Читать книгу The Mystery at Dark Star Ranch - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 7

CHAPTER V
RECONNOITERING

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Hal strolled away from the big house after Sen had cleared away the luncheon and returned to his kitchen duties. It lacked a full hour and a half before Richard was expected home and there was much to look at, considering the fact that the fertile hills and valleys comprising Dark Star Ranch covered an area of almost five square miles.

Down at the well-kept corral Hal met a short, fat cowboy who smilingly introduced himself as Slim, foreman of the ranch.

“Sen told me to come down and ask for a horse,” Hal said. “I’m killing time until Richard gets back. Do you mind....”

“Reckon we don’t mind doing anything for a friend of Richard’s,” Slim interposed significantly. He started off toward the stables on his stumpy bowlegs and called back over his shoulder. “How d’ye ride—fast?”

“How did you guess?” Hal called back, laughing.

“Jest a hunch, Mr. Keen,” Slim chuckled. “Mebbe yore hair makes you look as if you could go like the old boy hisself, I don’t know.” He winked and disappeared within the stables. When he came out he was leading a fine, light-brown stallion.

“Man alive, what a beaut!” Hal said admiringly.

“Thought you’d like him,” Slim said delightedly. “Mister Richard has the brother to this one (he’s a little darker), but he likes ’em both.”

“What’s this fellow’s name?” Hal went up and stroked the horse’s glistening neck.

“Just Pal,” Slim answered. “He shore lives up to his name ef he takes a likin’ to you. Mister Richard named t’other one Brother. Nothin’ fancy ’bout either one o’ thar names, but they shore are dependable hosses, both of ’em.”

“I dare say,” Hal said slipping into the saddle. “Anyway, I’ll soon see what kind of a pal this fellow is when it comes to carting me about a strange ranch. He’ll have to lead the way and stick by me—I get lost easily.”

“He’ll stick by you a’right, but he’s a hoss that’s got a notion fer leggin’ it, ’less you tell him to stop. When you git ready to turn fer home, jest tell him so an’ he’ll leg it jest as fast back here as he does when he fust sets out from the ranch.”

“I’ll remember that, Slim. Say, by the way,” Hal said, inspired by a sudden thought, “where the deuce is Pine Creek from here?” Slim waved his short, fat arm toward the southeast. “Pine Creek proper is a spankin’ little river what lays over thar. But long afore she ever gits thar she turns an’ twists a pow’ful lot down through the range. Nobuddy seems to know ’zactly whar she does come frum, ’ceptin’ we suspect it’s part an’ parcel o’ Gordon’s Creek. Anyways, Mr. Keen, don’t try an’ foller it too far without somebuddy to show you whar yore a-goin’, ’cause yore like to run smack on Mellow Moon property. It runs purty close to the creek on t’other side.”

“Mm!” Hal whistled. “Would that be dangerous?”

Dangerous? Wa’al, I hope it never gits that bad, Mr. Keen. I didn’t aim to sound that way. It’s jest that things are purty hot between the Liggett crowd and pore Mister Richard. He ain’t got no use for ’em an’ he don’t make no bones about it. Since Mister Elly died it’s been wuss—Mister Richard swears they got somethin’ to do with it fer they knew Mister Elly was a-goin’ to try and borry some money from an eastern friend an’ set up the ranch.”

Hal stayed the impatient horse a moment. “Surely, Richard doesn’t suspect that the Liggett crowd....”

“I dunno, I dunno. It’s plumb strange, Mr. Keen. But from the looks o’ things, the Liggett crowd didn’ want to see the ranch set up on its feet—they want the Dark Star fer themselves. Wa’al, it’s one o’ them things that’s jest got to burn out sometime. When it gets too hot it will.”

“And it’s getting pretty warm now, huh?”

Slim nodded sagely. “Purty hot, Mr. Keen. That’s why I say don’t go too far or you might run into one of ’em. After all, yore a friend of Mister Richard’s an’ like as not if Buck Perry drove you up here, the hull o’ Gordon’s Creek knows all about you by this time and knows you didn’ come to see Mister Clark or Miss Aida.”

Hal groaned. “I asked him not to tell who I was!”

“Buck don’t mean to talk, Mr. Keen. It jest ain’t natcheral fer him to keep his mouth still, that’s all. I know’d who you wuz an’ all about thet it wuz you thet wuz in on thet mine mystery of Holliday’s that time. He couldn’ even keep it still that you was a nephew of the secret service man. He told it to the fust feller he met on the road after he left you—a feller what works on a ranch to the north o’ here.”

“All is lost then!” Hal said with a grin. “Darn it though, I didn’t want my past, present and future known so quickly.”

“Then you shouldn’ o’ told Buck Perry yore right name. Wa’al, it’s too late now, Mr. Keen. You’ll have to make the best of it.”

“And how!” Hal agreed, spurring the horse lightly.

They headed for a trail to the east and the horse loped along for a few feet, then gained considerable speed and soon took Hal on a flying trot. Slim’s watching figure became a mere speck and then was obscured altogether as they cantered down into a cool, grassy dale.

Pal whinnied in comradely fashion several times and after an encouraging pat from Hal upon his sleek head, he kicked up his heels still harder until they were going at a breathtaking pace. In point of fact, they were almost upon the creek before Hal was aware of it for the stallion dodged in under some trees and came rushing out upon the sandy banks of Pine Creek, snorting.

Hal laughed and dismounted. “You’ve got speed, ole boy!” he said to the animal. Then looking over the murmuring, rushing water, he smiled. “So this is Pine Creek!” he said to himself.

This part of Pine Creek ran through beautiful country. Rushing down from the range, it emptied into a sort of basin and spread out under Hal’s appreciative eyes, then narrowed off through the fertile green ranch and finally converged where the land sloped.

But Hal was not interested in that part of the creek somehow. He was always more interested in where a stream came from than in where it was going. And Pine Creek had interested him considerably since he had learned that it was coveted by Tuck Liggett of the Mellow Moon. He felt that he should like to know just how much it was coveted—how much Liggett would pay to give his cattle that precious drink of water.

He took Pal’s halter and led him along the sandy, tree-covered bank of the creek. The air was balmy for the sun had long since left its noonday peak and was shining down through the mid-afternoon hour with soft, mellow rays. Birds chirped and fluttered about, and high overhead a hawk circled dizzily.

They strolled rather than walked and soon left the creek behind. Hal found a pleasant, shady trail that wound uphill like a bolt of shining ribbon wherever the sun’s rays caught it. A rabbit scurried across the trail and the stallion pricked up his ears and watched it until it disappeared through the undergrowth. Then he followed on after Hal, occasionally stopping to nibble choice bits of grass that sprang up in tufts along the sandy trail.

Presently Hal heard the sound of rushing water and soon found himself on the banks of the stream again. It was quite narrow here, narrow enough to ford, and came tumbling out over its rocky bed from a narrow gorge that looked to be more than a half mile long.

He looked across the bright stream and caught the occasional gleam of a trout as it swam past. Inspired by a sudden idea, he leaned down and removed his leather puttees, and shoes, pulled off his socks, then rolled up his linen knickers above his knees.

“I feel like a kid again, Pal,” he chuckled close to the stallion’s ear. “Haven’t waded like this in gosh knows when! Guess I brought you out for a walk more than anything, huh? Oh well, I’ll give you a chance to tear me along your darndest on the home stretch. We’ll wade over and back, then start for home.”

The stallion rubbed his soft nose against Hal’s arm and they started across the stream. The water, fed by mountain springs, was quite cold and gave Hal a shock at first, but he soon got used to it and found, when he reached the opposite bank, that he felt delightfully exhilarated despite the fact that his knickers were soaked.

He stopped and lighted a cigarette, meaning to smoke it through before they recrossed the stream. The stallion had already espied some succulent grass near by and was happily occupied with it. Hal watched him as he leaned lazily back against a giant yellow pine.

Almost simultaneously he heard the voices and saw the tracks—the voices, a man’s and a woman’s, were not far away; the tracks were right under his eyes, fresh hoof imprints that had been made not more than an hour before. They led, he saw at first glance, straight into the thick woods beyond the banks of the stream.

“I don’t know what luck he’s going to have there today,” the feminine voice said softly, yet distinctly. “If he has any, I know it won’t be much—it won’t give him the boost that he needs to keep things going. That chap that was going to lend Elly the money is on a prolonged tour of the world and won’t be back until next year. So that’s in our favor.”

“It shore is,” the man said distinctly.

“Can’t you say sure if you have to say sure is at all?” came the query, petulantly. “Your speech is impossible, Tuck.”

“Now do we have to go over all that again? I’ve tole you a hunerd times an’ more that it ain’t natcheral fer me to talk easterly like you do when I ain’t never been away from Montana. All right for you that spent all them years in high brow eastern schools. Wa’al, thar ain’t no use arguin’ ’bout how I talk when we got more important things. Ye say this Hal Keen is the same feller what rounded up that Kip feller over at Holliday’s?”

“That’s what Buck Perry’s told around town. He says there isn’t anything that that chap misses. He’s walking in his uncle’s footsteps already. And he’s not going to miss anything around here either, Tuck. I’ve got a feeling that he’s come for more than just to see Richard.”

“Wa’al, he’d better not poke his freckled nose into Mellow Moon affairs, or....”

Hal drew his breath and threw his cigarette stub into the stream. Then, suddenly, the stallion whinnied.

The Mystery at Dark Star Ranch

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