But for once Sandy"s ears had played him false. Ignorant of the psychological fact that only when a man"s head is turned can he correctly judge the direction of sound, it being impossible to distinguish between a sound coming from directly in front or behind, the foreman of the Three Stars Ranch had been deceived because he had been looking straight ahead out into the prairie.
And instead of riding toward the men who had roused them by their cries, each bound of the horses was carrying them farther away.
When Larry and his companions had met the bear, the four raiders with the cattle Jeffreys had seen were only about two miles in advance of them. As the boys had thought, the reverberations of the shots had reached the ears of the men at the rear of the cattle and they had uttered the wail as a signal to those ahead, jumping to the conclusion that they were being followed.
Making use of their knowledge of the mountains, the raiders had hurriedly driven the cattle into the forest, where they would be out of sight and so could not give warning of the whereabouts of the thieves, and had then hidden themselves behind some rocks along the trail. From their ambuscade they would be able to shoot down their pursuers or capture them as they felt inclined.
But as the reader knows, the boys doubled on their trail and so divided the trap.
After waiting till dark without any sign of pursuers, the raiders grew fearsome.
"We"ve got to find out for sure whether it"s somebody on our trail or just some one that is hunting," declared one of them, who, if the two brothers could have seen him, they would have recognized as Gus Megget.
"Considering we"ve waited more than two hours and no one has showed up, I say we ought to push onto the Lode, Gus," a.s.serted another.
"How can we drive cattle over this trail in the dark?" growled the chief of the raiders. "You ought to have more sense, seeing the trouble we"ve had to get them as far as this in the daylight."
"So long as we can"t drive, we might just as well go back and find out who"s been shooting."
Realizing that it was futile to urge their leader to change his mind, the other raiders sullenly acquiesced, and, emerging from their places of concealment, went into the woods to get their horses and were soon riding stealthily back over the trail.
Though they dared not refuse to go, the men, however, were not backward in expressing their disapproval of the move, declaring that they were tempting disaster by returning when they had made so successful a start.
But Megget paid no attention to their grumblings and soon his companions lapsed into silence.
Fate, however, which had saved the two brothers and the young rancher from stumbling into the ambush, was still favoring them.
For when the raiders reached the edge of the prairie Megget ordered a halt that they might eat, and when again they resumed their ride the boys were far on their way toward the spot where they met their friends.
Not long did it take their pursuers to discover the place where the three had eaten and then to find the direction in which they had departed.
"What"s the use of following any farther, Gus?" demanded one of them. "So long as they have ridden to the south, and there are only three of them, anyhow, we are in no danger."
But with a blind obstinacy the leader of the cattle thieves persisted in continuing the pursuit, and set the pace at a fast gallop.
In due course of time, as the boys before them, they discovered the glare from the camp fire.
"We"ll ride into the mountains, dismount and then find out who it is that has the fire," declared Megget.
"You"re playing with trouble, Gus," protested his companions.
"From what I know of Wilder, he won"t let a bunch of his cattle be lifted without doing something. That may be his fire."
"All the more reason why we should go to it--to make sure," snapped the leader of the raiders. "Wilder is a fool or he wouldn"t leave his herd unguarded at the Witches" Pool."
"You"ll find he"s smarter than you think. I"ll bet all my share of these raids will come to that the only reason the herd was alone was because his whole outfit is on the trail from the bottoms,"
a.s.serted another.
"Well, the boys can take care of "em if they are. I said I was going to find out who built that fire, and I"m going to." And without more ado, the leader of the raiders dashed into the woods.
Riding cautiously among the trees until he thought he was about back of the fire Megget gave the word to dismount.
A short distance to the south and above them was a ledge from which they would be able to command a view of the camp fire, and rapidly the raiders made their way to It.
What they saw when they reached the top and gazed down caused them to exclaim in amazement.
The cowboys were saddling their ponies, and instead of the three men they had expected to discover, Megget and his companions saw a dozen.
"That"s the Half-Moon bunch!" declared one of them.
"There are too many of them," a.s.serted another. "We"re in a pretty mess now. Those three men we followed have evidently informed them of finding our trail and they are starting to pick it up."
"Don"t you worry about that," growled Megget. And before his companions were aware what he intended to do, he uttered the calls that caused the ranch owners and cowboys to start out into the prairie.
Eagerly the raiders watched them disappear and Megget chuckled:
"I thought I could fool "em. It"s easy when you are above any one." And then he added: "You"ll wish you had never started after me, Wilder!"
Wondering at their leader"s meaning, his fellows had no chance to ask, however, for even as he spoke Megget was descending from the ledge.
Arriving at the camp fire, he glanced about for a few moments, then sent his men for the horses.
As soon as he was sure he was alone, the leader of the raiders walked out on the plains, paused, wet his finger in his mouth, then raised his hand above his head.
"Great! I"m sure playing in luck," he muttered to himself. "The wind is blowing from the west--straight out across the plains."
And chuckling grimly, the cattle thief returned to the fire to await the horses.
Mounting quickly when they arrived, Megget gave a curt order for his own men to follow and galloped in the same direction the ranch owners and cowboys had taken.
At the end of a quarter of a mile he drew rein and again went through the performance of wetting his finger and raising it above his head, murmuring more to himself than his pals:
"I didn"t know but that the hills might have changed the direction of the wind.
"Here, you," he added, turning to his men, "two of you ride a mile up and Squinty and I"ll ride south. When I give the call, fire the gra.s.s and then ride for the trail and drive the cattle to the mine.
I"ll cut across and warn Vasquez and the others."
CHAPTER XX
THE PRAIRIE FIRE
As his men heard the words and realized their significance, they glanced at their leader and then at one another.
Yet none of them moved.
"Are you deaf?" roared Megget. "Do as I say--and lively. Squinty, come with me." And clapping spurs to his pony, he dashed southward.
Fearing to disobey, the two raiders delegated to ride to the north started. But as soon as they were out of earshot one of them said: