CHAPTER XIX
GAS MASKS
"Hold on!" yelled Snake Purdee as he swung around a ledge at the edgeof the narrow entrance to Smugglers' Glen and made a grab at Nort whowas running as fast as he could under the weakening influence of thegas. "It's all right here--the wind will blow the stuff to the east.Swing around here, everybody!" and he indicated a niche to the west ofthe entrance.
Nort stopped, his brain dully comprehending what Snake meant. Then theothers in the wild, frightened retreat sensed what the words wereintended to convey and, one after another, they gathered there incomparative safety with Snake, Nort and Dick.
"Whew!" gasped Billee Dobb whose age was telling on him, not only inthe rapid, forced retreat, but in the effect of the gas. "That wastough! But what makes you think we'll be safe here, Snake?"
"On account of the wind blowing the gas away from us. Look, there itfloats to the east. We're safe here. I didn't get nearly gassed inthe war for nothing. We're safe here till the wind shifts and it won'tdo that right away."
"What about the horses?" gasped Dick, taking deep breaths to ridhimself of the gas already breathed.
"They're all right--they're up wind, too!" shouted Yellin' Kid, whoselungs did not seem to have suffered much.
This was true enough. The ponies, with the guard of cowboys, were tothe west of the gorge entrance and, as Snake had been quick to observe,the strange, white mist which had so mysteriously floated out of thecave toward the avengers, was drifting, now, out of the mouth of thedefile and off to the east.
"If any of the cattle get in the path of that they'll be killed!"exclaimed Dick, noting how the mist clung to the ground and rolledalong as fog sometimes does when the clouds are low.
"The bunch isn't down there," said Billee.
"And I don't know as that gas is so very deadly after all," statedSnake, breathing deep after a few cautious inhalations to make sure theair was clear.
"Then what'd you run for?" Yellin' Kid wanted to know.
"Because I wasn't sure of what sort of stuff it was. There's lots ofkinds of gas, you know. We had one kind in the war that would justknock a man out for a few hours. I reckon that's the kind they shot atBud and the kind they just now loosed at us. But I wasn't takin' anychances!"
"I should say not!" cried Billee Dobb. "But now we're out of dangerfor a while, what's to be done next?"
Nort had the answer ready in a moment.
"Gas masks!" he exclaimed.
"Gas masks?" echoed Billee.
"Sure! I get you!" cried Snake. "That's the ticket! Gas masks! Sameas we used in war when the Germans let their gas loose. Why didn't Ithink of it before?"
"There's been so much happening!" remarked Dick, "that it's a wonder wethought of half we did. But gas masks would be just what is neededhere. Only where are we going to get them?"
Up spoke one of the new cowboys to observe:
"There's a branch of the American Legion in Los Pompan. I belong to itand so do some of the other boys. 'Tain't much of a branch, but theygot some war relics hangin' around the meetin' room, and I seen somegas masks there the last time I was in. I reckon we can borrow themwithout any trouble."
"Golly! That's the cheese!" cried Nort.
"But are the masks any good?" Dick asked. "If they're relics of thewar they're likely to be old and no good. And a gas mask that won'tkeep gas out is worse than none at all."
"You're right there!" exclaimed Sim Roller, who had proposed thematter. "Some of the masks are the same as the boys used in France.But others are new ones they got from the gov'ment lately to decoratethe meetin' room. I reckon they'd be fresh, with charcoal in andeverything needed."
"Will you see if you can get some for us?" asked Billee, who was incharge during the forced absence of Bud.
"Sure!"
"Good!" cried Nort. "Then we'll come back and have another go at thesefellows!"
"Yes, it will need another go," remarked Billee, looking at theentrance to the defile out of which a faint mist was still floating."We don't dare go back at 'em now, unprotected. They're regulardevils, that's what they are! Devils!"
"Wonder what their game is?" mused Dick as he and his brother, with theother cowboys, moved to where their horses were picketed in charge ofthe guard.
"They want to keep us out of that glen," suggested Nort.
"But why?" went on Dick.
"So they can poison more cattle and bust up this ranch and rustle whatstock they don't kill," was what Nort answered.
"It doesn't seem reasonable that they'd poison cattle," and Dick shookhis head. "What good would dead ones be to them? They can't be sold,and it wouldn't pay to kill 'em just for the hides."
"No, that's so," admitted Nort. "But they evidently want to keep usout of that glen, and drive us away from the ranch if possible, so theycan have it for themselves."
"Part of that seems like to be true," spoke Billee, taking a part inthe discussion. "But this isn't the first time there have been queerdoings at Dot and Dash. Years ago I'm pretty sure there was no band ofdevils up here with cylinders of gas. This is something new."
"Tell me, Billee," resumed Nort, "on what sections of the ranch didmost of the deaths occur--I mean when you worked here?"
"Well," and the veteran scratched his head reflectively, "as near as Ican remember they was all somewhere near this glen, come to think ofit."
"And this is where Sam Tarbell's horse was killed and where Sam wasknocked out--near this glen; wasn't it?" went on Nort.
"That's true enough."
"And it's from this glen that Bud got his dose of poison gas and where,just now, we got ours; isn't it?"
"Sure," Billee was forced to say.
"Well, then," went on Nort, "isn't it reasonable to suppose that thisband--or some bunch like it--has been doing this right along?"
Here Billee shook his head.
"You can't make me believe," he said, "that this gang, or one like it,has been doin' this gas business all along. In the first place theearliest, mysterious death on Dot and Dash took place many years ago,before poison gas in war was thought of. I won't deny that this bunchback there," and he nodded in the direction of Smugglers' Glen, "Iwon't deny but what they may be usin' war gas. But it wasn't so yearsago.".
"Then it looks," spoke Dick, "as if these men had some object inkeeping us out of the glen."
"That's it!" cried Billee. "There's something up there they don't wantus to find out."
"Maybe it's the secret Old Tosh has of makin' sarsaparilla," said Snake.
"No," objected Dick, "I don't believe the old man is mixed up in thisat all. He was in the cave, that's sure, but I think this bunch ofrascals with their poison gas have deposed him and taken possession fortheir own ends."
"And what those ends are it's for us to find out," suggested Nort.
"Sure!" cried his companions.
"We'll get gas masks and make another attack!" added Snake.
"I wonder what we'll find?" mused Dick.
"Bud could have told if they hadn't knocked him out," suggested Nort."He says he saw them pounding rocks and digging in the sides of thecave. They were after something besides cattle, that's sure."
"Diamonds!" some one said.
"That's been mentioned before," remarked Dick. "It is out of thequestion, I think, but it may be something always associated withdiamonds."
"What's that?" exclaimed several.
"Gold, maybe," was the quick answer, and into the eyes of every manthere came a sudden, new gleam.
"By golly!" cried Yellin' Kid in his loudest tones, "I'll bet you'reright! There's a gold mine in that cave and those fellers want to keepit for themselves! Whoopee! Let's get them there gas masks and rustlethe whole bunch over the border. Then we'll have the gold forourselves! Come on!"
Boy Ranchers in Death Valley; Or, Diamond X and the Poison Mystery Page 19
