had seen.
XVIII Risky Business!
Lance strode steadily for some time. The Three-Cross buildings were nearer now. He could make out a clump of cottonwood trees and a windmill whirring in the breeze. From time to time he had passed a few cattle bearing on the left ribs the Three-Cross brand. Other cattle were unbranded. None of the animals appeared to be of high-grade stock. As he drew nearer the ranch buildings Lance saw a long adobe ranch house fronted by a gallery that stretched across the entire front of the structure. There were a bunk house, corrals and other miscellaneous buildings. There were a few horses in one of the corrals, but of human life about the place there was no sign.
Lance dismounted before the house, mounted two low stone steps and strode across the flag-paved gallery. A door stood slightly open before him. He pushed it the rest of the way and found himself gazing into a long room with many Indian rugs scattered about on its beaten earth floor. There was a big fireplace at one end. On the white-washed walls were a couple of mounted deer heads and one or two framed pictures. Here and there a
“Huh,” Lance grunted, “if Malcolm Fletcher pulled out of Pozo Verde in such a hurry to come down here and get the place ready for Katherine it sure looks like he forgot his good intentions before he arrived.” He walked on into the room, closing the door behind him, and raised his voice: “Anybody home? Hey! Katherine! Oscar! Professor!”
His call received instant results. He caught a startled cry, and a door at one end of the room burst open. Katherine stood there, her long yellow hair loose and hanging below her waist. She was still in overalls, dusty, torn overalls. Her face was smudged with dirt. The girl paused in the doorway, her deep blue eyes growing wider and wider. “Lance? Lance! Is it really you?” she half whispered. Suddenly a glad cry was torn from her lips, and she came forward.
Things happened pretty quick after that. Before he realized what he was doing Lance moved toward the girl, and his arms whipped hungrily about her. Her face lifted to his. Thereafter there was silence for some time. Finally Katherine broke away, her face crimson under the smudges of dirt.
“Yeah, it’s me—I’m back.” Lance grinned.
Katherine said, “You certainly came back with a rush. Lance! Things happened to us all of a sudden, didn’t they? I didn’t know I was going to do that and then—then——”
“I know.” Lance grinned happily. “I hadn’t intended to say a thing until—until after things get straightened out but I kind of got swept off my feet.”
“You did a good job of sweeping yourself, mister.” Katherine smiled. “And look at me! I’m a sight.”
Lance started toward the girl again, arms outstretched, but Katherine warded him off. “Sight or no sight”— Lance chuckled—“isn’t there a saying to the effect that a new broom sweeps clean?”
At that minute a door at the opposite end of the room opened, and Professor Jones appeared. “Bless me!” he exclaimed. “Thought I heard your voice, Lance. Couldn’t believe it.” He paused, noticing their blushing faces and taking in the situation at a glance. “Look groggy—both of you.” He smiled. “Sudden triumph for the emotions, eh? What? Don’t blame you. Young myself once, y’understand. Katherine—I—both worried. Lance! Where in hell you been?” He had Lance’s hand in his by this time, shaking it soundly.
“It’s sure a relief to find you two,” Lance said, “but where’s all the rest? I’ll tell my story in a minute.”
“Everybody else is looking for you,” Katherine said. “We’ve all been out all night. Uncle Uly and I just got back. Oscar was with us. I simply had to clean up. Then I heard your voice. Oscar’s gone to Muletero to see if he could learn anything. It’s only about four miles from here, you know. Lordy, I’ll bet I’ve tramped and rode a hundred square miles of brush country.”
It appeared that when Lance hadn’t returned with the professor’s horse the previous day Katherine and Jones had finally come to look for him. All three horses were as they had left them. Katherine had mounted and raced down the mountainside to catch up with Oscar and the rest of the wagon train. While two men stayed with the wagons the rest had ascended the mountain to look for traces of Lance. That continued until darkness when the search was temporarily halted, and the party came on to the Three-Cross. Then the men had once more started out on a search for Lance that had lasted the rest of the night and was still continuing. Oscar, Jones and Katherine had finally returned to the Three-Cross to see if the rest had put in an appearance with news.
“I can’t understand why”—Lance frowned—“some of them didn’t find sign where I was standing when it happened.”
“Oscar did,” Katherine said. “So did Lanky Peters. They found ‘sign’ where two men had waited on a shelf of rock above the horses. One of them had apparently leaped on you. We figured you were knocked unconscious and carried away. Footprints showed where they had taken you down through a narrow gully. Then, due to the scattered rock footing, the prints entirely disappeared. And so much time had already been lost——But, Lance, what did happen to you?”
Lance told his story while he smoked a cigarette. Katherine’s eyes grew wider and wider while she listened. Jones grew more and more interested. When Lance had finished:
“No end remarkable,” Jones commented. “Amazing, what? This Temple of the Plumed Serpent—I know very little about archaeology, but jewels and gold often found in such places. Aztec, no doubt. I knew the ancient Aztec people worshiped a god named Quetzalcoatl—called Plumed Serpent——”
“That’s what Horatio called him—“Quetzalcoatl,” Lance put in.
“Quite so, quite. Those overgrown tombstones—you mention—quite probably stelae—records, calendar, history of the race and so on. I should like to see them.”
“You won’t have to go far,” Lance stated. “It’s on Three-Cross property, the whole setup, temple and all, but so well hidden behind trees and brushy ridges that you’d never know it was there unless you stumbled on it by accident or found it as I did.”
Katherine put in, “Lance, that armlet Father sent me—it must have come from the feathered snake temple.”
“That’s my idea.” Lance nodded.
Katherine smiled suddenly. “Lance, Uncle Uly was so upset over your disappearance yesterday that he clean forgot his precious cactus discovery.”
The professor flushed to the roots of his hair. “Ridiculous, eh?” Jones smiled wryly. “Another example— triumph of emotions over ratiocination. Must have—completely lost—head. However, we returned—today.
“We returned to the place where you disappeared,” Katherine explained. “Oscar wanted another look at the earth to see if he had overlooked anything. He hadn’t—but I had to remind Uncle Uly to bring his precious plant this time.”
“By the time we returned here”—Jones changed the subject—“Oscar discovered—your horse—missing from corral. Thought perhaps you had come or someone in Muletero had stolen it. Went to Muletero to see——”
“It was Horatio who took the horse,” Lance said, “and he didn’t take it to Muletero—thank heaven!”
Oscar arrived and was overjoyed to find Lance. “By cripes!” Oscar said earnestly, “we were sure upset. I betcha I ate two pounds of lemon drops. You know, nothing like lemon drops to keep a man’s courage up.”
Lance had started to tell his story when, one by one, the others of the expedition put in an appearance. They were gray with dust and fatigue, but sight of Lance quickly restored them to normal. Lance went over and over his story. Darkness fell, lamps were lighted, while the men sat talking in the big room of the ranch house. Lance suddenly remembered Fletcher and asked if they’d seen him.
“He’s out looking for you,” Katherine said.
“Fletcher is?” Lance said unbelievingly.
Katherine nodded. “That’s where he said he was going anyway. He was here last night when we arrived. We
