Part 34 (1/2)
”All right?” sang back Tad.
”Yes.”
The boy unwound the rope from his saddle pommel and casting the end from him, rode back and dismounted. Yes, he had caught a cowman, but the fellow sullenly refused to answer a question that was put to him.
The prisoner was glaring up at him with eyes so full of malignant hate that Tad instinctively shrank back.
”Know him!” asked Mr. Simms sharply.
”Not by name. He's one of the men I saw over at the Corners. He was the worst one of the lot, except the boy they called Bob.”
No amount of questioning, however, would draw the fellow out. They had bound him hand and foot and straightened up to view their work.
”There's no use in wasting time,” decided Mr. Simms. ”Drag him over to my tent and throw him in. Did you hear anybody besides this man?”
Tad told him about the owl calls. The rancher pondered a few seconds.
”That sounds to me more like an Indian trick. But I am satisfied we are going to be attacked tonight. You had better go back to your post. Can you find the way?”
”Yes, I think so,” answered the lad.
”Boy, you've done a great piece of work. I'll talk with you about it when we have more time. I must hurry out and find Luke. The rest of you stick by the camp until you know that the cowmen are here; then sail in. There'll likely be some shooting.”
”Any further instructions?” asked Tad, bunching the reins in his hand preparatory to mounting.
”Nothing. That is, unless you find you can rope some more of these cayuses. I'd like to have them all tied up here for a while. I've got a few things to say to them. They'd have to listen whether they wanted to or not if they were all in the same fix that fellow is,”
he added with a short, mirthless laugh.
Tad swung himself into the saddle, first having coiled his rope and hung it in its place.
”Good-bye,” he sang out, starting out at a gallop and disappearing in the night.
As Tad drew near the scene of his recent experience, he slowed the pony down to a walk, moving on with extreme caution. He did not want to fall into the trap that the cowboy had only a short time before.
After groping about in the darkness some time, he finally came upon the very tree that had sheltered him before.
Tad uttered a low exclamation of satisfaction, once more taking up his position under its spreading branches. He had been there but a short time when the foreman rode up, giving a low whistle so that the boy would know who it was.
”Anything develop?”
”Yes.”
”What?”
Tad told him briefly of the capture of the cowboy.
”Good boy,” glowed Luke, reaching over and slapping Tad on the back approvingly. ”I guess we made no mistake in giving you this post. But there's not likely to be any more of them come through this way. I am going to send you down nearer the center. We are going to have all the fun we want before morning. So I wish you would move down nearer the herd. When the racket begins, if it does, we shall need all the sheepmen to help drive off the raiders. You will relieve one of them and look after the sheep. I have told your friend Ned the same thing. He's down there now.”