Kitabı oku: «Mason of Bar X Ranch», sayfa 14
“Why all these warlike preparations?” he queried, noticing the bristling guns of the cowboys. “Looks like I had dropped into a fighting man’s country for fair.”
“I’ll explain the whole business to you when we get to the house and you have had some refreshments,” Mason answered.
“Hang the refreshments,” Roy growled, with another puzzled look at the cowboys with their revolvers and saddle guns.
At the house, after having been introduced all around, he surprised Mason by asking him if there was a dark room in the house.
“No,” the latter answered with a blank look, “but I think we could rig you up one.”
“Friends,” the aviator said with a look into their anxious faces, “I can see that you are in some kind of trouble, and from a hint that my friend Mason dropped, I think I can help you out. Just rig me up that dark room, Jack, and I will show you something that will surprise you.”
“There is a small closet in my room and you can use it,” Mason said quickly.
Taking the mysterious black tank with him the aviator left them and was in the room for a half hour. When he came out he held a number of films in his hands.
“Before I join these films together,” he said to his mystified audience, “I want to tell you of a little incident that happened to me this morning. Starting from a town about a hundred miles from here, and depending entirely on my compass, for I had no idea where the Bar X ranch lay, I crossed the railroad track at a point fifty miles below here.
“If you remember, there was a slight mist this morning, making it difficult to distinguish objects unless I flew quite low. Knowing I had a good supply of gasoline I opened the engine up wide and flew at a high altitude and drifted aimlessly in the hope that the mist would soon clear away.
“My wish was soon granted, but, to my surprise, I found myself flying over your wonderful mountains and hopelessly lost. Bringing the airplane around, I determined to cruise in the opposite direction.
“Flying at a lower altitude, I was surprised to see a group of men directly under me. The place was an ideal spot to land, and shutting off the engine I began to make spirals, at the same time taking this series of films you see in my hand.
“One of the men commenced to fire a revolver at me, and thinking it wouldn’t be healthy to land among them, I started my engine. After much difficulty, I succeeded in reaching this ranch. I didn’t know what ranch it was, but for once I was lucky.”
The aviator joined the films together and held them out to their startled eyes. It was a complete picture of the counterfeiter’s retreat in the mountains and showed the two girl prisoners!
“This is wonderful,” the Marshal exclaimed. “Bud, do you think you have a man that can locate this place?”
“I know right where it is,” Bud replied, breathing heavily. “It is dead easy to find, but hard to get at. It can be taken all right, but if we force the position, they are sure to kill the girls.”
Mason was making a close examination of the films.
A semicircle of rock showed plainly, and as near as he could judge, about two hundred yards back from this semicircle there was a flat table rock, backed by a cliff that rose hundreds of feet in the air.
A cabin, showing the two girls outside looking up at the sky, was plainly visible.
Mason called Bud over to him.
“Bud, you say you know where this place is?” he questioned him.
The latter nodded.
“And the only point of attack is this semicircle of rock,” Mason continued, “and if we rush that point there is nothing to prevent Ricker from killing the girls before we could get to them.”
“That’s just the way I figure it out,” Bud agreed.
“Well, I have a plan that has a chance of success,” Mason said grimly. “If we should pay those cutthroats the money they demand, we are not sure they will keep their word about delivering the prisoners safely to us. We have just got to go in and get them.
“My plan is to dynamite this semicircle of rock, then rush in and get the girls before Ricker’s men can recover from their surprise. They are sure to guard that point every minute. Let me have Scotty to draw their fire while I lay the blasting charge. They know what a reckless daredevil Scotty is and as I will keep out of sight they will think he is attacking them single-handed, and they will all be busy trying to pick him off. When the blasting charge goes off you can rush the position and capture them before they recover from their surprise.”
“That’s a good plan, lad,” the Marshal said with an approving glance at him. “We will arrange to arrive at their mountain retreat at five o’clock tomorrow morning. It won’t do to make the attack at night, for if anything went wrong they could kill the prisoners before we knew it. I’ll send Jean Barry to the Ricker ranch with my automobile, and have Big Joe get all the men together. Our party will join them there in time to reach the counterfeiter’s stronghold by five o’clock to-morrow morning.”
“Jack, have the cowboys take their horses along with them to the ranch, and I will take you there in my airplane,” Roy cut in.
Mason looked at his watch.
“That will be fine,” he said. “It is just one P.M. and I won’t have to start from here until about five o’clock if I go by airplane. We are all to meet at the Ricker ranch and make a start from there some time during the night. The Marshal and Bud have the trip timed so we will reach the counterfeiter’s stronghold early in the morning and take them by surprise.”
Mason and Roy laid a plan for the latter to be in the vicinity of the mountain retreat, and after Mason had set off the explosive charge and a successful rescue was accomplished, Roy was to carry the glad news by airplane to the girls’ anxious parents.
They put in some of the time going over the airplane and getting it in order. The Marshal and Bud had left with the last cowboys, and at five o’clock Mason and Roy started their flight. In a short time they had overtaken and passed the Marshal’s riders.
Arriving at the Ricker ranch they made a safe landing and immediately turned in to get a little rest.
Mason’s sleep was fitful, and he was glad when aroused by the Marshal and told that the hour had struck.
The dynamite with wire and a battery was given to him, and Scotty was carefully rehearsed in the part he was to play. The moon was shining as the grim riders formed and set out rapidly for the foothills. Sunrise found them concealed at the base of the outlaws’ stronghold.
Mason and Scotty began their perilous climb to the semicircle of rock. It was thought to be utterly impossible to approach closer than a hundred yards to the stronghold without being challenged by the guards. It was the brave Scot’s duty to open fire the minute he was challenged and attract the outlaws’ attention while Mason was to crawl to a position where he could place the charge of dynamite to the best advantage.
When the charge was planted he was to set it off, while the Marshal was to hurl his men on the outlaws before they could recover from their surprise.
They had climbed to within seventy-five yards of the strongly guarded point, when a sharp command to halt rang out. Scotty recklessly exposed himself to view for an instant and received a bullet through the crown of his hat. Flattening his body against the rocks, he opened a hot fire in reply. Mason continued to crawl ahead fast, but cautiously, working slightly around to the right. The outlaws sent a hail of bullets down past Scotty, which the Scot returned with interest, still keeping up his pretense of attack.
Mason worked up so close that he could see the outlaws answering Scotty’s shots with their rifles. He carefully placed the dynamite charge and dropped swiftly down the ledge with wire and battery. At a safe distance from the deadly charge he turned the switch of the battery. A tremendous explosion followed.
Amid falling rocks, Scotty came racing over to him, and together they scrambled up the cliff and into the outlaws’ stronghold.
The outlaws were wild with excitement and Jim Haley was trying to rally them when a bullet from Scotty’s gun put him out of action.
Mason and Scotty dropped down behind a rock just as a volley of bullets whistled over their heads.
Ricker rallied his men and firing rapidly he gave a yell of defiance. Seeing that he had but two men behind the rock to deal with, he called to his men and they started to rush in upon them.
Pieces of rock and dirt were filling the eyes of Mason and Scotty as they crouched behind the rock and their position was getting perilous as they couldn’t return the fire without exposing themselves.
As the outlaws charged across the open, a bullet caught Ricker in the side and he reeled, his gun in the air.
Bud and Trent Burton were in the fight and the latter had cut loose with his deadly automatics!
Sorely wounded, the counterfeiter turned and bringing his gun down, emptied it point blank at his hated foe. Trent Burton’s guns were trained on him and were spitting a steady stream of lead.
The counterfeiter’s knees began to sag and his shots went wild. Josephine and Ethel stood at the cabin door, their faces white with fear.
Overhead, Roy’s airplane motor was humming in harmony with the cracking of the guns. Mason stood up from behind the rock as he saw the halfbreed Mexican start with a yell toward the girls’ cabin.
Mason shouted a warning to the girls and turned his smoking gun on the halfbreed. At the third shot the Mexican fell, and Mason rushed over and clasped his sister in his arms.
When the fight was over, Percy was found tied securely in the outlaws’ cabin.
Ricker was dying and Jim Haley and Nick Cover were severely wounded. The Mexican was brought into the outlaws’ cabin and breathed his last while Trent Burton was examining his wound.
The Marshal arranged to have Mason and Bud leave at once with the girls, and when they arrived at the Ricker ranch, Mason was to take the Marshal’s automobile and drive them to Bar X ranch.
“Some round-up,” the Marshal observed to Bud as they parted. “I wanted to take Ricker alive, but he was trying to get me, so it was his life or mine.”
“Yes, and I had to pin Spot Wells just as he was drawing a bead on Scotty,” Bud replied regretfully.
CHAPTER XX – SILVER SKIES
The trip to the Ricker ranch was uneventful, the girls maintaining a tired silence. They had passed through an ordeal that would have tried the nerves of strong men. At the ranch, Mason hastily got the Marshal’s car ready and they started for the ride home. Bud insisted on remaining at the Ricker ranch to look after the men and prisoners when they came in.
Mason drove at a moderate speed, and gradually the girls came out of their listless mood.
“Cheer up,” Mason said gaily, “I’ll soon have you home right side up with care, and you will get a grand welcome, I can assure you. Roy, the aviator, flew home with the good news as soon as he found out that we had made your rescue, and it would be just like him to come sailing back this way any minute.”
“You’re very good to us,” Josephine murmured, leaning back in the seat with a tired sigh.
He glanced at them quizzically.
“What you girls need is a good rest to-night and you will be all right in the morning,” he said, compassionately.
Halfway to the ranch they saw the daring aviator heading towards them. The birdman was flying at a dizzy height and when directly over them he went into a series of loops after which he banked the airplane sharply and continued along with them to the ranch. It would be useless to try to describe the joy of the girls’ anxious parents when they found them safe in their arms.
In the evening, Bud came in with Percy Vanderpool and the cowboys. Jean Barry the deputy had come with them to run the Marshal’s car back to the Ricker ranch. The Marshal was to remain at the ranch until the wounded prisoners could be moved. He would then lodge them in jail and return East to an important criminal case. He sent hearty congratulations to the girls on their timely escape from the outlaws, and promised to visit Bar X again in the near future.
The next day Mason was kept busy about the ranch until noon. Roy had just returned from a flight to Trader’s Post and brought back a message for Mason. It was from his father, saying he was coming to take his mother and sister home.
The news that his father was coming to Bar X ranch pleased him immensely, and he hastened to break the news to his mother and sister.
His mother seemed glad, but Ethel’s face clouded when she heard her father was coming.
“What’s the matter, sis?” he cried in wonder. “Don’t you want to go home?”
“Of course not,” she answered in a vexed tone. “Why, I have been here scarcely a month, and it is much more pleasant out here this time of the year than in a stuffy city.”
“Well, you can take the matter up with Dad when he comes,” he said briefly, starting for the door. “Roy is going to take me to Trader’s Post to see if they have got my car repaired.”
Josephine had just entered the room and he paused, with his hand on the door knob. She was dressed in a stunning creation of champagne silk and he gazed at her in silent admiration.
“How do you like my new dress, Sir Jack?” she asked, making him a curtsy. “My, but you are a busy man. I am going to play lady for a few days, and I intended to ask you to take me down to Rover’s kennel. Father tells me the poor dog has been acting sick lately, and I want to see if there is anything I can do for him.”
“Certainly I’ll go with you,” he answered readily; “I will tell Roy not to wait for me and will join you in a minute.”
Roy agreed to make the trip alone, and when Mason arrived at the kennel, Josephine was bending over Rover. The dog was frisking around her and joyously barking a welcome.
“There’s nothing the matter with Rover, he’s merely lonesome to see you,” he said.
They had taken seats on a rustic bench between two cottonwood trees. Josephine was fondly watching the dog’s antics.
“Oh, I am so glad there is nothing the matter with him. He was the means of saving my life once, you know.”
“That time, I remember well,” he answered, a feeling of gloom stealing over him.
He was thinking of her deep concern over Bud’s injury when she was rescued from the brute Tom Powers.
“I suppose you would have been better pleased yesterday if Bud had been the one to rescue you,” he said, a little ungallantly.
“What makes you think that?” her face was averted from him.
“Well, you love him, don’t you?” he put the question bluntly.
Josephine was silent and he relentlessly repeated his question.
“No, I – I – love some one else,” the girl faltered at last.
His breath came in quick gasps.
“I don’t suppose I have the right to know, but is it one of the Gaylor boys you love?”
“No.”
“Well, is it anybody I know?”
“Yes, and he’s an awful thickhead, but – I – I-love – him just the same.”
He turned away in irritation.
“Well, I should think a girl of your intellect would pick out a man with brains, anyway,” he said wrathfully.
“I – I – have, but – at times, he’s such a fool.”
He turned slowly and looked at her in exasperation. The girl’s head had sunk forward, and he heard her sobbing softly.
“Josephine!”
Quickly he bent over her and raised her face to his as he gathered her in his arms. Her eyes were shining through her tears like beautiful stars, and he saw a light in them that thrilled him. He kissed away the tears as she lay quiet and passive in his arms.
“Josephine, you love me?” he whispered in wondering delight.
“Silly boy,” she managed to gasp, “I have loved you from the first time we met. Now, unhand me, you villain. Here come Ethel and Bud and they will see us.”
“I don’t care,” he said recklessly, holding her fast. “Anyway, they are going into the house.”
“You received a message from your father about noon time?” she asked dreamily.
“Yes.”
“I’ll be very much pleased to meet him. I wonder if he will like me?”
“The idea! Of course he will. How can he possibly help liking you?”
“Well Sir Jack, just because you like me, that’s no sign everybody else will,” she said demurely.
“Why, you’ll be winding Dad around your little finger in less than thirty minutes after he gets here, and I’ll bet my life on it.”
“Say,” he added, “do you know that Ethel is crazy about this part of the country and doesn’t want to go back home with Dad?”
“Don’t you know the reason?”
“Reason,” he echoed.
“It’s Bud,” she said simply.
“Bud,” he cried in bewilderment. “Do you mean to tell me that Ethel is in love with Bud Anderson?”
“Yes, but I don’t see any harm in that, Bud is a fine fellow.”
“I know,” he said thoughtfully. “Lord, but it will be a shock to Dad. Josephine, I just happened to think of something. Why did you draw the picture of that butterfly on the envelope Rick sent through to me?”
“I wrote that letter right after Roy’s airplane appeared to us, and I was going to draw a picture of the airplane, but Ricker stood over me and I didn’t dare to. He even wanted to know what the butterfly meant, and I told him that it was a sign between us so you would know the letter was written by me. You see I was trying to let you know that we had seen Roy’s airplane, and I knew you were expecting him out here. We gave up hope of Roy finding you as we thought he was lost in the mountains.”
“He was lost in the mountains, but he found us all right, and later I will tell you all about it,” he said, looking fondly at her. “I was sure that butterfly meant something, but couldn’t figure it out. You little beauty, when Dad comes I am going to take you to New York and we will get married there. Would you be willing to leave your home here, and live with me in New York?”
Roy was returning in his airplane, and right over them he began making loops and hair raising nose dives, finally going into a tail spin.
Josephine watched him breathlessly until Mason repeated his question.
“I would like very much to live in New York, if I thought I could get along with your father,” she answered naively. “Sir Jack, I want you to make me a promise. Please don’t go up in that airplane again. If Roy wants to risk his neck, I’m sure I don’t want you to risk yours.”
“All right,” he laughed, “I promise, so you see we will get along famously.”
Josephine smiled contentedly.
“And another thing,” she said, eyeing him seriously. “I will want to have my saddle horse, Fleet, and my dog, Rover, with me if I live in New York. I never could leave them here and be happy.”
“I will have them shipped along with us when we go,” he declared, “and I am going to buy you a nice white chummy roadster car when we get home and you can drive it all by yourself.”
“That won’t be any fun unless you go with me,” she pouted.
“Oh, I will be with you so much that you will be glad to get rid of me once in a while.”
She voiced a quick protest.
“Let’s go into the house and tell the people,” he cried boyishly.
They went in and Mason directly looked up Josephine’s father and received his hearty consent to giving his daughter’s hand in marriage, but when he told him he intended to take her to New York to live, the old man almost broke down.
In the meantime, Ethel informed her mother and Josephine that she was engaged to marry Bud Anderson. The two girls planned on a double wedding in New York, after which Bud was to take his bride back to Nevada.
A week later Mason’s father arrived, and the first thing his son did was to take him with his mother and sister into a room, where he told him all about the events leading up to Ricker’s death, and a general account of all the counterfeiter’s plots and the final round-up of the outlaw gang. He saved the fact about his own and Ethel’s coming marriage until the last, and then he waited patiently for the explosion he knew would follow. At this latest news, his father looked blankly first at his wife, then at son and daughter.
“Huh,” he snorted, after he had recovered from his surprise. “Things must move pretty rapidly in this part of the country. Wait until I see Tom Walters and have a talk with him. Then I will give you my opinion on the subject.”
The banker stalked into the ranch owner’s office and the two held a consultation behind closed doors.
Josephine was working in the kitchen, but she had heard the banker voice his sentiment. Mason joined her and saw a troubled look in her eyes.
“My, such a bear,” she said gravely, “how will I ever get along with him?”
“That is just Dad’s way,” he replied earnestly. “Dad was brought up in the old school, and never does things by halves. Don’t worry, sweetheart, I have enough money in my own right, left me by an aunt of mine. I shall marry you in spite of him, but you will have Dad eating out of your hand after he sees you.”
Josephine could hear her father and the banker chuckling over old times like two schoolboys, and her face brightened as she listened.
“Dad is all right and you will soon get used to his bluff ways,” Mason insisted, leading her into the parlor.
Soon, the two men came out of the office, and Mason immediately presented Josephine to his father.
“So this is Josephine,” the banker said kindly; “my son has written me often about you, and I see where I gain a daughter and lose one.”
In the afternoon they made up a party and showed the elder Mason around the ranch grounds, Josephine taking special charge of him. Afterwards, to Mason, Jr., she confided that he was a dear old man. Mason grinned knowingly, and laughed at her for her former fears.
“Why, I will be a regular outlaw between you and Dad when we get home,” he said in mock alarm.
Roy had already left in his airplane for New York, after first seeing that Mason’s car had been packed and shipped. He had promised to attend the double wedding in New York, and that night Josephine and Mason made plans for the trip East.
The ranch was to be left in charge of Big Joe as he was the acting foreman in Bud’s absence. Josephine and Ethel’s parents completed all the arrangements for leaving the ranch in Big Joe’s charge. The cowboys who were to go East with the party were Scotty, Red, Buck Miller and Tex. Waneda was to go and act as Josephine’s bridesmaid, and all looked forward to the event with great eagerness. Bud had arranged to buy the Ricker ranch where he would live with his bride after their return from New York.
Three days later it was a merry party that boarded a train for the East. The cowboys insisted on wearing their cowboy suits, but each had brought along extra clothes so they could doll up at the wedding.
When the merry party finally arrived in New York they were whisked away from the station in taxicabs to the Mason home on Fifth Avenue. They had arrived in the city at nine P.M. so the cowboys had a chance to see a little of the city with its wonderful dazzling lights. The double wedding was set for the following night, and after their arrival at the Mason home, Mason, Jr., retained two of the taxicabs and gave the drivers instructions to drive the cowboys around the city to any place they wished to go, even if they took all night about it.
Buck Miller had been to New York on several different occasions, and Mason pressed a roll of money into his hands.
“This is my treat, boys, and I want you to have a good time,” he said earnestly; “this taxicab firm is reliable, so you don’t need to fear any trouble from that source, but for the love of Mike, don’t try to shoot the town up.”
He then gave the drivers some orders as to their passengers after which they looked the cowboys over with respect and awe.
“Looks like we had a man’s sized job on our hands to-night, boss,” one of them said, again looking at the cowboys dubiously.
“Just show the boys around and report to me by telephone if anything should happen,” he advised them.
Mason was up bright and early the next morning and called up Roy the aviator, on the telephone. Roy was to be his best man at the wedding, and the aviator agreed to come promptly at seven P.M. as the wedding was set for eight o’clock. Bud was to have Buck Miller act as his best man, and he was getting decidedly nervous as the cowboys had not shown up.
Josephine was to have Waneda act as her bridesmaid, while Ethel had arranged to have one of her girl friends act as hers. About nine o’clock in the morning, it was a tired bunch of cowpunchers that came trooping in, but they declared they had had a grand time, so Mason packed them off to their rooms to get rested up for the evening.
At six o’clock he called them, and laughed heartily as he watched their desperate efforts to struggle into their Sunday clothes. Roy had arrived ahead of time and was laughing and joking with Buck Miller who looked hot and uncomfortable in a new suit.
Percy Vanderpool was there too, and decked out in his usual gorgeous style.
The minister having arrived, the double wedding was performed with simple ceremony. A banquet followed, and Mason made a speech to the cowboys, assuring them he would visit the Bar X ranch the following summer. “And I will bring my wife along with me, boys,” he wound up.
A hearty cheer went up at this statement, and he told them to wine and dine to their hearts’ content. Bud and Ethel were to accompany the cowboys back to Nevada as Bud could spare only ten days away from his new ranch.
Mason and Josephine strolled into the library where Mason Senior always found his favorite retreat.
“Well, Dad,” he said, putting his arms around his bride, “I didn’t stay away a whole year, but I made good.”
“And now, you want the reward I promised you, huh,” his father grunted.
“Certainly, and I want a double reward now, because there are two of us.”
“Indeed, you young scoundrel. Well, I intend to make Josephine a present of a fine house which I bought next door to us. As for you, I am going to place you under charge of my manager at my steel works, and give you a chance to work your way up to his position.”
“That is fine of you, Father,” he cried in delight; “what do you think of the old bear now, Josephine?”
“He’s a dear,” she countered softly.
“Well, Dad, you sent me out West to make good and I won an angel. Is that picture on the wall one you have had enlarged of yourself lately?”
The gruff fellow turned his head to look, and there was a sound suspiciously like a kiss. When he glanced at them again they were listening to the cowboys making merry in the banquet hall.
“By, by, Bar X,” Josephine murmured, smiling contentedly at her husband.
