"These scratches on the front of the door. It does look as if they tried to drill the safe!"
Bud pointed to several parallel marks on the steel door. The scratches were deep in the paint, and seemed to radiate toward the shiny nickel dial of the combination. "Scratches!" repeated Mr. Merkel, coming over to look. "No, I never noticed them before. Why, she is clawed up some," he admitted. "But I can"t say that they haven"t been there since I got the safe, which was just before the round-up. Yes, she sure is clawed up some," and he spoke as if some mountain lion had done the damage to his strong box.
But here Bud"s sister, Nell, took a hand in the proceedings.
"Those scratches are new ones--they were made by the burglar,"
declared the girl, whom Nort and d.i.c.k thought the prettiest they had ever seen. "I know, for I dusted your office, Dad, the day the round-up ended, and the door was as shiny then as a new penny."
"Then the burglar did it," decided Bud. "And it shows we have to deal with a regular gang of safe robbers, instead of just ordinary cattle rustlers!"
CHAPTER V
THE BROKEN BOTTLE
Bud"s opinion, expressed with such conviction, coupled with the fact that Nell, his sister, was sure the safe had not been scratched the day before the robbery, made it look as though men practiced in the evil art of burglary had been at work.
"When I saw the fellow, bending over my safe," said Mr. Merkel, "it appeared to me he was only trying to work the combination. I have a hard job, myself, remembering how to do it, account of the safe being a new one. And I was so surprised, at first, that I just stood there, like a locoed steer, watching him. Then I let out a yell, told him to throw his hands up, and things began to happen."
"But, instead of just trying to open your safe, by working the combination, same as I"ve heard of burglars doing by filing down their fingers with sandpaper to make "em sensitive, he was getting ready to blow it open," declared Bud.
"Does look so. She sure is clawed!" commented Mr. Merkel again.
"Mercy! It"s a wonder we weren"t all blown up in our sleep!"
exclaimed Bud"s mother. "You boys"ll stay to dinner," she added, as if glad to change the subject.
"We aimed to," said Bud with a grin at his cousins. "We manage pretty well most times, with what we cook, and what Buck Tooth hands out in the grub line. But we sure do like a home-feed once in a while."
"Or twice!" added Nort, while d.i.c.k nodded his agreement.
But though it was evident that some professional burglar had endeavored to open the Merkel safe, that was all the conclusion which could be arrived at. No additional clues were found and, for a time, matters settled down into the ordinary run at Diamond X.
Summer was coming, with its heat, and Bud was glad there would be no interruption in the water supply that flowed into Happy Valley from the Pocut River, coming through the ancient underground pa.s.sage.
"For we"ll need plenty of water in hot weather," he told Jus cousins.
At Diamond X Second, as the outfit of the boy ranchers was often called, was now a goodly herd of animals eating the rich, Johnson gra.s.s and other fodder, getting fattened in readiness for sale in the fall, when there would be another round-up.
Besides Bud, Nort and d.i.c.k, there was now, at the camp in the valley, Buck Tooth the Zuni Indian, Yellin" Kid and Snake Purdee, two efficient and veteran cow punchers who had been transferred from Diamond X First, meaning by that the main ranch.
While Bud was a true son of the west, and while Nort and d.i.c.k had, some time ago, pa.s.sed out of the tenderfoot cla.s.s, still Mr.
Merkel felt that his son and his nephews needed the aid and guidance of cattlemen older than themselves. So the "outfit," as the aggregation at a ranch is called, was quite a happy family.
"If we could only catch those burglars, and get back your dad"s money, I"d feel better, though," declared Snake Purdee, as he rode in from the Diamond X ranch one day, to announce, among other news items, that Babe, the fat a.s.sistant foreman, was able to be about again.
"Yes," agreed Bud. "It isn"t so much the money loss, as it is the knowledge that such a bunch of men is loose in a neighborhood.
Del Pinzo and that Hank Fisher bunch are bad enough, but I don"t believe they had a hand in this."
"I wouldn"t put it past them!" stated Yellin" Kid in his usual, loud tones. "Th" skunks!"
"But dad said he didn"t recognize the fellow he surprised at his safe," spoke Bud. "Of course he didn"t have much chance. But if it had been Del Pinzo--"
"Don"t worry!" broke in Snake Purdee. "That Greaser wouldn"t do a job like that himself; or Hank Fisher, either. They"d get some one else to take the risk. However, what"s th" use ga.s.sin" about it? I guess the money"s gone for good. But I"m glad they didn"t get th" safe open!"
"So"m I," chimed in Bud. "Some of our cash would have vanished then." For he and his cousins had a share in the money received from the sale of steers at round-up time.
So, following the robbery at Diamond X, matters quieted down. Bud still kept the stethoscope, and word of the finding of the strange instrument traveled to other ranches. It was called by such a variety of names (the cowboys having twisted the original and proper one) until the boy ranchers had difficulty, at times, in understanding the reference when they were asked about it.
But no one claimed it, and no trace was found of the person who, it was presumed, had dropped it the night our heroes saw some one disappear near the boarded-up entrance to the ancient tunnel.
"Come on, let"s try a bit of shooting!" proposed Nort one evening, when grub had been served at the camp, and he and his brother were left with Buck Tooth. Snake and Yellin" Kid had ridden off on an all-night tour of duty, to a distant part of the ranch. A choice bunch of steers had started to wander farther off than Bud thought it was wise to let them. They were, evidently, in search of another variety of fodder, but that could not save them from some pa.s.sing band of Greasers, or other cattle thieves.
"Haze "em back this way," Bud had requested his two cowboys.
"They"ll be safer over here."
So Yellin" Kid and Snake had ridden away as the early evening shadows were falling and, to pa.s.s the time until the hour for seeking their bunks, the boy ranchers sought some amus.e.m.e.nt.
Shooting at a mark was one form, and Nort and d.i.c.k were endeavoring to become as expert as their western cousin in the use of the .45.
"Shooting suits me," agreed Bud. "I"ll soon have to cut down my handicap if you fellows keep on the way you"re going," for in the tests of skill Bud had always discounted his own ability in order to be fair.
"Well, don"t scale it down too much," begged d.i.c.k. "Nort hasn"t got me skinned, but I"m not up to you."
"Well, let"s see how you"ll do," suggested Bud.
As a mark a bottle was stuck on a stick which was thrust into the ground at the foot of the sloping bank which enclosed the reservoir. Shooting against this earthen bank insured that no wild bullets would injure any one.
"You go first, Bud," suggested d.i.c.k. "We want to get a line on you."
Accordingly Bud walked to the marked-off place, drew his heavy revolver, raised it and brought it down on the mark--the bottle on the stick. There was a sharp crack, followed instantly by the tinkle of gla.s.s, and that bottle was no more.
"Busted it clean!" cried Nort. "I wish I could do that!"
Another flask was provided, and Nort shot at this. His aim was fairly good, but he was allowed to go five feet nearer than Bud had stood, that distance being the western lad"s handicap. But Nort only chipped away part of the bottom of the bottle with his first shot, and it took three to shatter it completely.
"Watch me do better than that!" cried d.i.c.k, as he took his place where his brother had stood, and raised his gun. "I"ll crack it first shot!"
His weapon was still in the air, and he had not brought it to a level with the bottle when there sounded, from somewhere out in the valley back of where the boy ranchers stood, the sound of a shot.
The bullet zipped viciously over their heads, and, as they instinctively ducked, they heard the crash of the broken bottle.
CHAPTER VI
MISSING STEERS