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

"Well, that's about all there is to tell," said Mr. Merkel. "I boughtDot and Dash and hurried home here to get Bud, and some of the boys togo down and take charge. And when I get here I find you practicingcircus stunts."

"I'm through that stuff, Dad, if you got a real job for me!" exclaimed

Bud.

"You'll get a real job all right, and then some," muttered Old Billee.

"Go on! Spill it!" begged Bud. "What you talking to yourself for?

Broadcast it, Billee!"

"Oh, I'll tell you all I know, if your father is through," voiced theveteran puncher.

"Yes, I'm through, Billee," said Mr. Merkel. "Let's hear your goodnews."

"'Tain't good news, and there's no use pretendin' it is!" snapped theaged cowboy. "If I'd known you was dickerin' for any ranch near LosPompan, Boss, I'd 'a' told you to lay off. But it's too late for thatnow, it seems, so I can only warn you to keep away."

"But I've bought it and paid for it. Barter has my money and – "

"Let him keep it, Boss."

"And lose the ranch and the cattle on it?"

"Better to lose your money than to lose your life," muttered Billee."As for the cattle, you'll find fewer of 'em there when you go backthan you left there."

"Oh, stop croaking, Billee, and spill the beans!" begged Nort.

"'Twon't take long," Billee answered. "I forget just how many yearsago it is," he said, looking off toward the distant hills that borderedDiamond X, "when, in the course of my wanderings, I struck Los Pompan.There was a ranch there then, called Dot and Dash, just as there isnow, but it was run by a fellow named Golas. Maybe he was a Mex.Anyhow I signed up with him and started to ridin' herd. But I didn'tstay long."

"Couldn't you hold down the job?" chuckled Babe Milton, who was Slim

Degnan's assistant, and as fat as Degnan was lean.

"None of your wise cracks!" snapped Billee. "I can cut out a bunch ofcattle better'n what you can any day and I'm a heap sight older 'n'wiser. No, the reason I quit was on account of what kept happenin' atDot and Dash."

"And what happened?" asked Dick.

"Death is what happened!" said Billee, solemnly. "Mysterious death!"

"Death can happen on any ranch," observed Mr. Merkel quietly. "Wehave, unfortunately, had deaths here."

"Yes, but they were natural deaths!" declared Billee. "And they didn'tkeep happenin' one after another like at Dot and Dash."

"How many deaths were there?" Bud wanted to know.

"I don't rightly remember, but there was plenty."

"You said they were mysterious," commented Nort. "In what way?"

"That's what nobody could find out," resumed the veteran puncher."First some poor devil of a puncher would be found dead off in somelonely swale. Then we'd find a bunch of cows stretched out, and thenwe'd find another dead man."

"Rustlers," suggested Slim.

"Rustlers nothin'!" scoffed Billee. "Rustlers drive off cattle – theydon't kill 'em – what would be the good?"

"I meant the rustlers did up the cowboys," suggested the foreman.

"Well, if these fellows, who were found dead, got shot, why wasn'tthere bullet holes in 'em?" asked Billee, teasingly.

"Wasn't there?" asked Dick.

"Not a hole."

"How about a knife thrust?" Nort wanted to know.

"Not a scratch or any kind of mark on 'em!" declared the old man. "Andyet their faces showed they'd died in agony. That's what I meant bymysterious deaths."

"It does sound rather queer," admitted Mr. Merkel. "But didn't youfind out what caused all this, Billee?"

"No, Boss, I didn't stay long enough. And neither did nobody else Iever heard of, who worked at Dot and Dash. I vamoosed."

"Well, maybe there was something queer about the ranch years ago,"admitted Mr. Merkel. "But that doesn't say, because fifteen or twentyseasons back something queer happened, that it's still going on."

"Oh, but it is!" declared Billee. "Not a month ago I met a puncher whowas lookin' for a job. He come here but I knew we was full up so Itold him to go over to Circle T, and he done so. But he'd been downDeath Valley way recent like, and he said it was just the same."

"You mean about mysterious deaths?" asked Dick.

"That's it, boy! So what I says is, lay off that place, Boss!"

"Hum!" mused Mr. Merkel. "It doesn't sound very jolly. I don't wantanybody to take any unnecessary risks and yet I hate to lose my money."

"You shan't lose it, Dad!" cried Bud.

"What do you mean, son?"

"Just this! Dick, Nort and I will go down there! We aren't going tobe scared off by any of Billee's tales! We're not afraid; are we?"

He looked at his fellow boy ranchers.

"Nothing to it!" declared Dick, valiantly.

"Let's go!" cried Nort, eagerly.

Undaunted by fear, the three lads ranged themselves alongside of Mr.

Merkel, waiting for his word.

CHAPTER III