behind the wheel and stepped on the starter. The mechanism whirred, but the car did not move.
Doris and Kitty saw Moon’s lips curl. He reached into a pocket of the car and took out a crank, then climbed from the automobile.
The stowaway slouched forward.
He spoke to Moon, as if suggesting a bargain. Moon gave the youth the crank and resumed his place at the wheel.
The stowaway began cranking the car with a vigor surprising in one so slightly built. Soon the engine coughed, backfired, and roared into life.
Moon let in the clutch and as the car shot forward. The youth leaped to the running board and climbed into the back seat.
“They’re going out beyond the town,” Kitty cried, but Doris had already seen Moon’s hands twist the wheel. She dug the spurs into her horse’s flanks, and the startled animal bolted down the road.
Kitty, amazed and wondering, whipped after her.
In less than a minute Doris heard Moon’s horn wailing behind her. Without’ slacking the rangy gallop of her mount, she reined to the right side of the road.
As the car shot past, Doris had a good look at the four occupants, all of whom were staring at her with unconcealed admiration.
“That stowaway is some relative of Miss Bedelle, I’m sure,” Doris thought, as the car passed. “He is the black-sheep brother, and that man beside him is the scar-nosed scoundrel who was talking over the telephone near Plainfield when I was calling the airport. Get along!”
Doris plied whip and spur, and the cow-pony’s unshod hoofs drummed on the clay. The game little horse was no match for a powerful motor, however, and soon the automobile was so far ahead, Doris knew she had no chance of trailing it.
She reined in her horse and reluctantly turned its head back toward Raven Rock.
“Poor fellow,” Doris said, leaning over to pat the animal’s forehead. “It’s cruel making you run so hard on a hot day, but I wish you were a motorcycle for half an hour.”
* * * *
A mile back Doris saw Kitty advancing toward her at an easy lope, Wags panting far in the rear.
“D-Doris!” gasped that young woman. “I— never—saw anybody ride—like you did! I couldn’t—begin to keep up with—you! Whew!”
“I hoped to see where those scoundrels were going,” Doris replied soberly. “But I failed. Kitty, we are in for trouble. I had planned to ask Uncle Wardell to come out as quickly as he could, but we can’t wait. We just have to get back those stolen deeds!”
CHAPTER XV
Oil!
“Let’s get off and rest,” Kitty begged. “Then we can plan, too.”
Doris led the way to a grove of pinons, scrubby evergreens which bear an edible nut.
“I’m glad to lie down,” she sighed, as she flung herself on the fragrant needles that covered the ground.
Side by side in the shade on top of the knoll the girls silently watched the ponies grazing on the coarse grass.
“Kitty,” said Doris at last, “you remember the time we had the blow-out on the way to the airport, the day we started for Raven Rock?”
“Indeed I do,” Kitty replied. “I skinned a knuckle helping Marshmallow take off the spare.”
“I went to a road-stand to telephone, you remember,” Doris went on. “Well, in an adjoining booth a man was telephoning in a mixture of Spanish and English. He was telling somebody over long distance that he was starting out with the deed at once.”
“Why did you keep it a secret?” Kitty asked, a little hurt.
“I told Dave, and he telephoned to the police,” Doris explained. “I thought it best to say no more because it would do no good and only worry the rest of you.”
“Well, go on,” Kitty urged. “What about him?”
“I saw the man when he left the booth, and he had a scar over his nose, just like the man who visited the Gates twins, and who attacked Uncle Wardell.”
“Doris! Why, I should have screamed!”
“No, you wouldn’t have,” Doris laughed. “Anyhow, that is the man who got off the train a moment ago. I recognized him then and made sure of it when he passed me in the automobile again!”
“Oh, what will you do?” Kitty cried.
“That’s just what I don’t know,” Doris admitted. “One thing is certain. He and his pal brought the stolen papers with them, and Moon is the master mind behind the whole crooked piece of business.”
“Doris! Then they can prove ownership of the land between the Saylor’s ranch and Miss Bedelle’s!” Kitty exclaimed. “There must be some way to stop them.”
“I don’t trust the man in the court-house,” Doris continued. “He doesn’t know his business at all, and I think if it came to a showdown between three men with lots of money—and the deeds—and a girl who hadn’t anything to prove her story, there is no doubt who would win.”
“Let’s ride back to the ranch, find out where the boys are and consult them,” Kitty suggested.
“I guess four heads are better than two in a mixup like this,” Doris agreed, rising.
The ponies, trained not to stray when the reins were flung over their heads, were mounted. Doris, first in the saddle, instinctively let her eyes stray over the circumference of the horizon. The strange scenery would never grow wearisome to her, she thought. It was like being on the moon or some other distant world.
Then, suddenly, a volcano seemed to leap into life just a few miles away.
“Kitty!” cried Doris. “Look!”
“D-Doris! What is it? An explosion?”
A tall black plume that mushroomed at the top into a whirling smudge of ugly brown mounted into the sky.
“I don’t know—it looks like a geyser,” Doris marveled. “But geysers aren’t black. Let’s go see.”
“Look down there,” Kitty pointed back toward the town. “Others are coming to look, too.”
A string of horsemen could be seen galloping up the road, lashing their mounts. A couple of automobiles, loaded beyond capacity, cut through the riders and hid them in dust.
“Come on, Kitty!” Doris shouted, wheeling her pony. “We’ll beat them all!”
They did not. The ponies, still winded from the first gallop, were passed by some of the riders on fresher horses. That was just as well, for the leaders soon left the road and cut across lots, and the girls followed.
Both automobiles, forced to stick to the road, lost their
