Part 16 (2/2)
CHAPTER XIV.
Another Surprise
The desolation on all sides of them and the failure to locate the marks Allen had mentioned caused Paul and Chet to become much downcast. They had had their long and tedious journey from the ranch home for nothing.
”I suppose there isn't anything to do but to go back,” remarked Chet dismally, as he thrashed around in the brush with a stick he had picked up. ”We are as far away from the mine as we were when we started.”
”Let us be in no hurry to return,” rejoined Paul. ”We'll give Rush a chance to get back his wind.”
Leaving the trusty animal to roam about as pleased him, the two boys threw themselves on the gra.s.s and gave themselves up to their reflections.
”I'll tell you what I would like to do,” remarked Chet. ”I would like to find the chap who cleaned us out of that seven hundred dollars.”
”I wonder that Allen didn't get Watson to stop the horse thieves and search them,” mused Paul. ”He must have known they had the money.”
”He was too played out to think of much just then, I reckon. It was a good deal to escape with the horses without getting shot.”
”The cross we found in the barn belonged to that Saul Mangle beyond a doubt. The initials prove that.”
”I believe you.”
”We must watch out for that Mangle, and if we can ever get our hands on him, make him give up our money and then have him locked up.”
”It is not so easy to lock up a man when you are miles and miles away from a jail.”
An hour went by, and the boys thought it time to start on the return.
Rush was called back from a thicket into which he had wandered and both mounted, for the trail now lead almost entirely down hill.
After the cyclone the sun had come out strong and hot, and halfway back to the ranch the brothers were glad enough to stop beside the bank of a tiny mountain stream and obtain a drink and water the horse.
They were about to depart when Rush p.r.i.c.ked up his ears and gave a peculiar whinny.
”Hus.h.!.+ What does that mean?” Paul asked in quick alarm.
”Draw behind the brush and see,” replied Chet, cautiously. ”Those horse thieves may be still in the vicinity.”
”Oh, they would not remain here,” said Paul.
Yet he followed his brother behind the brush. They tried to make Rush come, too, but for once the animal would not obey.
”Come, Rush, come,” whispered Chet. ”Why he never acted this way before.”
”The cyclone upset his mind, I reckon,” said Paul, with a faint show of humor. ”Make him come.”
But the more Chet tried the more obstinate did the animal become.
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