Suddenly Terry tapped Fred on the shoulder and whispered:

"Down, Fred," and Fred dropped down on his knees.

Terry motioned with his hand and pointed out on his right where they could both see the figures of two men moving cautiously and closely behind the cattle, and they both wondered if another panel of the wire had not been cut just ahead of them.

Suddenly one of the cattle turned in their direction, and one of the men ran around to head him off. He ran almost over Fred, who sprang up and dealt him a blow on the side of his head that caused him to sink down unconscious.

CHAPTER VIII.

FRED AND TERRY CAPTURE CATTLE THIEVES.

Terry heard the blow that Fred gave the cattle thief and he knew what it meant, for the fellow sank down without uttering a word.

The thief's pal, seeing that the cow that had strayed off was not being turned around, went to the a.s.sistance of his confederate and he ran up against Terry.

Terry rose up and gave him a crack on the head with his heavy revolver.

He saw more stars than he probably ever thought had a home in the skies, and down he dropped.

"Now, Terry," whispered Fred, "let's see if there are any more of them,"

and as quick as possible they bound the two unconscious thieves hands and feet and continued to follow the cattle.

They walked straight up on their feet, knowing that the confederates, if there were any, would mistake them for their pals if they saw them.

After a few minutes they saw two other fellows advancing toward them, and one of them came up to Fred and asked in a low tone of voice:

"What's the matter?"

"Only this," said Fred, smashing him in the face with his revolver and sending him tumbling over in the gra.s.s. The other fellow stopped and, suspecting something wrong, started to run.

"Halt!" said Terry, "or you're a dead man."

The fellow threw himself down in the gra.s.s and tried to run on his hands and knees and thus escape any bullet that might be flied at him, but Terry was on him in a moment and gave him a terrible crack with his revolver on his head.

Terry searched him for a weapon and found an ugly-looking knife and a revolver on him. He took possession of the weapons and, with the ball of twine he had with him, bound him hard and fast, his hands behind him and his ankles together, and then ran on ahead of the cattle to look for the gap he suspected they were headed for, he soon found it.

Before a single beef had pa.s.sed through he and Fred turned the cattle back.

Then both of them followed the trail of the thieves, which they were enabled to do, dark though it was, by following the disarranged tall gra.s.s.

They found all of the men had recovered consciousness except the fourth man, who, was lying where he had fallen like a dead man.

"Terry," said Fred, "this is your man. What in thunder did you crack him so hard for?"

"I wanted to make sure of him," and they proceeded to drag the men to the gap that had been cut through the wire fence, took them through it, stood them up against a tree, for there were a few scattering trees growing down there, and tied them to the trunk hard and fast.

They both struck matches and held them up before their faces to see if they could recognize them, but they had never seen them before.

One of them, fearing that he would be recognized, very promptly blew out the light and mattered something in Spanish, so from that Fred and Terry judged that they were Mexicans--one, at least--and Fred took Terry aside and whispered to him that there must be other men mixed up in it; so they concluded to build a fire some ten feet off from them and then go back inside the enclosure and conceal themselves in the gra.s.s to watch, for they knew that n.o.body could go up to the tree to release the men tied there without being seen by the light of the fire.

The fire was built up against an old dead log, which, being dry and well seasoned, burned readily, and in some places blazed up some ten feet or more high. Some of the cowboys, seeing the light of the fire a half mile away, came down to see what it meant.

Fred and Terry recognized them and they waited to watch their movements.

One of them went up and talked with one of the men who was bound to the tree.

Both of them suspected their loyalty, but they proved to be true.

They looked around to find Fred and Terry, and several times used the signals that Fred had given them.

When Fred and Terry returned their signals they came toward them, looking carefully for them.

When they found them one of them asked:

"Boss, did you tie up those fellows?"

"Yes," said Terry, "and there's another one lying back there in the gra.s.s with a broken head, but all the same we tied him by his hands and feet to keep him from getting away."

Just then they heard the man groaning and calling to his pals, and the two cowboys followed the sound of his voice and soon found him, he having recovered consciousness. They picked him up and brought him down near the fire.

There all four of them denied that they had done anything wrong.

Each claimed that he had nothing to do with cutting out the wire, denied that he was driving the cattle and, of course, claimed to be innocent of any wrong-doing.

"Well," said Fred, "I hope you will be able to prove your innocence in court, for that is where you are going."

Then Fred turned on the two cowboys and asked them why they had left that corner of the ranch unguarded.

"Boss," one of them said, "there wasn't enough of us to reach down so far, and we thought that it would be safe to let it alone and to-morrow report it, but as soon as we saw the light we came down to investigate it."

Both of them thought that that excuse was reasonable, and Fred told them that they were expected to be vigilant in the discharge of their work and that they would employ more cowboys.

"Now you two can lie down here and sleep while we keep watch."

"Boss, we'll watch while you sleep," was the reply.

"No, we are going to keep watch ourselves. At daylight I want one of you to make your way back to the barn and hitch up a team, bring down a coil of wire and the necessary tools to repair this gap and then take the prisoners back to town.

"Fred," said Terry, "why not tell them to bring a coil of rope."

"What do you want with a rope, Terry?"

"Oh, Judge Lynch always has use for a rope for cattle thieves. I will act as sheriff, if you don't wish to have anything to do with it.

Generally I am opposed to lynching, but this is a fair case."

"No, Terry, I don't believe in that. I'm sorry that, instead of capturing them, we didn't shoot them and thus get rid of them without calling in Judge Lynch."

The prisoners, of course, heard every word that the boys uttered. The fact is, they were both talking for their benefit. The cowboys, though, thought that they were in earnest and they would see a lynching, so when the dawn of day began to appear in the east Fred sent one of the cowboys back to the barn with instructions to bring down a coil of barb wire and a coil of rope.