"No, it wasn't that, you see; but what I managed to hear them say," he exclaimed.

"Meaning Braddon and some of his bunch; is that it, Billie?"

"Yes, and the very pair Donald was warning us against, Shorty and Junior," the fat boy went on to declare eagerly.

"So, they were having a nice little confab all by themselves, were they?" asked the other.

"Just what they were; and say, Ad, d'ye know the temptation was really too much for me, and I _had_ to make the try, even if I did know what I'd rub up against if they discovered me listenin' to 'em talk."

"Do you mean to say you crept up close enough to hear anything?"

demanded Adrian, as though he could hardly believe it possible on the part of the stout chum to attempt such a bold thing, in the first place, and actually carry it to a successful issue in the second.

Billie wagged his head, and a proud gleam came into his sunny blue eyes.

"I got away with it, though how I did the same will puzzle me lots," he started to explain. "But when I saw that bunch with their heads so close together I just made up my mind they must be plottin' like fun; and I wished I could get a chance to listen. Then, all at once I noticed that there _was_ a way a fellow might crawl up back of the rocks, if only he knew how to do it. How I wished either you or Donald was with me; because you see I was afraid that I'd make a bad job of the thing, and only get a few nice kicks for my trouble. But all at once I gritted my teeth this way, you know; and when I do that there's going to something happen, make up your mind to that."

"Yes, I know, Billie, there surely is; and so you concluded to try the crawl by yourself, did you?"

"I just got down on my ham-bones, and began to sneak along the best I knew how," the enthusiastic fat boy went on to say, excitedly, as though even the remembrance of his recent feat stirred him to the core. "Inch by inch, and foot by foot, I went crawling along, till at last I landed in the snuggest little nook you ever saw, and where I couldn't go any further because there wasn't any more cover."

"And what did you hear?" asked Adrian.

"I just managed to pick up a few words now and then, when one of the bunch talked a little louder than common; and at first it was like a lot of Choctaw to me, because, you see, I hadn't got my clue yet. After a little I could put things together better, and then the whole thing flashed on me like an avalanche."

"Yes, go on, Billie, I'm listening," urged the other, beginning to himself feel the thrill of eager expectation, which of course was what Billie was leading up to all this while.

"Let me tell you what I reckon that schemer Braddon is planning to do with his big pay promises to the old Zuni chief," Billie continued, impressively; "he wants to get the greater part of the tribe to flock away after him; and when he finds a chance he means to give 'em the slip, come back here, and force the old medicine man to show him where that wonderful treasure of his lies, that has been talked about so much all through this region for years! What d'ye think of that for a grand scheme, now, Pard Adrian?"

The other sat there for a full minute, as though digesting the tremendous idea in his mind, while Billie waited to hear what his opinion might be, his face reflecting the various emotions that controlled him.

Finally Adrian looked up.

"First of all, let me congratulate you, Billie, on doing what you did.

It was the work of no greenhorn. After this Donald and myself have got to look out, if we don't want to wake up some fine morning, and find ourselves only has-beens. You're getting there with a rush. But I reckon you hugged that hiding-place till they went about their business; you never tried to crawl back again, and take new chances?"

"I guess I knew enough for that, Adrian. I just lay there, and waited.

They went off after a bit; and when the coast was clear, I stepped out and walked around, like nothing was the matter. But as soon as I got the first chance, let me tell you I scooted for the camp, licketty-split. I was fairly bursting with that news. And it's nice of you to pay me such a compliment, that's right. I feel as if it was worth all it cost, just to know that one of my chums appreciates me."

"And the other will say the same when he hears what you did," Adrian hastened to declare. "But I wish Donald would show up; he's been gone all of two hours."

"Say, you don't think they could a got hold of him, any sort of way, do you, Adrian?" questioned Billie, as though a sudden terrible suspicion had gripped him.

"Well, hardly, in broad daylight," laughed the other; "if it was night, now, there might be some little reason to think that way. He'll be along soon. P'raps he's found those cowboys good company, and is clinching them as friends, so we could rely on their backing, if it came to such a showdown."

"Oh! I hope we don't have trouble with that bunch," remarked Billie; "because I'm opposed to violence, you know; but then, if they try to chase us out of this Zuni town, I reckon I'd get my back up, and kick just as hard as the rest of you. But you believe what I told you, don't you, Adrian?"

"It seems almost too terrible to believe, but when I remember the look on the face of that man, Mark Braddon, I'm tempted to say that nothing would be too dreadful for him to try, if he thought he saw a chance to make a big haul by it."

"Well, he would, if his game worked well, and they could force the old medicine man to give up the secret of his hidden treasure," Billie went on to say in a reflective sort of way. "Goodness knows we've heard a heap about the same; and if even one tenth of it is true, he must know where a mighty rich gold vein lies in the heart of this old Sacred Mountain of theirs."

"Still, do you know, I'm not so very much surprised at what you've been telling me," the other chum went on to say.

"You sort of had an idea he was up to some dodge like that, didn't you, Adrian?" Billie asked; for he had fallen into a way of believing that these two wide-awake comrades of his could see through puzzles that bothered him greatly.

"He looked like a man who would engineer a big game, and yet I couldn't seem to get it through my head what sort of a play he could make by luring the chief away with more than half the tribe. Then what I heard about the tremendous pay he offered, which he kept on increasing every new time he talked it over with the head man, made me suspect that he never meant to do the right thing. But honest now, Billie, I never once thought of such a clever scheme as you've been telling me about."

"Well, what'll we do about it?" demanded the fat chum.

"Nothing right away, I should think," replied Adrian, after apparently thinking it all over.

"What, not even tell the chief how he's been taken in and done for; would that be fair and square for us, Adrian?"

"There's no hurry, you see," answered the other, calmly; "look at the thing without getting excited, Billie, and you'll agree with me.

To-morrow comes the day for all this Zuni ceremony business to reach a head, for they're going to give the rattlesnake dance then. After that's once over with we can get the chief to listen, while you tell all you heard. He'd be a fool after that to take any stock in the big offers of money that Braddon is making, to coax him to be an attraction for his Wild West Show, which, between you and me, I never heard of, and don't believe ever had any existence."

Billie sighed. Perhaps he still thought they should "make hay while the sun shone," and it may have been that he secretly feared lest the schemer Braddon find some way to get the better of them; so that his path might be cleared, and nothing interfere with the carrying out of his villainous scheme.

But then he was so accustomed by now to yielding to the better judgment of his two chums that he did not offer any further objections.

"We'll see what Donald says about it when he comes in," added Adrian; "though I feel pretty sure he'll think the same that I do. We don't want anything to interfere with our enjoying that wonderful affair tomorrow, you know. And this fakir of a showman can't just swoop off with the main part of the village in the wink of an eye. If they concluded to go with him they'd have to take some time to make preparations, you see; and that'd let us have a chance to whisper a few interesting things in the ear of the old chief, that might make him sit up and take notice."

"You're right, Adrian, quite right," admitted Billie, as though fully convinced by this time; "there's no desperate need of hurry; and just as you often say, many a well laid plan's gone to pieces because of too much haste. But we'll soon know what Donald has to say about it, because here he comes right now, and with a wide grin on his face, as though he'd made good friends of those cow-punchers!"

CHAPTER XXII.

ANOTHER WARNING.

That night saw many strange things going on in the Zuni village, to all of which our three young friends gave close attention; for they were deeply interested in the quaint ceremonies of these people who traced their ancestors far back beyond the time of the red man on the continent of North America.

They did not forget to keep close together after the shades of night fell; for both Donald and Adrian were agreed on that subject, to the effect that a man with such a lack of conscience as Braddon, who would scheme to rob these poor Indians, and lure them away from their home on a false trail, just to endeavor to learn the old medicine man's secret, and profit by the same, would not stop at anything.

Donald had been of the same mind as the other chum, with regard to keeping their secret for a short time, until the Zuni ceremony of the rattlesnake dance had been gone through with. And accordingly none of them had made the first move looking to interviewing the old chief, who was so much taken up with his duties that he had no time for talking now.

When they finally came back to the tent, cautious Adrian made it his business to carefully examine it all over. Billie watched this operation with interest. He finally demanded to know what the other expected to find, and if it could be anything in the nature of a bomb.

"I know that away Down East, around New York City, the Italian Black Hand do that sort of thing regularly; but I never dreamed it could happen out here," he went on to say, uneasily; as though it was not very pleasant to suspect that in the middle of a sentence a fellow might be suddenly hoisted heavenward by some infernal machine exploding under his blanket.

"Oh! I hardly expected to find that," Adrian a.s.sured him; "but this is a queer country, and all sorts of strange things happen. Remember, now, about that poisoned spring. With so many crawling critters around here, it struck me that a fellow would be only showing ordinary wisdom to look under his blanket before he lay down."

"That's right," added Donald; "and I'm going to put that horse-hair lariat of mine in a double loop around the tent; because cowboys say that a snake will never crawl across one of that sort. The hair tickles 'em, and scares 'em off, I understand."

"Besides, we're going to keep watch, you know, Donald," Adrian remarked.

Billie was on the point of stoutly announcing that he must have his a.s.signment in this part of the camp duty, when he suddenly remembered the mess he had made of it the last time they let him try. So he was forced to gulp down his bitter disappointment, and let it pa.s.s him by.