Cowpokes and Desperadoes (3 page)

Amos thought he must be dreaming. No one in real life would be clanging on an iron bell at five o’clock in the morning. He rolled over and shut his eyes.

“Are you awake?” Dunc shook him.

Amos closed his eyes tighter.

Dunc shook him again. “Amos, didn’t you hear the bell? I think it’s time for breakfast.”

“It’s okay, Dunc. I’m dreaming, and you’re a part of my dream. Go back to sleep.”

“It’s not a dream. Maria has breakfast ready. You have to get up.”

Amos opened one eye. “Are you sure it’s not a dream?”

Dunc nodded.

Amos slowly crawled down from the top bunk. “Why would they want to eat breakfast in the middle of the night?”

“It’s early morning. Time to ride the range and do all that cowboy stuff, remember?”

“I remember. I just don’t see what’s wrong with doing it in the daylight.”

Amos stumbled down the stairs behind Dunc. He followed him into the kitchen where Maria had stacks of pancakes waiting. Juan and Woody had already finished eating and were outside doing the chores.

Amos ate with one eye closed and his head propped up on Dunc’s shoulder.

When they finished, Maria told them Juan was waiting for them out by the barn. They found her feeding the chickens. She let them help find the eggs, then showed them how to feed the horses and the milk cow.

When the chores were finished, Juan decided it was time for a riding lesson.

Amos was excited. He stepped up to Gomer and lifted his foot to the stirrup. The old horse moved. Not far, just a few inches. Amos stepped closer and lifted his foot again. The horse moved again. Every time Amos lifted his foot, Gomer moved.

Amos stepped around and looked the horse in the eye. “You don’t by any chance know a dog named Scruff, do you?”

Gomer looked at him with big innocent brown eyes.

“No, I guess that’s too long a shot.”

Amos moved back to the stirrup and lifted his foot. Gomer craned his neck around and took a nibble out of Amos’s shoulder.

“Aha!” Amos jumped back. “So you do know him.”

Juan held Gomer’s reins. “Now try it, Amos.”

“You wimps having a hard time getting on your horsey? Maybe I could get you a ladder.” An older boy had been watching them from the barn. He was laughing and pointing.

Juan put her hands on her hips. “Nice of you to show up, Billy Ray, now that all the chores are finished.”

“You’re not my boss, little girl. So quit acting like you are.” The boy spat a wad of tobacco onto the ground and swaggered toward the house.

“Who was that?” Dunc asked.

Juan made a face. “That was a slimeball. His name is Billy Ray. He works here. Actually,
he loafs here. The best way to handle him is to ignore everything he says or does.”

“Why does my uncle put up with him?”

“He doesn’t know how awful Billy Ray is. I haven’t told him because I know how short-handed we are.” Juan picked up the reins of Amos’s horse. “Okay, let’s try it again.”

Amos climbed up on Gomer, and after a few lessons both boys were able to stop, go, and turn.

“You guys are doing great.” Juan reached down and opened the gate. “Give your horses some rein and let them follow Molly, my mare. You’ll be fine.”

“Where are we going?” Amos asked.

“We’re going to ride some of the ranch trails. Maria packed us a lunch so we can take our time. And while we’re riding, we’ll also be looking for El Diablo, your uncle’s prize bull.”

Amos stopped his horse. “Bull? As in big, with horns?”

Juan nodded.

Amos gulped. “I think I have something important to do in the house.”

Dunc rode up beside him. “Come on, Amos. You wanted to be a real cowboy. Now’s your chance.”

•
6

The path narrowed, and the horses had to walk in single file. They were following a cattle trail up a canyon toward the mountains. Suzy, the collie, stayed ahead of the horses. She ran back every now and then and sat in the trail to make sure they were still coming.

“This would be a great place to shoot a western,” Amos said. “I can just see the Indians swooping down from the rim of the canyon.”

Juan turned in her saddle. “Actually, you’re not too far off. This is Ghost Canyon. Legend has it that a battle did take place not too far from here.”

She pointed up the canyon. “They say a
troop of cavalry soldiers carrying a shipment of gold ran into the Apaches and never made it out of this canyon. Some people think the soldiers’ ghosts roam around up here protecting the gold.”

“Maybe that’s what those two guys on the plane are after,” Dunc said.

Juan frowned. “What guys on what plane?”

Dunc told her the story, except for the part about Amos and the lady with the high heel.

“A lot of strange things have been happening around here,” Juan said. “Maria’s been getting these weird phone calls suggesting she should quit her job. Cattle are disappearing like flies. Banker Grimes has threatened to foreclose on the ranch. I’ve tried to talk to Woody about it, but he just tells me not to worry.”

“That’s what he told us,” Amos said. “I think it’s probably good advice.”

Dunc and Juan both looked back at Amos. He ducked his head. “Okay. I can tell when I’m outnumbered.”

Juan pulled her mare off the trail. “This is a good spot for lunch. Tie your horses real tight, or they won’t be here when we get back.”

Amos stepped off Gomer and, holding on to the reins, started for the nearest tree. But he couldn’t move his right foot. Gomer was standing on the toe of his boot. Amos pushed and threatened, but Gomer just stood there, flattening Amos’s toes and munching on grass without a care in the world.

Juan and Dunc had already tied their horses, grabbed the lunch bag, and were on the way up the hill to examine a nearby cave.

“Hey!” Amos yelled. “Somebody help me get this dumb animal off my foot! I’m starting to lose the feeling in my toes.”

Juan turned around and cupped her hands. “He likes it if you talk nice to him.”

“What?”

“Talk nice to him, and he’ll move.”

Amos glared at the horse. “You overweight mule, if my toes weren’t starting to separate from my foot, I’d—” He took a deep breath. “Okay … nice horse. Good horse. Now, move your big fat foot.”

Gomer didn’t budge.

“You have to talk
really
nice!” Juan yelled down.

Amos turned red. He cleared his throat. “What a special, wonderful horse. I bet John
Wayne’s horse wasn’t half as good-looking as you are. You could probably be on television, you’re such a good—”

Gomer picked up his foot and went on munching.

Amos limped over to a log and sat down. He pulled his boot off and massaged his aching toes. “Don’t try that again, marshmallow lips, or you and I are going to have serious trouble.”

Gomer snorted and blew snot all over him.

“Quit playing around down there, Amos!” Dunc yelled. “There’s a neat cave up here with camping stuff and a bunch of boxes stored in it.”

Amos finally climbed the steep hill and rejoined them. He stepped inside the cave. “Thank you both so much for your deep concern. I could have lost my toes down there. And I had horse-snot blown all over me. And Melissa—what about her?”

Dunc stared at him. “What does Melissa have to do with anything?”

“If my toes had been permanently damaged, I wouldn’t be able to dance with her.”

“Amos, you’ve never danced with Melissa.
She won’t even talk to you. Or look at you. Or—”

“I’m confused,” Juan interrupted. “Who’s Melissa?”

“It’s a long story,” Dunc said. “I’ll tell you about it some other time. Let’s check out the crates under that tarp.”

Amos lifted the corner of a dusty white tarp. “Look—there’s something written on the sides of these boxes. I can’t quite make it out.”

Juan wiped the dust off. “It says ‘Cookson Mining Company.’ I’m going to open one. You guys help me find something I can use to pry the top off.”

Amos stepped outside. He covered his eyes to protect them from the bright sunlight.

Suzy started barking furiously. She raced down the hill to the spot where they had tied their horses.

Amos focused. He looked down at the bottom of the canyon.

The horses were gone.

•
7

“It was the ghosts.” Amos followed Dunc and Juan to the bottom of the canyon. “They probably let our horses loose so we’d be stuck up here and have to help them watch their gold—forever.”

Dunc picked up a red bandanna. “Ghosts don’t wear these.”

“And they don’t leave boot tracks either.” Juan knelt down and traced a track in the dirt. “Somebody, a real person, deliberately let our horses go.”

Dunc scratched his head. “Why would anybody want to do that to us?”

Juan stood up. “I don’t know for sure. But
I’d be willing to bet it has something to do with those boxes up there in the cave.”

“Well, I’m definitely not spending the night in this canyon with a bunch of ghosts.” Amos started walking down the trail.

Juan grabbed his arm. “Hold on. You don’t have to walk.”

She put two fingers in her mouth and blew. A shrill whistle filled the air. In a few seconds they heard a whinny, and Molly came trotting up with Gomer and Pete close behind.

Juan rubbed Molly’s forehead. “Isn’t she special? I trained her from a foal. She knows to come if she hears me whistle, and usually the others follow.”

“I’m glad,” Dunc said. “I wasn’t looking forward to walking back to the ranch. Before we start back, do you think we have enough time to check out those boxes?”

Juan grinned. “I was about to suggest it.”

Dunc picked up a rock. “Let’s open some boxes.”

Amos looked around anxiously. “Did it ever occur to you two that whoever let our horses go could still be hiding around here somewhere?”

He was talking to air. Juan and Dunc had already scrambled up the hill.

Suzy stood by Amos and wagged her tail. He reached down and patted her head. “No one ever listens to me, Suzy. All I’m trying to say is—”

Suzy barked at him, then turned and ran up to the cave.

Amos held back a few minutes, shrugged, and followed her.

Dunc already had the lid off one box. “Mining equipment. Somebody’s planning on doing some mining up here.”

“Either that, or somebody thinks they know where some chests of gold are buried, and they’re planning to dig them up,” Juan said.

Amos shivered. “The ghost gold.”

“That’s my guess.” Juan sat down. She took some sandwiches out of the lunch bag. “We’d better eat some of this food my grandmother packed, or she’ll be upset.”

Dunc took a sandwich. “We need to find out who this mining stuff belongs to. Whoever it is might be able to explain some of what’s been going on around here.”

Suzy started barking again.

A dark figure appeared in the mouth of the cave. The sunlight shone through his long hair and beard.

Amos moved closer to Dunc. “Tell me it’s not a ghost. No—if it’s a ghost, don’t tell me until it’s all over.”

“I know who these things belong to.” A bushy little man stepped forward out of the sun. “My name is Charlie Cookson. I work for the owner of these supplies—Woody Culpepper.”

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