Part 21 (1/2)
”Not much danger, I guess,” Bud remarked. ”This jinx seems to be pa.s.sing us up. Guess it got tired of the way we came back at it.
Well, I'll go over the first thing in the morning and next day you can begin to round up and cut out.”
”When'll you be back?” Nort asked his cousin when Bud slung his leg over the saddle next morning. The two Shannon boys were to be busy at some duties about the ranch during their cousin's absence.
”Oh, I'll be back by noon,” was the answer.
So Bud rode away, singing the Cowboy's Lament, and idly flipping the end of his lariat.
Noon came almost before Nort and d.i.c.k realized it, so busy were they, and when Fah Moo cried: ”Klum an' glit it!” which was the signal for dinner, Nort exclaimed:
”Bud isn't back yet!”
”No,” said d.i.c.k. ”Maybe he found the herd farther off than he counted on. But he'll be along before we finish.”
However, Bud did not show up, and when all the cowboys had eaten, and the afternoon began to wane without the return of the ranch owner's son, his cousins looked at each other with anxious faces.
”Where do you reckon he is?” asked d.i.c.k.
”That's hard to say, but----”
”Say, let's ride out that way!” interrupted d.i.c.k. ”We've finished here and----”
He did not complete the sentence, but his brother knew what was implied. Accordingly a little later, saying nothing to the other hands, the two saddled their ponies and started out on the trail to that part of the ranch situated near Smugglers' Glen, where the original bunch of cattle were grazing.
”I don't like this disappearance on Bud's part,” said Nort, as they rode along.
”Is it a disappearance?” asked d.i.c.k, pointedly.
”What else is it? He hasn't come back.”
To this d.i.c.k returned no answer, but there were anxious looks on the faces of the boy ranchers as they urged their ponies forward.
CHAPTER XV
THE SEARCH
Pleasant enough it was, riding over the sunlit, undulating broad stretches of the range, and d.i.c.k and Nort would have thoroughly enjoyed it had it not been for the nature of their errand. Had Bud been with them they would probably have ”whooped it up” with joyous, care-free exuberance. But now they were rather solemn, not to say glum.
d.i.c.k, noticing that his brother rode along with his eyes bent on the ground just ahead of the pony, inquired:
”What are you looking for--lost something?”
”No. But I was thinking about the possibility of poison weed and I thought maybe I could spot it before anything happened.”
”I don't take much stock in that poison weed theory,” said d.i.c.k.
”No? What do you think caused the deaths?”
”Hanged if I know! I'm more concerned, right now, with finding out what's keeping Bud away.”
”Well, that's why I was sort of looking for this weed--if there is such a thing.”