"Well, it was when I got here," stated the old cowboy. "And there wasn"t a sign of anything wrong. But if there had been I"d expected it, "count of----"
"That black rabbit, I reckon!" broke in Bud.
"Perzactly!" declared Old Billee. "A black jack sh.o.r.e is bad luck, at any stage of the game!"
But for a time there seemed to be no truth in this western omen.
Following the first mysterious disappearance of the water, and its equally strange reappearance, peace seemed to settle down over Flume Valley.
The steers and yearlings, with which Bud"s father had entrusted him and the boy ranchers, thrived and fattened on the succulent gra.s.s. Old Billee, Yellin" Kid, with Buck Tooth"s help, aided the boys in such minor duties as were necessary to perform about the camp. The main duty was looking after the safety of the cattle, to see that none of them strayed beyond the wire fence at the far end of the valley.
Should any stray from the other egress, nearest Diamond X ranch, no great harm would result, as they would still be on their owner"s land.
But the farther, or north end, adjoined land owned by Hank Fisher, the Double Z representative. And there were ugly stories current concerning Mr. Fisher.
But as the days pa.s.sed, and as the water still flowed through the pipes and underground tunnel into the reservoir, Bud and his companions began to think they had imagined more troubles than were really to occur.
"Guess that warning was only a bluff," said Bud, one day.
"And the black rabbit doesn"t seem to have given you the jinx," added Nort.
"But we didn"t find that man you shot," put in d.i.c.k.
"I don"t believe I shot him," declared Bud. "There was blood, sure enough, but he may have stumbled, as, in fact, we saw him, and scratched himself."
"But where did he disappear to?" asked Nort.
"Give up," answered Bud. "We"ll have to take another look after we get our first shipment out of the way."
For the first bunch of steers from the Flume Valley camp were to be disposed of shortly.
It was the day when this shipment was to be made that Bud, awakening early in the tent where he slept with his cousins, uttered an exclamation of surprise as he caught sight of something on the blanket that covered him.
"What"s the matter?" asked d.i.c.k, sitting up.
"Did you leave this here?" asked Bud, as he held up a piece of board, evidently part of a packing case.
"Me? No!" answered d.i.c.k. "What is it?"
"Either it"s a joke, or it"s the black rabbit getting in his work,"
answered Bud. "It"s from an unknown enemy--another warning!"
And, as Bud held up the board, Nort and d.i.c.k could read, scrawled on it, evidently with a fire-blackened stick, the words:
"Warning No. 2. When will you quit?"
CHAPTER VI
TROUBLE AT SQUARE M
"Guess that must be a joke," decided Nort, as he stepped gingerly from his cot, for it was cold in the mornings, though hot enough at midday.
"Likely Old Billee or Yellin" Kid stuck it there," added the eastern lad, as he looked at the scrawled warning.
"Old Billee wouldn"t do it," declared Bud. "He"s gotten over his joking days. But it might have been Yellin" Kid."
"Sure!" agreed d.i.c.k. "Probably he did it to make what Billee said about the black rabbit come true--to sort of scare you, Bud."
"Well, of course that _might_ have happened," admitted the western lad, but from the tone of his voice, as he made a hasty toilet, his cousins could tell he was far from being convinced.
"You don"t reckon it could be Buck Tooth, do you?" asked d.i.c.k, following his cousin"s example in attiring himself for the day"s work.
"What? That Zuni Indian? I should say not! His idea of a joke would make your hair stand on end--or it would in his wild and younger days.
Now all he cares about, after he gets through riding herd, is to sit in the sun and smoke his Mexican cigarettes. Buck Tooth doesn"t joke."
"Well, maybe it was Yellin" Kid," suggested Nort.
But when, a little later, they a.s.sembled in the meal tent, to partake of breakfast, and Bud produced the scrawled board, Yellin" Kid was the first to shake his head at the implied question.
"I like fun!" he remarked in his loud, good-natured voice, "but I don"t play such jokes as this. My idea of fun would be to help dig up another one of them queer, slidin"-trombone insects with the three horns that the professor fellers discovered. But this--why, Bud, this may be serious business!"
"That black rabbit--I told you!" croaked Old Billee.
"Do you really think it means anything?" asked the boy rancher, while his young partners in the new venture leaned eagerly forward to listen to the answer.
"I sure do," declared Yellin" Kid. "All of us have known, Bud, an"
your father among "em, that puttin" a dam in Pocut River, an" taking water for you here, at Flume Valley, made the Double Z outfit mad enough t" rear up on their hind legs an" howl! Hank Fisher has claimed, all along, that th" Diamond X outfit hadn"t any right t" take water from th" river, t" shunt over on th" other side of Snake Mountain, where we are, here."
"Yes, I heard dad say that," spoke Bud. "But if Hank Fisher had any rights that we violated, why didn"t he go to law about it?"
"That isn"t Hank"s way," commented Yellin" Kid. "He"d more likely try some such tricks as _that_," and the cowboy nodded toward the warning on the board.
"Do you think he left that?" asked Nort.
"And was he, or Del Pinzo, in our camp last night?" cried d.i.c.k.
"As to that I couldn"t say," replied Yellin" Kid. "I slept like two tops last night, after I got t" sleep. I didn"t even hear you fellows _snore_," he added, for the three boy ranchers had a tent to themselves, while Old Billee and Yellin" Kid bunked in an adjoining one, Buck Tooth having his own special dugout near the camp fire.
"We never snore!" declared Nort.
"Well, I didn"t hear a sound!" a.s.sented Yellin" Kid.
"Nor I," said Old Billee.
There was no use asking Buck Tooth. An actual demonstration would have been required to make him understand what a "snore" was, and then he might have misinterpreted it into an attempt to work some "magic" on him.
"Well, somebody came in our camp, and left that board--there"s no getting away from the fact," declared Bud, as he put aside the ominous warning. "And it may have some connection with the stoppage of the water, or it may not."