"Like a bag of oats," added Rolling Stone. "Looks like he"d fall off any minute."
"Say!" began Bud eagerly, and then he stopped, as if he had thought better.
"What"s the matter?" asked Nort.
"Don"t you know somebody who rides just like that?" Bud inquired.
"Some one we all know?"
Nort and d.i.c.k uttered exclamations. Bud"s words were all that was needed to set in motion a slumbering train of thought.
"Looks to me like he was hurt," affirmed Yellin" Kid. "Can"t be one of the Yaquis. They wouldn"t be this near. And if they was they"d be too big cowards to ride right for us this way."
"This isn"t any unfriendly Indian!" declared Bud. "He knows us--and we know him!"
"How come?" demanded Snake, half incredulously.
"Can"t you see?" cried Bud. "It"s our own Indian--Buck Tooth!"
"Wow!" shouted Yellin" Kid. "So it is! But I"d never have known him.
He"s all togged out--got his war paint on!"
And, in very truth, Buck Tooth--for he it was--had donned a strange garb. Wearing some of the clothing of civilization, he had ornamented himself with dangling bits of cow-hide, with parts of tails dangling from it. He carried behind him a collection of pans and camp parapha.n.a.lia that rattled and banged about him as he rode forward. He had stuck some feathers in his coa.r.s.e black hair and he was a somewhat laughable mixture of an American and Mexican Indian on the warpath.
"Ugh!" grunted Buck Tooth when he came within speaking distance. Not that he ever spoke much, but this was his greeting.
"What"d you come away from the ranch for?" demanded Bud, for Buck Tooth was a valued hand on a cattle place, and he had been left with the somewhat small force to take charge of Happy Valley when the others had started after the Yaquis. "What you doing here?" Bud wanted to know.
"Me after "em too--Yaquis!" grunted the Indian. "Me catchum an"
shootum same like um shoot me!"
As he spoke, or, rather, grunted this out, he pointed to his left shoulder. It was bound about with b.l.o.o.d.y rags, and in spite of his stoicism the Indian winced as he moved in the saddle.
"Did the Yaquis shoot you?" cried Nort.
"Sure! I come after you--no could stay when fight to be done--and Yaquis what you call plug me! But I plug one, two, three "fore I quit!"
"Where was this?"
"Was there a fight?"
"Lead us there!"
"When did it happen?"
These were only a few of the questions hurled at Buck Tooth, whose name was obviously well earned once you had looked at him. The old native seemed stunned by the volley of interrogations, and sat stolidly in his saddle while more were shot at him.
"Ugh!" he grunted in answer. "Fight yistidy--back there," and he waved a dirty hand in the direction whence he had come.
"Sure they were Yaquis?" asked Snake.
"Sure; Me know--Me Yaqui once!"
"That"s right!" fairly shouted Bud. "I forgot, for the time being, that Buck Tooth is a sort of Yaqui Indian. But how comes it they fired on one of their own tribe?" he asked.
"Bad Yaquis--no good!" was the answer.
"That"s right--they sure are bad!" declared Rolling Stone. "I"ve had dealings with "em!"
"Did you see anything of their prisoners--young lady and young man?"
asked Snake. "Say, you"d better talk with him--you can sling his lingo better than I can," and the cowboy appealed to Bud.
Thereupon the boy rancher talked to Buck Tooth in a way he knew his Indian helper could understand, and Buck Tooth answered in like strain.
The Indian had been at Happy Valley ever since that venture had been under way, and in that time Bud and the old native had come to understand one another very well. Buck Tooth, it will be remembered, was of aid to Bud and his cousins when the fight over the water rights and the dam was under way, and the Indian helped fight Del Pinzo"s gang.
"It"s this way," Bud translated to the others, having finished questioning the Indian. "He got sort of lonesome after we left the ranch, and though I told him he must stay, he hiked off on his own hook to join us. He took a roundabout trail so he wouldn"t meet up with us too soon and get sent back.
"Then, it appears, yesterday, he ran into a bunch of Yaquis, and they fired at him. He got in among some rocks and fired back, and he says he did for two or three. Maybe he wounded "em, or maybe he made "em candidates for the Happy Hunting Grounds. Anyhow, after the fight he managed to get on our trail, and here he is."
"But did he see anything of Rosemary and Floyd?" asked Nort.
"Not a sign. He says these Yaquis didn"t have any captives," Bud answered.
"How do you account for that?" d.i.c.k wanted to know, while rather a grim silence fell on the others.
"Well, this may have been another party of Indians. Very likely was,"
Bud declared.
"That"s right!" chimed in Snake. "The ones that captured Rosemary and Floyd could hardly have gotten so far north as the ones were that gave Buck Tooth that little reminder in the shoulder."
This opinion, coming from one who could reason out the matter, made everyone feel less apprehensive.
"There must be two or three bodies of these Yaquis," went on Snake Purdee. "They always split up after a raid. One party has Rosemary and Floyd, and another engaged in a little set-to with Buck Tooth.
Being one of them he knew their fighting tricks and he left his marks on "em."
"It"s queer one Indian would turn against the others of the same tribe," spoke Nort.
"No, not in Buck Tooth"s case," declared Bud. "He"s a good Indian, if ever there was one. And, as he says, these Yaquis may be a lot of half-breeds, or a part of the tribe that is outlawed from the others.
I"m not standing up for the Yaquis," he hastened to add, "for I know they"ve done a lot of dirty work. But this bunch may be worse than the others. Anyhow Buck Tooth says so. And I"m glad he"s with us. I felt sorry after I left him back at the ranch."
"Yes, he"ll be of service I reckon," a.s.serted Snake, and Yellin" Kid nodded in agreement.
The Indian"s wound, which he had not troubled himself to dress, was looked after with rough and ready, but effective cowboy skill and then, a good camping place near a water hole having been reached, saddles were taken off the weary steeds who began to roll about in welcome relief.
The fires were made, grub cooked and as night settled down all prepared for much-needed rest.
"Well, another day or two and we ought to catch up to "em," observed Bud, as he prepared to turn in with the others.
"That"s right," agreed Yellin" Kid. "They can"t have traveled any faster than we did, and we took a shorter trail."