The cause of the Texan’s remark was apparent. A half mile beyond the building was a party of horsemen, numbering perhaps a dozen. They were grouped together and apparently holding a discussion over some matter in which all must have been interested, since they kept in such close order.
The youth had become accustomed to seeing Indians since leaving San Antonio, and needed no one to tell him that these people belonged to that race. The distance was too far for them to show distinctly through the instrument, but enough was seen to settle the point.
[231]
“What tribe are they?” he asked, addressing all his companions. Strubell was studying them without the glass, while Lattin had turned his gaze thither, and Eph was lying on his face, his brows wrinkled, his gaze concentrated on the group. It was he who answered:
“‘Paches, every one of them.”
“Are they not off their hunting grounds?” asked Herbert.
“Not ‘cordin’ to thar ideas, for every ‘Pache believes that the whole North American continent belongs to his people, which is about what every redskin thinks. Howsumever, they ginerally do thar killin’ and deviltry further over in Arizona, but them’s ‘Paches sure as you’re born.”
“They seem to be as much interested in the building as we are.”
“They’ve seen Rickard and Slidham and the younker go in thar, and they’re tryin’ to figure out what it means. You see things are in a quar’ shape in these parts.”
While the party lay on the crest of the elevation, looking at the building and the[232] council of warriors beyond, Strubell for the first time showed a desire to make known to Herbert Watrous the things that had puzzled him. The strange enterprise had now reached a point where he was willing to talk. He had consulted with Lattin and Eph until there was an agreement all round, and no cause for further secrecy existed. In fact, there had never been any real cause for it at all.
Without quoting the Texan’s words, it may be said that in the minds of the party it was clear that Belden Rickard, the noted horse thief, with his companion Harman Slidham, was carrying out a scheme to secure a ransom for the restoration of Nick Ribsam to his friends.
It will be remembered that Herbert had held this belief more than once, but he saw so many difficulties in the way that he was awaiting another explanation. He now asked Strubell to clear up the points that perplexed him, and he did, so far as he could.
He wished to learn why, if Rickard had formed the plan for the capture of Nick, with the idea of restoring him to freedom on the[233] payment of a sum of money, he had ridden hundreds of miles to reach the point of conference, when it might as well have been held in Texas, and within sight of the very ridge where Nick fell into the power of his enemies. It was this phase of the question that had troubled Herbert greatly and led him to fear the ruffian intended to take the life of his friend.
Strubell replied that during the conversation with Rickard, whom he had known for years, he picked up more than one item of news which surprised him. One was that while making his long rides through the Southwest, he and his companions, when hard pressed, were accustomed, at times, to take refuge in the old mansion house on the ranch which Mr. Lord proposed buying. This had been abandoned, as I have already stated, for years; but in the hospitable West, where every person’s doors are open, no one would have hesitated to enter the adobe structure, whenever cause existed for doing so.
Rickard saw signs of others having been there, though he did not believe the Indians[234] ever passed through the broad doors into the courtyard beyond. Had there been a party of settlers or white men within they would have been eager to do so, but while it was empty the incitement was lacking.
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CHAPTER XXV. THE RANCH.
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