_ CHAPTER XVI. "CAPTAIN RUSS"
Laddie knew Russ could make many play-things, for he had seen his brother at work. But a wind wagon was something new. Laddie did not see how this could be made.
"Where are you going to get your wagon?" he asked Russ, as the two boys went out to the barn.
"There's an old express wagon out here. I saw it the other day. It's broken, but maybe we can fix it. Uncle Fred said it belonged to a family that used to live on this ranch before he bought it. We'll make the wind wagon out of that."
In a corner of the barn, under a pile of trash and rubbish, was found an old, broken toy express wagon.
"The four wheels are all right, and that's the main thing," said Russ. "We can fix the other part. The wheels you must have, else you can't make a wind wagon. Come on! We'll have lots of fun."
Then began the making of the wind wagon, though Laddie, even yet, didn't know exactly what Russ meant by it. But Russ soon told his brother what he was going to do, and not only told him, but showed him.
"You see, Laddie," explained Russ, "a water ship sails on the ocean or a lake 'cause the wind blows on the sail and makes it go."
"Yes," answered Laddie, "I know that."
"Well, 'stead of a water ship, I'm going to make a wind ship that will go on land. I'll fix the old express wagon up so it will roll along on wheels."
"Do you mean to have a pony pull it?"
"No. Though we could do it that way, if we wanted to. And maybe we will if the wind wagon won't work. But I think it will. You see, we'll fasten a sail to the wagon, and then we'll get in it and the wind will blow on the sail and blow us along as fast as anything."
"It'll be lots of fun!" exclaimed Laddie.
Russ and Laddie so often made things, or, at least, tried to do so, that their father and mother never paid much attention to the boys when they heard them hammering, sawing or battering away, with Russ whistling one merry tune after another. He always whistled when he made things. And now he was going to make a wind wagon.
It was not as easy as the boys had thought it would be to get the broken express wagon so it would run. The wheels were rusty on the axles, and they squeaked when Russ tried to turn them.
"And they've got to run easy if we want to ride," he said.
However, one of the cowboys saw that the boys were making something, and when they told him the trouble with the rusty wheels he gave them some axle grease that he used on the big wagons. After that the wheels spun around easily.
"Now we'll go fast!" cried Russ.
With a hammer and some nails, which he and Laddie found in the barn, they nailed the broken express wagon together, for some of the bottom boards were loose, as well as one of the sides.
But at last, after an hour of hard work, the wagon was in pretty good shape. It could be pulled about, and it would hold the two boys.
"Now we have to make a mast for the sail," said Russ, "and we must get a piece of cloth for the sail, and we've got to have some way to guide the wagon."
"Couldn't I stick my foot out back, and steer that way, same as I do when I'm coasting downhill in winter?" asked Laddie.
"Nope," Russ answered. "We'll have to steer by the front wheels, same as an automobile steers. But I can tie a rope to the front wheels, and pull it whichever way I want to go, just like Jimmie Brackson used to steer his coaster wagon down the hill at home."
He tied a rope on the front axle, close to each front wheel, and then, by pulling on the cords, he could turn the wagon whichever way he wanted to make it go.
"The mast is going to be hard," said Russ, and he and Laddie found it so. They could not make it stand upright, and at last they had to call on Daddy Bunker.
"Oh, so you're going to make a ship to sail on dry land, are you?" asked their father, when they told him their troubles with the mast.
"Will it sail?" asked Laddie.
"Well, it may, a little way. The wind is very strong to-day. I'll help you fix it."
With Daddy Bunker's aid, the mast was soon fixed so that it stood straight up in front of the wagon, being nailed fast and braced. Then they found some pieces of old bags for sails, and these were sewed together and made fast to the mast. There was a gaff, which is the little slanting stick at the top of a sail, and a boom, which is the big stick at the bottom. Only the whole sail, gaff, boom and all, was not very large.
"If you have your sail too big," said Daddy Bunker, "it will tip your wagon over when the wind blows hard. Better have a smaller sail and go a bit slower, than have an accident."
At last the sail was finished and hoisted on the mast. Russ and Laddie took their places in the wagon, and Daddy Bunker turned it around so the wind would blow straight from the back. The wagon stood on a smooth part of the prairies, where the grass had been eaten short by the hundreds of Uncle Fred's cattle.
"All ready, boys?" called their father to them.
"All ready!" answered Russ.
"All aboard!" answered Laddie. "I can say that this time, 'cause this is really a ship, though it sails on dry land," he added.
"Yes, you can say that," agreed Russ.
"Here you go!" cried Daddy Bunker.
He gave the wind wagon a shove, and it began to move. Slowly it went at first, and then, as the wind struck the sail, it began to send the toy along faster.
"Hurray!" cried Russ. "We're sailing!"
"Fine!" shouted Laddie.
And the boys were really moving over the level prairie in the wind wagon Russ had made. They could only go straight, or nearly so, and could not sail much to one side or the other, as their land ship was not like a water one. It would not "tack," or move across the wind.
Along they sailed, rather bumpily, it is true, but Russ and Laddie did not mind that. Russ could pull on the ropes fast to the front wheels, and steer his "ship" out of the way of stones and holes.
"Well, the youngsters did pretty well!" exclaimed Uncle Fred, as he saw Russ and Laddie sailing along.
"Yes, they did better than I expected they would," said their father. "If they don't upset they'll be all right."
Laddie and Russ did not seem to be going to do this. The wind wagon appeared to be a great success.
"Oh, who made it? Where did you get it? Whose is it? Can't I have a ride?" cried Violet, when she saw the new toy.
"My, what a lot of questions!" exclaimed Daddy Bunker, laughing.
"We'll give everybody a ride," said Russ, "only I'm going to sit in the ship each time and steer. I'm the captain, and nobody knows how to steer except me."
When Laddie got out, Rose had a turn, and then Violet was given a ride. The wind wagon went very nicely. Of course, each time it was blown over the field, some distance from the ranch house, it had to be dragged back again, as the children did not want to ride too far from home.
But walking back with the land ship to the starting point was no worse than walking back uphill with a sled, as the children had to do when they went coasting in the winter.
"And we walk back on level ground, not up a hill," said Russ.
So the wind wagon was that much better than a sled.
It came the turns of Mun Bun and Margy, and they liked the rides very much. Only Mun Bun made trouble by wanting to guide the land ship, and when he was told he could not, he snatched at the ropes Russ held, and nearly made the wind wagon upset.
After that Mun Bun was not given any more rides.
"I guess he is cross because he hasn't had his sleep this afternoon," said his mother. "Come on, Margy and Mun Bun. I'll put you to bed."
So Russ, with Laddie, Violet and Rose, played with the wind wagon after the two smallest Bunkers had been put to bed.
But Russ began to feel that he had been a little selfish, and each of the older children was allowed to guide the land ship some of the time.
The wind kept blowing harder and harder, and at last the land ship went so fast before the breeze that Mr. Bunker called:
"Better shorten sail, Russ! Better take in some, or you may blow over."
"Oh, I don't guess we will," said Russ, who was again, as he was most of the time, doing the guiding.
But he did not know what was going to happen.
"The wind is blowing so strong now," said Laddie to his brother, "that three of us could ride in the wagon 'stead of only two. It will blow three of us."
"We'll try it," agreed Russ. "Come on, Vi and Rose. I'll give you two a ride at the same time."
It was rather a tight squeeze to get the three children in the wagon, but it was managed. Laddie shoved them off and away they went.
The wind blew harder and harder, and, all of a sudden, as Russ steered out of the way of a stone, there came a sudden puff, and--over went the wind wagon, spilling out Rose, Violet and "Captain Russ" himself. The mast broke off close to where it was fastened to the toy wagon, and the sail became tangled in the arms and legs of the children.
"My goodness!" cried Captain Roy, who came along just in time to see the accident, which happened a little way from the ranch house. "Any of the six little Bunkers hurt?"
"There's only three of us in the wagon," said Russ, as he crawled out. "I'm not hurt. Are you, Rose?"
"No," she answered, laughing. "But where's Vi?"
"Here I am," answered the little girl, as she crawled out from under the wagon, which had upset. "And I don't like that way of stopping at all, Russ Bunker! I like to stop easy!"
"So do I," said Russ. "I didn't mean to do that. The wind was too strong for us. Now the wagon is busted."
It was indeed broken, and, as the wind blew harder than before, Daddy Bunker said it would not be best to use the wind wagon any more, even if it had not been smashed. So the toy was turned right side up, the broken mast and sail put in it and Russ and Laddie took it to the barn.
"We'll fix it up again to-morrow," said Russ.
The children had other fun the rest of that day, and in the evening they all had pony rides. And this time Margy was not given a ride in the Indian carriage and left asleep. She had her own pony to ride on.
The next day, when dinner was about to be served, Uncle Fred came in looking rather thoughtful.
"Has anything happened?" asked Mother Bunker.
"Yes," he answered. "Some more of my cattle have been taken. I thought this would happen after the spring started to go dry. I wish I could find out what it all means--why the water runs out of the spring, and who is taking my cattle."
"I wish we could help," said Daddy Bunker. "But we don't seem able to. The engineers you asked about it don't seem to know what makes your spring go dry; the books tell nothing about it, and we can't find any of your lost cattle. I'm afraid we Bunkers aren't helping any."
"Well, I like to have you here!" said Uncle Fred. "Three Star Ranch would be lonesome if the six little Bunkers went away. Just stay on, and maybe we'll solve the riddle yet."
They were just going in to dinner, when a cowboy rode up on a pony that was covered with foam, from having been ridden far and fast.
"What's the matter?" asked Uncle Fred, as he went out to talk to the man--for cowboys are men, though they are called boys. "Are any more of my cattle gone?"
"No, but they're likely to be. There's a big prairie fire started some miles south of here, and the wind is blowing it right this way. We've got to do something if we want to save the ranch houses from burning!" _