The Riders of High Rock by Louis L'Amour

Author:Louis L'Amour
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780553899665
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2004-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

CATTLE TRACKS

ONCE IN THE saddle, Hopalong Cassidy turned to watch Red mount up. Joe Gamble kicked sand over the remnants of their fire and then swung into the leather. The sky was gray only along the horizon, and here in the shadow of the butte it was still dark. Somewhere far off a sage hen called softly, and the palouse pawed impatiently at the ground, eager to be going.

Moving off, Hopalong led the way, scouting at once for tracks. The fleeing outlaws had headed southward yesterday—or had it been a little to the west?

“There’s a big boxed valley southwest of us,” Gamble suggested. “It has two creeks in it, Fox and Cottonwood. I don’t know how much water they carry, if any at all. I was in there once when there was water, all right, but that could have been temporary.”

“We’ll try it,” Hopalong decided. “They might not run right for the herd, anyway. By now they know we can read sign, so they may try to lead us astray. Where’s the opening?”

“You can’t see it from here,” Gamble explained. “We ride southeast toward that big point of rock, then west.”

To left and right the mountains lifted high and the valley grew narrower as they rode forward. Then it widened out, and they swung westward. A careful search of the boxed valley brought no results. No tracks could be found except those of an occasional lone steer or a group of two or three. While following one of these trails just on chance, Hopalong said suddenly, “You know, I’ve figured this out, I think.”

“What’s that?” Red demanded. “Must be mighty simple if you figured it out.”

Hopalong shrugged. “It’s simple enough. All the way along I’ve been trying to decide how they managed to get that herd out of High Rock Canyon. I still don’t know just where it was done, but I do know how it was done. When they hit some of that sand back there where the tracks weren’t well defined, they kept one part of the herd moving, then took the rest off into a branch canyon on the real trail to where they were going.

“Then as they moved along they let first one steer and then another fall behind or trail off by himself until the herd had dwindled to nothing. By bunching a few cattle and getting them to mill a little, they could make some of that trail look like a big herd had come over it. Later, when they had time, they could pick up those strays. Some of them would probably head back toward the main herd, anyway.”

“But where could they get out of High Rock?” Gamble was puzzled. “I didn’t see any tracks to speak of in Little High Rock.”

“That’s right,” Hopalong agreed, “but that Yellow Rock Canyon could have been investigated more thoroughly. If there was a trail out of there to the west, that would be the likely spot. Anyway, I’d bet a good coon hide they came this way.

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