The Boy Ranchers in Death Valley: or, Diamond X and the Poison Mystery

CHAPTER XXI
FALSE SECURITY

Only those, probably very few of you, who have ever taken part in agold rush can understand and appreciate the wild excitement thatprevailed when the flashing lights revealed the rock of the cave to beseamed and studded with yellow veins and patches. It aroused even themost lethargic of the cowboys. And, truth to tell, none of them werevery strongly of that type. They were accustomed to live amidexcitement of one kind or another, and this was but a new sort.

"Gold! Gold!" was the exulting murmur on all sides.

"There's enough here to make us all rich!" cried Yellin' Kid, his loudvoice echoing through the cavern.

"No more ridin' fence for me!" cried Snake.

"Me, I'm going to have one of them pianos that plays itself!" declaredBillee, whose soul, hitherto, had been obliged to get its feast ofmusic from a mouth organ.

"And look where them hombres have been takin' out our gold!" exclaimedYellin' Kid as he flashed his light on a wall where, unmistakably, excavating had been going on. There were signs of new digging in therock and dirt of the cave's sides and the ground beneath showed alitter of debris.

"You ought to make 'em pay for all they took out!" declared Snake to

Bud.

"Maybe it would be a good idea to catch 'em first," suggested Dick, quietly.

"Well, that's so. We'll do that after we have begun to dig out thegold," decided the cowboy. "Oh, boy! Look at the yaller stuff!" andhe picked up what seemed to be a nugget of great value. It was ofgleaming yellow and heavy in his hand.

The boy ranchers were no whit less excited than their older companions.But perhaps the finding of the gold mine, in which, knowing Mr.Merkel's generosity, the cowboys believed they all would share, meantmore to the older men than it did to the boys. The latter were, in asense, owners of the ranch and were not doomed to days and nights ofhard work on the range. There was a brighter future before them, because of their advantageous position, than there was ahead of Billeeand the others. Up to now the old cowboys had seen nothing but a hardlife (though there were enjoyable spots here and there) and theycounted on dying with their boots on, not from violence, perhaps, somuch as from wearing out at their labors. Now they saw a chance ofgetting rich quickly, or, if not exactly rich, at least of gaining acompetence.

No wonder they were excited.

"Boy howdy! I can't hardly believe it!" shouted Yellin' Kid. "Firsttime I was ever on a ranch that developed gold!"

"It's the first for me, too," said Bud.

"What's the best thing to do?" asked Nort, of no one in particular.

"Hadn't the boss better file a claim of discovery?" suggested a cowboywho said he had once lived in California.

"He don't need to file nothin'!" declared Billee. "This gold is foundon Mr. Merkel's land. Everything on the land is hissen. He can workthe gold mine same as he can his cattle ranges."

That seemed to be the consensus of opinion and it was decided that allremaining to be done was to inform Bud's father of the discovery, startto work the claim and take the profit.

"And clean out them rascals!" added Billee.

"Oh, sure!" agreed Bud. "It's queer, though," he went on as he flashedhis light about the cave, "that if gold has been here since thebeginning, as it must have, that the secret of it only just now gotout. And if the gang that's been working this mine has been shootingout poison gas to keep people away from here, why didn't some rumor ofthis gold strike filter out before?"

"There's something wrong," declared Billee. "I don't believe thedeaths that took place in this here valley, from the time I knowedabout 'em, had anything to do with this gold cave. I'm sure theydidn't. And, what's more, this claim has only been worked recent like.You can tell that by the fresh marks of the digging."

This was plain to all, and the more they thought of it the more of apuzzle it was. Clearly poison gas, if such it was, had only recentlybeen used to guard the approach to the cave. What, then, was theexplanation of the former mysterious deaths?

But the boys and their friends were so excited over the discovery ofthe yellow metal that they gave little heed to this phase of thematter. All the talk had to do with getting out the ore and findinghow much it assayed to the ton.

"But we can't let the cattle business slide; can we?" asked Dick, as heand most of the others prepared to depart. A guard was to be left inthe cave, and sufficient food and supplies would be sent them to enablethem to remain on constant duty.

"Oh, no, we won't give up the cattle business," decided Bud. "We'llwork that and the mine, too."

Mr. Merkel was duly astonished when, that night, his son succeeded ingetting in touch with him over the long-distance telephone from LosPompan. Bud found a booth to talk from which insured his conversationnot being broadcast in the town. If news of the gold strike got out itmight mean a rush. Not that any land around the gulch or cave could bepreëmpted by others, for it was all on Mr. Merkel's ranch. But noteverybody would respect his property rights and there might be trouble.

"Are you sure it's gold, son?" asked the ranchman over the wire.

"Why of course it is, Dad. What else could it be?"

"I don't know. But I'm going to make sure before I start a torch-lightprocession. I'll send you out a good mining man. Don't do anythinguntil he arrives, and keep your shirts on – all of you."

"All right, Dad. I know what you mean. We won't broadcast it."

"Better not. There might be a slip-up, you know."

"I don't see how there can be, but we'll keep it mum."

Busy days followed at Dot and Dash. While the cattle business was notpassed up, Bud and his cousins devoted all their time to the discoveryin the cave, and let the new cowboys attend to the shipping and care ofthe cattle. Some of the yellow ore was dug out and taken to the ranchhouse to await the arrival of the mining expert. Meanwhile it wascarefully guarded.

Covering several days a careful exploration of the cave had been madewithout discovering any of the enemy. There were several exits fromthe cavern, and it was surmised that the "gas gang," as they weredubbed, had escaped by one of these.

"But as long as they're gone, we haven't anything to worry about," said

Bud. "We're sitting pretty now."

"Nothing to worry about," added Nort.

"And I guess we won't find any more dead cattle," said Dick. "It musthave been some of the gas they were experimenting with that killed thecows and Sam's horse."

"Sure!" assented Bud.

Thus were the boys lulled into a false security, and their fond dreamswere not shattered for several days. It was on the afternoon of theday before the mine expert was to arrive that Bud, Nort and Dick, riding toward the cave to find out how matters were progressing there, saw, on a hillside some distance away from the glen, a number ofmotionless lumps.

"Looks like some of the steers from the main herd had strayed and weretaking a siesta," suggested Nort.

"Yes," admitted Bud, slowly. "But I wonder – "

Suddenly he put spurs to his pony and dashed toward the dark objects.His cousins followed and as they got near enough they saw that thecows, far from taking a siesta, were in their last sleep.

"They're dead!" exclaimed Bud. "Dead same as the others were – fromgas, or something. Boys, that gang is back again!"

"Then it's all up with the men on guard at the mine!" cried Nort.

CHAPTER XXII
TO THE RESCUE

There was no use wasting any time or sympathy over the dead cattle.They were dead beyond a doubt, a fact which was easily proved. Andyet, as before, there was not a sign of anything that showed how theyhad met their death. The bodies lay in a natural position, as thoughthe animals had been overcome when grazing and had sunk gently down.Or as if they had succumbed to some gentle poison that brought apainless death.

"Well, if this isn't the limit!" cried Bud while his cousins looked athim and at each other with wonder on their faces.

"Of all the rotten things to do!" snapped out Nort. "To kill thesepoor cattle! Why doesn't that gang fight like men if they want to givebattle – not spray their dirty poison gas around dumb beasts?"

"It is pretty rotten," agreed Dick.

Bud was carefully scanning the ground in the vicinity of the deadcattle, at the same time cautiously sniffing the air to detect anypossible taint. But he seemed to discover nothing. Dick and Nortfollowed his example, but were unable to come upon any clew.

However, not far from where the half dozen valuable animals had droppeddead there was a little crack or rift in the earth. It was a sort ofopening between two long ridges of rocks, there being an outcropping ofstone at this point. It was part of the two ridges which, suddenlyrising higher, formed the walls of Smugglers' Glen farther to thesouth. Dick was the first to notice it.

"See anything there?" asked Bud, noting that his cousin was bendingover the cleft in the surface.

"No, I can't see anything and I can't smell anything," he added, as hebent closer.

"But I can hear something!" added Nort.

"Hear something?" questioned Bud.

"Yes, the sound of running water down there. Listen!"

He bent with his ear over the crack in the rocks. And in the silence, broken only by the slight movements of their ponies, from which theyhad dismounted, the boys heard the murmur as of water flowing along farunder ground.

"I'm afraid that doesn't mean anything," said Bud when he had signifiedthat he, too, heard the ripple. "Dad said there were a lot ofunderground streams around here. This one must come from the littlebrook that flows through Smugglers' Glen. It takes a dip down underthe rocks and comes to the surface again farther on."

"I guess you're right," admitted Dick. "It doesn't mean anything. But

I didn't know there was underground water in this section."

"Oh, yes, plenty of it," Bud added. "I've seen other places with rockfissures like this where you could hear water bubbling along beneaththe surface."

"Then this goes into the discard," spoke Nort, meaning that it wasuseless to form any theory about the mysterious deaths if it was to bebased on the underground streams.

"But we'd better get on to the cave mine!" cried Bud. "If thosefellows are at their poison gas game again, it's likely that SamTarbell and the fellows we left on guard are in as bad shape as thesecows. Darn the luck, anyhow!"

"That's what I say!" chimed in Nort as the three hastened to where theyhad left their ponies. "Just as we thought we were sitting pretty, with nothing to worry about, along comes this! Wonder how they workedthe game, anyhow?"

"They must have got back in the cave – probably from the end where theyran out the time we chased 'em with our gas masks on," said Dick."They sneaked up on our fellows, let loose a cloud of gas, put them outof business and then came down here to kill the cows."

"But that's what I can't understand," said Bud. "Why should they go tothe trouble of killing cows? Cows can't spy on those gold minejumpers. Cows can't get out any gold. It's all so useless, thiskilling of our beasts."

"I guess they're just natural devils as Billee claims," suggested Nort.

"But we'll pay 'em back!"

"You bet we will!" exclaimed Bud. "And now to the rescue! We've gotto save Sam and his crowd if we can!"

They galloped their ponies in the direction of the Glen, and reachedthe opening to the sinister defile in record time. Nor did they stopto dismount. Rough as was the way, they rode their mounts up thevalley until they came within sight of the cave. Nor were theystopped, and they detected no gas, though they were on the alert for it.

"Maybe it's a false alarm," suggested Nort. "Maybe our fellows didn'tsuffer from a gas attack after all."

"Well, the cows certainly did!" exclaimed his brother.

However their worst fears were realized when, as they flung themselvesoff their horses at the mouth of the cave they saw, just within, theprostrate forms of Sam Tarbell and his companion guards. Stark andsilent the men lay there.

"We're too late!" muttered Bud sorrowfully.

"They're all dead!" echoed Nort.

"This is Death Valley sure enough!" came gloomily from Dick.

There was a movement within the cave. There sounded the rattlingechoes of dislodged stones.

"Some one's coming!" murmured Bud, drawing his gun.

A moment later there emerged from the cavern the form of Old Tosh. Hedid not appear surprised to see the boys, nor to note the prostrateforms of the men. In one hand he held a bottle of his Elixer andwaving it over his head he cried:

"I'm just in time! Come on, boys, help me! We'll save 'em yet!"

CHAPTER XXIII
TESTING THE GOLD MINE

Any suspicions which the boy ranchers held against the old man vanishedquickly as they saw the eagerness with which he went to work to save,if possible, the men on guard at the cave gold mine. Bud and hiscousins had, naturally, held back a little against approaching thestark, prostrate forms too closely. They were still young enough tobe, at a time like this, unduly impressed by death.

But Old Tosh, as he was generally called, went at the business as if hewere a doctor intent on saving lives in desperate danger. He opened abottle of his Elixer, and, though the boys thought it pitifully weakstuff for the occasion, he appeared to have unbounded faith in it.Raising the head of Sam Tarbell, the old man placed the bottle to thesilent lips, tipped it up and managed to force a little into the cowpuncher's mouth.

"Come on, you boys!" Tosh called to Nort, Dick and Bud. "You got tohelp. I can't do this all alone. I'm just in time. I knew this wouldhappen. They're on the verge of death but I'll save them."

"I'm afraid you're too late," said Bud.

"No, I'm not. These men are alive yet. All they need is a littlestimulant to bring 'em around. They didn't get much of a dose of thepoison gas. If they had, not even my Elixer could save 'em. But itcan now. Come on, there's another bottle in my coat pocket. Reach itout and get busy, boys!"

Bud made a jump to do as directed. And as he was taking the secondbottle from the old man's coat, while Tosh was still administering themedicine to Sam, Bud could not help wondering whether the queer hermithad anything to do with loosing the flood of gas against the mineguards. It was no time, now, however, to make such an inquiry.

Bud and his cousins gave Ned Frosh and Bill Dungan each some of theElixer, raising the men's heads and forcing the liquid between theirlips as they had seen Tosh do. As for the hermit, he went from Sam toa puncher who rejoiced in the name of Slippery Mike, giving him a gooddose.

And then, strange as it may see, each of the four guards revived, opened his eyes and sat up. They had dazed looks on their faces, butwere unharmed.

"What happened?" asked Bud of Sam, who was the leader in charge of theforce guarding the gold mine. "Did those fellows come back and shootgas at you?"

"I don't rightly know what did happen," Sam answered. "If thosefellows came back we didn't see 'em. But there was sure some gas, forit hit us all of a sudden and keeled us over before we knew it. Howdid you get here, and what's he doing here?" Sam pointed at the oldman.

"He got here soon after we did," Nort explained. "And I guess it'slucky he did. That stuff he gave you brought you fellows back to life."

"It's strong enough to make a mud turtle race with a jack rabbit!"chuckled Slippery Mike. "But it isn't bad, at that. If I could haveanother swig of it – "

Old Tosh hospitably held out the bottle.

"'Twon't hurt you," he said. "It's Life's Elixer."

"But how'd you know we was knocked out?" asked Sam when each of theguards had taken some more of the medicine. "It only happened a littlewhile ago."

"And we only came a little while ago," said Dick. "We were out on therange and we saw some dead cattle. Right away we jumped to theconclusion that you had been poisoned with gas same as the steers. Sowe came here and found you stretched out. Then along came Mr. Tosh andhe did the right thing, it seems."

"Did you know this had happened?" asked Bud of the old man.

"What, that these men had been gassed? No, I wasn't aware of it,"answered the hermit. "I came back here to see if those men had goneaway from my cave – the cave where they drove me out. I wanted to useit again, for there's no better place for brewing my Elixer. I went inthe cave from the other end, and when I got here I saw you menstretched out. I knew what had happened, right away."

"But did you see any of those rustlers, holdup men, or whatever theyare, with their gas cylinders?" asked Bud.

"No, I didn't," was the reply. "I don't know anything about gascylinders. The poison gas doesn't come in cylinders. It comes out – "

"Oh, yes, it does come in cylinders, and it comes out of them,"interrupted Bud. "We have some of the cylinders that we captured whenwe drove the men out of the gold mine."

"Gold mine?" excitedly cried the old man. "Where's a gold mine?"

"In that cave," and Bud pointed to it. "The cave where we saw youbrewing your pot of herbs. Didn't you know there was gold there?"

Old Tosh shook his head.

"I don't take much stock in gold," he said. "But I liked that cavebecause it was so sheltered. Only, sometimes, I couldn't stay in it onaccount of the gas."

"That's the gas we mean," explained Nort. "The poison gas these mensprayed out of cylinders to keep us away so we wouldn't find there wasgold in the cave. But we got gas masks and drove 'em out."

Again Old Tosh shook his head.

"I don't know anything about gas in cylinders," he said. "But then Ibeen away a long time, in another county, getting different kinds ofherbs. My Elixer is better than ever now and stronger."

"I'll say it's strong!" declared Slippery Mike.

"So I came back to see if I could use my cave," went on Old Tosh. "Nowabout this gas – "

But he was not allowed to go on, for Bud, seeing the effect of the

Elixer on Sam and his companions had a new thought.

"Will that save the dead steers – I mean the steers that seem to bedead?" he asked the hermit. "There's half a dozen of 'em out on thehill, and – "

"No," replied Tosh, "this stuff won't bring the dead back to life. Itwill only revive where a spark of life remains. And, in any case, itisn't effective on animals. It is only for humans."

"Then our steers are dead," sighed Dick.

"Guess that's a foregone conclusion," agreed Nort. "But what do youthink of him, anyhow?" he asked Bud in a whisper, indicating Tosh.

"You mean do I have any suspicions against him?"

"Yes. Do you think he may have gotten hold of a cylinder of the poisongas and sprayed it on these men so as to get a chance to use his Elixerto revive them?"

Before Bud could answer there was a noise as of men and horses comingup the defile, and, thinking it was some of the former gang returning, guns were whipped out. But they were not needed. Two mild-manneredand inoffensive appearing men rode into sight. They had the look ofcollege professors. Behind them rode Billee Dobb.

"Hello, boys!" greeted Billee, all unaware of the recent sensationalhappenings. "Here's the mine experts your dad sent out to look overour gold prospects, Bud. They're going to test the quality of the ore, and see how much it assays to the ton. That's the right way to expressit; ain't it?" He turned to the older of the two men.

"That is perfectly correct, Mr. Dobb. And if you will show us the minewe can soon tell you, approximately, how valuable it is."

"It's in that cave. You'll find lots of gold there. And the first lotthat comes to me is goin' to be spent for a self-playin' piano. Butwhat happened here?" Billee asked, for he was now aware that somethingunusual had taken place.

"The darn scoundrels!" he exclaimed when he had been told of the deathof the cattle and the plight of the men. "So they come back; did they?Well, we'll soon have a big force here takin' out gold and we'll keepbetter guard."

Meanwhile the mining experts went into the cavern to test the gold mine.

CHAPTER XXIV
A STRANGE DISCOVERY

Billee Dobb, having listened to the stories of Bud and his cousins, andthe tale told by Sam and his pals, shook his head dubiously.

"I can't figger it all out," he said. "But you sure done a noble job,Tosh, and we thank you for it. Can you tell us anything about thoserascals with their tanks of gas?"

"I don't know nothin' about gas tanks," said the old man. "But morethan once I've warned you men about – "

What the warning was he did not get a chance to explain, for at thatmoment Professor Dodson, the mine expert, with his assistant, ProfessorSnath, emerged from the interior of the cave, into whose black depthsthey had disappeared some time ago, while Bud and the others weretalking.

"By golly!" exclaimed Billee, suddenly changing the subject. "They gottheir report ready pretty quick. I reckon the gold's so thick in therethey don't need to make much of a test. Whoopee! I'll soon have myself-playin' piano!" He was as eager and excited as a boy. Indeed Budand his cousins were not a little excited as they looked at the twoscientists who came out carrying specimens of ore which they hadknocked off the walls of the cave with their peculiar hammers.

"Didn't take you long," commented Bud.

"No, this was an easy problem," answered Professor Dodson. "We don'teven need an assay to determine our findings."

"By golly! What do you know about that?" cried Billee. "About howmany dollars will she run to the ton?" he asked. "I only want to knowabout," he stipulated. "I won't pin you down by five or ten dollars,'cause I think that wouldn't be fair. But roughly about how much doyou think our mine will assay to the ton?"

"How much what?" asked Professor Dodson with a peculiar smile. "Howmuch what to the ton?"

"How much gold, of course!" exclaimed Billee. "What else? Gold's whatwe want; ain't it?" and he chuckled as he turned to his friends.

"Sure – gold!" was the murmur.

"Then I'm sorry to have to tell you that there is not one ounce of goldin any number of tons of ore and rock in that cave!" was the unexpectedand startling answer. "There isn't any gold at all."

"No gold!" cried Bud.

"No gold!" echoed his cousins.

"No – no – gold!" faltered Billee Dobb, his jaw falling. He saw hisself-playing piano fading back into the dim vista of his dreams.

"No gold," repeated Professor Dodson. "What we have here," and heindicated the ore specimens held by himself and Professor Snath, "is aselected lot of samples of iron sulphid. It is a yellow ore that looksvery much like gold, but which has none of the properties of real gold.In fact it is so often mistaken for the valuable metal that it has cometo be called 'Fools' Gold.' I am sorry, but such is the case. I shallso report to Mr. Merkel, who engaged me to come out here after hearinghis son's account."

"Fools' gold!" murmured Bud. "Well, it fooled us all right."

"Yes, and it fooled those other fellows," said Nort. "The men with thegas cylinders," he added.

As the two professors looked a little puzzled, Dick explained:

"There were some men hiding in this cave who must have thought, thesame as we did, that it contained gold. They drove out Mr. Tosh, whoused the cavern to brew his medicine. Then they drove us out. Theyused tanks of some poison gas, or at least gas that made a manunconscious. We had to put on gas masks, the kind used in the war, tofight 'em. But we drove 'em out."

"And a lot of good it did us," said Bud gloomingly, "if there isn't anygold in there."

"No, the evidence is too plain to be mistaken," said Professor Snath."It does not even require a laboratory test to prove that the cave isrich in iron sulphid, but not gold."

"Maybe it will turn out to be an iron mine instead of a gold mine!" putin Billee, with new hope showing on his face. "Iron's valuable. Notworth as much as gold, of course, but a good iron mine – say, boys, maybe I'll get that self-playin' piano yet."

But again his hopes were dashed.

"It wouldn't pay to work this section even for iron," said Professor

Dodson, and his assistant nodded his agreement.

"Well, then," remarked Nort, "we'll have to keep on raising cattle."

"But we can't do that if these fellows are going to let loose a floodof poison gas and kill them off every now and then!" bitterly criedBud. "We're beat either way you look at it. Just as you said, Billee, this is Death Valley."

"Tell me more about this!" suddenly suggested the older scientist.

"What is all this about poison gas in tanks killing cattle?"

"I can tell you!" came from Old Tosh. "I know all about it but nobodywould ever listen to me. They said I was crazy. But I know! Lookhere!"

He pointed to a crack, or fissure in the rocky floor of the glen, notfar from the cave entrance. It was just such a crack as Bud and hiscousins had noticed one day near the place where they had found somedead cattle.

"Listen to that! It's rising!" cried Old Tosh, bending over the crack.

The two professors, the boy ranchers and some of the punchers leanedover and listened. From somewhere down in the depths of the earth camethe rustle and swish of running water.

"An underground stream," said Professor Dodson. "They are not uncommonin this region. But – "

Suddenly he started back and withdrew his face quickly from above thecrack in the earth.

"Hurry away from here!" he cried. "The gas is rising. I begin tounderstand now. It is the secret you have been trying to solve. Hurryaway! It may not be deadly, but it will overcome all of us in a shorttime."

He ran down the defile, away from the long fissure, followed by theothers, Billee and his men driving the ponies before them. ProfessorDodson had made a strange discovery, after Old Tosh had put him on thetrack of it.