Fred Fearnot's New Ranch Page 12

Generally the things that will kill any brutewill also kill a man. Both have flesh and blood, eat and drink; but manis, of course, the highest grade of the animal kingdom. They are dividedinto different tribes, just as animals are into different species. TheCaucasian is the highest type, and the grades go down from this pointuntil we reach the bushmen of Australia, who are said to be the lowesttype of mankind."

  The girls were highly interested in his talk, and on the piazza and onthe front steps cowboys were listening with the deepest interest.

  They, too, had never thought of the subject; but Fred and Terry werevery familiar with it, for they had both studied it very deeply.

  A few days after Fred's return from his trip, during which he had boughtanother thousand head of cattle, the cattle began arriving.

  Then Fred and Terry and the cowboys were all very busy. The cars wererun down to the stockpen, where they were unloaded and turned loose intotheir new home. Many of them were evidently very hungry, and hadprobably been kept penned up for several days before the cars which wereto bring them down were sent up for them.

  "By George, Terry," said Fred, "that lot of cattle is almost starved.The ranchmen didn't feed them while keeping them penned up waiting forthe train."

  "Yes, and they ought to be made to pay for it, Fred."

  "Oh, what's the use? They'll soon pick up on this ranch, but really Ithink they ought to be punished for their heartlessness. Just becausethey were sold they wouldn't give them any extra feed."

  The girls came down and saw the cattle leave the cars and run down thegangway that led into the stockpen, from which they passed hurriedlyinto the ranch.

  Evelyn had seen cattle shipped and unloaded before, but her two visitorshad not, so they stood and watched the process of unloading for severalhours.

  "Fred," said Terry, after seeing several carloads of the cattle turnedout, "I think that, on an average, they are a very fine lot of cattle."

  "Well, I tried to be careful, Terry, and I am glad I was, for there werequite a number who tried to pan off poor cattle on me. Their brand isalready registered, just the same as ours. Of course, their calves wewill have to put our registered brand on, and after a while we will haveto add it to the brand of the original owners."

  The addition another thousand cattle to the ranch made a pretty gooddisplay.

  Both Fred and Terry made a careful count of every beef that arrived.They both rather suspected that they would come up a little short, butto their very great gratification every carload panned out according tothe bill.

  They were all of the long-horned species, and some of them were verylarge. The train was run on a sidetrack, and as fast as the cars wereemptied they were moved further down the sidetrack until every car hadbeen emptied.

  "Oh, my, Fred!" said Evelyn, "surely some of those cattle must have beenhurt, crowded as they were in those cars, with such long horns."

  A careful inspection was made and not one was found to be seriouslyhurt. Fred had stipulated with the ranchmen whom he had bought frontthat only a given number should be placed in a car, and SuperintendentWestervelt had warned the employees of the road not to exceed the limit.

  That night Fred and Terry rode all around the enclosed part of the rangeon the lookout for wolves, and also to let the cowboys see that theywere expected to do their work faithfully.

  The new cattle grazed incessantly, but nothing occurred during the nightto start an alarm among them. The majority of them, as dark set in, laiddown to sleep or to chew their cud.

  The two boys turned in at about two o'clock in the morning.

  The next day one of the cowboys came in and reported that somebody downat the lower end of the ranch had cut out a complete panel of the barbedwire, thus leaving a wide gap for the cattle to go through.

  Fred and Terry hurried down there on their horses with theirWinchesters, accompanied by two of their most expert and faithfulcowboys and made a thorough investigation.

  They could see the tracks of three men, who had probably cut the wires;but they were unable to find the trail of any cattle passing through thegap. In fact, none of the cattle had done any grazing that far down.

  They sent a cowboy back up to the ranch-house and had him bring down acoil of wire and the necessary tools to connect it with the wires thathad been cut, and when that was done they detailed one-half of theirforce to watch the line of the fence at that end of the ranch during thefollowing night.

  They taught them a series of signals, which must be given and answeredbefore firing at any one.

  "Now, boys," said Fred, "be careful. We don't want any innocent manhurt, but if you find any one tampering with the fence give him a chanceto cut just one wire to establish his guilt and then call a halt. If hedoesn't hold up open fire on him, and keep firing until he comes down.Both Olcott and I will be moving about the greater part of the night. Wewant all cattle thieves to understand that they can't steal any of ourcattle with impunity."

  That night, after singing and playing at the house with the girls, theboys mounted their horses and started for the lower end of the ranch.

  When they reached there they dismounted, hitched their horses in thetimber and started down the line on foot. They found the cowboys thatthey had stationed along the line in their respective places. They werevery prompt in exchanging signals, and they spoke in whispers so thattheir voices might not be overheard.

  By and by in the starlight they saw about a score of cattle goingthrough the grass as though they were being driven by somebody.

  Fred and Terry crouched down in the grass and watched them.

  They both became fully satisfied that some one was driving them, andthey ran along with the cattle in order to ascertain where they weregoing, and why. They were very near the corner of the fence, for, as thereader doubtless remembers, they had enclosed only twenty of the fortythousand acres, as they thought that was about as much as they wouldhave need for inside of the next two years.

  Suddenly Terry tapped Fred on the shoulder and whispered:

  "Down, Fred," and Fred dropped down on his knees.

  Terry motioned with his hand and pointed out on his right where theycould both see the figures of two men moving cautiously and closelybehind the cattle, and they both wondered if another panel of the wirehad not been cut just ahead of them.

  Suddenly one of the cattle turned in their direction, and one of the menran around to head him off. He ran almost over Fred, who sprang up anddealt him a blow on the side of his head that caused him to sink downunconscious.

  CHAPTER VIII.

  FRED AND TERRY CAPTURE CATTLE THIEVES.

  Terry heard the blow that Fred gave the cattle thief and he knew what itmeant, for the fellow sank down without uttering a word.

  The thief's pal, seeing that the cow that had strayed off was not beingturned around, went to the assistance of his confederate and he ran upagainst Terry.

  Terry rose up and gave him a crack on the head with his heavy revolver.He saw more stars than he probably ever thought had a home in the skies,and down he dropped.

  "Now, Terry," whispered Fred, "let's see if there are any more of them,"and as quick as possible they bound the two unconscious thieves handsand feet and continued to follow the cattle.

  They walked straight up on their feet, knowing that the confederates, ifthere were any, would mistake them for their pals if they saw them.

  After a few minutes they saw two other fellows advancing toward them,and one of them came up to Fred and asked in a low tone of voice:

  "What's the matter?"

  "Only this," said Fred, smashing him in the face with his revolver andsending him tumbling over in the grass. The other fellow stopped and,suspecting something wrong, started to run.

  "Halt!" said Terry, "or you're a dead man."

  The fellow threw himself down in the grass and tried to run on his handsand knees and thus escape any bullet that might be flied at him, butTerry was on him in a moment and gave him a terrible crack with hisrevolver on his
head.

  Terry searched him for a weapon and found an ugly-looking knife and arevolver on him. He took possession of the weapons and, with the ball oftwine he had with him, bound him hard and fast, his hands behind him andhis ankles together, and then ran on ahead of the cattle to look for thegap he suspected they were headed for, he soon found it.

  Before a single beef had passed through he and Fred turned the cattleback.

  Then both of them followed the trail of the thieves, which they wereenabled to do, dark though it was, by following the disarranged tallgrass.

  They found all of the men had recovered consciousness except the fourthman, who, was lying where he had fallen like a dead man.

  "Terry," said Fred, "this is your man. What in thunder did you crack himso hard for?"

  "I wanted to make sure of him," and they proceeded to drag the men tothe gap that had been cut through the wire fence, took them through