Part 19 (1/2)

Merkel know what was about to happen--that the dreaded sheep had come and might soon overrun the open range he claimed as his own property.

Also help was needed--more cowboys to hold the fort--and it was risky to depend on the broken telephone for summoning them.

So Nort was intrusted with the work of carrying the unwelcome news and of bringing up reinforcements.

Meanwhile Bud and d.i.c.k would do their best to find and repair the break, and Snake and Yellin' Kid would be on guard at Spur Creek. As Kid had said, there was little danger of the sheep men bringing up their woolly charges before dark, and after that not much could be done in the way of crossing the river, if, as Bud had said, there was no ford at this place, and the danger of quicksands further to keep unwelcome visitors on the Mexican side of the stream.

”Well, I'll see you when I get back,” remarked Nort as he rode off with a wave of his hand to his brother cousin and the two remaining cowboys.

”Think you'll make it to-night?” asked d.i.c.k.

”I don't see why I can't,” was the answer. ”If there's going to be a fight in the morning you'll want help here. And if the other boys ride back from Diamond X I'll be with 'em.”

”Oh, the boys will be ridin' back all right, as soon as they hear there's a prospect of a fight!” chuckled Kid.

”You said it!” added Snake.

Pausing to watch Nort ride off on his mission of carrying news and summoning help, and taking another look at the still approaching cloud of dust that betokened the flock of sheep, Bud and d.i.c.k rode along the back trail, following the telephone line.

As has been said, the wire was not cut near the cabin. It could be seen, a tiny line against the clear, blue sky, stretching its slender length on top of the poles.

”They were too cute to cut it near the shack. They figured we wouldn't notice it for a long time, maybe, and they'd have a chance to get up closer,” said d.i.c.k.

”You mean the sheep herders?” asked Bud.

”Sure! Who else?” asked his cousin. ”You reckon it was them that cut the wire, don't you?”

”Don't know's I thought much about it, but, now that I have, why, of course, they did it,” Bud agreed. ”Unless it was the cattle rustlers,”

he added.

”You mean the ones we just had a fight with?”

”That's who.”

”No, I don't reckon they did,” d.i.c.k remarked. ”In the first place we licked 'em pretty badly. They scattered, I'm sure, and they didn't head in this direction. And what good would it do 'em just to cut a wire after we'd gotten the cattle away from 'em?”

”Oh, general meanness, that's all,” answered Bud.

”They wouldn't do that out of spite and run the risk of being caught--not after what happened to 'em,” declared d.i.c.k, and Bud answered:

”Well, maybe you're right.”

Then they rode along in silence for a while, making sure, as they progressed, that they did not pa.s.s a break in the telephone line. The thin copper conductor was intact as they could see.

”They must have gone about half way back--between the creek and our ranch, and snipped the wire there,” said Bud, after a period of silence.

”I reckon so,” agreed d.i.c.k. ”That would be what we'd do if we had it to do; wouldn't we?”

”Why?”

”Because we'd want the break to come as far away as possible from either end, to make it take longer to find and mend it.”