The Boy Ranchers at Spur Creek Part 18

"Yes, I reckon we'll have to fight," conceded Bud with a half sigh. He was not afraid, but he knew in a fight some would be hurt and perhaps more than one killed. And this was not as it ought to be. Still with each side standing on what it considered its rights, what else could be expected?

"How many Greasers they got?" asked Yellin' Kid, after a pause, during which Bud took another observation through the gla.s.s.

The boy rancher looked, seemed to be counting and then, as he lowered the gla.s.s from his eye, he answered:

"There's a dozen of 'em!"

Significantly Nort silently, but obviously, counted those of his own party. There were but five, for some of the cowboys had been left at Diamond X after the defeat of the rustlers.

"We'd better let your dad know--what say?" asked Kid of Bud.

"I think so--yes. And he'd better send out a few more men. We don't want to take any chances."

This was considered a wise move. But before going in to telephone to his father--for that was the most rapid method of letting him know the situation so he could send help--before going to the instrument Bud asked:

"Say, I'm wondering how, if those fellows intend to take this open range pasture--how are they going to get their sheep over?"

"You mean over the river?" asked Nort.

"Yes. How they going to get the animals across so they can feed on this side?"

For a moment no one answered, then Yellin' Kid replied:

"Why, they'll just naturally haze 'em over; that's all."

"You mean drive 'em through the creek?" asked Bud.

"Sure."

"The water's too deep."

"Maybe there's a ford," suggested Kid.

Bud shook his head.

"I tried to find one for my horse the other day," he said. "I thought I had but it was a quicksand and I was glad enough to get out without being stuck. There's no ford now for miles up and down the Creek from here--that is, none that I know of, especially not since high water."

For the level of Spur Creek had risen in the last few days, since the professor crossed, caused, it was learned later, by the diversion into the creek of a larger stream by some irrigation plan company further north.

"Well, if they can't make the sheep wade over they can swim 'em, can't they?" asked d.i.c.k.

"'Tisn't so easy to make sheep swim," declared Yellin' Kid with a shake of his head. "Sheep are scary critters at best. You might get them in the water if you had a good leader, but if I was a sheep man--which I never hope to be--I'd think twice 'fore I'd float 'em across a stream, 'specially if it had quicksands in."

"Well, this has," affirmed Bud. "They come and go, the quicksands.

They weren't here the other day but they're here now."

"Maybe they're going to ferry 'em across," suggested Nort.

"Where they going to get boats?" asked Snake, and that seemed to dispose of this question.

"Though maybe they carry collapsible craft," suggested d.i.c.k, but this, of course, was not reasonable or practical.

"No," said Bud, "they either know some way of getting the sheep over here, or else they aren't going to cross."

"They'll cross all right," a.s.serted Snake. "Better let your father know how matters are," he suggested.

Bud went in to ring the home ranch up on the telephone, but he had no sooner given a few turns to the crank--for this was the old-style instrument--than he called out:

"Telephone wire is cut!"

CHAPTER XV

A BATTLE OF WITS

This news came as a distinct shock not only to Bud, who discovered it, but to the others of his party.

"Are you sure it's cut?" asked Nort, hurrying into the shack after his cousin, who had come to the door to make the announcement.

"Well, it's dead, anyhow," Bud answered. "I can't raise Diamond X.

And it sounds as if it were cut. Or, rather, it doesn't sound at all.

It's just dead."

"Maybe the battery's given out, or there's a loose connection somewhere," suggested d.i.c.k. "Let's take a look. I know a little about telephones."

They tested the battery, to find that it was sufficiently strong to have transmitted signals provided everything else was in working order.

But this remained to be seen. However, as the boys made test after test, in their limited way, they came ever nearer to the conclusion that the wire was, indeed, cut. For no answer came to the repeated turnings of the crank, though Bud did succeed in making his own bell ring. The reason for his first failure had been a loose wire connection, which d.i.c.k remedied.

But, even after this, no answer came to the repeated turnings of the crank.

"Well, we've got to find the break and mend it!" declared Bud, following several unsuccessful trials to get into communication with the home ranch.

"'Tisn't cut right around here," said Nort, who went out to take a look at the thin length of wire, strung on makeshift poles, that formed a connecting link between the fort at Spur Creek and the h.o.m.o ranch of Diamond X. "I can trace the wire as far as I can see it."

"No, 'tisn't likely they'd cut it so near the shack, for we'd spot that first thing," said Bud. "We'll have to trace it, that's all. I'll get my horse."

"Are we all going?" Yellin' Kid wanted to know. "What about the sheep?" and he waved his hand toward the ever-nearing cloud of dust which floated over the backs of thousands of sharp-hoofed animals.

"Oh, that's so!" exclaimed Bud. "Somebody's got to stay here."

"Reckon Snake and I can handle whatever comes up here," said Yellin'

Kid grimly, as he tapped his gun. "They won't get here for half a day, anyhow, and by then it'll be night. They can't do anything after dark, and two men will be plenty here."

This seemed reasonable enough, and after talking over plans this one was decided on.

Bud and d.i.c.k, the latter knowing most about telephones, would ride along looking for the break, and would try to mend it. Meanwhile Nort would ride on to Diamond X ranch, since it was important to let Mr.