Baker Willard F.
The Boy Ranchers in Death Valley: or, Diamond X and the Poison Mystery

CHAPTER I
BAD NEWS

Excited shouts, mingled with laughter, floated on the sunlit anddust-laden air to the ranch house of Diamond X. Now and then, abovethe yells, could be heard the thudding of the feet of running horses onthe dry ground.

"What do you reckon those boys are doing, Ma?" asked Nell Merkel as shepaused in the act of laying the top crust on a raisin pie.

"Land knows," answered the girl's mother with half a sigh and half achuckle. "They're always up to something. And, now that your Pa isaway – "

Mrs. Merkel's remarks were interrupted by louder shouts from thecorral, and Nell heard cries of:

"Try it again, Bud!"

"You missed him clean, that time!"

"How'd you like that mouthful of dust?"

"Git up an' ride 'im, cowboy!"

Like an echo to these sarcastic exclamations, Nell heard the voice ofher brother Burton, commonly known as Bud, answer:

"I'll do it yet! Just you wait!"

"I wonder what Bud's trying to do?" murmured Nell.

"Oh, run along and look if you want to," suggested Mrs. Merkel, with akind regard for Nell's curiosity. "I'll finish the pie."

"Thanks!" And Nell, not even pausing to clap a hat over her curls, hastened out into the yard, across the stretch of grass that separatedthe main house from the other buildings of Diamond X and was soonapproaching the corral where were kept the cow ponies needed forimmediate use by the owner, his family or the various hands on the bigestate.

Nell saw several cowboys perched on the corral fence, some with theirlegs picturesquely wound around the posts, others astraddle of therails. Among them she sighted Dick and Nort Shannon, her two "city"cousins, who had come west to learn to be cowboys. And in passing itmay be said that their education was almost completed now.

"Why, I wonder where Bud is?" asked Nell, as she made her way to thefenced-in place.

A moment later she received an answer to her question, for her brotherarose from the dust of the corral and started for the fence. He seemedto have been rolling in the dirt.

"That's a queer way to have fun!" mused Nell.

Without making her presence known, she stood off a little way andwatched what was going on. She saw Bud mount the fence near where thetwo Shannon boys were sitting, though hardly able to maintain theirseats because of their laughter.

"Going to try it again, Bud?" asked Dick.

"Surest thing you know!" snapped back the boy rancher.

"Wait till I go in and get you a bit of fly paper!" suggested Nort.

"Fly paper! What for?" demanded Bud.

"So you can stick on!"

"Ho! Ho! That's pretty good!" shouted such a loud voice that Nellwould have covered her ears only she knew, from past experience, thatYellin' Kid did not keep up his strident tones long. But this time hewent on, like an announcer at a hog-calling contest, with: "Fly paper!Ho! Ho! So Bud can stick! That's pretty good!"

"Go ahead! Be nasty!" commented Bud good-naturedly as he climbed upthe top rail and perched himself there in standing position while helooked over the dusty corral that was now a conglomeration of restlesscow ponies. "But I'll do it yet!"

"I wonder what in the world Bud is trying to do?" asked Nell of herself.

She learned a moment later. For Bud, after balancing himself on thetop rail, looked across the corral to where Old Billee Dobb was holdinga restless pony, and the lad called:

"Turn him loose, Billee!"

"Here he comes! All a-lather!" shouted the veteran cow puncher, as heslapped his hat on the flank of the pony and sent it galloping aroundthe inside fence toward the waiting youth. "It's now or never, Bud!"

"It's going to be now!" shouted Nell's brother.

Fascinated, as any true girl of the west would be, by the spiritedscene, Nell saw Bud poise himself for a leap. Then she understood whatwas about to take place.

"He's going to jump from the top rail of the fence and try to land onthe back of the pony when it gallops past him!" murmured Nell."Regular circus trick that is! I wonder if he can do it? But from thelooks of him I should say he'd already fallen two or three times.Billee gave him a fast one this round."

Nell referred to the horse. And it was characteristic of her that shewas not in the least afraid of what might be the consequences of herbrother attempting the aforesaid "circus trick." Nell was as eager tosee what would happen, as were any of the cowboys perched on the corralfence, and in furtherance of her desire she drew nearer.

By this time the pony, started on its way by the slapping from BilleeDobb's hat, was running fast. And its speed was further increased bywhat Dick, Nort and their companions, perched up there like rail birds, did and said. For the punchers, old and young, yelled and yipped atthe steed.

"Come on there, you boneyard bait!" shouted Snake Purdee.

"Faster there, you spavin-eyed son of a Chinaman!" roared Yellin' Kid.

Nort gave vent to a shrill whistle, while Dick, drawing his bigrevolver, fired several shots in the air.

All this had the effect of further alarming the already startled ponyand when it neared the place where Bud was perched on the top rail, ready to make a flying leap, the animal was, as Old Billee had said,"all a-lather."

"Bud is crazy to try anything like that!" exclaimed Nell in a lowvoice. Nevertheless she did not call out to stop him, and her cheeksshowed rosy pink and her eyes were sparkling in the excitement of themoment.

"Go on, now! Ride 'im, cowboy!" came in stentorian tones from Yellin'

Kid.

"Oh, I hope he makes it!" voiced Nell, clenching her hands so tightlythat the nails bit into her palms.

A moment later, as the pony rushed around the confused bunch of itsfellows in the center of the corral, Bud leaped for its back, for theanimal was now opposite him. The pony carried only a blanket strappedaround its middle. And there was nothing for the venturesome rider, orwould-be rider, to cling to but this strap or blanket.

"If there was a saddle, Bud could make it!" whispered Nell in herexcitement. "I guess that's why he must have fallen the other times."

For upon his clothes and person Bud Merkel bore unmistakable signs andevidences of having fallen not once but several times in the corraldust.

"Wow!" yelled Dick Shannon.

"He's on!" cried his brother Nort.

"And off ag'in!" roared Yellin' Kid.

Bud had made the leap from the fence, his hands, for a moment, hadgrasped the strap around the pony and then his fingers had slipped off.Likewise the one leg he managed to throw over the steed's back seemedto be about to slide off.

But just when it seemed that Bud would fall to the ground, his fingers,in a last, despairing grip, caught a fold of the blanket. By a supremeeffort he pulled himself up, managed to get one leg over the ridge-likebackbone of the pony and, a moment later, he was sitting upright on thesaddle blanket, both hands under the strap, while his heels played atattoo on the sides of the steed, urging him forward at even fasterspeed.

"By golly, he done it!" cried Old Billee.

"He sure enough did!" echoed Yellin' Kid, reaching for his cigarettepapers and muslin bag of tobacco.

"That ought to get him something at Palmo," commented Snake Purdee, referring to a coming rodeo in a nearby town close to the Mexicanborder. "Can't do a much more hair-raisin' trick than that!"

"I didn't think he could do it!" commented Old Billee coming aroundfrom the far side of the corral to join his friends.

"Well, he tried hard enough before he managed to stick," exclaimed Nort.

In the excess of her enthusiasm Nell clapped her hands. And Dick, turning to ascertain the source of the noise, chuckled:

"Look who's here!"

"Got a ticket, little girl?" asked Bud, who, having demonstrated thathe could do what he had said he could – leap from the corral fence tothe back of a passing pony – was now slowing down his steed and ridinghim back to where the other punchers were perched.

"I'm a reporter," responded Nell with a smile. "I'm writing this rodeoup for the papers."

"Then we'll have to make a press box for you," said Nort.

He and his brother, with the half score of cowboys, and Nell wereoffering their congratulations to the daring boy rancher when a newvoice, floating toward the corral from the direction of the house, called to ask:

"What's all the excitement about?"

"Oh, hello, Dad!" cried Bud, waving his hat toward a well set-up, bronzed specimen of a western ranchman who was walking slowly towardthe fence. "Did you see me?"

"I saw you risk your neck, if that's what you mean," answered Mr.

Merkel with a half smile.

"You should have seen him when he missed!" chuckled Old Billee.

"Anything the matter, Dad?" asked Bud as he swung himself down off thesaddle blanket and approached his father who was now leaning over thetop rail of the corral fence. Something in Mr. Merkel's face showedthat he had news to impart.

"You see," went on Bud, "we're all going to do stunts over at the Palmorodeo, and I made up this one, of fence jumping, so Dick and Nort and Icould horn in on some of the prizes. But if you don't want me to – "He paused suggestively.

"You seemed to make out all right this last time, which is the onlytime I saw you," chuckled Mr. Merkel. "But – "

"You needn't worry about the ranch work, Dad!" interrupted Bud, eagerly. "It's all been 'tended to. Herd riding, looking afterfences, cattle all shipped off just as you left word when you went awayand all that. We got everything cleaned up and I thought we could takea little time off to practice for the rodeo."

"Oh, sure! That's all right!" Mr. Merkel hastened to say. "I wasn'tfinding any fault with your bare-back riding. But what I wanted to saywas that I've got a new job for you boys and if you take it on, which Ihope you'll do, you won't have any time for a rodeo."

"A new job!" cried Nort, eagerly.

"Anything to do with Chinese smuggling?" asked Dick.

"No, I'm glad to say it hasn't," went on the owner of Diamond X. "Thisis right in the line of your regular work."

"Then you bought the new ranch; did you, Dad?" asked Bud, for hisfather had been away about a week on a mission known only to theimmediate family, but which was now stated by his son.

"Yes," Mr. Merkel slowly replied, "I took over Dot and Dash, and ifeverything here at Diamond X and in Happy Valley is in as good shape asyou boys seem to think, why, I'm going to send you there."

"Send us where?" Bud wanted to know.

"To the new ranch – Dot and Dash is its cattle brand – to get it in shapebefore winter sets in. You don't mind; do you?"

"Mind!" joyously cried Bud. "Sure not!"

"That's good news!" commented Nort.

"Right-o!" sang out his brother. "Things were getting slow aroundhere, and if we didn't have the coming rodeo to think about – "

"Well, then if you're willing to take charge of Dot and Dash for awhile you can pass up the rodeo," chuckled Mr. Merkel. "Not but whatyou won't have more excitement, maybe, than if you did try bulldoggingand bare-back riding," he added to his son. "Only it will be sort ofdifferent, and your stunts will be doing some good instead of justendangering your necks."

"Aw, there wasn't any danger," murmured Bud.

"No!" chuckled Snake Purdee. "The dust is pretty soft to fall on," andhis point was illustrated as Bud began whipping some of the accumulatedsoil from his chaps.

"Well, that's what I came out to tell you, the news about buying Dotand Dash," concluded Mr. Merkel.

"That's good news for us!" declared Nort. "It will give Dick and me achance to show how much we have learned about cow punching since wecame here."

"Sure, it's good news all right," echoed Dick.

And then Old Billee Dobb struck in with a few remarks which, mostdistinctly, were in the category of bad news. For the veteran punchersaid:

"Excuse me, Boss," and he looked at Mr. Merkel to ask: "Did Iunderstand you to say you'd taken over the old Dot and Dash ranch?"

"That's right, Billee."

"Is that the outfit not far from Los Pompan, near the Mexican border?"

"That's the place, Billee."

"Hum!" The old man seemed lost in thought for a moment. Then he wenton with: "It's in a valley; ain't it, Boss?"

"Yes, Billee, in the prettiest valley, outside of Happy, that I everlaid eyes on. It's an ideal place for a cattle ranch. I'm lucky toget hold of it at the price I did. But Jed Barter was anxious to sellout and – "

"'Scuse me once more, Boss," and Old Billee seemed very anxious andmuch in earnest now, "but did you hear any rumors or talk about Dot andDash before you bought it?"

"No, Billee, I didn't. What do you mean?"

"Didn't anybody tell you the local name of the place 'fore you took itover?"

"The local name! Why, no. What's the name got to do with it?"

"Nothin' much, maybe," slowly answered Billee while the boy ranchersregarded him curiously. "Only Dot and Dash ranch is located in whathas always been called Death Valley, and nobody has ever been able tomake a success of it as long as I can remember. I wish, Boss," he wenton earnestly, "that you'd 'a' told me 'fore you bought this ranch. I'd'a' put you wise to what it really is – Death Valley!"

"Death Valley?" echoed Bud Merkel. "What do you mean? Who died there, and how come?"

An ominous hush fell over the assemblage of cowboys on the corral fenceand they looked from Billee Dobb to the owner of Diamond X. The badnews, clearly, had startled him from his usual calm.

CHAPTER II
UNDAUNTED BY FEAR

"Look here, Billee," began Mr. Merkel as he leaned against the fencefor he had just returned from a long journey and was rather weary. "Isthis a joke or are you just stringing me?"

"No stringing, Boss, and not a joke either. You've bought a ranch inDeath Valley as sure as shootin', and while I wish you good luck Idon't see how you're going to have it – not if Death Valley is like whatit was years ago."

"You aren't getting my new Dot and Dash ranch mixed up with Death

Valley in the Panamint Mountains of California; are you?" asked Mr.

Merkel. "I know that place – four hundred feet below sea level – alkali – borax and all that sort of stuff. Do you mean – ?"

"No, I don't mean that Death Valley," interrupted Billee. "This Death

Valley I speak of is only a local name for the region around Los

Pompan. But it's as bad as the other."

"Suppose you tell me more about it, Billee," suggested the ranch owner.

"Sounds like it would be a good yarn!" commented Bud.

"The kind I like to read about," added Nort.

"This is no yarn!" declared the veteran puncher in an ominous voice.

"It's gospel truth. I'll tell you all I know."

He hitched his heavy chaps around to make his legs more comfortable andthen, selecting a place on the ground, where a shadow was cast by thecowboys on the fence, Billee Dobb began his narrative.

But before I give you that, I want to make my new readers somewhatbetter acquainted with Bud Merkel and his two cousins. They are theyouths who are to be the heroes of this story, and they first came intoprominence in the initial volume of this series, entitled: "The BoyRanchers; or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X."

In that story was related how Norton and Richard Shannon had gone outwest, from New York, and how they took up life on the ranch of theiruncle Henry Merkel. There they found Bud, who had been among horsesand cattle all his life. Nort and Dick soon assimilated the traditionsof the west, became accomplished riders and able to punch cows with thebest of the hands on Diamond X. The lads from the east also learnedwhat it was to come to grips with rustlers, led by that notorious halfbreed Del Pinzo.

After having solved the mystery at Diamond X, Bud and his cousins weregiven virtual charge of another ranch in Happy Valley, not far from themain one managed by Mr. Merkel and his foreman Slim Degnan. But evenon what was, practically, their own ranch, the troubles and adventuresof the boys were not over.

Del Pinzo and others tried more of their tricks and in the succeedingvolumes of the series is related about the water fight, the battle withmore cattle rustlers, how the Yaqui Indians were trailed, and how thesheep herders were overcome. "The Boy Ranchers on Roaring River; orDiamond X and the Chinese Smugglers" is the title of the bookimmediately preceding the present volume, and in that Bud, Dick andNort had some narrow escapes from unscrupulous men. Incidentally theyhelped the United States government bring to justice a large Chinesesmuggling band.

Things on Diamond X had somewhat quieted down after the strenuous dayswith Delton and the others, and Mr. Merkel had gone off on a businesstrip, the import of which was little known to the boys. He hadreturned, as has been related, in time to see Bud leap from the fenceto the back of a galloping horse in preparation for rodeo stunts.

Then Billee Dobb had made his startling announcement about the ominouscharacter of the new ranch purchased by the cattleman.

"Before you spill your bad news, Billee," suggested Mr. Merkel, "maybeI ought to say a few words about what I've done. But also let me askyou if this Death Valley of yours is anything more than one of thepicturesque names we have out here in the Golden West. You know wejust naturally run to Dead Horse Gulch, Ghost Canyon and all that sortof stuff. So if your Death Valley doesn't mean more than those names, why – "

"It means a while lot more than just a name, Boss," said the oldpuncher solemnly. "It means real death."

"Death to whom, Billee?" asked Bud.

"To anybody that's foolish enough to try to live there and ride herd,"was the short answer.

"How about the cattle?" Dick wanted to know.

"The same thing happens to them as happens to the men," said Billee ina low voice. "They just naturally die off 'fore they can be shipped tomarket. Believe me, Death Valley is a good place to stay away from!"

"How is it, then, Billee," asked Mr. Merkel, "that nothing happened to me? I just came from there. I don't buy a pig in a poke. I went to

Dot and Dash and sized the place up before I closed the deal with Jed

Barter. How is it Death Valley didn't get me, Billee?"

Nothing daunted the old man replied:

"You didn't stay there long enough."

"Well, there may be something in that," admitted Bud's father. "But itwon't take me long to tell you boys," and he indicated his son, Dick,Nort and all the other punchers.

"For some time past," he went on, "I've had the notion that I wanted tospread out a little. Neither Diamond X nor Happy Valley is quite largeenough. To make any money in the cattle business nowadays you got todo business on a large scale. So I've been looking around, and makinginquiries, and in that way heard that the Dot and Dash ranch was in themarket. I'd looked at several others before I got word about this anddidn't like 'em, for one reason or another.

"But when I got to Los Pompan, which is the nearest town to where Dotand Dash is located, it struck me that here I'd found just what I waslooking for. The ranch wasn't too near the town, and yet it wasn't toofar from the railroad, and I took the trouble to find out if therailroad branch line I'd have to use had good cattle pens and loadingchutes. Lots of lines haven't."

"You spilled a mouthful of good beans right there," commented Snake

Purdee.

"So," resumed Mr. Merkel after nodding at Snake, "liking the firstonce-over I gave the ranch, I investigated further. It had plenty ofgood grazing ground, lots of water, and there's a range of hills thatwill keep off the cold winds in winter. Barter's cattle – what I saw of'em – looked to be in good shape. So, having satisfied myself, I madehim an offer for the place, we dickered a bit and then closed. So hevamoosed off Dot and Dash and I went on and took possession."

"But did you come away, Dad, and leave no one in charge?" asked Bud, insurprise.

"Oh, no," was the answer. "I hired Tim Dolan, the foreman who workedfor Barter, to remain in charge until I could send you boys down to getyour hands in."

"Was this here Dolan anxious to stay?" asked Billee, slowly.

"Well, no, now you mention it, he did seem in a hurry to get away,"admitted Mr. Merkel. "Though I didn't pay any attention to it at thetime. He said he had another job, and – "

"Most everybody that goes to Death Valley does get another job,"commented Billee, dryly. "But go on, Boss."

"Well, that's about all there is to tell," said Mr. Merkel. "I boughtDot and Dash and hurried home here to get Bud, and some of the boys togo down and take charge. And when I get here I find you practicingcircus stunts."

"I'm through that stuff, Dad, if you got a real job for me!" exclaimed

Bud.

"You'll get a real job all right, and then some," muttered Old Billee.

"Go on! Spill it!" begged Bud. "What you talking to yourself for?

Broadcast it, Billee!"

"Oh, I'll tell you all I know, if your father is through," voiced theveteran puncher.

"Yes, I'm through, Billee," said Mr. Merkel. "Let's hear your goodnews."

"'Tain't good news, and there's no use pretendin' it is!" snapped theaged cowboy. "If I'd known you was dickerin' for any ranch near LosPompan, Boss, I'd 'a' told you to lay off. But it's too late for thatnow, it seems, so I can only warn you to keep away."

"But I've bought it and paid for it. Barter has my money and – "

"Let him keep it, Boss."

"And lose the ranch and the cattle on it?"

"Better to lose your money than to lose your life," muttered Billee."As for the cattle, you'll find fewer of 'em there when you go backthan you left there."

"Oh, stop croaking, Billee, and spill the beans!" begged Nort.

"'Twon't take long," Billee answered. "I forget just how many yearsago it is," he said, looking off toward the distant hills that borderedDiamond X, "when, in the course of my wanderings, I struck Los Pompan.There was a ranch there then, called Dot and Dash, just as there isnow, but it was run by a fellow named Golas. Maybe he was a Mex.Anyhow I signed up with him and started to ridin' herd. But I didn'tstay long."

"Couldn't you hold down the job?" chuckled Babe Milton, who was Slim

Degnan's assistant, and as fat as Degnan was lean.

"None of your wise cracks!" snapped Billee. "I can cut out a bunch ofcattle better'n what you can any day and I'm a heap sight older 'n'wiser. No, the reason I quit was on account of what kept happenin' atDot and Dash."

"And what happened?" asked Dick.

"Death is what happened!" said Billee, solemnly. "Mysterious death!"

"Death can happen on any ranch," observed Mr. Merkel quietly. "Wehave, unfortunately, had deaths here."

"Yes, but they were natural deaths!" declared Billee. "And they didn'tkeep happenin' one after another like at Dot and Dash."

"How many deaths were there?" Bud wanted to know.

"I don't rightly remember, but there was plenty."

"You said they were mysterious," commented Nort. "In what way?"

"That's what nobody could find out," resumed the veteran puncher."First some poor devil of a puncher would be found dead off in somelonely swale. Then we'd find a bunch of cows stretched out, and thenwe'd find another dead man."

"Rustlers," suggested Slim.

"Rustlers nothin'!" scoffed Billee. "Rustlers drive off cattle – theydon't kill 'em – what would be the good?"

"I meant the rustlers did up the cowboys," suggested the foreman.

"Well, if these fellows, who were found dead, got shot, why wasn'tthere bullet holes in 'em?" asked Billee, teasingly.

"Wasn't there?" asked Dick.

"Not a hole."

"How about a knife thrust?" Nort wanted to know.

"Not a scratch or any kind of mark on 'em!" declared the old man. "Andyet their faces showed they'd died in agony. That's what I meant bymysterious deaths."

"It does sound rather queer," admitted Mr. Merkel. "But didn't youfind out what caused all this, Billee?"

"No, Boss, I didn't stay long enough. And neither did nobody else Iever heard of, who worked at Dot and Dash. I vamoosed."

"Well, maybe there was something queer about the ranch years ago,"admitted Mr. Merkel. "But that doesn't say, because fifteen or twentyseasons back something queer happened, that it's still going on."

"Oh, but it is!" declared Billee. "Not a month ago I met a puncher whowas lookin' for a job. He come here but I knew we was full up so Itold him to go over to Circle T, and he done so. But he'd been downDeath Valley way recent like, and he said it was just the same."

"You mean about mysterious deaths?" asked Dick.

"That's it, boy! So what I says is, lay off that place, Boss!"

"Hum!" mused Mr. Merkel. "It doesn't sound very jolly. I don't wantanybody to take any unnecessary risks and yet I hate to lose my money."

"You shan't lose it, Dad!" cried Bud.

"What do you mean, son?"

"Just this! Dick, Nort and I will go down there! We aren't going tobe scared off by any of Billee's tales! We're not afraid; are we?"

He looked at his fellow boy ranchers.

"Nothing to it!" declared Dick, valiantly.

"Let's go!" cried Nort, eagerly.

Undaunted by fear, the three lads ranged themselves alongside of Mr.

Merkel, waiting for his word.