Shoe-Bar Stratton

by Joseph Bushnell Ames

  CHAPTER XXIV

  THE SECRET OF NORTH PASTURE

  Jessup swallowed hard. "But--but--" he faltered, "there ain't never beenany found around here. The nearest fields are hundreds of miles away,ain't they?"

  Stratton dropped the lump of sand. A number of particles still clung tohis palm, and over the skin there spread an oily, slightly iridescentfilm. His manner had suddenly grown composed, though his eyes still shonewith suppressed excitement.

  "Just the same, it's--oil!" he returned quietly. "There's no doubt at allabout it. Look at the ground there."

  Mechanically Bud's glance shifted to the wide, shallow depression in thedesert. The sand was noticeably darker, and here and there under the sun'srays, it held that faintly iridescent glint that was unmistakable. At adistance he would have said there was a spring somewhere beneath thesurface. But no water ever had that look, and now that he was prepared forit he even noticed a faint, distinctive odor in the air.

  "By golly!" he cried excitedly. "You mean to say the whole pasture's fullof it?"

  "Not likely, but it looks to me as if there was a-plenty. There weretraces back there where we stopped, and there's no telling how manymore--"

  "But I didn't see nothin'," interrupted Bud in surprise.

  "You weren't looking for it, that's why," shrugged Stratton. "I was.Thinking it all over this past week, I got to wondering if oil might notjust possibly be what we ought to look for. I was so doubtful I didn't sayanything about it. Like you said, nobody's ever struck it anywhere aroundthese parts, but I reckon you never can tell."

  "Wough!" Bud suddenly exploded in a tremendous exhalation of breath. "Ican't seem to get it through my nut. Why, it means a fortune for MissMary! No wonder that skunk tried his best to do her out of it."

  Buck stared at him oddly. A fortune for Mary Thorne! Somehow, until thismoment he had not realized that this must seem to every one to be theobject of his efforts--to rid Mary Thorne of all her cares and troublesand bring her measureless prosperity. Ignorant of Stratton's identity andof all the circumstances of her father's treachery and double-dealing, shemust hold that view herself. The thought disturbed Buck, and he wondereduncomfortably what her feelings would be when she learned the truth.

  "What's the matter?" inquired Bud suddenly. "What yuh scowlin' that wayfor?"

  "Nothing special," evaded Buck. "I was just thinking." After all, therewas no use crossing bridges until one came to them. "We'd better getstarted," he added briskly. "We've found out all we want here, and there'sno sense in taking chances of running up against the gang."

  "What's the next move?" asked Bud, when they had mounted and started backover their trail.

  "Look up Hardenberg and put him wise to what we know," answered Strattonpromptly. "We've done about all we can; the rest of it's up to him."

  "I reckon so," agreed Jessup. "I never met up with him, but they say he'sa good skate. Perilla's some little jaunt from here, though. Yuh thinkin'of riding all the way?"

  "Why not? It'll be quicker in the end than going to Harpswell and takingthe train. We'll likely need the cayuses, too, when we get there. I'vedone forty miles at a stretch plenty of times."

  "So've I, but not with a bad ankle and a bunged-up side," returned Buddryly. "How yuh feelin'?"

  "Fine! I've hardly had a twinge all day. That bandage stuff is great dopefor keeping a fellow strapped up comfortable."

  "Well, if you're up to it, I reckon that would be better than the train,"Bud admitted. "For one thing, if we take the trail around south of theRocking-R we ain't likely to meet up with anybody who'll put Lynch wise,an' I take it that's important."

  "I'll say so!" agreed Buck emphatically. "The chances are that even if hegot wind of you and me being together, he'd realize the game was up, andprobably beat it for the border. As long as we can manage to keep out ofthe spot-light, he may suspect a lot of things, but considering the sizeof the stake, he's likely to take a chance and hang on."

  "Let's hope he don't take it into his head to ride up here this morning,"remarked Jessup, glancing apprehensively across the desert wastes towardthe south. "That would spill the beans for fair."

  The very possibility made them urge the horses to an even greater speed,and neither of them really breathed freely until they had gained thelittle sheltered depression in the cliffs, from which the trail led overthe shoulder of the mountain.

  "I reckon we're safe enough now," commented Stratton, drawing rein. "Ididn't see a sign of anybody as we came along."

  Halting for ten minutes to rest the horses, they started up the trail insingle file, Bud going first. For a greater part of the distance therocky spurs shielded them from any save a very limited field ofobservation. But at the summit there was an almost level stretch of twentyfeet or more from which an extended view could be had, not only of a widesweep of desert country, but of a section of the northern end of middlepasture as well. Reaching this point, Buck glanced back searchingly. Aninstant later he was out of the saddle and crouching against the rockywall.

  "Lead Pete around the corner," he urged Jessup sharply. "Get out of sightas quick as you can."

  Bud obeyed without question, and Stratton hastily took out hisfield-glasses and focused them on the three figures he had glimpsed ridingalong the northern extremity of the Shoe-Bar pasture. He recognized theminstantly, pausing only long enough to make out that they did not seem tobe in haste, and that so far as he could tell they were not looking in thedirection of the trail. Then he thrust the glasses back into the case, andslipping around the buttress rejoined his companion.

  "Lynch, with McCabe and Kreeger," he explained curtly, gathering up thereins and swinging himself into the saddle.

  "Did they see yuh?"

  "I don't think so. They seemed to be taking things easy, and weren'tlooking this way at all. I wonder what they're up to?"

  "Couldn't we stick around here for a while and watch them?" Bud askedeagerly.

  Buck hesitated an instant. "I guess we'd better not take a chance," hereplied at length. "Such a whale of a lot depends on his not knowing thatI'm alive and kicking; I'd hate like the devil to spoil everything now byhis getting a glimpse of me. Besides, for all we know they may be comingthrough here to meet somebody--the rest of the gang, perhaps, or--"

  "That's right," interrupted Bud hastily. "Let's go. Sooner we're off thishere trail the better."

  Without further delay they rode on down the slope, paused for a moment ortwo at the spring in the hollow to water the horses, and then pushed onagain. Passing the entrance to the gulch, Jessup glanced that waycuriously.

  "Mebbe they're on their way to dispose of yore corpse, Buck," hechuckled.

  Stratton grinned. "I thought of that, and I rather hope it's so. They'd bepuzzled and suspicious, maybe, but they couldn't be really sure ofanything. It would be a whole lot better than to have them run across ourtracks in the sand back there. That would give away the show completely."

  Twenty minutes or so later they reached the gully through which they hadcome out on the trail. Though there had been no further signs of theShoe-Bar men, their vigilance did not relax. Pushing on with all possiblespeed, they covered the distance to the little camp in very much less timethan it had taken in the morning.

  Here the horses had a brief rest while the two men collected their fewbelongings and loaded them on the pack-horse, for they had decided to goon at once. Both felt that no time should be lost in finding the sheriffand setting the machinery of the law in motion. Moreover, they were downto the last scrap of food and unless they stirred themselves they werelikely to go hungry that night.

  An hour later found them riding southward, following the route through themountains used by the cattle-rustlers. Making the same cautious circuitBuck had taken around the southern end of the Shoe-Bar, they reachedRocking-R land without adventure and pulled up before the door of RedButte camp about six o'clock.

  Gabby Smith was cooking supper and greeted them with his customary lack ofenthusiasm. Bud, who h
ad never seen him before, was much diverted by hismanner, and during the meal kept up a constant chatter of comment andquestion for the purpose, as he afterward confessed, of making thetaciturn puncher go the limit in the matter of loquacity. His effort,though it could scarcely be termed successful, evidently got on Gabby'snerves, for afterward he turned both men out of the cabin while hecleared up, a process lasting until nearly bedtime.

  It was not until then that Stratton, by a chance remark, learned thatthree or four days after his departure from the camp two weeks earlier, astranger had been there making inquiries about him. Gabby's stenographicbrevity made it difficult to extract details, but apparently the fellowhad passed himself off as an old friend of Buck's from Texas, desirous oflooking him up. He was a stranger to Gabby, slight, dark, with eyes setrather closely together, and he rode a Shoe-Bar horse. Apparently he hadhung around camp until nearly dusk, and then departed only when Gabby gotrid of him by suggesting that his man had probably ridden in to spend thenight at the Rocking-R ranch-house.

  Stratton and Jessup discussed the incident while making brief preparationfor bed. So far as Bud knew there had been no stranger on the Shoe-Bar atthat time; but it seemed certain that the fellow must have been sent byLynch to spy around and find out where Buck was.

  "I s'pose he went to the ranch-house first and Tenny sent him down here,knowing he wouldn't get much out of Gabby," remarked Stratton. "Well, asfar as I can see he had his trouble for his pains. Unless he hung aroundfor two or three days he couldn't very well be certain I wasn't somewhereon the ranch."

  Save as a matter of curiosity, however, the whole affair lay too far inthe past to be of the least importance now, and it was soon dismissed.Having removed boots and outer clothing, and spread their blankets in oneof the pair of double-decked bunks, the two men lost no time crawlingbetween them, and fell almost instantly asleep.