The Hidden Valley of the Sundown Ranch

CHAPTER

ONE

     “Where’re all the tracks?” Dick asked. “You can’t tell me that a hunderd head of cattle don’t leave no tracks. Where’d they go, Joe?”

     “I’m not sure. Back in the mouth of the draw their tracks were as plain as the scratch on the back of my hand.”

     “Joe, we’ve been searchin’ for over two hours, and I can’t figure it out. This deep sand doesn’t show which animal came through here, whether it was cattle, deer or wild horses.”

     “Dick, maybe we’ll have’ta check up a little higher on the flat rock shelf. Maybe we’ll be able to find a hoof scar or maybe some sort of hairs on the brush further up on the ridge.”

     “Here comes Sam, Joe. Maybe he’s found somethin’.”

     “What’d you find?” Joe asked Sam.

     “Nothin’, there was nothin’ at all. No sign of any sort of tracks anywhere.”

     The three men worked their way up to the flat rock shelf and searched for another two hours, and they were just as puzzled then as they were when they lost the trail four hours earlier.

    “We’d better git back. It’ll be near midnight by the time we git back to the ranch house, an you know Mr. Kolb will be waitin’ up with the coffee on the stove.” Sam told the others.   

     “Yeah, I guess you’re right, I’m jus’ not lookin’ forward to seein’ the disappointment on the old man’s face when we

tell him we lost what was gonna be the only money he would’ve made this year on the sale of his cattle. That money was gonna pay for the seeds that was loaned to him from Swan’s Mercantile last spring,” Joe answered.

     It was a long ride back. It was half past eleven when they unloaded their saddles in front of the main house of the Rocking K Ranch. Sam took the reins of the horses and headed toward the barn while Joe and Dick stepped up to the porch.

     The door opened and both men stood in the light that beamed through the doorway. Both looked at their boss and shook their heads, then lowered them so they did not have to look into the dark sad eyes of their friend.

     “Com’ on in boys and tell me what happened,” Lee Kolb told them.

     They entered and sat down at the long dining table with a red and white-checkered cloth. Coffee was poured in the cups that were already sitting in front of them.

     There was a light tapping on the door, and then Sam walked into the eerie silence.

     “Sit down, Sam,” Lee told him.

     Slowly Dick said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kolb. We lost the trail down in the draw over near the dried creek bed ‘bout a mile from Willow Spring.” He added, “We followed them into the ankle deep blow sand that runs below the north rock wall.”

      “How far is that from Laynes’ place over by Crooked Creek?” Lee asked.

“Not very far at all, boss. Just a hop, skip and a jump. Why’d you ask about the Sundown Ranch?” Joe questioned.