Mason of Bar X Ranch

Dismounting before his horse could come to a full stop he made his way directly to Bud Anderson.

“Message for you, Bud,” he panted; “must be mighty important too, for I was told to get here quick, even if I had to kill my horse. Reckon he’s about done for at that,” he added, watching the trembling animal with remorse.

Springing to Bud’s side, Mason watched him as he tore the message open. Bud hastily read its contents and silently passed it over to Mason.

It was a laconic message from Trent Burton and the news he read staggered him.

The message read as follows:

Ricker makes jail delivery. Jim Haley, Pete Carlo the Mexican, and Nick Cover with him. All headed for Nevada. Form posse and round up. Coming with deputy Jean Barry. News two weeks old.

    (Signed)
    Marshal Trent Burton.

Mason heard Bud giving orders to his men as though in a daze. His eyes caught sight of the message again and he read the words over. News two weeks old!

“Good God, Bud!” he cried in an agony of fear. “Do you realize what that message means? News two weeks old and my sister and Josephine in the clutches of that fiend at the Ricker ranch!”

Running like the wind to the shed where his racer was kept, he quickly had the engine spinning. The next instant he shot past the group of startled cowboys. They saw him feeling on his belt for his guns, and then man and car were swallowed up in a cloud of dust.

CHAPTER XVIII – THE LOST AIRPLANE

Josephine rode away from Bar X ranch with a feeling of misgiving. She knew that she had treated Mason rather mean, but she felt piqued because he had neglected her for the last few days.

Ethel noticed her abstracted manner, and asked her the reason for it.

“I think your big brother has been neglecting us shamefully,” she said at last in answer to a repeated query from Ethel. “Dad doesn’t need him to work about the ranch as he persists in doing, and I think it mean of him while you are visiting us.”

Ethel smiled at her serious manner.

“You certainly cut him to-day when you refused his offer to go with us,” she said, watching keenly the effect of her words on her friend.

“Serves him right,” Josephine answered spiritedly. “I suppose he thinks I am a very unreasonable girl, but you know we planned to visit the secret passage at the Ricker ranch, and I really wanted to ask him to go with us, but for the last three days I have scarcely been able to get a word with him.”

“Jack thinks you are in love with Bud Anderson,” Ethel ventured gently.

Josephine laughed merrily.

“Bud and I are great friends and I like him immensely,” she answered, a far-away look in her eyes.

Percy Vanderpool had been an interested listener up to this point, but now he began to get impatient at the lack of interest they were showing in him.

“Aw, I say girls,” he drawled, “do you really think this bally ranch with the aw, secret passage is a safe place to go?”

Josephine flashed him an amused glance.

“If you are afraid, you may go back, but Ethel and I are going to see this place. There is no danger, for two of Bud’s men are guarding it,” she answered him scornfully.

“Oh, Percy is game, all right,” Ethel cut in; “I know he isn’t afraid to go where us girls dare go.”

At this praise the fop began to tell of some deeds of daring he had performed while on a trip through the jungles of Africa and the girls listened with much merriment.

Thinking he had impressed them with his great prowess he launched into such a lengthy tale of one of his trips that Josephine had to cut him off in the midst of it.

They were nearing Trader’s Post where they had planned to halt for a short rest before proceeding on to the Ricker ranch.

A foreboding of evil was stealing over Josephine and try as she would, she couldn’t seem to shake it off. She wished most heartily that she had permitted Mason to come with them and felt vexed with herself for being so obstinate.

As they entered Trader’s Post she caught sight of one of the cowboys Bud had left in charge of the Ricker ranch. He was on the opposite side of the street and bidding Ethel and Percy to wait, she hastened over and had a chat with him.

The cowboy had come to town for a few supplies and was going back at once. He assured her that everything was going fine at the ranch, and feeling relieved she hurried back to join Ethel and Percy.

After lunch and a short rest they started for the ranch. The cowboy would reach the ranch ahead of them, but somehow the meeting with him had helped dispel the depressing spirit that seemed to grip her. In the course of an hour they had reached the outbuildings of the ranch, and the desolate condition of the place almost struck terror to the girl’s heart, but remembering the meeting with the cowboy they pressed on.

Arriving at the ranch house, Josephine was shocked to find the door partly open, and the house was apparently deserted.

“That’s strange,” she said, nervously entering the room. “Come on in, Ethel, and bring Percy. We’ll see if he has got the nerve he has been bragging to us about. I’m not going to stay in this place long myself, it looks spooky to me. We will investigate that secret passage and then dust out of here. I have got a nice flashlight with me so we won’t have to stumble over anything.”

“I cannot understand what became of the two cowboys that are supposed to be in charge here,” Ethel replied, stepping inside and walking gingerly about the room. “Oh, say a real live counterfeiter’s den! Won’t I have something to tell the people back in New York when I get home?”

Josephine smiled at the Eastern girl’s enthusiasm.

“I guess only one of the guards stay here at a time,” she said, “and they probably take turns while one of them rides the range. The one we met is no doubt on watch here now, and is about the place somewhere. Come, Percy dear, I will let you take this nice new flashlight; won’t you lead the way into the cellar?”

It was plain to the girls that the task was not to Percy’s liking, but when they laughed at him he braced up and made a show of courage.

With quaking hearts, it must be confessed, they found a door leading into the cellar. Once at the bottom, they huddled close together.

“I suppose we were awful fools to come here alone,” Josephine remarked, jumping nervously at the sound of her own voice; it sounded strange and hollow to her in the long cellar. “Now that we’re here we’ll see it through. I remember Sir Jack telling that there was a button or knot that he pushed, and lo! a door opened into the secret passage. I suppose they have the passage sealed up, but I am going to see for myself just the same. Here, Percy, let me take that light, your face is white as a sheet and your hand is trembling. Brace up, man.”

Josephine took the light and led the way, the others following cautiously. They had not proceeded far when Josephine stopped short in a listening attitude.

For the first time, Ethel saw that she was carrying a revolver in one hand.

“What is it?” Ethel whispered anxiously, and her knees shook in spite of her.

“I thought that I heard a sound like an engine motor,” Josephine answered joyously.

Distinctly the sound of a motor came to their ears, each moment growing louder until the sound developed into a continuous roar.

“Hurrah,” Josephine cried, unable to suppress her delight. “Sir Jack is coming.”

The next instant a heavy hand was clasped over her mouth and a voice hissed in her ear:

“Keep silent, or you die!”

Josephine screamed and discharged her revolver. She heard a shout and an answering shot and she was sure that if it was Mason, he had heard her fire the shot and was coming to their assistance.

The revolver was knocked out of her hand before she could fire another shot, and she was grasped in the arms of her assailant and carried she knew not where. She knew that Ethel had fainted as she had seen her body sink limply to the floor, while Percy was struggling in the hands of two men.