“i tell you they’ve run away with her! whatever shall we do?”
tavia was quite familiar in her excitement. she had seized lance petterby’s free hand and shook it with emphasis. but even at this tragic moment dorothy noticed the way the cowpuncher looked down at her chum, and she was sorry that tavia was not more dignified.
“jerusha juniper! do yuh mean it?” lance said.
“we saw them riding away,” declared tavia. “you didn’t find your aunt, did you, doro?”
“she’s gone,” admitted dorothy, feeling a little ill and faint.
“jerusha juniper! yuh don’t mean it?” repeated lance. “’tain’t possible that she’s been run off against her will?”
“it’s that awful philo marsh,” said tavia. “you don’t understand. she had promised to sign the papers for him this morning, and then she heard something, so she wouldn’t. he was here with a man named biggs——”
221 “i know the scamp,” growled lance.
“well! they were just as mad!” pursued tavia.
“so philo has shown his hand, has he?” said lance petterby, slowly. “the ornery cur! i come over here to tell yuh aunt more thet i heard last night. philo’s been workin’ for the mining company all the time.”
“don’t stop here talking!” urged tavia. “we must go after them. doro and i will get our ponies.”
“ain’t hank here?” demanded lance.
“mr. ledger has gone to see about something at the other end of the range,” dorothy said, in answer to this question.
“but there’s some of the greasers here—and them boys?”
“oh, yes!” cried dorothy, and she told him where they were at work down in the branding pen.
“we’d better go,” admitted the cowboy. “i understand there is going to be something doing up in the hills this very day.”
“what do you mean, mr. lance?” cried dorothy.
“them minin’ people have got a gang to put in a few dynamite ca’tridges where they’ll do the most good—for them. they intend to blow out enough rock at the head of that gorge you seen the surveyors working in, to drain the current of lost river out of its bed.”
“oh! the wicked things!” gasped tavia.
“you don’t mean it?” was dorothy’s comment.
“so it was give to me, miss dale,” said lance. “them surveyors was workin’ for the consolidated ackron company. i got it from the feller that kerried the chain.”
“we saw him,” interrupted tavia. “a bushy whiskered man.”
“gil patrick. that’s him,” said lance, with emphasis. “when i got the straight tip i reckoned you folks oughter know it. for once let them mining people turn the river their way (they kin get it to their works a sight easier than the desert city folks kin handle it) and yuh aunt would have a stiff fight on her hands in the courts. possession is all of nine p’ints of the law—specially in water-rights,” added lance, nodding vigorously.
“they must be very wicked men,” said dorothy, “to wish to rob the poor farmers down there in the desert of water. and they will be robbing us, too.”
“i expect they’ll settle at a fair price—only yuh aunt won’t git lost river back intuh its banks—no, sir!”
“it must not be,” declared dorothy dale, vigorously. “and if they have made auntie ride over to that place with them——”
“they have kidnapped her, i tell you!” cried tavia, her excitement growing.
“i kyan’t believe it, gals,” said lance petterby. “but i’ll rout out yuh hands.”
“and we’ll get our ponies. come, doro,” added tavia, starting on a run for the horse corral.
“sorry hank ain’t here,” said lance, as he gave gaby the rein. “but i’ll git the hull bunch yuh say is down there to the brandin’ pen.”
“oh, come on, doro! come on!” shouted tavia, over her shoulder. “we must go with them. it will be a regular cowboy chase—just like we see in the movies.”
“oh, tavia! do be sensible.”
“how can i be? your auntie is kidnapped. they’ll try to make her sign the paper——”
somehow dorothy felt that this sounded awfully melodramatic. and tavia was bubbling over with excitement. it did not seem to dorothy as though aunt winnie could really have been carried off by a band of outlaws in the employ of the big mining corporation. it “didn’t sound sensible.”
but the story that men in the employ of the corporation were to blow out the bank of the river and turn the water into a new channel toward the north, instead of toward the south, impressed the girl as being eminently practical. and this dastardly scheme must be stopped.
flores was not on hand to help the girls catch and saddle their ponies, but by this time dorothy and tavia had made such friends and pets of their mounts that the ponies trotted right up to the corral gate the moment they saw the girls.
“hurry! hurry!” gasped tavia, pulling up the cinch with trembling fingers. “do stand still baby! i am so excited—doro! isn’t it romantic——”
“stop!” commanded her friend. “you’ve worked that phrase to death, tavia travers, since you started west. if you say it again before auntie is found i’ll—i’ll spank you.”
lance came sweeping up from the distant corral as soon as the girls were ready, bringing with him ned and nat white and all the mexicans on the job. there was one fellow missing who should have been there. that was the man who had carried the message to dugonne the night before for mrs. white.
but the pursuing party knew nothing of his treachery at this time. it was merely remarked by the boys that the fellow had slipped away from the work at the branding pen just before the girls themselves started back to the ranch-house.
naturally ned and nat were quite as excited over the report of their mother’s disappearance as tavia herself had been. the girls pointed out the way in which the cavalcade they had seen disappeared, and without going near the big house again the party, all mounted on fresh ponies, drove straight away across the range toward the hills.
“we ain’t goin’ tuh do no trailin’,” said lance, as they started. “we kin pretty nigh guess whar they air aimin’ for. that’s the place where they mean to blow up the river bank, and we’ll take a crow-line for it.”
there was not much said after they started—not for the first ten miles, at least. the horses were eager, the mexicans excited, lance grim, and ned and nat both mad and worried. tavia was really the only rider who thoroughly enjoyed the race.
her eyes were brighter than ever; her hair was flying; she was hatless, of course; and altogether she appeared to be in the spirit of the chase.
up hill and down they dashed, the tireless ponies skimming the ground, it seemed. had the girls not been in the saddle so much during the weeks they had been at hardin, they certainly would have been shaken off the ponies’ backs now.
but their mounts were sound and eager, and they kept up with the wild riding mexicans. there was no yelling, or whooping, as they rode; nevertheless the whole cavalcade was in earnest.
dorothy was very anxious. she could not really believe that aunt winnie had been carried off against her will by philo marsh and his crew, yet she could not understand why the lady should have gone of her own free will, either! she surely would have let the girls know before starting. and she was not even riding one of the hardin horses.
ned and nat threatened condign punishment for philo marsh when they caught him. when the pursuers overtook the party ahead there was likely to be trouble, and that thought increased dorothy dale’s anxiety.
on and on they rode, perhaps not following the same trail as the party which they pursued; but they were going quite as directly into the hills (and to the head of that gorge where the girls had seen the surveyors at work) as were philo marsh and his companions. indeed, the mexicans with dorothy knew the way more definitely; so the pursuers might arrive at the goal first.
