Jack Ranger's Western Trip Part 35

The bracing atmosphere, though it was so rarefied that the boys, at first, found a little difficulty in breathing, made objects seem strangely near. Several times Jack and his companions saw a distant landmark, and wondered why they were so long in reaching it. Mr.

Hardy laughed at their astonishment as he explained the reason for the seeming nearness.

They had dinner on the side of a mountain which they had begun to ascend shortly before noon. Mr. Hardy proved himself an old campaigner. He had a fire made, and bacon frying before the boys had the stiffness from their legs, caused by their ride. Then, with bread and coffee, they made a better meal than they had partaken of in many a hotel.

That night they slept in a lonely mountain cabin, the owner of which Mr. Hardy knew. They pressed on the next morning, their pace being slow because Nat found he could not ride as well as he had hoped.

"Galloping gooseberries!" he exclaimed. "I feel as if all my bones were loose. You didn't see any of 'em scattered back along the trail, did you, Jack?"

"You'll get over it," said Mr. Hardy. "Got to learn to ride if you're going on a ranch. No one walks there."

They had to sleep in the open the next night, but Mr. Hardy built a big fire, and, well wrapped in their blankets, the boys were not uncomfortable, even though it was cold on the mountain from the time the sun went down.

It was cold, too, the next morning, as they crawled from their warm coverings, but when their guide had thrown a lot of wood on the glowing embers, causing them to spring into a fine blaze, the boys got up and helped prepare breakfast.

"We're almost there," said Mr. Hardy, as they mounted their horses to resume their trip.

They rode until shortly before noon, when Mr. Hardy suddenly pulled his horse up and said:

"Here's as far as we can go, boys, until we get word from Mr. Tevis.

There's the tree where I leave the messages." He pointed to a big oak that had been struck by lightning, and split partly down the immense trunk. One blackened branch stuck up. It had a cleft in it, in which a letter could be placed and seen from afar.

"Now I'll just leave a note there, and we'll have to be guided by what happens," Mr. Hardy went on.

He wrote something on a piece of paper, and asked Jack for the rings and the card symbol. These, with the message he had written, he placed in an envelope. The letter was enclosed in a bit of oiled silk, and the whole deposited in the cleft of the limb.

"It might rain before it is taken away," he explained. "You can never tell when Mr. Tevis or his messengers come. He can see that letter from his house, by using a telescope, but he may not send for it. It all depends."

"How will you know if he does?" asked Jack.

"I will come back here to-morrow at noon," replied the guide. "If there is an answer, there will be a little white flag where the letter was, Then I will know what to do."

There was nothing to do but wait. Mr. Hardy explained that it was necessary that they move back down the mountain, a mile or more away from the signal tree. To Jack and his chums this seemed a lot of needless precaution, but they were in no position to do anything different.

Jack pa.s.sed the night in uneasy slumber, for he could not help thinking of what the morrow might bring and what effect it might have on his search for his father. But all things have an end, and morning finally came. After breakfast Mr. Hardy looked well to the saddle girths, as he said, if they were to go further on their journey, they would have to proceed over a rougher road than any they had yet traversed.

They started for the blighted oak so as to reach there about noon.

How anxiously did Jack peer ahead for a sight of the lightning- blasted tree, in order to catch the first glimpse of the white flag he hoped to see! He was so impatient that Mr. Hardy had to caution him not to ride too fast. But in spite of this the boy kept pressing his horse forward. As the little cavalcade turned around a bend in the trail Jack cried out:

"I see it! There's the white flag! Now we can go on and hear the news of my father!"

"Don't be too sure," muttered Mr. Hardy. "It may be a message saying there is no news," but he did not tell Jack this.

The sun was just crossing the zenith when Mr. Hardy took from the cleft of the branch a small packet wrapped in oiled silk, similar to the one he had left. Quickly tearing off the wrapping the guide disclosed a piece of white paper. On It was but one word:

"Come."

"Hurrah!" yelled Jack, throwing his hat into the air, and nearly losing his balance recovering it.

"Walloping washtubs!" yelled Nat.

"Let's hurry on," spoke John Smith, more quietly. But he, too, felt the excitement of the moment, only he was used to repressing his feelings.

"Prepare for a hard ride," said Mr. Hardy. "We must make Mr. Tevis's place by night, as it is dangerous to camp in the open around here.

Too many wild beasts."

From the blasted oak the trail led in winding paths up the mountain.

It was indeed a hard one. Great boulders blocked the path, and there were places where rains had washed out big gullies. But the horses seemed used to such traveling, for they scrambled along like goats on a rocky cliff.

It was just getting dusk when, as they topped a considerable rise, Mr. Hardy pointed ahead to where a light glimmered on the side of the mountain, and said:

"There is Mr. Tevis's house."

Jack's heart gave a mighty thump. At last he was at one of the important stages of his long trip. As the riders advanced there came, from out of the fast gathering darkness a command:

"Halt! Who comes?"

"Friends!" exclaimed Mr. Hardy.

"What word have you?"

"Pine tree and moss agate," was the answer.

"You may enter," the unseen speaker added.

There was the sound of a heavy gate swinging open, and following their guide the boys urged their horses ahead. They found themselves on a well-made road, which led to a fairly large house.

"Dismount," said Mr. Hardy, as he brought his steed to a halt in front of a large piazza that surrounded the residence. "We are here at last."

As he spoke the door opened, sending out a stream of brilliant light.

In the center of the radiance stood a tall man, looking out.

"Good evening, Mr. Tevis," spoke Mr. Hardy.

"Ah, Enos, so you have arrived. And did you bring the boys with you?"

"All three, sir."

"Very good. Come in. Supper is ready."

Jack sprang from his horse and, with a bound was on the porch beside the man he had come so far to see.

"Mr. Tevis!" he exclaimed, "Have you any news of my father? Is he alive? Can you tell me where to find him?"

"Yes, to all three questions, Jack Ranger," said Mr. Tevis, heartily, and Jack felt his heart thumping against his ribs as though it would leap out.