The Border Boys Across the Frontier

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 19083-h.htm or 19083-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/0/8/19083/19083-h/19083-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/0/8/19083/19083-h.zip)

THE BORDER BOYS ACROSS THE FRONTIER

by

FREMONT B. DEERING

Author of "The Border Boys on the Trail," "The Border Boys with the Mexican Rangers," "The Border Boys with the Texan Rangers," "The Border Boys in the Canadian Rockies," "The Border Boys Along the St. Lawrence."

[Frontispiece: "Right off there! Look! Look!" The lanky cow puncher pointed out beyond the shadow of the solitary mesa.]

A. L. Burt Company Publishers ---------- New York Copyright, 1911, by Hurst & Company

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE TRAIL OF THE HAUNTED MESA II. THE SAND STORM III. A NIGHT ALARM IV. SOME QUEER TRACKS V. THE HOLLOW ALTAR VI. THE LEGEND OF A FORGOTTEN RACE VII. WHAT CAME ACROSS THE DESERT VIII. THE DARK FACE OF DANGER IX. IN THE MESA DWELLERS' BURIAL GROUND X. A NEW MEXICAN STYX XI. THE CAMP OF THE GUN-RUNNERS XII. MADERO'S FLYING COLUMN XIII. IN THE CAMP OF THE INSURRECTOS XIV. "DEATH TO THE GRINGOES!" XV. A RACE FOR LIFE XVI. WHAT HAPPENED TO COYOTE PETE XVII. BOB HARDING DOES "THE DECENT THING" XVIII. THE TABLES TURNED XIX. BUCK BRADLEY'S AUTOMOBILE XX. AT THE ESMERALDA MINE XXI. AN ACT OF TREACHERY XXII. AT ROSARIO STATION XXIII. JACK MERRILL'S "SPECIAL" XXIV. THE ATTACK ON THE MINE XXV. THE LAST STAND.--CONCLUSION

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Right off there! Look! Look!" The lanky cow puncher pointed out beyond the shadow of the solitary mesa . . . . . . Frontispiece

As it flared up, all three recoiled with expressions of dismay. At their very feet was a deep chasm.

A tempest of lead rattled about the engine. Almost before they realized it, they had swung around the curve.

The Border Boys Across the Frontier.

CHAPTER I.

THE TRAIL OF THE HAUNTED MESA.

"Can you make out any sign of the mesa yet, Pete?"

The speaker, a sun-bronzed lad of about seventeen, mounted on a bright bay pony with a white-starred forehead, drew rein as he spoke. Shoving back his sombrero, he shielded his eyes from the shimmering desert glare with one hand and gazed intently off into the southwest.

"Nope; nary a speck, so fur. Queer, too; we ought to be seein' it by now."

Coyote Pete, as angular, rangy and sinewy as ever, gazed as intently in the same direction as the lad, Jack Merrill, himself. The pause allowed the remainder of the party to ride up. There was Ralph Stetson, a good deal browner and sturdier-looking than when we encountered him last in "The Border Boys on the Trail"; Walt Phelps, the ranch boy, whose blazing hair outrivaled the glowing sun; and the bony, grotesque form of Professor Wintergreen, preceptor of Latin and the kindred tongues at Stonefell College, and amateur archaeologist. Lest they might feel slighted, let us introduce also, One Spot, Two Spot and Three Spot, the pack burros.

"I always had an idea that the Haunted Mesa formed quite a prominent object in the landscape," put in Professor Wintergreen, referring to a small leather-bound book, which he had just taken from one of his saddle-bags.

"And I always had an idea," laughed Ralph Stetson, "that a landscape meant something with brooks and green trees and cows and--and things, in it."

The young son of "King Pin" Stetson, the Eastern Railroad King, looked about him at the gray desert, above which the sun blazed mercilessly down with all the intensity of a burning glass. Here and there were isolated clumps of rank-odored mesquite, the dreariest looking gray-green bush imaginable. The scanty specimens of this variety of the vegetable life of the desert were interspersed here and there by groups of scraggly, prickly cacti. Across such country as this, the party had been making its way for the past day and a half,--ever since, in fact, they had left behind them the foothills of the Hachetas, where, as we know, was located the ranch of Jack Merrill's father, and had entered the dry, almost untravelled solitudes of the Playas.

Jack Merrill consulted a compass that was strapped to his wrist.