Quickly the boys dismounted and ran to get dry limbs and branches, making a monster pile.
"I reckon that"s enough, commander," said the ranchman at last, "and, besides, supper is ready or will be when the coffee is poured."
"Coffee! Where did you get the water to boil it?" queried Larry.
"From the canteens. I filled them this morning."
"And here I"ve been wondering where we could look for water. I was surprised you didn"t tell Tom to send some of us."
Being less tired than the night before, the boys sat round the camp fire after supper, talking and listening to the stories the ranchman told about his life as a soldier.
When at length they were ready to turn in, they rolled themselves up in their blankets and formed a circle about the fire.
Without adventure they pa.s.sed the night, sleeping till long after sunrise, there being no occasion for getting an early start.
Indeed as they ate breakfast they were debating whether to push on or stay where they were and set a bear trap when they were surprised to hear Mr. Wilder"s name called.
Shouting in return, they jumped to their feet, trying to see who had hailed them.
"It"s some one on horseback. I can hear the click of horseshoes on the stones," declared Larry.
"Some one from the ranch probably," a.s.serted Mr. Wilder, and the next moment his opinion was confirmed by Horace, who had run to the trail and was returning, yelling:
"It"s Nails! It"s Nails!"
"He"s one of our boys," explained Bill to the chums. "What do you suppose he can want, father?"
"Wait till he tells us. There are so many possibilities, it"s no use trying to guess."
Their suspense was short-lived, for in a few moments the cowboy called Nails dashed into the basin, his pony in a lather.
Realizing from this condition of his mount that something serious was amiss, Mr. Wilder asked:
"What"s wrong, Nails?"
"Cattle thieves!" gasped the cowboy. "Cross-eyed Pete said to get everybody you could and meet him at the Witches" Pool to-morrow morning. He"s driving up the herds from the Long Creek bottoms."
CHAPTER X
THE RETURN TO THE RANCH
The knowledge that his herds had again been raided by cattle thieves made Mr. Wilder very angry.
"This makes the third time some of my cattle have been stolen. The thieves will find it is three times and out. I"ll take their trail this time and stick to it till I round them all up."
Never had Bill and Horace seen their father so wrought up, and they wisely held their peace while the cowboy who had brought the news of the raid busied himself removing the saddle and bridle and wiping the lather from his pony.
Before Nails had finished the task, however, the ranchman had regained control of himself.
"I am glad Pete is driving the cattle home," he said quietly.
"They will graze about the Witches" Pool without watching, so I can take all the boys with me, and the more there are of us the less trouble we will have. Sit down and eat breakfast, Nails, and then tell me about the raid."
No urging did the cowboy need, for he had not tasted a mouthful since he had left the herd, twenty-four hours before. He had expected to find the ranchman at his home, and when he learned Mr.
Wilder had gone on a hunting trip he only stopped long enough to change ponies and then started again to find him.
Attentively the boys waited on him, impatient to hear his story.
"It was night before last it happened," said Nails, after having eaten more than it seemed possible for one man. "All during the day the cattle had been restless and we boys were kept on the jump holding "em together. But with the darkness they quieted down and we all turned in.
"When morning came, nary a steer was in sight. It didn"t take us long to get after "em, and in about an hour we found them. But the short-horned Durhams were missing."
"The best cattle in the herd," interrupted Mr. Wilder.
"Just what Pete said, but not in the same words," grinned Nails.
"But how do you know they were stolen?" asked Bill. "Perhaps they only wandered off. You said the herd had been restless."
"A hundred head don"t all go together," replied the cowboy.
"Besides, after looking around, we found the hoofprints of seven ponies."
"Which way did they drive?" demanded the ranchman.
"Toward old Mex. But I reckon that"s only a bluff. It"s my idea the headquarters of this gang are right in these mountains, somewhere. Pete thinks so, too. That"s why he set the pool as the meeting place. There"s an old trail he knows and he wants to strike it, you agreeing of course," he added, looking toward the ranchman.
"We"ll decide about that later. But if Pete suggested it, he has some good reason. Still, I can"t see the necessity of getting any of the neighbors. It will only take time, and we can save twenty-four hours by riding straight to the pool from here."
"The reason for getting others is because the Half-Moon isn"t the only herd that"s been raided."
At this statement the Wilders were amazed.
"By the tracks from the direction of the Three Stars there must have been two hundred, at least, lifted from them."
"Then Jim Snider and his outfit are on the trail by this time,"
declared the ranchman.
"No, they aren"t. I saw Sandy the other day, and he said they were all going up to Tolopah to bring down a herd Snider brought from Montana, It"s my idea the thieves knew this and planned a wholesale raid."
"H--m. That sounds likely," commented Mr. Wilder. "Who do you think is at the head of it, Nails?"
"Gus Megget. He"s the only one with the nerve to pull it off."
At the mention of the ruffian cow-puncher the boys looked at one another and then at their father, who said:
"That can"t be, Nails. Megget tried some of his funny business with these two boys, Larry and Tom Alden, up in Oklahoma the other day."
"And they made a monkey of him," interposed Horace gleefully.