The Boy Ranchers in Death Valley: or, Diamond X and the Poison Mystery

And nothing did. Nor did any of the cowboys, who took turns stayingawake during the night, report any untoward occurrences. But in spiteof that fact when Bud went to the grub box to get out some bacon hefound, stuck in a pack, a folded brown paper, like the one on which theother warning was written. And this message was of like import withthe other. It said:

DON'T GO TO DOT AND DASH.

However there was no signature to this. But none was needed to make itcertain that it was from the same hand.

"Well, what do you know about that!" cried Nort when he saw what Budhad found.

"How'd he get in camp to leave that warning without being seen orheard?" asked Dick.

"Guess it's up to us," admitted Billee with a sheepish smile. "We oldgeezers must 'a' been asleep at the switch. No tellin' which one itwas," he went on, "'ceptin' I'll swear nobody slipped past when I wason guard."

"And nobody came into camp while I was sentry," added Snake.

"That goes for me, too!" came from Yellin' Kid.

"Then we'll all have to plead guilty," chuckled Billee. "Anyhow here'sthe warnin' and it looks as if this fellow, whoever he is, wasfollerin' us up to discourage us from going on."

"Well, he shan't discourage me!" exclaimed Bud.

"Nor me!" came in a duet from Nort and Dick.

"That's the ticket! Then we'll go on!" said Billee. "But I would liketo know," he murmured, "how this chap can sneak in and out of a campwithout rousing somebody. I sure would!"

However there was nothing more to be done. And after making sure noclews could be picked up, the second warning was placed with the first,in Billee's big leather wallet, and the travelers prepared to resumethe trail.

They were now in a wilder and more lonesome country than any they hadever before visited. It was distinctly the "bad lands," but often insuch a region can be found isolated places where abundant water andherbage offer ideal sites for cattle raising.

Such, Mr. Merkel had said, was his new Dot and Dash ranch. And it wasapparent to the boys and their older companions, as they rode along, that the valley was a good locality for raising cattle.

"This must be the place," said Bud as they began riding down theopposite side of the slope they had climbed to cross the low range ofmountains. "It's just as dad described it. I'll show these papers towhoever's in charge and they'll know we have come to take over theranch." He tapped in his pocket a bundle of documents which his fatherhad given him to show the transfer of authority.

"Yes, that's Dot and Dash," said Billee as he recalled some of thefamiliar landmarks. "This is the place where I used to punch cattle."

"Seems to be a right nice sort of a place," murmured Snake. "And Ireckon them tales about all the cattle droppin' dead are fakes. Lookat that herd," and he pointed to a collection of dots on a distant hill.

"Nobody said all the cows died!" retorted Billee. "And maybe the badspell, whatever it was, has worked itself out. I hope so. But there'sDot and Dash all right," and he waved to a collection of ranchbuildings that came into view with a turn of the trail.

In a short time they had traversed the slope and were on the level andgreen floor of a pleasant valley, long and narrow, yet wide enough togive space to several big ranches. The hills were barren and rugged insome places, and wooded in others.

On up to the ranch rode the cavalcade, the thoughts of the boys busywith many things. It was rather a tamer entry than they had counted onafter Billee's stories and the receipt of the two dramatic warnings.

"Guess we aren't going to have any trouble after all," said Dick asthey rode their horses to the hitching rail, made the reins fast anddismounted to enter the main house.

"It's quiet enough," said Nort

"'Tis, for a fact," echoed Bud. "Doesn't seem to be anybody aroundhere for me to serve my possession papers on!" he chuckled. "Hello!Anybody home?" he called loudly.

There was no answer save the echoes of his voice through the ramblingbuilding.

"Give 'em a call, Kid, you can make yourself heard," suggested Snake, and the yeller let out a ringing shout.

Still there was no reply and the silence was beginning to get on thenerves of the boys when Billee, who had been roaming around, came inwith a queer look on his face.

"What's the matter?" asked Bud.

"There's a dead man outside in the yard," was the quiet answer of theveteran puncher.

CHAPTER VII

SAM TARBELL'S STORY

This news, so startling, coming as it did after the strange silencethat seemed to wrap Dot and Dash in a pall, and following the talk thathad been going on the last few days concerning the sinister aspect ofthe situation, was enough to startle any one. And the boy rancherswere no exception.

"A dead man?" gasped Bud.

"Who is he?" Nort wanted to know.

"Who killed him?" was Dick's question.

To these inquiries Old Billee Dobb returned no answer. As for Yellin'Kid and Snake Purdee, they just stood in the middle of the desertedliving room of the ranch house and stared at the old puncher. Deathdid not frighten, nor was it anything new to the cowboys. Yet Billee'snews was startling.

"Let's go have a look at him," suggested Yellin' Kid, in no whitlowering his voice as he might reasonably be expected to do under thecircumstances. "Where is he? Do you know him, Billee?"

"Never saw him this side of sole leather as far as I know," answeredthe veteran. "But he's out there by the corral, and here's anotherthing. If we're going to turn our ponies loose into that same corralthe fence has got to be mended. 'Twon't hold a yearling as it is now."

"That can be 'tended to later," remarked Snake. "Let's go have a lookat this poor gazaboo you say has cashed in."

"It looks as if Death Valley was living up to its name," said Nort toBud as he and the other lads followed the men out of the silent anddeserted house.

"Can't tell yet," was Bud's rejoinder. "This may be just a naturaldeath, and somebody that has no connection with this ranch. Lots ofpassing strangers stop at our place and he may have stopped here."

"Well, even then, that doesn't say what killed him," protested Nort.

"We'll soon find out," went on Bud. "Come on."

Billee Dobb was leading the way toward his startling discovery, and amoment later the whole outfit from Diamond X came upon the body. Itlay, as Billee had said, near a corral the fence of which was much inneed of repairs. The man was a typical cowboy, with a bright redneckerchief and sheepskin chaps. His gun had fallen from the holsterand lay beside him. His horse was nowhere to be seen, and a cowboywithout a pony between his legs, or at least in his immediate vicinity,is like Hamlet with the melancholy Dane left out.

"There he is," said Billee in a low voice.

Snake and Yellin' Kid stopped in their tracks. But Bud, who, perhaps, was too young to feel any squeamishness at the proximity to death, hurried forward and knelt beside the motionless figure. Seeing whattheir chum had done, Nort and Dick started to follow. But they werehalted, when they had almost reached the man, by Bud's voice exclaiming:

"He isn't dead at all! He's breathing!"

"He is?" cried Nort.

"Sure! He isn't dead at all! Get me some water. We ought to have adoctor, but maybe we can pull him around until we can find one. Butget some water —pronto!"

Dick slung his canteen around, pulled out the stopper and, an instantlater, was kneeling beside Bud and the stranger. Nort helped Bud, onthe opposite side, support the man's head, which appeared to be butloosely attached to his body and the boys finally succeeded in forcinga little water between the almost lifeless lips.