CHAPTER III
An Angry Visitor
“What do you reckon is up, Teddy?” asked Roy Manley.
“Haven’t the least idea, but we’ll soon find out!”
The two urged their mounts forward anxiously.
Digressing here, for a moment, it will be recalled that these two youths were first introduced in a book called “The X Bar X Boys on the Ranch,” the opening volume of this series. Therein was told of the long and dangerous hunt they, in company with their father and other members of the outfit, had undertaken to round-up a gang of rustlers who had stolen Flash, Star, and General, the ponies of Teddy, Roy, and Mr. Manley.
The boys felt keenly the loss of their ponies, and braved many dangers before regaining them. The fact that the Manley posse caught the rustlers when they were about to make a raid on the cattle of X Bar X added not a little to the excitement.
In the second book, called “The X Bar X Boys in Thunder Canyon,” the adventures of Teddy and Roy on the trail of kidnappers are related. These scoundrels, in revenge for a wrong they fancied Mr. Manley had done them, took Belle Ada, the boys’ sister, and Nell Willis and Ethel Carew, her friends, to a cavern far up Thunder Canyon. Guarded there by an old woman and a number of men, the girls had a terrifying time until Roy and Teddy found them and brought them safely home after rounding up the kidnappers, who turned out to be the same gang that had made trouble at the X Bar X Ranch before.
The voice of the man who was quarreling with their father in the ranch yard was not an unfamiliar one to the Manley boys. Teddy, who was leading, reined up sharply and jerked his head in the direction from which the words were coming.
“Jake Trummer,” he said shortly. “Seems to be getting a load off his chest. Wonder what the row is about.”
“Plenty, from the noise,” Roy answered. “He’s sure laying it into dad. Let’s investigate.”
As the boys were intimately concerned with the running of the X Bar X, their decision to learn the cause of the argument was not an intrusion. They knew their father wished them to know anything that concerned the ranch. So, chirping gently to their ponies, they rode around the bunk-house and came in sight of the speaker.
Jake Trummer had his back to them as they trotted up.
“You heard what I said, Bard Manley,” he was thundering. “I ain’t got no time for foolin’ around. Either you take yore cattle off my ranges, or, by gosh, I’ll drive ’em off, an’ none too gentle, either! You hear me!”
“Can’t help it, not bein’ deaf,” Mr. Manley returned. “You make a noise like a steam calliope, Jake, only not so pleasant. But you use the same kind of power—hot air. Now listen. Just as fast as I can, I’ll—hello boys!” their father suddenly broke off. “You’re just in time. Jake, here, was tellin’ me a nice little story about a bad wolf; wasn’t it, Jake?”
“We heard some of it,” Roy said, with a grin, and dismounted. “What’s the matter, Mr. Trummer?”
“Matter enough! And if you think it’s a nice story, you’ll learn different, Bard Manley! You get yore cattle off my ranges, an’ quick! You know the grass down by Whirlpool River is the best grazin’ in the state, an’ you know I only got a certain amount of it. Hardly enough for my own stock. Then you let yore cows go roamin’ all around creation an’—”
“Do you mean that our cattle are using your grass?” Teddy asked, sliding from his horse. “If that’s so, we’ll try to get them off as quickly as possible.” He turned to his father. “I’m sorry about that, Dad. I had Nick an’ Gus riding this week. They didn’t do their job very well, I guess. Wait a minute, Mr. Trummer, and we’ll get the straight of this. Hey, Nick!” The boy raised his voice in a shout. “Nick around? Come over here—pronto!”
“Take it easy,” Mr. Manley said suddenly. “Never mind it, Nick!” he called. And as a young puncher appeared from around the bunk-house the “boss” waved a hand. “Trot back. If we want you we’ll yell again.”
Nick Looker, with a puzzled look on his face, obeyed slowly. Mr. Manley turned again to Jake Trummer.
“Listen, Jake. I’ve known you for some years now. We ain’t never had no argument before. I’m sorry my dogies got over on yore land. But, leapin’ turtles! that’s no reason to come an’ take my head off about it! Why’n’t you come up an’ tell me like a man, instead of raisin’ the dust like a cyclone? Hey?”
Jake Trummer’s face grew red. His neck swelled until the veins stood out like knotted cords. His hands clenched.
“’Cause I didn’t want to, that’s why!” he shouted. “Think you can run me like you run this here ranch, Bard Manley? Well, you can’t! When I says a thing I means it! You hear me! Them cattle of yours been on my grass fer a week now. Every day I figures you’ll come over an’ take ’em off, but you don’t do nothin’. So finally I has to come over to you. But it’ll be the last time! You hear me! You get them cows off Whirlpool River, or, by golly, I’ll drive ’em in the river! You hear me!”
Turning on his heel, Jake Trummer strode savagely to the corral rail where he had tied his pony. Releasing her, he vaulted into the saddle, swung the pinto’s head about, and galloped out of the yard. Slowly Mr. Manley took a corncob pipe from his pocket, stuck it in his mouth, applied a match to its already filled bowl, and then grinned.
“The old boy sure had his fur up, didn’t he?”
“I’ll tell a maverick he did,” Roy responded. Then a frown came to his face. “What’s the rights of this, dad? When did Jake come over? Had he been here long?”
“Not five minutes before you came. Teddy, you trot over and ask Nick an’ Gus Tripp to come over here. I want to ask them some questions. I didn’t see no sense in lettin’ Jake Trummer have any say in how we handle our men, so that was the reason I told Nick to go back before. But to tell the truth—” he exhaled a great cloud of smoke—“to tell the truth, I thought Jake was foolin’ at first. But I guess he was sure enough mad.”
“No doubt about that,” Teddy added grimly. “I’ll get Nick for you, Dad. I’m sorry this happened. Jake has always been a good neighbor, and I hate to have trouble with him.” Shaking his head, the boy led his horse to the hitching rail and then made for the other end of the yard.
“Takes it like a veteran,” Mr. Manley remarked to Roy, as he watched Teddy walk off. “Roy—” and he placed a hand on his son’s shoulder—“I never say much to you two, but I guess you know that I’m pretty well satisfied with who I got for youngsters. When the time comes for me to take a back seat, I expect you an’ Teddy to carry on this ranch like I did when I got it from my father—your grandfather. You never saw him, but Pop Burns did. He’ll tell you all about him. An’ I tried to do the best I could by him—just like you an’ Teddy are doin’ for me. You boys are men, now—yep, real men. It took men to locate those rustlers the time we had our broncs stole, and to round ’em up. It took men to ride at that cave in Thunder Canyon to get Belle Ada an’ the rest without knowin’ how many guns you were goin’ up against. Yep, it took men to do those jobs—an’ you did ’em. I ain’t kickin’ none. Snakes! what started me off on that trail? Son, you see any signs of Father Time around here?” and he squeezed Roy’s shoulder affectionately and laughed a little.
“Not any, Dad,” Roy responded, and tried to echo his father’s laugh, but there was a queer lump in his throat that he could not account for. Never before had his father talked like this. And when Mr. Manley saw his son’s eyes, he understood. With a yell he grabbed Roy about the waist and affected to throw him to the ground.
“Could I do it?” he grinned, desisting. “You bet I could! Snakes, Roy, you’re too blame serious! What chance have you got to see me take a back seat yet awhile and watch the grasshoppers whizzing by? In the words of the immortal poet, not any! Where in thunder is Teddy? Oh, here he comes!”
With the arrival of Nick and Teddy, Roy’s mind turned from its rather sombre trend to the business of ranching. Roy, but one year older than Teddy, had a more serious disposition, frequently considering events more important than they really were. This nature he inherited from his mother, who, before her marriage to Bardwell Manley, had been a school teacher in Denver. From her Roy got his taste for the really worthwhile things in life—poetry, literature, pictures. But the fact that these tendencies showed early development occasioned Teddy, who as yet was quite Roy’s opposite, much amusement.
As Nick Looker approached, Mr. Manley’s face took on a frown.
“Hear the news, Nick?” he asked shortly.
“Teddy told me,” Nick returned. An anxious light came into his eyes. “Was Jake Trummer real sore, boss?”
“He sure was,” Mr. Manley replied tersely. “Where’s Gus?”
“Town. Nat Raymond an’ Jim Casey are ridin’ from to-day on, accordin’ to Teddy. Gus went in to get some mail—says he’s expectin’ a letter from some Southern belle he’s got down near the border. Kind of uneasy about her, I’m thinkin’. Want him, too, boss?”
“Yes, I want him, too. But there’s a few things I want to say to you first. Nick, Jake Trummer had a right to be as sore as he liked. It’s no joke for another man’s cattle to eat up all your best grazin’ grass, especially when you ain’t got too much of it. Jake threatened to drive our dogies in the river if we didn’t get ’em out of there pronto, an’ of course I couldn’t let him get away with that, so I came back at him. But I knew he was right. Well—speak up. Got an explanation?”
“Who, me?” Nick’s face expressed hurt surprise. “What have I done, boss?”
“Well, outside of lettin’ our Durhams wander over on Jake Trummer’s land and makin’ him come over here fit to be tied, I guess nothin’. But we all have our own ideas, an’ mine, strange as it may seem, is that when a man’s set to ridin’ cattle, he’s supposed to ride ’em, and not let ’em mess up a neighbor’s grazin’ ground.”
“Me? I let ’em loose? Why, boss, I didn’t have nothin’ to do with it!”
“Weren’t you ridin’ herd?”
“Me? Why, no, boss.”
Mr. Manley turned to Teddy.
“How about that, son? Didn’t you tell me Nick was on herd?”
Teddy looked at Nick, then averted his glance.
“I guess I—” he began.
“Wait!” Nick interrupted. “Teddy did set me out about a week ago! But the way I understood it, he shifted plans, an’ I’ve been workin’ fence fer six days! I ain’t been near the cattle!”
“What do you mean?” Teddy asked sharply.
“Why, Joe Marino—you know, boss, The Pup—he come to me an’ said that Teddy, here, told him to tell me he was to take my place, an’ I was to ride fence. He an’ Gus been on the job all week. I’ve been workin’ on the fence. An’ believe me, it sure needs fixin’. You mean to say that The Pup lied, Teddy?”
Teddy nodded his head.
“That’s just what he did, Nick. I guess it’s all my fault. I should have been more careful and checked up. But what on earth did The Pup do a thing like that for? It sure beats me!”
“Nick, where’s The Pup?” Mr. Manley demanded sharply.
“You got me, boss,” Nick confessed. His eyes were troubled. Somehow, this thing that had happened seemed partly his fault, and he found it a strange experience to be in wrong with the boss.