Part 7 (1/2)
”Well, all serene so far,” observed Bud, as night settled down on them in their new environment.
”Yes, I don't reckon we'll be disturbed,” observed Billee, who was there with them.
”It'll give me a chance to pick up, an' get back in th' saddle again,”
observed Yellin' Kid in his usual loud voice. He had been allowed to form part of the ”fort” guard, as it was thought the duties there would not be strenuous for a while, at least, and he could make a better recovery than at Diamond X.
”Well, it's a good place for a fight, if one comes,” said Nort, as he looked about the place. It readily lent itself well to fortification, and advantage had been taken of this by Mr. Merkel. The rough shack was an outpost fort in the land that was destined to be battled for by the sheep men on one side and the cattle men on the other.
Quiet evening was settling down, ”grub” had been served and the ponies were rubbing noses in the improvised corral when Yellin' Kid, who was venturing to walk around a little to ”exercise his game leg,” as he expressed it, came to a halt and gazed earnestly across Spur Creek in the direction of Mexico distant several miles.
”What is it, Kid?” asked Billee, who was smoking his pipe.
”Somebody's comin',” was the answer, ”an' he's sweatin' leather,” which meant that he was riding fast.
The boy ranchers looked in the direction indicated. A lone horseman was approaching from the side of the creek where the enemy might be expected first to appear.
CHAPTER VI
THE ALARM
Gathered in front of their ”fort,” as it laughingly had been christened, the boy ranchers and their cow puncher comrades watched the approach of the lone horseman. He had come up through the valley--the pa.s.s that, like the neck of a bag tied about the middle with a string, connected two great lands--Mexico and the United States. But one land represented law and order to a degree, while the other was woefully lacking in these essentials to progress.
For a time the stranger rode on at the fast pace Yellin' Kid had at first observed, and the atmosphere was so clear that his progress was easily noticed without gla.s.ses, though Bud brought out a pair after a moment or two.
Then, suddenly, the approaching horseman seemed to become aware, for the first time, of the new structure at Spur Creek--the ”fort” of Diamond X.
For he began to slacken his pace and when a quarter of a mile from the place where Mr. Merkel had determined to make a stand, the horseman pulled up his steed. Then he sat in the saddle and gazed long and earnestly at the shack and those who stood grouped in front of it.
”Look out!” suddenly cried Bud, who was watching the horseman through the gla.s.ses. ”He's going to draw!”
This meant gun play, and the cowboys realized this, for they lost no time in ”ducking” behind shelter. Bud, too, was taking no chances, but as he continued to look, from a vantage point, he said:
”I made a mistake. He's only using gla.s.ses, same as I am. He didn't pull a gun.”
”Who is he?” asked Nort.
”Anybody we know?” d.i.c.k inquired.
”Never saw him before, to my knowledge,” remarked Bud. ”He's a Mexican or a Greaser, I take it.” These terms were almost synonymous, except that a Mexican was a little higher cla.s.s than a Greaser half-breed, as the term, was sometimes applied.
”Let me take a look,” suggested Yellin' Kid. ”I know most of the cla.s.s on the other side of the Rio Grande.”
Long and earnestly the cowboy gazed through the gla.s.ses at the lone figure on the other side of Spur Creek--a gaze that was returned with interest, so to speak.
”He's Mex all right,” said Yellin' Kid, handing the gla.s.ses to Billee, ”but what his game is I don't know.”
”Looks like he just came to size us up,” observed Billee, after an observation, at the conclusion of which the stranger turned his horse and rode slowly off in the direction whence he had come.