Examination proving that he was right, his friend exclaimed:
"That was made by the boys coming up."
"But the tracks are all going toward the mountains. They certainly wouldn"t drive any cattle away with them. You don"t--you don"t suppose it"s another raid, do you?" and Tom glanced at Ned.
"Yes."
CHAPTER XV
THE CONTESTED TRAIL
The thought that the cattle thieves should have dared to make still another raid on the very night when the outfits of the Half-Moon and Three Stars ranches had set out to run them to cover was so startling that for several minutes after Tom had suggested it no one spoke.
Larry was the first one to recover from the shock of surprise.
"There"s no use in trying to guess," he declared. "We must find out. The only way to do that, so far as I can see, is to follow the trail and discover where it leads."
This proposition received the excited endors.e.m.e.nt of the other two boys, and Horace added:
"Wouldn"t it be dandy if we could round up Megget and his men before father and the others? Come on!"
"Don"t be in too much of a hurry," urged Tom.
"Oh, if you are afraid to go, you needn"t. I"ll go alone," sneered Horace.
Flushing at the taunt of cowardice, Tom bit his lips that he might not say anything he should regret.
"You ought to know, Horace, that neither Larry nor I are afraid,"
he responded. "I was only thinking about your mother. We promised her we would be back by to-morrow night. The idea of our going in pursuit of Megget by ourselves is foolish. The thing to do is to make sure this trail leads into the mountains and then go and try to find your father and his men."
"Now you"re talking sense," interrupted Ned.
"To find them will certainly take us longer than until to-morrow night. In order that Mrs. Wilder need not worry, we must let her know of the change in our plans."
"That"s so," agreed Larry. "Still there is no reason for our all going back; one is enough. Let"s draw lots to see who it shall be."
"Not much," returned Horace. "So long as father and Bill are away, I am in charge of the Half-Moon. The rest of you must do as I say.
Ned is the one to go back!"
"But you boys don"t know anything about the trails," protested the man. "You will get lost."
"We certainly can follow this one," retorted Horace hotly. "And we can always find our way back. Just tell mother we shall join father."
In vain the driver of the grub wagon endeavored to dissuade the lads, but the thought of taking part in the pursuit of the raiders, after all, made them deaf to all his arguments, and at last Horace exclaimed impatiently:
"You are only delaying us, Ned. I say you are to return to the ranch. That settles it. Larry and Tom and I are going to take the trail." And, without further ado, he shook out his pony and headed for the mountains, the two brothers at his side.
The pace at which Horace rode was terrific, and because of the hot sun, the horses were soon covered with lather.
"Look here, we"ve got to go at a slower gait," announced Larry.
"If we keep up this clip, our ponies will give out. They can"t stand it and the heat, too. And if they do give out, it will be sure to be just at the very time we need them most."
"But we"ll soon be in the mountains, and then it will be cooler,"
a.s.serted Horace. "I want to overhaul the raiders before night.
Won"t father and the others feel small when they learn that we three, whom they left behind because we were too young, have rounded up Megget?"
"You don"t mean to say that you intend for us three to tackle the raiders alone?" exclaimed Tom.
"Why not?"
"Because we wouldn"t stand one chance in a thousand--no, nor in ten thousand--of being able to capture them. We don"t know the trail at all, and they probably are familiar with every rock and turn in it. If they should discover that we were pursuing them, all they would need do would be to lie in wait for us and capture us when we came along."
The truth of what the younger of the chums said was so evident that even the impetuous Horace was forced to admit it.
"Then what shall we do?" he asked. "If you have any better plan to suggest, out with it."
Tom, however, could think of nothing feasible and was silent.
The boys had pulled their ponies down to a walk and for several minutes none of them spoke.
Of a sudden Blackhawk raised his head, sniffed the air and then uttered a low whinny.
The sound, coming so unexpectedly, scared the lads, and they looked at one another in alarm.
"He smells something," exclaimed Horace in a whisper, as though fearing to speak out loud.
The boys were in the lowland between two crests of the rolling plains.
"Perhaps it"s the cattle. They may be on the other side of that rise in the plains," returned Larry.
Anxiously the three boys gazed toward the crest. The thought that they might be close upon the very men they were chasing startled them, and they were at a loss as to the best thing to do.
"If it is the raiders and the cattle Blackhawk scented, then they"ll be on the lookout for us," murmured Tom. "They could hear that whinny for----"
"By jove! it is they," cried Larry excitedly. "See those horses"
ears bobbing?" And he pointed to the south.
Following his finger, his companions beheld two sharp points steadily advancing from the farther side of the crest.
"Be ready to give it to "em," breathed Horace, at the same time unslinging his rifle.
But before he could get it to his shoulder the head of the horse came into view and the next instant the head and shoulders of a man.
In a flash the chums seized their rifles.