James Cody Ferris

“ Seldom are gold and timber found allied.
Gus’s claim was but a short ride from the tents, and as he trotted along, ahead of the boys, he waved to several of his newly made friends.
“There’s a bird you ought to know!” he exclaimed suddenly, pointing. “See if he remembers you. Hey, Maryland!”
“Howdy, Gus! How they comin’?” Maryland looked straight at Roy and Teddy with no sign of recognition.
“Forgot you completely,” Gus chuckled. “It’s easy to figger how he was feelin’ last night. Don’t hold it against him, boys. When he’s sober he’s O.K. Trouble with Maryland is, he can’t control his thirst.” ”

“ The punchers felt justified in ringing down the curtain, which they did by the simple process of tipping over the bench Pop was sitting on.
Teddy and Roy, who had been listening, wandered toward the house.
“I kind of wish he was coming with us,” Teddy chuckled. “Make it a little livelier.”
“He’ll be better on the ranch,” Roy replied. “Dad wants some one he can depend on. Boy, it sure is a grand and glorious feeling to know we’re going to take a crack at gold mining! And something tells me we’re going to be successful, too! ”

“ A boxer who has trained his muscles to react automatically and to dodge a blow from an antagonist almost before it has started, does not consciously order his knees to bend or his body to shift. Those things happen without deliberate volition, simply because the habit has been formed. Thus, when Teddy and Roy heard that shot, they crouched low in their saddles and jumped their mounts forward without the loss of a second. It was Star’s bridle pulling him that caused Teddy to hesitate and to give thought to the best procedure. ”

“ Now listen. Let’s see where Nick and Silent are. Then we’ll have a look at the paper—tied to the stone.”
There was a crashing in the brush near them and both boys faced quickly about, their guns leveled.
“Speak up!” Roy shouted sternly. “Who’s there?”
“Nick,” came the answer. “Silent with you?”
“No, I thought—” Roy, raising his voice, called: “Hey, Silent! Over this way!”
They waited. There was no reply.
“He’s around some place,” Teddy said anxiously. “If any one is waiting to knock us off, they know where we are, so a little more noise won’t hurt. Hey, Silent!” ”

“ Nick had his feet on a little mound of earth.
“That,” the puncher went on, “is the world. Me, I’m sittin’ on top of it. Savvy? Yay, boy, what a meal!”
“Like it?” Silent asked. Since he seemed to be an expert in the culinary art, he was unanimously elected cook.
“I’ll tell a maverick!” Roy declared fervently. “Best I ever had. Makes you feel all pepped up, ready to carry loads and loads of gold without feeling the weight.”
“Uh-huh,” Teddy remarked dryly. “Without feeling the weight—you got that part of it right, anyhow.” ”

“ I bet he got a fine razzing for leaving the ranch.”
“Well, I hope he’s the only one,” Roy said again. “Nugget Camp—a played-out placer station! And they find gold now!”
“And see what it’s brought already!” Belle said indignantly. “A poor old man gets shot and robbed, all because of the gold! Oh, I hope nothing else will happen!”
“Gold brings trouble, always,” Teddy mused. “If the word gets around—and it looks as though it had—that a strike has been made out here, it’ll mean the riff-raff of the West will be down on our necks. ”

“ Ahead were the rocks, black and forbidding, out of keeping with the placidness of the rest of the scene—a strange contrast to the gentle sloping prairie. At some time in the formation of the earth this portion was fated to retain the characteristics of the early terrain while the surrounding landscape was calmed by some giant hand. Silhouetted bluntly against the sky, the rocks were the bane of cattlemen who had to skirt them in a wide path instead of following the river directly. ”

“ Some time before Nell Willis and Ethel, or “Curly,” Carew, had come from the East to see their aunt, Mrs. Ball. Whether it was due to their liking of Western scenery or to the fact that the X Bar X ranch—where Teddy and Roy lived—was within riding distance, is a question still to be determined; but at any rate, they stretched their visit from one month into many months.
They were rapidly growing to look upon the great spaces of the West as their real home. ”

“ Then, with a sob of relief, Teddy was wiping the dirt from his brother’s face, while Roy gasped in the precious air again. He was saved, though still buried to his shoulders.
It was some moments before he could speak. Nick and Gus continued to dig, carefully, so they would not injure Roy. In all, his head had been covered with the heavy, damp earth about three and a half minutes.
“Boy, that was a close one!” Teddy babbled. “Roy, are you all right now? Swallow any of that dirt? You can breathe all right, can’t you?” ”

“ So intense was the moment that the puncher neither noticed the cut on Roy’s head nor the condition of Star. He fastened the ponies to the top supports, and then got behind the wheel.
“As easy as you know how, Bug Eye,” Teddy cautioned. “Watch for every bump and slow down. All right. Let’s go!”
The starter whirred, the motor awoke, and the car began to move. Roy studied the man’s face anxiously. He and Teddy tried to hold the body so that it was absolutely immovable, but that was impossible. The plains are vastly different from a macadamized road. ”

“ Teddy kissed her again, and, followed by Roy, started toward the next room, beyond which Mr. Manley had his small office. As Teddy opened the door, his father, who had been sitting at his desk, a corn-cob pipe stuck in the corner of his mouth, arose.
Once in a while one sees a man who instinctively reminds one of the plains, of bucking broncos, and of ropes snaking through the air to settle over the horns of a steer. He seems the very spirit of the West. In a parlor or drawing-room or on Broadway, he appears out of place. One is apt to mutter, “How’d he get so far from home? ”

“ Teddy, one year younger than his brother, was in his sixteenth year. His life had been spent mainly on the plains, as had Roy’s. Their father, Bardwell Manley, was the owner of a large cattle ranch, the X Bar X, and when he took his sons out of school to help him with the management of it, they were anything but sorry. They were born to the life of the cattle rancher and loved it. On the plains they were receiving a better education than many who attend college. ”

“ The corn bread they got from Gus Tripp, and cooked the rest themselves.
There is a feeling of great, unreasonable joy that comes to those who, in a high altitude, arise early in the brisk weather of late August, to watch the sun toss its beams over the tops of the mountains and breathe in deeply of the tingling air. The world is changed. Sights and sounds assume a new significance, a deeper{144} meaning. A man will clap his partner heavily on the back or yell suddenly in his ear or shoulder him off the trail—all for no reason at all. ”

“ Strangely enough, the fact that Teddy and Roy and a few others were going did not tend to excite the rest of the punchers, or cause them to throw up their jobs and head for the gold fields. They felt, perhaps, that good jobs did not grow on every sagebush, and the reputation of the X Bar X ranch for fair treatment of the hands and for excellent food was known far and wide. Most of the new men decided to stay on, and let those who would test their luck in other lands. ”

“ The Manley Boys, Roy and Teddy, are the sons of an old ranchman, the owner of many thousands of heads of cattle. The lads know how to ride, how to shoot, and how to take care of themselves under any and all circumstances.
The cowboys of the X Bar X Ranch are real cowboys, on the job when required but full of fun and daring—a bunch any reader will be delighted to know. ”

“ Then the whole world hit me on the head and shoulders, and the rest you know.”
“Yes, we know,” murmured Teddy.
“It’s an ill wind that blows nobody no good,” Nick orated. “An’ it’s a bum landslide that don’t uncover somethin’. Well, Roy, you sure have had your initiation as a miner.”
“Personally, I’m going back to camp and remove some of the initiation,” Roy answered, with a laugh. “I suppose you waddies will be right here?”
“We’ll be right here,” Teddy replied. “Where there’s some gold there’s sure to be more. What you going to do with the nugget, Roy?” ”

“ But it served—hitting his gun.”
“Sure did!” Teddy agreed. “Maryland! That’s a fine name for a man!”
“I don’t believe he’s such a terror as he thinks he is. Did you hear the crowd jeer him?” asked Roy musingly.
“Yes. He’s the kind who goes wild all of a sudden and needs a good sock on the jaw to bring him to. No real harm in him when he’s sober, I guess. Golly! this is a real sure-enough mining camp, isn’t it? We no sooner get to it than we have to use guns. I suppose every man is his own police force here.” ”

“ The round-up of the herd at Harver’s Gully started in clear weather. Pop Burns stayed at the ranch with Mr. Manley, and Teddy and Roy were in charge. Nick and Bug Eye rode with them.
Just before they left the X Bar X, Teddy noticed Silent strapping a rifle case to his saddle. Later this was filled with a weapon.
“Any special reason?” Teddy asked easily.
Silent looked over at him with a frown. The puncher was about twenty-five or six, although the lines in his face seemed to add a few years to this total. He was short and stocky, and anything but handsome. ”

“ He laughed again. “If that fellow Decker we shot a month ago is still livin’, some of it belongs to him. He sure worked for it.”
“Jerry Decker!” Teddy cried. “Then he will get his nuggets back!”
“There’s some of it comin’ to you, too,” Greyhound went on, nodding toward Silent. A puzzled frown came to his face. “I can’t understand it,” he muttered. “I can’t understand it a-tall! There you stand with a gun an’ me in front of you, me the feller who killed your folks, an’ you don’t shoot!{204}”
“We’re not like you, Greyhound,” Roy said shortly. “We’re not murderers.”
“Murderers?” ”

“ Bug Eye said slowly. “Nugget Camp ain’t just a basket full of fool’s gold.”
“Not any,” Pop said positively. “Jerry wouldn’t kid me about a thing like that. He believes in it all right. Twenty thousand gone!” Pop shook his head sadly. “I wish I had those galoots here for a minute and a half,” he declared bitterly. “A hole in the neck’s nothin’ to what they’d get. An’ say, Teddy an’ Roy, Jerry wants me to be sure an’ tell you how much he’s thankful for you two fellers bringin’ him in. ”

“ Roy and Teddy found that he was especially antagonistic to them. He accepted their orders with a scowl, but as long as he did his work they said nothing. This was no time to be particular. They had to take what they could get, and be glad of it.
His partner was more friendly, and soon be{86}came one of the gang. He, also, did his work well, and to careful questions concerning “Silent” answered that “he was kinda queer.” In the West a man is taken at his face value, and if he wants to keep to himself, that’s his own affair. Silent and Jack Conroy were accepted as part of the X Bar X outfit. ”

“ People have been known to get headaches that-a-way,” the rancher chuckled again. “A good scrap once in a while is better than a spring tonic. Say, Mother—” his voice became serious—“Teddy and Roy haven’t said much, but I’ve got a hunch they’re hankerin’ for something—or rather, to take a little trip.”
“A trip? Where?”
“Well—” he turned toward her—“if you ask me, I’d say they were achin’ to take a crack at Nugget Camp.”
“The place where that man—Pop’s cousin—was shot? Bardwell, we can’t let them go there!”
“Now, sweetness, you got that wrong!” Mr. Manley protested. ”

“ We’ve got an hour yet—maybe two. When we come close to their camp I want you to get off your bronc an’ take a look at it. That’s so you’ll know the lay of the land. We won’t have to go so close, but there’s not much danger—they’re all asleep now. Greyhound thinks he’s hot stuff—doesn’t even need a guard.” A thin smile curved Silent’s lips.
They rode for some time longer, then Silent called a halt. They were near the camp of the outlaws.
“Come on, Roy,” Silent whispered. “You fellows wait here. We’ll be back in ten minutes.”
“And if you’re not?” Teddy asked in a low voice. ”

“ Belle Ada’s Nerve
“Then—” Teddy Manley began, and stopped. “I see,” he said after a minute. “They plugged him, robbed him, and took his bronc.” His voice was low—bitter. “The spirit of the West! Romance! Well, we can do very well without that. Blamed cowards!” He clenched his fist. “Why couldn’t they take his money and call it a day? What did they have to—murder—him for?”
Roy placed a hand on his brother’s arm.
“Take it easy, boy,” he said slowly. “Talking won’t do a bit of good. We’ll have to wait and hear his story. Then, perhaps—”
The fire gradually died out of Teddy’s eyes. ”