“This note is written in the same hand that wrote a warning to dad,” Roy was talking fast. “Two weeks ago, at night, a rider passed our bunk-house, where Teddy and I and some of the boys were standing, and flung us a message tied to a stick. It said if dad pressed the charge against the rustlers, who were in jail at Hawley, he’d get his. Then we heard the rustlers had escaped. And now this—” He motioned toward the paper Teddy still held in his hand.
“The man who sent the note threatened your dad?” Mr. Ball demanded, a fierce frown on his face.
“That’s what,” Teddy answered in a dull voice. “And it looks like he’d made good, too. Got us standing flat-footed,” he added bitterly.
“The man who came here was a—a rustler?” Mrs. Ball gasped.
“Now, Sera, just take it easy,” Mr. Ball boomed. He patted his wife’s shoulder awkwardly. “Suppose you have a lie-down on the couch for a while? Remember what the doctor said about your heart. Boys, you and I—”
“I won’t lie down!” Mrs. Ball exclaimed, her face flushed. “I’m going after those kidnappers, that’s what I’m going to do! Pete, you get me a gun! No man is going to steal three girls right from under my nose—not while I’m healthy! You just forget about my heart! It’s as good as it ever was! I guess I haven’t lived in the West all my life for nothing! I guess I haven’t forgotten how to shoot, either! Pete, I’m going to ride with you!” She pushed back a loose strand of hair and stood gasping for breath.
Pete Ball shook his head slowly.
“No, Sera,” he said gently. “I’m afraid not. I know how much you want to, but some one has got to stay here and take charge of things. You can do more to help in that way than any other. It’s just possible that the girls might escape and make their way back here. You see what I mean, don’t you, Sera?” He looked at her anxiously.
After a moment Mrs. Ball nodded.
“Guess you’re right, Pete,” she said heavily. “I was crazy to think you could be bothered with a woman along. But when I think of Nell, Ethel and Belle being taken by that bunch of gunmen to heaven knows where, I—I—”