ both times they stepped out o’ their shoes an’ vamoosed right quick. Why, Teddy an’ Roy got within shootin’ distance of Froud up on Mica Mountain, but it didn’t do no good, an’ it wasn’t the boys’ fault that they got away, either. So when we get ’em, we want to get ’em good. None of this half-way business for us.�
This seemed the general consensus of opinion at the X Bar X, and nothing was done immediately except to notify the sheriff at Hawley that a hold-up had occurred and that some property was stolen from a car.
“Though I might as well have told a cigar store Indian for all the good it’ll do,� Mr. Manley declared, with a grim laugh. “That sheriff is more politics than he is sheriff. Whatever roundin’ up of thieves we want done, we’ve got to do ourselves.�