The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians | Page 3

knot of laughing, pushing, jostling and shouting cowboys, who seemed to want the foreman to settle some disputed point.
Bud and his two cousin chums rode on and greeted Mr. Merkel and his wife, who was "Ma" to every cowboy within fifty miles, and Nell, who was Bud's pretty sister.
"Hello, Dad! Hello, Uncle Henry!" was the greeting. "Hello, Sis!"
"Got any pie, Nell?" added Bud.
"For Nort and Dick--yes," the girl answered. "But you won't want pie when you hear--"
"Say, what's all this mysterious news?" broke out Bud. "First Slim starts to tell us and then--"
"Rosemary and Floyd are coming!" merrily cried Nell.
"Rosemary and Floyd?" questioned Bud.
"Your cousins, or, to be more exact, your second cousins," explained Mrs. Merkel. "We had a letter last week saying they might come on from California, and now your father has just had a special delivery letter, saying they're on their way. They'll be here any time."
"Company's coming! Company's coming!" joyously sang Nell, for she was delighted with the news.
"Rosemary and Floyd," repeated Bud, "I don't seem--"
"You haven't seen them in some years," his mother said. "But I'm sure you'll like them."
"Especially Rosemary," laughed Nort, and Nell stuck out her tongue at him.
"Well, I'm glad they didn't come until after the spring round-up," spoke Mr. Merkel, looking at a letter he held. "We'll have more time, now, to be with 'em and show 'em around. I wonder--"
But, as in the case of Slim, he did not finish what he started to say, for there came an interruption, in its way almost as sinister as the whirring of the rattle-snake's tail.
Toward the ranch buildings came the sound of rapidly galloping hoofs, and as they all looked in the direction of the sound they saw, riding in toward them, one of the cowboys.
"It's Old Billee Dobb!" exclaimed Yellin' Kid in a voice that was, as usual, unnecessarily loud. "Looks like rustlers were after him!"
But none rode in pursuit of the veteran cowpuncher, though he was spurring his steed to its utmost.
"They've broke out!" he yelled as soon as he was within hearing distance. "They've broke out! Scatter my watermelon seeds, but they've broke out!"
"What has?" demanded Mr. Merkel. "Our steers?"
"No! The Yaquis!"
"Indians!" snapped out Bud.
"That's them, son! They've broke out--left the reservation, and they're headed this way! Oh, rattle-snakes! Get your guns ready! The Yaquis have broke out!"
The boy ranchers looked at each other and it can not be denied that there was a joyous light in their eyes. Nell shrank closer to her father, and Mr. Merkel reached over and placed his hand in reassuring fashion on his wife's ample shoulder.
"Indians!" murmured Dick. "I wonder--"
"Sure we can help fight 'em!" exclaimed Nort, rightly guessing that this was his brother's question.
CHAPTER II
THE TELEGRAM
While the wind fluttered in his hand the letter from Rosemary, telling of her plans to visit Diamond X with her brother, and while Mr. Merkel looked anxiously at Billee Dobb on his panting steed, a far-off look was in the eyes of the ranchman. Bud thought he knew what his father's air portended, and he was eager to speak, but he, as well as the others, felt the tenseness of the situation, and waited for what might come next.
Nell was about to speak, to voice her gladness that a girl companion was to come to the ranch, when Mr. Merkel remarked:
"How come you heard all this, Bill--I mean about the Yaquis? None of it filtered here until you come up sweating lather!"
"I met one of the deputy sheriffs in town," explained the veteran cow puncher. "He'd just got a telegraph message tellin' him to be on the lookout, as the redskins might be headed this way."
"Whoop-ee!" yelled Bud, flapping his hat down on his pony's flank, thereby causing the animal to leap sideways. "Think of it! Indians! Whoop-ee!"
"It's dreadful!" murmured Ma Merkel. "I don't like to think about it!"
"But, Aunt, we have to think of it if the Yaquis are coming this way," spoke Nort. "We want to think of it to protect you and Nell!"
"That's right!" added Dick, while some of the cowboys grinned at the eagerness and impetuosity of the boys.
"Shucks!" exclaimed Mrs. Merkel, getting back her nerve. "Those Yaquis are nothing more than a lot of Greasers, anyhow. They'll turn home at the first sight of a few of the sheriff's posse. I don't believe I'll worry after all."
"That's right!" shouted Yellin' Kid. "No need to worry when the bunch from Happy Valley joins with the Diamond X outfit! We're a match for all the Yaquis that never washed!"
"Let's don't be too sure of that, boys," cautioned Mr. Merkel. "What more did you hear, Billee Dobb? Is it at all serious? How many of the imps broke loose?"
"That I don't know, there's enough of 'em to make the government take action. Some of