Willard Baker - The Boy Ranchers in Death Valley - or, Diamond X and the Poison Mystery

"Look who's here!"

"Got a ticket, little girl?" asked Bud, who, having demonstrated thathe could do what he had said he could – leap from the corral fence tothe back of a passing pony – was now slowing down his steed and ridinghim back to where the other punchers were perched.

"I'm a reporter," responded Nell with a smile. "I'm writing this rodeoup for the papers."

"Then we'll have to make a press box for you," said Nort.

He and his brother, with the half score of cowboys, and Nell wereoffering their congratulations to the daring boy rancher when a newvoice, floating toward the corral from the direction of the house, called to ask:

"What's all the excitement about?"

"Oh, hello, Dad!" cried Bud, waving his hat toward a well set-up, bronzed specimen of a western ranchman who was walking slowly towardthe fence. "Did you see me?"

"I saw you risk your neck, if that's what you mean," answered Mr.

Merkel with a half smile.

"You should have seen him when he missed!" chuckled Old Billee.

"Anything the matter, Dad?" asked Bud as he swung himself down off thesaddle blanket and approached his father who was now leaning over thetop rail of the corral fence. Something in Mr. Merkel's face showedthat he had news to impart.

"You see," went on Bud, "we're all going to do stunts over at the Palmorodeo, and I made up this one, of fence jumping, so Dick and Nort and Icould horn in on some of the prizes. But if you don't want me to – "He paused suggestively.

"You seemed to make out all right this last time, which is the onlytime I saw you," chuckled Mr. Merkel. "But – "

"You needn't worry about the ranch work, Dad!" interrupted Bud, eagerly. "It's all been 'tended to. Herd riding, looking afterfences, cattle all shipped off just as you left word when you went awayand all that. We got everything cleaned up and I thought we could takea little time off to practice for the rodeo."

"Oh, sure! That's all right!" Mr. Merkel hastened to say. "I wasn'tfinding any fault with your bare-back riding. But what I wanted to saywas that I've got a new job for you boys and if you take it on, which Ihope you'll do, you won't have any time for a rodeo."

"A new job!" cried Nort, eagerly.

"Anything to do with Chinese smuggling?" asked Dick.

"No, I'm glad to say it hasn't," went on the owner of Diamond X. "Thisis right in the line of your regular work."

"Then you bought the new ranch; did you, Dad?" asked Bud, for hisfather had been away about a week on a mission known only to theimmediate family, but which was now stated by his son.

"Yes," Mr. Merkel slowly replied, "I took over Dot and Dash, and ifeverything here at Diamond X and in Happy Valley is in as good shape asyou boys seem to think, why, I'm going to send you there."

"Send us where?" Bud wanted to know.

"To the new ranch – Dot and Dash is its cattle brand – to get it in shapebefore winter sets in. You don't mind; do you?"

"Mind!" joyously cried Bud. "Sure not!"

"That's good news!" commented Nort.

"Right-o!" sang out his brother. "Things were getting slow aroundhere, and if we didn't have the coming rodeo to think about – "

"Well, then if you're willing to take charge of Dot and Dash for awhile you can pass up the rodeo," chuckled Mr. Merkel. "Not but whatyou won't have more excitement, maybe, than if you did try bulldoggingand bare-back riding," he added to his son. "Only it will be sort ofdifferent, and your stunts will be doing some good instead of justendangering your necks."

"Aw, there wasn't any danger," murmured Bud.

"No!" chuckled Snake Purdee. "The dust is pretty soft to fall on," andhis point was illustrated as Bud began whipping some of the accumulatedsoil from his chaps.

"Well, that's what I came out to tell you, the news about buying Dotand Dash," concluded Mr. Merkel.

"That's good news for us!" declared Nort. "It will give Dick and me achance to show how much we have learned about cow punching since wecame here."

"Sure, it's good news all right," echoed Dick.

And then Old Billee Dobb struck in with a few remarks which, mostdistinctly, were in the category of bad news. For the veteran punchersaid:

"Excuse me, Boss," and he looked at Mr. Merkel to ask: "Did Iunderstand you to say you'd taken over the old Dot and Dash ranch?"

"That's right, Billee."

"Is that the outfit not far from Los Pompan, near the Mexican border?"

"That's the place, Billee."

"Hum!" The old man seemed lost in thought for a moment. Then he wenton with: "It's in a valley; ain't it, Boss?"

"Yes, Billee, in the prettiest valley, outside of Happy, that I everlaid eyes on. It's an ideal place for a cattle ranch. I'm lucky toget hold of it at the price I did. But Jed Barter was anxious to sellout and – "

"'Scuse me once more, Boss," and Old Billee seemed very anxious andmuch in earnest now, "but did you hear any rumors or talk about Dot andDash before you bought it?"

"No, Billee, I didn't. What do you mean?"

"Didn't anybody tell you the local name of the place 'fore you took itover?"

"The local name! Why, no. What's the name got to do with it?"

"Nothin' much, maybe," slowly answered Billee while the boy ranchersregarded him curiously. "Only Dot and Dash ranch is located in whathas always been called Death Valley, and nobody has ever been able tomake a success of it as long as I can remember. I wish, Boss," he wenton earnestly, "that you'd 'a' told me 'fore you bought this ranch. I'd'a' put you wise to what it really is – Death Valley!"

"Death Valley?" echoed Bud Merkel. "What do you mean? Who died there, and how come?"

An ominous hush fell over the assemblage of cowboys on the corral fenceand they looked from Billee Dobb to the owner of Diamond X. The badnews, clearly, had startled him from his usual calm.

"Look here, Billee," began Mr. Merkel as he leaned against the fencefor he had just returned from a long journey and was rather weary. "Isthis a joke or are you just stringing me?"

"No stringing, Boss, and not a joke either. You've bought a ranch inDeath Valley as sure as shootin', and while I wish you good luck Idon't see how you're going to have it – not if Death Valley is like whatit was years ago."

"You aren't getting my new Dot and Dash ranch mixed up with Death

Valley in the Panamint Mountains of California; are you?" asked Mr.

Merkel. "I know that place – four hundred feet below sea level – alkali – borax and all that sort of stuff. Do you mean – ?"

"No, I don't mean that Death Valley," interrupted Billee. "This Death

Valley I speak of is only a local name for the region around Los

Pompan. But it's as bad as the other."

"Suppose you tell me more about it, Billee," suggested the ranch owner.

"Sounds like it would be a good yarn!" commented Bud.

"The kind I like to read about," added Nort.

"This is no yarn !" declared the veteran puncher in an ominous voice.

"It's gospel truth. I'll tell you all I know."

He hitched his heavy chaps around to make his legs more comfortable andthen, selecting a place on the ground, where a shadow was cast by thecowboys on the fence, Billee Dobb began his narrative.

But before I give you that, I want to make my new readers somewhatbetter acquainted with Bud Merkel and his two cousins. They are theyouths who are to be the heroes of this story, and they first came intoprominence in the initial volume of this series, entitled: "The BoyRanchers; or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X."

In that story was related how Norton and Richard Shannon had gone outwest, from New York, and how they took up life on the ranch of theiruncle Henry Merkel. There they found Bud, who had been among horsesand cattle all his life. Nort and Dick soon assimilated the traditionsof the west, became accomplished riders and able to punch cows with thebest of the hands on Diamond X. The lads from the east also learnedwhat it was to come to grips with rustlers, led by that notorious halfbreed Del Pinzo.