CHAPTER XIX
PRISONERS
"Would you look at that!" shouted Nort, pointing down into the valley.
"They must be under bombardment! It's a battle, Dick!"
"Nonsense!" cried the younger lad, not as impulsive as his brother. "They're blasting; that's what they're doing! Trying to locate a pocket of gold, I reckon. But now we're all right, Nort. They'll tell us how to get back to Diamond X, even if they can't put us on the trail of the cattle we so stupidly missed."
"Well, maybe they can, and then again, maybe they can't," said Nort slowly.
"What do you mean?" asked Dick.
"Well, they may be able to tell us the way to Diamond X, but maybe they won't want to tell us where the missing cattle are."
"You mean they may have taken 'em themselves?" asked Dick, and there was surprise in his voice.
"It's possible," declared Nort. "But we can't find out much by staying up here. Let's ride down and see what's going on. I reckon it's as you say—they have been blasting."
At first no one paid any attention to the approach of Dick and Nort. The men who had run away as the blast let loose, now hurried back to peer into the excavation made by the explosion. And among those who thus eagerly sought to see the inner secrets of the earth, our heroes recognized Professors Blair and Wright. These two scientists were foremost among the men standing on the edge of the hole that had been torn in the earth.
"No success!" Dick and Nort heard Professor Wright say as he turned aside from the hole. "We must try lower down."
"Higher up, I should say," spoke Professor Blair.
"Oh, no. You must remember that the deposits are weighty, and would be brought lower and lower each year by gravity, as well as by the sliding action of the hill under the influence of erosion."
"Yes, you are correct, Professor," admitted Mr. Blair, and then the two turned and beheld Dick and Nort at hand.
Surprise, and no very pleased surprise at that, was manifest on the faces of the two scientists as they viewed the boys. Grouped around the professors were several Mexicans, or Greasers, a Chinese, evidently the cook of the "outfit," and a number of workmen, unmistakably American. These last looked at the boys with scowling faces, though the two professors tried to force smiles to their lips.
"Oh, you are from Circle T ranch, are you not?" asked Professor Blair of Dick and Nort. "You are the boys who were so kind as to bring the antiseptics for the wounded men, who, thanks to that treatment, are now doing well."
"Glad to hear it," said Nort. "Only we're not from Circle T. We hail from Diamond X."
"Strange names," murmured Professor Wright. "I don't see how you remember them, though I do recall, now, that Diamond X is the proper term. We—er—I hardly expected to see you again," he said, haltingly.
"Nor we you," spoke Nort, who seemed to be doing the talking for his brother and himself. "We started after some cattle, but they got away from us and we lost ourselves. You haven't seen them; have you? A bunch of steers with the Square M brand on."
"And if you've seen anything of Diamond X ranch itself, up among these hills, I wish you'd tell us how to get to it," added Dick, with a whimsical smile.
"Cattle! Of why should we know of your cattle!" exclaimed a harsh voice behind the boys, and Dick and Nort, turning in their saddles, saw fairly glaring at them Del Pinzo, the unprepossessing Mexican half breed.
"Do you think we have your steers—that we are rustlers?" demanded
Del Pinzo fiercely.
"No," said Nort, seeing into what error he might be drawn. "I was only asking."
"Well, we haven't seen any of your cattle!" declared the Mexican, or half breed, to give his correct title. "And we don't want you around here when we're——"
"Just a moment, Del Pinzo," interposed Professor Wright, and Dick noticed a peculiar look pass between the two scientists. "You must excuse the zeal of one of our helpers," went on Mr. Wright. "He is doubtless afraid that you might get hurt in a blast."
"Yes! Yes! Blasts are dangerous!" said the half breed quickly, and it seemed as if he spoke in answer to a signal given by one of the scientists. "We are going to set off another."
"It is just some research work we are undertaking," said Professor Blair, as he saw Nort and Dick looking around. "We have absented ourselves from our college to do some investigating, and it is necessary to blast, in some cases, to get at the lower deposits."
Both Dick and Nort said to each other, afterwards, that they did not believe these statements.
"Perhaps you boys had better come down to the tents," suggested Professor Wright. "As Del Pinzo says, blasts are dangerous, and the men are going to set off another. Come to the tents," and with a wave of his hand he indicated the camp site, a level place amid the little and big hills all about.
"Thanks," murmured Nort. "But are you going to be able to direct us how to find Diamond X ranch?"
"Doubtless some of our men can tell you," said Mr. Wright. "Have you eaten?" he asked.
"We had a little," Dick replied. "But——"
"You can eat more, I have no doubt!" laughed Professor Blair, but his merriment seemed to be forced. "Well, fortunately our larder is well stocked. Come down and have something. How are all your friends?"
"Well, as far as we know, not having seen them since yesterday," answered Dick. "You see we're not regular ranchers or cowboys yet, we're just learning."
"One need not be told that!" sneered Del Pinzo, who had followed our heroes and the two professors down the slope.
Professor Blair turned and looked sharply at the half breed. Then the scientist, speaking, said:
"Del Pinzo, perhaps you had better return and watch that the next blast harms no one. We would not want an accident."
The half breed hesitated for a moment, and then murmured:
"Si, senor!" ("Yes, sir!")
He turned back up the hill, Dick and Nort continued down it toward the tents.
"Picket your horses and come in," invited Professor Wright, as he held open the flap of what was, evidently, the private dining tent of himself and his college companion. "I'll have Sing Wah fix you up a little feed."
"This is mighty kind of you," murmured Dick, as he and his brother sat at the folding camp table and ate hungrily.
"And now all we want is to be put on the trail to Diamond X," said
Nort, as they finished. "We'll let the cattle go, for the time being."
He rose to leave the tent, followed by his brother, but, as the boys neared the flap a man, who, they remembered, had been called Silas Thorp, interposed his ugly bulk in front of them.
"Don't be in a hurry to leave, boys," he sneered.
"Why not?" hotly demanded Nort.
"Because we'd like to keep you here a while," Thorp went on. "I guess the professors would like to have you accept their hospitality a little longer."
"Is this true?" cried Nort. "Are we prisoners?"
"Well, that is rather a harsh word to use," said Professor Wright.
"But we feel we must detain you—at least for a while!"