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

"What happened?" called Dick, as he dismounted beside his cousin.

"It's a strange story," said Bud in a weak voice. "I've beenpractically kidnaped and put under the spell of some sort of poisongas."

"Kidnaped!" cried Snake.

"Poison gas!" echoed Billee.

"Who did it?" demanded Nort.

"Rustlers, I reckon," said Bud as he sank down on a bowlder and drankgreedily from the canteen Dick offered. "I was surprised by a crowd ofmen back there," and he nodded back up the gulch. "They shot some sortof vapor at me that knocked me out, and I've been a prisoner eversince. I just managed to get away."

"Tell us about it!" cried Nort.

"And we'll go back there and clean those fellows out!" shouted Yellin'

Kid, reaching for his gun.

He would have put his threat into execution, too, but Bud restrainedhim with a gesture as he said:

"It's no use!"

"Why not? Did you shoot 'em up?" asked Snake, with the beginning of adelighted grin.

"No," Bud replied. "But they aren't there now. They lit out. That'show I could get away."

"Say, there's more to this than you're telling us!" said Nort.

"Go ahead. Spill the whole yarn – that is if you're able," begged Dick.

"Oh, yes, I feel better now. Give me a little more water and I'll tellyou what happened to me."

CHAPTER XVII

THE AVENGERS

Bud Merkel took a long drink, shook his head several times as though toclear his brain of some benumbing influence and began his story.

"I guess you all know," he said, "how I started over here yesterday tosize up our stock to get ready for the first shipment to go from Dotand Dash under the new ownership." His hearers nodded. By this timeseveral other cowboys from the other searching parties had arrived tohear the good news of the finding of Bud.

"Well," went on the young rancher, "I got to the range all right, looked the herd over and found there were more steers ready to shipthan we had counted on," and he looked toward his cousins. "Then Ithought I'd spend the rest of the morning in exploring Smugglers' Glen.I wanted to see if I could find out where the old Elixer mandisappeared to that time he ran away from us," and again he looked atNort and Dick. The story of the herb doctor was known to most of thecowboys.

"I rode on up into the gulch," continued Bud, "and when I got close tothe cave I slid off my horse, for his feet made so much noise on therocks that I thought if the old man was in the cavern he'd take warningand skip out before I could catch him at work. That's what I wanted todo – see old Tosh at work brewing his stuff. And I wanted to find ifthere was another entrance or exit from the cavern. I didn't know butwhat, in case of a big blizzard, we might not shelter some of our stockin the cave if we could open it up more."

"That wouldn't be a bad idea," commented Nort.

"Well, anyhow," resumed Bud, "I got off my pony, tied him to a tree andwent on up the glen afoot. I was almost at the cave when, all of asudden, two or three men came out. They seemed quite surprised to seeme, and I certainly was to see them. They weren't any of our men, andthey hadn't any right on our range, any more than Old Tosh has, but Iguess no one minds him.

"I thought, of course, that these fellows were rustlers – they wererough and tough enough looking to be almost anything. But before Icould say or do anything, one of them set down what looked like a tankcontaining carbonic acid gas, like they use at drug store soda waterfountains. I wondered whether these fellows were going into the gameof putting pop in the Tosh Elixer, when, all at once I felt sort ofqueer. I tried to fight off the sensation, but I kept getting weakeruntil I just crumpled up in a heap.

"I thought of all sorts of things – the stories Billee had told aboutthe sudden deaths here, how Sam Tarbell was overcome and his horsekilled and then, just as if I was in a dream, I felt some of those menpick me up and carry me into the cave."

"The darned hijackers!" cried Yellin' Kid.

"Can't we do something to 'em?" demanded Snake angrily.

"Wait," cautioned Bud. "I haven't finished. The men picked me up. Iwas so weak and knocked out by that peculiar smell, whatever it was, that I couldn't do anything. It was, as I said, just like being in adream. They laid me down on a pile of bags, or something. It wasdark, but they had some lanterns. My eyes were half open so I couldsee a little. Then they tied me up and after that I don't remembermuch. I have a hazy recollection, just as you'd have from trying toremember a half-forgotten dream, a recollection of seeing the menmoving about the cave, digging out rocks, hammering and crushing them.For a time I thought they might be going to wall up the entrance andbury me there alive.

"Then I must have gone to sleep, or lost consciousness, for everythingfaded away and the next thing I knew I woke up. It was dark and quietaround me and I began to move my arms and legs. I had been tied uppretty tight, but the knots seemed to be looser now and I managed towork some of them off so I could free myself.

"Then I got up, found a flashlight in my pocket – luckily the men hadn'tsearched me – and I managed to make my way out of the cave. So here Iam – that's all there is to it."

"Well, that's good and plenty!" cried Nort.

"Didn't you stop to see if those men were still there, and what theywere doing?" asked Dick.

"No, I didn't feel able," Bud answered wearily. "All I wanted to dowas get out, find my horse and ride back to the ranch. But where isStar?" the young rancher suddenly asked, looking around.

"He's safe in the corral," Dick answered. "We found him wanderingaround without his bridle on when we went to look for you lateyesterday afternoon."

"He must have pulled away from the tree where I had him tied and yankedthe bridle off that way," Bud said.

"Horses an' bridles ain't much account now!" declared Billee. "Themain thing is about these darn varmints that treated Bud so. Who doyou think they were – I mean what sort of scamps?" asked the old ranchhand, and he fingered his gun, which several other cowboys were doing.

"I think they were cattle rustlers," answered Bud, who seemed to befeeling better each moment. "They must have been hiding in the cavewaiting for a chance to drive off some of our stock, when their planswere spoiled by my happening along."

"That's probably it," agreed Nort. "But what about that soda watercylinder you say they shot at you?"

"I wouldn't call it soda water," stated Bud with a grim smile. "But itcontained some sort of gas and they must have shot it at me for itknocked me out."

"How was it they could turn a stream of poison gas, or at leastknock-out gas, on you, Bud, and not suffer from it themselves?" askedDick.

"The wind was blowing straight from them to me, down the glen," was thereply. "The breeze carried the stuff to me and it didn't bother themat all for it floated right from them."

"Just like gas in the war," stated Snake, who had fought in France, ashad several of the other husky cowboys. "That's probably what it was, too, some kind of gas they used in the war. It comes in tanks, and theGermans used to lay a shallow trench full of these cylinders, with theopenings in 'em pointed our way. Then they'd open a faucet, let thegas out and the wind would blow it right in our faces. If we didn'tput on gas masks it was bye-bye for us."

"But," exclaimed Nort, "Bud wasn't killed."

"No," agreed Snake with a grim smile, "and we're darn glad he wasn't.Like as not they didn't use strong gas on him. There's lots of kindsof gas, you know. I took some once to have a tooth yanked out and Ilaughed to beat the band. Even in war all the gas wasn't sure death.There was a kind that made you cry like you'd lost your best girl."

"That's the explanation then," decided Nort. "These fellows – call 'emrustlers for the time being – have got hold of some kind of knock-outgas and they used it on Bud."

"I sure was knocked out," murmured the young rancher.

"But what's their game?" asked Yellin' Kid in no gentle tones. "Ifthey're rustlers why did they just hold Bud a prisoner a while and thenlight out and not take any stock?"

"They probably figgered the game was up," suggested Snake, "and wantedto make their get-away. Anyhow they didn't get no stock."

"Are you sure of that?" asked Bud.