Read Ebook: Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders at Circle O Ranch by Chase Josephine

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Ebook has 1461 lines and 51374 words, and 30 pages

"I don't know about this," muttered Hippy, removing his hat and mopping his forehead.

"Are you two gentlemen heavy eaters?" questioned Emma. "The reason I ask is, that we already have two powerful eaters in this outfit, and I doubt if we could stand to feed more like them."

"We kin rustle our own grub," promised Jim.

"I suggest that we go into executive session and talk this over," urged Miss Briggs.

The suggestion was approved and the Overlanders withdrew for discussion, Jim and Sam holding their positions, apparently the most disinterested persons on the station platform. Inquiry developed that the salary named in the letter of Jim-Sam covered the services of both, so, after talking the matter over, the Overland Riders decided to take on this strange pair to guide them. The fact that the guides owned their own ponies and pack-mules was an added inducement. Otherwise it would be necessary to hire or buy pack-animals.

Hippy Wingate told the guides that they had been accepted, then he introduced each member of the party to them. Nora Wingate laughingly warned the pair that they were embarking on a perilous undertaking when they set out with the Overland Riders, whereat Jim-Sam's whiskers stiffened, but the owners made no reply.

Emma Dean, speaking confidentially to Hippy, objected to guides wearing such long whiskers, though she thought the men themselves might do very well. Emma was of the opinion that such whiskers were not sanitary, and averred that if San Antone, who had guided them through the Black Hills, were present he would correct the fault by shooting off the whiskers without making the slightest fuss about it.

Tom interrupted Emma's conversation by urging that the Overland ponies be unloaded at once, the car containing them having, by this time, been shunted to a switch.

"When do ye reckon on gittin' out o' heah?" asked Sam.

"We shall be ready by the time you get your mules and packs ready," answered Hippy. "This outfit moves without fuss, but it occasionally makes quite a racket in doing so. Get busy, boys!"

Jim-Sam turned away, still side by side, each carrying himself with a dignity that made the Overlanders laugh. While the provisions and other equipment were being purchased by the women of the party, Tom and Hippy unloaded the ponies, and Stacy, uttering many grunts and groans, piled their equipment on the ground near the stock car. The ponies were then secured to the tie-rail in front of the general store, where they were looked over and felt of by every man in the village, including several cowboys from neighboring ranches.

During the unloading, Hippy and Tom had noticed a cowboy sitting on a mustang some little distance from them, observing the Overland operations with keen interest.

"Who is that fellow?" asked Hippy of a bystander.

The native shook his head, and the horseman, seeing that he had attracted attention to himself, jerked his pony about and trotted away.

"I don't like the looks of that chap," declared Tom.

"I reckon he's all right. Most cowpunchers look tougher than they really are, though it is quite possible that we may meet up with some real rough-necks. I have heard that they are not difficult to find in the Coso range," replied Hippy.

"Oh, there come our heavenly twins," cried Emma, who had returned from the store with an armful of packages.

Jim and Sam had just appeared dragging a pair of unwilling mules, behind which, saddled and bridled, trailed two long-haired mustangs. The two men were alternately arguing and berating each other and threatening the mules.

"What kind of an outfit is this?" wondered Emma, her merry eyes regarding the scene.

"You may search me," was Hippy's laughing reply. "Here come the other girls. Good gracious! Where do they expect to stow all that stuff? Jim-Sam, pull up here and sling your packs. Is that as fast as those mules can travel? If so you had better leave them at home."

The guides were too busy arguing to give heed to Hippy's words, but when they reached the station platform they took hold of the work with surprising alacrity and began rolling packs with skillful hands.

"What are they?" asked Emma, pointing to the lazy mules.

"Jest mules," answered Jim without looking up, and Sam echoed his statement. "Don't have to have no names. When my long-haired cayuse does somethin' he oughtn't, Sam gives him er kick, an' when Sam's critter cuts up capers I give his'n the boot."

"No names?" wondered Emma. "Yes, but what do you call them when you want them to come to you?"

"Missie, what we calls 'em sometimes ain't sootable fer a young woman to hear," grinned Jim.

"Then kindly see that you do not call them," retorted Emma, turning away.

The Overlanders observed that their guides now wore heavy revolvers and that the saddle-boot of each held a rifle, which aroused apprehension in the minds of at least two of the girls. Jim-Sam, however, assured them that the Coso Valley and the mountain ranges on either side of it were as peaceful as "Sunday meetin'," and, further, that "nothin'" ever happened there. Something did threaten to happen, though, when it came to lashing the packs to the mules, and Jim-Sam instantly became involved in a violent argument as to how the packs should be "thrown," the two men in their anger shaking belligerent fists under each other's nose until they nearly came to blows.

"If I had a disposition like your'n I'd go shoot myself," raged Jim.

"If I was a cantankerous cuss like you I'd go live with the coyotes where I could snarl all day an' bark all night. Git outer my way afore I soak ye in the jaw!" threatened Sam.

"That's right, Sam. Hit him!" urged Stacy Brown. "He isn't any good."

"Yes, he is, too! Don't ye say nothin' agin my pardner. I ain't standin' fer nothin' like that."

"Here, here!" interrupted Tom Gray. "Stacy, let these men alone and pack your pony. Jim-Sam, you will stop your quarreling and do your work or we may change our minds about taking you along."

"You understand, we wish to head for the Bindloss ranch--the Circle O Ranch, I believe they call it. We do not know Bindloss, but we propose to get acquainted with him." Hippy grinned as he said it.

"This really promises to be a peaceful journey," observed Miss Briggs solemnly, whereat the Overland girls gave way to the merriment that for some moments they had been restraining, then preparations for the start were resumed with renewed speed and vigor.

Departure for the Circle O was made within an hour. The Circle O was a ranch where a friend of Lieutenant Hippy Wingate had put up while on a hunting trip in the mountains some time before, and it was because of what his friend had told him of Old Joe Bindloss and his ranch that Hippy decided to take in the Circle O on their summer's ride.

The start was accomplished to the accompaniment of shouts and yells from Jim-Sam to get the mules started and headed in the right direction as well as to keep them going. It was a task that proved too much for the old guides, who, finally, after getting well out in the valley, rode on ahead with the Overlanders. The pack-mules, finding themselves being left behind, increased their pace and soon caught up with the outfit.

"That's the way with mules. Contrary critters jest like some fellers I know of," volunteered Jim, giving Sam a withering glance. "If ye wants 'em to go back'ards jest try to drive 'em for'ards."

"An' then agin, some fellers is so gosh darn stubborn they won't go either way when ye tells 'em to go t'other," retorted Sam. "Folks, git yer appetites workin' fer we'll soon be eatin'."

Luncheon that first day was taken sitting on the sand by a water hole, and was a brief affair, for Jim-Sam had a camping place in mind, to reach which meant a long, hard ride. It was some time after nightfall when they arrived there, and still later when the lazy mules dragged themselves in, uttering long-drawn brays of satisfaction or dissatisfaction or whatever it might be. The animals were quickly relieved of their packs and turned loose to roll and feed on the desert sage through the night. All day long Jim-Sam had argued and quarreled, and by the time they made camp they had reached a point where they no longer spoke to each other.

"What are we going to do with them?" wondered Tom Gray frowningly.

"Keep them, of course," answered Grace. "Tom, they are a real treat, but if Stacy and Emma do not stop stirring them up we may have to send for the sheriff of the county. Just look at them now," she added laughingly.

Jim and Sam were sitting back to back unrolling packs, each man muttering to himself his opinion of the other. Later in the evening the Overlanders got them talking and drew the guides out. It developed that the pair had been prospectors nearly all their lives; that they had loved and fought each other for so many years that they had lost count of them, and when their halting story had finally been finished, the Overland Riders looked upon Jim-Sam with new appreciation. Emma Dean characterized them as a pair of "beloved vagabonds."

This having been their first day in the saddle since the previous season, the Overlanders were saddle-weary, and some of them were sore and lame. Miss Briggs hobbled about painfully and complainingly, and Nora Wingate lay by the little campfire rolled in her blanket, the picture of woe. Emma and Grace, however, appeared not to be suffering the slightest degree of discomfort.

Jim cooked the supper, and it was a good one, for he made biscuits and served them hot, soaked in bacon gravy, a luxury to which the Riders had not been accustomed. They made the most of their opportunity, and Stacy Brown's appetite, as usual, was not fully satisfied until some time after his companions had finished supper. Then all hands gathered about the fire for a chat.

"Samuel, do you ever dream?" questioned Emma after thoughtfully regarding the old guide for some moments.

"Sure I do, Missie. I dreamed last night that that critter--that ornery mule o' Jim's--kicked the everlasting daylight out o' me," growled Sam.

"Oh, you don't mean it? That was fine," glowed Emma.

"Eh?" Sam's whiskers stood out belligerently. The old guide's whiskers could express varying shades of emotion.

"Your dream means that you are going to have good luck--the best ever. Perhaps you are about to discover a gold mine or a hole in the ground where one has been, or something like that," bubbled Emma.

"Wrong up here again," muttered Stacy Brown, significantly tapping his head with a finger.

"I should say that Emma has read one of those five-cent dream books," suggested Miss Briggs.

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