Part 29 (1/2)

”Boy howdy! I can't hardly believe it!” shouted Yellin' Kid. ”First time I was ever on a ranch that developed gold!”

”It's the first for me, too,” said Bud.

”What's the best thing to do?” asked Nort, of no one in particular.

”Hadn't the boss better file a claim of discovery?” suggested a cowboy who said he had once lived in California.

”He don't need to file nothin'!” declared Billee. ”This gold is found on Mr. Merkel's land. Everything on the land is hissen. He can work the gold mine same as he can his cattle ranges.”

That seemed to be the consensus of opinion and it was decided that all remaining to be done was to inform Bud's father of the discovery, start to work the claim and take the profit.

”And clean out them rascals!” added Billee.

”Oh, sure!” agreed Bud. ”It's queer, though,” he went on as he flashed his light about the cave, ”that if gold has been here since the beginning, as it must have, that the secret of it only just now got out. And if the gang that's been working this mine has been shooting out poison gas to keep people away from here, why didn't some rumor of this gold strike filter out before?”

”There's something wrong,” declared Billee. ”I don't believe the deaths that took place in this here valley, from the time I knowed about 'em, had anything to do with this gold cave. I'm sure they didn't. And, what's more, this claim has only been worked recent like.

You can tell that by the fresh marks of the digging.”

This was plain to all, and the more they thought of it the more of a puzzle it was. Clearly poison gas, if such it was, had only recently been used to guard the approach to the cave. What, then, was the explanation of the former mysterious deaths?

But the boys and their friends were so excited over the discovery of the yellow metal that they gave little heed to this phase of the matter. All the talk had to do with getting out the ore and finding how much it a.s.sayed to the ton.

”But we can't let the cattle business slide; can we?” asked d.i.c.k, as he and most of the others prepared to depart. A guard was to be left in the cave, and sufficient food and supplies would be sent them to enable them to remain on constant duty.

”Oh, no, we won't give up the cattle business,” decided Bud. ”We'll work that and the mine, too.”

Mr. Merkel was duly astonished when, that night, his son succeeded in getting in touch with him over the long-distance telephone from Los Pompan. Bud found a booth to talk from which insured his conversation not being broadcast in the town. If news of the gold strike got out it might mean a rush. Not that any land around the gulch or cave could be preempted by others, for it was all on Mr. Merkel's ranch. But not everybody would respect his property rights and there might be trouble.

”Are you sure it's gold, son?” asked the ranchman over the wire.

”Why of course it is, Dad. What else could it be?”

”I don't know. But I'm going to make sure before I start a torch-light procession. I'll send you out a good mining man. Don't do anything until he arrives, and keep your s.h.i.+rts on--all of you.”

”All right, Dad. I know what you mean. We won't broadcast it.”

”Better not. There might be a slip-up, you know.”

”I don't see how there can be, but we'll keep it mum.”

Busy days followed at Dot and Dash. While the cattle business was not pa.s.sed up, Bud and his cousins devoted all their time to the discovery in the cave, and let the new cowboys attend to the s.h.i.+pping and care of the cattle. Some of the yellow ore was dug out and taken to the ranch house to await the arrival of the mining expert. Meanwhile it was carefully guarded.

Covering several days a careful exploration of the cave had been made without discovering any of the enemy. There were several exits from the cavern, and it was surmised that the ”gas gang,” as they were dubbed, had escaped by one of these.

”But as long as they're gone, we haven't anything to worry about,” said Bud. ”We're sitting pretty now.”

”Nothing to worry about,” added Nort.

”And I guess we won't find any more dead cattle,” said d.i.c.k. ”It must have been some of the gas they were experimenting with that killed the cows and Sam's horse.”