CHAPTER XXXIX—LONG DISTANCE PHONE MESSAGE.
The sun was just appearing above a range of misty gray mountains far across the desert on the eastern horizon when the three young riders reached the top of the mesa trail and drew rein to watch while the glory of the dawn flamed the mountain peaks with rose and gold.
“A wonderful day has come and surely that is a good omen,” Virginia said. “I feel as excited as though something very unusual were about to happen.”
Virg was right! Something very unusual and unexpected was about to happen, but the nature of the something was very different from that which they anticipated.
It was nearly noon when Douglas was reached and Malcolm declared that the girls must go at once to the Inn and rest for several hours before making the return trip. Virg consented, declaring, however, that she wished to remain with Malcolm until she knew the result of his endeavor to get in touch with the Wilson Ranch, so together the three young people went to a long distance telephone. Red Riverton postoffice soon responded and the postmistress inquired, “Do you say that you wish to communicate, if possible, with someone from the Wilson Ranch? Harry Wilson was in here about half an hour ago. He always hitches his horse in front of the postoffice. Hold the wire and I will see if it is still there.”
While Malcolm held the receiver he rapidly told the girls what the communication had been.
“Oh, I do hope he hasn’t gone,” Virg said when Malcolm’s attention was again called. “No, Harry Wilson hasn’t left town. His horse is still in front. I will have a small boy stand there and tell Harry to see me when he returns. Where will he be able to get in touch with you?”
“Give the telephone number of the Inn,” Virginia said when her brother turned to her for a suggestion.
This was done and the three young people hurried across the hall and sat in the queer little parlor to await a call from Harry.
Several times the phone rang but it was always for someone else.
At last the lone clerk at the desk went away and while he was gone the telephone rang imperatively several times in rapid succession. Malcolm sprang up and answered it, then he beckoned to the girls.
“It’s for us,” he told them; then to Harry, who was at the other end of the line, he said, “This is Malcolm Davis. Surely you remember me, don’t you?
“I stayed several days at your place two years ago in September. I thought you’d remember that. We had great fun that day, didn’t we? Yes, I do plan coming up north again some time, but today I called up to ask about our friend Tom. We are eager to get into communication with him as soon as possible.
“He isn’t in town with you, is he? What? You don’t know where he is? Has he left you? How long has he been gone? Over a week now? And no trace of him has been found? There hasn’t been a storm, has there? Hum! That certainly is serious. You are sending out a searching party? When do they leave? I’ll try to get there. Yes, indeed. I’ll start for your place as soon as I possibly can. Goodbye.”
“Malcolm, what is it? What has happened to Tom?” Virg asked her face suddenly paled with anxiety.
The lad led the girls back to the stiff little parlor.
“Tom hasn’t deserted them, has he?” Virginia asked eagerly. “Oh, brother, I am so sure he hasn’t proved untrustworthy.”
Malcolm shook his head. “Not that,” he said dismally. “I wish he had deserted of his own free will. Anything would be better than that which has happened. I’m terribly sorry now that I brought you girls with me into town, but, of course, you must know the truth. Instead of being untrustworthy, Tom may have risked his life to prove his worthiness of a trust. Harry says that his father had five hundred very valuable Merinos coming by rail and they wanted to send their best man to meet them and drive the sheep in from the station, so they selected Tom, and as there was need of two drivers for so large a flock, little Francisco Quintano Mendoza accompanied him. Harry expected that about three days would be required to drive the flock through the mountain pass, stopping to graze and rest in the grassy valleys, but four and then five days passed and Tom did not return.
“Harry had not accompanied them because his father was away at the time and his mother alone on the ranch, but, at last he became so anxious that his mother urged him to ride to Red Riverton. There he found that the Merinos had arrived safely the week before and that Tom and the small Mexican boy had driven them away about noon on the day of their arrival, and that they had taken the beaten track toward the mountains where they had been lost to sight when they entered the Red Rock Pass.
“Harry then visited the sheriff and together with several men, they rode to the pass, but although they could see many hoof-prints in the soft mud where a spring kept the ground ever moist, they could not trace them on the desert where the winds often changed the surface of the sand.
“The sheriff and his men seemed to believe that Tom has turned rustler and that he had spirited away the valuable Merinos for his own gain, but to this suggestion Harry would not listen. He knew Tom to be absolutely trustworthy, he declared, but since he had no better theory to offer, the men left him still unconvinced.
“The father has now returned and at his suggestion a large party of men are to start on a wide circling round-up of the entire sheep raising section of the state, hoping in that way to come upon some evidence that may at least solve the mystery if it does not enable them to recover the lost sheep. They need more assistance, Harry tells me, and so I promised to go to him as soon as I possibly can.”
“Oh dear! Oh dear!” Virg exclaimed, unshed tears in her eyes, “I shall never forgive myself for having sent Tom north if harm has befallen him.”
“My theory,” Malcolm continued, “is that a band of thieves, rustlers, knew that the very valuable shipment of Merinos was due, and that they were lying in wait in the pass for Tom and in some manner they have spirited away both the flock and the drivers. I believe that this will be proved true when we round up that entire section.”
Then looking at Virginia anxiously, he added, “I ought to go north from here, as I can follow the state road and reach Red Riverton at least half a day sooner than I could from home but I do not like to leave you girls unprotected. I wish—”
He stopped speaking and stared at someone who had just entered the Inn. Then excusing himself, he hurried out.
The persons whom Malcolm had seen were no other than his good neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Dartley. They were surprised to see the young man and note his very evident excitement. Hurriedly Malcolm explained the situation. “Of course we will look after the girls,” the kindly Mrs. Dartley declared, then, going into the prim little parlor, she held out both plump, freckled hands as she said sympathetically, “You poor dears! I just know how worried you are about your friend Tom, but you’ll feel better, I’m sure, to have Malcolm help in the search. My husband and I drove in with the buggy. We’ll be going back about 3 o’clock, and you can ride along with us as far as the sand hills. You won’t mind going the rest of the way to V. M . alone, I know, because you ride it so often.”
The girls assured Mrs. Dartley that they would be in their saddles at the hour of 3 and that good woman then bustled away to do the shopping that had brought her into town.
Malcolm returned and took his sister’s hand. “Virginia,” he said earnestly, “don’t grieve yet, I honestly believe that we are going to find Tom somewhere, unharmed and being worthy of the trust that was placed in him.”
After dining together at the Inn, Malcolm departed. When he was gone, the girls wandered out to look about the stores and make a few purchases and pass away the time until 3.
That hour at last arrived and Virginia and Margaret were waiting in their saddles, when the Dartley equipage appeared from the stables. The girls were not very talkative and the kind woman, realizing that they were greatly worried about their friend whom she herself knew little, did not expect them to talk and the long journey was made almost in absolute silence.
When the sand hills were reached, it was growing dusk. “My, but you two girls must be all tired out,” Mrs. Dartley said as her husband drew rein. “You’ve been in the saddle most all day, being as you left home before sunrise, but Uncle Tex will have a good supper waiting for you and then you get right into bed. Young folks like you two rest up easy and tomorrow you’ll be as bright as ever. Telephone to me, Virgie, if you need anything or hear any news.”
“Yes, I will Mrs. Dartley, and thank you for escorting us this far. Goodnight! Goodnight!”
Then the girls started down the trail toward V. M. through the gathering dusk. “How I do hope it will be a good night for our Tom,” Virginia said, “wherever he is.” Then, as they dismounted at the home corral, she added, “Oh, if only I were a man so that I might join in the search.”
Virginia little dreamed of the very important part she was to play even though she were only a girl.