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TITLE: THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL
AUTHOR: WILLARD F. BAKER
EBOOK: E01278 (O'Briens Book Cellar)

THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL

OR

_The Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers_

By WILLARD F. BAKER

CONTENTS

     I THE ROUND-UP

    II A CURIOUS INSTRUMENT

   III STARTLING NEWS

    IV THE SCRATCHED SAFE

     V THE BROKEN BOTTLE

    VI MISSING STEERS

   VII FOUR EYES

  VIII THROWING THE ROPE

    IX THE FIRE

     X SERIOUS QUESTIONS

    XI THE WATCH TOWER

   XII IN SPITE OF ALL

  XIII THE SIGNAL

   XIV FOUR EYES-NO EYES

    XV A BIG RAID

   XVI ON THE TRAIL

  XVII WILD COUNTRY

 XVIII THE BOILING SPRING

   XIX IN A MAZE

    XX A SURPRISE

   XXI IN PURSUIT

  XXII BUD'S DISCOVERY

 XXIII THE FIGHT

  XXIV A DESPERATE CHANCE

   XXV LIEUTENANT WAYNE

THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL

CHAPTER I

THE ROUND-UP

"Come on, Nort! It's your turn to cut out the next one!"

"S'pose I make a mux of it, Bud!"

"Shucks! You won't do that! You've roped a calf before!"

"Yes, but not at a big round-up like this. If I make a fizzle the
fellows will give me the laugh!"

"What if they do? Everybody knows you haven't been at it long,
and you've got to make a start. Besides, anybody's likely to make
a mistake. That's why they put rubbers on the ends of pencils.
Ride in now and snake out the next one, Nort!"

"All right, Bud! Here goes!"

Blaze, the pony Nort Shannon was riding toward the bunch of
cattle gathered at Diamond X ranch for the big, spring round-up,
leaped forward at the sound of his master's voice, and in
response to the little jerk of the reins and the clap of heels
against his sides. Into the herd of milling, turning and twisting
cattle the intelligent animal made his way, needing hardly any
guidance from Nort. The lad, by a mere touch, corrected the
course of Blaze slightly, and in a moment he was heading for a
calf which bawled loudly.

"Get him, Nort!" cried a voice from among the cowboys looking on.

"Don't get me fussed, Dick!" Nort shouted back to his brother,
who sat astride his pony near Bud Merkle. "It'll be your turn
next!"

Into the herd he wormed his way on Blaze, dodging here and there,
but with his eyes ever on the calf he hoped to cut out so it
could be branded. Nort leaned forward in his saddle, and then his
cousin and brother, eagerly watching from outside the herd, saw
the boy rancher's hand shoot up.

Through the air the rope went, turning, twisting, writhing and
uncoiling like a snake. In an instant it had flipped around the
hind legs of a calf.

"Good!" yelled Dick.

"Even Babe couldn't 'a' done better!" complimented Bud,
enthusiastically.

"'Tisn't over yet!" gasped Nort, for he had hard work ahead of
him, and the dust raised by thousands of hoofs was choking. "Wait
'till I get it to the branding corral!"

He leaned over in his other stirrup, causing the lariat to pull
taut and, the next instant the calf flopped on its side.

"Snake him out, Blaze!" cried Nort to his pony, and the animal
turned and dragged the prostrate calf along over the ground, an
operation not as cruel as it sounds as the surface was inches
thick in soft dust, like flour.

"That's the boy, Nort!" called his cousin Bud. "I knew you could
do it! Now then, Dick! Let's see how you'll make out!"

"I can't throw a rope as good as Nort," answered the stouter lad,
as he urged his pony, Blackie, into the herd. "But here goes!"

Meanwhile Nort had dragged the calf he had cut out to the corral
where the branding was going on. Two cowboys, stationed there for
the purpose, leaped forward and threw the calf over on its side,
for it had managed to struggle to its feet when Nort ceased
dragging it. One man twisted a front leg of the struggling
creature back in a hammerlock and knelt on its neck. The other
took hold of the upper hind leg, and with this hold prevented the
calf from sprawling along on the ground.

"Sit on him!" called Mr. Merkel, owner of Diamond X and other
ranches. He was superintending the round-up of his herds and
those entrusted to Bud, Nort and Dick in the first business
venture of the boy ranchers. "Sit on him!" yelled Bud's father.

Accordingly the men sat on the calf, thus, with the holds they
had secured, keeping it under restraint with the least possible
pain to the small creature.

"Branding iron!" sang out Slim Degnan, foreman of the ranch.

A little blaze was flickering on the ground, not far from where
the calf Nort had cut out was thrown and held. In a moment the
fire-tender had seized the branding iron, and, a second or two
later, it was being pressed on the calf's flank.

The creature bawled loudly, and kicked out, thereby nearly
throwing off the men who were sitting on it. But the branding was
all over in a moment, and the men leaped up, releasing the
animal.

The calf stood, dazed for the time being, after it had scrambled
to its feet, and then trotted out of the corral, lashing its side
with its little tail. Plainly branded on it now, never to be
completely effaced, was the mark of the ownership of Mr. Merkel--
an X inside a diamond.

"Next!" called the branders:

"Here comes Dick!" shouted Bud, as Nort rode up beside him. "And
he got his calf!" "Good!" exclaimed the brother. "I guess we're
learning the business!"

"Surest thing you know!" asserted the son of the owner of Diamond
X. "I told you it wasn't so hard, and you've done the same thing
before."

"But not at such a big round-up," remarked Nort, as he prepared
to ride in again and cut out another calf.

"Yes, it is big," admitted Bud, as he made ready for his share in
the affair--his task being the same as that of his cousins--to
cut out the calves for branding purposes. "It sure is a big
round-up."

It had been in progress for days. Twice a year on the big,
western ranches, the cattle are driven in from the outlying
ranges, to be tallied, inspected, marked and shipped away. The
spring and fall round-ups are always busy seasons at any ranch.

During the times between round-ups the new calves attained their
growth, but they needed to have branded into their hides the
marks of their owners. Then, too, some yearlings escaped branding
at times, either by remaining out of sight at the round-up, or in
the attending confusion.

Unbranded calves who had partly attained their growth, were

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