"I might ask you the same," retorted Professor Wright, and there was considerable excitement in his voice and manner. "By what authority do you ride into our camp, attacking our men, and interfering with our work which we have permission from the United States government to carry out?"
"I don"t know anything about _that_," said Mr. Merkel, "but I do know that you have some of my cattle, and even the permission of the government doesn"t cover the rustling of animals from the Diamond X ranch."
"_Cattle rustling?_" murmured Professor Blair.
"Your cattle?" added Professor Wright, falteringly.
"Yes!" was the snapped-out answer. "Those are my steers you have hitched to that derrick.
"Oh--those!" exclaimed Professor Blair, with an air of relief. "We merely borrowed them. They will be returned to you soon."
"But what are you after, anyhow?" burst out Bud, unable longer to restrain his curiosity. "What are you pulling out of that hole?"
The two professors turned toward it as the boy rancher pointed, and Nort and d.i.c.k, forgetting the pain of their wounds and bruises, followed their gaze to the excavation.
"We are pulling out ten million years," answered Professor Wright, slowly, in rather solemn tones. "Ten million years! We are pulling out a creature that walked the earth ten million years ago!"
There was a gasp from the listening cowboys, and Babe murmured:
"His brain sure is cracked!"
"Ten million years!" murmured Mr. Merkel. "But what has that to do with rustling Diamond X cattle?"
Before anyone could answer, there was some movement at the far end of the valley camp, and into it came rushing several more steers bearing the Merkel brand. They were being driven by several Mexican Greasers, who seemed very much surprised at the scene that met their gaze. In vain did Del Pinzo attempt to signal them to retreat.
It was too late. On they came, and with yells the Diamond X cowboys rushed for these latest arrivals.
"More rustling!" cried Bud. "We"ve caught "em right at their game!"
"Go get "em, boys!" commanded his father.
And in a few minutes, after the exchange of a few shots, the other Mexicans were captured, with the exception of one or two at the rear of the bunch of steers. They managed to ride off in the confusion.
"Oh, boy!" murmured Bud, as he threw his hat up in the air. "This is great! Even Zip Foster couldn"t beat this!"
"He"ll not get the chance, I guess!" murmured Nort, laughing.
"Looks like we"d corraled the whole bunch," said Slim. "Now let"s take a look at this ten million year old creature the professors seem to have bagged."
The prisoners were now secured and the boy ranchers, with Bud"s father and his cowboys, drew near the great hole in the ground--the hole over which leaned an improvised derrick. From this derrick ran a long rope, rigged over pulleys, and it was to the pulling end of this cable that the Diamond X steers were hitched. The lifting end of the rope extended down into the excavation.
"Just what sort of game is going on here?" demanded Mr. Merkel, and But knew when his father spoke in this tone that there was likely to be trouble for some one. "What does it all mean?"
"The explanation is a long one," began Professor Wright, "but----"
"It doesn"t take very long to size up that you"ve been rustling our cattle!" said Slim, sharply.
"Rustling!" murmured the professor. "Rustling? Oh, I see, a western term for borrowing."
"_Borrowing_! Oh, Zip Foster!" murmured Bud, but his father motioned for him to remain quiet.
But Professor Wright had caught Bud"s remark, and it seemed to give a new light to the scientist. He stepped forward, having seen to it that the rope, by which something, "ten million years old," was being hoisted from the earth, was made fast. The steers, which had been straining to lift the weight, were now comparatively quiet, and the second bunch, driven in by Del Pinzo"s men, were cropping gra.s.s near the stream.
"There seems to have been some mistake," said Professor Wright. "We intended to pay you for the use of your cattle, Mr. Merkel, as I understand your name to be. And, now that we have almost accomplished our search, we shall have no further need of your beasts. I don"t know why my helper sent after more, for those we have are amply able to lift out the fossils. We shall be through with your animals in a few hours, and will then pay anything in reason for their borrowed use."
A light seemed also to break over Bud"s father, and the boy ranchers looked at one another with a new understanding.
"Do you mean to say," began the owner of the Diamond X ranch, "that you only wanted to use my cattle as you might use oxen--as draft animals?"
"Of course," said Professor Blair. "That is all we wanted them for.
Did you think we intended to _keep_ them?"
"Well--er--you"ll excuse me saying so, but we certainly _did_!"
declared Bud"s father. "Rustling, we call it here, and it means driving off another man"s branded stock. It isn"t all clear to me yet.
What are you after, anyhow? What"s down in that hole, and what is it that is ten million years old?"
"A Triceratops," answered Professor Wright. "We have been on the track of one for a long time, and now we have found it. Almost the only complete remains of the most perfect Triceratops it has ever been the fortune of anyone to discover! If you will only have a little patience, and grant us the use of your steers a short time longer, until we hoist from its ancient bed the remains, you may soon look upon one of nature"s wonders--a Triceratops!"
"Triceratops!" murmured Babe Milton. "Is that one of them slidin"
_horns_ you blow your lungs out on?"
"You"re thinkin" of a trombone," said Snake Purdee, laughing.
"Or a saxophone," said Bud.
"No," said d.i.c.k, "I remember now. A Triceratops is one of the ancient Dinosaurs, or lizard animals, that roamed the earth millions of years ago. We studied a little about them in the Academy."
"You are right, young man, a Triceratops is one of the most wonderful of Dinosaurs," said Professor Wright. "For many years I have been seeking a perfect specimen, and now I have found it. In a little while you may gaze upon its skeleton remains, or at least most of them. Have I your permission to continue the use of your cattle as a hoisting medium?" he asked Mr. Merkel.
"Shucks! Yes!" exclaimed the ranchman. "I don"t know what you"re driving at, except that it"s something scientific, but you"re more than welcome, and I"m sorry there was all this fuss over it. If we had only known what you were after we could have helped."
"I did not dare let the object of my expedition become known, until I was sure of success," said Professor Wright. "A rival college has sent some of its scientists into this same field, and only by strategy have we been able to elude them and reach our wonderful success."
"Oh, so that"s what all the secret was about!" exclaimed the ranchman.
"Well, was he in the secret, too?" he asked, pointing to the bound and scowling Del Pinzo.
"He knew we were after something of this sort; yes," answered the scientist, "but he has no comprehension, of course, of what a Triceratops is. I believe he told his Mexican and Indian helpers, who a.s.sisted us from time to time, that we were after _gold_."
"Oh, so that"s how that rumor got abroad," murmured Mr. Merkel.
"Did you send Del Pinzo"s men off to get more of our cattle just now?"
asked Slim, pointing to the second batch of Diamond X steers.
"No, and we never sent him, or them, to any special place to get animals to use on our pulley ropes," said Professor Wright. "We left that to him, merely stipulating that he was to hire animals, and we would pay for their use."
"Then I see his game!" cried the foreman of the ranch. "He took this chance to rustle some cattle on his own account, thinking you wouldn"t know the difference, and that you"d be blamed for it. You slick Greaser!" he cried, shaking his fist at Del Pinzo. "This makes it all clear, now!"
"We certainly never intended to do more than hire a few of your powerful steers, to use as oxen," said Professor Wright. "But I can see, now, that we should have made this clear from the first, and not have left it to one who, evidently, does not bear a good reputation with you."