CHAPTER XXIX

OF COURSE!

It was true that these were very busy times around the Langdon Ranch. The two horse thieves who had been captured, partly by the aid of Oriole and Teddy, had been sent to town to be held for the sitting of the court. Whether Hank Ridley, the chief outlaw, would ever be captured or not was a question. At this time of year all the ranchmen were engaged in much more necessary work even than the running down of desperadoes.

Oriole was vastly disappointed that circumstances had not proved her own and Teddy's contention correct--that Ridley and his companions were the ones who had robbed the ranch house of the chest of silver. But she had other important matters to think of too; and one of these topics of thought was the loss of her wrist watch. She considered that watch, which Myron had given her at the New Year's Eve party, her most valuable possession. The gold heart-shaped locket and chain that had been Marian's present at the same time, Oriole only wore on very especial occasions, but the watch had been her constant companion while riding over the ranch.

As nobody seemed to consider its loss of much importance save Oriole herself, she soon stopped talking about it. But the determination grew in her mind to make an effort to recover the watch. Why not? She knew the way to the spot where it had been dropped--knew the way perfectly. Ridley had dashed away from that place at top speed. Indeed, if he was still in the basin he would not likely be anywhere near the place where his friends had been captured.

The girl was viewing the problem quite calmly. Should she risk continuing what she had begun? or should she retreat without accomplishing anything? It needed some courage to decide as Oriole did decide, after all.

"There's nothing to be afraid of in the daytime," thought Oriole.

She repeated this to herself a score of times. There might be other bears in the foothills besides the one George Belden had killed; but Oriole knew now that bruin was a timid beast--more timid, indeed, than the trout she and Teddy had caught.

It was true, however, that the girl did not say anything to her friends about her intention. She still rode about the ranges without molestation; and if she could push Molly to the confines of the Langdon's pastures, why could she not climb to the heights by one of the wild paths she knew of?

Therefore, only two days after the twins were brought home in triumph, Oriole saddled Molly soon after their early breakfast and cantered away across the range without saying a word even to Teddy about her destination.

"Of course he'd try to stop me," she told herself, in some glee, feeling that she was being quite independent for once. "They all think that a girl is sort of _tame_."

However that might be, Oriole was confident that she could take care of herself. She knew the way to the heights where Shaffer and Mudd had been captured. And, indeed, she was eager to follow that secret trail again--the path that led behind the curtain of falling water in the little known ravine.

Molly was two hours in bringing her to this spot. The girl was assured of the way, and found no obstruction to her course when she ventured behind the falling water. Molly snorted and shied a little; but Oriole forced the pony on and was soon climbing the wet rocks on the far side of the falling stream.

"I'm sure _that_ was no trouble," she told the pony. "You needn't snort so and shake your head. Maybe I won't make you go back the same way. It is shorter, but the path Mr. Belden showed us is safer, I s'pose."

In half an hour Oriole arrived at the rim of the huge basin in which thousands of cattle might have grazed (and it was free grass) had the paths to the height not been so treacherous. Horses might be driven here in the summer, but never steers in any number. Horses are more surefooted than heavy cattle.

There was the big rock beside which Oriole remembered standing with the Langdon twins and looking at her watch. Off to the left was the spot where Shaffer and Mudd had wrestled until the Langdon ranch cowboys made their appearance and captured them. She urged Molly to descend the slope to the bowlder.

There she jumped off and began to search in the grass for the lost watch. It had not rained since her former visit, and surely nobody would have found the watch. Who, indeed, would have been in this vicinity since the hour Oriole had last seen the place?

She had been convinced that the escaping Hank Ridley would not linger near this side of the basin. Oriole did not dream that the prospect-hole she had heard mentioned on two occasions by the desperadoes was near this spot where she now stood.

She knelt down and searched to the very roots of the grass for the pretty wrist-watch which she had so much prized. It _must_ have been dropped here--or near here. Over yonder was the pool of water where she had washed her hands before mounting again for the journey back to the ranch. She trailed across the meadow to that pool, searching for the dropped trinket all the way.

When she had washed her hands the watch was gone. Of course it was, or she would have carefully removed it. And she knew that she did not take it off her wrist and carelessly lay the watch down.

While she stood marveling beside the pool Molly suddenly snorted, and Oriole turned to see the pony jump aside.

"What _is_ the matter with her?" thought the girl. "Can it be a snake?"

Oriole shivered at the thought. Once she had heard the whir of a rattle-snake's warning, and she knew that the sting of the creature was usually deadly. Horses, cattle and sheep, as well as mankind, were fearful of the rattler.

Nevertheless the girl ran toward her mount. She carried her quirt in readiness. If there was a snake coiled there she meant to strike at it with the whip. Teddy had often told her what to do when she saw one of the reptiles.

But she saw nothing on the ground to frighten the pony. Indeed, Molly was looking up, not down, and backing away from the huge bowlder that was fringed all about its top like an Indian's head-dress with bushes that were rooted in crevices in the rock.

"Goodness!" gasped Oriole suddenly, and she backed away too.

No wonder Molly was frightened! If that was a snake, it was a monster. Down the gray rock was creeping a gyrating body possibly a couple of inches in diameter, and goodness knew how many feet long!

"For the land's sake!" ejaculated Oriole, repeating one of Sadie Brown's favorite expressions. "It isn't a snake. _It's a rope._"

And that is exactly what it was. Down from the summit of the bowlder, through the fringe of bushes which surrounded its bald top, was being lowered a strong rope. Of course, there was little mysterious about it--even to Oriole's mind.

There was somebody up there letting down the rope. That the hidden summit of the huge rock made an excellent hiding place there could be no doubt. The girl jumped to the most natural conclusion without any hesitation.

"It's that Ridley!" she whispered. "That is where he hid the rope from Mudd and Shaffer! And he's dared come back to this side of the basin to get it. Oh, dear! if somebody was only here--even Teddy! What shall I do?"

There was still time for the girl to get away without Ridley being aware of her presence. But she could never ride to the ranch house for help, and bring a party here before the outlaw got away with the rope. No, indeed!

"He is going right to that prospect-hole to get the chest of silver, that is what he is going to do!" she decided. "And I can't stop him. Oh! I don't dare let him know I have spied on him."

She seized Molly's reins and hurried the pony to the nearest thicket that offered shelter for both her and the pony. From this spot she peered out at the descending rope. It coiled itself roughly at the foot of the rock--almost on the spot where Oriole had hoped to find her wrist watch.

"And maybe that mean old Ridley will find my watch," she thought anxiously. "Then I'll never see it again."

But now her interest in the watch was less than that she felt in the rope and its manipulator. For in a very few moments she saw that her suspicions were correct. It was Hank Ridley who had lowered the rope from the crown of the bowlder.

He appeared between the low brush hedge up there, and allowed the end of the rope to fall. Then, backing around, he came down the bowlder with great care. It was no easy descent.

Oriole wished she had some means of holding him prisoner up there. But there was no possibility of her doing that. She had no weapon with which to frighten Ridley. And, even if she had had a pistol, what would the outlaw be doing with his own firearm which she could very plainly see was in its holster at the back of his belt?

She wondered, too, where the rascal had left his horse. And where was the prospect-hole to which she believed the outlaw would take the long rope he had now secured?

"But I mean to find that out," thought Oriole with confidence. "I don't care how far it is away."

Ridley scrambled finally to the ground. From a clump of bushes he picked up his hat and coat. Then he coiled the heavy rope into a neat skein, tying it about the middle. When he shouldered it the rope dragged on the ground, and it seemed about all that he could carry.

"How will he ever make his horse carry such a weight?" murmured the girl, who knew something of the nature of cow ponies by this time. They do not like to be made beasts of burden. "I just wonder if that old mine _is_ so very far away. That's where he is going, for sure."

Ridley started away toward the north. He did not seem, after all, to be looking for his horse. Oriole tied Molly in the scrub patch and followed Ridley. She could do this safely, for the outlaw would not be likely to look over his shoulder while he was dragging that heavy rope.

He entered a piece of wood that covered the easterly slope of the basin. When he was out of sight Oriole ran forward and entered the covert at the same place.

The dragged coil of rope made a plain trail for the girl to follow. In five minutes she came to a tiny clearing where the sod had been scraped off down to the subsoil of coarse sand and gravel. There were great mounds, too, of soil and splintered rocks that, she saw at once, had been brought out of a shaft that gaped in the middle of the patch of open.

The old prospect-hole!

Of course, she now understood, the shaft would be near by. That was why Shaffer was lurking in the vicinity when Ridley and Mudd had appeared with the Langdon twins. Ridley would not have hidden the rope far away from the old mine, for it was too heavy to carry.

And now what was the man about to do? The troubled Oriole watched anxiously, wondering all the time if she might not do something to make it impossible for him to recover the treasure which she believed was hidden in the bottom of the deep well.