Meekly the little buckskin obeyed the rein, and Rob rode it back toward the corral gate--a conquered animal. From that time on the buckskin owned Rob as its master, and a better animal never bore saddle. As the cow-punchers burst into a loud chorus of admiring yells, wrung from them by the plucky exhibition, Rob took off his hat and waved it three times round his head. For the life of him, he could not have abstained from this little bit of braggadocio.
"Yip-ee!" he yelled.
"Good for you!" shouted Harry. "It was a mean trick of Blinky, and I was going to get him in a lot of trouble for it, but--all"s well that ends well."
"Say, you were fooling all of us. You must have been out with a Wild West show," exclaimed Blinky admiringly, as Rob patted the wet shoulder of the conquered buckskin.
"I"m glad I could stick on," declared Rob modestly.
"Stick on!" echoed another cow-puncher. "Why, you"re a broncho buster, boy!"
"Well, I"ve had enough of it to last me for a long time," laughed Rob.
Two other ponies were soon caught and saddled, and much to the delight of Tubby and Merritt, they found that the cow-puncher"s love of fun had been worked off when Rob was given the buckskin, and that they were each provided with mounts that tried no such tricks as standing on their heads.
"Now, then, come on," said Harry, when all were mounted. "We"ve got a big round to make. The first ranch we"ll head for will be Tom Simmons"s.
He and his two brothers will join, I"m sure. After that we"ll finish up the others and issue a call for a meeting."
The remainder of the day was spent in the saddle, with a brief stop for a noonday dinner at the Simmons ranch. By the end of the day the Boy Scouts" list contained ten names, which were as follows: Tom, Jack and Bill Simmons, Eph and Sam Ingalls, Henry Randolph, Charley and Frank Price, Silas Lamb and Jeb Cotton.
All the would-be scouts had been ordered to report, three days from the day of their signing on, at the Harkness ranch. In the meantime the boys wrote to Eastern headquarters for organization papers, which, as Rob and his companions were already so well known, they antic.i.p.ated no difficulty in receiving without delay, which, indeed, proved to be the case. Rob had, meanwhile, received a letter from Hampton which reported the successful formation of another patrol in that village where the famous Eagles first saw the light.
The interval between the call for the meeting and the meeting itself the boys put in in practicing riding and shooting. As they all three were familiar with the rifle and revolver, even that brief practice made them fairly expert with firearms and their riding improved every day.
Mr. Harkness and Mr. Simmons had consented to act as Scout Masters, and were present at the first meeting of the organization. Rob, on account of his experience as leader of the Eagle Patrol, was voted in as leader, with Merritt and Harry as corporals. Tubby was appointed a sort of drill master and instructor to the new scouts. This done, they all dispersed, subject to immediate call.
As the ranches of Mr. Harkness and his neighbors, though separated widely by actual distance, were each joined by telephone, it was decided that it would be an easy matter to a.s.semble the scouts at a given rendezvous. The opportunity to test this came sooner than any of the boys expected. One afternoon, about a week after the formation meeting, during which interval Tubby had held two drill nights, a cow-puncher on a sweat-covered horse galloped into the corral. Slipping off his exhausted animal, he dashed at top speed toward the house.
"The cattle in the far pasture have stampeded," he panted, bursting into the rancher"s office, "and are headed for the Graveyard Cliffs!"
"Boys, boys!" shouted Mr. Harkness, hastily springing up from his account books and jamming a sombrero on his head. "Here"s a chance to show your boy scouts some action. Here, you, Blinky, saddle my horse and the boys" animals! Sharp work now! There"s not a moment to lose! We must head them off!"
CHAPTER VII.
THE STAMPEDE AT THE FAR PASTURE.
Such a scene of confusion, hurry and mad rushing about of men and horses as ensued, following the first shout of the alarm, the boys had never witnessed. Cow-punchers staggered about under the burden of heavy Mexican saddles. They tried to buckle on spurs and saddle and bridle their wild little horses all at the same time. But confused as the whole affair looked to an uninitiated spectator, there was system underlying it all. Each man knew what was required of him.
At last all was ready. The last revolver was thrust into the last holster, and the last cinch was tightened round the belly of the last expostulating pony. Mr. Harkness, mounted on a powerful bay horse somewhat heavier than the others, rapidly explained to the punchers what had occurred. The cattle were stampeding on the far pasture. Their course led direct for the Graveyard Cliffs, a series of precipitous bluffs over which, in the past, many stampeding steers had fallen to their death.
Fortunately, the steers had to take a round-about way, owing to various obstructions. The distance to be traversed by the men, cutting off every inch possible, was about five miles. It had to be covered in less than half an hour. No wonder the cow-punchers looked to their cinches and other harness details.
Amid a wild yell from the throats of the score of cowboys who had been about the ranch when the summons was first given, the cavalcade swept forward.
"Wow! this is riding with a vengeance," shouted Rob, above the roar of hoofs, in Harry"s ear.
"S-s-s-say!" sputtered Tubby, "I hope my horse doesn"t stumble."
Suddenly a voice close at hand struck in. It was one of the cow-punchers shouting to another.
"Remember the last stampede, when Grizzly Sam was trampled?"
"You bet I do. His pony"s foot stuck in a gopher hole, and the whole stampede came lambasting on top of him."
The boys began to look rather serious. Apparently they were off on a more dangerous errand than they had bargained for. It was too late to draw out now, however, and, anyhow, not one of them would, for this would have shown "the white feather."
"Did you give the alarm to the rest of the boys?" asked Rob of Harry, after an interval of silence among the boys.
"Yes. I only had time to call Simmons"s place, but they"ll get the others. Simmons"s place is not far from the Graveyard Cliffs, and the boys will be there ahead of us, likely."
"How about the others?"
"They have to come from greater distances. They may not arrive till it"s all over."
It was impossible to see any of their surroundings in the thick cloud of dust. All about them, as far as the eye could penetrate the dense smother, were straining ponies and shouting cowboys.
"How can we tell when we get to the place?" asked Tubby.
"My father is riding up ahead," rejoined Harry; "that big bay of his can make two feet to a pony"s one. He"ll call a halt when we get there."
In the meantime a rumor had been pa.s.sed from mouth to mouth among the cow-punchers. Moquis had been seen near the far pasture the night before, and open accusations were made that the renegades had started the stampede so as to be able to make a feast off the dead cattle in case they swept over the cliffs.
"Mr. Mayberry hasn"t succeeded in rounding them up yet, then," said Rob.
"No," rejoined Harry, "and I heard one of the punchers say yesterday that Indians for miles around are coming into the mountains. I guess they won"t disperse till after the snake dance."
Suddenly a wild yell from up in front caused them to halt.
"Got there, I reckon," uttered one of the cowboys. As he spoke there was but one question in every mind.
"Were they in time?"
As the dust cloud settled, and they were able to make out their surroundings, the boys found that they had come to halt on a sort of plateau. Just beyond this was a sheer drop, as if a great hunk had been cut out of the ground. This drop--which was fully sixty feet deep,--formed the dreaded Graveyard Cliff, so called, although, as will be clear from our description, it was more properly a deep, narrow gulch.
The distance across the yawning crack in the plateau--which was undoubtedly of volcanic origin--varied from a hundred feet or more to fifteen, and even less. A queerer place the boys had never seen.
But they had little time to gaze about them. Blinky, who was one of the crowd of stampede arresters, gave a sudden shout as they came to a halt.
"Hark!"
From far off came a sound that, to the boys, resembled nothing so much as distant thunder. But unlike thunder, instead of ceasing, it grew steadily in volume.
"Here they come!" shouted Mr. Harkness, as the advancing roar grew louder. The solid earth beneath the boys" feet seemed to shake as the stampede swept toward them.