"By the way, Clark," struck in Hank Handcraft suddenly, after a period of deep thought, aided by the consumption of sweet gra.s.s stalks, "wouldn"t the present time be a good one to drop in on Harkness"s mavericks?"
"By thunder! you"re right," was the reply. "Harkness is pretty sure to have the whole ranch force, or every one he can spare, spread out, seeking for that young cub. The Far Pasture will be pretty sure to be left unguarded. You"re right, Hank; we"ll see what the chief has to say, and then, if we can get a few Indians to help us, we"ll make the big drive. Ha, ha! won"t Harkness be sore if he finds the boy, to discover that it"s cost him the loss of a few thousand dollars" worth of beef!"
In further discussion of their plans the three worthies spent the next hour or so. By that time it was dark, and the thin, silver nail-paring of the new moon showed above the eastern hilltops. It grew very still, the deep silence being broken only by the hoot of an owl or the chirping of some night insect.
Suddenly, and quite near at hand, a twig snapped loudly. Instantly the hands of each of the three flew to their weapons, but an instant later they perceived that they, at least, had no cause for alarm from the newcomer who had thus announced his arrival. It was an Indian that stood before them while they still stared in a startled way into the dark shadows.
"Chief Black Cloud!" exclaimed Clark, as the figure silently glided into the small circle, shrouded in the folds of a heavy blanket.
The chief had tied his pony some distance away, and had advanced with customary stealth on the camping place of his allies.
"How!" grunted the chief, squatting down on his haunches. "You want talk?"
"Well, that"s the reason we lighted up our little wireless plant,"
grinned Hank.
"Hum! My brother with the hair on his face is foolish," snapped the chief, while the others laughed aloud at Hank"s discomfiture. He did not again adopt a flippant tone toward the impressive figure which sat in council with them.
"Chief Black Cloud," began Clark, "in the Far Pasture of Harkness, the rancher, below the places of the dwellers in the cliff, are many young cattle. They are unbranded, and if we can cut them out and get them away we can all be rich--make heap money."
"Um!" grunted the chief, waiting for what was to come.
"Harkness and his men are all away, seeking for a lost boy----"
"Hum! Black Cloud know," interpolated the Indian.
"Then you _did_ take him off!" burst out Bill Bender. "Why didn"t you have sense enough to keep him?"
"Hush!" ordered Clark sharply. He was sufficiently conversant with Indian character to know that the chief might be mortally offended by adverse comments on anything his tribe might have seen fit to do. But Black Cloud paid no attention to the interruption.
"What you want Moquis to do?" inquired the chief, going right to the heart of the matter, for he had quite ac.u.men enough to reason that from the conciliatory tone Clark adopted he had some service to ask.
"That you will help us on the cattle drive," rejoined Clark boldly.
The Indian shook his head.
"No can do," he said decisively. "Mayberry, the Indian agent, is in the mountains seeking us now."
Here the chief permitted himself a grim smile.
"But Mayberry kind man. If we go back to reservation, make no trouble, everything all right. All the same as before. But if we steal the cattle of the white men, then the white man visit us with his anger."
"It will be easy and no chance of being found out," urged Clark.
But the chief shook his head.
"No. My people here for snake dance. Not for steal white man"s cattle."
"Then you won"t help us?"
"No."
"You"ll be sorry for it, you old idiot!" snapped out Clark, foolishly letting his temper get the better of him for an instant.
The Indian drew himself up with haughty dignity. Slowly he gathered the folds of his blanket about him. Then, and not till then, did he speak.
"Black Cloud is never sorry for his deeds. But perhaps white men will sorrow for theirs," he said, with extraordinary dignity and force, and the next instant he was gone.
"Say, Clark, it seems to me you"ve put your foot in it," muttered Hank, as the offended Indian strode off.
"He looked Black Cloud by nature, as well as by name," commented Bill Bender. "He glared at you as if he would read your thoughts, Clark."
"I hope not," laughed the young ranchman, though with a rather uneasy note in his a.s.sumed carelessness, "for they had a lot to do with him, I can tell you."
"What do you mean?"
"That we"ll have to do the Indian act again."
"How do you mean?"
"Why, steal the cattle, disguised as Moquis. But come on, hit the trail.
We"ll be getting back to the ranch. I"ll tell you as we go."
As my readers will have seen, the above conversation throws a strange side light on Indian morality. The Moquis, of whom Chief Black Cloud was patriarch, had had not the slightest objection to "hold up" the boys and to capture Rob for ransom, but at the seriously punishable crime of cattle stealing they balked. What the consequences of this decision were to be to Clark Jennings and his companions we shall see later on. At the Jennings ranch they met Jess Randell, and here the four sat late, discussing the big coup which they hoped was to retrieve all their fortunes. At length they arrived at a decision, and arranged a plan which they deemed offered every security against discovery.
It is now time to revert to the fortunes of Rob, of whom we last heard when the three worthies into whose camp he had been catapulted with such velocity were searching in vain for a clew to his whereabouts. As will be recalled, after leaping on the back of Hank Handcraft"s pony, the boy had dashed off down the trail at top speed, without a very clear idea of where he was bound for. As he rode he heard the sounds of the pursuit, and simultaneously with the sharp report of Bill Bender"s gun, he felt his pony halt and stagger beneath him.
For an instant of time it seemed to Rob as if he was bound to be captured by his pursuers, but in his extremity his mind worked with the lightning-like rapidity common to quick intelligences in moments of great stress.
At the precise instant that his little mount gave a groan and plunged forward into the dust of the trail, Rob reached above his head and seized the low-hanging branch of a small, stout tree. With the activity of the practiced athlete, he swung himself up into the thick greenery as the poor pony lay in its death struggles below. Rapidly working his way among the branches, he was soon several feet from the trail.
While Bill Bender and Clark Jennings were hanging over the dead pony and searching in vain for the boy"s trail, Rob was noiselessly making his way over rocks and stones down into a deep-timbered gully. He could hardly keep himself from an exultant laugh as he pictured the chagrin and amazement of his old enemies at his total disappearance.
He rapidly sped on, and after an hour or more of traveling, feeling himself safe once more, he halted. Up to that moment he had pressed on without feeling much fatigue. The excitement of the rapid happenings since he had slipped upon the Indian pony"s back had sustained him. Now, however, that he felt comparatively safe, the inevitable relapse came.
Rob"s knees began to feel strained and weak, as they had never felt before. His head, too, buzzed queerly, and a feeling of overpowering la.s.situde a.s.sailed him in every limb.
"Good gracious! am I going to play out?"
The boy asked himself the question with every feeling of dismay.
He was in a solitary, remote part of even those wild mountains, and although he was on a small eminence, he could see nothing at any point of the compa.s.s but dreary, monotonous woods or rocky patches of sun-burned wild oats and foxtail. By the height of the sun and its direction, he guessed that it was about noon, and that he had been traveling in a southerly direction, but even of this, in his sudden collapse, he had no very clear notion. All he really knew was that he craved food with a wild, aching longing in his every fibre that had never before a.s.sailed him.
"I wonder if starving men in cities ever feel like this?" the boy asked himself. "Woof! I could eat a horse raw cheerfully."
Then came an interval of utter la.s.situde of mind and body, in which the boy lay stretched out on the hot ground, without a thought of anything.
A strange ringing began to sound in his ears and his head felt dizzy.