Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the Great American Desert Part 31

"Quick, Elfreda!" cried Grace. "Rifles and ammunition for all. For Hi and Hippy, too. We're being attacked!"

"Him come along," chirped Ping Wing, trotting up to Elfreda with a rifle in either hand and two belts of ammunition.

"Take them to the men," ordered Elfreda.

Grace took command of her Overland Riders and placed them at advantageous points out of sight behind rocks and bushes. From her own position Grace saw a head and a pair of shoulders above them on the ridge and a rifle aimed toward the spot where Anne was stationed.

Before the fellow could fire there was a report near at hand.

"Got him!" exclaimed the guide.

"Now we'll get it!" muttered Grace.

They did. Bullets from the ridge above them rained on the foliage and the rocks about the campers, but so far none was hurt, though they could tell that several of the attackers received bullet wounds when raising their own rifles in order to fire.

Creeping closer to Hi Lang, Grace held a whispered consultation, suggesting to him that they try to flank their opponents and to drive them toward the camp where it would be possible to capture them. This was agreed to, but at Elfreda's suggestion they decided to wait until darkness fell.

When night came there was shooting from the ridge, but the return fire came only from one rifle, that of Ping Wing. Even this ceased in about half an hour, but by that time the Overlanders met in the rear of the party on the ridge. Here they spread out and began to move cautiously toward the camp, hoping to come upon their attackers, either singly or together, and drive them before them.

Grace had gone a short distance when she saw a man rise suddenly about ten feet in front of her. Without a sound she rose and, slipping her revolver to her left hand, grasped her la.s.so with her right. It was a true throw, and the rope fell over the man's shoulders, pinning his arms to his sides. Without a moment's hesitation, the girl snubbed the la.s.so about a tree and, holding it firmly, fired three signal shots into the air.

The man was heavy, and the best Grace could do was to keep the rope taut, taking up the slack when the fellow tried to roll toward her to loosen the strain.

"I'll get you for this!" raged the ruffian.

"Keep quiet or I'll get you first."

Rifles began to bang toward the camp. Three sides were engaged, so it seemed to Grace, judging by the sound. What was the meaning of that?

The sound of voices presently reached her ears. The prisoner heard, too, and began, to stir.

"Keep quiet!" ordered Grace. "One sound from you and I will shoot.

Understand?"

"Yes," he muttered, and sank back.

Grace strained her ears. Were the men of her party or of that of the roped villain? To her relief the men--apparently only two of them--pa.s.sed by without discovering her and her prisoner, and he, intimidated, kept quiet.

Suddenly a loud, penetrating "Coo-e-e-e-e!" woke the echoes of the mountains. It was the call of the cowboy, a friendly, thrilling sound.

A moment of silence, then "Overla-a-a-and!"

"Overla-a-a-and!" cried Grace joyfully. "Careful, man. I can yell and shoot at the same time," she told her prisoner, who had moved.

Two men came running over the rocks.

"Mrs. Gray!" shouted the guide.

"Here! Careful! I have a prisoner!"

"Hullo, kid," cried a familiar voice.

"That's Bud Thomas's voice! The man who gave me this la.s.so,"

answered Grace, laughing joyously, if a bit hysterically.

"Sure, it's me. And a lot of the other boys!"

The two men came over to Grace's side.

"h.e.l.lo, kid. You're a smart one. That fellow's Snake McGlory, the hombre we boys came out to get."

The fighting was over, for the members of McGlory's gang, for such they were, were captured, some of them wounded.

"Steve Carver got his," said Lang, on the way back to camp, the two men seeing that McGlory went quietly. "He was the fellow who shot at us and some of this man's gang got him, probably thinking he was one of our outfit."

"Oh, poor little Lindy!" murmured Grace.

Back at the camp Grace had to tell her story.

"And I caught him because you boys gave me that la.s.so. Wasn't I thankful that I had the rope and had learned to use it! But how did you boys happen to come along?"

It seemed, according to Bud's story, that Belle Bates, the wife of the bandit whom Grace had wounded when he attacked the Overland Riders on the Apache Trail the summer before was the sister of Snake McGlory. It was she, bent on vengeance, who had instigated the trailing of the party and the attack on them. Snake and his gang were delighted with their task. Through a girl of Shoshone Pete's whom Belle liked and confided in, the cowboys had learned of the plan and set forth to prevent its accomplishment.

The prisoners were taken to the county seat, and in time received prison sentences for their many crimes in the countryside.

Hi Lang spent some hours in the cave, and when he came back told the girls that Carver had not been "loony" after all, for in the cave he found silver, and, time proved, a considerable vein.

Lindy grieved over her father's death. But the Overland Riders took her in charge, first registering the mine in her name, inducing HI Lang to see to it that it was later worked. The child was sent to school, the Overland Riders being appointed her guardians by the court.

"But now we are to head for home," said Grace, leaning over her camp outfit.

"Ping Wing is pleased over that prospect. Listen to his song,"

laughed Elfreda.

All stopped their work to watch the Chinaman pack his stores, singing as he did so:

"Supposey you makee listen to my singee one piecee sing.

Me makee he first-chop fas.h.i.+on, about the glate Ping Wing; He blavest man in desert side, or any side about; Me bettee you five dolla', HAI! ha blavest party out."

THE END