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

"By golly!" exclaimed Billee, suddenly changing the subject. "They gottheir report ready pretty quick. I reckon the gold's so thick in therethey don't need to make much of a test. Whoopee! I'll soon have myself-playin' piano!" He was as eager and excited as a boy. Indeed Budand his cousins were not a little excited as they looked at the twoscientists who came out carrying specimens of ore which they hadknocked off the walls of the cave with their peculiar hammers.

"Didn't take you long," commented Bud.

"No, this was an easy problem," answered Professor Dodson. "We don'teven need an assay to determine our findings."

"By golly! What do you know about that?" cried Billee. "About howmany dollars will she run to the ton?" he asked. "I only want to knowabout," he stipulated. "I won't pin you down by five or ten dollars,'cause I think that wouldn't be fair. But roughly about how much doyou think our mine will assay to the ton?"

"How much what?" asked Professor Dodson with a peculiar smile. "Howmuch what to the ton?"

"How much gold, of course!" exclaimed Billee. "What else? Gold's whatwe want; ain't it?" and he chuckled as he turned to his friends.

"Sure – gold!" was the murmur.

"Then I'm sorry to have to tell you that there is not one ounce of goldin any number of tons of ore and rock in that cave!" was the unexpectedand startling answer. "There isn't any gold at all."

"No gold!" cried Bud.

"No gold!" echoed his cousins.

"No – no – gold!" faltered Billee Dobb, his jaw falling. He saw hisself-playing piano fading back into the dim vista of his dreams.

"No gold," repeated Professor Dodson. "What we have here," and heindicated the ore specimens held by himself and Professor Snath, "is aselected lot of samples of iron sulphid. It is a yellow ore that looksvery much like gold, but which has none of the properties of real gold.In fact it is so often mistaken for the valuable metal that it has cometo be called 'Fools' Gold.' I am sorry, but such is the case. I shallso report to Mr. Merkel, who engaged me to come out here after hearinghis son's account."

"Fools' gold!" murmured Bud. "Well, it fooled us all right."

"Yes, and it fooled those other fellows," said Nort. "The men with thegas cylinders," he added.

As the two professors looked a little puzzled, Dick explained:

"There were some men hiding in this cave who must have thought, thesame as we did, that it contained gold. They drove out Mr. Tosh, whoused the cavern to brew his medicine. Then they drove us out. Theyused tanks of some poison gas, or at least gas that made a manunconscious. We had to put on gas masks, the kind used in the war, tofight 'em. But we drove 'em out."

"And a lot of good it did us," said Bud gloomingly, "if there isn't anygold in there."

"No, the evidence is too plain to be mistaken," said Professor Snath."It does not even require a laboratory test to prove that the cave isrich in iron sulphid, but not gold."

"Maybe it will turn out to be an iron mine instead of a gold mine!" putin Billee, with new hope showing on his face. "Iron's valuable. Notworth as much as gold, of course, but a good iron mine – say, boys, maybe I'll get that self-playin' piano yet."

But again his hopes were dashed.

"It wouldn't pay to work this section even for iron," said Professor

Dodson, and his assistant nodded his agreement.

"Well, then," remarked Nort, "we'll have to keep on raising cattle."

"But we can't do that if these fellows are going to let loose a floodof poison gas and kill them off every now and then!" bitterly criedBud. "We're beat either way you look at it. Just as you said, Billee, this is Death Valley."

"Tell me more about this!" suddenly suggested the older scientist.

"What is all this about poison gas in tanks killing cattle?"

"I can tell you!" came from Old Tosh. "I know all about it but nobodywould ever listen to me. They said I was crazy. But I know! Lookhere!"

He pointed to a crack, or fissure in the rocky floor of the glen, notfar from the cave entrance. It was just such a crack as Bud and hiscousins had noticed one day near the place where they had found somedead cattle.

"Listen to that! It's rising!" cried Old Tosh, bending over the crack.

The two professors, the boy ranchers and some of the punchers leanedover and listened. From somewhere down in the depths of the earth camethe rustle and swish of running water.

"An underground stream," said Professor Dodson. "They are not uncommonin this region. But – "

Suddenly he started back and withdrew his face quickly from above thecrack in the earth.

"Hurry away from here!" he cried. "The gas is rising. I begin tounderstand now. It is the secret you have been trying to solve. Hurryaway! It may not be deadly, but it will overcome all of us in a shorttime."

He ran down the defile, away from the long fissure, followed by theothers, Billee and his men driving the ponies before them. ProfessorDodson had made a strange discovery, after Old Tosh had put him on thetrack of it.

CHAPTER XXV

THE END OF DEATH VALLEY

Hurrying along, some of the men in their saddles, others stumbling onfoot, not having taken the time to mount, the whole party rushed out ofthe defile. It was not until they had reached open country, somedistance removed from the entrance to Smugglers' Glen, that the olderscientist thought it safe to call a halt. And he did not do this untilhe had looked around, with his assistant, to make sure there were noearth fissures near, and had also ascertained the direction of thewind. He tested the air by breathing deeply of it and said:

"We're safe for a time. But there's no telling how long. This is amost remarkable natural phenomenon – one of the most remarkable I haveever happened upon."

"Very remarkable," agreed Professor Snath.

"But what's it all about?" asked Bud. "We've seen those earth cracksbefore."

"And near the place where there were dead cattle," added Nort.

"We heard running water down below, too," was Dick's contribution tothe general information.

"Those cracks go down to the bed of an underground stream," explainedProfessor Dodson. "The subterranean river, brook or whatever it is, must flow a long distance under this ranch," and he looked over theexpanse of valley, hill and plain. "Now an ordinary underground streamis not dangerous. In fact where it comes to the surface, as many do,it provides valuable water. But the stream below here is impregnatedwith a deadly gas." He gave it a long Latin name. "At least if it isnot always deadly," he went on, "and it may not be so at all times, owing to dilution, it is risky to breathe it. I think that is theexplanation of the deaths of your cattle," he said to Bud. "And youmen who were rendered unconscious," he indicated Sam and his guards,"you must have breathed a modified form of the gas."

"But those fellows had gas in tanks!" cried Nort.

"No question about that!" added Billee. "Did they bottle up this stuffyou gave such a long name to, Professor, and shoot it out at us?"

"No," was the answer. "I am inclined to think these unknown men used avery different kind of gas against you – probably a comparativelyharmless vapor discovered during the war activities. I think there aretwo puzzles here and that they are both in the way, now, of beingsolved."

"It looks so," murmured Bud. "But how is the poison gas generated andhow does it come up out of cracks in the earth to kill cattle and knockout our men?"

"The explanation is probably very simple," said the scientist. "Theremust be, somewhere near the head of the defile we just left, a depositof the mineral or ore from which this gas I speak of is generated. Itis somewhat like carbon monoxide, but more powerful even in the openair."

"Water, flowing over a bed of this mineral, liberates the gas in theform of an almost invisible vapor. It is swept forward in a cloud bythe wind, some of it is carried along above the course of theunderground stream, and as soon as it reaches an opening in the earth, like a fissure crack in the rock or ground, the gas rises and whoeverbreathes it dies or is rendered unconscious for a time, according tothe strength of the vapor. At one time the underground stream may bestrongly impregnated with the dissolved chemicals that generate thegas. At another time the emanations may be comparatively weak. That,I think, is the explanation of happenings here in Death Valley, as youcall it."

"Then the men who thought they had a gold mine in the cave had nothingto do with killing the cattle?" asked Nort.