"And we never tumbled!" remarked d.i.c.k.
"Glad you didn"t!" laughed Lieutenant Wayne, to give him his proper t.i.tle. "I thought you were suspicious of me, more than once, though," he said.
"We were, after you built that signal lantern on the watch tower--you did do that, didn"t you?" asked Bud.
"Yes, but only as a decoy for the rustlers. I managed to overhear some of their plans, and part of their scheme called for a light on the tower when the time was ripe for a raid on your cattle, boys. So I flashed the signal myself, and, indirectly, it led to this capture today. For I joined my troop right after that, and we have been rounding the rascals up ever since.
"We knew they had made a big raid at your place, but we didn"t know where they had hidden the cattle until I happened to think of this old crater, which I discovered one day when I was working for you, Bud. So we made our way here and--well, this is the end, I believe," he added, as he looked over at the bunch of miserable prisoners.
"I hope it"s the end," said Bud. "We want to get back to business. And I"m sorry we suspected you, Lieutenant."
"Oh, that"s all right. In fact, I"m glad you did. It shows I lived up to the character I was supposed to represent."
There is little more to tell. That night, around the campfire many things, hitherto a mystery, were explained. The stethoscope the boys found was the property of Lieutenant Wayne. He had dropped it when paying a secret visit to Happy Valley. He had intended to pose as a doctor to deceive the rustlers, but, on losing the stethoscope he gave up that plan. It is needless to say that he had nothing to do with the robbery at Diamond X, the real thieves never being discovered. Lieutenant Wayne apologized for cutting his way from Bud"s tent the night he disappeared after the signal from the tower. This was the only way he could disappear and accomplish his plans, he said. And it was he who had fired and broken the bottle, and had also fired mysterious signal shots, in order to play up to his character of being in with the rustlers.
"Though the bottle-breaking was only a joke I indulged in," he admitted, "I"m sorry it worried you so."
The soldier, of course, had nothing to do with the prairie fire, and who set it, if it was set, was not discovered. Lieutenant Wayne finally recovered his black horse Cinder, the animal having made its way back to Curly Q ranch, where the officer once posed as a cowboy.
The cattle first stolen by the rustlers were not recovered, but it was found that when they seemed they had been spirited off in an airship they had been merely back-tracked and hidden until an opportune time to dispose of them. Del Pinzo"s gang was in hiding, waiting for a chance to drive off the main body of steers, when they were surprised by our heroes. Whether Hank Fisher was in with the rustlers was not decided, though suspicions pointed toward him. The outlaws were sentenced to long terms after being captured by the troopers, and their secret meeting place, having been discovered, was destroyed.
After these explanations had been made, it was decided not to try to drive the cattle out of the crater until the next day.
The night pa.s.sed without incident, though none of the boy ranchers turned in early. They were too excited, and they wanted to talk over what had happened.
The existence of the old crater was not generally known, but Del Pinzo and his rustlers appeared to have the secret of it. They had driven off Bud"s cattle, put them into the natural corral and then filled in, with dirt, the only entrance visible from the defile trail leading from Happy Valley. They intended to use the larger opening out of the bowl, to the south, to get the cattle away. But their plans were frustrated.
The next day the troopers drove off before them the discomfitted Del Pinzo and his disheartened followers, Yellin" Kid taking the Mexican"s elaborate hat to replace the cowboy"s with the bullet holes. Lieutenant Wayne said farewell to the boy ranchers, promising to come and see them again, in his real character.
The wounded were transported as tenderly as possible out of the main egress from the bowl, it being impractical to use the other.
And it was from this larger entrance, after the fence had been torn away, that the cattle were driven, by a long winding trail amid the mountains back to Happy Valley. Only a few were lost by the raid, which was the largest ever perpetrated by the rustlers in that part of the country.
"But I guess, now that the troopers have Del Pinzo, and not the local authorities with their flimsy town jails, that this Greaser won"t be foot-loose for some time," observed Bud, when, once more, the boy ranchers were back in camp.
"I don"t want to hear his name again," murmured d.i.c.k, nursing his wounded hand.
"And to think that Four Eyes was working in our interests when we thought him a spy! That was pretty good!" laughed Nort.
"Yes, it all worked out pretty well," spoke Bud. "And do you know what I"d like to do? I"d like Dad to buy that old volcano crater for us. It would be a peach of a place where we could winter a herd of cattle, and have "em fat for spring selling. I"m going to speak to him about it," he concluded.
"Well, you can speak right now, for here he comes, and your mother and sister, too," added d.i.c.k, as Mr. Merkel"s auto chugged down the trail from Diamond X.
"Well, boys, I hear you beat Del Pinzo at his own game!" greeted the rancher, while Nell expressed her sorrow at d.i.c.k"s wound, to the somewhat jealous regard of Nort, whose hurt was more slight.
"Yes, he"s where he won"t blur any more brands right away," Bud answered. "But it looked like touch and go for a while. The troopers came just in time!"
"Well, you fellows seem to know how to take care of yourselves and the cattle," observed Bud"s father. "Guess I"ll turn one of my main ranches over to you. What say?"
But the boys did not answer. They were busy eating slices of a large chocolate cake that Nell had brought over. This is reason enough, isn"t it? However, the adventures of our heroes did not end with the capture of the rustlers. And those of you who wish to follow them further may do so in the next volume of this series which will be ent.i.tled: "The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians; or Trailing the Yaquis." In that volume we shall meet many of our old friends again, and, should Bud permit it, I may tell you about Zip Foster. But with the capture of Del Pinzo, and his rustlers, this book is finished.
THE END