"Fine!" smiled Rob, and, indeed, the mention of food had set all his appet.i.te on edge again. "But see here, Mr. Mayberry, I don"t want to be babied this way. I"m going to get up and----"
"You are going to do nothing of the sort," exclaimed the Indian agent.
"Here, Ranger." Again he gave the peculiar whistle, and Ranger"s dainty head appeared inquiringly in the doorway.
"Watch that boy, Ranger, and if he tries to get up--grab him!"
With these words, the kind-hearted Indian agent vanished, to superintend the composition of the stew he was making over a camp fire outside.
"Well," thought Rob, "this is a funny situation. I"m in a hut, and haven"t the least idea how I got here. A horse is set to guard me, and---- I wonder," he went on, "if that horse is really a watch dog, or if that was just a bluff."
It was a good evidence of Rob"s returning vitality that he stretched out a foot to test Ranger"s watchfulness.
Instantly the sharp, pointed ears lay flat back on the horse"s head, and the whites of his eyes showed menacingly.
"I guess I"ll stay here!" laughed Rob.
As soon as he resumed his posture, Ranger"s ears came forward, and the kind light came back into his eyes.
"I"ve heard of horses that were broken that way," thought Rob, "but this is the first I have ever seen."
Had Rob known it, such horses as Ranger--animals trained to the same wonderful pitch of intelligence--are not uncommon in the Southwest.
Presently Mr. Mayberry appeared with a bowl of what to Rob smelled more appetizing than anything he had ever known.
"Ah-h-h-h-h!" he exclaimed, as his nostrils caught the savor.
"Wade in," said Mr. Mayberry, placing the dish on a rough, home-made table by his side. And "wade in" Rob did. He could have finished half a dozen more bowls like it--or so he felt--but Mr. Mayberry told him that after such a fast as he had endured it was important to "go slow."
So much better was the boy after dispatching the meal that he was able to get up, and after a short time spent in staggering about, he quite recovered his faculties.
"Now," said Mr. Mayberry, "tell me how you came to be where I found you?"
Rob told him, his narrative being interrupted from time to time by exclamations of astonishment from the Indian agent.
"This youth, Clark Jennings," interrupted Mr. Mayberry once, "has been a thorn in my side for years. His father is almost as bad. They have frequently committed all sorts of outrages on ranchers and implicated the Indians in them. Not only that, but they have paid the most unprincipled of the Moquis to help them in their cattle stealing and fence cutting."
"I wonder they haven"t ever been captured," said Rob.
"Well," said Mr. Mayberry, "as the saying goes, it is almost impossible to "get the goods" on them. And you say you know this cousin of his from the East, and his companions?"
"Very well," rejoined Rob, "some time I will tell you about our experiences in the East with their gang. They actually kidnapped one of our Boy Scouts, and imprisoned him in a hut."
"Why, they could have been imprisoned for that!"
"They would have been if it had not been for the fact that they fled to the West."
Rob soon concluded his narration, and Mr. Mayberry then related to him some of his own movements of the last few days. Despairing of rounding up the Moquis by moral suasion, he had telegraphed to Fort Miles for a detachment of troops. He was to meet them the next evening at Sentinel Peak, a mountain about ten miles from his present camping-place. The Indian agent had succeeded in locating the valley in which the great Snake Dance was to be held, and, in consequence, was ready to raid it with the troops at the height of the ceremonies.
"Such an action will break up their practices for many years," he declared.
"When are you going to start for the peak?" asked Rob.
"I had not intended to leave till to-morrow," said Mr. Mayberry, "but since you have told me you are anxious that your friends should be informed of your safety, I must start this evening in order to reach a settlement from which I can telephone to the Harkness ranch."
Rob"s heart sank. Mr. Mayberry had not said "we." The boy had hoped it would be possible for him to go along. The Indian agent saw his manifest disappointment and hastened to rea.s.sure him.
"I would gladly take you," he said, "but it is too arduous a trip for even Ranger to carry more than one. You will be safe here till I return with the troops. I will come by here with an extra horse, and, if possible, with your friends, and then we will ride together on the Moquis."
A shrill whinny suddenly sounded outside.
"Hullo, what"s the matter with Ranger?" exclaimed Mr. Mayberry, springing up, followed by Rob.
Outside the hut the boy saw a strange sight. The splendid horse was gazing about him apprehensively, and stamping the ground impatiently.
His nostrils were dilated, showing red inside, and his whole appearance was one of intense nervousness.
"What"s the matter with him?" asked Rob, noting in a swift glance that Mr. Mayberry"s face had become suddenly clouded.
"Well," said Mayberry succinctly, "there are only two things which make him act like that--Indians and bears--and I reckon there are no bears about right now.
"But Ranger scents danger," he went on. "I am certain of it. Old horse, you"ll have to carry double, after all."
CHAPTER XIX.
BLACK CLOUD"S VISIT.
It was mid-afternoon of the day following the start of Mr. Mayberry and Rob, riding double, from the shanty in the lonely basin. Gathered in the big living room of the ranch house of the Harkness range was a cheerless little group, consisting of the Boy Scouts of the Ranger Patrol, Mr.
Harkness and several cow-punchers, including Blinky. They had returned, disheartened and apprehensive, a few hours before, from a painstaking search of the mountains for a trace of Rob. But they had found absolutely none, and as Mr. Harkness had just said, felt as if they had indeed reached "the end of the rope."
"You don"t think, then, there is a chance of our finding him?"
It was Merritt who spoke.
"I"m afraid, much as I dislike to say it, my boy, that we have used up every possible resource at our command," rejoined the rancher.
"Then what are we to do? We can"t give up the search like this. He may be wandering about in the mountains now."
"With nothing to eat," put in Tubby tragically.
"I only wish you could suggest something," said Mr. Harkness in a weary tone, that made Merritt ashamed of his querulous speech.
"What your experience has been unable to suggest it is unlikely that we could think of," he rejoined. "I"ve only one thing to say, Mr. Harkness, and that is that we delay notifying his parents in the East till the last flicker of hope has died out."
"You mean that we may still hear some news of him?"
"I know Rob Blake," rejoined Merritt, "and if he has an ounce of strength he will make his way back."