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Frank Merriwell, Jr., in Arizona or Clearing a Rival’s Record




CONTENTS

  CHAPTER                                         PAGE

        I. A Slave of the Needle                     5

       II. Making a “Raise”                         12

      III. A Drugged Conscience                     19

       IV. Blunt Takes the Warpath                  26

        V. A Surprise at the Gulch                  33

       VI. The Revolver Shot                        40

      VII. A Blind Chase                            47

     VIII. Blunt’s Warning                          54

       IX. Accident or Treachery?                   61

        X. Desperate Work                           68

       XI. The Saving Grace                         75

      XII. Blunt’s “Surprise”                       80

     XIII. The Race for Single Paddles              84

      XIV. An Enemy’s Appeal                        90

       XV. Taking a Chance                          96

      XVI. The Yellow Streak                       103

     XVII. A Cry in the Night                      110

    XVIII. Tracking Trouble                        117

      XIX. Missing Bullion                         124

       XX. The Finger of Suspicion                 131

      XXI. Blind Luck                              138

     XXII. A Slight Mistake                        145

    XXIII. The Solution Tank                       152

     XXIV. Merriwell’s Faith                       157

      XXV. “Warming Up”                            161

     XXVI. A Challenge                             168

    XXVII. The Line-up                             175

   XXVIII. Lenning Yields To Persuasion            180

     XXIX. Plain English                           187

      XXX. Getting the Nine in Shape               194

     XXXI. Hatching a Plot                         201

    XXXII. The Day of the Game                     208

   XXXIII. Poor Support                            215

    XXXIV. Worse--and More of It                   222

     XXXV. Won in the Ninth                        228

    XXXVI. The Plot that Failed                    233

   XXXVII. Woo Sing and the Pig                    236

  XXXVIII. A Good Word for Lenning                 243

    XXXIX. Startling News                          249

       XL. Another Blow                            256

      XLI. A Dark Outlook for Lenning              263

     XLII. The Mysterious Message                  270

    XLIII. Playing in Hard Luck                    277

     XLIV. A Fruitless Vigil                       284

      XLV. Rising Hopes                            291

     XLVI. The Runaway Ore Car                     298

    XLVII. The Yellow Streak Gone                  305

   XLVIII. Conclusion                              310




  Frank Merriwell, Jr., in Arizona
  OR
  CLEARING A RIVAL’S RECORD

  By
  BURT L. STANDISH

  Author of the famous Merriwell Stories.

  [Illustration]

  STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
  PUBLISHERS
  79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York




  Copyright, 1912
  By STREET & SMITH

  Frank Merriwell, Jr., in Arizona

  All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign
  languages, including the Scandinavian.

  Printed in the U. S. A.




FRANK MERRIWELL, JUNIOR, IN ARIZONA.

CHAPTER I.

A SLAVE OF THE NEEDLE.


“Buck up, Shoup! What ails you, anyhow?”

“I’m all in, Len. I d-don’t believe I can take another step. You see,
I--I----”

The words faded into a groan, and the tottering youth slumped to his
knees, then pitched forward and sprawled out limply in the sandy trail.

There were two of them, and they had been tramping wearily through a
defile known as Bitter-root Cañon. The stage trail leading from Ophir,
Arizona, to Gold Hill, followed the cañon, and the two lads had been
taking this trail.

The trail was white with dust, churned up by the wheels and hoofs that
had passed over it. It wound interminably along the cañon’s bed,
twisting back and forth through patches of greasewood and mesquite, now
hugging one wall and now the other, and again skirting the edge of some
brackish pool.

A stream flowed through the cañon, although no one not familiar with
such mysterious streams would have guessed it. Like a good many Arizona
rivers, the water flowed under the surface, appearing only here and
there where bedrock forced it upward.

The lad who had yielded to exhaustion and had fallen must have been
nineteen or twenty years of age. He was well dressed, although his
clothes were dusty and in disorder. His hair was of a tow color, his
eyes a washed-out blue, and his face was hueless--startlingly white and
waxlike.

The other boy was a year or two younger than his companion, with a dark,
sinister face and shifty eyes. They had walked southward from Gold Hill
for many miles, and while the younger lad was an athlete and ordinarily
in good physical condition, yet a few days of reckless living had sapped
his endurance. He was almost as exhausted as his companion.

“Here’s a go!” muttered the younger lad, looking down grimly at the
unconscious, deathlike face of his friend in the trail. “Shoup hasn’t
the backbone of a jellyfish. I’ve got to do something for him, but
what?”

The boy looked around him and discovered that Shoup had fallen only a
few yards from the edge of a pool. The sight of water suggested the
means for reviving the fainting lad, and, with considerable difficulty,
the other dragged him to the pool’s edge. Wetting a handkerchief in the
pool, he bathed the pallid face. In a few moments Shoup drew a deep
breath and opened his eyes.

“You’re pretty near a wreck, Shoup,” said the boy called Len crossly.
“How do you think we’re ever going to get to the gulch if you can’t walk
four or five miles without crumpling up in the trail?”

“I was trying to save the dope,” was Shoup’s answer, in a weak voice. “I
haven’t got much of it, and no money to buy any more.”

“Cut that out,” the other growled angrily. “The more of that stuff you
use, the more you have to use. It’s making you ‘dippy’ as blazes; not
only that, but it eats up your muscle and ruins your nerves. Why don’t
you quit?”

“Can’t quit. My old man used it, and my grandfather used it. The
hankering for the stuff was born in me. What’s bred in the bone,
Lenning, is bound to come out in the flesh. No use fighting against the
craving. Here, help me to sit up.”

Lenning put his hands under Shoup’s shoulders and lifted him to a
sitting posture, twisting him about so he could lean his back against a
bowlder. With fingers that trembled from weakness, Shoup pushed up his
left sleeve.

The skin of his arm was white as marble, and dotted with little, black,
specklike marks. Reaching into an inside pocket of his coat, Shoup drew
out a small, worn morocco case.

“Bound to squirt a little more of that poison into your veins, eh?”
asked Lenning disgustedly.

As he put the question, he produced a box of cigarettes, lighted one,
tossed away the burned match and dropped the box into his pocket. A
sneering smile crossed Shoup’s face.

“What’s the difference, Len,” he queried, “whether you inhale the poison
or take it my way? It brings us both to the same place, in the end.”

“Splash! Cigarettes aren’t as bad as all that. Anyhow, when I’m in
training I cut ’em out. You’re never in training and you never cut out
that dope. If you can’t get it just when you want it, your strength is
snuffed out like a fool candle. How long do you think you’ll last, going
on as you are now, eh?”

“That’s the least of my worries,” was the placid retort.

With his shaking right hand, Shoup pressed the needle-like point of a
small “hypoderm” into the flesh of his left arm. An instant his
quivering finger toyed with the tiny piston, then drove it “home.” With
a long sigh of relief, he sank back.

“I’ll feel like a king pretty soon,” said he, speaking with his eyes
half closed. “You haven’t a notion how it gingers a fellow up. Say,” and
the eyes opened wide, “why don’t you try it yourself?”

“Not on your life!” returned the other, in a sort of horror. “The sight
of you, with one foot in the grave on account of that stuff, is enough
for me.”

“Go on,” urged Shoup, his faded eyes brightening wonderfully. “Try for
yourself and see how it puts fire into your veins, and peace and
happiness into your heart. Jove! Already I’m beginning to feel as though
I could run a hundred miles, and be as fresh at the end of the run as
when I started.”

Lenning stared at Shoup curiously.

“That’s the way you _feel_, but your system is all shot to pieces and
you’d drop before you’d gone half a mile,” commented Lenning.

“Don’t you want to forget your troubles, old man?” coaxed Shoup. “This
is a sure cure for the blues.”

“No!” almost shouted Lenning, springing to his feet. “Try to push that
thing into my face again and I’ll grab it and throw it into the water.
You say you inherited an appetite for the stuff; well, I inherited a few
things, myself, and I reckon they’re enough to stagger under without
taking on any of _your_ failings.”

“Maybe you’ll come to it, some time,” laughed Shoup.

He was, by now, an entirely different person from the Shoup of a few
minutes before. His eyes gleamed, and while his face remained colorless
and of a dead, waxen white, strength ran surging through him, and his
nerves steadied. It was the influence of the drug, of course, and when
that failed his condition would be more pitiful than ever. Lenning,
shivering at the spectacle presented by his companion, turned moodily
and looked down into the pool.

Shoup put away his morocco case. Getting up, he stepped to Lenning’s
side and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m a horrible example, eh?” he breathed. “All right. You’re a good
deal of an example, too. You’re a cast-off; a week ago your uncle gave
you a thousand dollars and kicked you out of the house. Where’s the
thousand now, Lenning? ‘Rooly’ and faro have swallowed it up.” He
laughed jeeringly.

Lenning whirled on him, red with anger.

“And who helped me lose the thousand?” he cried. “It was you! You might
have the grace, seems to me, to shut up about the loss of that money.
We’ve neither of us got a sou; but, if we can get to the gulch beyond
Dolliver’s, maybe I can borrow enough to get us out of this country for
good.”

“Who’s at the gulch?”

“A few friends of mine--at least, they used to be friends. They’re
members of the Gold Hill Athletic Club, and they’re camping there.”

“I don’t think you’re going to get money--not altogether,” said Shoup.
“There’s something else on your mind, too. What is it, Len?”

“Tell you later,” muttered Lenning.

“Look here: The bunch of fellows at the camp in the gulch are having
Merriwell over for a boating competition--canoe race, or something like
that. You’ve got a grudge against Merriwell and you’d like to saw it off
with him. Am I right?”

An astounded look crossed Lenning’s face. He turned his bewildered eyes
on his friend.

“How the deuce did you guess that?” he inquired breathlessly.

“The dope clears the brain wonderfully, Len,” grinned Shoup. “It all
came to me, just now. Sort of second sight, I reckon. Am I right?”

“Well, what if you are?”

“Nothing, but this: I’m with you. What reason have I to love Merriwell?
No more than you. If we square the score, suppose we do it together.”

Lenning stared gloomily at Shoup, then turned on his heel and started
off down the cañon. “Come on,” he called, “we’d better keep a-plugging.”

Shoup made after him, his step buoyant, his spirits as light as his
step. He was paying for every hour of that stimulated, fictitious
strength with a year of his life. But his thoughts did not--dared
not--take account of the future. It was the immediate present that
concerned him.

“You can’t get away from these family traits, Len,” said Shoup, as they
made their way southward.

“There’s a mighty tough prospect ahead of me,” growled Lenning, “if
that’s the case.”

“Well, it is the case.”

“I’m not taking your word for it. Nobody would take your word for
anything, Billy. You’re a wreck of a man--just a burned-out hulk of what
you ought to be. That’s the way with you slaves of the needle.”

“What are you, Jode?” gibed the other. “While you’re throwing it into
me, you’d better think about yourself.”

“I’m no dope fiend,” snarled Jode Lenning. “I’ve got a will left, and
when I get good and ready I can turn a leaf and be different.”

“I’ve got a picture of you ‘turning a leaf,’” laughed Shoup
sarcastically. “You’ll have to show me. You’re not turning a leaf by
going after Merriwell, are you?”

Lenning did not answer. Something, ahead of them in the trail, caught
his attention, just then, and brought him to a dead stop.

“Thunder!” he exclaimed, “there’s a stage. Something’s gone wrong with
it. Where’s the team and the driver? Wonder if they’ve had a
break-down?”




CHAPTER II.

MAKING A “RAISE.”


The stage that carried passengers and luggage between the two towns of
Ophir and Gold Hill was a mountain wagon with a canopy top. This wagon,
minus the horses and driver, was at a rest in the trail.

A woman, dressed in black and with a gray shawl over her shoulders, was
sitting on the seat immediately behind the one reserved for the driver.
Back of her, in the rear of the wagon box, was a shabby little
hide-covered trunk.

This woman, apparently, was the only passenger. The two lads stared in
the woman’s direction and continued to wonder regarding what had
happened to the stage.

“Some accident, sure,” said Shoup. “The driver must have taken the team
and gone after help.”

“I reckon that’s the how of it,” returned Lenning.

“Now,” his companion went on, “if we had money, Len, we could ride in
that rig as far as Ophir; and then, if we had some more money, we could
hire horses in Ophir and get to the gulch in that way.”

“If we had money,” came grimly from Lenning, “we wouldn’t go to the
gulch at all.”

“Wouldn’t we?” queried Shoup. “You say we’re going there to make a
‘touch,’ and won’t admit that your wish to play even with Merriwell has
anything to do with it. But I know making a raise is only about half of
our work at the gulch.”

“Well, let it go at that,” said the other, with a shade of annoyance.
“No use standing here chinning when we ought to be moving on.”

They started forward again. As they drew nearer the stage they soon
discovered what had happened.

One of the rear wheels was broken beyond repair. The wheel had struck a
bowlder and had been dished. Rim and tire were lying on the ground,
covered with half the spokes. The rest of the spokes were sticking in
the hub.

The woman on the front seat watched the lads as they approached. They
could see that she was little and old and wore spectacles. A lock of
snow-white hair dropped below the brim of a hat, which was evidently
homemade. Her dress was clearly her best black alpaca, and had probably
been her best for many years. The old face slowly lighted up as the
young men drew near.

Both boys lifted their hats when they had come close. “You’ve had an
accident, ma’am?” asked Lenning.

“Well, goodness me, I should say so!” was the answer. “I’ve been sitting
here for an hour, seems like, while the driver’s gone with the horses to
get a new wheel, or something else to patch up the wagon, so we can get
on to Ophir. Do you boys live hereabouts?”

“Gold Hill,” said Lenning briefly.

“It’s been pretty lonesome, sitting here all alone, and I don’t feel
real spry, either. You see, I haven’t been long out of a hospital, and
this is quite a trip for a woman, old as I am. But I like this
country--always did. I’ll feel a heap better, I know, after I’ve been
here a spell. Going far?”

“Ophir.”

“Dear me! Why don’t you ride when the weather’s so warm? I’ve come from
up North,” she continued, without waiting for a reply, “and it’s real
brisk November weather, up there. Here in southern Arizona, though,
winter isn’t winter at all, is it? Years ago, when I lived in these
parts, I’ve seen the thermometer at eighty, in the shade, on Christmas
day. That wasn’t much like Christmas. Terrible dusty, don’t you think?”

She had an old-fashioned hand reticule on her lap, and just here she
opened it to take out a handkerchief. As she drew out the little square
of linen, a roll of bills, with a yellowback on the outside, came with
it. She grabbed the money before it could fall, and pushed it back where
it belonged. Then she dabbed at her face with the handkerchief.

Shoup drew a quick breath as he caught sight of the money. There was an
evil, greedy gleam in his eyes as they continued to fix themselves on
the hand reticule.

Lenning’s eyes also filled with longing at sight of the roll of bills.
He compressed his lips tightly, however, and turned his head away.

“Sorry we can’t stay with you, ma’am,” said he, “and keep you company
until the driver gets back, but we’re in a hurry. Good-by. Come on,
Billy.”

Shoup smiled at the old lady and again lifted his hat as he followed
Lenning along the trail. The old lady shook out her handkerchief at them
and called a good-by in a thin, high voice.

“Confound the luck!” grumbled Lenning, after a bend in the trail had
hidden the stage from sight, “I’m tired enough to drop. If we could only
make a raise this side of the gulch, we could get to where we’re going a
heap easier than hoofing it.”

“You’re right, we could!” agreed Shoup. “You’d go on to the camp in the
gulch, would you,” he added mockingly, “if we had money?”

“Yes, I would,” was the almost savage response. “You’re fishing around
to find out what I’m really up to, and now you’re getting it flat; I
want to even up with Frank Merriwell. He’s raised Cain with me, and you
know it. What business has he got, sticking his nose into my affairs?
He’s due to get what a buttinsky ought to get--and I’m the one that is
going to hand it to him. Watch my smoke!”

“Hooray!” chuckled Shoup softly.

“You can help, if you want to,” went on Lenning, fairly ablaze with his
fancied wrongs now that Shoup had nagged him into starting on them,
“but, by thunder, you’ve got to keep your head clear and not make a
monkey out of yourself--or me.”

“I don’t think I’ll do that, Jode,” purred Shoup; “I guess you’ll be
tickled to death to have some one helping you before you’re done with
Merriwell. He’s a good way from being an easy proposition. Do you think
you can bank on your friends in the gulch?”

“Why should they turn against me?”

“Pretty nearly all your friends have given you the cold shoulder, I
notice, since your uncle pulled the pin on you.”

“I can’t believe that all of them will kick me when I’m down,” said
Lenning gloomily. “I’ve done a heap for that Gold Hill crowd. I used to
have plenty of money, and whenever they wanted any all they had to do
was to ask me for it. A whole lot of them owe me what they’ve borrowed,
too. It’s only right they should pay that back, anyhow.”

“My experience is,” said Shoup, “that a fellow will always have plenty
of friends when he’s got the spondulix and can pass it out freely; but
when the mazuma gives out, and the barrel can’t be tapped any more, then
he can’t find a friend with a microscope.”

“Friends like that are no friends at all.”

“They’re all like that.”

“Merriwell’s friends are not, and I don’t see why I can’t have a few
friends just as loyal as his.”

“Well, Len,” grinned Shoup, “you’re not Merriwell.”

“I’m as good as he is!” flared Lenning.

“Not at some things.”

“I didn’t have a dad who was the world’s champion all-round athlete, and
that’s one place where he gets the best of me. It’s Merriwell’s father’s
reputation that makes young Merriwell what he is. Take that from him and
there’s nothing left.”

“Easy, easy! You’re shy a few chips, Jode. Young Merriwell stands on his
own feet, and the biggest handicap he has is the way people expect big
things of him because his father did big things. Although I hate
Merriwell as much as you do, yet I’ve got a whole lot of respect for
him. Now----”

Shoup came to a halt, one hand on the outside of his breast pocket. A
blank look crossed his pallid face.

“What’s the matter?” asked Lenning, halting.

“My dope case is gone!” was the answer. “I must have dropped it along
the trail somewhere.”

“Let it go, Billy! Now’s as good a time as ever to cut away from the
dope. Buck up and use your will power. Try and be a----”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” cut in the other angrily.
“I’d die if I had to get along without that. Will you go back with me
and help me find it?”

“I will--nit. I’m pretty nearly fagged. If you’re bound to have that
stuff, go back and hunt it up yourself. I’ll wait for you here.”

A look as of satisfaction crossed Shoup’s face.

“I’ll be as quick as I can,” he said, and turned back and was soon out
of sight behind the chaparral.

Moodily Jode Lenning found a place where he could be fairly
comfortable, and sat down. Every muscle in his body was aching. A few
weeks before he would not have minded a jaunt like the one he and Shoup
was taking, but now it told on him fearfully.

He knew the reason. His wits were keen enough to assure him that
reckless living for only a few days had sapped the strength and
endurance which he had been garnering for months.

He had been foolish, worse than foolish. But that couldn’t be helped,
and there was no use crying over spilt milk.

The one object he had in life, just then, was squaring accounts with
Frank Merriwell. Merriwell was always in the pink of condition--he made
it a point to keep himself so.

“I’m all shot to pieces,” growled Lenning, “and I’ve got to go up
against this paragon who never side-steps his training and settle a big
score with him. Will he be too much for me? He will, sure, unless I can
get at him in some underhand way. That’s the idea!” he finished.

Then, for an hour, he tried to think of some “underhand way” in which he
could make young Merriwell feel the full force of his vengeance. Lenning
was unscrupulous, to a certain extent, and his association with Shoup
was well calculated to make him more so; nevertheless, Lenning had some
shreds of character and self-respect left, although they formed a very
imperfect foundation on which to build for better things.

While Lenning was still busy with his thoughts, Billy Shoup came briskly
back along the trail. Lenning started up as he drew close, and stared at
the triumphant look on his waxlike face.

“I reckon you found what you were looking for,” said he.

“You can bet a blue stack I did,” was the answer. “It wasn’t the dope
case, either, Len.”

“Not that?” queried the startled Len. “What was it, then?”

Shoup proudly drew from his pocket something which he held toward
Lenning in the palm of his hand. It was a roll of bills with a
“yellowback” on the outside.

“Made a raise,” he chuckled. “Transferred this from the old lady’s hand
bag to my pocket. Ain’t I the cute boy, all right?”




CHAPTER III.

A DRUGGED CONSCIENCE.


With revulsion plainly marked in his face, Jode Lenning leaped back from
the outstretched hand and the roll of bills as he would from a coiled
rattlesnake.

“Squeamish, eh?” jeered Shoup, his eyes two points of light and boring
into Lenning’s brain. “You’ve got a lot of cause, after the way you’ve
acted, to get on your high horse with me.”

“You’re a plain thief!” gasped Lenning.

“Very plain,” sneered the other; “you’re worse, Lenning, only it’s not
so plain.”

Lenning jumped at Shoup with clenched fists.

“What do you mean by that sort of talk?” he demanded chokingly.

“Don’t think you can scare me, Jode. You can’t. If you want a tussle,
don’t think for a minute that you’d have the easy end of it. I know you
better than anybody else does--better even than your fool of an uncle,
who let you pull the wool over his eyes for so long. You’re a coward.
When you saw the money in that old woman’s hand bag, you wanted it just
as much as I did, only you didn’t have the nerve to take it. Well, I had
the nerve; and I was so clever about it that she’ll never know it’s gone
until she wants to pay a bill. Now get a grip on yourself and don’t act
like a blooming idiot.”

Lenning shivered slightly. The gleaming eyes of his companion were still
boring into his brain, and somehow they robbed him of all desire to
resent with his fists the hard words Shoup had spoken.

“It seems to me as though, if you’re bound to steal, you could pick out
some one else for a victim,” Lenning grumbled. “That poor old woman--I
can see her face now, with that lock of gray hair falling down from
under that rusty old hat and--and--oh, it makes me sick just to think of
it!”

He turned away in gloomy protest. Shoup laughed.

“Fine!” said he. “I didn’t know, Jode, that there was so much maudlin
sentiment wrapped up in you. How do you know the old lady is so poor,
eh? You can’t always judge from appearances. The biggest miser I ever
knew--an old curmudgeon that looked like a tramp, had more than a
hundred thousand in the bank. There’s two hundred in this roll, and it
will stake us until luck begins coming our way.”

The first shock of disgust had passed and Lenning began to take a little
interest in his friend’s recent achievement.

“You didn’t lose that morocco case at all, eh?” he asked.

“Not at all; that was merely an excuse for me to go back to the stage
and pull off my little play.”

“Suppose I had gone with you to help hunt for the case?”

“I was pretty sure you wouldn’t.”

“Well, how did you manage it?”

“Easy. The old lady was still on the front seat, and when she saw me
coming she brightened up a lot. She wanted to know why I was coming
back, and I told her that I had lost something in the trail and had come
back to look for it. The hand bag lay on the seat beside her. I leaned
over the side of the wagon, and began to talk. I called her attention to
the wall of the cañon, pointing out a queer formation of the rocks, with
my left hand, and, with my right, opening the bag and taking out the
money. She never suspected a thing. It was about the easiest job I ever
pulled off.”

The shameless steps which he had followed in committing the robbery were
recited by Shoup without a shadow of feeling or regret; on the contrary,
there was a boasting note in his voice, as though he had accomplished
something of which he was proud.

“You’re--you’re a coyote!” muttered Lenning.

“I’m a fox, Jode,” laughed Shoup, “and a slick one, believe me. You
couldn’t have turned a trick like that without bungling.”

“I’d as soon think of stealing pennies out of a blind man’s cup. That
dope has killed your conscience. I don’t believe you have a heart in
you--when you’re under the influence of that fiendish stuff.”

“Oh, cut that out!” grunted Shoup. “We’ve made a raise and we’re going
to use the money. We need it--you know we need it. Come on. We’ll see
how quick we can get into Ophir and out again. We’ll hire horses and
ride to the gulch. It won’t do for us to stay long in the town.”

They started again, Lenning dragging along, moodily thoughtful. His
thoughts, whatever they were, must have been far from pleasant. Shoup,
abnormally keen while under the spell of the slow poison, seemed to know
what his companion was thinking about.

“You’re asking yourself, Jode,” said he jestingly, “how you ever
happened to fall so low as to be a friend of mine. You were pretty well
down yourself before we got into each other’s company this last time.
While you’re thinking what a conscienceless wretch I am, let your mind
circle about yourself. What have you got to be proud of?”

“Nothing,” snarled Jode.

“That is correct. If we can pick our bone with Merriwell, we’ll both
feel a whole lot better; when that’s finished, we’ll clear out of this
country and make a long jump to Frisco. That’s the town! We can do big
things there.”

“What sort of things?” queried Lenning suspiciously.

“Oh, something safe and profitable. I’m well acquainted, and the friends
I have are the kind who’ll help a fellow when he’s down. They’ll take
you in on my say-so, and, if you prove loyal to them, you’ll find that
they will prove loyal to you, in fair weather or foul. We----”

Lenning cut into Shoup’s remarks with a sharp exclamation. “Duck!” he
exclaimed; “get into the brush--quick!”

At this same moment, Lenning suited his action to the word and dove
pell-mell into the chaparral beside the trail. Without understanding the
reason for this sudden move, Shoup did likewise. The next moment, he
heard a tramp of horses’ hoofs in the trail. Riders were coming, and
Lenning had been crafty enough to understand that it was not well, after
the robbery, for them to be seen in that part of the cañon.

Shoup chuckled. This meant, as he looked at it, that Lenning had
accepted the situation and was eager to help his companion avoid the
consequences.

Three horses came along at a gallop. Two of the horses had a wagon
harness upon them. One of these animals was ridden by a flannel-shirted
man, who was probably the stage driver. The third animal was a saddle
horse, and was ridden by a young fellow with snapping black eyes and in
cowboy rig. One horse in the stage team carried a wagon wheel lashed to
its back.

The horses and their riders flashed by the thicket where Lenning and
Shoup lay concealed, and were quickly out of sight and hearing. Lenning
crawled slowly back into the trail.

“If we hadn’t been quick,” said he, as Shoup joined him, “they’d have
seen us.”

“But they didn’t,” answered Shoup, “so it’s nothing to worry over.
What’s the cowboy along for?”

“Give it up. The cowboy was Barzy Blunt, of the Bar Z Ranch. Ever heard
of him?”

“No, but there are several cowboys I never heard of, Jode. How has this
fellow Blunt ever distinguished himself?”

“Well, when Merriwell first came to Ophir, Blunt got a grouch at him.
Blunt is a cowboy athlete, but never had any special training. He
thought Merriwell was a conceited Easterner, and made up his mind he’d
take a few falls out of him. He tried it.”

“And made a failure, eh?”

“How did you know Blunt failed?”

“Guessed it. It takes a pretty good athlete to beat Merriwell at any
sort of sport. But go on.”

“As you say, Blunt failed. Time after time he tried to best Merriwell,
but was always beaten out. At last they became friends. There’s an old
professor with Merriwell and his pals. They found him holed away in the
Picketpost Mountains, holding down a gold ‘prospect.’ Merriwell helped
the professor save the ‘prospect,’ and by and by it turned out that the
man who had taken Blunt to raise had a grubstake interest in the
professor’s claim. The man was dead, but his widow came in for the good
thing. The syndicate that has the big gold mine in Ophir, I understand,
have paid, or are going to pay, fifty thousand for the mine. That will
put Barzy Blunt on Easy Street, for everybody says half the purchase
price will come to him when the widow is done with it.”

“Some fellows certainly have a habit of dropping into a good thing,”
murmured Shoup.

“It wasn’t a habit with Blunt. He had about as hard a time getting along
as any fellow you ever saw.”

“So he and Merriwell were enemies, and now they’re friends?”

“Yes.”

“Look out, Jode!” joked Shoup. “Maybe Merriwell will win you over before
you have a chance to settle accounts with him.”

“No danger,” grunted Lenning. “Merriwell hasn’t any more use for me than
I have for him. Merriwell wouldn’t wipe his feet on me, I reckon, and
you can bet your last sou I wouldn’t give him a chance to try. He knows
the sort of father I had, and that I’m headed wrong as a birthright, and
will go wrong in spite of fate.”

“What a fellow inherits he can’t get away from,” declared Shoup.
“Merriwell, it seems, understands that. When you know a thing’s true,
what’s the use of trying to buck against it? We’re all born with a
handicap of some sort in the race of life; we’ve got to win by doing the
thing that comes easiest.”

This was the logic of a drugged conscience, of a fellow who was not
himself at the very moment he brought up the argument. For a lad like
Jode Lenning, already started on the downhill road, such a fellow was a
dangerous companion.

“I don’t know whether you’ve got the right of that, or not,” said
Lenning, “but I hope you haven’t. There are times when I want to turn
over a leaf and be different--and never a time more than right now,
since my uncle has kicked me out; but----” He hesitated.

“But you want to hand Merriwell a testimonial of your kind regards
before the leaf is turned, eh?” grinned Shoup.

“I’ll show him,” snapped Lenning, “that he had no business butting into
my affairs.”

“We’ll both show him, Len. I can be of more help to you than you think.
We’ll get horses in Ophir and ride for the gulch. After we’re through
with our work there, we’ll clear out of this part of the country and
pull off some big things.”

“I wish to thunder,” said Lenning, “that I could look into the future
and see just what is going to happen.”

Had he been able to do that, Jode Lenning would probably have received
the surprise of his life.




CHAPTER IV.

BLUNT TAKES THE WARPATH.


Frank and his chums, Owen Clancy and Billy Ballard, sat on the front
veranda of the Ophir House and saw a horseman come pounding along the
road. The rider was a cowboy--that much could be seen at a glance.
Cowboys were no novelty in the streets of Ophir, and this one secured
attention mainly because he was pointing for the hotel.

Gracefully he dashed at the veranda steps, just as though he intended to
gallop into the hotel; then, deftly whirling his horse, he came to a
halt broadside on to the three lads who were watching him over the
veranda rail. So suddenly did the cowboy stop, that his horse sat down
and slid to a standstill in a flurry of dust.

“Whoop!” cried the admiring Clancy to the master horseman, “say, old
man, you’re all to the mustard.”

“Shucks!” grinned the cowboy, “stoppin’ in a horse’s length from full
gallop ain’t nothing to what old Hot Shot can do. This here little
cayuse can ride up the side of a house, with me on his back, and then
turn a summerset off’n the ridge pole. Fact. Which is the hombray that
totes the label of Merriwell?”

“I’m the hombre,” laughed Merry.

The cowboy drew back in his saddle and peered at him through half-closed
eyes.

“Is that all there is of ye?” he inquired. “From what I’ve heard, I
reckoned ye was about ten feet high an’ went chuggin’ around like a
steam engine. My notions was kinder hazy, more’n like. Since I was a
kid, my favor-ite hero has allers been that dad o’ yourn. I allow, that
pullin’ off athletic stunts comes mighty easy for you, arter the way you
was brung up. Here’s a paper talk I was asked to kerry in an’ pass over
to ye.”

The cowboy jerked a letter from the breast of his shirt, flipped it
toward Merriwell, then rattled his spurs and bore on with a husky
“Adios!” Frank had caught the missive deftly, and he now sat staring
glumly after the disappearing rider.

“Come out of it, Chip,” said Ballard. “Just open that paper talk and
let’s hear what it says.”

“That cowboy thinks athletics come easy for me because dad made such a
record,” muttered Frank. “I wish to thunder people would understand that
such things can’t be handed down in a fellow’s family, like silver
spoons, and the grandfather’s clock, and the old homestead.”

“Don’t fret about anything that cowboy said,” returned Clancy. “He also
had a notion that you were ten feet high, and went snorting around like
a locomotive. His ideas don’t seem to be reliable, anyhow. What’s in the
letter, Chip?”

Frank tore open the envelope and drew out the inclosed sheet. His face
brightened as he read the letter.

“Here’s news, fellows,” said he; “listen.” And he read aloud:

“‘I’ll bet something handsome you’ll be surprised when you get this and
find out some of us Gold Hill fellows are back at the old camp in the
gulch. We’re here for a week, and we want you and Reddy, and Pink to
come out and see us to-morrow. Hotch and I challenge you for a canoe
race, or a swimming match, or any other old thing that’s in the line of
sport and excitement. We hear that you’re soon to leave Arizona, and we
can’t let you go without having a visit with you. Of course, we don’t
expect to beat you at anything--you were born with the athletic virus in
your veins and all sports are second nature to you--but give us a chance
to do our best against you, anyway. Come on, and stay as long as you
can.’

“And that,” Frank added, with the shadow of a frown crossing his face,
“is signed by Bleeker, the Gold Hill chap we’re pretty well acquainted
with.”

“It’s a bully letter!” Clancy declared. “What’s more, it hits me about
where I live. Staying holed up in this hotel for the rest of the time
we’re in Arizona doesn’t appeal to me a little bit. We’ll go, of
course?”

“No studies for a couple of days, Chip!” put in Ballard, repressing his
exultation. “Mrs. Boorland will reach Ophir to-day, and then she and the
professor will be busy selling out their mine to the syndicate. The prof
told us, you remember, that he regretted the break in our studies, but
that he expected to make it up as soon as the mine is out of the way.
Let’s pile in and enjoy ourselves. What?”

“Did you absorb what Bleek says about all sports being second nature to
me?” fretted Merry, staring gloomily at that particular passage in the
letter. “Say, I wonder if anybody gives me credit for doing anything in
my own right? I’ve put in some pretty hard licks trying to make a
sprinter, a pitcher, and a few other things out of myself, and yet
there’s an impression around that dad’s responsible for it all. It’s a
thundering big handicap, and I’m getting tired of it. I don’t care a
picayune what a fellow inherits, he has to stand on his own feet, and
it’s what he does himself that makes or breaks him.”

Merriwell was getting rather warm on the subject--too warm, he suddenly
realized, and put the clamps on himself.

“Of course,” he went on, “I’m mighty lucky in having a father in the
champion class. He has been mighty good to me, and his advice has been
the biggest kind of a help, but he has only pointed the way, and it was
left to me whether I made good or not. It’s the most foolish thing in
the world, strikes me, to think a fellow is worthy or worthless simply
because his father was one or the other. Now----”

Merriwell paused. The stage from Gold Hill, several hours late, was
lumbering up the main street of Ophir. He had been watching it moodily
while he talked; and then, abruptly, his moodiness vanished and he
jumped to his feet.

“By Jove!” he exclaimed, in pleased surprise. “As sure as shooting,
fellows, there’s Barzy Blunt!”

There was no doubt about it. Barzy Blunt, on horseback, was riding along
at the side of the stage; and, on a seat of the stage, was a little old
lady with spectacles, and a shawl over her shoulders.

“Hello, Barzy!” Frank called, leaning out over the veranda railing and
waving his hand. “Wasn’t expecting to see you. How are you, old man?”

“How’s the ranch, Barze?” shouted Clancy.

“Good old Barzy!” chirped Ballard. “You’re a wonder, all right. Whoever
had a notion you’d be turning up in Ophir this afternoon?”

The stage had halted in front of the hotel, and Blunt had swung down
from his saddle and rushed to the side of the vehicle. He waved a joyous
greeting to the lads on the veranda, and then very carefully helped the
old lady to alight. Pophagan, proprietor of the hotel, came briskly out,
followed by the Chinaman who acted as porter.

“Glad to see ye, Blunt,” said Pophagan. “An’ this here is Mrs. Hilt
Boorland, ain’t it? It’s been a heap o’ years since I’ve seen Mrs.
Boorland. Howdy, mum? Feelin’ well, I hope? I been savin’ a good room
for you. I’ll take the grip, and the chink, I reckon, can manage the
trunk. Come right in whenever you’re ready. Have a break-down, Andy?” he
called to the stage driver. “You’re a long time behind schedule.”

The roustabout shouldered the little, hide-bound trunk and trotted into
the hotel with it. Pophagan, already up the steps, was swinging a
scarred and battered satchel. Blunt, still very carefully, was helping
the old lady mount to the veranda. Merry ran down and lent his
assistance. Andy, settling back in his seat and picking up the reins,
was sputtering about the broken wheel and the delay. He drove on, still
sputtering, bound for the post office, where he was to leave the mail
bags.

“Merriwell,” said Blunt, after his charge had safely reached the
veranda, “this is Mrs. Boorland. Mam,” and he turned to the old lady,
“this is Frank Merriwell, and Owen Clancy, and Billy Ballard. I reckon,”
and he laughed softly, “that you’re not exactly strangers to each
other.”

“Deary me!” exclaimed the little old lady, very much flustered. “Why,
the letters Barzy wrote to me at the hospital were just full of things
about you boys.” She got up and put her trembling arms about Merriwell.
“You don’t mind an old woman showing her affection for you, do you?
Seems like you were one of my boys, same as Barzy. You did a lot for
Barzy, you and your friends, Frank Merriwell. I just wish I had the last
letter he wrote me! If you could see the fine things he said about you,
you’d know you’d never lack for a friend so long as Barzy’s alive.”

She turned from Frank to Owen.

“And here’s Mr. Clancy,” she went on, “and Mr. Ballard! Goodness sakes,
I am just as pleased as I can be. We’d have got here a lot sooner if the
wheel hadn’t broken, ’way off in the cañon. I had to wait in the stage
while the driver came on to get another wheel. Well, it was lonesome,
but I didn’t mind. Two young fellows came along on foot, and they kind
of cheered me up, only they didn’t stay long. Now, Barzy,” and Mrs.
Boorland turned supplicatingly to the cowboy, “don’t you go and think
hard about those two young fellows. I don’t believe they had a thing to
do with it, not a thing. I just pulled out my handkerchief, and the roll
came with it--and that’s how it was lost.”

“Never mind, mam,” said Blunt, allowing a smile to chase away the hard
look that had come over his face, “you’re not as strong as you might be,
and I’m going to take you into the house and make you comfortable.”

“I hope I’ll see a lot of you boys while I’m here,” Mrs. Boorland said,
clinging with both hands to Blunt’s arm. “I’ll be here for quite a
little while, I reckon. Friends of Barzy’s are always friends of mine,
and mighty good friends, too.”

She and the cowboy vanished inside the hotel.

“So that’s Mrs. Boorland!” murmured Ballard. “She’s a nice old lady and
I’m glad she’s got a wad of money coming to her.”

“Same here,” spoke up Clancy. “It was a lucky thing for Blunt that, when
he was a homeless kid, a woman like Mrs. Boorland took him in and made a
home for him.”

“And Blunt, ever since Mr. Boorland died,” said Merry, “has been paying
back the debt. While Mrs. Boorland was in the hospital, he sent about
all his wages to her, and even sold his favorite riding horse to me so
he could send more when he found his wages weren’t enough. Well, I don’t
blame him at all. I’d do the same for an old lady like that.”

A few moments later Blunt came back to the veranda. There was an angry
frown on his face as he dropped into a chair near Merriwell.

“What’s biting you, Barzy?” Frank inquired.

“A whole lot, pard,” Blunt answered. “I’ve danced the medicine and am
going on the warpath. Do you know a fellow with a white face, washed-out
eyes, and tow hair?”

“Well, slightly,” Merriwell answered, with a grim smile. “He was brought
on from some place unknown by Jode Lenning to coach the Gold Hill
football squad. But he and Jode have both got their walking papers, and
where they are now is more than I know.”

“They were in the cañon this afternoon,” scowled Blunt. “Mrs. Boorland
saw them there. They were on foot and walking this way, but they stopped
to talk for a spell. After they left and went down the cañon, this
white-faced skunk came back. He talked some more, and when he went away
for good, Mrs. Boorland found that two hundred in bills was missing from
her hand bag.”

“Great Scott!” muttered Clancy. “Billy Shoup is up to his old tricks.”

“He must have had his nerve with him to steal from an old woman!”
exclaimed Ballard contemptuously.

“I’ll bet a row of ’dobies that Lenning was in on the deal as much as
Shoup,” said Blunt darkly, “only he was too much of a coward to pull off
the robbery. I’m going on the warpath and get that money back--and with
interest. You hear me!”




CHAPTER V.

A SURPRISE AT THE GULCH.


“Don’t be in a rush with your suspicions, Barzy,” Merriwell advised.
“Accusing a man of robbing an old lady like Mrs. Boorland is pretty
serious business. From what I heard her say to you, she thinks she may
have lost the money.”

“Not on your life, she doesn’t think that!” returned Blunt. “That’s her
way--always trying to screen everybody. She didn’t lose the money. It
was stolen from the hand bag, and Shoup and Lenning are the ones that
did it. I’m going after them, and I’ll get the money and wring their
necks into the bargain. I can’t remember when anything has happened that
has worked me up like this.”

Blunt was a cowboy, and, as Frank knew very well, inclined to be rough
and reckless whenever he thought he was dealing with guilt or injustice.
If he found Shoup and Lenning and recovered the money, there was no
doubt but that he would attempt to give them a lesson they’d long
remember.

“When are you going to start on this warpath of yours, Blunt?” Merriwell
asked.

“Right now, just as quick as I can do it. I’ve told mam that I had to go
back to the ranch, but that was only to ease her mind. Instead of loping
for the Bar Z I’m going to hunt the trail of Shoup and Lenning, and run
it out. If I don’t they’ll be apt to have all that money spent. I know
their caliber, all right. For the last week they’ve been gambling in
Gold Hill, I’ve heard, getting rid of the thousand Colonel Hawtrey gave
Lenning when he kicked the fellow out of his house.”

“I guess,” said Frank, “that I’ll go with you, Barzy.”

The sloe-black eyes of the cowboy softened a little, then flamed.

“No, you won’t, Chip!” he declared. “This is my business and you’ll keep
out of it. I know what’s on your mind. You think there are two of them,
and that they’ll be one too many for me.” He flung back his head and
laughed derisively. “Why,” he finished, “they’re both cowards from the
ground up. They’ll be scared to death just at the sight of me. I can
handle ’em.”

“I’d like to go along, anyhow,” insisted Frank. “A little excitement
wouldn’t come amiss, just now. We’re going to leave Arizona pretty soon,
and we’d like to keep keyed up with something or other until we go.”

“That’s you!” grinned Blunt, “but you can’t drive such palaver down my
throat. You’re afraid I’ll get into trouble, and you’re making excuses
to go along, but this is a single-handed expedition, and I’m going to
see it through all by my lonesome. Mam is feeling pretty chipper, and
she won’t need me for a while. It isn’t that I wouldn’t be glad of your
company, Chip, but I just want to nail these fellows myself, and do it
good and proper. You’re a crack hand at everything--get it from your
dad, of course--but Barzy Blunt is pretty good at a thing like this.
_Buenos!_”

Merry had not another word to say. He watched Blunt run down the steps,
pull the reins over his saddle-horn, and spring to the back of his
horse. A moment later he had vanished in the direction of the cañon
trail.

“That’s three times in one afternoon,” grumbled Merry. “And the last
time it comes from Blunt, who ought to know better.”

“Chip’s hearing funny noises, Pink,” remarked Clancy to Ballard. “What
do you suppose has got into him? He’s breaking out in an unexpected
place.”

“Three times!” mused Ballard. “What has happened three times, Chip?
Maybe I’m thick, but I can’t follow you.”

“Blunt said that I’m a crack hand at everything, which is coming it
rather strong, and that I get it from my dad, _of course_. Everybody has
suddenly begun throwing that handicap at me.”

“Not much of a handicap,” said the red-headed chap. “If my governor was
the best all-round athlete in the country, I’d be tickled to death over
it.”

“You’re not getting me right, Clan,” returned Merry earnestly. “I’m
proud of dad, but the things he has done he did himself, and against a
whole lot of discouraging circumstances at the outset. I want to make
the same sort of a record, see? But how can I when everybody insists
that what dad has done makes my imitation easy? If a fellow goes wrong
because his father went wrong, he’s a pretty poor stick; and if he goes
right just because his father went right, what credit is it to him?
Anyhow, there’s nothing in that theory. If a fellow wins or loses, it’s
his own doing--_his own_, mind you.”

Frank was nettled. It was unusual for him to show his feelings so
plainly, but he was human, and there were a few things that struck
pretty hard at his self-restraint.

“I’m glad you didn’t run off with Blunt,” said Ballard, after a moment,
“for that would have knocked our trip to the gulch in the head. We’re
going?”

“Yes,” Frank nodded. “Early in the morning we’ll ride for the gulch.”

“Hooray!” jubilated Clancy. “What you need, Chip, is a little outdoor
exercise--a little of the summer ozone which we’re getting, in this part
of the country, in the middle of November. Let’s make the most of it.
When we leave southern Arizona, we’ll probably land somewhere in the ice
and snow.”

The boys saw little of Mrs. Boorland until evening. At supper, she came
down from her room and Frank introduced her to Professor Borrodaile, who
was tutoring the three lads, getting his health back in the splendid
climate, and incidentally waiting to claim the half of fifty thousand
dollars, which he and Mrs. Boorland were to receive for the mining
claim.

The more the lads saw of the little old lady the more they liked her. It
was plain that she was all wrapped up in Barzy Blunt; and that, when she
got through with her half of the fifty thousand, it would be passed on
to Barzy. Nor would this be long, Merriwell thought, as he saw how frail
and worn she was through years of misfortune.

Frank and his chums were in bed early, that night, and next morning they
were up and on the road to the gulch before either Mrs. Boorland or the
professor was stirring.

It was a crisp, bright morning. The air, pure and clean from the wide
deserts, acted like a tonic. Ballard, in spite of himself, burst into
song, and Clancy had a time of it smothering the ragtime airs that
Ballard insisted on trying to sing.

The trail was wide and fine for the fifteen miles that lay between Ophir
and Dolliver’s. Dolliver, the ranchman, was well known to the boys.

“What d’you reckon,” he asked of the boys, as they halted to water their
mounts, “Lenning and that white-faced feller trailin’ along with him is
doin’ in these parts?”

The boys were startled.

“Do you mean to say they’ve been around here, Dolliver?” Frank asked.

“That’s what,” was the reply. “They was here late yesterday arternoon,
ridin’ a couple o’ hosses. The white-faced feller had a roll of bills
enough to choke a dog. They’re up to somethin’ crooked, I’ll bet you.”

“Which way did they go when they left here?”

“Quién sabe?” answered Dolliver. “They jest went, an’ I didn’t see ’em
when they shacked away.”

“You know Barzy Blunt?” went on Frank, casting a look at his chums that
kept them silent.

“Well, I reckon. I’ve knowed Barzy ever since he was gopher-high.”

“Did you see him yesterday afternoon?”

“Nary I didn’t. He ain’t around in these parts. If he was, ye can gamble
he wouldn’t pass without sayin’ how-de-do to Dolliver.”

At Dolliver’s, the boys turned from the wide trail and started into
Mohave Cañon. Here the road narrowed, and angled back and forth until
the mouth of the gulch was reached, and the riders turned to follow the
dammed-up waters that sparkled in the late forenoon’s sun.

“I’ve a hunch,” Frank remarked, “that Blunt will get into trouble with
Lenning and Shoup.”

“Chances are, Chip,” cried Clancy, “Blunt will never find them. They’re
a foxy pair, and if they really stole that money, then they’ll be mighty
careful to keep out of sight.”

“Maybe Shoup didn’t take the money, after all,” suggested Ballard.

“He’s a thief, Pink,” said Frank, “and I wouldn’t put it past him. The
fellow’s not in his right mind for very much of the time.”

“That’s so. Do you think Lenning would stand for thieving of that sort
on Shoup’s part?”

“Sure he would,” asserted Clancy. “That cub would stand for anything
that didn’t call for any particular nerve on his part. He’s as crooked
as Shoup; or, if he isn’t, he’ll be as crooked as Shoup before he’s been
with him very long.”

“They say Lenning’s father was wild, and was killed in a brawl somewhere
in Alaska,” remarked Ballard. “I suppose we couldn’t expect much better
things of Lenning.”

“There you go, Pink!” exclaimed Merry. “What Lenning’s father did isn’t
any excuse for Lenning.”

“Right!” laughed Ballard. “Lenning’s handicap is a bit different from
yours, Chip, but I spoke before I thought.”

The walls of the gulch widened out, and as the boys rode along the
border of the pent-up waters, they came presently into view of three
white tents, pitched on a strip of clean, sandy beach.

Dinner was being made ready. A fire had been started, and the campers
could be seen moving about, each doing his allotted part of the work.

Half a dozen canoes were drawn up on the sand, a little way from the
tent, and off shore a float was anchored for the use of swimmers. It was
a pleasant scene for the three lads, just a little tired from their long
morning’s ride.

A moment after the travelers sighted the camp, the campers sighted them.
Instantly all work among the tents came to a standstill.

“Here’s the Merriwell crowd!” whooped one of the Gold Hill fellows.

“Good old Merry!”

“Just in time for grub pile!”

A rush was made for the newcomers, and they were dragged from their
horses, pounded on the back, and punched in the ribs with all the
delight and good feeling imaginable.

Hotchkiss, another lad whom Frank and his chums knew pretty well, took
charge of the three horses, and led them away to be picketed with the
rest of the live stock. Bleeker, who seemed to be in charge of the
camping party, led the visitors into the camp and showed them their
quarters.

“We’re all mighty glad you’ve come,” said Bleeker heartily. “We’re going
to have great times while you’re here. Didn’t see anything of Lenning
and Shoup on the road, did you?”

“Lenning and Shoup?” returned Merriwell, startled. “No, we didn’t see
them, but we hear they were at Dolliver’s late yesterday. Have they been
here?”

“They were here last night, and I ordered them out of camp. Nearly had a
fight getting them to go, but we got rid of them. Last night, though,
one of our canoes was stolen. Of course,” he finished, “it’s not much of
a guess who took it. Shoup’s a thief, and Lenning isn’t much better.
We’ll get that canoe back, though, you can bet on that.”




CHAPTER VI.

THE REVOLVER SHOT.


“Why the deuce did Lenning and Shoup come in this direction?” asked
Ballard, in a puzzled tone. “If they’d done anything crooked on the
trail from Ophir to Gold Hill, they would be getting away from company
instead of hunting for it.”

“It looks as though Blunt was barking up the wrong tree,” put in Clancy.
“He had a revolver in his belt, under his coat, when he came out of the
hotel, and started on the warpath, Chip. Didn’t see that, did you?”

“Is that straight, Clan?” Merry demanded, staring at his chum with grave
concern.

“Straight as a die.”

“I didn’t see it,” said Ballard.

“Well, I did. His coat flew back as he climbed into the saddle, and for
just a second I saw the gun.”

“Why didn’t you say something about it before?” asked Frank sharply.

“It would only have got you all stirred up, Chip, without doing any
good. You ought to know Barzy Blunt by this time, I should think.”

They were inside the tent where the three visitors were to have their
sleeping quarters. Merry, Clancy, and Ballard had flung themselves down
on a pile of blankets. Bleeker had started to leave, but the
conversation of Frank and his chums filled him with sudden interest, and
he turned back.

“What are you chinning about?” he asked. “If Blunt had a gun, it isn’t
the first time he has gone ‘heeled,’ by a long chalk. A cowboy, as a
rule, knows how to shoot. I’ve heard that Blunt is particularly good on
the trigger. What are you stewing about, Chip?”

“First,” said Merriwell, “I wish you’d tell me what excuse Lenning and
Shoup gave for coming here--that is, if they gave any.”

“Lenning was after money.”

“Money? How did he expect to get money here?”

“Why, he claimed that some of the fellows in camp owed him money they
had borrowed. I reckon he was right about it, but none of us brought any
coin to speak of out here. So those who owed Lenning couldn’t pay him
back if they wanted to. You know what a hold Lenning had on Colonel
Hawtrey before the colonel cast him adrift. Lenning was always well
supplied with funds. He was generally a tightwad, too, but he’d loosen
up now and then, just to get some of the boys in debt to him, so he
could boss them around. It must seem kind of queer to Lenning to be
‘strapped’ and have to go around collecting on the I O Us.”

“Queer, he was so hard pressed,” mused Frank, “when, if our suspicions
are correct, he and Shoup should have been flush.”

“What are your suspicions?”

Frank told about Mrs. Boorland’s loss on the trail from Gold Hill, and
how Barzy Blunt had “gone on the warpath” to recover the money. Bleeker
gave a long whistle.

“Blunt is sure a crazy cowboy when he gets his mad up,” said he, “but
he’s not so crazy as to use a gun on anybody. He might make a
grand-stand play with it, but that’s as far as he’d go. He’s right, I
think. Shoup took the bank roll, and Lenning must have known about it.
Jode Lenning is going to the dogs as fast as he can.”

“If those fellows got the money,” queried Merriwell, “why in thunder
were they here, trying to get some more?”

“Probably two hundred wasn’t enough.”

“Don’t forget, Chip,” spoke up Ballard, “what Dolliver said. He told us,
you know, that Shoup flashed a roll ‘big enough to choke a dog.’”

“That’s right,” said Frank. “They certainly had money, and yet they came
here and made a play for more. I’ll be hanged if I can understand it.”

“The Gold Hill crowd was camped right in this place, a couple of weeks
ago,” went on Bleeker, “and Jode got mad at Hotch and me and made us
leave the camp. I’m on top myself, just now, and am back in the athletic
club, and have been elected to Jode’s place as captain of the football
team. It did me good to turn on the skunk and order him off, just as he
had done to me. He was backward about going, too, and said he and Shoup
would have to have something to eat. We gave them some provisions, and
then drove them away. They made their threats that they’d get even with
us, and, as I said, last night, one of our canoes was stolen. That’s how
they got even, I reckon. This is the only stretch of water in this
section, where a canoe can be used, so if we hunt long enough we’re
bound to get back our lost property.”

“Lenning is getting pretty mild in the way he settles his scores,”
remarked Ballard. “When he’s worked up, he can be rather desperate.”

“I’m betting,” said Bleeker, “that with Shoup to nag him on, he’ll go
farther than he ever went before. That Shoup is a hard case.”

“Only thing in the way of that theory,” chimed in Clancy, “is that
Lenning lacks nerve. He’s got a white feather in every pocket, and he
shows it every time any one gives him a chance.”

“I wouldn’t come down too hard on Jode Lenning,” suggested Merriwell.
“Dad has told me, a good many times, that he never saw a fellow so tough
there wasn’t some good in him.”

“Lenning’s the exception,” declared Bleeker. “He’s a schemer, through
and through, and he’d be out-and-out bad if he had the courage.”

Frank shook his head. “Lenning has had a hard lesson,” said he, “and
maybe he’ll show you Gold Hill fellows, some day, that he has profited
by it.”

Bleeker laughed incredulously.

“Chip,” he declared, “your heart’s running away with your head.
Lenning’s lawlessness was born in him.”

“Oh, splash!” grunted Merry. “That sort of talk makes me tired. A man’s
born with the same chance every one else has to make something out of
himself. If he goes wrong, he can’t sneak behind his pedigree and whine
about it; and if he does anything worth while, why, he’s entitled to the
credit.”

“Gee,” grinned Bleeker, “I reckon I’ve started something. Let’s change
the subject. What are Blunt’s chances for overhauling Lenning and
Bleeker?”

“Not very good--if we can get at those fellows first,” said Frank.

“Going on the warpath yourself, Chip?” inquired Ballard.

“Right after dinner. If Lenning and Shoup have Mrs. Boorland’s money,
and if they’re anywhere in the vicinity of this gulch, we ought to be
able to find them and get back that two hundred. Blunt is probably on
the wrong trail, and we may be the means of saving him a little trouble.
While we’re looking for the money, Bleek,” he added, “you can come along
and hunt for the canoe.”

“I’ll go with you, Chip,” answered Bleeker heartily. “But we’re not
going to waste all the afternoon on Lenning and Shoup. We’re going to
have a canoe race around the Point, before sundown. I’m anxious to take
a fall out of you on the water. From here to the broken pine around the
Point is half a mile. I’ll pick a fellow to paddle with me, and you can
take either Pink or Red. I’ve got a notion, old chap, that we Gold
Hillers can show you a trick or two with the paddles.”

“I hope you can, Bleek,” laughed Merriwell. “We haven’t touched a paddle
since we were up in the Wyoming country.”

“And that seems like a year ago,” sighed Clancy. “Say, I’m just honing
for a paddle! Are you going to take Pink or Little Reddy, Chip?”

“We’ll settle that later,” said Frank.

“Go on!” cried Ballard, with mock indignation. “I can paddle circles all
around Clancy.”

“That’s a joke,” said Clancy. “You’re too lazy to paddle circles around
anybody.”

“I’m not too lazy to knock a chip off your shoulder, you red-headed
chump!”

“Yah!” taunted Clancy, hunting around for a chip. “Chips are scarce,” he
added finally, picking a pebble out of the sand. “How’ll this do?”

The pebble went flying from Clancy’s shoulder, and the two chums laughed
and came together. While they were kicking and rolling among the
blankets, a voice from outside announced “grub pile.”

“If you fellows would rather fight than eat,” said Merriwell, “stay
right here and keep it up. Come on, Bleek, I’m hungry enough to eat a
pair of boots.”

It was a fish dinner the campers had that day, and a good one. Half an
hour before the fish was served, they had been swimming up and down the
gulch. From the water to the frying pan was a quick shift--and the
quicker the shift the better, when it comes to fish.

There were ten Gold Hillers in camp, and the coming of Frank and his
chums brought the total number up to a baker’s dozen. The ten from Gold
Hill all belonged to the athletic club, and were a splendid lot of
fellows. They were hungry, too, for the morning had been full of
exercise.

“Pass the spuds, there, Hotch!” “Trying to hog all the canned oleo,
Ming?” “A little more of the planked shad, if you please!” “Where’s my
fork?” “Confound it, Bleek, the first thing you know the company will
find out we didn’t have forks enough to go around, and that we’re using
one between us.” “If you can’t be real polite, then for Heaven’s sake be
as polite as you can.” “I’ve got a bone in my throat!” wailed Hotchkiss.
“Hit him on the back,” said Bleeker; “everybody hit Hotch on the back.”

Everybody took a slam at Hotchkiss, and when they got through with him
he had been pounded to a frazzle--but he had got rid of the bone.

“That’ll do!” he cried. “I’m no punching bag--let up.”

“Where’s the bone?” asked Bleeker severely.

“Gone! It’s not bothering me half so much, now, as you fellows are.”

“Prove it’s gone.”

“How?”

“Sing. Go on, Hotch.”

“I’ve eaten too much--I can’t sing.”

“Try it!” clamored the others.

“Shucks,” deprecated Hotch, “I’ve got a voice like a foghorn. But here
goes.”

He threw back his head and went at it.

  “I once knew a girl in the year of eighty-nine--
  A handsome young thing by the name of Emmaline--
  I never could persuade her for to leave me be,
  And she went and she took and she married me-e-e!”

A chorus of groans greeted Hotchkiss’ attempt.

“That’s a ranch song, Hotch,” said Bleeker sternly, “and it is not in
good taste. Try again. We----”

But Hotchkiss did not get a chance to try again. Bleeker’s words were
cut short by the clear, yet distant, note of a firearm.

The fun stopped as though by magic. All the boys cast startled glances
at each other.

“That may be the fellows who stole our canoe!” cried Hotch, jumping to
his feet. “Come on, fellows! Here’s a chance to nail ’em!”

He started up the gulch bank at a run, Bleeker and Merriwell tight at
his heels.




CHAPTER VII.

A BLIND CHASE.


The lads were somewhat confused as to the direction from which the
report had come. They were all agreed on one point, however, and that
was that the shot had been fired on their side of the gulch. From there
on, their ideas of the right direction varied widely. Clustered together
on the crest of the long slope of the gulch bank, they held a hurried
consultation, to decide what their next move should be.

“I’m sure,” said Bleeker, “that the sound came from the northwest.”

“Northeast, Bleek,” asserted Hotchkiss.

“Directly north,” a chap named Lenaway declared, with equal conviction.

“What do you think, Merriwell?” asked Bleeker.

“It’s hard to tell,” Frank answered. “If we’d been listening for the
shot, and trying to locate it, we might have got the direction tolerably
close; but the sound came when we weren’t expecting anything of the
kind, so that the way we ought to go is more or less of a guess. I’m
inclined to think you’re right, though, Bleek.”

“Pick out a couple to go with you, Hotch,” said Bleeker, “and go
northeast. You do the same, Len, and go north. Merry and I will go over
towards the cañon.”

Frank turned and gave Clancy and Ballard a significant look.

“You go with Hotch, Clan,” said he, “and Pink, you go with Lenaway.”

Clancy and Ballard understood Merriwell’s reason for this move. If the
party led by Hotchkiss, or the one led by Lenaway, succeeded in finding
Lenning and Shoup, then there would be some one along to make an attempt
to secure Mrs. Boorland’s lost money. So far, of the Gold Hillers, only
Bleeker knew of the money that had been stolen on the trail from Gold
Hill to Ophir.

“This matter is settled, then,” said Bleeker. “The rest of you boys go
back to camp. We don’t want to leave the camp to take care of itself and
lose any more canoes. Come on, Chip.”

The party divided, the three detachments of searchers starting off
hurriedly in as many different directions, while several of the lads
went back down the slope to the camp.

Merriwell and Bleeker took a northwest course among low, rocky hills.
They traveled rapidly, keeping their ears open for another report, which
might serve further as a guide.

“That was a revolver shot,” asserted Bleeker, as they hurried on, “but
it may have been farther away than we think. In this clear, still air a
report will carry a long distance.”

“Did Lenning or Shoup have any weapons, Bleeker?” asked Frank, in a
worried tone.

“I don’t think so; at least I didn’t see any when I sent them away from
the camp, last night. If they had had any guns, they might have tried to
use them then and make a bluff.”

“Probably,” said Frank, with a feeling of relief. “It’s possible, too,
that some one besides Blunt was doing that shooting. There may be others
in this vicinity, don’t you think?”

“Sure thing, but it’s hardly likely. I don’t believe there’s a soul
nearer our camp than Dolliver’s.”

“Some cowboy might be riding down Mohave Cañon from the Fiddleback
Ranch.”

“Yes; but I don’t know what he’d find to shoot at. Cowboys don’t carry
revolvers all the time, like they used to; and, if a Fiddleback man was
going to town, he certainly wouldn’t pack a six-shooter. But that
couldn’t have been Blunt doing the shooting. He wasn’t on the track of
Lenning and Shoup, at last accounts.”

“Blunt has had plenty of time to pick up the trail. He’s a determined
chap when he sets out to do anything.”

“Hotch jumped at the conclusion that Lenning and Shoup were doing the
shooting. But if they didn’t have anything to shoot with, Hotch, of
course, is wrong. Whoever pulled the trigger was easily satisfied. Only
one shot was fired.”

Just at that moment, Merriwell glimpsed something a few yards to the
right of him. It was an object that lay on the ground and gleamed
brightly in the sun. Swerving to one side, he picked the object up.

“What have you found, pard?” called Bleeker.

“An empty sardine tin,” Frank reported.

“That’s right,” said Bleeker, coming up and peering at the flat can with
its ragged flap. “It’s bright and new, and hasn’t lain where you found
it for very long. We gave Lenning and Shoup a couple of tins of
sardines, and I reckon they must have camped somewhere near this place
last night.”

The lads examined the ground in the vicinity with some care. They found
a thicket of mesquite, which had been trampled by horses--and Bleeker’s
theory that Lenning and Shoup had spent the night in that place was all
but proved.

“I reckon they stayed here,” said Bleeker. “Their horses could browse on
the mesquite beans, and it wouldn’t have been much of a hardship for
Lenning and Shoup to sleep in the open. But why did they do it, when
they could just as well have returned to Dolliver’s?”

“Perhaps they were afraid to go to Dolliver’s; that is, if they really
took Mrs. Boorland’s money.”

“They’re hanging out in the hills for some purpose, that’s plain,” mused
Bleeker. “We might as well keep on, Chip, and see what we can find.”

The gulch and the cañon formed a right angle, and the course the two
lads were taking was carrying them nearer and nearer the deeper and
narrower defile. The hills among which they traveled were low, but there
were many of them, and they kept to the valleys between. Now and then,
either Merriwell or Bleeker would climb one of the uplifts and take a
look at the country around them. They could see nothing of the fellows
they were trying to find.

“We ought to have brought our horses,” grumbled Bleeker. “If we hadn’t
started in such a rush we’d have thought of that. Lenning and Shoup have
mounts, and if they see us first they’ll get away and we can’t stop
them.”

“It’s too late to think of our horses now,” returned Frank. “Why do you
suppose they stole your canoe, last night?” he queried. “If they have
horses, what use would they find for a canoe?”

“Well, they might have taken that seventy-five dollar boat just to get
even with us for not letting them stay in the camp.” Bleeker came to a
halt. “We’ve come twice as far as that revolver shot would carry,” he
went on, “and it’s a cinch we’ve had our trouble for our pains. Suppose
we give up, and go back?”

“I don’t think we’re going to have any luck,” was Merry’s answer, “so
there’s nothing for us to do but to return to camp. But that shot is
bothering me a lot,” he added, sitting down on a convenient bowlder.

“I’m puzzled a heap, myself,” said Bleeker, hunting a seat and dropping
down on it disgustedly. “I reckon, after all, we’d better make up our
minds that some prospector took a chance shot at a coyote. That’s as
good a guess as any, Chip. It’s fair to suppose that Barzy Blunt is all
at sea, and hasn’t a notion where to look for Shoup and Lenning. So he
couldn’t have done the shooting. Shoup and Lenning are out of it,
because they hadn’t a gun. We’ve taken this little trip through the
hills all for nothing.”

“I’ve got a hunch you’re wrong, Bleek, yet I can’t say where you’re
wrong, or why.”

“My nerves must be in a fearful state when I get so worked up over the
report of a revolver. I wouldn’t have thought anything about it if Shoup
and Lenning hadn’t been in our vicinity, and if they hadn’t taken our
canoe, and if you hadn’t told me what you did about Mrs. Boorland’s
money, and about Blunt going on the warpath.”

“Well, let’s give it up as a bad job and mosey back to the camp. I’d
like to keep Blunt from finding those two fellows, for he might do
something a whole lot worse than just losing the two hundred dollars. I
guess, though, that Shoup and Lenning are foxy enough to keep away from
Blunt.”

“Our best bet is to look for the canoe. That must be along the river,
somewhere. If we can find that, we may be able to lie low and get track
of the thieves who made off with it. I had already planned that move for
this afternoon. Why not begin at the mouth of the gulch, Chip, and work
our way back to the camp? It wouldn’t take more than an hour or two to
beat up every thicket where the canoe could be hidden.”

“Come on, Bleek, and we’ll try it.”

They had hardly started before Merriwell came to a quick halt, and
dropped his hand on Bleeker’s arm.

“Listen!” he said.

They bent their heads, and what Merriwell had heard came to the ears of
each of them distinctly. It was the sound of galloping hoofs.

“That’s a horse, all right,” murmured Bleeker excitedly. “From the
sound, the animal is heading this way.”

“One horse,” said Frank. “Wait till I climb this hill and see if I can
locate the animal.”

He hurried to the top of the low hill on his left, and stared in the
direction from which the hoofbeats were coming. To the south, perhaps a
hundred feet away, was a long ridge. Well to the east of the point where
he was making his observations, he could see the head of a horseman
bobbing up and down as the animal he rode lifted and dropped in a slow
gallop. The rider was heading west, following the other side of the
ridge.

A quick survey of the ground showed Frank that the valley which he and
Bleeker were following pierced the ridge, and, if they made good time,
they could get to that part of the ridge ahead of the rider. Thus, if
the rider did not change his course, they might be able to intercept
him. Frank bounded down the hillside and started southward at a run.

“Hustle, Bleek,” he called. “There’s a fellow coming on a horse, and if
we hurry we can head him off.”

“That’s the stuff!” answered Bleeker, getting into motion. “What sort of
a looking fellow is he?”

“I couldn’t see anything but the top of his hat. There’s a ridge in the
way, and he’s galloping along on the other side.”

The valley crooked in a half circle around the base of another hill, and
Merry and Bleeker raced through it and came to the point where the ridge
was broken. The thump of hoofs was growing louder and louder.

“He’s pretty near,” whispered Bleeker.

“He’s right on us,” Merriwell flung back, and jumped out from among the
rocks.

He came within one of being trampled by the galloping hoofs, for he
leaped almost under the horse’s nose. The animal snorted and reared
back, while an exclamation of surprise came from its rider.

As soon as Frank could get his bearings, he gave a yell of surprise
himself. The rider, as it proved, was none other than Barzy Blunt!




CHAPTER VIII.

BLUNT’S WARNING.


“What are you trying to do, pard?” called the cowboy. “Trying to scare a
fellow to death?”

“Suffering side winders!” exclaimed Bleeker. “Blamed if it isn’t Blunt.”

“What appears to be the trouble?” asked Blunt.

“We’re trailing down a revolver shot, Barzy,” said Merriwell. “We
thought Lenning and Shoup might be mixed up with it, somehow.”

“They were,” was the grim response. “I caught sight of them, but they
were too quick for me. When I called on them to halt, they didn’t pay
any attention; so I turned loose with a shot just to show ’em I meant
business.”

“Did you hit either of them?” Frank inquired, with a good deal of
concern.

“What do you take me for, Chip?” said Blunt. “I’m careless a whole lot,
and there are times when I’m a pretty rough proposition, but I’m not
plumb locoed. I wasn’t trying to hit either of those junipers--but I
came mighty close to Shoup. You can bet your scalp lock that he heard
the sing of the bullet.”

“They got away?”

“They did, with ground to spare.”

Blunt crooked a knee around his saddle horn and took up a comfortable
position on his horse.

“How did you get on the track of those fellows, Blunt?” Frank went on.

“By a happenchance. When I rode away from the hotel, yesterday
afternoon, I traveled the cañon trail toward Gold Hill. Met Schuster,
one of our boys. He had been to the Hill for a couple of days, and was
on his way back to the ranch. It was Schuster put me wise, Chip. He had
heard a few things about Lenning and Shoup in town. You want to look out
for yourself.”

“I do?” asked Frank. “Why?”

“Schuster heard that Lenning and Shoup are after your scalp. They want
to balance accounts with you. I reckon you know what that means to a
couple of fellows like they are.”

“Lenning and Shoup have all they can do to look out for themselves,”
Chip laughingly said, “and I don’t think they’ll have any time to bother
with me. Schuster probably didn’t get the thing straight, anyhow. When
you overhear talk like that, Barzy, it is pretty apt to be gammon.”

“This is how straight Schuster got it,” returned Blunt. “Listen: Along
at the same time Schuster heard that, he also heard that Lenning and
Shoup know you and your chums were to be invited to spend a few days
with the Gold Hillers in the gulch. Lenning opined that the gulch would
be a good place to make his play. Did he and Shoup come out to your
camp?” Blunt asked, turning to Bleeker.

“That’s what they did,” said Bleeker.

“Then Schuster wasn’t very wide of his trail on that part of it, was he?
It was the information I got from him that brought me to Mohave Cañon
early this morning. I didn’t stop at Dolliver’s, but drilled past his
shack like a streak. Been knocking around the hills all day, and it was
less than an hour ago when I got a glimpse of the skunks I’m after. Of
course, I knew the Gold Hillers wouldn’t let them stay in the camp; and
I was just as sure they’d hang around here, because they’re looking for
a chance at you, Merriwell, and they won’t pull their freight till they
get it.”

“I’m not going to lose any sleep or miss any fun waiting for the blow to
fall,” Merriwell laughed. “Come on over to the camp, Blunt. There’s a
canoe race on for this afternoon and I’d like to have you help me out
with a paddle.”

“Business first, pard,” answered Blunt. “I’m going to find Shoup and
Lenning, get back that stolen money, and then run them out of this part
of the range before they have a chance to lay hands on you.”

“Have you had anything to eat to-day?”

“This morning. At noon, I pulled up my belt a notch. To-night, if I’ve
done what I’ve laid out to do, I’ll drop in at your camp for a little
chuck. If I’m still shy on my plans, then I’ll shack over to Dolliver’s
for grub pile.”

“I’ll get my horse and help you hunt for those fellows.”

“I feel the same as I did at the hotel yesterday,” demurred Blunt. “This
is my job, and I want every one else to keep hands off.”

“Where are you going now?”

“I’m going it blind, but I know that if I comb the hills close enough
Shoup and Lenning can’t dodge me.”

Blunt straightened in his saddle.

“If those fellows are really after me, Barzy,” said Frank, “you’ll do
better to go with us to the camp, and put in your time waiting and
keeping your eyes skinned.”

“I’ve got a different notion. You’re the one that’s got to keep his eyes
skinned. See you later.”

With that, Blunt rattled his spurs and galloped on along the side of the
ridge.

“I can see with half an eye what he’s up to,” declared Bleeker.

“What?”

“Why, he thinks he’s saving you a little trouble by keeping Shoup and
Lenning on the run. If they know he’s after them and it’s a cinch they
do after that shooting--they won’t have any chance to make things lively
for you, Chip. They’ll have their hands full taking care of themselves.”

Bleeker laughed. He broke into merriment suddenly, convulsed with some
idea that had come to him on the spur of the moment.

“What’s the joke, Bleek?” asked the wondering Merriwell.

“Why, it’s the complete change of front Barzy has made in the last few
weeks. He was as hot at you, for a spell, as Lenning is now; but, right
at this minute, he’d fight for you till he dropped. It’s plumb
humorous--to any one that knows Barzy Blunt. You must be a wizard to
change an enemy into a friend, like that.”

“Everybody said that Blunt was rantankerous, and that his disposition
was born in him and couldn’t be changed,” said Frank, “but I knew
better. That cowboy is one of the finest fellows that ever breathed. All
you have to do to make sure of that is to see the way he takes care of
Mrs. Boorland. Come on, Bleek, if we’re going to hunt for that canoe.”

Bleeker cocked his eyes at the sun.

“I reckon we’ll let the canoe go, for now,” he answered. “Since we’ve
seen and talked with Blunt, I’ve made up my mind that the canoe,
wherever it is, is safe enough for the present. Shoup and Lenning have
probably hidden it away in the bushes, and Blunt will keep them so busy
that they won’t be able to go near it. How long are you and Clancy and
Ballard going to stay with us?”

“We had two days for fun and frivolity when we left Ophir. That means,
Bleek, that we’ve got to start back to-morrow afternoon.”

“I thought your stay might be limited, and if we have any good times at
all we’ve got to start them. So we’ll let the old canoe go, get back to
camp and start the races. It’s a shame you can’t be with us longer.
What’s the particular rush?”

“The prof is busy selling his mining claim, and he figures that it will
take two days. When the two days are over, we’ve got to grind at our
studies and make up for the time we’ve lost.”

“I see. Knowledge comes at an awful price, eh? Well, let’s get back and
put the canoes into the water.”

It was three o’clock before they regained the camp. The other search
parties had already arrived. They had seen nothing of Shoup or Lenning.

Merriwell and Bleeker reported their own discoveries, but held back the
warning Blunt had delivered. Merry had asked Bleeker to say nothing
about that. He considered the idea as altogether foolish, and not worth
recounting. Bleeker, on his part, although he may have credited Lenning
and Shoup with sinister designs against Frank, undoubtedly thought that
the two fugitives would have too much to think about to have any spare
time for plots.

The idea of the races had been received by the whole camp with
enthusiasm. Shoup and Lenning and the lost canoe were temporarily
forgotten in the prospect of the afternoon’s sport.

It was settled that there were to be three competing canoes. Bleeker and
Hotchkiss were to man one, Merry and Clancy another, and Lenaway and a
chap named Orr were booked for the third.

Arizona being a dry country, there was not the chance for water sports
that was enjoyed by States more favored by Mr. Jupiter Pluvius. Had
miners, in the olden times, not thrown a dam across the mouth of the
gulch, the gulch would have been like the cañon, with only a knee-deep
pool here and there throughout its entire length. The dam, however, had
created a reservoir some three miles long, fed by clear mountain
springs. It was the only place in that part of the State where the twin
sports of bathing and boating could be indulged in.

“The course, fellows,” announced Bleeker, “is one that was marked out by
the late-lamented Lenning, when he was king bee in the Gold Hill crowd.
Look up the gulch, will you? See Apache Point, over there?”

Frank and Clancy followed Bleeker’s pointing finger with their eyes. A
little more than a quarter of a mile away, the left-hand bank of the
gulch rose into a sheer wall, some fifty feet high, with the water
laving its base. The stream narrowed at the foot of Apache Point, so
that there was room for no more than three canoes to pass it abreast of
each other.

“Around the Point,” Bleeker went on, “the gulch banks widen out again,
and this stretch of slack-water navigation widens with it. A quarter of
a mile up the other side of the Point, on the left-hand bank, is a white
flag. The course is around the bend, to the white flag and back again to
the camp. We Gold Hillers know all about it, Merriwell, and if you and
Clancy want to paddle over it before the race, we’ll wait for you.”

“Any snags in the course?” asked Frank. “Any obstacles we’ll have to
look out for?”

“The whole course is as clean as a whistle. The only thing to remember
is to hug the foot of the cliff when you go round the Point. The lead
boat gets the pole, of course,” he laughed.

“I don’t think we’ll have to go over it, Bleek, before we race. We’re
ready, now.”

“Then pick out your canoe and get ready.”

There was really no choice in the canoes, and Merry and Clancy selected
one at random and got their paddles. Bleeker, Hotchkiss, Lenaway and Orr
ducked into a tent and got out of their clothes and into bathing trunks.
Frank and his red-headed chum had only to step out of their ordinary
garments, for as underclothes they wore gymnasium togs.

Launching their canoe, they got into it and waited for the others to
make ready and for the word to start.




CHAPTER IX.

ACCIDENT OR TREACHERY?


“What’s on to follow this race, Chip?” asked Clancy, while they were
waiting.

“A half mile for single paddles,” Merry answered.

“That will give Pink a chance, if there are canoes enough to go round.”

“Don’t fret about Pink,” called that worthy from the bank, happening to
overhear the talk between his chums. “I’m going to run along the bank
and root for the heroes of Farnham Hall. I invented canoes, and
naturally I’m a better paddler than Red, but I can put more heart into
you from the shore than I could with a paddle.”

Clancy slapped the water with his paddle and threw a small shower over
Ballard.

“You invented the long bow, too, you old chump,” laughed Clancy, “and
you’re a champion hand at pulling it. Come on in, the water’s fine.”

Ballard had leaped out of the way of the shower, and was sputtering
about his wet clothes.

“You’ll get all you want of the water if I’m any prophet, you red-headed
false alarm!” he shouted. “For half a cent I’d wade out there and swamp
you.”

“Somebody got a nickel?” sang out Clancy. “Throw it to Pink and let him
keep the change.”

At just this point, the other canoes glided out into the water, taking
up their positions on each side of Merry and Clancy.

“All ready?” cried a fellow named Dart, who was acting as starter, as
the canoes lined up.

“All ready!” came the chorus from the racers.

“Then, go!”

Splash went the paddles, and the light, graceful water craft jumped
ahead like restless thoroughbreds. Before they had gone twenty feet,
Merry realized that in Bleeker and Hotchkiss he and Clancy had foemen
worthy of their mettle. The lads in the other craft were working hard,
but were left behind almost from the start. By an unlucky move they
overturned their canoe before the Point was reached, and the last Frank
saw of them on the first lap they were swimming for the bank, towing
their water-logged craft.

Clancy was in the stern, and he was doing the steering in masterly
fashion. Frank, wielding his paddle with grace and power, knelt at the
bow.

“Steady, Clan!” he called. “Don’t use up all your ginger at the
beginning!”

“Steady it is,” answered Clancy.

Bleeker and Hotchkiss were working like Trojans. Foot by foot they drew
ahead of the other canoe.

“Dig, you Farnham Hall fellows!” bellowed Ballard from the bank. “What
do you think this is--a picnic excursion? Dig, I tell you! If you’re
last at the finish, don’t you ever speak to me again.”

“Come on, you Bleek!” shouted the Gold Hillers.

“Come on, Hotch!”

“Keep it up, Gold Hill! You’ve got ’em beaten.”

“Oh, you Bleeker! We’re slow at football, but I reckon we’re there with
the goods on the water.”

“It isn’t Jode Lenning you’re up against now, Merriwell!”

All this rooting on the part of the Gold Hill fellows did not in the
least disturb Merriwell or Clancy. They were paddling like clockwork,
but were saving their energies for the last lap. After the white flag
was met and turned, they’d begin to show what they were made of.

The main thing was to keep a clear head and steady nerves while the
competing canoe was moving away from them. And in this certainly
Merriwell and Clancy were put to a severe test.

Before the Point was reached, the stern of the other canoe was even with
Merry’s position in the bow of his own craft. Bleeker had the inside,
and he went so close to the perpendicular wall of the cliff that his
paddle touched the base of the rocks. He looked over at Merry.

“Come on, old man!” he called.

“Not yet, Bleek,” Merry answered, with a laugh. “We want you to get
farther ahead first.”

“Much obliged! Now watch us.”

Merry and Clancy had to go farther in getting around the Point than
Bleeker and Hotch, for they were forced farther away from the cliff.
Inasmuch as the gulch curved at the Point, the rival canoe was offered
an advantage, similar to that which comes to a pole horse on the oval of
a race track. When once more on a straightaway, Bleeker and Hotch were
leading by a full canoe length.

The boys on the bank had not been able to get around the Point, so some
of them, including Ballard, crossed to the opposite shore in the other
canoes.

“What’s the trouble with you chumps?” shouted Ballard. “Don’t you know
the other boat’s ahead? Buckle in--paddle like you used to. Do better
than that, Red, or I’ll swim out there and take your place.”

“You got ’em, Bleek!” cried the Gold Hillers frantically. “Keep
a-coming!”

“Here’s where the chip off the old block gets a setback! I reckon
Merry’s dad was better with a baseball than he was with a paddle!”

In the excitement of the moment some ill-considered words were roared
across the water. This remark, by a Gold Hill partisan, was probably
excusable, in the circumstances, but it struck a spark from Merry’s
temper.

It opened up the old, tantalizing question of heredity--the very thing
which Merriwell had called a “handicap.” His father could pitch better
than he could paddle, could he? If that was the case, then by winning
that contest he might prove that what he had learned about canoes had
come to him in his own right.

“Good old Merry!” cried one of the Gold Hill crowd, by way of tempering
the unwise rooting of his camp-mate. “You’re the stuff! Never say die is
your slogan--and that’s all that came down to you from the champion in
Bloomfield.”

A thrill raced along Frank’s nerves. At the risk of giving the
competitors a still longer lead, he looked shoreward to locate the chap
who had called those electrifying words.

“Pink is a peach of a rooter--I don’t think,” grumbled Clancy.

“Never mind, Pink,” laughed Frank, his momentary flash of temper
passing, “he’s trying to spur us across the finish line instead of
giving us a pull. Ah! There’s the flag, Clan!”

A bit of white fluttered on the left-hand bank. Bleeker and Hotchkiss
had already made the turn and were coming down.

“We’ll be at the finish to welcome you fellows!” jubilated Hotch.

“Maybe you’ll do better in the singles,” shouted Bleeker. “It’s hardly
fair, anyway. You haven’t gripped a paddle for a long time, while we’ve
been at it every day for a week.”

“Don’t fret about that, Bleek,” grinned Clancy.

He could grin, but nevertheless he was worried. He and Merry had a lot
of strength to draw on, but could they be sure that Bleeker and
Hotchkiss had not a lot of power in reserve? The next few minutes would
tell the tale.

The canoe came around, and headed away on the final stretch. Bleeker and
Hotchkiss, the silver spray sparkling under the strong dip of their
paddles, were all of five canoe lengths in the lead.

“Now, Clancy!” cried Merriwell. “We must get the inside track around the
Point! Let yourself out, old man!”

Then and there the Farnham Hall lads began doing their prettiest. They
bent to their work in a way that was beautiful to see, and the strength
they had been nursing for just that moment expended itself in a
wonderful burst of speed.

“Now you’re coming!” screeched Ballard. “Keep that up, Chip, and you’ll
pass the other canoe and leave it out of sight!”

“Don’t lose your nerve, Bleek!” shouted the Gold Hillers. “Crack your
backs! Pull, I tell you! For the honor of Gold Hill, you junipers! For
the love of Mike, don’t let this chance get away from you!”

“Gold Hill winners, hump, you sinners!”

It was evident to Frank, however, that Bleeker and Hotchkiss had put the
best of their energy into the first half of the race. The wise
precaution of husbanding their muscle for the wind-up had not appealed
to them. They had wanted a good lead at the start-off--and were probably
hoping that the lead could not be overcome.

Yard by yard Merry and Clancy overhauled the canoe ahead. Every thrust
of the paddles, sturdy and strong and swift, carried the rear craft
forward for a gain. Halfway to the point the canoes were side by side.

Bleeker and Hotchkiss had no breath nor inclination for joshing. Their
faces were white and set, and their arms knotted at the biceps with the
strain they put upon their dipping blades. Every nerve was stretched to
the breaking point.

It was a good race, a splendid race. No matter which canoe won, the joy
of those fleeting moments as they came down the homestretch would be
happily remembered by victor and vanquished.

Bleeker and Hotchkiss must have realized how their opponents had been
playing the game. They had played it squarely, too, and had calmly
watched their rivals lead in the first half of the race. Now, at last,
Bleeker and his canoe mate understood that they were facing a crisis,
and that only heartbreaking work could save the day.

They labored so well, for a considerable distance, the canoes continued
to remain side by side.

“Want us to wait for you, Bleek?” called Clancy.

Bleeker had other uses for his breath, however, than wasting it on
replies to the red-headed fellow in the other craft.

“Once more, Clan!” cried Merriwell. “Hug the cliff--we’ve got to!”

Half a dozen sweeps of the paddles and Merry and Clancy were leading. A
few more sweeps, and Clancy sent their craft across the bows of their
rivals.

They were on the inside now, those Farnham Hall boys, and paddling like
fiends. A few moments more and they were under the shadow of the Point.

And then--something happened. Was it accident, or was it design? Intent
on their work, none of those in the two canoes could tell; nor could the
frantic lads on shore.

Clancy heard a crash and roar above him. A glance aloft showed a bowlder
dropping downward from the top of the Point. To Clancy, it looked as big
as a house, and in a flash he knew it must strike the canoe.

The red-headed chap’s heart jumped into his throat. For a heartbeat he
sat powerless, stunned by what he saw. Then he roused up suddenly, with
a yell:

“_Jump, Merry! Jump for your life!_”

On the instant, Clancy dropped his paddle and went overboard. His
frantic plunge overturned the canoe, and Merry was in the water almost
as soon as his chum.

The falling bowlder just grazed the overturned canoe, splashed into the
waves and sent up a geyser of foaming spray.




CHAPTER X.

DESPERATE WORK.


Merry, as well as Clancy, had heard the rush and roar of the bowlder.
But Merry was not in a position to see it, and his first intimation of
the real cause of the trouble came with Clancy’s jump, the sweeping of
the canoe, and the splash of the bowlder in the water.

Bleeker and Hotchkiss, no less than the lads on the shore, were
thunder-struck. The second canoe was far enough away to be out of
danger, although it bobbed perilously in the swash of the waves.

The huge rock had dropped so unexpectedly, and had missed Merriwell and
Clancy so narrowly, that all who watched it were paralyzed for a space.
Then, when the first shock had worn away, a wild turmoil of voices went
up from the bank and from the other canoe.

“A rock was loosened and dropped from the cliff!” called some one
huskily.

“A bowlder was never known to drop from the Point!” protested another.

“An accident, that’s all!” asserted a third. “How could it have been
anything else?”

Ballard, pale as death, was launching a canoe to the other bank. Dart
and another lad crowded in with him.

The seething waters had quieted about the foot of the cliff, and Bleeker
and Hotch were paddling close to Merriwell and Clancy, who were swimming
to get around the Point.

“Are you all right, fellows?” Bleeker asked in a shaking voice.

“I am,” answered Merry. “How about you, Clan?”

“Physically, I’m all to the good, but mentally I’m badly disabled,”
Clancy answered. “A fine course you laid out for us, Bleek,” he added.

“It’s Jode Lenning’s course,” said Bleeker. “I’ve been here a good many
times, during the last six years, and I never knew a rock to fall from
the cliff before. I can’t understand it.”

“It was an accident, Bleek,” said Frank, “and the bowlder missed us. A
miss, you know, is as good as a mile. Better have somebody look after
the canoe.”

“The fellows in one of the other canoes are towing it in,” said Hotch.

Merry and Clancy, reaching the sloping bank below the Point, walked up
out of the water. Both were still a little dazed by the recent mishap.

Ballard, all a-tremble from the shock, landed and hurried to the side of
his chums.

“You got out of that by the skin of your teeth,” said he. “Thunder! I
thought you were gone, for sure. That bowlder wasn’t more than a second
coming down, but it seemed to me like a year before it hit the water.”

“It must have been an accident,” commented Dart.

“No,” said Bleeker, and threw a significant look at Merriwell.

Bleeker had had a little time in which to collect his thoughts, and he
was doing some reasoning, with Blunt’s warning for a background.

“I agree with Dart,” spoke up Merriwell. “I don’t see how it could have
been anything but an accident.”

“I do,” muttered Bleeker darkly. “Some of you fellows get up on top of
the Point. Hustle! See if you can find any one there. If you lose too
much time, there isn’t a chance.”

Ballard led the rush up the steep slope, taking the roundabout way
necessary for gaining the crest of the cliff. Several of the wondering
lads followed Ballard. They were hardly started on their climb when a
canoe from the opposite shore came nosing to the bank. It held two of
the campers. As they arose, they got a bit of a glimpse of the water on
the other side of the Point.

“Look!” one of them cried. “There’s our other canoe--and Lenning and
Shoup!”

Owing to the bend in the river, nothing could be seen from the bank
where Merry and the rest were standing. Merry, the instant he heard the
shouted warning, started for the water’s edge and flung himself into the
craft which Bleeker and Hotchkiss had used for the race.

“Come on, Clan!” Frank called. “Here’s something we’ve got to look
into--and we must be quick about it.”

Clancy jumped for the canoe as though touched by a live wire. Through
his befogged brain an inkling of his chum’s purpose had drifted.

In almost less time than it takes to tell it, the canoe was racing
across the water, Merry in the bow and Clancy in the stern. Other canoes
followed, for a feeling that something more of a portentous nature was
about to happen ran through every lad’s nerves.

When well into the river, Frank could look ahead, as the vista opened
out above the Point, and see the stolen canoe, with the two thieves
aboard. Shoup was in the stern and Lenning at the bow. Both were using
their paddles like mad, evidently trying to get across to the other
bank.

“Get busy, Clan!” called Merriwell quietly, but compellingly. “I think
we can overhaul those fellows before they land.”

“We’ll have to go some, if we do,” was the answer.

“I guess we’ve shown that we can do that, all right.”

Shoup, taking a survey over his shoulder, saw that he and Lenning were
pursued. He spoke to Lenning, and both bent fiercely to their paddling.

They were awkward at the work, and the canoe zigzagged back and forth.
But, in spite of the poor paddling, it looked as though the two might
reach the bank before Merriwell and Clancy could get to them.

“Great guns!” cried Clancy, as an idea suddenly burst on his mind.

“What’s to pay, Clan?” asked Merry, keeping his keen, calculating eyes
straight ahead.

“I’ve just thought of something, Chip. Those two hounds are trying to
get away--they were on top of the Point--they dropped that rock down on
us! By thunder, what do you think of that!”

“I wouldn’t say that until I had some proof,” counselled Merriwell.
“Shut up, Clan, and dig in! We’ve got to if we get close enough to lay
hands on them.”

Clancy smothered his desire for further talk and put all his vim into
his paddle. He and Merry were gaining on the other craft, but
nevertheless it seemed a foregone conclusion that Shoup and Lenning
would reach shore before they could be stopped.

And then, just when the chase appeared most hopeless, Lenning’s paddle
snapped. A shout of anger came from Shoup. He followed it by an act as
surprising to those who looked on as it was desperate in its nature.

Rising to his feet, his own paddle in his hands, Shoup stepped forward
and brought the paddle down viciously on the head of his companion.
Lenning, who was still in a kneeling posture, pitched forward over the
side of the frail craft and disappeared beneath the surface of the
water. The canoe went gunwale under as he fell, and at the same moment,
Shoup jumped and began swimming for the bank.

One astounding event after another was happening that afternoon, and
this last tragic incident held the onlookers spellbound for a moment.

The first thought that drifted through each spectator’s mind must have
been this: Why had Shoup dealt Lenning that blow? Was it anger because
the paddle had broken? Or was there some other motive back of it?

Merriwell was first to recover his wits.

“Some of you fellows get ashore and try and head off Shoup!” he called.
“I’ll see what I can do for Lenning. Quick with your paddle, Clan,” he
added to his chum.

Lenning, stunned by the blow, had not reappeared at the surface of the
water. And he might never reappear alive unless something was done for
him at once.

These thoughts darted through Merriwell’s mind as he and Clancy drove
the canoe onward to the place where the unfortunate youth had gone down.
In less than a minute the craft was over the spot, and Merry had taken a
long, clean dive into the river.

Ballard and Dart, and a few more were watching the progress of events
from the top of the cliff. Bleeker and Hotch had more interest in
Merriwell’s work than in trying to halt Shoup, and stood by in their
canoe to be of what assistance they could. Clancy, hoping to be of some
aid to his chum in effecting a rescue, had likewise taken to the water.

At such a time as that, bygones were bygones. Merriwell forgot all his
old differences with Lenning--forgot also that Lenning might have been
the one who had rolled the bowlder off the cliff--and plunged to the
fellow’s relief just as he would have hastened to the aid of any one
else in distress.

“That’s Chip Merriwell for you,” muttered Bleeker, kneeling and peering
into the watery depths from the side of the canoe.

“Excitement is crowding us pretty hard this afternoon,” said Hotchkiss.
“I’m fair dazed with it all. Why in Sam Hill did Shoup pound Lenning on
the head with that paddle? I thought they were pards.”

“They were; but Shoup’s a dope fiend, and a fellow like that isn’t
responsible for what he does. I suppose he was mad because Lenning’s
paddle broke in his hands. Lenning couldn’t help that, and Shoup----”

Merry and Clancy had been under water for what seemed an inordinately
long period. At that instant, however, they came to the surface--and
between them was the white, dripping face of Jode Lenning.

“Bully for you, Merriwell!” shouted Bleeker enthusiastically. “Can we
help with the canoe?”

“We’ll get him ashore,” sputtered Merry, shaking his head to get the
water out of his eyes. “He’s unconscious and won’t make any trouble. How
are you making it, Clan?” he asked of his chum.

“Well enough,” answered Clancy, blowing like a porpoise. “Let’s get
solid ground under us as soon as we can, though. This is no easy job.”

Steadily, but surely, the two chums made their way shoreward.
Fortunately, the bank was but a little distance away, and it was not
long before they had dragged the limp form of Lenning high and dry on
the sand.

While Merriwell and Clancy sprawled out in the sun to get their breath,
Bleeker and Hotchkiss, and a few more of the campers, worked over
Lenning. The lad was not in very bad shape, and the efforts at
resuscitation speedily met with success.

“It was your quickness, Merriwell,” declared Bleeker, “that saved the
fellow. If he had been under water a minute or two longer, it would have
been all day with him.”

“He’s all right,” said Frank diffidently, “and that’s the main thing.
Has he opened his eyes yet?”

“He’s opening them now.”

Frank got up and walked to Lenning’s side. “How do you feel, Jode?” he
inquired, staring down into his bewildered eyes.

Lenning shivered, and closed his eyes again.




CHAPTER XI.

THE SAVING GRACE.


For several minutes Jode Lenning continued to lie on the warm sand. He
could not have been very comfortable, for his hat was gone and his
clothes were soaking wet. Bleeker had removed his coat in order to work
over him to better advantage, and Hotch now took the garment and wrung
it out. But if Lenning was not comfortable, he was at least getting his
strength back and beginning to feel more like himself.

When he next opened his eyes, he sat up suddenly and looked out over the
shimmering expanse of water. His lips twitched with some passing
emotion, and he finally withdrew his gaze and fixed it upon Bleeker.

“Did Shoup hit me over the head with his paddle?” he asked, in a low,
colorless voice.

“Yes,” was the answer.

“Merriwell and Clancy pulled me out of the water?”

“That was the way of it.”

“Where’s Shoup now?”

“Suffering horn toads!” gasped Bleeker. “Say, I had clean forgotten
about that fellow. What became of him? Anybody know?”

“I can tell you,” one of the lads spoke up. “Two or three of us hustled
ashore to try and head him off, but he was too quick for us. There were
a couple of horses, hitched in the chaparral, and Shoup took one of them
and got away.”

A baleful glitter shone in Lenning’s shifty eyes.

“He tried to do me up,” Lenning muttered.

“Why?” asked Bleeker. “I thought you and he were pards.”

“You never can tell what a pard like Shoup is going to do. But I gave
him cause to have it in for me. Help me up, Bleeker. I’m not going to
ask much of you, nor bother you very long. Five minutes will do the
trick.”

Bleeker reached down and took Lenning’s hand. The lad was weak, as yet,
for it would be some time before he recovered entirely from his recent
ordeal.

“Let’s go to the place where Shoup got the horse,” went on Lenning. “I
want the rest of you to come, too, especially Merriwell.”

Those who had followed Shoup to the chaparral placed themselves in the
lead. Bleeker and Hotch followed, with Lenning between them.

Less than twenty yards up the slope of the bank the strange party came
to the edge of the chaparral.

“Pick up that stone there,” said Lenning, pointing.

A stone about the size of a man’s two fists was indicated. Clancy
stooped and removed the stone. As he did so, he gave vent to a low
whistle, and exclamations of astonishment came from others clustered
around him.

A roll of bills had been brought into view by the removal of the
stone--a large roll with a yellowback on the outside.

“You take the money, Merriwell,” said Lenning, “and give it to Blunt.
It’s the roll Shoup stole from Mrs. Boorland. I didn’t know the old lady
was Mrs. Boorland until I found Blunt was after us. Shoup did the
stealing, and he did it without my knowledge or consent. Maybe you
fellows won’t believe that, but it’s a fact. I reckon I’ve come pretty
low, but I couldn’t stand for what Shoup did. All the money’s there but
twenty dollars. Shoup used that to buy a supply of dope in Ophir and to
hire a couple of horses.”

Lenning paused. He was getting stronger, and he drew away from Bleeker
and Hotchkiss.

“I took that money from Shoup last night, while he was asleep,” Lenning
went on. “We brought our horses over here before daylight, and hid them
in the chaparral. When we did that, I sneaked around and got the roll
under that stone, and Shoup didn’t see me. I intended to let Blunt know,
in some way, where the money was. That’s something else you can believe
or not, just as you please, but it’s the truth.

“There was merry blazes to pay when Shoup found the money was gone out
of his pocket. He accused me of taking it, and I admitted it. He
threatened me, and even threw me down and went through my clothes to see
if he couldn’t find it. Blunt made things so interesting for us that
Shoup didn’t have any time to keep nagging at me. When we tried to get
across the river to the horses, directly after that bowlder dropped from
the cliff, Shoup found his chance to hand me a rap over the head. You
saw him do it; and now I’ve explained why he had it in for me.

“Of course,” and Lenning’s glance wandered to Merriwell, “you fellows
can take me to Ophir and put me in the lockup on a charge of highway
robbery. The question is, are you going to do it? I’ve tried to do the
right thing, and now it’s up to you either to let me go or hand me over
to the law. Which is it to be?”

“Get his horse for him,” said Merriwell, “and let him go. He’s had a
hard enough time of it, and the way Shoup treated him proves that his
story is straight.”

Lenning, most unexpectedly, had done a good deed, and it was the saving
grace of that act which led many of the boys to agree with Merriwell.
The horse was led out of the bushes, and Lenning, with some difficulty,
climbed into the saddle.

“Where are you going?” Merriwell asked.

“I don’t know,” was the answer, “and I’m not caring a whole lot.”

“Why don’t you buck up, Lenning, and try to be different?”

Lenning studied Merriwell for a moment with moody eyes.

“What’s the use?” he asked, at last. “I’m down and out. I’ve been a
fool, but that doesn’t count any in my favor. When a fellow makes his
bed, he’s got to lie in it.”

“If it doesn’t suit him he can get up and make it over.”

“You’ve always been at the top of the heap, Merriwell, so it’s easy for
you to give advice. Try to be the under dog once, and maybe you’ll
change your mind about what a fellow can or can’t do.”

Without another word, Lenning turned the horse’s head up the slope.
Hatless as he was, and with his wet clothing clinging to his limbs, he
was a melancholy figure as he rode to the top of the bank and then
vanished from the gaze of the lads below.

“Well, I’ll be hanged!” exclaimed Bleeker. “I’m struck all of a heap, no
two ways about that. To think that Jode Lenning should make a play of
that kind! He hasn’t a sou in his jeans, and yet he took that roll from
Shoup and was doing what he could to get it back into the hands of
Blunt. Well, well!”

“It only goes to prove,” chuckled Merriwell, “that lawlessness wasn’t
born in Lenning, and that he can make a pretty decent sort of a fellow
out of himself if he tries.”

“I reckon,” said Bleeker thoughtfully, “that all of us are handicapped
in one way or another.”

“We are,” agreed Frank, “but it’s our own doing.”

“That so, Chip?” put in Clancy.

Merriwell stared at him for an instant, then caught his drift and nodded
emphatically.

“Yes, that’s so, Clan, and I’m not backing away from that statement
because I’ve got a little handicap of my own. Who won that race, anyhow,
Bleeker?” he finished, with a grin.

“You and Clancy did,” was the prompt reply.

“We can try it over again to-morrow forenoon, if you say so.”

“Not much! Single paddles are trumps, to-morrow forenoon, and I’ll see
if we Gold Hillers can’t have a little luck. Now let’s get back to
camp.”

A return was quickly made to the other shore; and, while Merry and
Clancy were in their tent, giving all the news to Ballard, and, at the
same time, getting into their clothes, Barzy Blunt stuck his head in at
the flap.

“Somebody beat me to it,” he remarked. “Call that a fair shake, Chip?”

There was a laugh in Blunt’s voice, so the lads knew his words were not
to be taken seriously.

“Where were you while all the trouble was going on?” demanded Frank.

“I was a heap nearer the scene of trouble than you imagine. I’ve found
out something, too, that will probably change your opinion of Jode
Lenning.”

“Come in, then,” said Merry, “and bat it up to us. We’re getting sort of
hardened to surprises, so I guess we can stand this one.”




CHAPTER XII.

BLUNT’S “SURPRISE.”


The cowboy pushed his way into the tent and sat down beside Ballard on a
pile of blankets.

“First off,” said he, “let me ask you if you’re satisfied Schuster gave
me a straight tip when I met him on the way back from Gold Hill?”

“Why, yes,” Frank answered, “Schuster had a pretty good line on the
situation, all except that ‘getting even’ part.”

Blunt screwed up his black eyes and gave Merriwell a keen sizing.

“What do you think about that bowlder that dropped from the cliff?” he
asked.

“Accident,” said Frank briefly.

“Well, holy smoke!” grunted the cowboy, in disgust. “Is that what you
really think, Chip?”

“It is, Barzy.”

Blunt removed his hat and ran his fingers through his long, jet-black
hair.

“You’re a little shy in your headpiece,” he remarked. “Either that or
else you’ve got a fool notion about not wanting to go on record with
what you really think. Some of the lads outside kind of told me the way
you were leaning, and how you’d been cracking Jode Lenning up as
something of a man, in spite of his shortcomings. What Schuster said
Lenning and Shoup had up their sleeves for you, Chip, worried me a heap.
I got to thinking more of keeping the three of you apart than I had
thought about recovering the money. Pretty soon after I left you and
Bleeker in the hills, I tied up my horse and started to skirmishing in
some difficult places on foot.

“First thing I knew I was in the brush on top of the Point. The canoe
race was going on below, and I could hear the yells pretty near as plain
as though I had been down in the bottom of the gulch. Shoup and Lenning
were skulking back of the cliff’s edge. They had a rock poised on the
brink. Lenning was waiting to push it over, while Shoup was looking
down, ready to give the signal at the right time.

“It was a few minutes before I got on to what they might be up to. Just
as it rushed over me, and I started to get busy with the coyotes, Shoup
gave the signal and Lenning pushed the rock over. Then both of them took
to their heels. I was right after ’em, but they pulled a canoe out of
the bushes when they got near the water, and slid beyond my reach.

“I started back toward the place where I had left my horse, but stopped
again when I got a glimpse of the river and saw you and Clancy chasing
the other canoe. I saw the rest of what happened, too, including the bat
Shoup gave Lenning on the head, and the way you and Clancy went to the
rescue. I reckon that was fine, considering all that those skunks had
tried to do to you, but, pard, it was a whole lot more than I’d have
done in your place.”

“No, it wasn’t,” said Merriwell decidedly.

“No? Seems like you’re putting me in your own class. Chip, and you know
as well as I do that I don’t belong there. Well, we’ll let that pass. I
went for my horse with my thoughts and feelings sort of scrambled, so
that I didn’t know how I really felt. I sort of forgot about the stolen
money, and about everything else, but the way those two sneaks pushed
the bowlder down on you, and the way you went into the drink to save
the fellow that did the most of it. Finally I got into my saddle and
rode for this camp, where I was told how you believed that bowlder
business was an accident, and that Lenning had done the square thing
with the money. Then I was at sixes and sevens again. I didn’t want to
jolt you with the truth about Lenning, and yet I couldn’t see how you
were so dense as not to figure it out for yourself. Now, Chip, I come to
you as an eyewitness, and you’re getting the facts. Schuster had it
pretty straight, didn’t he?”

“Surest thing you know, Barzy,” Frank answered. “Here’s the money,” he
added, passing over the roll. “It’s all there but twenty dollars. Shoup
spent that in Ophir.”

“I’m glad enough to get hands on it, even if it is a twenty short. Mam
is coming in for quite a wad of coin, on account of that mine deal, so
maybe she wouldn’t have missed this so much as she might. It was the way
Shoup took it, more than anything else, that got me all worked up. Now,
Chip, tell me this: What’s your opinion about Lenning?”

“It was the best thing that ever happened to him when Colonel Hawtrey
kicked him out,” said Merriwell. “There’s good stuff in Lenning and he’s
going to prove it a good many times--just as he proved it this
afternoon.”

“Bosh!” said Bleeker, thrusting his head into the tent, “you’re dippy on
that point, Chip.”

“Wait and see, Bleek.”

“Supper’s ready--that’s what I looked in to tell you. Place for you,
Blunt. Going back to Ophir to-night?”

“I hear there’s a race on to-morrow forenoon,” returned Blunt, “and I’d
sort of made up my mind to hang around and take a hand in it.”

“Good for you!” cried Merriwell.

“But,” the cowboy went on, with an odd gleam in his black eyes, “I
don’t want any more bowlders tumbling from Apache Point if I’m to be in
one of the canoes.”

“Now that Shoup and Lenning have cleared out,” cried Clancy, “I’ll
guarantee there won’t be any more rocks rolling down the cliff. Come on
and let’s eat.”




CHAPTER XIII.

THE RACE FOR SINGLE PADDLES.


“Get a move on, Bleek! Ginger up, pard, ginger up!”

“Good work, Merry! That’s the way to show ’em your heels!”

“Dig, old scout! Why don’t you _dig_?”

“Plenty of chance, yet, Bleek; don’t lose your nerve!”

“Chance? Why, Bleeker hasn’t a look-in--not with Chip Merriwell paddling
like that! Merry’s coming down the stretch like a scared coyote making
for home and mother. Hoop-a-la!”

There were five canoes in that race for single paddles. There had been
seven, but two had fouled each other and come to grief less than a
hundred yards from the starting point. Barzy Blunt and Hotchkiss, of
Gold Hill, were the unlucky ones. As soon as they had gained the shore
they joined the rooters who were running along the bank. A ducking had
not dampened their ardor in the least, and Blunt and Hotch pranced along
in their bathing trunks, cheering and encouraging the rest of the
racers.

It was late in the forenoon. The bright Arizona sun trailed its beams
over the waters of the gulch, gilding each little ripple as it danced
about the charging canoes. The only shadow on the stream was at the
place where the gentle slopes of the gulch banks were shouldered aside
by the steep bluff known as Apache Point.

Above the Point, and around the turn in the gulch, was a white flag. The
start of the canoe race had been from this flag. The “elbow” at the foot
of the Point was to be rounded by the racers, and the finish line was
opposite the white tents of the Gold Hill campers.

Apart from Blunt and Hotchkiss, the contesting paddlers were young
Merriwell, his chums, Owen Clancy and Billy Ballard, Bleeker, a leader
in the Gold Hill Athletic Club, and Lenaway, another member of the club.

Merriwell, Clancy, and Ballard, crouching in the sterns of their frail
craft, had worked easily but steadily from the start. They knew from
experience that swiftness in the get-away and a wild expenditure of
energy at the beginning caused the loss of many a race--not only on the
water but on the cinder track, as well. It is the fellow who carefully
and judiciously nurses his powers for a spurt on the home stretch that
makes the best showing, when all’s said and done.

The length of the course to be covered in this canoe race was about half
a mile. A hundred yards from the starting point, Frank and his chums
were some distance behind. Bleeker led, and almost neck and neck with
him were Hotchkiss and the cowboy, Barzy Blunt. Lenaway’s canoe filled
in the widening gap between the leaders and the Farnham Hall lads in the
rear.

Blunt had more strength than skill, and it was his awkwardness that
caused the crash with Hotchkiss. The violence of the impact caused both
canoes to roll over and fill. With these two contestants out of the way,
the race began rapidly narrowing down.

One by one the canoes rounded the foot of the Point, hugging the steep
wall closely. Bleeker led the procession, Lenaway followed, and then
came Merry, Clancy, and Ballard in the order named.

The instant Merriwell’s canoe shot away from the Point, however, he
could be seen to buckle to his work in masterly style. First he
overhauled Lenaway, and then passed him with comparative ease.

Lenaway, realizing that the race undoubtedly lay between Merriwell and
Bleeker, strove to take what honors he could away from Clancy and
Ballard. Halfway between the Point and the finish line, Ballard snapped
his paddle.

“How’s that for luck?” he shouted ruefully, as Clancy and Lenaway dashed
on prow to prow. “Go it, Reddy! It’s up to you and Chip, now, to show
these Gold Hillers what we can do.”

Bleeker, a prime fellow and trained to the minute, realized that he had
the fight of his life on his hands if he was to win against Merriwell.
He made swift demand upon all his reserve strength, and his muscles
answered superbly. But the strain of the contest was telling upon
him--mainly because he had worked too hard on the first half of the
course.

Merriwell was creeping up on the other canoe, slowly yet steadily and
relentlessly. And the remarkable part of his work was that the tension
of those exciting moments was not evident in a single move he made. With
easy, almost careless, grace he dipped his blade, and his light craft
plunged onward like a well-trained thoroughbred. It was evident to all
that Merriwell was a “stayer,” and that Bleeker had about shot his bolt.

Frank was somewhat surprised at Bleeker, for on the preceding day he and
Clancy had given the Gold Hill lads an object lesson in husbanding
resources for the home stretch and not being too free with them at the
beginning. Bleeker should have profited by that experience.

Little by little Merry drew up abreast of Bleeker. The latter’s face was
set and there was a strained look about it which proved how hard he was
driving himself.

When Frank nosed on into the lead, a roar went up from the bank. Blunt
was rooting for Merry, and cheering with all his range ardor and
enthusiasm. The cowboy had a whole-souled admiration for the Eastern
lad, and believed that no one of his age or inches could beat him at any
sport.

“Whoop!” he bellowed, jumping around on the bank in his drenched and
abbreviated costume. “Keep your eye on my pard, will you? Throw up your
hands, Bleek! It’s as good as over.”

“Never say die, Bleek!” shouted a Gold Hiller across the water. “Keep at
it, old man! Come ahead, come ahead!”

Bleeker was fighting gamely. He was not the lad to quit because the tide
of battle was running against him. By an effort as remarkable as it was
unexpected, he dug down into an underlying stratum of power and hurled
his canoe onward until it was again nose to nose with Merriwell’s.

Frank’s admiration for his plucky rival was great. To win over such a
true sportsman would be a victory to be highly prized.

And Frank was doing his best. If Bleeker’s sudden access of strength
held out, Frank might be only second at the swimming float where the
race was to end.

“Go to it, Chip!” yelled a voice which had not been heard before in all
that riot of noise from the river bank. “You’re generally first at the
last of it, mainly because you never get rattled by being last at the
beginning. Now’s the time to make your showing!”

A thrill shot through Merriwell as he heard that particular voice. He
was wondering a little, too, as to how the owner of that voice happened
to be at the Gold Hill camp. Just then, however, he had no attention to
spare from his immediate work.

Bleeker’s spurt did not last. He had been too prodigal of his strength.
His canoe began dropping off, and Merriwell came abreast of the float
half a length in the lead.

“Hoop-a-la!” shouted Barzy Blunt, cutting a few cowboy capers on the
bank. “What did I tell you, eh? Hurrah for Chip--a chip of the old block
if there ever was one.”

Ballard, working his way to the shore with what was left of his paddle,
likewise exulted in his chum’s victory. Clancy, reaching the float just
ahead of Lenaway, joined in the cheering.

Bleeker, although breathless with his efforts, managed to get his canoe
alongside Merriwell’s.

“Put it there, Chip,” he laughed, reaching out his hand. “You gave me
the finest bit of fun I’ve had in many a day.”

Merriwell clasped the hand heartily.

“It was anybody’s race for a while, Bleek,” he answered. “If we had it
to do over again, more than likely you’d trim me.”

“Not so you could notice it, old man. You’re a stayer from Stayerville,
and I take off my hat to you as the better man.”

It was to be noticed that the cheering over Merry’s victory was general,
and the Gold Hill boys joined in it quite as heartily as did Frank’s
chums and his cowboy friend. As Merry brought his canoe to the bank and
hopped ashore, he was greeted by the lad whose voice he had heard so
unexpectedly while the canoes were bearing down on the float.

“Up to your old tricks, eh, Chip?” laughed this youth. “If I had known
what was on for this morning, I’d have tried to get here earlier.”

“Hannibal Bradlaugh, by Jove!” cried Merry, taking a grip on the hand
that was pushed out to him.

Ever since Merry had come to southern Arizona he had known the son of
the president of the Ophir Athletic Club. The clubs at Ophir and Gold
Hill were rivals--bitter rivals, at one time, but now, in a great
measure, owing to Merriwell’s efforts, all the bitterness was a thing of
the past.

“Hello, Brad!” called Bleeker, pushing forward to take the hand
Merriwell had released. “The last of that performance was the best part
of it, so you didn’t miss a whole lot by getting here late. If you’ve
come to stay for a while, we’ll give you a chance to take a hand in some
of these water sports.”

“I’m not going to have my scalp dangling at any Gold Hill belt,” Brad
laughed, “and that’s what would happen if I got hold of a paddle and
tried to do anything. Anyhow, I didn’t come to stay for more than a few
minutes. I’m after Chip. He’s wanted in Ophir.”

“News from Bloomfield?” Frank asked, lifting his eyes quickly.

“No, nothing from Bloomfield. I’m sorry as blazes to cut short your stay
here----”

“We were going back to Ophir this afternoon, anyhow,” Merry cut in, “so
that part of it is all right. Pink, Clan, and I promised the professor
solemnly we’d get back to town this evening. He’d be after us if we
didn’t go, for that’s the sort of a prof he is. What’s up, Brad? From
your looks I should say it was serious business.”

“Oh, not so blamed serious. Step over this way a minute, will you?”

Bradlaugh drew Merriwell to one side and began talking to him in low,
earnest tones. As Merry listened, an expression of thoughtful concern
could be seen to cross his face.




CHAPTER XIV.

AN ENEMY’S APPEAL.


“You saved a fellow’s life here yesterday, didn’t you, Chip?” Brad
asked.

“Clancy and I pulled Jode Lenning out of the water,” Frank answered.

“That’s about the way I’d expect you to tell it. Well, Lenning has asked
for a job at the Ophir mine. He hasn’t much left in the way of
reputation, and when the super asked my father what to do, pop told him
to let Lenning hunt a berth somewhere else. Lenning came straight to
pop’s office from the mine. He told pop that he knew he hadn’t done
right, but that he had cut loose from his rowdy friends, had turned over
a new leaf, and was going to make something of himself. Pop thought that
was a pretty good thing to do, and told him so, but couldn’t give him
any encouragement. The company had made it a rule not to hire anybody
who couldn’t give a clean bill as to character. Lenning wanted to know
if somebody couldn’t be responsible for him, and pop answered that it
all depended on who the ‘somebody’ was. The next minute pop was almost
knocked off his feet.”

Brad paused. “Who hit him?” asked Merry, with a twinkle in his dark
eyes.

“Lenning,” said Brad promptly. “He hit pop with a few words that almost
took his breath. ‘Chip Merriwell will be responsible for me,’ is what he
said. Do you wonder that the governor was floored?”

Frank did not. In fact, Frank was almost floored himself.

“Pop told Lenning that he’d have to talk with you,” Brad went on, “and
Lenning wanted him to get you to Ophir as soon as possible. Well, it
wasn’t exactly that that brought me after you, Chip. Pop telephoned to
Colonel Hawtrey, Lenning’s uncle, in Gold Hill, and the colonel’s coming
to Ophir himself to see about it. We all know that Colonel Hawtrey hates
Lenning like poison, and, while I can’t understand why you want to help
a fellow who has done you so much dirt as Lenning has, all the same I
thought I’d hustle out here and tell you about Hawtrey. If you want to
help Lenning, you’ll have to see pop before the colonel gets to Ophir. I
rushed to Dolliver’s in the automobile, and came on up the cañon on
foot. If you want to go back with me, it won’t take us long to get to
the car.”

Merriwell was in a quandary. At first, a blunt refusal to do anything
for Lenning was on his lips. Something held it back.

“It’s up to you, Chip,” said Brad. “What are you going to do? You stand
pretty high with pop. I’ll bet a good deal that one word from you would
get the job for Lenning--providing you get busy before the colonel
reaches Ophir. It’s your own business, and I’m only butting in to help
you do what you want to do.”

“I know that, Brad,” Merry answered. “I can’t tell you what I want to
do, offhand. I’ve got to think it over.”

“You haven’t much time.”

“I’ll have to take time to get into my clothes. Dinner’s about ready,
too, and there won’t be much more delay if we eat in camp. After that,
Brad, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.”

“All right, old man,” assented Brad, and turned away to shake hands
with Clancy, Ballard, and a few other fellows with whom he was
acquainted.

Merriwell was still in a quandary as he went to one of the tents and
began getting out of his wet bathing suit and into his other clothes.
Jode Lenning had appealed to him for help, and such a move was so unlike
Lenning that Merry thought there must be something crooked back of it.
On the other hand, Lenning might really be trying to turn over a new
leaf, and, if that was the case, Frank was the last one in the world to
hold back when a word from him to Mr. Bradlaugh would help set an enemy
in the right road.

Jode Lenning and his half brother, Ellis Darrel, had lived with their
uncle, Colonel Hawtrey, in Gold Hill. Lenning had gone wrong, but he had
managed cleverly to pull the wool over his uncle’s eyes for a year or
more. Merriwell had befriended Darrel, and, in so doing, had earned the
enmity of Lenning. The latter had done a number of treacherous
things--ugly, underhand deeds, some of which had only failed of
accomplishing desperate ends by a narrow margin--and when the colonel
finally had his eyes opened to the truth, he cast the scheming,
unscrupulous nephew adrift.

Was Lenning trying honestly to turn over a new leaf? This was the
question Merriwell was turning over in his mind. If he was, then he
deserved and ought to have Merriwell’s help.

Nevertheless, Merriwell could not forget the past. Lenning had been sly,
and treacherous, and cowardly. His whole nature could not be changed in
twenty-four hours, and to be responsible for his honesty at the mine
would perhaps prove dangerous business.

The only square thing Merriwell had ever known Lenning to do was in
taking that stolen money of Mrs. Boorland’s from Shoup and returning it
to Barzy Blunt. If the principle of right and justice had swerved
Lenning, then certainly he was trying to put himself on a proper footing
and deserved encouragement.

While Frank was considering the question that had been so suddenly put
up to him, Blunt, Clancy, and Ballard came into the tent to dress and
make ready for dinner. They were curious to learn what errand had
brought Brad to the gulch; and Frank, after a little reflection, told
them.

“Crawling side winders!” muttered Blunt, his face flushed with
indignation and anger. “That juniper’s the limit! Think of him calling
on Chip for help when it hasn’t been a day since he tried to smash Chip
and Clancy with that bowlder! How’s that for nerve, pards?”

“Nerve is his long suit,” grunted Ballard. “Now that he’s out with
Shoup, he’s trying to curry favor with Chip.”

“And of course Chip will give him the cold shoulder,” put in Clancy,
with an air of conviction. “He’d be foolish to tangle up with Lenning in
any way.”

“Suppose Lenning is trying to square away and do the right thing?”
queried Merriwell.

“That’s a bluff,” asserted Blunt. “Lenning is more kinds of a crook than
I know how to tell about. It’s a cinch he wants to get in at the mine so
he can pull off some scheme or other that he’s been hatching. He’s a
master hand at schemes.”

“He’s up against a tough proposition,” went on Merriwell, “and if he’s
trying to be square I don’t want to turn him down.”

“If you’re fool enough to help him, Merriwell,” growled Blunt, “you’ll
get yourself in trouble. Mark what I say.”

“Give Chip credit for having a little horse sense,” said Ballard. “Brad
makes me tired. What the deuce did he want to come out here for? He
might have known Chip wouldn’t have anything to do with Lenning’s
affairs.”

“The trouble with Brad is, he never stops to reason a thing out,”
observed Clancy. “He means all right, and I’ll bet he thought he was
doing Chip a bigger favor than he was Lenning.”

“His own uncle ought to know him pretty well,” continued Ballard. “Let
him handle Lenning.”

“I’m going in with Brad, anyhow,” said Merry, his face set and a
resolute gleam in his eyes. “You fellows can follow along with the
horses and pick up my mount at Dolliver’s.”

“What are you going in for?” demanded Ballard suspiciously.

“I want to get deeper into this business,” was the reply. “It won’t do
any harm for me to have a talk with Mr. Bradlaugh.”

“Maybe not,” said Blunt, “but I’ll gamble my spurs it won’t do you any
good, either. Lenning’s a cur, and he’s proved it.”

“What’s the use of jumping on a fellow when he’s down, Barzy?”

“It amounts to the same,” was the fierce retort, “as putting your heel
on the head of a rattler before it can strike. Chip,” and his voice grew
intensely earnest, “I don’t want you to do anything you’ll be sorry
for.”

Merriwell laughed and thumped the cowboy on the back.

“Why, you crazy chump,” said he, “what do you take me for? There’s the
call for grub pile. Come on and let’s eat.”

Following dinner, Frank caught up his horse, put on the riding gear, and
then mounted and took up Brad behind him. All the Gold Hillers were
sorry to see Merriwell go, but he and his chums had only come out to the
gulch for overnight, and in two short days they had managed to crowd a
lot of sport and excitement.

“Hope we’ll see you again before you leave Arizona, Chip,” said Bleeker,
who was last to grip Merriwell’s hand. “You’re a true sportsman, and it
was an honor to compete with you--even if we did get left. Adios, and
good luck!”

“So long, fellows!” called Frank, waving his hand.

“We’ll be along later, Chip,” sang out Clancy.

At a word, Frank’s horse broke into a gallop along the gulch trail. The
white tents faded slowly into the background and the cheers of the Gold
Hillers grew fainter and fainter in Frank’s ears until they died out
altogether.




CHAPTER XV.

TAKING A CHANCE.


Borak, the black horse Merriwell had bought of Barzy Blunt several weeks
before, was a fast traveler, and it was not many minutes until he had
deposited his two riders at Dolliver’s ranch, at the mouth of the cañon.
The cañon trail was too rough and narrow for an automobile, and so Brad
had been compelled to leave the machine at the rancher’s.

Leaving Borak at the hitching pole in front of the house, Merriwell and
Brad took to the car and were soon hitting it up on the road to Ophir.
Half an hour after leaving Dolliver’s they were drawing to a halt in
front of the mining company’s offices in the town.

Mr. Bradlaugh was the Western representative of the syndicate that owned
the mine, and was in all matters the court of last resort in questions
dealing with mining, milling, and cyaniding on the company’s premises.

Merry and Brad, tumbling out of the machine and making their way into
the outer office of the general manager, were told by the stenographer
that Mr. Bradlaugh was busy with a caller in his private room.

“Who’s the caller?” queried Brad.

“Colonel Hawtrey.”

Brad drew a deep breath and turned to Merriwell.

“He’s here ahead of us, Chip,” said he, “but, if you’ve made up your
mind as to what you’re going to do, I reckon you can get in there and do
your talking along with the colonel. Wait a minute.”

A mumble of voices came from beyond the door leading to the manager’s
private office. Frank could distinguish Mr. Bradlaugh’s voice, colorless
and low-pitched, and Colonel Hawtrey’s, loud and wrathful.

Brad stepped to the door, tapped, and then opened it and passed inside
at a word from his father. A moment later he looked out and beckoned to
Merriwell.

As Frank entered the room, Colonel Hawtrey got up and took him by the
hand.

“Mighty glad to see you again, Merriwell,” said he, “but I hope nothing
Lenning has said has brought you here.”

“Hello, my boy,” smiled Mr. Bradlaugh, waving Merriwell to a chair.
“This looks like a plot, with Hannibal at the bottom of it. You needn’t
go, Han. You’ve got Merriwell here, now stay and see the matter
through.”

Merry and Brad seated themselves.

“I hear that Jode Lenning has asked for a job at the mine,” remarked
Frank, a little embarrassed to find himself in danger of crossing the
colonel’s will at such close quarters.

“That’s what has happened,” replied Mr. Bradlaugh. “We need a watchman
at the cyanide plant for night duty. That’s the work Lenning applied
for. It’s a responsible position, and a man is needed badly and at once.
The superintendent, knowing Lenning’s character was not of the best,
referred the matter to me. It’s against our policy to hire any one whose
record is not clean, so I turned Lenning down. Then he said that he
thought you would be responsible for him. I haven’t an idea that you’re
looking for such a protégé,” laughed the general manager, “and your
coming here is quite a surprise. I called up the colonel, and he took
the trouble to come over. From what he says, I don’t believe we can
consider Lenning’s application at all.”

“If you hire him, Bradlaugh,” said the colonel, “you’ll do it without
any recommendation from me. Lenning is a graceless scamp. The company he
keeps is the worst imaginable. Why, in a week he ran through with a
thousand dollars, which I gave him to use in making something of
himself--squandered it at the gambling tables in Gold Hill, with that
rascal Shoup to help him. His latest exploit is such as to make me blush
to think that he is my dead sister’s son. Highway robbery--with a poor,
old lady for the victim! By George, he ought to have been arrested and
put through for that.”

“Colonel,” said Frank, “you haven’t all the facts connected with that
robbery. It was Shoup who stole the money, and it was Lenning who took
it away from him and returned it to its rightful owner.”

The colonel’s eyes narrowed.

“Merriwell,” said he, with a trace of annoyance, “I know more than you
think. Lenning wanted to revenge himself upon you for some fancied
wrong, and that was why he and Shoup went to the camp in the gulch.
Lenning took the money from his scoundrelly companion and hid it away;
then, aided by Shoup, he attempted to roll a bowlder from Apache Point
and smash the canoe in which you and one of your friends were racing
past the foot of the cliff. His villainous attempts failed. He and Shoup
tried to clear out. As they crossed the river in a stolen canoe, in
order to reach their horses, Shoup struck Lenning with a paddle. Shoup
got away, and you saved Lenning from drowning. He----”

“Clancy and I pulled Lenning out of the water,” Frank broke in.
“Possibly he would have got out himself if we had let him alone.”

“Hardly,” came the crisp protest from the colonel. “Lenning was stunned
and unable to help himself. As soon as he revived, he took you to the
place where he had hidden the money. Why?”

The colonel bored into Frank with his eyes as he put the question.

“Because he wanted to do the square thing,” answered Merriwell, “and
because he wouldn’t stand for any thieving on the part of Shoup. Shoup
was mad about it, and that’s why he hit Lenning with the paddle.”

“I’m surprised at you, Merriwell,” said Hawtrey. “That wasn’t the reason
at all. Lenning wanted all that money for himself. When you got him out
of the water, he--well, he--well, he ‘worked you,’ to use a slang term.
He returned the money and told that yarn in order to keep out of jail.
Lenning is shrewd--you ought to know that.”

Colonel Hawtrey was bitter against his once-cherished nephew. He was a
stern man, and the fact that Lenning was his sister’s son in no wise
tempered his merciless spirit.

“I think you’re wrong, colonel,” said Merriwell quietly.

For a few moments a silence dropped over those in the office. Merriwell
had been still in doubt as to what he would do up to that very moment.
The colonel’s relentless attitude brought him to a conclusion in a
flash. Merriwell believed Lenning had returned the money because he
wanted to do the right thing, while the colonel professed to believe
that it was only a makeshift to save him from arrest. At last, Colonel
Hawtrey spoke, and it was noticeable that his voice had softened.

“You stand pretty high in my regard, my lad,” said he to Merriwell, “and
I recall the time when you believed in Darrel and I did not. As events
proved, I was an unreasonable old fool and your judgment was correct. I
have you to thank for giving me back a nephew who is in every way a
credit to his family. But don’t make any mistake about Jode Lenning.
He’s a thorough-paced villain, and there is not one redeeming feature in
his case. It is hard for me to sit here and talk in this way, but Jode
has made his own bed and must lie in it. He fooled me for a long time,
and I sincerely hope, Merriwell, that you won’t let him deceive you.”

“I believe he has squared around, colonel,” insisted Frank, “and that he
ought to be helped.”

“There’s some black motive back of what he’s doing.”

“The fact that he came to the Ophir and asked for a job proves----”

“You don’t know what it proves,” cut in Col Hawtrey irascibly. “Lenning
is deep. There is no guessing what he has at the back of his head.”

“I think he ought to have a chance.”

“Why didn’t he take his thousand dollars, go away somewhere where no one
knows him and try to make a man of himself? He had a chance then--a
better chance than he’ll ever get again--and he threw it away. He’s
tricky, and he’s not in earnest.”

“He was training with Shoup when he squandered that money, colonel,”
urged Merriwell. “Now he and Shoup have quarreled, and Lenning hasn’t
his influence to fight. If Mr. Bradlaugh will take Lenning on my say-so,
I’m here to ask him to let Lenning have that job as night watchman.”

“You’re making a rash move,” declared the colonel, “and it is a move
that will get you into trouble as sure as fate.” He turned to Mr.
Bradlaugh. “Don’t let Merriwell do something he’ll be sorry for,
Bradlaugh,” said he.

There was a grim expression on the general manager’s face. “How am I to
help myself, colonel?” he asked.

“Help yourself? Why, you can refuse to put Lenning on your pay roll, in
spite of what Merriwell says. That is the best move you could make for
all concerned.”

Bradlaugh sat back in his chair, and, for a few minutes, was deep in
thought. At last he roused up to address Colonel Hawtrey, once more.

“You are under obligations to Merriwell, colonel,” said he, “and so am
I. He came to Ophir and immediately identified himself with the affairs
of the Ophir Athletic Club, which, as you know, were in pretty bad
shape. He and his friends have brought a new spirit into the club, and
from being always on the losing side, now and then we’re able to win.
You remember how he coached our football team, and steered the boys to
victory?” The colonel winced and a smile unfolded itself around
Bradlaugh’s lips. “No,” he went on, “I see you haven’t forgotten that,
colonel. Well, as president of the O. A. C., I’m indebted to Merriwell.
If he asks me to give Lenning a chance, and will become personally
responsible for his actions, I can’t refuse. That’s flat.”

“Merriwell is taking a long chance on Lenning,” growled Colonel Hawtrey,
“and I hate to see the boy make such a mistake. I’m Lenning’s uncle, and
it’s a chance I wouldn’t think of taking myself.” He turned to Frank.
“Think it over,” he urged, “before you finally make up your mind. Don’t
forget that Jode has tried several times to be tricky with you. He may
be trying it now.”

“I’ve got a hunch that he’s trying to be square, and not to be tricky,”
Merriwell answered. “And it’s a man’s fight, colonel, for every one
seems to be down on him. He ought to be given a boost. If I’m willing to
forget the past and take a chance, you ought to be.”

“I think, and you’ll pardon me for saying it, that my judgment is too
sound. What are you going to do, Bradlaugh?”

“Lenning goes on duty at the cyanide plant to-night,” said the general
manager, “but he’s accepted solely and provisionally as Merriwell’s
protégé. I shall phone the superintendent to that effect in a few
minutes.”

The colonel frowned and got to his feet. “I wash my hands of the
consequences,” said he, “but if Merriwell gets into trouble on account
of his rashness, I shall do all I can to help him.”

With that, Colonel Hawtrey strode out of the office, very much wrought
up over the result of his call on Mr. Bradlaugh. As soon as he was gone,
the general manager left his chair and came around to take Merriwell’s
hand.

“This move of yours does you credit, Merriwell,” said he, “and I’m
backing your judgment against the colonel’s. But--and please consider
this a tip--keep track of Lenning as well as you can. That’s all.
Hannibal,” he laughed, turning to his son, “you’re something of a
schemer yourself. Why didn’t you tell me you were going after Chip?”




CHAPTER XVI.

THE YELLOW STREAK.


An hour after Merry and Brad had left the office of the general manager
of the Ophir Mining Company, Merry was sitting alone on the veranda of
the Ophir House, waiting for his chums to arrive from the camp in the
gulch. He was wondering, a little dubiously, whether he had done right
by setting his judgment against the colonel’s in the matter of Jode
Lenning.

In matters of sentiment, and quite apart from ordinary business,
Merriwell knew that Colonel Hawtrey was far from infallible. The colonel
himself had mentioned the fact that he had been wrong and Merriwell
right in affairs connected with Ellis Darrel. The same sort of a “hunch”
that had led Merry to befriend Darrel was now spurring him on to help
Lenning. If it was right in one case, he felt in his bones it must be
right in the other.

And then, too, Lenning was absolutely friendless. In this sorry plight,
he had smothered his pride and appealed for aid to a fellow whom he
considered an enemy. This touched Merry, as he might have expressed it,
pretty close “to where he lived.” Lenning had asked for help, and Merry
would have felt like a cur if he had turned him down.

The lad on the veranda was unable to find any fault with himself for his
generous action. He did not mix any hard-headed logic in his reasoning,
but considered the affair almost entirely from the standpoint of doing
the right thing by a chap who was down and had every man’s hand against
him.

“I say, Merriwell!”

Frank started at the sound of the voice. Looking up, he saw a lad
leaning over the veranda rail not more than a couple of yards away. His
face was haggard, and his clothes, although of good quality, were dusty
and rumpled. A pair of eyes, by nature of the shifty sort, were fixed
with some steadiness upon Merry’s face.

“Oh, hello, Lenning,” said Frank, with a certain amount of constraint in
his voice and manner. “I thought you were out at the mine.”

“I was there,” came the answer, “until I heard a little while ago that I
was to have a job as night watchman, and that I owed the job to you.
That sent me to town. Can you give me a little of your time? I--I’ve got
something I want to say to you.”

“Sure! Come up here and take a chair. We’ll palaver as long as you
please.”

“I’d rather not do my talking here. If you’re agreeable, suppose we walk
out along the road to the mine. I’ll feel more like loosening up if I
knew there’s no one around to overhear.”

“That suits me,” and Frank left the veranda and started south with
Lenning, through the ragged outskirts of the town.

Lenning did not travel the main street, but avoided it, finally leading
Frank out on the trail to the mine by a roundabout course. A short mile
lay between the settlement and the Ophir “workings,” and Lenning did not
speak until the last house in the town had been left behind. If he had
much to say, Frank thought, he would have to talk fast if he got through
before they reached the mine.

But Lenning did not propose to walk while he was easing his mind. He
found a place at the trailside where they could sit down, and after
they had made themselves comfortable, he began:

“I reckon you think I had a good deal of nerve to drag you into this,”
said he, “but I knew if you wouldn’t give me a good word no one else
would, and the jig would be up. I’m obliged to you. I hadn’t a notion
you’d help me, but I took the only chance I had. You’ve acted white, and
I want you to know that I appreciate it and that I’m going to make
good--if it’s possible.”

“I don’t know why it isn’t possible,” said Merriwell, “so long as you
keep away from Shoup.”

A scowl crossed the other’s haggard face. Instinctively his hand went to
the back of his head, where the paddle had left its mark.

“You can bet all you’re worth I’ll keep away from that crazy dub. He had
a lot to do with getting me into trouble. The responsibility isn’t all
his, by a long shot, for I was born with an inclination to be
crooked--and you can’t get away from what’s bred in the bone.”

“Who pounded that into you, Lenning? Was it Shoup?”

“I don’t know. He was always harping on that idea, and maybe I got a
little of it from him.”

“Well, it’s the wrong idea, I don’t care where you got it. Cut it out.
Don’t hamper yourself with any such foolishness. You’ve got a hard fight
on your hands, and if you go into it without any confidence in yourself,
you’re going to lose out.”

Lenning stared at Merriwell blankly.

“Don’t you believe that some traits are handed down to a fellow?” he
asked.

“They may be handed down, but that’s no sign a fellow’s got to let them
get a strangle hold on him,” Frank answered, with spirit. “Some
fellows,” he added, “take all the credit if they make a show in the
world; but, if they go wrong, they put all the blame onto some one else.
You’re responsible for what you do, or don’t do. A fellow’s a pup if he
can’t take all the responsibility for his own actions, or----”

Frank broke off with a laugh.

“Hang it!” he grunted, “I don’t know what license I’ve got to preach.
What I’ve said is the truth, though, so we’ll let it pass and go on to
something else.”

“I don’t want to go on to anything else,” said Lenning, “at least, not
just yet. This is a mighty important matter, to me. I’ve got a yellow
streak--in some things, I’m a plain coward--and I’ve sort of thought I
came by it naturally. My father----” he paused. “I suppose,” he went on
presently, a shamed look crossing his face, “that you’ve heard how my
father was killed in Alaska, years ago, in a row?”

“I’ve heard something about it; but you don’t have to go into that,
Lenning.”

“I want you to know,” said Lenning, almost savagely, “I want you to
understand how that idea of Shoup’s has been taking a hold on me. My
father was killed while--while he was trying to take another man’s bag
of gold dust.”

“What has that got to do with you?” demanded Frank sharply.

“Don’t you think I come in for any of my father’s failings? Most people
think that way.”

“Forget it. That kind of talk makes me sick. A fellow ought to be man
enough to stand on his own feet.”

“You know I’m a coward. I rolled that rock off Apache Point, and I hoped
it would ‘get’ you--providing I could skip out and you’d never know who
it was loosened the bowlder.”

In spite of himself, Merry felt his whole nature shrink from the fellow
who was admitting such an act of treachery. By an effort, however, he
succeeded in getting the whip hand of his feelings.

“Then,” proceeded Lenning, “when Shoup knocked me on the head with that
paddle and you pulled me out on dry land and kept me from drowning, I
felt like a hound. That’s why I tried to square things by giving up that
money.”

“I thought you did that because Shoup had stolen it.”

“I reckon I talked that way, but it wasn’t the truth. I took the money
from Shoup and thought I’d get away with it. When you and Clancy saved
me, and when I knew that I was done with Shoup, I began thinking about a
job at the Ophir mine. I wondered if I could be different--if I could
get the respect of people, same as you have done--and I thought maybe
I’d try it. The super wouldn’t have me, so I went to the general
manager. He wouldn’t have me, either, until you had asked him to give me
a chance.”

Lenning swallowed hard and his voice shook as he went on:

“What you’ve done to-day, Merriwell, has done more to make me see what
an infernal cur I’ve been, and to want to be different, than anything
else that ever happened to me. If I can keep that yellow streak from
getting the upper hand, I’ll make good at the mine.”

“You’ve got to make good,” said Frank, “because I’ve become responsible
for you. What became of Shoup?”

“He has left the country, I reckon. I haven’t seen him since yesterday
afternoon.” Lenning muttered a fierce exclamation. “I wish he’d hang
around for a spell so I’d have a chance to get even with him.”

“That’s a sentiment you’d better side-step. You’ll have your hands too
full straightening yourself out to get even with anybody.”

“I reckon you’re right; I’ve got a job on my hands if ever a fellow had.
But Shoup’s crazy, plain crazy. I’m glad I’m rid of him. I--I guess
that’s about all.” He got up from the bowlder where he had been sitting.
“You’ve done more for me than my own uncle would do. I’ll not forget it,
Merriwell. You have less reason to help me than the colonel had. I say
you’ve acted white, and you can bet I’m going to see to it that you
never have any reason to be sorry for it.”

“Let it go at that, Lenning. I guess the best of us make mistakes.
You’re to be night watchman at the cyanide plant?”

“Yes. It’s a responsible place. I have to watch the valves, regulate the
flow of solution, and do a lot of other things connected with the plant.
They’re just finishing a clean-up this afternoon, and will be running
the bullion into bars this evening. The gold will have to be kept in the
laboratory safe until morning--and I’ll be a guard as well as night
watchman. I’m beginning at sixty a month.”

It was odd to hear Jode Lenning talk of work, and of getting “sixty a
month.” When he was in favor with Colonel Hawtrey, he had had no work to
do worth mentioning, and a liberal allowance had been given him for
spending money. Now he had to buckle down, and earn less than his
allowance had been, with his own hands.

There was something vaguely disturbing to Merriwell in that mention of
the clean-up, and of the gold which was to be put in the laboratory safe
for the night, with Lenning for guard. That bullion might prove a
temptation, right at the beginning of Lenning’s attempt to be honest and
to turn over a new leaf. Frank mentally resolved that he would visit
the cyanide plant that night, and stick around for a while to see how
matters were going.

“Sixty a month is a whole lot of money,” Frank remarked.

“It’s a whole lot when you make it yourself,” said Lenning. “I reckon
I’ll have to mosey back. The super is going to show me the ropes before
it’s time for me to go on duty, and I was to report to him at
four-thirty.”

“You’ve got plenty of time,” said Frank.

As he got up, he looked southward along the trail. A cloud of dust was
moving northward, and, while he watched, three riders broke out of
it--one of them trailing a led horse with an empty saddle.

“Blunt!” gasped Lenning, wild fear surging in the word.

He was right. One of the riders was Barzy Blunt, and the others were
Clancy and Ballard. Blunt was leading Merry’s horse, Borak.




CHAPTER XVII.

A CRY IN THE NIGHT.


Clancy, Ballard, and Blunt, on their way to town from the gulch, came
charging toward Merriwell and Lenning at full gallop. They drew to a
quick halt, very much surprised at sight of Merry and his old enemy. Nor
were the newcomers pleasantly surprised, as they were quick to make
manifest.

“Chip, or I’m an Indian!” exclaimed Ballard.

“And I’m another Indian,” snorted Blunt, “if he isn’t chin-chinning with
one of the fellows who stole Mrs. Boorland’s money!”

Clancy had nothing to say, but he looked his violent disapproval of his
chum’s actions.

“If that’s the way you fellows feel,” said Frank, temper flashing in his
eyes, “you can leave my horse here and ride on.”

That Lenning was in deadly fear of Blunt was plainly to be seen. The
cowboy had taken the trail of Lenning and Shoup, immediately after Mrs.
Boorland had been robbed, and for a time he had crowded the pair pretty
hard. Lenning, evidently, was still in doubt as to the cowboy’s
intentions toward him. His haggard face went white as chalk, and he
crouched shivering away at the trailside.

“Don’t get excited,” sneered Blunt, leveling his cold black eyes at the
youth. “If Chip Merriwell has taken you under his wing, I won’t lay a
hand on you. How about it, Chip?” he demanded, shifting his gaze to
Frank.

“I’ve helped Lenning get a job at the Ophir mine,” Merry answered.

“That settles it,” grunted Blunt, tossing the reins of Borak to Frank.

Scowling blackly, the cowboy pulled down the brim of his hat and set
spurs to his horse. He had not a word to say. Frank looked after him
grimly, then laughed a little, and vaulted into his own saddle.

With the going of Blunt, Lenning revived considerably. Straightening his
shoulders, he stepped back to the trail. Clancy and Ballard watched him
with a gaze far from friendly.

“Good-by, Lenning,” Frank called from the saddle. “Do your best, over
there, and everything will come out all right.”

“Thank you, Merriwell,” Lenning answered. “If I do come out all right
you can bet I’ll know who to thank for it.”

He threw a defiant glance at Clancy and Ballard, a look of gratitude at
Merriwell, then turned on his heel and started south. Slowly Frank put
Borak in motion the other way.

Clancy and Ballard rode on either side of Merriwell, and both preserved
a glum silence. They were displeased, but Merry had done what he thought
was right, and the attitude of his chums did not worry him.

“Have you hooked up with that crook, Chip?” asked Ballard, as they rode
into town and headed for the corral.

“I’m trying to help a fellow who doesn’t seem to have a friend in the
world,” was the answer. “If that’s what you call ‘hooking up’ with a
crook, Pink, I guess you’ve nicked it.”

“It was a foolish move,” began Clancy, “and I didn’t think----”

“It’s my move, Clan,” interrupted Merry, “so you needn’t sob your head
off about it. Your fingers won’t be burned if the move’s a bad one.”

Nothing more was said, and the ride to the corral was finished in an
atmosphere that was not particularly pleasant for anybody. When the
horses had been taken care of, and the three chums started on foot for
the hotel, Clancy’s loyalty to Merry got the better of his wrathful
feelings.

“Oh, well, hang this Lenning business, anyhow!” he exclaimed. “You never
go very far wrong, Chip, and if you think you’ve done right, why, that’s
enough for me.”

“Same here,” said Ballard, but rather gloomily. “Whenever I think of
Apache Point and that falling rock, I’m mad enough to fight. You’re
generous to a fault, but it’s your own fault, and why the blazes should
we take it out on you? But it’s still my private opinion that Lenning’s
a skunk.”

“I’m not trying to change your opinion,” Merry laughed, “so you needn’t
get your back up if I want to do a little reasoning for myself. Now,
forget it.”

They did forget it, and by the time they reached the hotel they were
laughing and jollying each other in their usual fashion. Blunt was
sitting on the veranda, when they arrived, and his burst of indignation
had also subsided.

“You’re one too many for me, Chip,” he remarked, shaking his head in a
puzzled way, “but I’m not the one to jump on you for making friends with
a rattler. If the varmint makes a strike at you, though, I reckon I’ll
show my hand quick.”

What Frank had done for Lenning was no longer discussed. The lads got
together on the less dangerous and more interesting ground of the canoe
race in the gulch, and talked it over until the hotel Chinaman came out
in front and pounded the supper gong.

The evening meal out of the way, Barzy Blunt went off to spend the
evening with Mrs. Boorland, Clancy and Ballard got into a game of
checkers in the hotel office, and Merry went upstairs to his room.

Frank was pestering himself with the question of that cyanide clean-up,
and the gold in the laboratory safe which Lenning was to guard. When he
had first heard of the clean-up and the gold, he had made up his mind to
stroll out to the Ophir workings during the evening, and sort of
reconnoiter the situation at the cyanide plant. Later, he had decided
that such an act would be foolish, and would show his distrust of
Lenning. Now he was again wondering if he had not better go to the mine.

He recalled that he had told Mr. Bradlaugh that he would be responsible
for the way Lenning did his duty. Suppose, on the first night of his
work, Lenning should yield to temptation and run off with a few bars of
bullion? Frank’s promise to the general manager would oblige him to go
down in his pocket and make good the mining company’s loss.

Frank could not believe that Lenning would do such a thing. He believed
that the fellow was honestly trying to retrieve his good name.
Reformation comes slow, however, and is not secured at a single jump.
Guarding bullion was a pretty hard position in which to place a fellow
like Lenning, on the very first night of his work. His newly formed
resolution would be put to a hard test.

Merriwell’s mind revolved around the subject until it began to get on
his nerves. At last he jumped up and began pulling off his coat.

“I’ll go batty over this if I don’t get it out of my mind somehow,” he
muttered. “Maybe if I go to bed I can sleep and forget it.”

He began to unlace one of his shoes, paused, then laced it up again.

“I don’t believe I could sleep, anyhow,” he grumbled. “The quickest way
to get this out of my system is to do a little reconnoitering around
that blooming cyanide plant.”

He looked at a tin clock which hung from a nail in the wall. The hands
indicated a quarter past nine.

“I can get back here by eleven,” he thought, “and have plenty of time to
look around at the mine. Clancy will wonder where I am, I suppose, but
what he doesn’t know hadn’t ought to trouble him. Here goes.”

Clancy occupied the room with Merry, and, when he came to bed, would, of
course, note his chum’s absence. It was possible that Frank might get
back before Clancy and Ballard broke away from the checkerboard; at any
rate, he would certainly be back very soon afterward.

Owing to the hostile attitude of his chums toward Lenning, Frank did not
intend to tell them where he was going. It would only open up a subject
on which he and they could not agree, but it would tend to show that
Frank had not the confidence in Lenning which he professed. This would
have been a false impression, and yet it would have been difficult to
explain the matter so Clancy and Ballard could understand the real
motive which sent Frank to the mine. It was a whole lot better to slip
away quietly, and then slip back again, without inviting questions or
trying to explain.

Frank went down the back stairs, then stole through the dining room to
the door that communicated with the office. Clancy and Ballard were
absorbed in their game.

“Wow!” Clancy was saying, “here I go slap into your king row, Pink! Why
don’t you wake up and make this game interesting for me?”

“I’ll make it interesting enough, you red-headed chump, before I’m
done,” grinned Ballard.

Frank turned back from the door and gumshoed his way into the kitchen
and then out at the rear of the hotel. There was no moon, but the sky
was clear and the stars were bright. He had no difficulty in following
almost the identical course Lenning had led him over in the afternoon.
When he struck the trail beyond the town, the thunderous roll of the
stamps from the gold mill came to him on the night wind. There were a
hundred stamps in the mill, and they raised a din like muffled thunder.

There was a crispness in the cool air that ran through Merry’s veins
like a tonic. His step was light, and he threw back his shoulders,
sniffed the air delightedly, and pushed on.

The desert, with its shadowy clumps of greasewood, stretched away into
the dim distance on either side of the trail. Now and then some bird
fluttered in the brush, or some skulking animal raced across the road,
but there was no other human being going or coming along the trail at
that hour.

As Frank drew nearer the mine, the steady clamor of the stamps grew in
volume. At last, when he stood on the slight rise overlooking the shaft
house, the bunk house, the mill, and the cyanide plant, the lad paused,
admiring the shadowy scene that lay stretched before him.

There were lights in the windows of the bunk house, but they were dull
gleams compared with the brightness that shone through every crack and
cranny of the great building that housed the beating stamps. There was
something ghostlike in the scene, and the effect was heightened by the
steady moaning of the mill. An uncanny sensation ruffled Frank’s nerves,
but he smothered it with a laugh and started down the slope.

Suddenly he paused. He had heard something--something like a smothered
cry breaking through the low growling of the stamps. What was it?

He bent his head and listened intently. Two or three minutes passed. The
sound was not repeated, and he laid it to his imagination, or to some
prowling coyote off in the hills.

He had no sooner started on again, however, before the muffled cry once
more struck on his ears. This time there was no mistake. It was a human
voice that had given the cry, and it seemed like a call for help.

Locating the spot from which it apparently came, Frank started at a run
to investigate the cause. Before he had taken a dozen steps he heard the
cry more distinctly, and felt positive that some one was in distress and
calling for aid.

Sure of the location of it, by then, he darted into a chaparral that lay
directly in front of him.




CHAPTER XVIII.

TRACKING TROUBLE.


Merriwell dashed into the chaparral like a whirlwind and beat about in
the bushes trying to discover where the person was who needed help. His
hunt was vain. Several times he called aloud, from various parts of the
chaparral, but without getting any response.

“This beats the deuce!” he muttered, at last, withdrawing from the
bushes and throwing a puzzled look about him into the dark. “What the
mischief is going on? It can’t be that I imagined I heard a cry for
help. If I didn’t, why can’t I find somebody or something to account for
it?”

He was greatly disturbed by his failure to locate the source of that
alarm. Finally he gave up, and started to regain the road that led down
the slope and in among the mine buildings. Scarcely had he turned,
however, when that cry in the night once more smote upon his ears.

He whirled to an about face in a flash. “Where are you?” he called.

The cry was repeated, apparently coming from a mass of shadow, to his
left, and farther down the slope. He plunged on into the gloom.

“I’ll find out what’s back of this if it takes a leg,” he declared to
himself.

The next moment he stumbled over some obstacle, and fell forward. He
threw out his hands instinctively to ease his fall, but they came in
contact with nothing more substantial than thin air.

He dropped through space--not far, yet far enough to give him quite a
jolt when he landed on the hard rocks. After a moment he scrambled to a
sitting posture and rubbed his bruised shins.

On every side of him the gloom was thick. He could look up, however, and
see an oblong patch of sky, studded with stars.

“Thunder!” he exclaimed ruefully. “There’s an open cut on the slope, and
I’ve stumbled into it. That’s what a fellow gets for tracking trouble
over ground he doesn’t know anything about. But that cry for help! It
certainly gets my goat.”

He had lost his cap in his fall, and he groped around in the dark until
he found it. Then, getting to his feet, he made his way to the steep
bank and began climbing.

An “open cut” is a gouge in the earth made for purposes of exploration.
Usually an “open cut” is dug or blasted out in order to make sure of
surface indications of a vein, and sometimes it is made in the hunt for
a vein that has been lost.

Yet it made little difference how or what that particular open cut was
there. The fact of most importance to Merry was that he had fallen into
it.

His bruises were of small consequences; and many a time he had landed
from a pole vault with a harder jolt. When a youngster keeps in the pink
of physical condition, a hard fall now and then is nothing to worry him.

Presently Frank managed to paw and scramble his way to the top of the
steep bank; and there he perched, trying to figure out what in blazes it
was that had lured him into the pitfall. He could make nothing of it,
and at last turned his attention to the buildings below him.

That was not his first visit to the Ophir mine, by any means. He was
fairly familiar with the location of the different buildings, and he
knew that the cyanide plant lay at a considerable distance to the left
of the mill. It surprised him, though, to discover that his wanderings
across the slope had brought him to a point directly opposite the
cyanide tanks.

Cyanide of potassium, it may be explained, is one of the two
commercially valuable solvents of gold. This cyanide eats up the gold
and holds it in solution. For that reason, the drug is used in treating
refuse from a stamp mill. In such refuse--technically known as
“tailings”--there is always present a small amount of yellow metal which
the quicksilver on the copper plates of the mill fails to “catch.” If it
were not for the cyanide, this gold would prove a total loss.

The tailings are thrown into tanks, arranged in rows like a series of
giant steps. From a large reservoir, high above the rows of vats, the
cyanide solution flows by gravity into all the tanks below--entering at
the bottom and percolating through the tailings upward to the top, where
it flows off and into the row of tanks next below. The solution takes up
the gold as it flows, finally depositing its burden of wealth on zinc
shavings in what is called the “zinc box.” From the zinc box the
solution drops down another step into a sump tank, and from there, at
stated intervals, it is pumped back into the reservoir.

Merriwell was familiar with the cyanide plant at the Ophir mine. He had
been showed around by the super, and the work had been explained to him.
Consequently he was able to recognize the plant from the open cut the
moment his eyes rested on the black bulk of the tanks.

For the present the tanks were out of commission. A cyanide “clean-up”
is a long and tedious operation, and the work pauses for a longer or
shorter period while the work is going on.

“I’ll slip down among the tanks and look for Lenning,” Frank murmured.
“After I talk with him a while, I’ll return to the hotel and go to bed.
If the bullion is locked up in a safe, I guess he won’t have any trouble
taking care of it. Funny I didn’t think of that before. The strong box
here must be a regular teaser for a cracksman.”

Carefully he gained his feet and descended the rough slope to the tanks.
At his left, as he stood by the end of the upper tier of vats, was the
laboratory building, where the cyanide expert kept his store of the
deadly poison that stole the gold from the tailings, and where he had
his assay equipment, his furnaces, crucibles, et cetera. The building
was dark, and Frank, sure that Lenning was not inside of it, but on duty
around the tanks, paid the structure no attention.

Comparatively close to the mill, where the rumble of the stamps drowned
every other noise, to call for Lenning was useless. Frank would have to
plunge in among the tanks and look for him. Scrambling over the tailings
piles that cluttered the ground, he began his search.

Lenning was not in the vicinity of the first row, and Frank dropped to
the next tier. He wasn’t there, either. In spite of the gloomy shadows
cast by the big vats, the lad was able to see with tolerable clearness.
The third and last row remained to be investigated, but here the same
ill luck rewarded Frank’s search. Lenning was not in evidence around the
tanks.

Possibly, Frank thought, the new watchman might be in the mill. Or, if
he was not there, some of the night shift might know where he could be
found. Just as Frank was turning to start for the mill, he saw a flash
of light through one of the windows of the laboratory. He halted and
stared, a trifle bewildered.

Not five minutes before he had looked at the laboratory, and the windows
had all been dark. How did it happen that now there was a light in one
of them?

“Not much of a mystery about that,” he finally decided. “Some one has
gone into the place and lighted a lamp. It may be Lenning; or, if not
Lenning, then some one who has been helping with the clean-up. I’ll----”

The muttered words died on Frank’s lips. Under his eyes, as he continued
to watch the window, the light winked out and again left the laboratory
in darkness.

“I guess that’s easily explained, too,” he presently decided. “The
fellow that lighted the lamp put it out again. It was Lenning, of
course. As I went hunting for him among the tanks, he had to go to the
laboratory for something. That’s how I happened to miss him. He has got
what he wanted, and so he has put out the light and will soon be coming
back. I’ll wait here for him.”

Frank kept his eyes fixed on the dark side of the laboratory building,
where he knew the door was located. Every moment he expected Lenning to
appear, walking toward him out of the shadow of the laboratory wall. But
the seconds grew into minutes, and still Lenning did not come. The
waiting lad was forced to the conclusion that there was something
strange about all this.

“If there’s anything wrong,” he thought, “I ought to find the
superintendent, and report. But how do I know there is anything wrong?
Maybe all I see is a part of the night’s work, and if I went to the
super he’d only have the laugh on me. I’d better investigate a little
before I spread any news of trouble.”

The roaring mill, with its glittering lights, suggested quick help in
the case of emergency. Frank had a vague notion that it would be well
to go there and make some inquiries before investigating the laboratory.
But, if he went to the mill, the fellow who had struck a light in the
laboratory would have time to come out and get away unseen. If it was
Lenning, then he would miss him, and would have to begin his search all
over.

Another thought came to him, as he moved slowly upon the laboratory, and
Frank was surprised that it had not occurred to him before. A night
watchman, moving about among those dark tanks, would certainly carry a
lantern. Frank had been stumbling blindly around the tanks, hunting for
Lenning, when, if he had considered the matter thoroughly, he need only
have looked for a bobbing light.

“I must be getting ‘dippy’ over this Lenning business,” he reflected.
“I’m making mysteries where there are only commonplace, every-night
events. Probably I’ll find Lenning sitting in a chair in front of the
laboratory, guarding the bullion as comfortably as possible.”

He moved on to the side of the laboratory with considerable confidence.
At one of the dark windows he halted and peered into the interior of the
structure. A quick breath escaped his lips.

What he saw, in the black gloom of the laboratory, was a long, quivering
shaft of light. It crossed the big room, coming from a mass of shadow
and trembling over some object whose nature Frank was not able to
determine. But a thrill of apprehension ran through him.

Surely that penciled gleam was from a bull’s-eye lantern! An honest
watchman never made use of such a light--or, at least, no watchman whose
duty kept him around a lot of big cyanide tanks!

With this for a starting point, Frank’s thoughts took a dizzy and
horrifying leap into a tangle of conjectures. Perhaps Lenning was
working at the safe! It might be that he had asked for that job at the
mine with the sole idea of getting a chance at the bullion! And it was
Frank who had recommended the fellow to Mr. Bradlaugh!

A sick feeling ran through the lad as he stood leaning against the wall
and looking into the laboratory. Then, against these forbidding fancies,
he marshaled all that Lenning had said to him that afternoon--how he was
going to do the square thing, and that Merry would never have cause to
regret befriending him.

It did not seem possible that----

Frank’s reflections were suddenly interrupted. Above the mutterings of
the stamps, his keen ear caught a crunch of sand behind him. Alarmed, he
started to whirl around; but, before he could turn, he was caught by the
shoulders and thrown violently sideways. As he fell, his head crashed
against the stone sill of the window, and he remembered nothing more.
Blank darkness rolled over him, suddenly and completely.




CHAPTER XIX.

MISSING BULLION.


Had Merriwell not been as tough as sole leather, that ugly fall might
have had serious consequences. As it was, he was merely stunned, and in
a minute or two he was sitting up on the ground, rubbing the side of his
head and trying to guess what had happened.

Although he could not remember it, yet at the moment he was seized and
thrown sideways, a startled cry had escaped his lips. Ears accustomed to
hearing sounds through the clamor of the mill had caught that cry, and
Merriwell was conscious of a dark form hastening in his direction.

“What’s the matter here?” demanded a voice, as the form halted at
Merriwell’s side. “That you, Lenning?”

“No, Burke, it’s not Lenning,” Merry answered, recognizing the man as
the recently appointed superintendent at the mine, “it’s Merriwell.”

“Merriwell! What the blazes are you doing here, at this time o’ night?”

“Looking for Lenning.”

“Well, he ought to be around the tanks somewhere.”

“I couldn’t find him,” said Frank, and jumped to his feet. He was dizzy
for a moment and leaned back against the wall of the building. “He
wasn’t anywhere around the tanks,” he went on, “and I started for the
laboratory. When I got this far I stopped and looked through the window.
Somebody grabbed me from behind, all at once, and jammed my head against
the window sill. When I came to I was sitting up on the ground, and you
were hustling toward me. I haven’t the least idea how long my wits were
woolgathering, but it couldn’t have been long.”

“It wasn’t,” answered Burke, his voice showing his concern. “You yelled,
and I was prowling around and happened to hear. I wasn’t more than a
minute in getting here.”

“What the mischief is going on, Burke?”

“Search me. Everything has been as quiet and peaceable around these
diggings as a Sunday-school picnic, right up to now. You say you
couldn’t find Lenning?”

“No.”

“You don’t suppose he was the one who came up behind you and----”

“Lenning? Great Scott, no! Why should he want to slam me into the
laboratory wall?”

“He didn’t use to be a very warm friend of yours.”

“I know, but things are different, now. You see, I’m helping him to
square away and----”

“Yes, yes, I’m next to all that. He wouldn’t have been taken on here, if
it hadn’t been for you. I haven’t much use for the fellow, though, even
if you have. That’s why I was strolling around the tanks when I ought to
have been ‘hitting the hay.’ Thought it was just as well to keep an eye
on Lenning for the first few nights. Say, Merriwell,” and the super
smothered a laugh as he spoke, “is that why you’re out here to-night?”

“You’re too darned keen, Burke,” laughed Merriwell. “I heard you
finished a cyanide clean-up, this afternoon, and were to have some
bullion in the laboratory safe for overnight.”

“That’s correct. Four ten-pound bars were locked in the safe about eight
o’clock.”

“Well,” Frank proceeded earnestly, “don’t think for a minute that I’m
not trusting Lenning. I just happened around to have a talk with him
during his first night on duty.”

“He wasn’t on duty. If he had been, you’d have found him. How does that
look--for a new hand?”

“There’s some reason for it, I’ll bet.”

“Yes,” said the super dryly, “there must be a reason; but, whatever it
is, it’s no credit to Lenning. Come on and we’ll see if we can find
him.”

Burke walked hurriedly along the side of the laboratory to the door,
Frank following close at his heels. The bruise on the side of Frank’s
forehead was not serious enough to bother him, and his head was as clear
as a bell. The consequences of the fall had spent themselves on the
first shock, and only the bruise remained to remind him of his
disagreeable experience.

As his wits grew active, they picked up his interrupted chain of
reflections where they had been broken off. He recalled the gleam of the
bull’s-eye, and his suspicions of Lenning. Although he wanted to believe
the fellow innocent of any treacherous work, yet his mysterious absence
was the strongest bit of circumstantial evidence against him.

“The door’s unlocked,” announced Burke, halting at the entrance and
drawing a long breath of relief, “and that means that Lenning is
probably inside. Queer, though, that he hasn’t got a light.”

He pushed open the door and was about to step into the dark interior of
the laboratory. Frank suddenly reached out a restraining hand and
gripped his arm.

“Don’t be in a rush, Burke,” he warned. “When I was looking through the
window I saw the gleam of a bull’s-eye lantern.”

“Thunder!” cried Burke, alarmed.

Shaking Frank’s hand from his sleeve, he flung himself into the darkness
of the big room. Frank, tremendously excited, posted himself in the open
door and watched and waited.

The ray from the lantern had vanished. That was a disturbing fact in
itself. Listening with all his ears, Merry tried to follow the movements
of the super by the noise he made in moving around. This was difficult,
owing to the loud roaring of the stamps.

At last, Burke struck a match. The glimmer moved a few paces through the
dark and then touched the wick of a lamp. In a moment there was light,
and the large, brick-floored room slowly took form under Frank’s staring
eyes.

The furnaces stood duskily out of the half gloom, quartering-down
tables, glass-inclosed assayer’s scales, a pyramid of crucibles, a heap
of charcoal, a huge safe in a distant corner--Frank saw all these dimly.
The lamp stood on a table in the center of the room, with Burke’s tall
form reared upward beside it.

“There doesn’t seem to be any one here but us,” said the super,
“although there are plenty of places where a man could hide. Close the
door, lock it on the inside, and keep the key in your pocket. We’ll make
a search to see what we can find, if anything.”

The key was in the lock. Frank followed the super’s orders, and then
went around helping him in his search.

Burke, lamp in hand, peered here and there in every place where a
prowler would have a chance to conceal himself. In a few minutes it
became evident that the lad and the super were the only ones in the
laboratory.

Burke moved to the corner where the safe stood, and a shout of
consternation burst from him. “Look there!” he gasped, as Frank rushed
to his side.

With a shaking finger the super was pointing to the safe. The big door
had been wrenched open, and broken scraps of steel and iron lay in a
clutter in front of it.

“By Jove!” whispered Merry hoarsely. “There’s been a robbery.”

“I should say so,” ground out Burke. “There’ll be merry blazes to pay,
now. See this!”

He bent over the wrecked door of the safe and pointed out a rim of some
soft substance that had been plastered around the edge.

“What’s that?” queried Frank.

“Only a little evidence of how the safe was wrecked. Soft soap and
nitroglycerin did the work. The soap was ridged around the edge of the
door, and then the explosive was poured in and touched off. I’ve heard
how such things are done. Hold the lamp a minute.”

Frank took the light, and the super went down on his knees and pushed
head and shoulders into the safe. An instant later he drew back.

“Those four bars of bullion are gone,” he reported. “I was positive of
that, of course, before I looked, but now there isn’t a shadow of a
doubt. Yeggmen have cracked the safe and made off with the bars. Here’s
a go!” he growled, starting to his feet and giving Frank a troubled
look. “When you saw the gleam of that bull’s-eye through the window, the
cracksman had just about finished the job. One of them must have been
outside, posted as a lookout. He was the scoundrel who crept up behind
you. While you were stunned, the thieves got away with the gold. Give me
the key to the door, Merriwell, and stay here a minute.”

Burke snatched the key as Frank offered it to him, dashed for the door,
unlocked it, and flung it wide, then plunged away into the night. The
lad, left alone with his reflections, put the lamp back on the table
and dropped down on a bench. What his thoughts were need not be
discussed, but they were sufficiently unpleasant.

The superintendent had been gone only a short time when Frank, through
the open door of the laboratory, saw half a dozen lanterns emerge from
the stamp mill, separate and go scurrying off into the night in as many
different directions. A little later, Burke returned.

“I’ve started men out to beat up the camp,” he reported, “and I’ve
telephoned to Mr. Bradlaugh. He will get hold of Hawkins, the deputy
sheriff, and get him on the trail as soon as possible. It’s a long
chance, Merriwell, whether we ever get back that missing bullion.
Lenning is pretty foxy.”

“Lenning?” echoed Frank.

“Sure. You know he is at the bottom of this robbery, don’t you? All he
wanted the job for was to be in a position to get hold of that bullion.”

“He’s not a cracksman, Burke!” protested Frank. “The work here was done
by a man who knew the business. Don’t make any snap judgments on the
spur of the moment. Lenning was brought up by Colonel Hawtrey, and I
don’t think he ever had a chance to take lessons in cracking safes. Give
him the benefit of the doubt.”

“Let’s look this business square in the eyes,” answered Burke
determinedly. “Lenning was at the bottom of it, but he certainly had
help. That was part of the scheme. Some fellow who knew how acted as his
confederate. While Lenning was around the place, after the bullion was
locked up, it was easy for him to let his confederate into the
laboratory. Probably Lenning himself was the lookout, while the
confederate was tinkering with the safe. The noise of the explosion was
drowned in the roar from the stamp mill. After all, Merriwell, it must
have been Lenning who grabbed you and shoved you against the wall. You
can consider that you got off pretty luckily, I think.”

“How much was that bullion worth?” queried Frank, with a sinking heart.

“It was base bullion--all this cyanide product, as we turn it out, is a
good way from being the pure stuff. There were about six hundred ounces
at, say, ten dollars an ounce. Placer gold runs double that, you know.”

“Six thousand dollars!” muttered Frank. “If Lenning took the gold, and
if we don’t get it back, I’m in for that amount. Ouch! I wonder what dad
will say when he hears of this brilliant piece of work?”




CHAPTER XX.

THE FINGER OF SUSPICION.


Merriwell was very much out of sorts with himself. It did not seem
possible that Lenning could play such a game and make it win. And yet,
he was missing and the bullion was missing. Lenning’s past record rose
up against him, and clinched the circumstantial evidence. Nevertheless,
a lingering doubt stirred itself far down in Merriwell’s mind.

“Chirk up, son!” said Burke, in a kindly tone. “I don’t believe Mr.
Bradlaugh will come down very hard on you. You’ve made the biggest kind
of a hit with the general manager, and you can bet something handsome
he’ll let you off as easy as he can.”

“Business is business,” Merry answered glumly. “I put myself on record
and became responsible for Lenning. It was on my say-so alone that
Lenning got the job here. I’m not asking any favors from Mr. Bradlaugh,
but I’ll be dinged if I call on dad to fork over the six thousand. I’ll
go out and find a mine, or something, and pay it all myself.”

“That’s the spirit. Anyhow, don’t go looking for the mine until we make
sure the bullion can’t be recovered. The thieves haven’t got very much
the start of us, and Hawkins is a regular terror when he cuts loose on
the track of a lawbreaker. Pin your faith to Hawkins, boy, and hope for
the best.”

“Maybe,” said Frank, after a little hard thinking, “Lenning isn’t mixed
up in the robbery, after all.”

“Don’t fool yourself about that. You’re not helping matters any by
starting on the wrong track. Lenning is gone. That’s the strongest point
against him. How can you get around that?”

“He may have met with foul play----”

Burke laughed scoffingly.

“Nonsense! Everything points to the fact that he engineered all the foul
play himself.”

“Wait a minute, Burke,” urged Merriwell. “When I was coming to the mine,
I heard something like a call for help. It was a smothered sort of cry,
just as though some one was having a hard time using his voice.”

Burke began to show some interest.

“Where did you hear the cry?” he asked.

“Just as I started down the slope toward the mine. I was in the trail,
at the time, and it wasn’t until the cry was repeated that I gave much
attention to it. You see, the stamps made so much noise that I couldn’t
be sure. After a while I thought I located the sound in a clump of
greasewood. I pounded around in the bushes but couldn’t find any one.
Just as I had given up and was starting on again, I heard the shout once
more. This time it was still farther away from the trail, seemingly. I
tried to follow it, and tumbled head over heels into one of your open
cuts. It’s the cut just above the cyanide works. After I got out of that
hole, I came down to the tanks and tried to find Lenning. Now, what did
those cries for help mean?”

“Nothing,” answered Burke. “Some coyote was yelping in the hills. The
yelp of a prowling brute like that, when it gets mixed with the noise of
the stamps, gives a queer impression sometimes.”

“Well,” said Frank doubtfully, “maybe you are right, Burke, but I don’t
think so.”

“If you really heard a cry,” was the skeptical rejoinder, “why couldn’t
you find the person that gave it?”

“I may have missed him in the dark.”

“That’s possible, too, but not probable.”

“Another thing,” went on Merriwell, “I think Lenning was honest in his
intentions, and that he meant to do the right thing here. He came to the
hotel to see me, in the afternoon, and we walked out on the trail a
short distance and had a talk. He wanted to thank me for helping him get
a job here. He said he was going to make good, and that I’d never be
sorry for what I’d done.”

“Oh, he’s smooth,” said Burke. “If he hadn’t been, how could he have
pulled the wool over his smart old uncle’s eyes for so long? He had an
object in going to town--and his object wasn’t to thank you for helping
him. That was merely a makeshift to cover his real purpose.”

“What do you think his real purpose was?”

“That’s a poser. Maybe, though, he wanted to get word to his
confederate--to tell him that he’d got the job, and that the work could
be pulled off to-night.”

“That’s a guess, Burke, and maybe a wild one.”

“If it comes to that, Chip, we’re guessing about everything except one
thing--and that thing’s as plain as print.”

“What is that?”

“Why, that Lenning is at the bottom of the whole black business. It must
have been Lenning. But we’re wasting time here. I don’t know that we can
do much, but we can try. Suppose we rummage around for clews?”

They rummaged for half an hour, but all they discovered was a blank.
Just what sort of clews Burke was looking for, Frank did not know, but
he helped the super paw around the laboratory, hoping against hope that
something might turn up. In the midst of their fruitless search, Mr.
Bradlaugh and Hawkins, the deputy sheriff, hurried into the building.

“Here’s a fine kettle of fish, Burke!” cried the exasperated general
manager. “Mighty queer we can’t hang onto our gold, after we get hold of
it. Has Lenning turned up?”

“No,” said the super, “he has vanished, and the gold has vanished. I
reckon one explains the other.”

“I reckon it does. Why,” and Mr. Bradlaugh’s glance took stock of Merry
for the first time, “how did you get the news, Merriwell? And how did
you beat Hawkins and me to the mine.”

“I was mixed up in the robbery,” Frank answered.

Hawkins, a good friend of Frank’s, laughed at that.

“How was it, son?” he inquired.

Frank went over his experiences for the benefit of Mr. Bradlaugh and the
deputy sheriff.

“Thought, mebby, you’d made a mistake in recommendin’ Lenning, hey?”
grinned Hawkins. “That why you came out to the mine?”

“No,” Frank answered, “I’ve got a lot of confidence in Lenning. I didn’t
think he’d do such a thing, and I’m not positive he did it now.”

“Don’t dodge the facts, my boy,” interposed Mr. Bradlaugh. “I think it’s
pretty plain, myself. Lenning’s record is all against him.”

“It must have been Lenning, Chip,” asserted Hawkins.

Just as before, when Merry had stood up for Lenning and asked Mr.
Bradlaugh to give him a place, every one was against the boy. His
friendlessness was even more evident than it had ever been.

“If Lenning made off with the bullion,” said Frank, “then I’m out six
thousand dollars--in case Hawkins fails to get it back.”

“We’ll talk about that later,” said Mr. Bradlaugh significantly.

“A bargain’s a bargain,” said Frank firmly. “You’ll have to give me
time, though, Mr. Bradlaugh. I’ve got to do something to get hold of
that six thousand myself. That’s what it’s liable to cost me for taking
a chance on Lenning.”

“Hold your bronks a spell, son,” put in Hawkins. “Don’t forget that I’m
on the job, or that I’d work harder for you than I would for any one.
I’ve said a number o’ times that you’re the clear quill; and when I toot
my bazoo to that effect about any one, it’s a sure sign they’re pretty
solid with me. I want to tell you that I’ve laid hold of this
proposition with both hands, because Mr. Bradlaugh told me Lenning was
your protégé. I don’t reckon you had much savvy when you tried to help
the coyote, but you acted accordin’ to your lights. When a feller does
that-a-way, he’s entitled to credit. Just on your account, son, I
exerted myself more’n common. I managed to get hold of half a dozen men
and hosses, and they’re shacking off to lay for Lenning and his burglar
pal, between here and the border. That’s where they’ll make for, I
reckon--mostly they all do. Mexico’s safer than the U. S., arter a job
same as this. Don’t be down in the mouth till Hawkins throws up his
hands and says there’s nothin’ doin’. It ’u’d tickle me plumb out o’ my
boots to get back that bullion for you.”

There was no doubt of the deputy sheriff’s feelings in the matter, and
Frank felt grateful.

“You’re a good friend, Mr. Hawkins,” said he. “If I can help any, I wish
you’d tell me how.”

“You can help by goin’ to the Ophir House and turnin’ in,” laughed the
deputy. “Not much can be done at night. With daybreak, though, you can
climb a-straddle of Borak and report to me for orders.”

“I don’t want to go back to the hotel,” demurred Frank. “I want to stay
right around here, and be Johnny-on-the-spot if anything turns up.”

Hawkins and Mr. Bradlaugh went over to the safe and gave it a critical
examination.

“Good job of safe blowin’,” declared the deputy. “Some old hand did the
business. Couldn’t have been Lenning.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell Burke,” said Frank, grasping at
this straw of hope and trying to swing it in Lenning’s favor.

“But,” went on Hawkins, “it’s not a one-man job. There was two of
’em--mebby more. Lenning was one--he must have been.”

There was the same old positiveness in convicting Lenning. Merry had
heard that “it must have been Lenning” several times. Yet, blindly, the
youngster still clung to the scrap of faith he still had in Lenning.

“What have you done, Burke?” Hawkins inquired, turning from his
examination of the safe to face the super.

“I’ve sent half a dozen men from the mill to curry the chaparral around
the camp,” Burke answered. “I don’t think they’ll discover anything, but
it was about all I could do.”

Hawkins nodded his approval.

“Any of ’em reported yet?” he asked.

“No, not yet. They’ve been out for some time, though, and I reckon it
won’t be long before some of ’em come straggling in.”

The words were hardly out of Burke’s mouth before a couple of the mill
men came running into the room with their lanterns. They were jubilant,
and the very appearance of them caused those in the laboratory to feel a
thrill of hope.

“Found something?” demanded Hawkins.

“Bet we have,” answered one.

“Lenning?”

“Well, no; but we got hold of a couple of fellers, and they’re comin’
this way. Wait till they come. I reckon we’d better let ’em talk for
themselves.”

Then two more came into the room--and the sight of them made Merriwell
dizzy.




CHAPTER XXI.

BLIND LUCK.


It was about eleven o’clock, and one hour past their usual time for
hunting their bunks, when Clancy and Ballard pushed away from their
checkerboard.

“An even thing, Red,” said Ballard, with a good deal of satisfaction,
“and that’s the way I like to quit.”

“You’ve kept me up for an hour longer than usual, Pink,” yawned Clancy,
“just to saw off even. If I hadn’t given you the last three games, we
wouldn’t have got to bed to-night.”

“I’ve got a picture of you giving anybody a game,” jeered Ballard. “You
played for all there was in it, and I merely demonstrated the fact that
I’m as good as you are.”

“Oh, well,” murmured the red-headed youth, “if it pleases you to think
that, I’m agreeable. Wonder where Chip is?”

“In bed, of course, just where I’m going to be in a brace of shakes.
Come on.”

They hustled upstairs, and Clancy stepped into the room jointly occupied
by himself and Merry. A call from Clancy brought Ballard on the jump.

“What do you think?” asked Clancy. “Chip, isn’t here. Where the nation
do you suppose he is?”

“Ask me an easier one,” answered Ballard. “It isn’t like him to skip out
without telling us what he’s up to.”

Clancy had an idea.

“I’ll bet a plugged nickel against a chink wash ticket,” said he, “that
Chip’s absence has something to do with Lenning.”

“What has it to do with Lenning?”

“I’ve dug up that much, Pink, and it’s up to you to think out the rest.
I’ve started something, now you finish it.”

“If I tried to finish everything you started,” snorted Ballard, “I’d
have my hands full. But I guess I can fill in the gaps of this
particular proposition, all right.”

“Well, what’s the answer?”

“Chip has gone out to the mine to bolster up Lenning’s good resolutions.
That would be like him, wouldn’t it? Just remember, please, that we
interrupted a confab Chip and Lenning were having when we came in from
the gulch. More than likely Chip has gone to the cyanide plant to wind
up that conversation.”

“You’ve hit it, old man,” beamed Clancy. “I know as much as anybody, if
I could only think of it, but that gilt-edged theory certainly got past
me. Look here, Pink. Suppose we take a stroll out toward the mine, meet
Chip, and escort him back to the hotel?”

“You’re on! But if Chip doesn’t happen to be at the mine----”

“Well, if we don’t find him, we’ll have a nice little walk. And it’s a
fine old night for a walk, Pink.”

“If I’d known you’re as wide-awake as all that, Red,” grumbled Pink,
“I’d have had another game out of you.”

“You would--not. If we don’t stir up a little excitement during this
stroll of ours, so I can get my mind off checkers, I’ll be beating you
in my sleep. Come on, if you’re ready.”

They descended the stairs, passed through the office, and out at the
front of the hotel. Then, turning south, they traversed the length of
the main street.

Ophir was an orderly little place. A great many Easterners had come to
the town, in the employ of the syndicate that operated the mine, and
they exerted an influence in the settlement that was all on the side of
law and order.

The street was quiet, and almost deserted. At the end of it, Clancy and
Ballard found themselves in the trail that led directly to the Ophir
“workings.” The road stretched southward in a clear, whitish streak
against its background of dusky desert.

“Chip has got me going in this Lenning affair,” confessed Ballard, as
they walked leisurely along the trail.

“Same here, Pink,” said Clancy. “When Chip takes the bit in his teeth
you might as well stand back and let him go.”

“He never does that unless he’s mighty sure he’s on the right track.”

“Sure not, but one of these days he’s liable to run full-tilt over the
wrong course. Between you and me, Pink, I believe that’s what he’s doing
now. Lenning had a lot of nerve to refer Mr. Bradlaugh to Chip.”

“That was the right move, though, if Lenning really wanted help from
Merry. Lenning was wise to that.”

“I guess he’s wise to a lot of things that Merry will never know
anything about. Hang it all! I wish Shoup had taken Lenning out of the
country with him. They’re a fine pair, those two, and one isn’t much
better than the other.”

As the lads strolled on they kept an expectant watch ahead. At any
moment they believed Merriwell might show up in the trail, traveling
townward. But they did not see him. The stamps were rumbling in the
distance, and as the noise grew in volume, Ballard halted with a shiver.

“There’s something about that moaning of the stamp mill, at the dead of
night like this,” he remarked, “that gives me the creeps.”

“Don’t get scared, little Bright Eyes,” murmured Clancy soothingly.
“Remember, I’m along.”

“Oh, you go to blazes!” grunted Ballard. “If it was a case of spooks,
Red, you’re the last fellow I’d want for company. Now----”

Ballard had started on again. Then, suddenly biting his words short, he
halted once more.

“What’s the trouble, Pink?” inquired Clancy. “See anything in the
bushes?”

“No, I don’t see anything,” returned Ballard, “but my ears are pretty
good, and I’m hearing something.”

“What?”

“Listen yourself. Maybe it will break out again.”

The lads were almost at the top of the rise where the trail pitched
downward into the mining camp. Consequently they were so close to the
stamp mill that its racket interfered with the sounds they were
listening for. But the noise came again, and it was clear enough.

“It’s the whinny of a horse,” said Clancy.

“That’s how it struck me,” answered Ballard. “The horse is in a thicket,
over there on the left of the road. What’s a horse there for, at this
time of night?”

“Probably it’s a stray horse, Pink. Horses break loose occasionally, you
know.”

“Well,” declared Ballard, “I’m going to find out whether it’s a stray
horse or not. If the animal’s loose, we’ll lead it on to the mine.
Chances are, that’s where it came from.”

“Lead on, old man. If trouble lurks in yonder thicket, don’t forget that
Clancy is ready to shoulder his share.”

There wasn’t much trouble in the thicket, that is, not so far as the
lads could see. What they did find, however, were a couple of horses,
saddled, bridled, and hitched to a white thorn bush. Here, certainly,
was food for reflection.

“What do you know about this?” demanded Ballard.

“There’s no law against a couple of riders leaving their horses in a
patch of scrub, Pink,” remarked Clancy.

“It’s queer, anyhow. Where are the riders?”

“Not being a mindreader, I’ll have to give that up. If the riders are
not here now, they’ll probably be around before long. Horses are worth
money, you know, and they’re not left for good in any such way as this.
Possibly----”

“Sh-h-h!” cut in Ballard excitedly, grabbing his chum’s arm, and
dragging him back into the greasewood. “They’re coming now,” he added,
in a husky whisper, his lips close to Clancy’s ear.

According to Clancy’s matter-of-fact ideas, there was not much sense in
hiding from those two horsemen. But Ballard had ideas of his own--and
nerves that had been somewhat ruffled by the uncanny booming of the
stamps. He had insisted on pulling Clancy down into the brush, and
Clancy was content to remain there.

Two dark figures were crashing through the bushes, tearing their way
toward the horses, as fast as they could go. Between them the men were
carrying something. It looked like a bag, and that the bag was heavy was
proved by the fact that it caused them a lot of trouble.

The men did not exchange a word, but buckled in and hustled as though
their lives depended on it. It was dark in the chaparral, and Clancy and
Ballard could not see the men very distinctly, but they had no
difficulty in following their movements.

When the horses were reached the bag was dropped. Each man leaped to an
animal and tore loose the bridle reins. One mounted. The other lifted
up the bag and attempted to throw it over the horse behind the mounted
man. The bag slipped and dropped again.

The man on the horse swore softly. It was the first sound either he or
his companion had uttered.

The fellow on the ground made another attempt, and, this time, succeeded
in getting the bag back of the saddle cantle. Clancy and Ballard could
see that it was heavily weighted, and that the weight was divided in
each end of the bag, so that the contents held it to the horse’s back.

Then the other man scrambled to get into his saddle, and, in almost less
time than it takes to tell it, both were mounted and ready for flight.

Just here Clancy yielded to a reckless impulse. Had he thought twice
about the matter, he would probably have suppressed himself. But he was
excited, and perhaps not accountable for what he did.

Starting up suddenly, he gave vent to a yell.

“Hold up, you fellows!” he shouted. “What have you got there?”

His answer was a wild rattle of spurs and swish of quirts.

“Ride!” shouted one of the horsemen, in a voice that was strangely
familiar. “They’re laying for us!”

The horses dashed out of the chaparral at frenzied speed. Something fell
heavily, and the lads knew it must be the bag. It had been torn from the
horse’s back by the bushes, or had been dislodged by the horse’s wild
movements. Anyhow, the bag dropped--and the horsemen did not pause to
recover it. Their anxiety to get away astounded Clancy and Ballard.

“What did you want to butt in for, Red?” demanded Ballard, watching the
dim figures receding at breakneck speed into the distant shadows.

“I don’t know,” answered Clancy. “I was curious, I suppose. If I had it
to do over again, I’d keep still. What I said scared them, though, and
that’s why they went on without the bag. Let’s see what’s in the thing.”

The boys stepped toward the heavily weighted bag and Clancy began
untying the cord at the top of it.




CHAPTER XXII.

A SLIGHT MISTAKE.


“Tell me what this is, Pink,” said Clancy, “and you can have it.”

The red-headed chap had pulled a short, thick bar from the bag. The
surface of the bar was rough, and plainly it was of some sort of metal.

Ballard took the bar and weighed it in his hands; then he held it in one
hand and rubbed the other hand over it.

“Feels like a chunk of lead,” said he. “Weighs nine or ten pounds, I
should think. Wait till I strike a match and get a better look at it.”

The bar did not improve any upon being examined in the flare of a match.
It had a brown, dingy look, and Ballard dropped it with an exclamation
of disgust.

“Anything else in the bag, Red?” he asked.

“Three more bars, just like that one,” was the reply.

“I’d like to know why those fellows were taking so much trouble with
that stuff. Looked to me as though they were running off with it.”

“That’s an easy guess. They’re a couple of thieves, Pink, and they’ve
been stealing.”

“Where have they been stealing?”

“At the mine; there’s no other place handy where there’s anything
valuable. Thunder!” The exclamation broke excitedly from Clancy, for at
last the right idea had dawned upon him. “Pink,” he cried, “this stuff
is bullion!”

“Bullion?”

“It’s a cinch. Those fellows were trying to get away with it, and we
happened around just in time to block proceedings. Say, old man, we’re
starring ourselves to-night!”

“I thought bullion was gold,” observed Ballard.

“That’s what it is.”

“Well, gold is yellow. Strikes me this bullion is off-color a good
deal.”

“Probably it’s base bullion--gold mixed with other kinds of metal.”

“I guess you’re right, Red,” said Ballard, after a brief period of
thought. “Those two fellows stole the bullion at the mine--and left
their horses here while they were doing it. We blundered on the horses,
and then you cut loose with a yell that scared them into thinking some
one from the Ophir Mine was ‘laying for them.’ They pulled out in such a
hurry they lost the bag, and didn’t dare come back after it. It’s a case
of blind luck. Now, let’s carry the bag to the mine and get the reward.”

Clancy dropped the one bar that had been brought out for purposes of
inspection back into the bag, and began binding the cord around the open
end.

“Wasn’t there something familiar about the voice of that robber, Pink?”
asked Clancy. “Seems to me I have heard it somewhere before.”

“Come to think of it,” said Ballard, “the voice did have a familiar
ring. Where the deuce have I heard it?”

Both lads racked their brains for a few moments. It was Clancy who
finally recalled the owner of the voice.

“It was that pasty-faced Shoup!” he declared. “Lenning’s particular
crony, Billy Shoup.”

“That’s right!” cried Ballard. “A job like this is about what we might
expect of Shoup. But who was the other fellow? It’s so dark in here I
couldn’t see much of either of them. The other fellow didn’t do any
talking, did he?”

“No; neither of them wasted much time in talk. I wonder,” and Clancy
drew a quick breath, “if that second fellow was Lenning?”

“Why, no!” exclaimed the startled Ballard. “Lenning is night watchman at
the cyanide works.”

“That doesn’t cut any ice. He might have got the job as watchman just to
make this robbery easier for him and Shoup.”

“Those two wouldn’t work together, Clan; that is, not after what
happened in the gulch.”

“You wouldn’t think so, if they were any other fellows than Shoup and
Lenning. But you never can tell what those chaps will do. They may have
patched up their differences, and got together for this piece of lawless
work.”

“Perhaps you’ve hit it off, Red, but I wouldn’t be sure about it. Right
now we’ve got to think of getting on to the mine. If Shoup and that
other fellow should make up their minds to come back here and get the
bag, you and I would be in a fine row of stumps.”

This was a point that hadn’t occurred to the lads until that moment. It
helped to spur them on toward the mine with the bag of bullion. Each
holding an end of the sack, they made their way out of the chaparral and
back to the trail; then, looking behind them in the direction taken by
the two riders to make sure they were not returning, they crossed the
rise and started down the slope beyond.

At this point, three or four lanterns appeared at a little distance,
bobbing around like so many fireflies. The lights, it soon became
manifest, were converging toward a certain place--and that place was the
ground on which Clancy and Ballard were standing.

“There are some of the miners, now,” said Clancy.

“They’re coming this way, too,” added Ballard. “Aiming for us, Red, if
I’m any prophet.”

“Listen!” exclaimed Clancy.

“Halt, there!” bellowed a voice, making itself heard above the stamps.
“Don’t try to run, or you’ll be sorry for it.”

“Just as though we could run with a load as heavy as this!” said Clancy,
in a disgusted tone. “What do those miners take us for?”

Four lanterns clustered close, drawing in upon the two chums from four
different directions.

“Try to shoot,” threatened a voice, “and we’ll beat you to it. You’re
prisoners.”

“We haven’t anything to shoot with,” called Ballard. “And what do you
mean by saying we’re prisoners?”

“You know well enough.”

Two of the men with lanterns jumped up on either side of the boys, and
each had his arm gripped by a muscular hand.

“Here’s the bag of loot, Sim!” exulted one of the men.

The man called Sim appeared to be the leader. He was a bushy-bearded
fellow in greasy overclothes, and he held up his lantern to get a good
look at the faces of the boys.

“What!” he roared. “Say, ain’t I seen you kids some’r’s before?”

“I guess you have, if you work at the Ophir Mine,” replied Clancy.
“We’re chums of Frank Merriwell’s.”

“Well, sufferin’ Ike!” gasped Sim. “It can’t be that you’ve been robbin’
the safe in the labr’tory.”

“You think we’re the thieves that ran away with this bullion?” gulped
Ballard, horrified.

“We was out lookin’ for the thieves,” apologized Sim, “an’ we hopped
onto you two with the bullion. What was we to think?”

“You’ve made a slight mistake, that’s all,” laughed Clancy.

“Where’d you git that bag of loot?”

Both Clancy and Ballard took a hand in explaining that part of it. The
explanation was accepted at once, and the jubilant miners had a good
laugh over the mistake they had made.

“You’ve done a mighty big thing, you two,” declared Sim. “Come on to the
labr’tory with the boodle. Hank and I will scoot on ahead an’ sort of
ease off the tension that’s prevailin’ in the vicinity of the cyanide
works. Joe, you and Lafe come along with Ballard and Clancy. Better tote
the bag for ’em, I reckon; they’ve purty nigh done enough work for one
night.”

Sim and Hank rushed away with their lanterns. Joe and Lafe relieved the
two boys of the bag, and the four made such good time toward the
laboratory building that they bid fair to reach it neck and neck with
Sim and Hank.

As a matter of fact, Clancy and Ballard were only a little way behind
the two who had gone on ahead; and when they stepped into the building,
the first person they saw was Merriwell. Frank was thunder-struck.

“Howdy, Chip,” grinned Clancy.

“Thought we’d find you here, old man,” added Ballard.

“Great Scott!” murmured Frank. “What are you doing here?”

“A whole lot more than we expected to do when we started out,” said
Clancy. “You see, Chip, we just about knew you had come to the mine for
a talk with Lenning. I had figured that out----”

“With some help from me,” struck in Ballard forcibly.

“Yes,” corrected Clancy, “with some help from Pink. Having settled that
in our minds, we started along the trail to meet you and escort you back
to the hotel. But, instead of meeting you, we encountered some one
else.”

At this juncture, Joe and Lafe tramped in with the bag and dropped it,
with a thud, on the brick floor.

“What’s that?” demanded Hawkins, pointing to the bag.

“That’s the bullion,” said Clancy, “four bars of it.”

“We gathered it in on our way to the mine,” added Ballard, “and came
mighty near being gathered in ourselves by a bunch of men with
lanterns.”

“Meanin’ us,” beamed Sim. “At first we took ’em for the robbers.”

Mr. Bradlaugh, dazed by the sudden trend of events, pushed forward.

“Do you mean to say, my lads,” he asked, “that you recovered the stolen
bullion on your way here from town?”

“Yes,” came from both Clancy and Ballard.

“How in the world did you do it?” queried the perplexed general manager.

“It was a case of blind luck,” said Ballard, and, for the second time,
he and Clancy explained how they had found the horses in the chaparral,
and had later been fortunate enough to recover the bag of bullion.

“Well, of all the darn-fool plays I ever heard of,” grunted Hawkins,
“that takes the banner. Why, you boys didn’t even know there’d been a
robbery here.”

“Didn’t even know we’d got hold of bullion, at first,” laughed Ballard,
“and after looking at one of the bars at that.”

“It’s one of those things,” said the overjoyed Mr. Bradlaugh, “which
could happen about once in a thousand times.”

“Once in a million times,” declared Burke. “Merriwell, you’re lucky to
have two such fellows for pards.”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to impress upon him for a long time,”
remarked Ballard plaintively. “Now I guess he knows what a fine pair of
star actors we are.”

“You’re all to the mustard, both of you!” cried the delighted Merriwell.

“All that’s left for me to do, I suppose,” growled Hawkins, “is to find
Lenning and Shoup. This business is being wound up in short order, Mr.
Bradlaugh.”




CHAPTER XXIII.

THE SOLUTION TANK.


Hawkins’ remark reminded every one in the laboratory, and particularly
Merriwell, that Lenning was still to be found and dealt with.
Merriwell’s faith in Lenning was growing. He had drawn certain
inferences from the story told by his chums which strengthened his trust
in his protégé.

“I think, Hawkins,” said Frank, “that it’s pretty clear now that Lenning
wasn’t one of the robbers.”

“What makes it clear?” demanded the deputy sheriff.

Mr. Bradlaugh and Burke were opening the bag and examining the bars of
bullion. Frank’s statement and Hawkins’ question claimed their
attention, and they straightened up and looked around.

“Clancy and Ballard,” Merriwell replied, “recognized the voice of Shoup.
The other fellow didn’t speak, so they were not able to recognize him by
his voice. Now, Lenning and Shoup are enemies. It would have been
impossible for them to work together.”

“Shucks!” grunted the deputy. “They only pretended to be enemies, sos’t
Lenning could fool you into helping him get a job here.”

This was a most astounding theory. Furthermore, it was so wildly
improbable that Merry and his chums had to laugh.

“You don’t understand what happened between Lenning and Shoup out at the
camp in the gulch, Hawkins,” said Frank. “Shoup struck Lenning over the
head with a paddle, knocked him out of a canoe, and came within one of
drowning him. I guess they weren’t pretending they had a row--not to
that extent.”

Merriwell suddenly paused. He was talking in a loud voice--a voice that
echoed in tremendous volume through the big room. He wondered what was
the cause; and then, in a moment, he realized that the roar of the
stamps had ceased. Twenty batteries, of five stamps each, had gone
abruptly out of commission in the gold mill. The silence that hovered
over the mining camp was most profound. Merry had been talking against
the roar of the stamps, and when the roar ceased his voice was still
lifted.

“What’s the matter with the mill?” he inquired.

“The stamps have been ‘hung up’ for an hour,” answered Burke, “so the
amalgamators can dress down the plates.”

“It happens twice in every twenty-four hours,” put in Mr. Bradlaugh,
“once on the night shift and once while the day men are on duty. We----”

Sim, who had started back to his work in the mill, returned and thrust
his head in at the door just at that moment.

“Something queer goin’ on among the tanks, Burke,” he reported.

“Something queer, Sim?” echoed the super. “What do you mean by that?”

“Step outside once an’ use your ears.”

Not only Burke, but all the others, stepped from the laboratory building
and stood at attention, facing the grim, black tanks. Thump, thump
thump! came a hollow, reverberating note. There was nothing else, merely
that thump, thump, thump! It came sometimes at regular intervals and
sometimes a bit wildly and uncertainly.

“What is it?” inquired Mr. Bradlaugh.

“Blest if I can sabe it,” said Sim.

“How long has it been going on?”

“Don’t know that, either. Mebby it’s been goin’ on for quite a spell,
an’ that the roar of the stamps sort of smothered it. Now, when the
stamps is all hung up, the thumpin’ can be heard plain.”

“It comes from the tanks,” put in Hawkins; “maybe it’s a leaky valve
poundin’.”

“There’s nothing in the pipes,” said Burke. “The cyanide plant is out of
commission until to-morrow. Sounds as though some one was striking a
club against the side of a tank. We ought to be able to run it down and
find out what causes it.”

Burke started off, mounting a plank incline that led to the lower row of
tanks, and then moving slowly along a plank gangway that spanned the
tanks’ tops. Merry, Clancy, and Ballard followed him.

It was difficult to decide just where the thumping sound came from. The
hollow, resonant note was very deceiving. A little search, however,
proved conclusive that it did not emanate from the lower tier of vats,
so Burke and Merry and his chums mounted to the next tier.

While they were hunting over the gangway that crossed the second tier,
they were suddenly startled by a yell from Hawkins. Looking upward, they
saw the deputy sheriff standing on a ladder, visible from his waist up
over the top of the big solution tank. His form was silhouetted against
a background of starry sky, and he was making grotesque and excited
gestures with his arms.

“I’ve found what you’re lookin’ for,” he called. “Bring a lantern and
come here. It’s in the solution tank.”

“That’s as it should be,” laughed Burke; “the solution tank is the
proper one to offer a solution of the mystery.”

A lantern was secured, and Burke and the three lads hastened to climb to
the huge tank that topped all the others. Those below, including Mr.
Bradlaugh, went around the edge of the massed tanks and gained the
reservoir from the other side.

Merry and his chums climbed to the rim of the tank and hung over it,
looking downward into its black, cavernous depths. Thump, thump, thump!
came the mysterious racket from below, now wilder, louder, more
insistent.

Hawkins climbed to the rim of the tank, and pulled up the ladder and
lowered it down on the inside. Then he took the lantern that Burke
handed to him and began descending into the gloom. A little pool of
light went with him, and brought the interior of the tank slowly into
view.

As the deputy reached the foot of the ladder and flashed the lantern
about him, a cry of wonder burst from his bearded lips. The cry was
echoed by all those who were hanging to the rim of the wooden reservoir
and peering downward.

Jode Lenning was found!

Bound hand and foot, and with a cloth tied tightly over his lips, he was
lying on the bottom of the vat, close up against its rounded side. His
head was turned so that his eyes, glimmering weirdly, looked upward into
the faces overhead. As he lay there, he brought his bound heels against
the wooden staves, beating out a sort of tempo which the mill hand, Sim,
had been first to hear.

“By thunder,” gasped Clancy, “it’s Lenning!”

“Sure as you’re a foot high!” echoed Burke.

“Those two thieves must have tied him and dropped him into the tank,”
said Ballard. “Gee, but that was rough on him!”

“It would have been rougher still,” went on the super, with a black
frown, “if he had stayed there until morning, when the solution in the
sump tank was to be pumped back into the reservoir. It’s a deadly
poison.”

A shudder ran through Merriwell.

“I thought Lenning had been the victim of foul play,” was all he said.

Hawkins, putting down the lantern beside him, began releasing Lenning.
First he removed the cloth from his lips.

“The safe has been broken open,” were Lenning’s first, halting words;
“Shoup was one of the thieves--I don’t know who the--the other man was.
Follow them! You’ll have to hurry or----”

“Never mind, Jode,” interrupted Hawkins, in a kindly voice. “Shoup and
the other fellow got away, but the bullion was recovered.”

“The bullion--was re-recovered, you say?” faltered Jode.

“Yes.”

A sob of relief rushed through Lenning’s lips.

“I--I was afraid it would be laid to me,” he cried. “I didn’t want that
to happen after Merriwell had got me the place, and had become
responsible for what I did.”

“Everything’s all right, Lenning,” Merriwell called down, “so don’t
fret.”

Hawkins got the cords off Lenning’s feet and hands, and then helped him
up the ladder and down to the hard ground outside the tank. Mr.
Bradlaugh was there to catch him by the hand.

“Did--did you think I--I took the bullion?” Lenning asked weakly.

Mr. Bradlaugh had nothing to say.




CHAPTER XXIV.

MERRIWELL’S FAITH.


Although Lenning had been roughly treated, he had suffered no serious
injury. The worst of his sufferings had come while lying in the big,
empty tank, kicking his heels against the staves and hoping against hope
that some one would hear him, in spite of the clamor from the mill.

“I thought no one would ever come,” said he, leaning back in a chair in
the laboratory and speaking to Hawkins, Bradlaugh, Burke, Merriwell,
Clancy, and Ballard. “I never knew a stamp mill made so much noise
before,” he added whimsically.

“How did the thieves manage to get the best of you?” queried Burke.

“They jumped on me from behind. I had come in here for a lantern, and
had stepped out and was locking the door. That’s when they got me.
Before I knew what was going on, some one was on my back, and another
fellow had clapped a hand over my mouth. I couldn’t yell, and I couldn’t
get away. It was mighty tough, I tell you, when they got the ropes on me
and I was lying on my back and looking up into the face of Shoup. I knew
right off what he was up to. I yelled for help, and I managed to get in
a few more yells before they got me gagged. No one heard me, though.”

“You’re wrong there, Lenning,” said Merry. “I heard you. I was coming
down the trail into the camp at the time, and it was hard for me to
locate the place where the cry came from. I thought it was up the slope,
in the chaparral.”

“You were coming here?” asked Lenning. “What for?”

“Just to see you for a while. Thought you wouldn’t mind a little
chinning during your first night on duty.”

“Well,” went on Lenning, “those fellows got rid of me by dropping me
into the big tank. Then they skipped out. How did you get back the
bullion? I can’t understand how you did that, and let Shoup and the
other fellow get away from you.”

So Clancy and Ballard had to tell again of their experiences while on
the way from town to the mine.

“That was mighty lucky,” said Lenning, when the story was finished. “I
reckon I’m playing in good luck all around. It was tough, though, that
this had to happen the first night I got to work here.”

“It was, Lenning,” agreed Mr. Bradlaugh, “but still, all’s well that
ends well, you know. You’d better go to the bunk house and turn in. I’ll
have Burke put some one else on in your place for the rest of the
night.”

“I’d a heap rather stick it out. I’m feeling pretty good, and if I’m to
do this work I’d better keep at it.”

Merry could see that this remark of Lenning’s pleased the general
manager and the superintendent.

“It looks very much, Lenning,” said Mr. Bradlaugh, “as though
Merriwell’s faith in you had been justified. I’m going to relieve
Merriwell from any further responsibility in your case, and from this on
you’re to stay here on your own responsibility. Get that? I hope you’ll
make such a record, my lad, that your uncle will feel that he has made a
mistake in your case.”

“Colonel Hawtrey is the least of my worries,” scowled Lenning. “I’m not
trying to be square because I expect anything from him. I’m much obliged
to you, Mr. Bradlaugh, and you can bet I’ll do my best to hold this
job.”

“That’s as much as I could ask of any one on the work. Eh, Burke?”

The super nodded his full agreement.

“What did that companion of Shoup’s look like, Lenning?” Hawkins asked.

“I can’t tell you anything about him,” was the reply. “He kept himself
out of sight most of the time, and whenever I did see him he had a
handkerchief tied over his face. He was a big fellow, though, and, from
his talk, I reckon he was a pretty tough proposition.”

“He’s a yeggman, and no mistake. I’m going to do my best to get both of
those fellows. Going back to town, Mr. Bradlaugh?”

“At once,” answered the general manager.

“Then I believe I’ll ride with you. There’s a little telegraphing and
telephoning I’ve got to take care of.”

“We’ll go along, Mr. Bradlaugh,” spoke up Merriwell, “if you’ve got
room.”

“Plenty of room, Chip,” said the general manager.

Burke remained with Lenning, while Frank and his chums and the deputy
sheriff made for the car. They were soon on their way back to Ophir.

“I’m stumped,” admitted Hawkins, as they scurried on through the night.

“So am I,” said Mr. Bradlaugh.

“What’s got you on the hip?” inquired the deputy.

“Lenning. I could have taken my oath that he was one of those who had
tried to steal the bullion.”

“That’s what I was turnin’ over in my mind, Mr. Bradlaugh. Merriwell had
sized the fellow up a whole lot better than any of the rest of us.”

“He had faith in him all the time.”

“There was one spell,” laughed Merry, “when you fellows came pretty near
arguing me over to your way of thinking. But I’m glad I hung on.
Lenning hasn’t many friends--and he needs a lot of good ones.”

“He has one good one,” said Hawkins, “and that’s a cinch.”

“And he has more friends now,” remarked Mr. Bradlaugh, “than he had a
few hours ago.”




CHAPTER XXV.

“WARMING UP.”


“Ho, hum!” yawned Owen Clancy, stirring drowsily in his chair on the
veranda of the Ophir House, “this is certainly the easy life. Trouble
is, fellows, it’s too darned easy. About all the exercise we get is when
we mosey out to the athletic club and boot the pigskin around. I’m
getting sluggish.”

“Come over and slug me,” Billy Ballard invited, from the other end of
the veranda. “Feeling kind of sluggish myself, Red, and if you’re pining
for exercise, here’s your chance.”

“Tush, tush!” scoffed the red-headed chap. “Taking a fall out of you,
Pink, wouldn’t be exercise, but a walk-away. Everything’s too deuced
humdrum around here to suit me. Say, Chip, can’t you mix us up something
with real snap and ginger in it? Nothing has happened for a week--not
since Ballard and I got back the bullion that had been stolen from the
Ophir Mine. That livened up things a whole lot.”

Young Merriwell looked up from the paper he was reading.

“Ten yards in four downs,” he remarked absently. “The new football rules
this year will bring a revival of the old smashing line drives of the
past. I wish we’d got this news before Ophir played the Gold Hillers.”

Merry showed a disposition to become absorbed once more in the article
he was reading. Clancy headed him off.

“Bother the new rules! I asked you if you couldn’t fix up a little
excitement for us, Chip. Life in southern Arizona is becoming flat,
stale, and unprofitable. Every morning the prof makes us grind to the
limit; every afternoon we loaf around until four, and then go out to the
club field and punt, tackle the dummy, or fall on the ball. It’s getting
mo-no-to-nious.”

“I guess the climate is playing hob with you, Clan,” grinned Merry,
throwing aside the paper. “Early December, and here we are in our shirt
sleeves, loafing in the shade and trying to be comfortable. But buck up.
It won’t last forever. It won’t be long now before we’ll be pulling up
stakes and hiking toward the ice and snow.”

“What’re we waiting for?”

“The prof’s mining deal is hanging fire. Almost any mail from the East
may bring the letter that winds it up.”

“Then I wish things would warm up while the deal is being wound up.”

“That’s always the trouble with a chap that’s got brick-red hair,”
complained Ballard. “He’s a volcano, and can’t be happy unless he has a
violent eruption every fifteen minutes.”

“I’ve got a notion,” scowled Clancy, “to imitate an earthquake and shake
you off the porch.”

“Go on and shake,” urged Ballard, chuckling. “I’d like to get a strangle
hold on an earthquake just once and make it behave.”

With a whoop the red-headed chap projected himself out of his chair and
in the direction of his chum. But he never reached Ballard’s end of the
porch. Merry put out a foot and neatly tripped him.

“Here, now!” protested Clancy, slamming into a porch post and grabbing
it in his arms to keep from going down. “Who invited you to take a hand
in this, Chip? Maybe you want me to roll you off the porch before I do
business with Pink?”

“Spell ‘able,’” said Merry, squaring around in his chair.

“Too hot,” answered Clancy, after a moment’s reflection.

“Oh, slush!” muttered Ballard disgustedly. “It’s too hot now, but a
moment ago he was anxious to have things warm up. He’s bluffing, that’s
all.”

Clancy took no notice of the good-natured gibe, but crossed the veranda
to a thermometer that hung beside the hotel door.

“Only seventy-five,” he announced, then reached for the newspaper Merry
had dropped and tore off a piece of it. “It ought to be more than that,”
he added.

Taking a match from his pocket he fired the scrap of paper and held it
close to the bulb of the thermometer.

“What’s that for?” demanded Ballard.

“Warming things up,” answered Clancy. “Beginning with the thermometer.
Gee, look at the mercury climb! Eighty-five, ninety, ninety-five----”

“Here!” interposed Merry. “Don’t you know that’s the town’s official
thermometer? You might as well tinker with the weather bureau, Clan.
Everybody in Ophir swears by that instrument.”

“I’ll have ’em swearing at it before long,” was Clancy’s calm rejoinder.
“A hundred and fifteen,” he added, as he dropped the charred paper.
“That’s going _some_.”

Just as he was backing away from the thermometer, Woo Sing, the Chinese
roustabout, came blandly out on the veranda. He looked cool and
comfortable in his roomy silk kimono.

“Velly fine day, Missul Melly,” he grinned.

“Pretty hot, Sing,” answered Merry, pretending to mop his face with a
handkerchief.

“You callee hot?” demurred Woo Sing. “Goodness glacious! Me allee samee
cool as cucumber.”

He took a slant in the direction of the thermometer, gave it a casual
glance, then jumped and brought his eyes closer to the top of the column
of mercury.

“Gee Klismus!” he gasped, and the sweat began to start out on his
parchmentlike face. “Him plenty hot--hot as blazes. My gettee fan befo’
my gettee sunstluck!”

With that he slumped weakly back into the hotel, peeling off his kimono
as he went.

“That proves,” said Merry, joining in with the laughter of his chums,
“that this climate business is about two-thirds imagination.”

“Sh-h!” whispered Clancy, “here comes the prof. He looks about as warm
as a hundred and fifty pounds of ice. Let’s see what effect the
thermometer has on _him_.”

Merry pulled his shirt open at the throat, fell back in his chair, and
began mopping his face. Ballard leaned over the veranda rail and gasped
like a spent fish. Clancy was also panting, seemingly in the last stages
of exhaustion.

Professor Phineas Borrodaile had a book in his hand, one finger between
the leaves to mark his place. He was bareheaded, and was evidently
coming out to sit in the shade and read comfortably.

“Well, well, young gentlemen,” he murmured, coming to a startled halt as
his eyes rested on the boys, “you act as though you were overcome with
the heat. Why, I had not noticed that the weather was at all
uncomfortable. It seems to me very pleasant, ve-ry pleasant.”

“Look--at the thermometer!” gasped Merry huskily, smothering his face in
his handkerchief.

The professor walked over to the instrument and studied it. Another
moment and he was tremendously excited.

“What is this?” he cried. “A--a hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit?
_Mirabile dictu!_ There must be something wrong with the thermometer.”

In spite of the professor’s guess that there was something wrong, the
perspiration began to bead his brow. Taking his book under one arm, he
allowed a hand to grope for a handkerchief in the tail pocket of his
long black coat.

“Who says there’s anything wrong with that there thermometer?” growled a
voice. “Why, the hull town gits its temperature from that machine!
Whenever it says the weather’s so and so, you can gamble your spurs
that’s what it is.”

Pophagan, proprietor of the hotel, shoved out upon the veranda.

“But look, Mr. Pophagan,” quavered the professor, dabbing at his bald
head with his handkerchief and beginning to loosen his collar. “It’s one
hundred and ten--_in the shade!_”

“That’s right,” whispered Pophagan faintly, staring at the instrument.
“Sufferin’ sinners, but it’s hot. Hadn’t noticed it before. Hottest
early December I ever seen in Ophir.”

“There are some new spots on the sun,” remarked the professor,
unbuttoning his vest and fanning himself with his book, “and they always
have the effect of disarranging the seasons. Mercy! I feel as though I
was suffocating.”

Pophagan threw off his hat and jerked off his coat.

“It come on sudden,” he panted. “I’m allers subject to heat spells like
this. Purty nigh got done up oncet with a sunstroke in the Harqua
Halas.”

“Merriwell,” queried the professor, in alarm, “you are not light-headed,
are you? You don’t feel as though you were going to succumb to this
excess of solar caloric?”

Merry, handkerchief over his face, was squirming in his chair.

“I’m all right, professor,” he answered, in a smothered voice.

Clancy stood at the end of the porch, leaning against the wall of the
hotel with his back to the professor and Pophagan. His shoulders were
heaving convulsively.

Ballard continued to lean over the rail, keeping his face averted and
doing his best to stifle his laughter.

“Better go into the hotel, young gentlemen,” suggested the professor,
“and get some fans. I’m going. I feel as though I was being
incinerated.”

“Me, too,” chimed in Pophagan. “If this gits much worse, we’ll all be
burnin’ up. Can’t remember a time like this since the summer o’
ninety-six. You could fry eggs in the sun that year. Rattlesnakes an’
coyotes got grilled in the desert afore they could hunt their holes.
There was a drummer stoppin’ with me then, an’ he wore a celluloid
collar. He went out to sell a bill o’ goods an’ the collar exploded.
Pair o’ rubber boots I had melted into a chunk. Whoosh!”

Pophagan, closely followed by the professor, melted into the hotel. The
youngsters on the porch pulled themselves together, exchanged glances,
and went into another spasm of laughter.

“Got to keep this going,” sputtered Clancy, lighting another piece of
paper and fanning it back and forth around the bulb of the thermometer.
“This is the most fun I’ve had since Pop and Woo Sing went hunting
cats.”

“We’ll have the whole town fried to a frazzle,” hiccuped Ballard. “I
never thought a thermometer made the weather before, but this seems to
prove it.”

“You don’t have to do that, boys, to get things warmed up,” remarked
some one, with a laugh, from the foot of the veranda steps. “I’m
bringing you a proposition that will do more to warm things up than all
the overheated thermometers in Arizona.”

All the lads whirled to give their attention to the man who had just
spoken.

“Colonel Hawtrey!” exclaimed Merriwell.




CHAPTER XXVI.

A CHALLENGE.


How long the mining magnate from Gold Hill had been enjoying the
performance on the veranda, the boys did not know. He had caught Clancy
red-handed, however, trying to drive the mercury out of the top of the
thermometer.

“It beats all,” laughed Clancy, “what a fellow can make people do just
by fooling with a thermometer.”

“The power of suggestion is tremendous,” said the colonel, “if rightly
handled. It is so in everything, my lads. Start a train of suggestions
properly and, if they lead in the right direction, you can mold nearly
any one to your will. But that isn’t what I came over here to talk
about.”

The colonel had climbed the veranda steps while talking, and he now
shook hands warmly with Merry and his chums. Ballard pushed out a chair
for him, and he lowered himself into it with a genial smile, while his
eyes roved from one to another of the glowing young faces in front of
him.

In some things Colonel Hawtrey was a stern old martinet. The better part
of his life had been spent in the military service of his country, and
this may have developed the relentless side of his nature. He had a will
of iron, backed by a judgment that was apt to make a mountain of errors
out of a molehill of mere mistakes.

He was a lover of sports, however, and was the backbone and mainstay of
the Gold Hill Athletic Club. He believed that, quite apart from physical
prowess, the right spirit in athletics developed inevitably all a
youth’s manly qualities. And he had no patience with any one in whom
manliness and personal integrity were lacking in the slightest degree.

That something of an unusual nature had brought the colonel from Gold
Hill that afternoon Merriwell was positive. And that it might prove as
interesting as it was unusual was evident from the colonel’s manner.

“What’s in the wind, colonel?” queried Ballard curiously. “Clancy, here,
is feeling like a castaway on a two-by-four island. If he can’t have a
little healthy excitement before long, his pranks will probably get us
all into trouble.”

“I’ve got everybody in a sweat around this hotel,” said Clancy; “that
is,” he added, “with the kind assistance of Chip and Pink.”

“We’re all in it,” acknowledged Merry. “But what sort of a proposition
have you got, colonel?”

“Darrel suggested the idea last night,” returned the colonel, “and it
struck me as being a pretty good one. How long before you’re going to
leave this part of the country, Merriwell?”

“As soon as the professor and Mrs. Boorland get the money for that mine.
The check has to come from the East.”

“Do you think you’d have time to match an Ophir nine against a team from
Gold Hill? This would be a very pleasant diversion, it seems to me, and
I know it would be highly enjoyed by all the fans in both towns.”

“Bully!” exclaimed Clancy, all enthusiasm on the instant.

“Now you are shouting, colonel!” seconded Ballard, with equal zest.

“Fine idea, colonel!” said Merriwell. “All the big teams go South for
their spring practice, and here in southern Arizona we’ll be getting
ahead of them by two or three months.”

“Back at Farnham Hall,” went on the red-headed chap, enthusing more and
more as the idea took firmer hold of him, “they’re thinking of skates,
and toboggans, and ice hockey, and here we’re planning to go out on a
diamond and bang the horsehide through the balmy air. Chip,” and he
turned to his chum, “if that letter came from the East before the game,
I guess we could delay our start for the North long enough to take a
fall out of the Gold Hillers, couldn’t we?”

“Sure,” Merry heartily agreed. “I suppose this game would be pulled off
in a few days, colonel?”

“Why, yes,” was the answer, “just as soon as you can pick up a nine. We
had thought of playing next Saturday, on the theory, you understand,
that we’d have to hurry matters if we succeeded in getting a game with
you before you left. If you can stay longer, make it a week from next
Saturday, if that suits you better, or any other day that tallies with
your convenience.”

“This is Wednesday,” Frank mused, “and that would leave only two days
for getting a team together and practicing a little in case we play on
the last day of this week. But we’d better make it next Saturday,” he
added.

“Good!” exclaimed the colonel. “You’ve run up a long score of athletic
victories since you’ve been in Ophir, Merriwell, and I give you fair
warning that Gold Hill is going to do its best to give you a parting
shot you’ll long remember.”

“Of course,” said Merry, “if Gold Hill didn’t work hard to win, the game
wouldn’t be worth while.”

“We’ll have the advantage of you, unless the Ophir Athletic Club can
give you all the players you need who are up to snuff. Our boys will
come direct from our own club, and they have been playing ball ever
since that football game a few weeks ago. Bleeker, and the rest of those
who had gone into camp in the gulch, got back to Gold Hill several days
ago, and they have been gingering up on the diamond ever since.”

“It’s a cinch, then, that your team will have a big advantage. I can use
a few from the Ophir Club; Clancy, Ballard, and I will play, and then
we’ll have to go hunting for the rest of our material. It will be quite
a job to get the team together and pound it into any sort of shape in
two days; but--well,” and Merry smiled, “there’s a spice about doing
things on short notice, colonel, and it rather appeals to me. We----”

At this moment, Pophagan, palm-leaf fan in one hand and a handkerchief
in the other, came slowly out on the veranda. He appeared surprised to
find those on the veranda paying so little attention to the weather.

“Howdy, kunnel,” said he. “Ain’t you feelin’ the heat none?”

“I’m very comfortable, thank you, Pophagan,” the colonel answered, with
a sly wink at the boys.

“Don’t mean to say you haven’t looked at the thermometer?”

“What’s the use? I don’t look to a thermometer for information as to
whether I’m comfortable or not.”

“No? Well, all of Ophir gits its temperature right from this here
weather machine o’ mine. I want to tell you, Colonel Hawtrey, that we’re
havin’ a spell o’ weather right this minute that ain’t been equaled
since ninety-six. Whoosh! Jest take a look at that mercury and see how
high she is.”

“You look, Pophagan,” laughed the colonel, “and report.”

The proprietor of the hotel lurched over to the thermometer and recoiled
from it in amazement.

“Jumpin’ sand hills!” he exclaimed. “I’ll be dad-burned if this don’t
beat all get-out. What d’ye think?” and he whirled on Colonel Hawtrey
with popping eyes. “That there thermometer has gone down more’n
thirty-five degrees in half an hour. Blamed remarkable, that’s what I
call it. Dern nigh gives me a chill.”

Pophagan threw away the fan and put his handkerchief in his pocket.

“Reckon I better go and tell the perfesser an’ the chink afore they
catch their death o’ cold tryin’ to be comfortable.”

With that he vanished through the hotel door. Colonel Hawtrey cast an
amused glance after the lank, retreating form.

“It would be hard for a person to believe that a thing like that could
happen,” he remarked, “unless he witnessed it with his own eyes. The
whole affair is absurd on the face of it, and yet there is no doubt of
the genuineness of Pophagan’s sentiments. Well, well! That is carrying
suggestion to an extreme.”

“I wonder,” said Ballard, a little pensively, “if he’s trying to turn
the joke on us?”

“Not on your life,” answered Clancy. “If that thermometer registered
zero, when the temperature was really where it is now, Pop would put on
his ear muffs and his fur-lined overcoat.”

“That’s the trouble with a good many of us,” said the colonel. “Often
we’re not ruled by common sense, but by a very foolish habit.”

There were several things connected with this incident of the
thermometer which Merriwell was to remember later; and the most of them
had, for a basis, the few comments made by Colonel Hawtrey.

“It’s definitely settled, then,” went on the colonel, “that the ball
game is to be played next Saturday?”

“Yes,” Merriwell answered. “We’ll have to do a little hustling to get
our nine together, but I think we can make it.”

“You know pretty well where you’re to get your material?”

“I’ve been going over that in my mind, colonel, and I think I have every
position filled.”

“You’ll pitch, of course?”

“Sure thing,” put in Clancy promptly. “We couldn’t get along without
Chip in the pitcher’s box.”

“You’re our stumblingblock, Merriwell,” the colonel laughed. “Gold Hill
is full of rumors regarding your wonderful ability as a pitcher. I don’t
suppose we have any one who can hold a candle to you, and we’ll have to
make up what we lack by good work on other parts of the diamond.”

“Who will be the battery for Gold Hill?”

“Darrel and Bleeker. Darrel was always our star pitcher, and perhaps it
was a good thing for our boys that he fractured his left arm some time
ago instead of his right.”

Hawtrey frowned as he remembered the events connected with the
fracturing of that left arm of Ellis Darrel’s.

“What sort of a catcher is Bleek?” Merry asked, more by way of getting
the colonel’s mind off a disturbing train of reflections than for the
purpose of acquiring any useful information.

“He’s good anywhere,” was the answer, “and particularly good behind the
bat.” The colonel got up. “We’ll be here Saturday afternoon,” he added,
“and you can count upon facing a team that will make the affair
interesting to you.”

With a friendly nod he passed down the steps and made his way up the
street.

“This gives us something to take up our time, anyway,” remarked Clancy,
with a good deal of satisfaction.

“We’re up against a hard proposition,” said Ballard, looking very much
concerned. “Chip, it will never do for us to leave Arizona with a defeat
behind us.”

“I don’t think we’re going to,” Merry answered. “You can bet your last
copper, though, that we’re not going to have a walk-away. Let’s figure
out the make-up, fellows. Pink, take a pencil and paper and put Jode
Lenning’s name at the head of the list.”

Ballard and Clancy straightened suddenly in their chairs and gave
Merriwell a startled look.




CHAPTER XXVII.

THE LINE-UP.


Merry’s friendship for Lenning had been dead against the sentiments and
the judgment of Clancy and Ballard. That Merry’s insight into the
fellow’s nature had been more keen and more correct than their own,
Clancy and Ballard were forced to admit. Nevertheless, they still felt
that Lenning was more or less of a crook, and it surprised them to have
Merry mention his name at all in connection with the prospective nine.

“What’s biting you?” asked Frank, meeting the stare of his chums
good-naturedly.

“Can’t you find enough players without taking on Lenning?” queried
Ballard.

“Possibly, Pink, but I want him.”

“The rest won’t stand for it, Chip,” blurted out Clancy.

“Why won’t they?”

“Well, it’s--it’s---- Oh, hang it, you know why they won’t, Chip,
without my going into details.”

“Whom do you mean by ‘they,’ Red?”

“The Ophir fellows--and the Gold Hillers, too. Lenning has proved that
he isn’t square. I guess that’s enough to make every one give him the
cold shoulder.”

“If you’re going to dig into a fellow’s past, Clan, and judge him by
what he was rather than by what he is now, of course I haven’t got
anything to say. But I don’t call that being square, either.”

“We were off a bit when we accused Lenning of helping Shoup run away
with the bullion,” put in Ballard, “but we haven’t had much proof, as
yet, that Lenning has squared away and intends to do the right thing
from now on.”

“We’re going to give him a chance, fellows,” Merry cried, “and we’ll
begin by selecting him for this pick-up nine.”

“There’ll be objections----”

“All right,” cut in Merry impatiently, “if the objections come I’ll try
and meet them. Put down Jode Lenning’s name first, Red.”

Clancy secured pencil and paper and, not without some reluctance, wrote
as his chum directed.

“Where will Lenning play?” queried Ballard, striving to make the most of
what he considered an unwise selection.

“Don’t know about that yet,” was the answer. “For the next man put down
Mexican Joe for backstop.”

Again Clancy and Ballard displayed astonishment, but this time it was of
another sort.

“Who the mischief is Mexican Joe?” Ballard inquired. “Never heard of him
before.”

“He works in the blacksmith shop at the mine,” said Merriwell, “and Mr.
Bradlaugh was telling me about him only the other day. He used to catch
for a Mexican team, and they say he has the prettiest throw to second of
any amateur in Arizona. We’ve got to have Mexican Joe.”

“I wonder,” grinned Clancy, “if he’ll do his signalling in the greaser
lingo? If he does, Chip, you’re liable to get balled up.”

“I’ll chance that part of it, old man,” said Merry. “Put down Owen
Clancy for the first bag and Billy Ballard for center field.”

“Got that,” reported Clancy, writing rapidly, “and also Chip Merriwell
for pitcher.”

“Bradlaugh, junior, for short.”

“Check.”

“Barzy Blunt, second base.”

“He’s a pitcher, isn’t he?” struck in Ballard.

“He is, and a good one, but I’m told he’s equally good as a baseman. If
I have to be relieved, Barzy can be shifted to the pitcher’s box. Mose
Handy will cover the third sack, and Jerry Spink will take care of left
field.”

“You’ve got your nine, Chip,” reported Clancy, totting up, “and Lenning
is left for right field. Want any substitutes?”

“Got to have. Benaway, Shaw, and Reckless will sit on the benches and be
prepared to fill in. I hear they are good all-around ball players.”

“It’s a good team,” commented Clancy, after studying the list for a few
moments, “with possibly one or two exceptions.”

“Strikes me, fellows,” said Merry, “it’s a mighty fine line-up. I’ll go
over to Mr. Bradlaugh’s office and speak for Mexican Joe, Lenning, and
Brad. I wish you two fellows would hunt up the others. If you can find
them, have them all report at the Ophir athletic field not later than
four this afternoon. This will be just preliminary to some hard work
to-morrow.”

Merry grabbed his cap from the veranda floor, where he had dropped it,
and started briskly to his feet.

“You can count on Pink and me to interview the rest of the fellows,
Chip,” returned Clancy.

“Stir around,” Frank answered, on his way down the veranda steps.
“There’s not much time between now and four. If some of the fellows
can’t get out to the clubhouse by four, then any time up till five will
do.”

It was not many minutes until Merry was in the office of the general
manager of the Ophir Mining Company. Mr. Bradlaugh greeted him with a
smile and a warm handclasp.

“Have you heard,” the lad asked, “that we’re to have a ball game here
next Saturday?”

“I have,” was the answer, “and I’m pleased almost to death, Merriwell.
Colonel Hawtrey left this office not more than five minutes ago. He told
me about it. You’ll have to do some tall hustling, my lad, if you dig up
a nine that can hold the Gold Hillers. Of course, our nine has got to
win. We can’t consider any other result. It would be too bad to have you
wind up your stay in Ophir with a defeat on the ball field.”

“I believe we’ve picked a winning team,” said Merry. “Here’s the
line-up, Mr. Bradlaugh,” and he handed Clancy’s list to the general
manager.

Mr. Bradlaugh leaned back in his office chair and began examining the
list. He had no more than dropped his eyes to the first name than he
gave a start, and looked up.

“Lenning, Merriwell?”

“Yes,” nodded Frank. “He’s a good player, if all I hear is true, and we
need him.”

“Er-hem!” coughed the general manager. “No doubt he’s a good player, and
would be a decided acquisition, but is it a judicious selection?”

“I think so,” answered Frank calmly.

“There are liable to be objections,” suggested Mr. Bradlaugh, “and if
you persist in keeping Lenning in the nine, in spite of them, there will
be discontent among the players. You know too much about sports,
Merriwell, for me to remind you what discontent means among a lot of
players.”

“The point is here, Mr. Bradlaugh,” Frank observed, with considerable
warmth: “Lenning is doing his best to be square, but nobody seems to
have much use for him. He needs friends, and he hasn’t any. Here’s a
chance for him to win back a few of the friends he has lost. I believe
in giving him the chance.”

The general manager wrinkled his brows dubiously.

“I appreciate what you are trying to do, and the generous motive back of
it,” said he; “but is it wise to arouse discontent and pave the way for
a possible defeat? I’m putting the thing up to you frankly.”

“I’ll tell you just as frankly, Mr. Bradlaugh,” said Merry, with spirit,
“that I don’t see why there should be any discontent. Let’s go ahead
with Lenning until we see what happens, anyhow.”

The general manager nodded, still dubious, but content to leave the
matter in Merry’s hands. He studied the rest of the list.

“With the probable exception of Lenning,” he reported, “I think you have
made wise selections. I’ll arrange to give Mexican Joe a three days’
vacation. He’s a wonder as a backstop. Brad, of course, will be
delighted. If Lenning plays, I’ll have Burke lighten his duties at the
cyanide works. Perhaps you’d better go out to the mine and see Joe
personally?”

“Thank you, Mr. Bradlaugh; I had thought of that. And when I see Mexican
Joe, I’ll also talk with Lenning.”

The general manager nodded. “My car’s in front,” said he, “and I have
nothing pressing for the rest of the afternoon. I’ll take you out to the
mine.”

As Mr. Bradlaugh pulled down the roll top of his desk, preparatory to
leaving, Frank noticed that his face wore a troubled look. Was it, he
asked himself, because he had selected Lenning for one of his players?
It hardly seemed possible that so small a matter could affect the
general manager so seriously.




CHAPTER XXVIII.

LENNING YIELDS TO PERSUASION.


The short mile separating Ophir from the mine was quickly covered by the
big car. There was little time for conversation during the ride, and
what little talk the general manager indulged in had nothing to do with
Lenning, but concerned Mexican Joe entirely.

“Burke got hold of Joe less than two weeks since,” remarked Mr.
Bradlaugh. “The boy came here from a mine near Wickenburg, with the best
recommendations I ever saw for a Mexican. He’s as strong as a horse and
as spry as a wild cat; what’s more to the point, he knows his business,
and is straight as a string. Just now, Merriwell, Joe is a comparative
stranger. He flocks by himself pretty much, but he is well liked by
those who have come to know him. Burke, the superintendent, can’t say
too much in his favor.”

“How old is he?” Frank asked.

“Eighteen.”

A disappointment awaited the general manager and Merriwell when they
stopped at the blacksmith shop for a few words with Mexican Joe. Joe had
been given leave of absence by Burke to go to the bedside of a sick
relative who lived near Gold Hill.

The superintendent, who saw the car at the blacksmith shop, strolled
down from the little headquarters office to find out what the general
manager wanted. His face lighted up when he heard about the forthcoming
ball game.

“You’ve got to have Joe, Merriwell,” he declared. “Our miners play ball
a little, between shifts, and I’ve seen Joe behind the bat. He’s a
wonder as a backstop.”

“But if he’s away,” Frank answered, intensely disappointed, “how can we
possibly have him?”

“He’ll be back to-morrow morning, and I’ll arrange to have him go out to
the clubhouse whenever you say.”

“Good! Make it to-morrow afternoon at two-thirty.”

“He’ll be there; and I can promise you that, on the day of the game,
there’ll be a big attendance from these diggings. But don’t you let Gold
Hill down you!”

“We’re going to do our best, Burke,” laughed Merriwell. “Where is
Lenning?”

“Lenning?” the super echoed, giving Frank a quick glance, and then
shifting his gaze to the general manager.

“Merriwell,” Mr. Bradlaugh explained passively, “has chosen Lenning for
one of his players.”

It seemed, for a moment, as though Burke was going to voice a protest of
his own against the availability of Lenning. He thought better of it,
however.

“Lenning ought to be at the bunk house now,” said he. “He’s still the
night watchman, you know, and doesn’t go on duty until seven-thirty.”

“You go over to the bunk house, Merriwell, and talk with him,” suggested
Mr. Bradlaugh. “I’ll stay here with Burke.”

Frank was glad that he was to be alone when he talked with Lenning. In a
private interview there would be less restraint, and a freer expression
of views and motives, than could have been the case if the general
manager or the superintendent had been present.

Lenning was found sitting on a bench in the shadow of the bunk-house
wall. His back was against the wall and his eyes were turned upward,
staring into vacancy. Evidently he was in a thoughtful mood, and gave
no heed to Frank when he came around the corner of the bunk house.

At a little distance, Frank halted. The friendly shout which was on his
lips was smothered, and he stood silently at gaze for a few moments
studying the form on the bench.

Lenning had a sinister face and eyes that showed a tendency to waver and
shift about, looking anywhere but at the person with whom he happened to
be talking. Neither face nor eyes, it must be admitted, were calculated
to inspire confidence. And yet, as Merry knew well, such appearances are
not to be taken as final in judging a person’s character.

Just at that moment, Lenning’s face wore an overwhelming expression of
sadness, perhaps of contrition. He did not have to go far into his past
to find abundant cause for self-reproach and regret.

Lenning, when he had posed as the favorite nephew of Colonel Hawtrey,
had been allowed everything for his comfort that money could buy. His
only work had been to act as his uncle’s secretary, and he had worn
expensive clothes and had been supplied with more of the good things of
life than often come the way of most boys.

Now, by contrast, he was an ordinary hand at the cyanide plant, and the
serviceable corduroys in which he was clad were frayed and stained with
oil and dust. From almost a drone, living on another’s bounty, Jode
Lenning had become a worker, and was earning his own support.

Here was proof of Lenning’s resolve to be different from what he had
been, and it was one of the things that had impelled Merriwell to
befriend the fellow when all others had turned against him. With an odd
feeling of heightened respect for the lad on the bench, Frank moved
forward with a cheery, “Hello, Jode!”

Lenning gave a start, lowered his eyes, and turned. The next moment he
had started to his feet, a pleased smile wreathing his lips.

“Howdy, Merriwell?” he called, taking the newcomer’s outstretched hand.
“What brings you over this way? Had a notion you’d left Arizona by this
time.”

“I wouldn’t do that, Len,” answered Frank, “without coming around to say
good-by. Can’t tell just how soon we’ll go, but it won’t be for a few
days yet. What sort of a ball player are you, old chap?”

The question rather surprised Lenning.

“Oh,” he answered noncommittally, “I know the game, after a fashion. But
I’m no great shucks at it.”

“I guess you’re pretty good, from what I hear. I’m picking up some
fellows for a game next Saturday. How’d you like to make one of the
nine?”

“You--you don’t want me, do you?” Lenning inquired curiously.

“Sure I want you.”

“Who’s going to play?”

“Ballard, and Clancy, and I; then Mexican Joe, if we can get him, and a
few chaps from the O. A. C.”

“I reckon you better count me out,” said Lenning, turning his face away.
“It wouldn’t be pleasant for your chums, or the O. A. C. fellows, to
have me around.”

“Bother that! I’m bossing this nine, and I guess that whatever I say
will have to go. Don’t be foolish, Len. I’ve got a special reason for
wanting you in that game.”

“What reason?” Lenning, steadily enough, brought back his gaze and fixed
it on Merriwell.

“For one thing,” explained Frank, “there’s nothing like a good, stiff
contest on a ball field to level the differences one chap may have
against another. I’ve seen out-and-out enemies play together, help each
other in a pinch, according to league rules, and then, when the game was
done, forget that they’d ever had a grouch. Something queer about what
the diamond can do in a case of that kind, but it’s a fact, all the
same.”

Lenning’s face clouded and filled with distrust.

“You think, Merriwell,” said he, “that I haven’t any friends, and that
this game would probably make some for me. Is that it?”

“Well, yes, something like that.”

“Don’t you know,” went on Lenning, paling a little under his tan, “that
if I failed in a close play some one would say that I was trying to
throw the game? Nobody has any confidence in me. Every one has the
notion that I’m a crook, and can’t get over it. My cue is to keep away
from people. I’m sorry, Merriwell, because if there’s one person on
earth I’d hate to disappoint, it’s you.”

“I don’t think that’s the proper spirit, Lenning,” insisted Frank.
“You’re all right, but how is any one going to know it if you don’t get
out and show them? I’m planning on you. You’re one of the first fellows
I thought about when the idea of the game was sprung on me this
afternoon.”

“Who sprung it?”

“Colonel Hawtrey.”

“And your pick-up nine is going to play a team from Gold Hill?”

“Yes.”

“That does settle it. Even if I could get along with the Ophir crowd,
I’ll bet the Gold Hillers would refuse to play if they knew I was in the
game.”

There was bitterness in the boy’s voice.

“Why,” he went on, “the colonel himself would be the first to kick up
trouble. I’m asking no odds of my uncle. He’s cut loose from me, and I’m
not blaming him. I’ve got my own way to make, and I’m going to do it
without trying to curry favor with Colonel Hawtrey. You’ll have to find
another player in my place, Merriwell.”

Frank had not expected Lenning to take such a stand. Although it was
beginning to look as though his choice of Lenning for the nine, if not
unwise, might be hopeless, yet he continued to try persuasion.

“I’ve got my heart set on this,” said he, “and you might at least go
over to the athletic field with me and join in the preliminary
round-up.”

“Haven’t time for athletics,” was the answer. “I have to work nights,
you know, so I can’t very well stay up all day.”

“Mr. Bradlaugh says that he’ll relieve you of your work between now and
Saturday, if you’ll play.”

Lenning’s interest showed itself immediately.

“Mr. Bradlaugh said that, did he?” he asked, as though surprised.

“Yes.”

“Did he say he thought it was all right for me to get into that game?”

“That part of it was left with me, Len,” Frank answered. “You like to
play ball, don’t you?”

Lenning’s face lit up with a sudden glow, and his eyes sparkled. But it
was only for a moment. A dejected expression quickly drove away the
flash of feeling.

“I don’t think that has anything to do with it, Merriwell,” he returned.

“Then, you won’t play? You won’t give yourself a chance to make good on
the diamond?”

There was something about the phrase “make good” which evidently struck
the right chord in Lenning’s new resolutions.

“I’d do a heap for you, Merriwell,” said he, in a low tone, “and if you
really are anxious to have me go over to the clubhouse grounds this
afternoon, and it’s all right with Mr. Burke, I’ll go. But I won’t
promise to play until I see how matters stack up on the diamond. How
does that strike you?”

“Get your hat, Len, and come along,” answered Merriwell, pleased to
secure even that much of a concession.




CHAPTER XXIX.

PLAIN ENGLISH.


Clancy and Ballard were not successful in rounding up all the fellows
Merriwell had asked them to see. On such short notice, however, they did
very well.

Jerry Spink, who was booked for left field, had gone to the Tin Cup
Ranch with an important letter for his father, who was part owner of
the cattle outfit. He was expected back some time Thursday, and the
boys left word for him to report at the clubhouse by two-thirty
Thursday afternoon, if he got back in time.

Benaway, picked for one of the reserves, was a clerk in the general
store and post office. The proprietor of the store had sent him to a
placer mine to collect a bill, and it was expected that he would return
some time during the evening. A message was likewise left for him.

Shaw was down with tonsillitis, and he set up a terrible wail of
disappointment when he learned what was going on, and realized his
inability to help out.

Barzy Blunt, Mose Handy, and Lin Reckless were all the fellows Ballard
and Clancy could get together. Spink and Benaway would be on hand the
following day, however, without fail.

The six lads, brimming over with enthusiasm because of the game
scheduled with Gold Hill, reached the Ophir clubhouse at about
four-thirty. Neither Merry, nor any of those he had gone to see, had
arrived.

“Chip will be along before many minutes,” said Clancy. “Let’s get a
couple of balls and begin limbering up on the diamond.”

They were hard at it when the Bradlaugh car halted at the clubhouse and
unloaded Mr. Bradlaugh, his son, Hannibal--who had been picked up on the
way through town--Jode Lenning, and Merriwell.

The party came onto the athletic field by a passage between the end of
the clubhouse and the gymnasium. Merriwell was first to come into view
of those on the diamond.

“Hoop-a-la!” shouted Barzy Blunt, waving his cap. “Here’s Chip with the
rest of the bunch. You can bet a ripe persimmon he wouldn’t----”

The rest of the cowboy athlete’s remark did not appear. Words suddenly
froze on his lips. Just behind Merriwell was Lenning, and for Lenning,
Blunt had no use whatever.

“Suffering cats!” muttered Blunt, as soon as he could recover the power
of speech. “Say, Ballard, why is that no-account juniper trailing Chip?”

Clancy and Ballard had kept quiet about Merry’s determination to work
Lenning into the nine. They had a feeling that their chum’s move was to
prove distinctly unpopular, and they fought shy of mentioning it. The
secret would soon be out, now, and Clancy and Ballard awaited the result
with a good deal of trepidation.

Blunt was a firm friend of Merriwell’s, but when fate gave him Blunt for
a surname she indicated his character unerringly. He was blunt of speech
and had a hot temper, and it was a habit of his to flash out his
feelings in plain English, with small regard for consequences.

Nor was the cowboy the only one on the diamond who had been jolted into
silence by the sight of Lenning. Handy and Reckless likewise manifested
all the symptoms of severe frost.

Clancy and Ballard tried to save the situation by a little joshing and
horseplay. It was a half-hearted attempt, however, and could not make a
breach in the forbidding wall with which Blunt, Handy, and Reckless had
surrounded themselves.

Merry was quick to sense the chill in the air, and he hurriedly seconded
the efforts of Clancy and Ballard to put matters on a better footing.
Brad, on the ride out to the clubhouse, had had several minutes to
accustom himself to the presence of Lenning. Loyally he rallied to
Merry’s support. Brad’s father, also, did what he could to ease off the
tension.

“Hello, fellows!” Frank called good-naturedly. “I wonder if you’re all
as hungry to get after the horsehide as I am? This game with Gold Hill
suits me right up to the handle. Barzy, you look like a three-time
winner. Handy, you look as fit for the national game as you did for the
gridiron, a few weeks ago. Reckless, old chap, how’s tricks?”

In this breezy fashion, Frank strove to smooth out the disagreeable
twist in the situation. Lenning was there by his persuasions, and he
felt that the fault would be his if the lad was humiliated in any way.

“I think we owe a vote of thanks to Colonel Hawtrey and Chip Merriwell
for this chance to clash with Gold Hill on the diamond,” piped Brad.
“We’ve got to work like the dickens, though, if we get in shape for the
game between now and Saturday.”

“You must all pull together, my lads,” put in the general manager
significantly.

Neither Blunt, nor Handy, nor Reckless had a word to say. After their
first cool scrutiny of Lenning, they proceeded to ignore him.

“Where’s the wonderful Mexican backstop, Chip?” queried Clancy.

“Couldn’t get hold of him to-day,” Frank answered, “but he’ll be along
to-morrow. What about Spink, Benaway, and Shaw, Clan?”

Clancy reported as to the three players Merry had mentioned.

“That’s tough about Shaw,” Merry observed, “but, on the whole, we’re
making out a good deal better than I expected. I can depend on you
fellows, can I?” The question was aimed particularly at Blunt, Handy,
and Reckless.

“I reckon you can, Chip,” drawled Blunt, a gleam of temper playing in
his sloe-black eyes. “How have you fixed the make-up of the team?”

“You’re down for second, Barzy, and if they hit me too hard you’ll
probably have to move up to the pitcher’s box.”

“That’s a joke,” and the grin that half formed itself about the cowboy’s
lip’s led Merry to think he was forgetting Lenning. “You’re the best
amateur twirler in these parts, and if you can’t handle the Gold Hillers
there’ll be no use calling on me. I’m satisfied to hold down the second
bag. You and this greaser from the mine will be the battery for Ophir,
eh?”

“Probably. Clancy’s at first, Handy’s at third, and Brad goes to short.
Ballard, Spink, and Lenning will be in the outfield.”

Here Handy proceeded to take part in the conversation. “Lenning?” he
echoed.

Merry faced around and gave Handy a square look.

“I said Lenning would be in the outfield,” he remarked.

“Oh!” Handy grunted. That was all, but if ever a monosyllable shook its
rattles and got ready to strike that one did.

The nature of Lin Reckless belied his name. He was canny, and just at
that moment realized the value of holding himself in check. He had both
balls, and he began juggling them with one hand, and whistling softly.

“I reckon I might as well tune up my bazoo and go on record right here,
Chip,” said Blunt. “You ought to know, by now, that I never walk around
a ten-acre lot in order to call a spade an agricultural implement. I’m
not going to do it now. I’d hate myself for a month of blue moons if I
ever played ball with a snake in the grass like Jode Lenning. Instead of
leaving Reckless on the bench, you can put him in the outfield. Lenning
will have his hands full looking after that job you got for him, if I’m
any prophet.”

It was a barbed shaft, and Lenning squirmed when it struck him. His face
went white on the instant.

Frank’s face was almost as white as Lenning’s. With a quick move he
placed himself alongside the lad under discussion. Before he could
speak, Handy broke in.

“Blunt’s got it about right, Chip,” said he. “I don’t want to hurt
Lenning’s feelings, or put you in any sort of hole, but I can’t see why
you should expect us fellows to play ball with Lenning.”

“I expect you to have some consideration for me,” said Frank hotly,
“even if you haven’t any for Lenning. He’s here by my invitation. I have
asked him, just as I asked you, to help make up the nine. If you don’t
want a team, and don’t care for a game with Gold Hill, say so here and
now, and we’ll declare it off.”

Merriwell resented, with all the force of his nature, these flings at
Lenning. He felt that his anger was getting beyond control, and he was
glad that Mr. Bradlaugh took a hand in the matter at that moment.

“You ought to know better than to talk that way, Blunt,” said Mr.
Bradlaugh sharply. “And you, too, Handy. Merriwell is getting the team
together, and you ought to have enough confidence in him to approve of
whatever he does.”

“Whenever I’ve got anything on my mind,” answered Blunt, “I try to get
rid of it in plain English. Now that I’ve had my say about Lenning, I’ll
drop in a few words for Chip. You’re the clear quill, pard,” he went on
to Merry, “and I’d fight for you any day you can find in the almanac;
but when it comes to associating with a crook and a schemer, I reckon
I’ve got a right to pick and choose for myself.”

“Sure you have,” approved Handy.

Reckless was still whistling and juggling the two balls. He seconded
everything that Blunt and Handy were saying, but felt that some
consideration was due Merriwell in the matter, and declined to express
himself.

“It’s a darned shame,” blurted out Brad indignantly, “that you two
chumps couldn’t have talked this over privately with Chip instead of
shooting off a big noise where it will do the most harm. You make me
tired!” and he turned on his heel and walked off.

Truth to tell, the helpless writhing of Jode Lenning was more than Brad
could endure. Lenning himself suddenly turned and moved away in the
direction from which he had come, his head bowed dejectedly.

“Blunt,” said Merriwell scathingly, “you and Handy ought to be ashamed
of yourselves. Is it your style to jump on a fellow when he’s down? If I
put into this plain English you’re harping about all I think of you two,
it would be different from what you’ve said about Lenning, but it would
sound a whole lot worse. You might have had the common decency to keep
still while Lenning was around.”

The vigor with which Merry expressed himself rather startled Blunt and
Handy. But Frank was not yet done.

“Look back a little in your own life, Blunt,” said he meaningly. “I
guess you will find something there that will help you to understand how
you have made Lenning feel.”

The cowboy fell back a step, with twin devils blazing in his eyes.
Merriwell’s words had probed a sore only recently healed, and for a
second Blunt felt all the old agonizing smart caused by the rough
handling. Then, as quickly, his rage passed.

“I reckon you got me there, Chip,” said he. “I went a heap farther with
Lenning than I meant to, but that’s how I feel.”

Frank did not answer. Turning, he hurried after Lenning, vanishing
between the end of the clubhouse and the south wall of the gymnasium
building.

“Fine business, I must say,” growled Ballard. “If this kind of a spirit
lasts up till next Saturday, I can see where we get off.”

“It won’t last,” said Handy. “Lenning’s out of it now, just as he ought
to be, and everything is all right.”

But Mr. Bradlaugh shook his head forebodingly.




CHAPTER XXX.

GETTING THE NINE IN SHAPE.


Lenning was well started on the trail to Ophir when Merriwell overtook
him.

“I’m mighty sorry,” was all Frank could say, as he dropped a hand on the
other’s arm.

“You see how it is, Merriwell,” Lenning returned, in a tense voice,
lifting his pale, drawn face for a quick look at his companion.

“Yes, I see how it is,” Frank acknowledged. “I had no right to put you
in that position.”

“I should have had sense enough not to come. Don’t blame yourself any.
And don’t find too much fault with Blunt and Handy. I mixed the dose for
myself, and it’s no more than right that I should swallow it.”

During the walk back to town Frank did what he could to soothe Lenning’s
injured feelings. Lenning listened quietly to his talk, and really
seemed in a better frame of mind when he and Frank parted in front of
the Ophir House.

While waiting for Clancy and Ballard to arrive, Frank had ample time for
a little hard thinking on the veranda.

At first he had been tempted to throw up the proposed game with Gold
Hill and have nothing further to do with it. He was beginning to see now
that such a move on his part would be childish.

He had had ample warning not to try to drag Lenning into the baseball
game. He had gone ahead in spite of the warning, and for the disaster of
the afternoon he alone was to blame.

When his reflections took stock of Blunt and Handy, he felt the hot
blood beginning to pound in his veins. But this was childish, too.
Lenning, not so very long before, had given everybody abundant excuse
for thinking of him just what Blunt and Handy thought.

After all, Lenning was only paying the score he had run up. It was a
debt he had to meet. When he was through with the battle, he would be
all the better for a few scars to remind him of it.

This train of thought put Frank himself in a more tolerant mood by the
time Clancy and Ballard got back to the hotel. They went in to supper
together, and, by tacit agreement, dismissed the incident of the
afternoon without any further discussion.

On the following morning there came a grind at the books under the eagle
eye of Professor Borrodaile; then, after dinner and early in the
afternoon, Frank and his chums went out to the baseball grounds and were
greeted by the whole team, as originally selected by Frank, with the
exception, of course, of Lenning and Shaw.

Mexican Joe was introduced to Frank by Brad. Joe was of about the same
height and build as Jode Lenning, and, in addition, the two had a facial
resemblance that was most remarkable. Naturally, the Mexican lad’s face
was of a swarthier hue, and this of itself made the difference between
them most pronounced.

While Benaway and Reckless pounded out flies and grounders for most of
the team, Merry and Joe were off to one side warming to the work with
jump balls, drops, and curves. Merry showed a skill and control that
caused the Mexican backstop to open his eyes, and Joe, on his part,
convinced Merry that he was all that Mr. Bradlaugh had cracked him up to
be.

That Thursday afternoon’s work brought Frank entirely under the spell
of the game--the sport he loved best of all. For weeks he had not had
the leather sphere in his hands, and now the very touch of it thrilled
him through and through.

On first meeting Blunt and Handy, Thursday afternoon, Frank was
conscious of a feeling toward them that was distinctly unfriendly; and
they, on their part, had as little to say to Frank as possible. But
when, at five o’clock, a grand rush was made for the bathrooms in the
gym, the magic of baseball had wrought its work, and every member of the
team was full of hope, and enthusiasm, and friendly consideration for
the rest of his teammates. Merriwell, Blunt, and Handy met and mingled
just as they had always done, and just as though the disagreeable
incident of the preceding afternoon had never happened.

This is not to say that Frank had forgotten Lenning, for such was far
from being the case. He was still sorry for the friendless chap, and
still eager to do him a good turn. What is more, he believed more firmly
than ever that many barriers between Lenning and his former friends
might be leveled if Lenning could have a part in Saturday’s game. It was
queer how that conviction persisted and intensified in Merriwell’s mind.

Friday afternoon the Ophir nine played a game with a scrub team. The
second nine was poor, for Merriwell had gathered in all the good
material, and the regular team had no difficulty in running up a good,
big score.

More and more Frank was pleased with the excellent work of Mexican Joe.
The backstop was about as talkative as a cigar-store Indian. He played
silently, swiftly, surely, and his signals showed such an intelligent
comprehension of the right balls that Frank’s admiration was aroused.

“You’re a corker, Joe!” he declared, slapping the Mexican youth on the
back when the afternoon’s work was over with.

A gratified smile crossed Joe’s swarthy face.

“You more of a corker as me,” he averred, and so eased himself of the
only remark he had made during an hour and a half of hard work.

When Frank and his chums got back to the Ophir House, late that Friday
afternoon, they were all tired, but happy and confident.

“We’ve got a fast nine,” declared Ballard, “and we’re going to put it
all over that Gold Hill team. You hear me!”

“They’re a snappy lot, no two ways about that,” agreed Clancy. “I hate
to give Darrel, Bleek, Hotchkiss, and the rest of that outfit the sort
of a jolt they’re due for to-morrow, but if they’re bound to have a game
they’ll have to take the consequences.”

“That’s right,” said Merriwell. “They’re going to make it pretty
interesting for us, though, and it’s just possible that they’ll open a
bag of tricks that will surprise us.”

“What sort of a pitcher is Darrel?” queried Ballard. “It’s mighty odd
that, all the time he was with us up Mohave Cañon, he never let out a
peep about being a ball tosser.”

“He’s good,” asserted Merriwell.

“How do you know, Chip?” demanded Clancy.

“I know because Darrel’s the sort that doesn’t do things by halves. If
he set out to learn to pitch, you can bet he has trained his ‘wing’ in a
way to make us sit up and take notice. There’ll be an exciting time on
the ball ground to-morrow afternoon. Bank on that, Red.”

“I’ll be disappointed if there isn’t, Chip,” grinned Clancy, “but you
and that greaser marvel are going to take care of Darrel and Bleeker,
with ground to spare.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I know I’m right! When Darrel opens his box of tricks, Chip, he’ll find
that you have got a few on tap that are just a little better.”

“Thanks, old man,” laughed Merry. “It would be hard for me to do any
worrying while you’re around.”

“Everything’s going swimmingly, Chip,” remarked Ballard, “and there
hasn’t been a hitch since--since Wednesday afternoon.”

“That’s the trouble,” Frank answered. “I’m afraid, Pink, that the luck
is too good to last.”

This remark of Merriwell’s proved to be prophetic. A blow between the
eyes was dealt Merry less than an hour after supper. It wasn’t a
knock-out, but it came close to being one.

The blow arrived by messenger from the Ophir Mine, and was neatly
wrapped up in a note written by Burke, the superintendent. Merriwell was
alone on the veranda at the time the message came to hand, and he drew
up close to a lighted window so that he could see to read it.

At first he was dazed, and could hardly believe that he read aright.
After rubbing his eyes, he perused the note a second time. Then it was
that the dread news burst upon his realization like a thunderclap.

“Blazes!” he gasped, crushing the note in his hand and looking around
despairingly. “What the mischief are we going to do now? On the last
day, and in the afternoon, too! Why in the deuce couldn’t----” He bit
his words short and tossed his hands deprecatingly. “But it couldn’t be
helped, it couldn’t be helped!” he muttered.

Gloomily enough, he walked to a chair at the far end of the veranda and
slumped down into it. Who’d have thought that such a thing could
happen? The Ophir club, it seemed absolutely certain, was going to meet
its Waterloo! There did not appear to be a possible way out of that
tangle of hard luck.

While Frank was sitting there among the deep shadows of the veranda and
floundering helplessly in a mire of reflections, a horseman galloped up
to the hitching pole in front of the hotel, swung to the ground, buckled
his reins around the pole, and then bounded lightly up the veranda
steps.

The light from a window, shining over him, showed that he was a mere
lad. His face was open and frank, and a mat of thick, curly hair fringed
the bottom of his cap.

He paused on his way across the veranda to the hotel entrance. The
figure in the chair, at the far end of the veranda, had caught the
newcomer’s eye. Muttering an exclamation, he started toward the youth
with the bowed head and hopeless air.

“Hello, Chip, old pal!” the lad cried. “What are you doing out here all
by your lonesome?”

Merriwell, at the sound of that voice, was on his feet in a twinkling.

“Darrel, by Jove!” he exclaimed, happily surprised. “What brings you to
Ophir, Curly?”

“Business,” laughed Darrel. “I’ve got a letter for you from Colonel
Hawtrey.”

“I hope there’s no bad news in the letter. Hang it all, I’ve had enough
bad news for one night!”

“Nothing serious, Chip?” queried Darrel solicitously.

“I guess it wouldn’t strike you as being serious,” Merry returned, with
a short laugh. “Say, Curly, how’d you like to have Ophir present you
with that game to-morrow?”

“I wouldn’t like it. I don’t want Ophir to present us with anything but
the hardest game we Gold Hillers ever played. Do that, Chip, and I’ll be
blamed if I care who wins. But read this letter,” Darrel broke off,
handing the missive to Merriwell. “When you have done that, we’ll hold a
powwow. I’ve got something to tell you, pard, and like enough it will
surprise you. I don’t think the colonel has written anything that will
give you much of a jolt.”

“I’ve had my one big surprise for to-night. Curly,” said Merriwell, with
a rueful laugh, “so I guess that anything you can spring won’t take me
off my feet.”

He withdrew to the window to read the colonel’s letter. When he had
finished, he turned back to Darrel, with a low whistle, which proved
that there must have been something surprising in the letter, after
all.




CHAPTER XXXI.

HATCHING A PLOT.


“You know what there is in this letter, Curly?” Frank asked.

“Pretty nearly,” was the reply. “Uncle Alvah is afraid, from something
he has heard, that you’re going to have Jode Lenning in your team. If
that is your plan, he sincerely hopes you’ll reconsider; for the move
would arouse resentment in Gold Hill, and might lead to the canceling of
the game. You know, of course, that Lenning’s past record is all against
him, that he’s a vicious young scamp, and so forth, and so forth. Isn’t
that about what the colonel wrote to you, Chip?”

“Just about,” Frank answered glumly.

“I heard, although I don’t know how straight I got it, that some of the
Ophir chaps refused to play with Jode, and that he’s out of the game for
good. Is that right?”

“There were objections when I tried to get Lenning on our nine, and
Blunt and Handy aired their grievance right in front of Lenning. That
fixed it. Lenning couldn’t go on when he saw how those two felt about
it.”

“What’s the matter with Blunt and Handy?” demanded Darrel, his voice
quivering with anger. “Are they so all-fired righteous that they can’t
associate with a fellow who’s trying to live down his past?”

Darrel’s attitude set Merriwell to wondering. He had suffered at his
half brother’s hands more than any one else, and yet here he was,
apparently championing his cause and taking his part.

“It’s hard to tell what’s biting Blunt and Handy, Ellis,” said Frank.
“Looks like they’re trying to make out that they’re ready for harps and
halos, while they’re only convincing people that they’re snobs, with
little, two-by-four dispositions that are anything but heavenly.”

“Well, even at that, the feeling against Jode is pretty general, isn’t
it?”

“There are more than Blunt and Handy against his playing ball to-morrow,
but the rest have the decency to keep their objections to themselves.”

“Isn’t there any possible chance for getting Jode into the game, Chip?”

Darrel spoke earnestly, almost eagerly.

“Do you mean to say, Curly,” asked Merriwell, “that you’d like to see
him play against Gold Hill?”

“I’d like to see him give a good account of himself on the diamond. He
has squared away, and is trying to make something of himself. I think it
would help him to brush up against fellows who used to be his friends,
and corral a little of the good feeling that breaks out in a snappy,
well-fought game of ball.”

“Well, I’ll be darned!” muttered Merriwell. “What would the colonel say
if he heard you talk like that?”

“I don’t know as that would make any difference. I think a heap of the
colonel, Chip, but I haven’t reached the point where he does my thinking
for me. I’m not sore at Lenning. We have had our differences, and I’ve
managed to come out on top. Jode is the under dog, and now that he’s
trying to be white, I’d like to help him.”

“Put it there, Darrel!” cried Merriwell heartily, thrusting out his
hand. “I wish Blunt and Handy were here to absorb your sentiments.
Hearing you talk like that ought to make them feel pretty small.”

“The colonel wanted me to come over to Ophir to-night,” went on Darrel,
“in order to get that letter into your hands. You know the sort of a
fellow Uncle Alvah is. He’ll crowd a chap mighty hard if he’s given half
a chance. He’s more bitter against Jode than he ever was against me--and
I reckon you know what that means. I’ve argued with him to give Jode
another chance, but he’s as hard and set in his way as the rock of
Gibraltar. You can’t budge him. There’s only one thing that might pull
him over a little in Jode’s direction, Chip.”

“What’s that?”

“You know how wrapped up the colonel is in every sort of sport? Well,
his biggest favorite of all the sports is the national game. He’s the
most inveterate fan that ever came down the pike. What’s more, he’s too
good a sportsman to be much of a partisan. Naturally, he likes to see
the Gold Hill fellows win; but to-morrow, if an Ophir chap makes a star
play, you’ll find the colonel cheering himself blue in the face. Simmer
the thing right down, and it’s the game itself he loves--the man in the
box with the clever ‘wing,’ the chap who makes a running catch with all
the odds against him, the fellow who steals and slides to the bag,
keeping the base on a close decision. You understand what I mean, Chip,
a heap better than I can tell it. That’s what gets under the colonel’s
skin. A little, snappy baseball, and he’s sure to bring his best side
uppermost.”

“I don’t get you exactly,” said Merriwell. “What has the colonel’s love
for baseball to do with Jode?”

“If Jode’s in the game, and makes good with a few star plays, it will
start the good suggestions to working in his favor. See what I mean?”

By a queer twist of the imagination, Merriwell began thinking of the
thermometer which Clancy had manipulated on the veranda of the Ophir
House, two or three days before. The colonel’s very words, in
commenting on the thermometer incident, recurred to Frank: “Start a
train of suggestions properly, and, if they lead in the right direction,
you can mold nearly any one to your will.” Was that foolish little joke
of Clancy’s to bear fruit in the affairs of Jode Lenning?

“I see what you mean, all right, Curly,” said Frank, “but Lenning has
told me that he doesn’t care to curry any favor with the colonel. He has
decided to make his fight single-handed, without putting himself under
obligations to any one. Good idea, too, strikes me.”

“What he’d do in that ball game, Chip,” declared Darrel, “is part of his
fight. He’d not only impress the colonel, but a rush of true
sportsmanship over the diamond would blot out all the hard feelings
Jode’s old friends are holding against him. Just one snappy double play,
in the last of the ninth, with the score tied and the bases full, might
make or mar Lenning’s whole future. Maybe it seems foolish to talk like
that, but human nature is a queer problem, Chip. I’ve studied it a
little, and there are times when it only takes a mere trifle to start a
flood of sentiment moving in a right or wrong direction.”

“I think you’re right about the things that are liable to happen during
a ball game, Curly,” Merriwell answered, “but would luck favor Lenning?
Is he a good enough player so that he could confront an issue like that
and make good?”

“Jode? Why, he’s one of the best ball players in this part of Arizona.
An all-around player, Jode is. I’ve known him to pitch a no-hit game, to
put up one of the smoothest performances as backstop that I’ve ever
seen, to play first, and short, and all around the diamond in a way that
made everybody sit up and stare. He knew that baseball was the colonel’s
favorite game, and he studied and worked to perfect himself in it.”

“More to make a hit with the colonel than anything else?”

“I suppose that was his real motive at that time. Since then, though,
everything has changed.”

“Well, admitting all that this game might mean to Lenning, how are we to
get him into it?”

“That’s what I came over here to talk with you about. By all means, Jode
must play. Couldn’t you make a decided stand in his favor? If you
threatened to quit, yourself, unless Jode was given a chance on your
team, I think all the objections would melt away. Don’t you?”

“I don’t want to get any player into the game by making threats,”
demurred Merry. “That’s not my style, anyhow, Curly. And, even if I took
such a stand, Lenning himself wouldn’t put up with it. There’s such a
feeling against him that he’s made up his mind to stay out of the game.
Up to now, I’ve given him a whole lot of credit for that.”

“Somehow,” insisted Darrel, “we’ve got to have Lenning play. Can’t you
think of some plan, Chip?”

Frank walked back and forth the length of the shadowy veranda, racking
his brain to evolve some expedient or other that would fit the case.
Suddenly the message from Burke occurred to him, and he whirled on
Darrel and thrust the crumpled note into his hand.

“Read that, Curly,” said he. “Maybe it opens up a situation which can be
used to help Lenning. I’m giving you a lot of information about our
troubles, but I guess it won’t hurt our chances much. The whole thing is
a mighty delicate matter, and will have to be handled with gloves.”

“I’ll handle it,” returned Darrel, “if you give me a tip as to what to
do.”

He stepped over to the lighted window and slowly read the message which
had caused Frank so much chagrin and disappointment. Darrel turned from
the window with a puzzled face.

“What’s the idea?” he asked. “I don’t exactly grasp it, Chip.”

“Why, I had thought that, if it could be arranged, a substitute----”

“Strike me lucky!” gasped Darrel. “That’s just the thing, by George!
Say, Chip, that idea is a humdinger!”

“I don’t know about that. The success of it hangs on a good many
contingencies. You’ll first have to win over Lenning to the scheme----”

“Leave that to me. He works nights, doesn’t he? I’ll go over to the mine
and see him the moment I leave here.”

“Then, again,” said Merriwell gravely, “there’s a suggestion of trickery
about the move that I don’t like.”

“Trickery nothing! It’s strategy, that’s all. Consider the motive, Chip.
The play is being made for a good purpose--a purpose that could not be
accomplished in any other way.”

“Well, it’s up to you, Curly. You belong with the other team, and if
you’re willing to put the deal through I don’t see why I should object.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll have a good, long talk with my half
brother, and I’ll bet I can make him see things as I do.”

Darrel was full of generous enthusiasm. With a final word for Merry, he
darted down the veranda steps, unhitched his horse, mounted, and bore
away in the direction of the Ophir Mine.

The plot had been hatched, and Darrel had gone actively to work to carry
it out. Were they right or wrong in taking the stand they had done?
Merry fretted over that part of it for a little while, and came to the
conclusion that if Darrel, the captain of the Gold Hill team, thought
the proceeding was justified, then no one else had any reason to
complain.

Half an hour later, as Merriwell crawled into bed, he was taking an
optimistic view of events to come. The disappointment that had come to
him with Burke’s message would be obliterated by the success of Darrel
in carrying out their plot. And, somehow or other, he had a feeling that
Darrel was going to be successful.




CHAPTER XXXII.

THE DAY OF THE GAME.


The whole of Saturday, Frank and his chums had planned to devote to that
contest with Gold Hill. Morning dawned bright and cloudless; but that is
not saying much, for bright and cloudless mornings prevail in southern
Arizona for three hundred and sixty days out of every year.

This was a land in which summer sports were to be enjoyed the whole year
round. For those who liked that sort of thing the climate had its
appeal, but Merriwell and his friends were beginning to think that the
rigor of frost and snow, at the usual time, would form a pleasant change
in that monotonous round of balmy weather.

Saturday was free from the grind which, for five days in the week, the
professor insisted on during the hours from eight to twelve. Nearly the
whole forenoon, therefore, Merriwell was free to spend on the clubhouse
grounds.

All his players had presented themselves, with the exception of Mexican
Joe. It was around Joe that the plot which concerned Lenning was to
revolve, and the absence of the catcher caused Frank some apprehension.

There was a little practice on the diamond, but not enough to tire the
players, and some time before noon Merry, Clancy, and Ballard were back
at the hotel. Already people were beginning to arrive in town for the
game. They came afoot, on horseback, and in buckboards and mountain
wagons.

There were miners and ranchers, Indians, Mexicans, and Chinamen. The
Bar Z Ranch, where Blunt worked, sent a big delegation of cowboys--and
they were all there to root for Barzy.

News of the game had traveled like wildfire over the cattle ranges and
the mining districts. Young Merriwell had been pretty much in
everybody’s eye during the time he had sojourned in Arizona, and much of
the outpouring was due to a desire to see the lad who had proved himself
such a worthy chip off the old block.

As a sporting event, the baseball game promised to be Merry’s farewell
performance. This, in itself, was a powerful lure in gathering the
crowds.

As early as one o’clock the movement set in from Ophir toward the
clubhouse and the athletic field. The game was not called until three,
but the eagerness of the people to secure good seats led them to make an
early start for the grounds.

“There’ll be some crowd on hand to see us land on the Gold Hillers,
Chip,” remarked Clancy, as they stood on the hotel veranda and watched
the flow of people along the main street of the town.

“Or to see the Gold Hillers land on us,” Frank laughed.

“Not at all, not at all,” insisted the red-headed chap. “It would be too
awful if we got stung at this athletic game just before we shook the
Arizona dust from our brogans for good. Here, where we have been
consistently victorious, we must wind up our activities with a success
that will eclipse all the others. Victory shall perch on the Ophir
banners, to the end that _finis coronat opus_ may be justly
exemplified. I repeat, friends and fellow citizens, that----”

“Choke off that old windjammer, Chip!” begged Ballard, coming out on the
veranda at that moment with his suit case. “He’s got a notion that he’s
making a public speech.”

“I’ve got other notions, Pink, if it comes to that,” said Clancy, giving
his chum a look of intense disapproval. “One of them is that you’re
little Billy Buttinski, and spoil many a good thing because you’re
jealous.”

“Jealous--of you? Why, you red-headed snipe----”

“Tut, tut!” interposed Clancy, waving his hand restrainingly, “men have
been shot for less than that. But don’t push me too far, Pink, don’t
push me too far.”

Ballard was about to reply, keeping up his end of the good-natured give
and take, when he caught sight of some one hurrying toward the hotel
along the sidewalk.

“Here’s our prize greaser, fellows!” he announced. “Wonder why he wasn’t
around this morning?”

“Knows he didn’t need the practice, I guess,” answered Clancy. “If the
rest of us can measure up to the standard set by him and Chip, Gold Hill
won’t get a score across the pan.”

Frank got his eyes on the approaching backstop and watched him keenly
and critically. The appearance of the lad was the first intimation he
had had of the success of Darrel in carrying out the plot of the
preceding evening. Now, as his eyes followed the catcher along the
sidewalk and to the steps of the veranda, Merriwell experienced a thrill
of profound satisfaction. Darrel, it was evident at a glance, had done
his work wonderfully well.

Clancy and Ballard had not been taken into Merry’s confidence regarding
that note which had arrived from Burke. Had they been with Frank at the
time of its receipt, very likely they would have been given the whole
disturbing message. Later, after his talk with Darrel, Frank was glad
that his chums were in ignorance of Burke’s note. Now he was purposely
keeping them in the dark.

“Howdy, Joe!” shouted Clancy. “You’re looking as husky as a keg of
nails.”

The other’s swarthy face parted in a genial smile; but, true to his
taciturn disposition, he had nothing to say in reply.

“Think we’re going to win, Joe?” queried Ballard, by way of testing the
catcher’s confidence.

The other ducked his head emphatically.

“That’s right, Joe,” grinned Clancy, “I wouldn’t talk if it’s painful.
If you’d only learn the deaf-and-dumb alphabet you could express
yourself with your hands. I believe you’d be a fluent talker if you’d
use your fingers.”

The catcher continued to grin expansively, but could not be coaxed into
doing any talking.

Merriwell had been watching Clancy and Ballard with sharp eyes while
they were concerning themselves with the backstop. An expression of
humorous relief crossed his face, and he reached out, caught the
newcomer by the arm, and drew him to one end of the veranda. From the
motions the two indulged in, Clancy and Ballard could see that they were
going over the signals.

“I don’t see the use of that,” grunted Clancy. “Joe had ’em down pat
yesterday afternoon, and it’s a cinch he wouldn’t forget ’em this
quick.”

“Nothing like being sure,” said Ballard.

For nearly half an hour, Merriwell and the catcher continued to go
through their signals and to converse in low tones. At the end of that
time, Mr. Bradlaugh came along in his car to take the lads to the
grounds.

“All aboard, my lads!” he shouted.

As they piled into the car, Frank noticed that Mr. Bradlaugh was eying
the catcher with a strange, dubious expression. For a moment Frank
experienced a thrill of dismay, but he was reassured the next moment
when Mr. Bradlaugh remarked:

“Joe will show them to-day what a real high-class fellow behind the bat
can do in helping to win a game. I hear that you’re more than pleased
with your catcher, Merriwell?”

“I am,” Frank answered, with emphasis.

When the car reached the grounds, grand stand and bleachers were
crowded. Automobiles were lined up beyond the stand, and every point
that commanded a good view of the diamond was filled.

Gold Hill was well represented, and more than half of the grand stand
was occupied by stanch supporters of the rival team. Gold Hill and Ophir
did a lot of friendly joshing back and forth, and the yells and cheers
rang in Frank’s ears as he got out of the car and hurried to the
dressing room in the gym.

All the rest of the men who were to play with the Ophir team, or to sit
on the benches as substitutes, were clad in their uniforms, and were
waiting for Frank and those with him to arrive. They were greeted
warmly, and Blunt slapped the backstop on the shoulder as he passed him
with his dingy old suit case.

“We’re expecting great things of you, you old greaser wonder!” exclaimed
the cowboy.

“That’s what, Joe!” seconded Handy.

“And you’re not going to disappoint us,” added Reckless. “I know that
just as well as I know that I’m alive.”

The catcher’s reply was a wide smile, but not a word. As he passed on
and vanished into the dressing room, Merriwell also smiled--but it was a
smile of another sort.

While Merry was getting into his baseball togs, a din of frenzied
cheering was borne to him from the grand stand and bleachers. He knew,
from the mere volume of sound, that the Gold Hill team had appeared from
their dressing rooms under the grand stand, and had scattered over the
diamond to warm up.

A few moments later, Merry stepped out among his players, gathered them
around him, and calmly scrutinized their flushed and eager faces.

“We’ve had two days of practice, fellows,” said he, “and we’re going up
against a team that has been in harness for weeks. But don’t let that
bother you. It’s the spirit you put into your work that counts. Be on
your toes every minute. Come on!”

He flung open the gym door, bounded through it, and started at a trot
toward the ball field. The backstop was at his side, and close at his
heels trailed Clancy and Ballard. After them came the rest of the team.

A broadside of cheers went up from the spectators. Gradually the volume
of sound separated into staccato notes and pauses, and clear and high
rolled the chant, “Merry, Merry, good old Merry!”

Frank flushed. He wondered what that crowd would think if it knew what
“good old Merry” had up his sleeve?

Off to one side, Darrel and Bleeker were working out. Both waved their
hands in friendly greeting to Merriwell, as he and his swarthy-faced
catcher began their preliminary practice.

While passing the balls to his companion, Merry was taking note of the
work of the Gold Hillers. It was snappy, and quick, and true, and the
way the horsehide flashed around and across the diamond was enough to
make the Ophirites wonder a bit how that game was going to come out.

Darrel called in his men, and Frank sent the Ophir players into the
field. Then began an exhibition which was not calculated to inspire much
confidence in the Ophir partisans. Blunt muffed a throw from the home
plate, Spink juggled a fly that had been lifted right into his hands,
and Brad and Handy crashed together in trying to smother a low drive,
and caused a ridiculous flurry between third base and second. Everybody
seemed bent on showing just what a poor performer he could be, on
occasion, and there were more jeers than cheers while Ophir was warming
up.

Frank was thankful to have the comedy of errors cut short by the umpire,
who had produced the little pasteboard box and was shaking the new ball
out of it. The backstop was getting into his chest protector and turning
his cap, preparatory to putting on the mask. Another moment, and Frank
was in the pitcher’s box and the umpire had tossed him the white sphere.
“Play ball!” came the command.




CHAPTER XXXIII.

POOR SUPPORT.


Frank was perfectly cool and composed, and never more thoroughly master
of himself than when he stepped into the box. He knew that fate had
played him up prominently while he had been in that part of the country,
and that what fate had failed to do the florid imaginations of a good
many people had been quick to accomplish.

Many of the spectators, no doubt, expected to find in young Merriwell a
pitcher who was half a wizard and half a magician. Frank realized that
onlookers of this class were due for a severe disappointment. He was
glad of it, for he had no patience with the wild stories about him which
had been flying over that section of the country.

Bleeker was the first man to toe the plate for the Gold Hillers. Clancy,
from first, had to do all the ragging, for the backstop remained as
silent as usual.

“Now for the first victim, Chip. This is Bleek. You know Bleek? Well,
he’s going to look pretty bleak when you get through with him. Start the
circus!”

“Don’t be hard on your old friends, Chip,” grinned Bleeker.

There was an air of jaunty confidence about Bleeker which suggested
three-baggers and home runs. Frank believed that this was a good place
to take a reef in Bleek’s aspirations.

He led off with a jump ball, and the speed behind it made the spectators
jerk themselves together wonderingly. The sphere spanked into the
backstop’s mitt with a report like that of a rifle. Somewhere on its
erratic course Bleek had taken a swat at the deceptive object.

“Strike!” shouted the umpire.

A chorus of jeers went up from around the diamond. Bleek, hardly
realizing what had happened, stood looking foolishly at the end of his
bat.

“Wake up, old man!” warned Darrel from the bench. “Mind your eye, and
don’t reach for the wide ones.”

From the way Merry started the next ball it looked like it was going to
be another lightning express, but when it crossed the plate it was
jogging along like a slow freight. Bleek, expecting something speedy,
smashed at the sphere before it was within a yard of him.

“Strike two!” barked the umpire.

A roar of laughter floated out over the field from the Ophirites in the
grand stand and on the bleachers.

“What’s the use?” yelled some one. “He can’t see ’em!”

“Pound it on the nose the next time, Bleek!” begged a Gold Hiller.

“Kill it! Kill it!”

“Baste it out!”

Bleeker nerved himself for a supreme attempt, but in vain. Merry handed
him an inshoot which found the hole in his bat, and he tramped to the
benches with a flush of chagrin.

“Merry’s certainly all to the mustard,” he grunted, as he dropped down
among his teammates. “He’s got some fancy capers that will fool the best
of ’em. If Hotch connects with the ball it will be an accident.”

“Watch Merriwell, fellows,” urged Darrel. “See how he does it, then
maybe you’ll be ready for him when you go in for your own stickwork.”

Obedient to orders, the Gold Hill players studied Merry and tried to get
“wise” to his curves. But, just as they thought they had discovered
something, they saw something else that proved the supposed discovery
wasn’t any discovery at all.

Hotchkiss, second baseman for the Gold Hillers, was the next man up. He
was a left-handed batter, and Frank, who could pitch equally well with
either hand, fell back on his left wing.

“Jumpin’ tarantulers!” boomed a cowboy. “Watch him, will ye? He’s usin’
his south paw!”

The first was a lightninglike bender, which coaxed a strike out of
Hotch.

“That’s the way to start ’em, Chip!” cried Brad. “One, two,
three--that’s the style.”

“Darn it, Chip,” cried Hotch, “why don’t you gi’ me a chance? Ain’t you
a friend o’ mine?”

The catcher signaled for a wide one, but Hotch was making good use of
his eyes, and allowed it to pass.

The third cut a corner of the plate. Hotch fouled it back of third base,
and had the second strike called on him.

The next signal called for a drop. Frank started it pretty high, and
Hotch grinned and shook his head. Then he looked dazed when the umpire
called him out.

“Rotten!” grunted Hotch, throwing himself down beside Bleeker. “That
last ball was over my shoulders.”

“You’re wrong, Hotch,” answered Bleek. “It was lower than that. Now,
El,” he shouted, as the captain of the team went to bat, “lace it out.
For the love of Mike, show Merriwell we’re alive.”

Darrel just managed to do that. He connected with the second one over,
and Merry smothered it without leaving his tracks.

The Ophirites began to whoop and howl. Their boys were making good, and
they jubilated as only miners and cowboys can.

The first man to face Ellis Darrel for Ophir was the backstop. He
stepped into the batter’s box with a smile, and cheerfully rapped out
the first one over. A fellow named Dart, who played shortstop for the
Gold Hillers, cuffed it down and snapped it to first. The ball beat the
catcher by a yard.

“Tough luck, Joe,” commiserated Clancy, himself stepping to the plate.
“Now,” he called, “put one over, Darrel, and I’ll show you what I can
do.”

Darrel had good control and plenty of speed. Clancy decided to let the
first ball pass, and then listened while the umpire called a strike on
him.

“Don’t go to sleep, Red,” laughed Bleeker.

“Just getting waked up for the next one,” chuckled Clancy.

“Here she is.”

Clancy sawed the air, and spank went the ball in Bleek’s mitt.

“Not waked up yet?” jeered Bleek. “Well, well! How long are you going to
wait?”

“I guess I’ve waited long enough,” said Clancy, and his bat met the next
one on the nose.

It sailed over Darrel’s head, was muffed by Hotchkiss at second, then
picked up and sent to first like a streak of greased lightning. It
looked, from where Merriwell sat, as though Clancy had beat it out. But
the umpire decided otherwise, and the crestfallen Clancy jogged away to
the bench.

Merriwell was next.

“Be easy with this one, El,” suggested Bleeker.

“It would be a feather in my cap if I could fan him,” laughed Darrel.

“That’s been done a good many times, Curly,” Merriwell grinned.

The first ball was a strike. It looked a little wide to Frank, and he
did not reach for it.

The second ball was a wide one, and so was the third. The fourth ball
was just about where Frank wanted it, and he smashed it for a couple of
bases.

“Whoop!” roared Barzy Blunt; “we’re off, we’re off! Three tallies,
pards! I’ll not be satisfied with anything less than three runs this
inning.”

Ballard was the next one up. Merriwell stole third, and he’d have got
home if Ballard had given him a chance. But Ballard fouled once back of
the home plate, and then struck out.

“That’s awful, Chip,” groaned Ballard, passing the pitcher’s box on his
way to center field.

“Never mind, Pink,” answered Frank. “We’re hitting Curly, and next time
we’re at bat I believe we’ll do something.”

Lenaway, left fielder for the Gold Hillers, was the next man to confront
Merry.

“Remember what you did before, Chip!” called Clancy. “Don’t try to hog
the whole game yourself. Start a man this way and give me a chance to
limber up. Start something, old man.”

Lenaway swung at the second ball. He must have caught it on the handle,
for it dropped in front of the plate and rolled briskly down toward
Clancy, just inside the path.

“It’s mine, Chip!” yelped Clancy, and darted at the rolling sphere.

The red-headed chap booted the ball, and by the time he had laid hold
of it, Lenaway was roosting comfortably on first. Frank had run to cover
the base. He now went back to the mound, wondering what in the deuce had
got into Clancy.

“Wow!” cried Lenaway. “You can handle a paddle, Red, a heap easier than
you can field a grounder.”

“Don’t talk to me,” grunted Clancy, in a spasm of self-reproach, “I’m
sore enough.”

“Well, return the ball so I can take a lead.”

“There it goes,” and Clancy tossed the sphere to Merry.

“Now, then,” shouted Darrel, coming down to the coaching line back of
first, “nobody down, fellows! On your toes, everybody. Ginger up, and
we’ll make a showing. Go down toward second, Len--go on! I’m here to
keep you out of danger.”

Dart, the shortstop, picked up a bat and stepped to the plate. Merry got
him for three balls and two strikes, and then Dart lined one out toward
Brad. It was an easy one, but Brad’s fingers were all thumbs, and the
ball went through him like a sieve. The fielder raced in and picked up
the ball, whipping it over to second just an instant too late. Dart
reached the bag, and Blunt, apparently, forgot that Lenaway was on
third.

“The ball, Barzy!” cried Merriwell.

Sudden realization of the fact that the man on third had taken a
dangerous lead toward home startled Blunt. He threw to the plate instead
of to Merry, and he threw wild. While the catcher was chasing the ball
Lenaway got across the first score, and Dart went to third.

There was much glorying in the Gold Hill section of the grand stand. No
one out, one run, and a man on third! Certainly the prospects were
gratifying.

Mingo, the Mexican first baseman, followed Dart to bat. Merry struck him
out, and then expeditiously fanned Rylman, the third baseman.
Doolittle, right fielder, belied his name, and hoisted a fly to Spink in
left field. Spink played beanbag, with it, dropped it, picked it up,
then dropped it again. During the farce, Dart darted home and Doolittle
gained second.

Stark, center fielder, fanned, and Doolittle died on third. But ragged
support had given the Gold Hillers two runs. The swarthy-faced backstop
pulled a long face and Merriwell walked to the bench, trying to figure
out the errors in the first half of the second. They were so many that
he had to give it up.




CHAPTER XXXIV.

WORSE--AND MORE OF IT.


Colonel Hawtrey was flying around the Gold Hill section of the stand,
now and then rising in his seat to cheer or to hand a little
good-natured raillery to his friend, Mr. Bradlaugh.

“Thought you had some ball players over here, Bradlaugh,” he shouted,
while runs were crossing the pan for Gold Hill.

“So did I,” laughed the general manager. “The game’s young yet, colonel.
Wait till we’re a little farther along.”

“You fielders have got to take a brace,” Merry was saying to some of his
teammates. “Clancy, I’m surprised at you! Brad, I wonder how your father
enjoyed that play of yours? Now, then, all get together and do
something.”

Brad, who was first at bat, tried hard to retrieve himself. Perhaps he
tried too hard, for overanxiety is worse than not being anxious enough.
Yet, be that as it may, his little pop-up was bagged neatly by Dart, and
Brad turned from the path to first and made for the bench.

Then Blunt tried for a hit, but Darrel was pitching great ball, and
nothing happened. Handy followed, and managed to get to first but Spink
spoiled all his chances by getting a grounder to Rylman and being thrown
out at first.

Bleeker was up again in the first half of the third. Frank had made up
his mind, by then, that he and the backstop would have to do most of the
work, and he was pitching ball that made the fans open their eyes. He
did not allow a man to reach first, but struck them out as fast as they
came to the plate.

In this round, which added a goose egg to the Gold Hill score, Ellis
Darrel was included.

Reckless, in the last half of the third, aroused Ophir hopes by dropping
the ball into left field. Lenaway made a grand effort to get under it,
but it slipped over the ends of his fingers.

“Now, Joe,” begged Blunt, as the catcher picked out his bat, “bring
Reckless in, and come in yourself.”

The backstop smiled genially, and proceeded to sacrifice Reckless to
second. He almost got to first on the bunt, but was called out by the
umpire.

“Now, do your prettiest, Clan,” urged Merry. “You’ll never have a better
chance to do something.”

“Watch me, that’s all,” grinned the red-headed chap. “Here’s where I
make up for some of my errors.”

Then an awful thing happened. Clancy hit a long fly. The coacher thought
the fielder couldn’t possibly get it, and started Reckless to third. But
the fielder, making a magnificent running catch, took the ball in out of
the wet and whipped it to second.

That was all; and the best chance Ophir had yet had to score was lost.
The Gold Hillers began to sing, and some of the more demonstrative
marched in a procession around the grand stand, using their megaphones
to “rub it into” the Ophirites.

The score remained two to nothing. By magnificent work, Merriwell and
his swarthy backstop continued adding ciphers to the Gold Hill score,
but they were not able to get any runs for themselves.

“Something’s bound to happen yet, colonel,” said Mr. Bradlaugh, in the
second half of the eighth. “I shouldn’t wonder if the balloon would go
up about here.”

“The score would have been twenty to nothing,” declared Colonel Hawtrey,
“if Merriwell and that Mexican catcher hadn’t stood like a wall between
our boys and first. By Jove! I never saw steadier or more clear-headed
work, and right in the face of the worst support I ever heard of. You
can thank your battery, Bradlaugh, for getting off easy this afternoon.”

“Perhaps,” answered the general manager hopefully, “we’ll be able to
thank our battery for more than that.”

“I can admire your grit, anyhow,” laughed Hawtrey, “even if I can’t
applaud your judgment. You are right about one thing, though, Bradlaugh:
A game is never finished until the last man is out.”

The Gold Hillers, who had hoped to roll up a big score, were now
contenting themselves with merely holding their opponents. Two runs
would be enough. They would win one of the hardest games ever contested
on the Ophir diamond.

“We’ve got to have three tallies, fellows,” was the word Frank was
circulating among his men. “All together, now! We’ve fooled with these
Gold Hill chaps long enough.”

Frank was cheerful, even sanguine. Even when Darrel fanned the first
three men to come to bat, Merriwell continued to cheer up his
discouraged teammates.

“We’re going to win,” said he confidently. “I’ve got a hunch to that
effect.”

“Pretty soon it will be too late to start,” returned Blunt gloomily.

“It’s never too late to start, Barzy, so long as the under dog has a
chance to bat.”

“Well, we’ve only got one more chance.”

“That will be enough--providing we improve it.”

During the first half of the ninth, Gold Hill came within a hair’s
breadth of getting another run. A throw to the plate, relayed to
Merriwell and passed to the backstop, who made a marvelous catch and
tagged out the runner, was all that prevented the score from coming in.

“Who made that throw from deep center?” shouted Colonel Hawtrey, rising
in his seat.

“Ballard, Merriwell’s chum,” some one replied.

“Bravo, Ballard!” cheered the colonel. “Now you’re playing ball! And you
Mexican boy, down there!”

The Ophir catcher, with a queer movement, turned and looked up at the
colonel.

“That was fine, do you hear?” went on the colonel enthusiastically. “I
must shake hands with you for that.”

The backstop turned on his heel and walked to the benches with bowed
head.

“It’s about over, Bradlaugh,” said the colonel, lifting his voice high
in order to be heard through the buzz of conversation that surrounded
him. “So far as results are concerned, we could just as well leave now.”

“Don’t be in a rush,” answered Mr. Bradlaugh. “I still think something
is going to happen that will turn the tide in our favor.”

“Hope springs perennial in the breast of the baseball fan,” laughed
Hawtrey.

“Merriwell gets to bat in the last half. He’ll do something.”

“How do you figure that?” demanded Hawtrey. “Spink is first up, then
Reckless, then Mexican Joe, then Clancy. Merriwell comes after that.
What chance has Merriwell got to do any stickwork? Three will fan before
his turn at the plate--Darrel will look out for that.”

“Maybe Darrel will slip up in his calculations,” said the general
manager doggedly.

With his hands thrust deep into his pockets, Mr. Bradlaugh sat in
growing hopelessness while Spink and Reckless fanned. It looked as
though it was all over. Many of the Gold Hillers in the automobiles
began to toot their horns triumphantly, and to prepare to leave. Those
in the grand stand and on the bleachers were already congratulating each
other.

With two out, the swarthy backstop was leading the forlorn hope. What
could he accomplish, in the face of defeat that seemed absolutely
certain?

There was nothing about the catcher, as he picked up his club and
stepped to the plate, which suggested that he was either nervous or
discouraged. He was there to do his best, and thoughts of failure did
not seem to bother him in the least.

No one, not even the Ophirites, had much to say to the backstop. It
seemed, to almost every one except Merriwell and the catcher, as though
the game was irretrievably lost. Merry and the catcher, however, were
still hoping against hope.

Darrel, perhaps too confident of victory, allowed a ball to cross the
plate just about where the catcher wanted it. With a crack that sounded
like the report of a rifle he lifted the horsehide far out between left
and center.

The smack of bat against ball at once claimed the attention of the
crowd.

Those who were on the point of leaving stood in their tracks and faced
around to follow proceedings on the diamond.

“It’s only a flurry,” the Gold Hillers said to each other. “There are
two out, and not a ghost of a chance for Ophir tying the score. They’re
dying hard, though.”

Stark, in center field, managed to pick up the ball and to fling it in.
He was so quick with it that the catcher was prevented from making a try
for third.

Clancy was the next batter. His flagging hopes had been revived. After
him came Merriwell. If Clancy could only make good use of the
swatstick, a whole chain of gorgeous possibilities would flash through
the murky skies that encompassed Ophir.

“Keep your nerve, Clan,” called Merry. “Remember, it’s all up to you.
Lace it out, old chap. Not that way,” he added, with a laugh, as the
nervous Clancy swung at the sphere and missed.

Clancy ground his teeth, and into his wildly beating heart there entered
the determination to do or die.

Again Darrel sent the ball at him. The bat moved a little in his hands,
but did not come down.

“He had a notion!” some one yelled, as the umpire called a ball. “Coax
him again, Darrel. He can’t get a hit!”

Once more Darrel “wound up,” and let the ball go. This time, to the
dismay of the Ophirites, Clancy cracked it out. It sped hotly past the
pitcher, and was finally scooped up by short.

The complexion of affairs had changed. The backstop was on third, and
Clancy was hugging first. Handy went down to the coaching line.
Merriwell, a smile on his face, stepped to the plate.

“All I want is a good one, Curly,” said he, “and we’ll sew up the game
right here.”

A wild commotion broke out among the spectators. Those who had started
to leave sat down again, and some who had left crowded back into the
grand stand.

Was it possible, every onlooker was asking himself, that Ophir could
snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in such a spectacular manner?

Merriwell was at the bat. Here was the point that aroused the wildest
fears of Gold Hill, and the fondest hopes of Ophir.




CHAPTER XXXV.

WON IN THE NINTH.


Nerves, everywhere around the ball field, were drawn to breaking
tension. On Merriwell alone depended the fortunes of the day for Ophir.

It was the last half of the ninth inning. There were two out and two on
bases. A hit by Merriwell would certainly bring in the catcher, and, if
the hit happened to be a two-bagger, a couple of scores might be put
across the pan. This is as far as the wildest dreams of the Ophirites
allowed them to go.

Ellis Darrel was keyed up to the highest pitch of achievement. If he
could strike out Merriwell--something which he had not been able to do
so far--the danger point would be safely passed. He made up his mind
that he would fan him.

It was something which Darrel hated to do. There was no one whom Darrel
thought more of, or to whom he owed a greater obligation, than Frank
Merriwell, junior.

With face a little white and eyes gleaming restlessly Darrel shot a ball
across the plate. It was not the sort of a ball Merry wanted, so he let
it pass.

A discontented murmuring came from the wild-eyed Ophirites as the umpire
called the strike.

There was silence in the crowded grand stand, over the bleachers, and
among the automobiles. All eyes were fixed, as by a weird fascination,
on the trampled ball field, holding the players steadily under gaze, and
keeping nervous track of the base runners and of the lithe, slender
figure holding the bat.

Darrel let fly with another ball. It was wide. The third one delivered
was also too far off to count. But the next one----

Merriwell, with a terrific swing, met it squarely. With a smack that
could be heard for half a mile in the quiet air, the bat started the
ball skyward.

Wild cheers broke from the crowd, and the hardest cheering was done by
Colonel Hawtrey. What did he care how that magnificent hit might benefit
Ophir at the expense of Gold Hill? He had just witnessed the finest
example of pluck in the face of overwhelming discouragement which it had
ever been his lot to observe.

“Go it, Merriwell!” shouted the old colonel, hopping up and down and
thrashing his arms in the air. “See how many bases you can tear off
before the ball comes in.”

“There’s the greaser, spilling over the home plate!” howled a delirious
voice.

“And here comes Clancy! Hoop-a-la! Watch him go. That red head looks
like a comet.”

Blunt was standing up on the players’ bench, roaring at the top of his
voice. What he said, however, was lost in the general hubbub.

While Clancy was covering the ground as though it burned his feet, the
fielders were scrambling to get the ball. Farther and farther out they
went, clear down into the distant oval of the cinder track.

Clancy came home--the score was tied. Still the ball was not coming
back.

“Come in, Merry!” howled a hundred frantic voices. “Come in! You’ve
knocked out a home run!”

This was really the case. The voices of the coachers were drowned in
Merriwell’s ears, and he had to keep track of the ball himself. He was
disposed to play safe. In the face of the general yell for him to get in
the winning tally, however, he plunged for home with all the speed that
was in him. By then the ball was coming, and those who had shouted for
Merry to finish his circle of the bases were beginning to feel sorry
that their ardor had carried them away.

The ball was relayed from second by a beautiful throw. Bleeker nabbed it
and reached for Merry. But, at that moment, Merry’s feet were on the
plate.

“Safe!” bellowed the umpire.

That was the signal for bedlam to be turned loose. There was still a
chance for Ballard to bat, but the game was won, and what was the use of
prolonging the agony?

Spectators scrambled into the field and a rush was made for the panting
and dusty Merriwell. Those who could not get near Merry rushed at
Clancy, and those who failed to reach Clancy made a set at the swarthy
backstop.

It was remembered that honors were due equally to the three lads who had
brought in the runs. It was the catcher who had started the batting
rally, and had he not got a hit there would have been no chance for
Clancy and Merriwell.

Colonel Hawtrey was one of those who had failed to come close to Merry
and Clancy and had turned to the backstop.

“My boy,” said he, his voice a-thrill with excitement, “you started a
bit of the finest and most sportsmanlike work I have ever seen pulled
off on a ball ground. I wish to congratulate you, and----”

The colonel paused. The streams of sweat, which were pouring down the
backstop’s face, were leaving little gutters of white in the swarthy hue
of his cheeks.

“You’re not a Mexican!” exclaimed the colonel.

“No,” agreed the youth, standing his ground. “I never said I was a
Mexican, colonel.”

“That voice!” gasped Hawtrey, recoiling. “That----”

He suddenly ceased speaking. His face hardened and his eyes became two
glowing points of white-hot steel.

“I know you!” went on the colonel savagely. “You couldn’t get into the
game by fair means, and so you disguised yourself, smearing your face
with some kind of stain to make you look like a Mexican. You
double-dealing scoundrel! You----”

Just at this point Darrel stepped to the front and thrust an arm
affectionately through that of his half brother.

“Don’t blame Jode for it, colonel,” said Darrel. “I’m the one who
engineered the scheme.”

“And I’m the one who helped you,” said Merry, moving up on Lenning’s
other side.

Colonel Hawtrey passed a dazed hand across his forehead.

“Do you mean to say, Ellis,” he muttered, “that you--you admit having
deceived me?”

“I admit persuading Jode to fix himself up as Mexican Joe,” answered
Darrel. “It was his only chance to get into the game, you see. He had to
come in as Merriwell’s substitute, although posing at the same time as
Mexican Joe.”

“Why did you want him in the game?” demanded the colonel.

“We wanted to see him do some good work and win back your friendship and
that of a few of the lads who have turned against him.”

“Perhaps he has succeeded,” said the colonel coldly, “but it is a case
of double-dealing which I will not countenance.”

Hawtrey, elbowing the crowd aside, started toward the clubhouse.

“I say, colonel!” called Mr. Bradlaugh.

“I’m going to town, Bradlaugh,” said the colonel, without looking back.
“If you want to see me, it will have to be at the Ophir House.”

“Don’t fret, boys,” said Mr. Bradlaugh to Merry, Lenning, and Darrel.
“He’ll feel better after a while. I’ll see what I can do with him.”

With that Mr. Bradlaugh hurried after his irate friend.




CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE PLOT THAT FAILED.


“You can see what’s happened, Darrel,” said Lenning, turning with a
weary air to his half brother. “The colonel is down on me worse than
ever; and he’s down on you, too.”

Merry, Darrel, and Lenning were surrounded by a crowd about equally
composed of Gold Hill and Ophir players. The revelation that had
stripped the mask from the supposed Mexican Joe, leaving in his place
the friendless Jode Lenning, had come as a stunning surprise.

“I’d like to know something about this, Chip,” said Ballard. “It strikes
me that you haven’t been square with us.”

“He was as square as he could be, Pink,” answered Darrel. “After the
plot was hatched he couldn’t very well give it away, could he?”

“Where the deuce is Mexican Joe?” asked Clancy.

“I got a note from Burke last evening,” Merriwell exclaimed, “which
informed me that Joe had been called suddenly back to the bedside of his
sick relative. That put me strictly up against it, till Darrel blew in
and suggested that Lenning be substituted for Mexican Joe, but without
telling any one the difference.”

“I had a hard time getting Jode’s consent,” said Darrel, “but finally,
more to please Chip and me than anything else, he agreed. I secured that
stain for him in town, and Burke got him some clothes that looked enough
like the greaser’s to pass muster. He was a pretty close imitation of
the real thing, eh, fellows?” Darrel laughed, slapping his half brother
heartily on the back.

“I should say so!” exclaimed Clancy. “Why, we had the real Mexican with
us for a couple of days, and yet I couldn’t see any difference between
the two.”

“Nor I,” said Ballard. “Lenning was a dead ringer for Mexican Joe.”

“What was the plot aimed at, Chip?” asked Blunt.

“It was aimed at you fellows and the colonel. We thought Lenning would
make such a good record in the game that he would win the approval and
good will of the colonel and the boys from Gold Hill and Ophir. But,”
Merry finished regretfully, “I guess we made a miss of it, and that the
plot failed.”

“Not much it didn’t fail--that is, not entirely,” Blunt resumed.
“Lenning has shown himself a good deal of a man, by jumping into this
thing like he did, and I for one feel as though I had made a blamed fool
of myself.” He turned to Lenning. “Will you shake hands,” he asked.

A gratified smile wreathed itself about Lenning’s lips.

“You bet I will, Blunt!” he exclaimed. “The plot certainly worked out
all right if it gave me Barzy Blunt for a friend.”

“Shucks!” grunted Blunt, deeply touched. “I reckon I acted like a
coyote, t’other day, when I allowed I wouldn’t have you in this nine of
Chip’s. I’m sorry I tuned up like I did.”

“Just forget it, Blunt,” smiled Lenning.

“I feel a good deal the same as Barzy does,” spoke up Handy. “If it
hadn’t been for you, Lenning, dropping into our team as a substitute for
the Mexican, I reckon we would have lost out. Will you shake with me?”

And, beginning right there, Jode Lenning held an impromptu reception.
Reckless was next to grip his hand after Handy had released it; then
came Clancy and Ballard, and every player that was left in both teams.

“I guess you fellows didn’t fall down on that plot, after all,” laughed
Clancy. “You made good on the diamond, Lenning, and that has shown a few
of us what pesky idiots we were.”

“I--I want you to understand, fellows,” said Lenning, his voice
trembling and his eyes misty, “that I appreciate your show of confidence
in me. I have turned over a new leaf, and I’m not particularly anxious
to curry any favor with Colonel Hawtrey. I gave him cause to treat me as
he did, and I don’t want him to think I’m sneaking around, trying to get
him to take me back and help me. I wouldn’t go back if he offered to
take me. I’m earning my way now, and I want to be independent.”

“That’s the talk!” approved Barzy Blunt.

“Come on over to the gym, fellows,” called Merry, “and let’s get under
the showers. I think we’ll all feel better for a bath and a rubdown.”

“It’s like going home, El,” Lenning whispered to Darrel, with a catch in
his voice.

Silently Darrel’s arm went around his half brother and tightened
affectionately.

The plot may have failed in so far as it concerned Colonel Hawtrey, but
in other ways, equally far-reaching, it had been a success.




CHAPTER XXXVII.

WOO SING AND THE PIG.


“Suffering snakes!” exclaimed Barzy Blunt, coming to a halt in the
trail, “what in blazes is that, fellows?”

“It might be a steam calliope breaking out in high C,” grinned Owen
Clancy, “only this part of Arizona runs more to cantaloupes than
calliopes, so----”

Billy Ballard groaned heavily.

“Pa-ro-no-masia,” he said, clearly and distinctly. “Get that?”

“No,” said young Merriwell decidedly, “I don’t get it, Pink, and I don’t
want to. Sounds worse than the measles.”

“I reckon I’ve had it,” remarked Blunt seriously. “If it’s catching, I
know I have. When I was a kid I made it a rule to corral everything from
mumps to meningitis. Can you have it twice?”

“I’m vaccinated,” said Clancy, “so I guess it wouldn’t be fatal even if
I did catch it. What are the symptoms, Pink?”

“In your case, Red,” Ballard explained, “the symptoms are ‘cantaloupe’
and ‘calliope.’ Professor Phineas Borrodaile, who is long on
polysyllables, explained the term to me.”

“Well, come across. What sort of a silly-bull is this
pa-ra-what-d’you-call-it?”

“Slay him!” whispered Ballard weakly. “There are more symptoms.”

Feigning wrath, Clancy bristled up to Ballard.

“I’ll be slaying you, Pink,” he growled, “if you don’t tell me what I’ve
got so I can get rid of it.”

“Keep your distance, Clancy!” ordered Ballard. “I can see another pun in
your eye. If you make it, somebody will have to hold me or I’ll give you
a jab with my powerful right.”

“That would be a pun-jab, and---- Ouch! Quit it, Chip! Let go!”

Merry had grabbed his red-headed chum with both hands.

“Will you let up of your own accord, Clan,” hissed Merry, “or have I got
to strangle you?”

“I’ll quiet down if Pink will kindly explain what he means,” said
Clancy.

“A fellow who puns has pa-ra-no-masia,” explained Ballard.

“Oh, that’s it!” murmured Clancy, pretending a great relief. “A fellow
who puns ought to be punished, I suppose.”

“He ought to be punched,” declared Ballard; “and right here----”

But, just at this point, the sound which Blunt had first heard, and
which had aroused his curiosity, came suddenly closer. It was loud, and
shrill, and ear-splitting. Nor was it hard to determine the cause of it,
now that it was so close.

“A pig, by thunder!” exclaimed the cowboy.

The words were still on his lips as a small and highly excited porker
came plunging wildly into view around a turn in the trail. There was a
rope tied to one of the pig’s hind legs, and attached to the end of the
rope was a Chinaman.

The Chinaman’s silk kimono was split up the back, one of the sleeves had
been torn away, and what remained of the garment was covered with dust
and grime. His flapping trousers were also considerably out of repair,
and one of his sandals was gone.

“Why,” cried Merry, “it’s Woo Sing!”

Woo Sing was the Chinese roustabout at the Ophir House, the hotel at
which Merry and his chums had put up during the whole of their stay in
Ophir, Arizona. Ordinarily, Woo Sing was very bland and peaceable, but
now it was evident that his Oriental temper was getting the best of him.

“Whoosh!” he shouted, on catching sight of the boys. “One piecee pig
makee heap tlouble. Woo Sing no likee pig, by Klismus! Somebody give Woo
Sing club, by gee clickets, him makee pig bologna sausage chop-chop.”

The pig, for the moment, had stopped struggling and stopped squealing.
With his round, wicked little eyes he was surveying the four lads in the
trail.

“Where’d you get the porker, Sing?” inquired Ballard.

“Pophagan he wantee. Him sendee Woo Sing to gettee. I pay fi’ dol’ fo’
pig, and he makee fitty dol’ damage with tlouble. Pophagan no sendee
Sing fo’ pig ally mo’. Him tly sendee, Sing quit job, by glacious!”

All the boys studied the angry Chinaman for a moment, and then the humor
of the situation broke over them, and they began to laugh.

“You makee laugh, huh?” chattered the Chinaman wrathfully. “You ketchee
heap plenty fun flom China boy’s tlouble! By jim’ Klismus, I been so mad
I likee make fight. Mebbyso, you takee pig with stling bymby flom one
place to some othel place. Pig makee tlouble fo’ you, then China boy
laugh allee same Sam Hill. Now China boy no can laugh. Whoosh! Giddap,”
he added, shaking the rope in an attempt to make the pig resume the
journey townward.

The pig, however, seemed to have ideas of his own on the subject of
starting. Planted firmly in the trail, he merely let out a protesting
squeal every time Woo Sing jerked the rope.

“He makee squeal, no makee move!” cried the exasperated Chinaman.

“He’s balky, Sing,” observed Blunt, tipping a humorous wink at the other
lads. “You’ve got the rope around the wrong end of that pig. If you had
it hitched in front, you know, you could pull him along.”

“In flont?” cried the Chinaman, in horror. “Me no gettee in flont of pig
fo’ hunnerd dol’. It plenty bad to tlavel behind, where China boy makee
watch pig do his devil tlicks. P’laps pig makee move if China boy givee
kick.”

With that, Sing hauled off with the foot which still wore a sandal. In
less than a second the Chinaman’s foot and the pig had a rear-end
collision. The pig let out an angry squeal, and started--but not in the
right direction. Instead of striking out along the trail on the way to
Ophir, the pig began running circles around Sing.

In just two rounds the Chinaman’s feet were neatly lashed together by
two coils of rope. Another round, and the pull on the rope jerked the
bound feet out from under their owner, and he sat down in the trail with
more haste than grace.

By that time, the pig evidently came to the conclusion that he had done
enough circling, and started off on the straightaway. He did not head
toward Ophir, however, but away from the town and in the direction of
Bitter Root Cañon.

For possibly two yards he dragged the helpless Chinaman after him, then
the Chinaman’s weight, pulling against the loop around the pig’s leg,
caused the rope to slip off, and the unmanageable little porker found
himself free to travel where he pleased.

Frank and his friends had been attempting to do something to relieve the
Chinaman’s distress. Woo Sing was sputtering like a package of
firecrackers, however, and the situation was so funny that the boys had
to laugh in spite of themselves. Their enjoyment interfered with their
efforts to aid, and they had barely surrounded the pig and the Chinaman
when the pig broke loose.

Ballard, as it happened, was right in the pig’s way. Without taking the
trouble to go around Ballard, the pig charged for his legs, and knocked
them out from under him. For about a second Ballard was standing on his
head.

“Me losee fi’ dol’, him gettee ’way!” wailed Woo Sing, untangling
himself from the rope and jumping to his feet. “Whoa, pig! Come, pig;
come, pig!”

The Chinaman was flying at speed after the escaped porker.

“Help ketchee, help ketchee!” he flung over his shoulder, in an
imploring voice, as he raced onward.

“That’s the darndest, most contrary pig I ever saw in my life!” fumed
Ballard.

“He’s not used to chinks,” laughed Blunt, “and that’s all the trouble.”

“Pink tried to hog all the Chinaman’s trouble,” said Clancy, “and now
he’s sore because he got just a little of it.”

“Gee!” exclaimed young Merriwell; “the pig’s going like a streak, and
he’ll be in the cañon in about two minutes. No chance of overhauling him
so long as he sets a pace like that.”

The trail Frank and his friends were traveling was the one leading from
town to the clubhouse and athletic field of the Ophir Athletic Club.
This was also the main trail to Gold Hill; and, at the point where the
clubhouse road branched away, the pig had exercised considerable
discrimination by keeping right on toward Gold Hill.

The frantic Woo Sing was leading the pursuit. His tattered garments were
fluttering and snapping around him in the wind of his flight, and his
long queue was standing straight out behind. The pig was a mere flurry
of dust in the distance.

At the place where the trail forked to lead to the clubhouse, Frank drew
to a halt.

“We can’t all of us go on and help Sing, fellows,” said he. “There’s
work for us at the golf links, and we can’t waste time getting there.
Ballard, you and Blunt go on and help recapture the pig. Clan and I will
hunt up Mr. Bradlaugh and Colonel Hawtrey and see what we can do for
Lenning.”

“There’s your chance, Pink,” laughed Clancy. “Go ahead and stir
yourself. But I’d advise you not to get too much in the pig’s way. If he
makes a dead set at you, just swing around, get on his back, and ride.
Do that, and it won’t be long before you tire him out and get him so
he’ll eat out of your hand.”

“You go to blazes!” growled Ballard. “If you know so much about catching
runaway pigs, maybe you’d better go with Blunt and let me trail along
with Chip.”

“Come on, Bal,” cried the cowboy, and started off, running awkwardly in
his feet-pinching, high-heeled boots.

Without waiting for further talk, Ballard took after Blunt. Merry and
Clancy watched until the little cloud of dust, representing the pig, had
crossed the rim of the cañon and vanished down the steep slope; then,
turning, they set their faces toward the clubhouse.

“That was more fun than a box of monkeys, Chip,” chuckled Clancy. “I
wish I could be around to see how the chase comes out.”

“They’ll catch the pig, of course,” laughed Merriwell. “It means five
dollars to Sing, and he’ll never give up until he lays the porker by the
heels. Ballard and Blunt couldn’t very well give up the chase and leave
the Chinaman to go it alone.”

For a few moments the two chums walked onward, chuckling and snickering
over recent events; then, as they drew near the clubhouse, Merry’s face
suddenly straightened.

“Now, Clan,” said he, “we’re right up to one of the hardest jobs we ever
tackled. Let’s get serious.”




CHAPTER XXXVIII.

A GOOD WORD FOR LENNING.


It was Monday forenoon, and the second day after Merriwell’s pick-up
nine had clashed on the diamond with the team from Gold Hill.

As a result of Jode Lenning’s clever work during that game, he won over
all the ball players, and made many friends among the spectators; but
the one man Merry and Darrel had wished to reconcile with Lenning became
angry at what he termed Lenning’s deception, and seemed more bitterly
set against the young fellow than ever. That one man was Colonel
Hawtrey.

Lenning, happy in the thought that many of the friends he had lost had
been regained, returned with a light heart to his work at the Ophir
Mine. At the Ophir House, directly after the baseball game, Mr.
Bradlaugh, president of the Ophir Athletic Club and general manager for
the syndicate that operated the gold mine, had labored hard with Colonel
Hawtrey to soften him in his attitude toward Lenning. He had not been
very successful, but he had given Frank a tip that, Monday forenoon, he
and the colonel were to play a game of golf on the Ophir club links, and
he suggested that Frank appear personally and speak a good word for
Lenning.

What the ball game had failed to accomplish, Frank might succeed in
bringing about by explaining that, whatever duplicity Lenning had used
in the game, had been at the suggestion and by the advice of Merriwell
himself and of Darrel.

It was a delicate mission, this that was taking Frank to the golf links
that forenoon, and he had every reason to consider it, as he had
observed to Clancy, “one of the hardest jobs he had ever tackled.”

The club links lay to the south of the clubhouse, and Merry and Clancy
had hardly reached the clubhouse door before they glimpsed two
white-clad figures and two diminutive lads with bags out on the course.
One of the white-clad figures was on its knees, building a tee.

“There they are, Clan,” remarked Merriwell soberly.

“Sure thing, Chip,” laughed Clancy, a little uneasily. “Let’s mosey over
and have our little interview.”

Perhaps it was not an opportune moment in which to interrupt two golf
enthusiasts, but Merry reflected that he and Clancy were there by
invitation of Mr. Bradlaugh, and it seemed the part of wisdom to get
their interview with the colonel over as soon as possible.

It was the colonel’s first drive, and he was carefully weighing his
driver in his hands as the boys came up.

“Hello, Merriwell,” he called out genially; “and here’s Clancy, too. Did
you come out to see me get the better of Bradlaugh? This,” he laughed,
“is going to be one time when Gold Hill puts Ophir down and out.”

Mr. Bradlaugh nodded to the boys, and gave Merry a suggestive wink. That
wink said, as plain as words, that Merriwell had better chip in with his
word for Lenning while the colonel was feeling in such an amiable mood.

“I don’t want to butt in here, colonel,” said Frank, “but Clancy and I
didn’t come to see your match with Mr. Bradlaugh, but to have a bit of a
talk with you.”

A look of surprise crossed the colonel’s face, and then his brows
lowered with just a shade of suspicion. He tucked his driver under his
arm, gave a regretful look at the waiting ball, and then pushed his
hands resignedly into his trousers pockets.

“Go ahead, Merriwell,” said he. “I wouldn’t allow many young fellows to
stand between me and the ball I’m going to put over that bunker, I can
tell you. I realize, though, that I’m vastly indebted to you in a good
many ways. What’s on your mind?”

“There’s just one thing, colonel,” returned Merriwell earnestly, “which
I’d like to see accomplished before Clancy, Ballard, and I pull up
stakes and quit southern Arizona.”

“Only one thing, eh?” said the colonel, with a faint smile. “Well, what
is it?”

Frank was brought right up to the critical point, first crack out of the
box. He had steeled himself for the ordeal, however, and answered
calmly:

“It’s about Jode Lenning, colonel. I’d--I’d like to see you take down
the bars a little, and be friends with him.”

The faint smile had passed from Hawtrey’s face. The brows lowered again.

“Be friends with that young ne’er-do-well?” he observed. “That’s the
thing you’d like to see accomplished before you leave Arizona?”

“Yes, sir,” Frank answered hopefully.

“When do you expect to leave?”

Frank’s hopes continued to grow. Why all this talk if the colonel was
not inclined to be in a receptive mood regarding his cast-off nephew?

“Why, we’re going to leave just as soon as Professor Borrodaile receives
his check from Mr. Bradlaugh’s syndicate for the mine in the Picketpost
Mountains. Just when that will be I don’t know.”

“I can tell you, my boy,” struck in Mr. Bradlaugh. “I had a telegram
from New York yesterday, saying the check would be here in to-day’s
mail. The stage will bring it this forenoon.”

“That means, then,” said Merriwell, “that we’ll probably get away
to-morrow.”

“Too soon.” scowled the colonel. “You’re not giving me time enough.”

“About how much time do you want, Hawtrey,” queried Mr. Bradlaugh, “in
order to show a merciful and forgiving spirit toward your own flesh and
blood?”

Colonel Hawtrey faced Mr. Bradlaugh slowly and looked him full in the
eyes.

“About fifty years,” he answered harshly, “and then some.” His tone
changed a little as he turned back to Merriwell. “I’m sorry, my lad,” he
went on. “I suppose you’ll think I’m a hard-hearted old wretch, but this
matter that seems so simple to you is really quite complicated. As I’ve
said before, Jode has made his own bed, and now he must lie in it.”

“I’d like to explain,” Frank continued gloomily, “that Jode got into the
ball game because Darrel and I begged him to. If there was any
deception, Darrel and I are responsible for it.”

“I suppose that Jode is sending you to me with all this talk,” commented
the colonel. “It would be like him.”

“He has nothing to do with it, colonel,” protested Frank. “In fact, he
says he doesn’t want to curry any favor with you. He says you did
exactly right to set him adrift, and that, from now on, he intends to
make his own way in the world and stand on his own feet. He doesn’t want
any help from you.”

“That’s a very laudable purpose--if Jode really means what he says.
But--you never can tell about that. I’ve had enough of the young cub.”

“He means what he says now, colonel,” averred Frank earnestly, hating to
give up championing Lenning’s cause.

“It’s my opinion that you’re wrong in thinking that. It’s also my
opinion that you’re showing very poor judgment, as well as a very
generous and forgiving nature, by having anything whatever to do with
Jode. You’ll be sorry, I fear, before you’re done with that scapegrace.”

“Merriwell’s judgment,” suggested Mr. Bradlaugh, “has proved to be
pretty good since he has been with us.”

“I’ll agree with you there, Brad,” nodded the colonel; “but,” and he
laughed, “there’s always got to be a first time when a fellow’s judgment
goes wrong.”

“You ought to make Merriwell feel good over this Lenning affair before
he leaves Ophir, colonel,” observed Mr. Bradlaugh casually. “It wouldn’t
cost you much but a little pinch in your pride.”

“It’s a matter of principle, not pride, with me,” growled Hawtrey. “I’d
do a good deal for you, my boy,” he added, turning to Frank, “but you
could hardly expect me to break a principle just to make you ‘feel
good,’ as Bradlaugh puts it.”

“Lenning is trying to do right,” Mr. Bradlaugh persisted. “He’s as
steady as a clock, out at the mine.”

“Glad to hear it. You can’t depend on him, though, Bradlaugh. He’s
liable to go wrong again at any time. Lenning’s my nephew, and I hate to
say it, but there’s nothing to be gained by shying at the truth.”

Colonel Hawtrey, as though he considered these words final, put himself
in position and let drive at the ball. The white sphere went arching
magnificently across the bunker.

“Beautiful!” murmured Mr. Bradlaugh. “You’re in great form to-day,
Hawtrey.”

The colonel laughed good-humoredly. Turning, he slapped Merriwell
affectionately on the shoulder.

“Don’t fret about Lenning,” said he, “for you’ll find that----”

The colonel was interrupted by a man on a horse, who galloped up and
came to a quick stop at that moment. It was Burke, the superintendent at
the mine.

“Hello, Burke!” exclaimed Bradlaugh, who was just getting ready to make
his drive. “What’s on your mind this beautiful morning?”

“We’ve got to have a new night watchman at the cyanide plant,” Burke
answered.

Everybody’s attention was captured on the instant.

“Where’s Lenning?” demanded the general manager.

“He went away yesterday and hasn’t come back,” said the superintendent.




CHAPTER XXXIX.

STARTLING NEWS.


The night watchman at the cyanide works had very important duties to
perform. Jode Lenning, in spite of his youth, had been filling the
position to the satisfaction of everybody at the mine. Burke’s
announcement, therefore, came as a tremendous surprise.

“Went away?” repeated Mr. Bradlaugh. “Didn’t he tell you he was going?”

“Oh, certainly,” replied the superintendent, “he told me he was going,
and that he would be back in plenty of time to go on duty at the tanks.
Borrowed my saddle horse, too--the sorrel with the white stocking foot.
Up to an hour ago, though, he hadn’t got back. Had to fill in his place
last night with a man from the night shift in the mill.”

Colonel Hawtrey was taking this all in with significant glances,
directed now at Frank and now at Mr. Bradlaugh. His face wore a grim
“I-told-you-so” expression.

“What time did he leave the mine?” asked Mr. Bradlaugh.

“About nine in the morning.”

“Did he say anything about what he intended to do?”

“No. But he did remark, I remember, that he had quite a long ride to
make; and, last evening when he failed to return, the man in charge of
our powder house told me that Lenning had given him a dollar for some
dynamite, a length of fuse, and a cap.”

This merely intensified the mystery.

“What the deuce do you suppose he wanted of that dynamite?” muttered Mr.
Bradlaugh.

“Lenning’s schemes go pretty deep sometimes,” frowned the colonel.
“He’ll not come back, Burke. I don’t believe he intended to come back,
when he left the mine. I’ll ride over in a day or two and give you a
check for your horse and riding gear. I don’t consider that I’m in any
way responsible for your missing property, understand, but Lenning is a
relative of mine, and I don’t want any of my friends to suffer financial
loss through him.”

“I believe he’ll come back,” said Burke. “All my opinions about that boy
have changed since he’s been working at the mine. I think he’s trying to
be square, and to clear his record.”

“I’d give fifty thousand dollars this minute,” declared the colonel, “if
I could know that what you say is a fact. But,” he added, “actions speak
louder than words. Before many hours have passed we’ll hear what Lenning
has been up to. Maybe he just got tired of a life of honest endeavor and
made a sudden break to get away from it. I was afraid that, sooner or
later, the life out there would get too monotonous for him.”

“We’re going to give him the benefit of the doubt,” said Mr. Bradlaugh.
“He was going to take a long ride, and may have met with an accident, or
have been delayed in some other way. Just leave the mill hand on the
work for a day or two, Burke, and we’ll wait for Lenning to show up, or
to send us word.”

“Thought I’d better report the thing to you, Mr. Bradlaugh,” Burke
remarked. “If any other hand had turned up missing, I’d not have
bothered you with the matter, but I realize that Lenning is a sort of
protégé of Merriwell’s, and I wanted to let him know what had happened.”

“I think the affair will come out all right, Merriwell,” said Mr.
Bradlaugh to Frank, “and that there’s no need to do any worrying.”

“Whether it comes out all right or whether it doesn’t, Brad,” spoke up
the colonel, “we’ve got a little business together on the links. Go
ahead and get started.”

Mr. Bradlaugh turned to make his drive.

“Lenning had a reason for not getting back as he said he’d do,” Frank
asserted confidently. “When he shows up at the mine, he’ll explain the
delay in a manner that will be satisfactory to everybody. I’m just as
sure of that as I am that I’m alive this minute.”

The youngster’s loyalty to Lenning won a nod of approval from Mr.
Bradlaugh. While the latter was swinging at the ball, Frank, Clancy, and
Burke turned and started for the trail in front of the clubhouse. The
superintendent rode slowly at the side of the two boys.

“What in the world do you suppose Lenning wanted that dynamite for?”
Burke asked.

“Search me!” Frank answered, vastly puzzled.

“While you’re asking conundrums,” chimed in Clancy, “what did he want to
take a ride for--and a long one, at that?”

“Yesterday was Sunday.” Burke reminded Clancy, “and the mill is shut
down. Most of the men pull out for a ride or a walk.”

“But Lenning has to be on duty every night, hasn’t he? If he was going
to take a ride that lasted all day, when would he get his share of
sleep?”

“Probably he could do without that for one day. You see, he----”

Burke bit off his words abruptly. His eyes were fixed on the trail that
led from the main road to Gold Hill to the clubhouse.

“Who’s that over there?” he asked, with a hint of a laugh in his voice.
“The man, whoever he is, seems to be having a little trouble.”

Against the clear, bright sky a man on a mule stood out in clean-cut
prominence. The man was tall and angular, while the mule was long and
equally angular. The mule was at a standstill, his long ears laid back,
and the rider was pounding his bony sides desperately in an attempt to
get him to move.

“Holy smoke!” chuckled Clancy; “why, that’s Professor Phineas
Borrodaile, our tutor, and he’s trying to make Pophagan’s mule, Uncle
Sam, carry him on to the clubhouse.”

“Uncle Sam appears to be an obstinate brute,” laughed Burke.

“He’s worse than that,” grinned Merriwell. “When Uncle Sam starts, he’s
liable to begin all at once and go straight up in the air before he
moves ahead. We know a little about that mule, and the professor ought
to be pretty well acquainted with him by this time. He---- Ah, look at
that, will you?”

Uncle Sam had suddenly resented the sting of the quirt. As though
propelled by springs he had all at once bounded upward.

Daylight showed between the professor and the saddle, but he kept
himself from going overboard by grabbing at the saddle horn with both
hands. This time, at least, the upward jump was not followed by a
movement forward; on the contrary, Uncle Sam continued to rise in the
air, but not altogether, as at first. The brute was full of tricks and
vagaries, and he began to rise now forward and now at the rear, canting
himself from one position into the other with a lightninglike, seesaw
motion that must have been intensely disagreeable to Professor
Borrodaile. It was rather edifying to the super and the boys, however.

The professor’s hat was jarred off, and the skirts of his long, black
coat billowed about him with each upward spring of the mule. The rider,
flung alternately toward the front of the quadruped and then toward the
back, was put to it to remain in the saddle. Language could be heard,
flowing copiously across the bleak sands from the professor--words of
many syllables, some Latin and a little Greek, but all well calculated
to express the professor’s annoyance.

Burke bowed his head and shook with suppressed mirth. Clancy snickered.
Merry, knowing the professor was safe from injury, took his own toll of
enjoyment. All three of them laid a course calculated to bring them to
the part of the trail at that moment occupied by the professor and Uncle
Sam.

Before they reached the scene of the professor’s trouble, the learned
gentleman had slipped wrathfully from the saddle to the ground and had
planted himself in front of his refractory steed. Clinging to the bridle
reins with one hand, the “prof” shook a finger in the mule’s face and
commenced telling the brute what he thought of him.

“You belong to the stone age, you obnoxious quadruped,” he cried, “when
the genus homo ruled the rest of creation with clubs and granite
hammers! Your unmannerly attempts to relieve yourself of my weight,
should bring upon you punishment of a most severe nature. If I were
possessed of any instrument at all adequate, I should use it savagely in
an attempt to subjugate you. As it is. I can merely pit my strength
against your own, and pull. Will you come, you vicious, long-eared peace
disturber? Will you?”

Hanging to the reins with both hands, the professor lay back on the
bridle with all his strength. For a moment, Uncle Sam resisted; then,
urged by some mulish, mischievous instinct, the brute allowed himself to
relax abruptly and to lurch forward. As a result, the professor went
backward, almost heels over head.

The reins were suddenly released. Freedom, perhaps, was what Uncle Sam
had desired and had been working for. The instant he found himself free,
he whirled around on his hind feet and would have cleared out in the
direction of Ophir had Frank not deftly seized the flying reins.

The professor got up dazedly. Rubbing the small of his back, he passed
his eyes over those who had just arrived upon the scene of his trouble
with the mule. Then, recognizing those who had suddenly grouped around
him, his face brightened.

“Ah, Merriwell!” he murmured; “and Clancy!”

“And Mr. Burke, from the mine,” added Clancy, smothering his enjoyment
as he picked up the professor’s hat. “I guess you know Mr. Burke?”

“I believe we have met,” was the reply. “I was in a hurry to get from
Ophir to the clubhouse, and so I borrowed Pophagan’s mule. That was a
mistake,” he added ruefully, taking his hat from Clancy and carefully
settling it on his head, “a very great mistake. If any one is in a hurry
to transport himself from one place to another, about the worst thing he
can do is to take Uncle Sam. A most perverse brute, young gentlemen! I
assure you that I have spent nearly an hour on the road from Ophir to
the clubhouse.”

“What was your hurry, professor?” inquired Merry, hiding his smile by
turning toward Uncle Sam.

“News of most tremendous importance reached Ophir. I wanted to convey
it to Mr. Bradlaugh. I was informed that he is playing golf on the club
links, so I took Uncle Sam and started for the links.”

“Important news?” asked Clancy, brushing the professor’s clothes with
his hands. “Anything exciting, professor?”

“It has excited me,” was the reply, “because I am indirectly concerned
in what has happened. Did I tell you that payment for the mine in the
Picketposts was due to arrive this morning, by mail from the East?”

“I don’t think you told us, professor,” returned Frank, “but Mr.
Bradlaugh gave us the information a short time ago. The stage must be in
by this time. Did you get your money?”

“Not at all, I’m sorry to say. You see, the stage was robbed while
coming through the cañon, robbed, and----”

“Robbed!” came the startled exclamation from Merriwell, Clancy, and
Burke.

“Yes, robbed,” repeated the professor. “There wasn’t much aboard but the
mail pouches. They were taken, and in one of them was my certified
check, and also the check for Mrs. Boorland. The--the event is most
deplorable. I can ill afford to lose twenty-five thousand dollars. You
see, young gentlemen, I had been counting upon that money to afford me
rest and comfort in my declining years. Now it is gone! I--I thought I
had better tell Mr. Bradlaugh.”




CHAPTER XL.

ANOTHER BLOW.


A period of stunned silence settled over the little group in the trail.
Uncle Sam suddenly and finally dispelled the stillness by tossing up his
head and emitting a long and discordant “hee-haw!” The professor, whose
nerves were in a lamentable state, jumped straight into the air. When he
came down, he turned an indignant look at the mule.

“So!” he mumbled. “That animal is the most provoking creature that ever
lived. One can never tell what he is going to do, nor when he is going
to do it. Where are the golf links, Merriwell?”

“Over there, professor,” Frank answered, pointing toward the golf
grounds. “We just left Mr. Bradlaugh. He and Colonel Hawtrey are out of
sight, just now, behind that bit of a rise, but you can find them
without much trouble.”

“I believe I will go on, then, and acquaint Mr. Bradlaugh with this most
distressing occurrence.”

“Don’t you want to ride?” asked Clancy.

“I prefer to walk,” was the answer. “I will be under obligations to you,
Merriwell, if you will see that Uncle Sam is returned to Pophagan.”

“Just a minute, professor,” struck in Burke. “Can’t you tell us
something about this robbery? Just where did it happen, and how did the
news reach Ophir?”

“The stage driver brought the news to town, and when I left, Hawkins,
the deputy sheriff, was getting one or two men to ride with him and
begin pursuit of the thieves.”

“Any passengers on the stage this morning?”

“No; there was only the driver and the mail pouches. The express company
was supposed to have money aboard this morning’s stage for the Ophir
bank, but, fortunately, the shipment failed to arrive. The robbers,
presumably, had heard of the expected shipment of funds, and so were
disappointed when they had to content themselves with only the mail
pouches. I am a loser to the extent of----”

“Don’t worry over your lost check, professor,” interrupted Burke.
“You’ll not lose a cent. Whether it was a check or a draft, payment will
at once be stopped, and another check or draft will be sent to you.”

The professor was woefully ignorant of business matters.

“You are sure of this, Mr. Burke?” he asked, brightening.

“I am positive. See Mr. Bradlaugh, however, and tell him about what has
happened. He will take the necessary steps to protect you. How many
robbers were in the gang?”

“Two, and they seemed to be young fellows. They had handkerchiefs tied
over their faces, and rode out from behind a mass of bowlders, a mile or
two north of the place where the road leaves the cañon. Pistols were
shown, but not used. The driver had nothing at all in the way of a
weapon--which, perhaps, was a most fortunate thing for the driver. I--I
really believe I had better be going now. I hope, Merriwell, that you
will have no difficulty in getting that vicious quadruped back into his
owner’s hands.”

“I’ll take chances, on that,” Frank laughed, and vaulted into the
saddle. “Want to ride, Clan?” he asked, of his red-headed chum.

“I love to ride,” grinned Clancy, “especially mules.” With that, he
climbed up behind Merriwell.

The professor did not pause to see how quietly Uncle Sam behaved under
Merry’s guiding hand. Already the professor was striding off toward the
golf links.

Without any ill-natured move whatever, Uncle Sam had allowed himself to
be turned around, and had started over the return course to Ophir. His
gait was never very rapid, and Burke restrained the impatience of his
own mount in order to ride beside the boys.

“That is the first time, to my knowledge, that the Gold Hill-Ophir stage
has ever been held up,” remarked the super. “This part of the country
has been tolerably free from crimes of that sort. As a rule, we’re about
as peaceable a community as you’d find anywhere. Mrs. Boorland was
robbed of her money in the gulch--but a sneak thief did that; and then
there was that attempted theft of bullion from the mine. Up to the time
those two crimes were attempted, nothing of the sort had excited the
community since--I don’t know when. Hawkins is getting considerable work
during the last few weeks.”

“He didn’t have any luck chasing those fellows who tried to make off
with the bullion,” said Merriwell.

“Billy Shoup and that unknown safe cracker he had with him were too many
for Hawkins,” said Clancy.

“Hawkins is pretty persistent,” observed Burke. “He hasn’t given up
finding those fellows.”

“It was Shoup who took Mrs. Boorland’s money,” went on Merriwell, “and
it was Shoup, again, with an unknown companion, who tried to steal the
bullion. I’m wondering if the fellow isn’t mixed up in the robbery this
morning?”

“Possibly,” mused Burke. “If he is, he has got himself into hot water
for fair. Stealing mail bags is a crime against the government, and the
secret-service men are relentless fellows to deal with. No stone will be
left unturned to bring the thieves to book, you can gamble on that.
They---- Well, well,” he broke off quizzically, “what sort of a
procession is that, ahead there?”

The boys and the super were close to the point where the clubhouse trail
joined the Gold Hill road. Along the latter trail, at that moment, a
queer little procession was moving in the direction of Ophir.

Billy Ballard was in the lead. He had some object tied to a cord, and
was pulling it slowly through the dust of the road behind him.

Just behind Ballard was a pig--the same small porker with which
Merriwell and Clancy had become acquainted a little earlier in the
forenoon. The pig was tied to a rope by a hind leg, and Woo Sing, as
before, was attached to the rope.

Barzy Blunt brought up the rear of the procession. He was armed with a
long switch.

As Ballard dragged the mysterious object through the dust, he would let
it lie still for a moment, and the pig would run forward to get hold of
it. This was Ballard’s signal to jerk it out of the pig’s way.

Sometimes the pig would trot along after the receding object so rapidly
that the Chinaman had a hard time keeping up; and then again there were
times when the pig grew discouraged, and lagged, and Blunt would have to
reach over Woo Sing’s shoulder and apply the gad.

It was a humorous performance, although none of the four concerned in
it--which includes the pig--seemed to think of it in that light.

“This little trip of mine from town to the clubhouse,” laughed Burke,
“has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. Now, that, I
should say, is about as comical as the professor’s troubles with Uncle
Sam. Whose pig is it? And what are Ballard and Blunt doing, along with
the chink?”

Merry and Clancy explained, and, by the time the explanation was
finished, they had reached the procession. Those with the pig came to a
halt, and Ballard promptly jerked in the object he was dragging, and
held it aloft in his hands. The object proved to be a dirty,
half-shelled ear of corn.

What made the situation all the funnier to Merry, Clancy, and Burke were
the very serious expressions worn by Ballard, Blunt, and Woo
Sing--especially Woo Sing. If there had been a joke about coaxing the
pig to town with an ear of corn, it had long since passed out of the
consciousness of those with the pig.

“Whoop!” shouted Clancy. “You fellows ought to have a drum corps along.
What show do you fellows belong to, anyhow?”

“Chip,” said Ballard sadly, “you handed Blunt and me a hard job when you
sent us with Woo Sing to get back that pesky porker. We had to run our
legs off in the cañon before we could get hands on the pig; and, even
then, he got away from us half a dozen times before we finally landed
him.”

“We’ve had a dickens of a time!” grunted Blunt. “Barked our shins on
bowlders, scratched our hands and face in the chaparral, say nothing of
having the pig knock us down and run all over us. Jumping sand hills!
Say, if I had it to do over again, I’d rather let the pig go and pay
Pophagan five dollars out of my own pocket.”

“Pig plenty hard to ketchee,” sighed Woo Sing. “Him allee same stleak of
lightning, by jim’ Klismus! Now we think we ketchee, now we no ketchee.
Velly tough luck. My no likee, by jing! My tellee Pophagan my no likee.
Pophagan no likee, him gettee ’nother China boy. Whoosh!”

Burke was almost smothered. “Where did you get the corn?” he asked.

“Sing had it in his pockets all the time,” growled Ballard. “The ground
and lofty tumbling he did with the pig shelled the ear a little, but
enough corn was left for a coaxer. It was my idea,” and Ballard’s heavy
face lightened somewhat. “We’ve been teasing the pig all the way from
the cañon, but it’s slow work, and I’m about ready to throw up the job.
What’re you chumps laughing about?” he demanded hotly.

“That’s what I want to know,” scowled Blunt, bending over to rub one of
his shins. “If you think it’s funny chasing a pig over all outdoors,
you’d better try it once.”

“You made good, anyhow,” chuckled Merry. “That’s the principal thing,
fellows. Whether you’re chasing a pig, or running a race of any other
sort, you ought to feel like shaking hands with yourselves when you
win.”

“It’s no joke,” snorted Ballard, “and I want you to stop that fool
grinning.”

“The joke was on the pig,” said Clancy. “And I think it’s a pretty how
de do when three husky fellows like you will make such a rumpus over one
small porker.”

“That’ll do,” cried the cowboy. “A while ago I felt like massacring the
pig, but now I’m beginning to feel as though I’d like to massacre you.
What about it, Pink?”

“Count me in,” answered Ballard. “Only make a complete job of it, that’s
all, Barzy.”

“By the way,” said Blunt, having a sudden thought that sent his
attention galloping on another course, “what’s Jode Lenning doing out
this way?”

“Lenning!” exclaimed Merriwell. “You don’t mean to say you saw him?”

“Looked like him, although he and the other fellow were a good way off.
They were pelting along on horseback, as tight as they could go--came
out of a gulch and rushed along the trail to beat the band. Each of ’em
had something over the saddle in front of him that looked like a bag.
They didn’t come very near where we were, so we didn’t have a chance to
give ’em a close sizing; but the fellow was Lenning--I’d almost stake my
head on it.”

A queer feeling raced through Merriwell’s nerves. He was wondering if,
after all, Lenning had left the mine for some such work as had taken
place in the cañon that morning? Another moment and he had fought down
the rising suspicion.

“What sort of a horse was the fellow riding?” asked Burke; “I mean,” he
added, “the one you thought was Lenning?”

“Sorrel,” reported the cowboy, “a sorrel, with one white forward foot.”

The superintendent drew in a quick breath, and rested his eyes on
Merriwell.




CHAPTER XLI.

A DARK OUTLOOK FOR LENNING.


Merriwell and Burke looked at each other so long and so significantly
that Ballard became curious.

“What’s biting you two, anyhow?” he asked.

In the fewest possible words, Frank told Ballard and Blunt about the
robbery in the cañon.

“Thunder!” exclaimed Ballard. “Why, the stage went past us with both
horses on the run while we were tangled up with that pig. I wondered
then why the mischief the driver was in such a tearing hurry.”

“That must have been right after the robbery,” said the excited cowboy,
“and the driver was in a rush to get to town and spread the news. Gee,
but this is a stunner!”

“Those two fellows we saw on horseback were the robbers,” went on
Ballard. “The things they had in front of them were the mail bags!”

“Great head, Pink!” approved Clancy.

“But, of course,” observed Blunt, “the juniper we thought was Lenning
couldn’t have been Lenning at all. Looked a heap like him, though.”

“Um!” grunted Burke; “I don’t know about that. Lenning left the mine
yesterday and hadn’t returned up to something like an hour ago. He took
my horse when he went--and my horse is a sorrel, with a white stocking
foot.”

Frank was sorry the superintendent had thought it necessary to throw in
any comments about Lenning. The only result would be to crowd suspicion
upon the absent watchman, when, in all likelihood, he was as blameless
of the robbery as Burke himself.

The superintendent, however, was never backward about airing his views.
Ballard stared as he listened to Burke, and then turned and looked at
Barzy Blunt.

Blunt’s face was a study. Up to the time of that ball game with Gold
Hill, the cowboy had had no sort of use for Jode Lenning. In fact, right
to Lenning’s face, Blunt had declared that no respectable fellow would
take part in a game in which a crook like Lenning was booked to play.

But the game itself had changed all that. Blunt, and all the players,
had been won over by Lenning’s clever work, and by his meeting in
masterly fashion that thrilling moment when victory or defeat for Ophir
hung on his efforts alone.

Had the enthusiasm inspired by Lenning’s splendid work in a crisis
developed a friendship that could not last? Frank watched Blunt
critically.

“I reckon you haven’t got it right, Burke,” said the cowboy finally. “It
wasn’t so mighty long ago when I’d have believed Lenning equal to any
sort of skullduggery. It used to make me sore to see Chip, there,
standing up for the fellow, getting him a job, and all that; but, on the
day of that ball game, I made up my mind that Chip Merriwell’s judgment
was warranted not to come out in the wash. ‘What’s good enough for
Chip,’ I said to myself, ‘is good enough for me, and right here’s where
I quit handing it to Lenning every time a chance comes my way.’ I’d be a
pretty measly sort of a coyote if I shook hands with Lenning on Saturday
and then turned against him Monday. Sorrel horse or no, that couldn’t
have been Lenning we saw in the cañon.”

“Bully for you, Barzy!” exclaimed Merriwell, deeply gratified by the
stand the cowboy had taken.

Burke shook his head, by way of dissent.

“The circumstantial evidence is pretty strong,” said he.

“The same kind of circumstantial evidence, Burke,” returned Merry, “that
led you to think Lenning had made off with that bullion. Remember that?
Lenning was missing, and the bullion was missing, so you thought----”

“This isn’t the same, Chip, not by a whole row of ’dobies,” broke in the
superintendent. “Lenning’s record is all against him.”

“So it was the night the bullion was taken,” said Frank warmly, “and
Lenning has been making a mighty fine record since then.”

“Well, this sort of talk won’t get us anywhere. It doesn’t make any
difference, just now, whether Lenning was one of the thieves or whether
he wasn’t. The main point is, Ballard and Blunt saw the thieves
galloping off after the stage was held up. Hawkins ought to be put in
possession of what they know without loss of a moment’s time. I’m going
to hustle for town and tell some one who can get the news to the deputy
sheriff in short order.”

His spurs rattled, and he kicked up the dust on the road to Ophir.

“It gets my goat,” muttered Ballard, “the way Lenning drops into
trouble. Just as he gets started on the right road, something like this
has to happen and put him all to the bad again. I’ll be hanged if I can
understand how he manages it.”

“Somebody else manages it for him,” said Clancy. “That’s an easy guess.
It was Shoup that engineered the bullion plot.”

“Who engineered this one?” queried Ballard.

“Maybe it was Shoup again.”

“Did the fellow you saw with the one who looked like Lenning resemble
Billy Shoup?” asked Frank.

“No more than I do,” said Blunt. “He was a square, chunk of a man. Of
course, you understand we weren’t near enough to see either of ’em very
clearly.”

“I understand that. Well, let’s get to town, fellows. I’m all worked up
about this thing. The professor’s check was in that batch of stolen
mail, and if he doesn’t get it back we’ll have to hang out here until
another check can come on from New York.”

“How many more will that mule carry?” inquired Ballard, looking at Uncle
Sam wistfully.

“He’s loaded to the guards now, Pink,” answered Clancy. “If you got on
with Chip and me, we’d swamp him. Besides,” and here the red-headed
chap’s voice grew rather lofty, “you don’t know how to ride a mule,
anyway. There’s a knack about it that only comes of long practice.”

“Oh, splash!” grunted Ballard. “You’re sitting up there like a frog on a
toadstool. Let’s see what sort of a mule rider you are.”

He was standing within arm’s length of Uncle Sam, and he reached out
suddenly and touched the mule’s flank with one end of the ear of corn.
Thereupon Uncle Sam tried to stand on his head, Blunt had to dodge his
flying heels, and Ballard, in trying to get out of the way, stumbled
over the pig and fell flat. As for Clancy, in spite of his implied
prowess as a mule rider, he was jolted off, and Merriwell had all he
could do to stick in the saddle.

“There, Pink, cut that out!” cried Merry. “We want to get back to town,
and we don’t want any more foolishness. This business of Lenning’s needs
attention.”

“I’m anxious to get back to town, too,” said Ballard, picking himself
up, “but we can’t leave Woo Sing. Suppose we rope the pig and let it
ride in Clancy’s place, Chip? I don’t believe the mule will know the
difference.”

“Good idea,” approved Merry. “Tie the pig and boost it up here.”

“Velly fine!” cried the Chinaman, his slant eyes sparkling.

Blunt, Ballard, and Woo Sing fell upon the small porker, and, while the
air was torn with squeals, they bound his feet together and then hoisted
him to Uncle Sam’s back. There was a good deal of wriggling and
squirming on the pig’s part, but Uncle Sam took it good-naturedly, and
ambled off.

Clancy, Ballard, Blunt, and Woo Sing kept pace with the mule, and they
all arrived in town together. The pig was unloaded in the waiting pen,
out back of the hotel, and Uncle Sam was turned into the small corral
where he passed most of his time. The Chinaman was so happy over the
safe ending of his work with the pig that he almost shed tears.

“Melliwell,” he snuffled, “you do a heap plenty fo’ Woo Sing. China boy
nev’ fo’gettee.”

“Not a word for us,” said Ballard disgustedly, as he walked away with
Frank and the rest, “and Blunt and I helped capture the porker in the
cañon. I always said that chink had a wooden head. Next time he goes pig
catching, by George! he can take Clancy and Chip.”

There was a buzz of excitement in Ophir’s main street. Everywhere the
stage robbery was being discussed. Riders were leaving town by twos and
threes, all heading for the cañon, and fired with a desire to do
something to help run the robbers to earth.

The boys saw Burke just as they turned to mount the steps leading to the
hotel veranda. Burke was sitting on his horse by the hitching pole in
front. He had just mounted, it appeared, preparatory to returning to
the mine.

“Hawkins was gone long before I got here,” said he, “but I sent word to
him by two or three of those who just pulled out for the cañon. Maybe
they’ll see the deputy sheriff, and maybe they won’t. I’ve done the best
I could, though.”

“Telephone in, will you, Burke,” requested Merry, “in case Lenning is at
the mine when you get there?”

“Glad to,” was the answer, “but,” and a grim look crossed the
superintendent’s face as he spoke, “don’t waste any time waiting for the
message, Chip. Lenning’s in this up to his eyes.”

It was dinner time at the Ophir House, and the gong which called guests
to meals had long since sounded. Frank and his friends, as soon as they
could get some of the dust off their faces and hands, went into the
dining room and took their places at the table.

As the robbery had been the one exciting topic in the street, so was it
now the principal event discussed by those at the tables. Lawlessness is
always a theme that draws universal attention, and this was particularly
the case in a town like Ophir.

Although a Western town with a past that was pretty turbulent, in later
years it had settled down into a peaceful and orderly little burg. The
robbery, therefore, had caused a ripple of excitement, since crime of
any sort was in such decided contrast to the ordinary mood of the place.

Frank was no more than half through his meal when, somewhat to his
surprise, Pophagan called to him from the dinning-room door: “Ye’re
wanted at the phone, Merriwell!”

“There it is!” exclaimed Blunt, with much satisfaction. “Burke’s calling
to tell you that Lenning’s at the mine.”

“That must be the case!” exclaimed Frank, hurrying from the room to
answer the call.

The rest of the boys finished their meal hurriedly, and, by the time
they were done and out in the office, Frank came out of the little booth
where he had been receiving his message. There had been a change in his
face. It no longer wore a pleased expression, but was heavy and
troubled.

“What’s to pay, pard?” demanded Blunt.

“The message wasn’t from Burke,” said Merry, “and that’s about all I can
tell you now. Will you take a ride with me, Barzy?”

“A ride? Where?”

“Tell you later. This is a rush order, and we’ve got to be on the move.”

“Sure, I’ll ride with you, Chip--anywhere.”

“Come on, then,” said Merriwell, and hurriedly led the way out of the
office.




CHAPTER XLII.

THE MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE.


Frank was leading the way to the town corral, bent on getting his horse,
Borak. Blunt, who had leave of absence from the Bar Z Ranch, was
likewise keeping his cowpony at the corral. When clear of the main
street, Frank turned, to find Clancy and Ballard trotting along behind
him. He stopped.

“I say, Clan,” said he, “you and Pink are not in this.”

“If not, why not?” demanded Ballard. “This party isn’t so blamed
exclusive that Red and I can’t go along, is it?”

“You’ve nicked it, old man. The orders are for two, and no more.”

“Who sent the orders?”

“Give it up. They come through Dolliver.”

“Oh, Dolliver! Think it has anything to do with the robbery?”

“I hope not,” said Frank. “My biggest wish just now is that it has
something to do with Lenning.”

“Don’t you know that, Chip?” queried Clancy.

“I don’t know a thing about why we’re going out there. It’s a hurry-up
call, and no more than two are to come.”

“Then that settles it,” said Ballard. “Two are to go, and you’ve chosen
Blunt. Take your ride, Chip, but if you don’t get back in a reasonable
time, Red and I will get a couple of horses and follow you.”

“No,” Frank answered hastily, “don’t do that. I wasn’t to tell anybody
but the chap who came with me where we were going. You fellows just stay
here, keep mum, and wait till we get back--if it isn’t until next week.
Understand?”

“That’s a big order, Chip,” said Clancy, “but I guess we can fill it.”

“We’re going to Dolliver’s now,” Frank went on. “I haven’t a notion
where we’ll go from Dolliver’s, or what we’re to do. So long, fellows!”

Rather gloomily Clancy and Ballard bade Chip and Barzy good-by, and
wished them luck. The uncertainty in which Clancy and Ballard were left
was not at all soothing to their nerves.

Blunt proceeded silently with Merriwell to the corral. It was not until
they were mounted, and galloping stirrup to stirrup toward the Ophir
Mine on their way to Dolliver’s that Blunt allowed himself to talk.

“It was Dolliver that got you on the wire, Chip?”

“Yes,” Frank nodded.

“What sort of a powwow did he give you?”

“I told Clan and Pink practically all of it, Barzy. Dolliver said that
some one was just at his ranch and wanted him to telephone to me. It was
noon, and this person who wanted the message sent told Dolliver he
thought I could be caught at the Ophir House without any trouble; but,
if I wasn’t there, then Dolliver was to try and get you.”

“Dolliver didn’t say who the fellow was that wanted one or t’other of
us?”

“I asked him that, but he wouldn’t answer. He said I was to come to his
place as quick as I could, was to bring just one person with me, and
wasn’t to tell anybody but my companion about the message nor where I
was going.”

“Suffering cats!” Blunt exclaimed. “This has got me worked up a-plenty,
Chip. It’s a whale of a mystery, eh?”

“That’s what it is.”

By then, the boys were galloping past the mine, and the roar of the
stamp mill was loud in their ears. Their course carried them on beyond
the mine, and, as they got farther and farther away from it, the song of
the stamps died by degrees into silence.

Dolliver’s ranch was fifteen miles from Ophir. Frank and his chums knew
the place well, for they had made free use of Dolliver’s telephone,
several weeks before, when the Ophir football squad was in camp at
Tinaja Wells, in Mohave Cañon.

Dolliver’s home was entirely surrounded by a wild, unsettled country.
Close to the pioneer’s adobe, the bridle path through the cañon began
its course, separating from the road that was used by wagons freighting
for the Fiddleback outfit.

“You don’t think this can be any sort of trap, do you, pard?” asked
Blunt suddenly, while they were pounding along.

“Trap?” Frank laughed. “What sort of a trap, Barzy?”

“Give it up. If somebody wanted to get us into trouble, I reckon this
would be a good way to do it.”

“I don’t know of anybody who’d want to get us into trouble. Anyhow,
Dolliver wouldn’t. He’s a pretty good sort of a chap, that Dolliver.”

“You can bet your spurs on that!” declared the cowboy heartily. “I’ve
known Dolliver ever since I was knee-high, and he’s sure the clear
quill. You’re positive it was Dolliver talking at t’other end, of the
line?”

“When you’ve heard Dolliver’s voice once,” said Frank, “you couldn’t
mistake it for anybody else’s. Sure it was Dolliver talking.”

“The whole thing is so blamed queer that it sort of set me to
wondering.”

“We’re winding up our stay in Arizona with a lot of blue fire and
tremelo trimmings,” went on Frank. “If it’s going to do anybody any
good, though, I don’t see how I can have any kick coming.”

“You’d like a heap to see Lenning and the colonel on good terms before
you leave, wouldn’t you?”

“Nothing would suit me better, Barzy.”

“What luck did you have with the colonel at the golf grounds?”

“None at all. He’s bitter against Lenning.”

“Reckon I told you we’d have our trouble for our pains if we tried to
put in a good word for Lenning, didn’t I? Hawtrey is a crabbed old
proposition, and when he fastens himself to an idea you can’t pry him
loose with a crowbar. It may be a fool idea, too, but that don’t count.”

“He said he’d like to oblige me by being friends with Lenning, but that
I was asking him to break through a principle--which was something he
wouldn’t do for anybody.”

“The colonel doesn’t take any stock in Lenning’s trying to act square
with everybody. He’d rather watch a game of baseball than eat, but he’d
never let himself get carried away to the extent that he’d overlook a
grouch or forget an injury. He’s a pretty fine old fellow, too, if you
come at him on the right side.”

Talking occasionally, but more often pounding along the trail in
silence, the boys at last came to Dolliver’s lonely little cabin. They
had hardly drawn rein before the rancher stepped through his front door.

“Put up yore critters, boys,” said he, “an’ then come into the house.
It won’t take me long to tell ye what I left out in palavering over the
phone.”

With that, Dolliver stepped back through his front door.

“Pretty short about it,” remarked Frank.

“He’s worked up about something,” said Blunt. “He hasn’t any time for
the extra frills when he’s bothered like that.”

They rode around the cabin to the corral, stripped the riding gear from
their horses, and turned the animals into the small inclosure. A moment
later, they were inside the house, occupying a couple of chairs and
facing the rancher.

Dolliver had his pipe going, and his eyes were glittering strangely.

“Reckon ye’re some s’prised to be brought out here like this, eh?” he
asked.

“Well, a little,” Frank acknowledged.

“Why’d ye come on such scant information?”

“Mainly because you gave us the information, Dolliver.”

“That’s you!” said Dolliver, with something like a cackle in his hairy
throat. “Merriwell, ye’re plumb queer. I figgered that out some weeks
back, when ye was up to Tinaja Wells, in camp. When a feller does ye
dirt, ye don’t allers hide out in the bresh with a gun and wait fer him
to come trompin’ by. Not you! Ye lay fer him with the glad hand, if
he’ll only give ye half a chance. Blunt knows that,” he added
significantly.

The red leaped into the cowboy’s face, and then slowly faded.

“I was a fool,” the cowboy grunted. “Chip didn’t lay for me with the
glad hand, either--not so you could notice. He licked me good and
proper, right over there in Mohave Cañon. I needed the trimming.”

“Keno! And ye got what ye needed, Barzy. Ever since then ye’ve been
purty sensible.” Again a smothered chuckle sounded in the rancher’s
tanned throat. “Merriwell,” he continued, smoothing down the fire in his
pipe with his thumb, “I hear ye’re purty soon to leave these parts, but
I want to tell ye that ye’ve done a man’s work since ye’ve been in
Ophir.”

“Don’t lay it on too thick, Dolliver,” Frank laughed. “I’ve made a few
friends down this way, I guess, but they had as much to do with that as
I had.”

“Mebbyso, mebbyso,” and the wave the rancher gave his hand signified
that he had some opinions of his own on that matter. “But this palaver
ain’t gittin’ us fur on the road ye’ve got ter travel.”

“Who asked you to send that message to us?” Frank asked.

“Ye ain’t goin’ to know it till ye find it out,” replied Dolliver. “I
reckon that’s plain, ain’t it?”

“Yes, I suppose so; but when are we to find it out?”

“Purty quick. I opine ye know Mohave Cañon about as well as the next
one, eh? Anyways, it’s plain to you betwixt here and Tinaja Wells?”

“I’ve gone over it enough so I ought to know it.”

“Correct. Well, I’m powerful glad ye brought Barzy along. Ye’re the two
fellers that chap asked for. ‘If ye can’t git Merriwell,’ says he, ‘git
Blunt.’ Fust choice was you, an’ next was Barzy. Ye’re to leave yer
ridin’ stock with me an’ travel up the cañon afoot. That’s all.”

“Where are we to go?” asked Frank, puzzled.

“Ye’re to keep goin’ till some un stops ye. I couldn’t tell ye a thing
more if I was ter be hung fer it. Better be movin’, boys. I don’t know
whether there’s any time ter waste or not, but I opine not.”

Without delaying further, Merry and Blunt left the cabin, crossed the
main wagon road, and struck into the bridle path that led through the
cañon. So far from clearing the mystery, Dolliver had only deepened it
by his few remarks.

“I’d like to know what we’re up against,” grumbled Blunt, as he and
Merry trudged onward between the high, rugged walls of the defile.

“I guess we’ll find out before we go very far,” Merriwell answered.

In this he was correct. They had hardly put more than a mile between
them and Dolliver’s when a voice hailed them from behind a mass of
bowlders at the foot of the clifflike wall on their left.

They halted, recognizing the voice that had called to them and yet
wondering if their imagination was playing them a prank. But they were
not mistaken. A form appeared around the edge of the pile of bowlders--a
form that they recognized at once.

“Lenning!” Merriwell exclaimed.




CHAPTER XLIII.

PLAYING IN HARD LUCK.


Jode Lenning’s face was pinched and haggard. He was also wearing a suit
of clothes in which Merriwell had never seen him before, and yet which
struck an oddly familiar note in Merriwell’s memory.

Frank had suspected that this mysterious call from Dolliver might have
something to do with Lenning; but that he and Blunt should find him,
hiding in Mohave Cañon and apparently disguised, furnished most of the
surprise that entered into the situation.

“Come over here, Chip, you and Blunt,” Lenning called. “I’ve got
something to tell you, and there are a good many reasons why we should
not do our talking in the cañon trail.”

The cowboy was plainly bewildered. His brows knotted into a frown, and
silently he followed Merriwell to the heap of bowlders.

“We can look each way from here,” Lenning said nervously, “and we can
see whoever comes in time to get out of sight before they get close to
these rocks.”

“Who are you expecting, Jode?” Frank asked.

“Shoup,” was the answer, “and a fellow who is with him and is called
Geohegan. They’ll come, I’m pretty sure.”

“Shoup! What makes you think he’s still in this part of the country?”

“I’ve got plenty of reason for thinking so,” said Lenning angrily.
“Before I talk more about him, though, just tell me what’s happened,
will you?”

“What’s happened?” repeated Frank. “Where?”

“In Ophir. Hasn’t something happened there recently?”

“Two things have happened,” spoke up Blunt, his face dark with doubt and
suspicion of Lenning. “One happened yesterday and the other this
morning. You borrowed a horse from Burke and went for a long ride--but
you didn’t come back. Then----”

“I’ll tell you about that,” broke in Lenning eagerly. “What happened
this morning?”

“The stage from Gold Hill was held up.”

“That’s it, that’s it,” Lenning half whispered, dropping a trembling
hand on the cowboy’s arm. “Do they think I had anything to do with
holding up the stage? That’s what I want to know.”

Blunt studied the haggard face before him and looked into the shifty,
dark eyes. His voice was less hard as he went on.

“There were two of the robbers, and one of them looked like you,
Lenning. What’s more, he rode a horse that answers the description of
Burke’s.”

Lenning struck his hands together sharply.

“So that’s what he tried to do!” he muttered fiercely; “that was his
game all along! Isn’t there any chance at all for a fellow who wants to
do right--who’s trying to clear his record? I suppose, now, that
everybody thinks Jode Lenning is up to his old tricks, and was one of
those who robbed the stage?” Lifting himself high above the bowlders,
Lenning looked up and down the cañon. “I wish they’d come!” he gritted.
“Why can’t they come now?”

At that moment, doubtless, Blunt had the same idea that ran through
Merriwell’s brain. Lenning seemed “flighty” and out of his head. Had his
troubles unbalanced him?

“Don’t fret about anything, Jode,” said Frank. “Take things easy. There
are a lot of fellows, back in Ophir, who feel sure you hadn’t anything
to do with robbing the stage. Why did you leave the mine? Where did you
go, and why did you take the dynamite?”

A flicker of a smile crossed Lenning’s face.

“It won’t take long to explain all that, Chip,” said he, dropping down
below the top of the pile of bowlders again. “Do you remember, several
weeks ago, when Colonel Hawtrey put in a charge of dynamite near our
camp in the gulch? He had discovered evidences of mineral, and I put
down the hole for him and he loaded it. That blast was never set off.
You know why. Well, while I’ve been at the Ophir Mine I’ve been thinking
of that mineral ‘prospect,’ and I made up my mind to set off the charge
and see what it would uncover. That’s why I borrowed Burke’s horse for a
long ride, and that’s why I took the dynamite.”

“That explanation is simple, sure enough,” Frank laughed. “The mouth of
the gulch isn’t very far from here, and the place where the colonel
began his blasting operations isn’t much farther. You went there, put
more dynamite and a capped fuse on top of the other charge, and then set
off the load?”

“That’s what I did, Chip.”

“What did you find?”

Lenning pushed one hand into his pocket and drew out a small piece of
ore. The ore was white quartz, powdered thickly with yellow specks.

“Great guns!” gasped Blunt, staring. “Say, if you’ve found much of that,
Lenning, you’ve got a big thing.”

“Yes, if it belonged to me. But it doesn’t. It belongs to the colonel.”

“It belongs to the fellow that gets his monuments up first, and files
his location. If the colonel hasn’t done that, Lenning, the claim is as
much yours as his.”

“It’s the colonel’s by right of discovery,” asserted Lenning, “and I’m
not going to try and beat him out in locating it. All I wanted to set
off the charge for was to satisfy my curiosity. I reckon I’ve explained
why I left the mine, haven’t I? It doesn’t look much as though I had
planned to hold up the stage, does it?”

“No,” said Frank.

“You have explained why you left the mine,” spoke up Blunt, “but you
haven’t explained why you didn’t go back.”

“Look here.” Lenning held out his hands close together. The wrists were
red and swollen. “And look here.” He caught hold of the side of the coat
he was wearing. “Can’t you guess anything from all that?” he asked.

“We don’t want to do any guessing, Jode,” returned Frank kindly, “what
we want are the facts.”

Once more Lenning straightened erect and looked searchingly up and down
the defile. He discovered nothing, and quickly dropped down again by the
side of Merriwell and Blunt.

“This is what happened,” said he. “I set off the blast. After that I
went down into the bottom of the gulch to get Burke’s horse. Naturally,
I had secured the animal at a good safe distance from the place where I
was exploding the dynamite. Two fellows jumped at me from the
chaparral--one of them was Shoup and the other was this chap, Geohegan.
They threw me down, and for a few moments I was stunned. When I got my
wits back Shoup was covering me with a revolver. He ordered me to remove
my clothes. When I had done that, Geohegan drew a bead on me while Shoup
removed his own clothes and got into mine. Then I was made to put on
Shoup’s garments, and the two tied me hand and foot and left me. When
they came, I reckon they had only one horse between them; but, when they
left, each had a mount, for Shoup had taken Burke’s horse. You believe
me?” Lenning broke off to ask. “I know it’s a fishy story, but it’s the
truth. I don’t want you to think that I’m lying.”

Blunt remained silent, clearly incredulous. Frank, however, had
confidence in Lenning and felt sure he was telling the truth.

“Go on with the rest of it, Jode,” said he. “It’s a strange yarn, but it
rings true.”

“Things happened early in the afternoon, yesterday,” Lenning proceeded.
“Those scoundrels left me bound and helpless, and I remained right on
the spot where they had dropped me for the rest of that afternoon and
all night.”

Lenning shivered, and a light of horror rose in his shifty eyes.

“I’m a coward,” he whispered. “No one can know what I suffered, all
through those black hours of the night, lying helpless on the slope of
the gulch wall. I yelled and shouted for help, but of course there was
no one within miles of me. I was afraid some prowling mountain lion
would spring upon me, or a wild cat or--or--I can’t begin to tell you of
all the things I was afraid of. And yet I had to lie there all through
the night, every minute an hour and every hour an eternity. When dawn
came, I began to have a little nerve, and when the sun rose I began to
think about trying harder to free myself. It was astonishingly easy,
when I once got around to it.”

“How did you do it?” queried Blunt.

“Well, I twisted and rolled up the slope until I reached some of the
rocks that had been thrown out by the blast. They had jagged corners,
sharp as a knife. I turned on my back and scraped the ropes that bound
my hands against the ledge of one of the broken fragments. Pretty soon I
had freed my hands. It did not take me long after that to get the ropes
off my feet. Then I started for Dolliver’s. I had it in mind to
telephone from there to Mr. Bradlaugh, so that he would know why I had
been delayed. You see,” and a bitter smile played about Lenning’s lips,
“I had a notion Burke might think I had stolen his horse and run away. I
didn’t know anything about the stage robbery, although I felt positive
Shoup and Geohegan were up to something unlawful, and were going to try
and make it appear as though I had a hand in it. The sun was high, the
forenoon was more than half gone, and I was in a hurry to reach
Dolliver’s and telephone to Mr. Bradlaugh.

“But I was weak as a cat, Merriwell. I had brought a lunch with me from
the mine and had eaten it at noon. Of course I had had no supper or
breakfast, and the horrors of the night were pretty well calculated to
wear me out. It took me some time to get down the cañon, and I was less
than halfway to Dolliver’s when I heard a sound of galloping. I thought
at once that Shoup and Geohegan were coming back to look after me, and
crawled out of sight among the rocks. Then,” and Lenning laughed
huskily, “luck began to turn my way.”

“What happened?” asked Frank, absorbed in Lenning’s recital.

“About the strangest thing you could imagine, Chip,” replied Lenning;
“something that’s stranger even than what I’ve already told you. Shoup
and Geohegan were really coming up the cañon, and each had a bag in
front of his horse. They stopped within a stone’s throw of where I was
hiding, hid the two bags among the bowlders, and then mounted and rode
on as fast as they could. I thought they were going to see what had
become of me, but possibly I was mistaken. If they had only gone to the
gulch, they would have been back long before this. People say I’m a good
schemer. Well, I did some scheming then. First I changed the two bags
from where Shoup and Geohegan had left them, then I went on to
Dolliver’s and told him what I wanted him to do. He gave me something to
eat, and I rushed back here. And here I’ve been ever since, waiting for
you to come--and for Shoup and Geohegan to show up.”

“What if Shoup and Geohegan do show up?” asked Blunt.

“We’ll capture them,” answered Lenning fiercely. “The three of us could
turn the trick.”

“Where are the bags, Lenning?” queried Merriwell.

“Around back of this pile of bowlders. This way, if you want to see
them.”

He stumbled around the base of the huge rock pile, Merriwell and Blunt
following him. In the narrow space between the rocks and the foot of the
steep cañon wall lay the two mail bags. They had not, as yet, been
tampered with in any way.

Here was evidence of the truth of Lenning’s wild story--evidence that
could not be doubted.




CHAPTER XLIV.

A FRUITLESS VIGIL.


Lenning certainly had been playing in hard luck. He had started into the
hills with the very innocent idea of setting off a blast in the gulch,
and fate had played him a scurvy trick by bringing down on him two
scoundrels like Shoup and Geohegan. Toward the end of Lenning’s weird
experience, however, fortune had smiled, and the plunder secured by the
road agents had fallen into his hands.

“You’ve had a pretty tough time of it, Jode,” said Merriwell, his eyes
on the mail bags, “but you’ve made a star play in getting back this
government property. Great work! There was about one chance in a
thousand that these mail pouches would come close enough for you to get
a whack at them, but the chance came your way and you made the most of
it. Where did Shoup and Geohegan unload the sacks?”

“Across the cañon, a little farther up,” Lenning replied.

“And you toted ’em down here and stowed ’em in a different place so as
to hold ’em out on the measly junipers?” asked Blunt, his sloe-black
eyes beginning to glow.

“Yes.”

“And, according to your notion, Shoup and Geohegan will surely return
for their loot, at which time you, and Chip, and I will make a surround
and take a little of the deputy sheriff’s work off his hands?”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

“_Bueno!_ All that makes the biggest kind of a hit with me. Chip, those
two curs will certainly come back after the bags, and we can work
through the program just as Lenning has chalked it up. It’s a great
plan, by thunder!”

“It’s a plan for the deputy sheriff,” said Merriwell, “and he’s the
fellow who ought to be on the job. Why didn’t you figure it that way,
Jode?” he asked. “Why did you send for Blunt and me, instead of
Hawkins?”

Lenning swerved his eyes quickly to Merriwell.

“You understand, don’t you, that I had to have my two best friends?” he
asked. “I couldn’t take chances with Hawkins, nor with any one else. Had
the deputy sheriff found me here, like this, with both mail bags in my
possession, his first move would have been to arrest me for holding up
the stage. My record is against me; circumstances are against me.
Hawkins would never swallow that yarn I gave you fellows.”

“I reckon that’s correct,” agreed Blunt. “You had to make something of a
mystery out of that telephone message to Chip in order to play safe.”

“That’s it,” Lenning nodded. “I only wanted two to come, because two
would be enough for my work here. I wanted those two to be my best
friends, so they’d take my word as to what had happened. I didn’t want
Chip to know who had sent for him, or to tell anybody where he was
going, because, if the news got out, some one else who wasn’t so
friendly might have taken it into their heads to come to the cañon and
interview me. I had to fight shy of that.”

“By glory,” breathed Blunt, “but you’ve sure got a head for plans! You
worked through that complicated puzzle with ground to spare.”

“I guess you sabe, all right,” pursued Lenning grimly, “that if you were
not friends of mine you’d say right off that I’d told you a
cock-and-bull story, and that I was really one of the thieves, but that
I had lost my nerve and was trying to pull out of a bad scrape without
taking any of the consequences.”

“We’re a good way from thinking that, Jode,” said Merriwell earnestly.

“I’m no end grateful to you for hanging on to your confidence in me.
There are others, though, who won’t be so considerate. I can’t go back
to Ophir without taking Shoup and Geohegan along. Understand? If I do, I
shall be arrested. I’ve figured that all out, and know what I’ve got to
do.”

Merriwell and Blunt had not looked at the affair from this angle. They
were not slow to perceive that Lenning was right, however. His record,
in the matter of the robbery, had to be cleared by the capture of the
real robbers, or he would surely be regarded with suspicion himself.

“You’re right, Lenning,” declared Merriwell, his face taking on a
resolute cast, “we shall have to capture Shoup and Geohegan. The next
question is, how are we to do it? Are you armed?”

“No.”

“Neither are we. Undoubtedly the two road agents are pretty well heeled.
There are three of us and only two of them, but, with guns, they’ll have
far and away the best of it, unless----”

Merriwell’s voice trailed away into silence and he dropped his head
thoughtfully.

“Unless what, pard?” said Blunt.

“Why,” and Frank looked up, “unless we can use a little strategy. If we
can engineer a bit of a surprise, perhaps we could capture those fellows
before they have a chance to draw their weapons and shoot.”

“Now you’re shouting, Chip!” jubilated the cowboy. “Strategy, that’s
the thing. Let’s hatch up something and then slam it at those junipers
before they sabe what we’re about.”

This was the idea, and the three lads fell to work on it without delay.
They finally concluded that they would watch and listen vigilantly, and
when they heard or saw the road agents approaching they would hustle
across the cañon to the place where the mail bags had originally been
left. There they would hide themselves, leap out on the thieves when
they bent to pick up the sacks, and trust to strength, and quickness,
and the surprise of the attack to accomplish their purpose.

It seemed like a desperate plan, although Barzy Blunt chuckled over it
and appeared to consider it a joke more than anything else. Merriwell,
although fully resolved, had grave apprehensions regarding the outcome.
Lenning was almost panic-stricken, but his needs were great enough to
master his fears.

For the rest of the afternoon the lads took turns scanning the cañon
from the top of the pile of bowlders. The evening shadows began to
lengthen, and Blunt suggested that some one go to Dolliver’s after food.

It was decided that the cowboy should make the trip. Lenning begged him
to hurry, for, if Shoup and Geohegan should come while he was away, the
plan for a capture might fail because there were only two left to carry
it out.

Blunt was gone only half an hour. It had been an anxious half hour for
Merriwell and Lenning, but it had passed without bringing any sign of
the two road agents.

“I told Dolliver what we were up to,” said Blunt, while he and his
companions were eating the cold rations he had brought. “He’s a good old
scout, that Dolliver person, and he wished us all sorts of luck. Said
if we didn’t make our capture before morning he’d tote breakfast for
three up the cañon.”

“If anything at all happens,” returned Merriwell, “it will happen before
morning.”

“That’s my notion to a t-y, ty,” agreed the cowboy.

A long and fruitless vigil followed. The lads took turn about doing
guard duty, and while one kept on the alert, the other two slept.

Frank had his turn at sentry-go about midnight. It wasn’t a particularly
pleasant piece of work.

The bottom of the cañon was as dark as a pocket. Overhead was a broad
streak of sky, glittering with stars, edged by the jagged crests of the
cañon’s walls.

The silence that reigned in the depths of the defile was intense. The
heavy breathing of Blunt and Lenning seemed to rumble around the rock
pile, and even the ticking of Frank’s watch grew in volume until it
equaled that of an eight-day clock.

Now and then the weird quiet was broken by the distant wail of a
panther, or the far-off yelp of a coyote. During the three hours of
Frank’s watch, however, no hoofbeats sounded among the rocks, and no
human prowlers came in quest of the mail bags.

It was three in the morning when Frank roused Blunt to relieve him. The
cowboy got up with a yawn.

“Anything happened, Chip?” he asked.

“No.”

“Blamed queer! I can’t understand why those two holdup men leave their
loot for so long.”

“I can’t, either. Maybe they’re having a hard time dodging Hawkins and
his posse.”

“Like enough. Hawkins is a regular bloodhound when he strikes a
criminal’s trail. I hope we’re able to accomplish something here, just
on Lenning’s account. He had it about right when he said he’d only have
to show himself in Ophir to be arrested. The fact that he was found with
the mail bags would be enough to land him in jail. Say, he’s up against
it for fair.”

“He’s playing in the hardest kind of luck, Barzy, and no mistake,” Frank
agreed.

“He’s got a fight on his hands if he ever clears his record.”

“That’s the fight he’s been making ever since he broke with Billy Shoup.
Whenever he takes a step forward and begins to hope he’ll win out,
something happens to make him slip back. Everybody’s so darned anxious
to believe the worst of him.”

“That’s what a fellow gets for having a black past. People, as a rule,
judge a man by what he was, and not so much by what he is or what he’s
trying to be. That yarn Lenning sprang on us to account for his failure
to get back to the mine, and for the way he got hold of the mail bags,
was certainly a beaut. Not more than two in a million would have taken
any stock in it, but Lenning sure picked the two. Even at that, Chip,
now and then a doubt comes sneaking into my head.”

“What sort of a doubt?”

“Why, that Lenning is putting one over on us, somehow. I know I hadn’t
ought to have any suspicions, but a fellow can’t always help what he
thinks.”

“Don’t turn against Lenning, Barzy,” urged Merriwell. “Before long
something will happen to prove that he’s given us the right of it. The
mail bags come pretty nearly proving that he has told the truth, I
think.”

“I’ll hang on to Lenning as long as you do, pard,” said the cowboy.
“Now, find a nice soft rock, curl up, and catch your forty winks. I’ll
keep a lookout for the road agents.”

It was several minutes before Frank dozed off. His bed was hard and far
from comfortable, but he slept soundly, nevertheless. When he awoke
there was a sound of voices in his ears, and the sun was looking over
the rim of the eastern wall of the defile. He sat up. Dolliver was
standing at the base of the bowlder heap, talking with Blunt and
Lenning.

“Here’s news, Chip,” jubilated the cowboy, looking around. “Dolliver
brings our breakfast, and also a report he just received over the phone
from town. What do you think has happened?”

“I’m not in shape to guess conundrums, Barzy,” Frank answered. “What’s
the news?”

“Hawkins and his posse have captured Shoup and Geohegan--and Shoup was
wearing Lenning’s clothes and riding a sorrel with a white forward foot.
How’s that?”

“Bully!” cried Frank, and the next moment he was on his feet with a
cheer.




CHAPTER XLV.

RISING HOPES.


The skies were brightening for Jode Lenning. His story of what had
happened in the gulch has been borne out by the capture of the road
agents and by the discovery that Shoup was wearing Lenning’s clothes and
riding Burke’s horse. Blunt was beaming and Lenning was radiant.

“Ye’ve had yer fuss around this rock pile all fer nothin’,” remarked
Dolliver.

“Glad of it,” Frank laughed. “Where did Hawkins catch those fellows,
Dolliver?”

“On the trail between here and Ophir. Shoup an’ t’other chap are
swearin’ by all they’re worth that they don’t know a thing about the
holdup, but Burke’s hoss an’ Lenning’s clothes are two things Shoup
can’t explain. Hawkins is now trying to get the road agents to tell what
they done with the mail bags. They won’t tell. I opine they think they
stand a show to dodge the consequences if they keep mum about that
missin’ mail.”

“We’ll get the bags to town as soon as possible,” said Frank.

“Good idee,” approved Dolliver. “Put away this here grub, fust thing,
then come down to my shack an’ git yore hosses.”

“Did you telephone anything about the mail bags, Dolliver?” asked
Lenning.

“Nary a word. I jest kept all that was goin’ on here to myself. You
fellers can explain about the mail bags. It’s none o’ my put in.”

There were three happy youngsters who sat at the foot of the bowlder
heap that morning and ate the grub Dolliver had brought to them. A
cheerful mind is a good appetizer, and the lads were not long in
cleaning up the supply of food. After that the mail bags were
shouldered, and the return to Dolliver’s was made.

On the way down the cañon the boys acquainted the rancher with many
matters of which he had been in ignorance. The story told by Lenning was
gone over for his benefit, and struck as hard a blow at his credulity as
it had at Merriwell’s and Blunt’s. But recent events had clinched the
truth of the yarn, so all Dolliver could do was to believe and marvel.

“Sounds purty far-fetched, an’ that’s a fact,” declared the rancher,
“but ye can’t dodge facts, not noways. Everything’s workin’ around purty
good fer you, Lenning. I’m glad as blazes that I made up my mind to help
ye with that telephonin’ yesterday. There was one spell that I reckoned
I hadn’t better have anythin’ ter do with ye; then, when it kinder
struck me how Merriwell was yore friend, and that his jedgment was a
heap better’n the ordinary run, I jest nat’rally made up my mind ter do
what I could.”

“I’m obliged to you, Dolliver,” said Lenning.

“Let it go at that. I’m a rough old propersition, I reckon, but I like
ter help a feller when he’s down. An’ you was purty well down, wasn’t
ye, when ye stuck yer head in at my door yesterday an’ asked would I
send that myster’ous message ter town?”

“I was,” said Lenning, with emphasis.

“So I allowed,” and the chuckle sounded in the rancher’s hairy throat.

Once at the ranch, Frank and Blunt lost little time getting their horses
under saddle.

“One of us will have to carry the mail bags, Barzy,” said Frank, “and
one of us will have to carry Lenning.”

“You let Lenning ride with you, Chip,” the cowboy suggested. “This
cayuse of mine never carried double, and I don’t know how he’d act. I’ll
agree to make him tote the mail bags, though. Got any rope, Dolliver?”

Dolliver secured a reata, and Blunt used it to make the two bags fast
behind his saddle. When the cowboy mounted, his horse showed some temper
at the unaccustomed load at the saddle cantle by pitching and plunging.
It was not much of a fracas, and Blunt quickly got the animal steadied
down.

“Takes quite a hoss ter git the best o’ you, Barzy,” grinned Dolliver.
“Ye can ride, boy.”

Merriwell took Lenning up behind him. The latter, before they started,
reached out a grateful hand toward the rancher.

“Some time, Dolliver,” said Lenning, “I hope I can do something for you.
Until that time comes, my thanks will have to be your pay.”

“Shucks!” grunted Dolliver. “Think I have ter take money for every
blame’ thing? I don’t want nothin’ more. What I’d like a whole lot,
though, would be ter have a couple of friends like Merriwell an’ Blunt.”

“You’ve got ’em, pard,” said the cowboy. “Eh, Chip? If you ever get in a
hole, send us a hurry-up call and we’ll come a-smokin’. Adios,
Dolliver.”

“So long!” called Frank.

Lenning waved his hand. Then, the next moment, both horses were
galloping along the trail toward Ophir.

“I’m pulling out of this a good deal better than I thought I would,”
remarked Lenning. “I suppose I’ll have to get another job, though. Burke
wouldn’t hold my place at the tanks for me.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Frank answered. “Mr. Bradlaugh told Burke
to give you the benefit of the doubt, and to let one of the mill hands
fill in as night watchman until you come back.”

“Mr. Bradlaugh did that?”

“Sure! I was around when he gave orders to the super.”

“Then I’m mighty glad the general manager isn’t going to be disappointed
in me,” Lenning said, with a good deal of feeling. “That ball game, last
Saturday, made me a host of friends, Chip.”

“Good friends and true!” declared Frank. “By work like this, up Mohave
Cañon, you’re making yourself solid with everybody, Jode.”

“Things looked pretty dark for me for a while.”

“I’ve heard folks tell that it’s always darkest just before day,” put in
the cowboy. “That’s the case with you, I reckon, Lenning.”

It was a glorious morning. Arizona mornings, especially in early
December, are always glorious. Southern Arizona has the finest climate
in the world during the winter, and the finest part of every perfect day
comes directly after sunrise.

Mile after mile rolled out from under the galloping hoofs of the horses.
For a long time the three lads rode in silence, and it was Lenning who
was first to speak.

“I think, fellows,” said he, “that I had better go directly to the
mine.”

“Of course,” Frank agreed. “What you want to do, Jode, is to slip into
your blankets at the bunk house and pound your ear good and hard.
To-night, I suppose, you’ll have to go on duty at the tanks.”

“That’s right. The mail bags, though, ought to be taken into town as
soon as possible.”

“I’ll see that they reach the post office in good shape,” said Barzy
Blunt. “I’m the fast mail between Dolliver’s and Ophir this morning,” he
added whimsically. “The mail’s twenty-four hours’ late, but it won’t
lose much more time while I’m getting it over the road.”

“The professor’s check for twenty-five thousand ought to be in one of
those bags.”

“Is that right?” asked Lenning.

“Yes,” said young Merriwell. “Mr. Bradlaugh got a telegram saying the
payment for that mine in the Picketpost Mountains would be along
yesterday. The professor was scared stiff when he heard of the robbery.
He thought he had lost the money for good.”

“You were waiting for the professor to close up his mining deal before
you left for the North, weren’t you?” went on Lenning.

“That’s all that has been keeping us.”

“Then I suppose you’ll be leaving pretty soon?”

“Just as soon as we can.”

Both Lenning and Blunt fell silent. They hated to think that Merriwell,
Clancy, and Ballard were presently to leave Ophir, and for good.

Frank and his chums had made many friends during their stay in southern
Arizona, and, for Blunt and Lenning, at least, their going would leave a
big gap in the little mining town.

“I hate to think of it, pard,” said the cowboy presently, in a subdued
tone.

“Same here,” added Lenning, with just the barest shake in his voice.

“You and your pards, Chip,” proceeded Blunt, “have done a whole lot for
athletics in this section of the Southwest. You blew in here, I
remember, with pretty nearly everybody down on you, but you started
right in and cleaned up on the unpopular sentiment. I reckon there
won’t be anybody but will hate to see you pull up stakes.”

Frank was conscious of many regrets himself. Never would he forget the
clear, beautiful days, the happy friendships, or the exciting
experiences which he had encountered in that far-away corner of the
Southwest.

“We’ve had a good time here, fellows,” said he, “but we didn’t come to
Ophir to camp down indefinitely. We have stayed a whole lot longer than
we intended. Clancy, Ballard, and I are on a roughing-it trip. The trip
was originally planned for six months, you know, but it may be longer
than that. You see, we’re missing school, and dad is a stickler about
having me keep up my studies along with the athletics. Professor
Borrodaile rather helped us over that part of the difficulty. He has
become our private tutor, and when we do get back to Farnham Hall, we’ll
be up with the rest of our class. Besides that, we’re having a whole lot
of fun that we shouldn’t have had otherwise. I’m sorry to leave Ophir,
but we’ve got to move--that’s all.”

Again silence settled over the three boys. Barzy and Jode, no doubt,
were thinking of what they owed Chip Merriwell. They owed him a good
deal, too, for Frank was a true chip off the old block and had passed
around many of the teachings which had been handed down to him by his
illustrious father.

Presently, almost before the boys dreamed they were so near, the croon
of the stamps at the mine broke on their ears. At the trail which forked
from the main road to lead to the mining camp, Frank and Jode turned,
leaving the cowboy to hustle on into town with the recovered mail
pouches.

“I’ll report to King, the expert in charge of the cyanide works,”
Lenning said, after Merry had hitched Borak by the bunk house, “and
then I’ll hunt my blankets. Are you going to stop, Chip?”

“I’ll just speak a word with Burke,” Frank answered.

He accompanied Lenning toward the cyanide plant, climbing the slope that
led to the mill, and lingering near the long ore platform. Then he
watched while Lenning made his way to the laboratory building,
disappeared inside, and, after a few minutes, reappeared and climbed the
slope in Frank’s direction.

Fate, at that moment, had once more taken Lenning’s affairs in hand. All
the details of an accident were forming, and the accident itself was
about to project itself suddenly into the peaceful activities of the
camp.

Frank and Jode, as it chanced, were so placed at that moment as to
become active participants in the near tragedy which was about to be
launched.




CHAPTER XLVI.

THE RUNAWAY ORE CAR.


Colonel Hawtrey got the better of Mr. Bradlaugh on the golf links that
Monday forenoon. This event, no doubt, pleased the colonel mightily, and
yet there was something at the back of the colonel’s consciousness which
disturbed him.

Young Merriwell had come to him and had spoken a good word for the
colonel’s cast-off nephew. Rather brusquely the colonel had refused to
meet Merriwell’s advances on Lenning’s behalf. This, as Hawtrey fondly
assured himself, was because the Lenning matter was less an affair of
pride than of principle. Yet, for all that, the colonel was sorry that
he had been so unyielding.

After Merriwell had left the golf links with Burke and Clancy, Professor
Borrodaile had appeared excitedly and announced the robbery of the
stage. Instantly, Colonel Hawtrey had thought of Lenning’s mysterious
absence from the mine, and, almost as quickly, he had settled it to his
own satisfaction that Lenning must have had a hand in the robbery.

So far from making the colonel contented on the score of turning a deaf
ear to Merriwell’s plea for Lenning, the information about the robbery
and the colonel’s deductions merely disquieted him the more.

In the afternoon Colonel Hawtrey went back to his home in Gold Hill.
Here he came directly under the influence of his other nephew, Ellis
Darrel.

Darrel, at one time, had occupied a position almost identical with
Lenning’s at that moment. There was this difference, however, that
Darrel’s hands were clean of any crooked work. He had been plotted
against, and the colonel had cast him off unjustly.

Merriwell, believing in Darrel, had helped him to regain his place in
his uncle’s regard. And now Darrel, perhaps influenced by Merriwell’s
example, was trying to befriend his half brother, Lenning.

The colonel and Darrel had had many talks regarding Lenning. In these
interviews Darrel had tried to patch up the differences between the
colonel and Jode. In this he had no success whatever. The colonel had
finally forbidden Darrel to mention Lenning’s name.

Back from his game with Mr. Bradlaugh, and thoroughly ill-humored
because of his disturbing thoughts about Lenning, the colonel repaired
to his study. Here Darrel met him and attempted to broach the forbidden
subject of his half brother.

“That will do, Ellis!” cried the colonel sharply. “I want no more of
your views on the subject of Jode. He has proved himself a crook and a
coward--two classes of people I have no use for whatever.”

“I am only asking you to give him a chance, Uncle Alvah,” pleaded
Darrel.

“Merriwell seems to be taking good care of Jode. As for a chance, why,
the young scoundrel will have to make his own chances for himself. If he
could only prove that he had a little courage, a little honesty. I might
feel differently toward him. But he’s a coward, he has a yellow
streak--and that makes him a disgrace to the family.”

“Then you won’t----”

“I’ll not discuss this any longer with you,” snapped the colonel, and
flung himself into a chair and picked up a paper.

Later in the day news came to Gold Hill that the two road agents who
had held up the stage had been seen in Bitter Root Cañon, and one of
them rode a sorrel horse with a white stocking foot and was believed to
be Lenning.

“I don’t doubt it,” growled the colonel. “Is there no depth to Lenning’s
baseness? If he is bound to pile disgrace upon disgrace, I wish, for the
sake of the rest of us, he would migrate to some other part of the
country.”

“I doubt the report, colonel,” said Darrel stoutly. “Jode has turned
over a new leaf and he is trying honestly to live down the past. He had
no hand in that robbery.”

“What means his absence from the mine?” cried the colonel heatedly. “Put
two and two together, Ellis! For Heaven’s sake, don’t try to appear so
dense. Lenning was seen in the cañon, near where the stage was
robbed--and he was riding a horse that answers the description of
Burke’s.”

“Blunt and Ballard _thought_ Lenning was the fellow they saw,” qualified
Darrel. “They weren’t sure of it.”

“Well, I’m sure of it, so we’ll let it go at that.”

The irascible old colonel went to bed that night in a bad temper. He did
not sleep, however, but lay and tossed restlessly. Visions came to
him--visions of Jode and of his only sister, Jode’s mother. In these
midnight fancies the face of Jode was haggard and repentant, and the
face of the mother was pitiful and pleading. Finally, along toward
morning, the colonel could bear his thoughts no longer.

He got up and, for two or three hours, he paced the confines of his
bedroom. Something was urging him to probe the facts in Jode’s case. He
remembered that he had promised Burke he would visit the mine and
settle for the horse and the riding gear. Why not go to the mine that
morning?

When Ellis Darrel came down to breakfast, he discovered that his uncle
had gone away. Blixen, the most spirited driving horse in the stable,
had been put to the road wagon, and Colonel Hawtrey had been last seen
making for the Ophir trail.

“It’s something about Jode that’s taking him in that direction,” thought
Darrel happily. “The old chap isn’t so hard-hearted as he wants me to
think.”

All the way along the trail through Bitter Root Cañon Blixen gave the
colonel a handful. The horse had not been out of the stable for two or
three days, and was even more spirited and hard to manage than usual.
Perhaps it was a good thing for the colonel that Blixen took all his
attention. He had no leisure for disagreeable thoughts about Lenning.

The journey from Gold Hill to Ophir had not absorbed much of Blixen’s
surplus energy, for he tore through the latter town at a tremendous
clip. Hawtrey had to twist the reins around his hands and curb the
plunging roadster with all his strength.

When well out of Ophir and close to the mine, the colonel passed Barzy
Blunt, galloping the other way, with two bags roped behind him to the
back of his horse. The colonel was too busy with Blixen to get a good
look at the bags. Blunt shouted something to him as they rapidly passed
each other, but he could not distinguish the words.

With a grind of wheels the road wagon lurched into the mining camp and
up to the door of the headquarters adobe. A Mexican stood at the door.

“Where is the superintendent?” the colonel inquired.

“Him gone to stamp mill,” was the answer.

The colonel turned and started to drive up the slope toward the head of
the mill. In taking this move it was necessary for him to cross the
narrow railroad track by which loaded ore cars were carried full to the
ore platform and empty away from it. To understand clearly what took
place, a little description of the method of delivering ore to the Ophir
Mill will be necessary.

The ore cars were of iron and supplied with suitable brakes. They were
filled at the various shaft houses and drawn by teams up the incline to
the ore platform. Here the teams were taken away, the brakes on the cars
were set, and the wheels blocked with stones, and the unloading begun.
When the unloading was finished, the blocking was knocked away, and the
cars slid down the sleep slope of their own momentum.

The track at the head of the mill formed a loop. Thus the empty cars,
when released, rolled down the hill and back to the main track before
their momentum was lost.

This morning, in some mysterious manner, a loaded car broke away and
started down the incline. The brakes on the car had not been set--which
was an infringement of the rules--and the teamster who had left the car
in position for unloading had been content merely to block the wheels.

Fate worked out many little details in bringing about the near tragedy
that morning, and this matter of the runaway car was but one of them.
The colonel, just as the car broke loose and began slipping slowly down
the steep grade, was driving across the rails, far below, planning to
come up the slope to the mill by the wagon road.

In some manner a forward wheel caught in one of the rails. Blixen,
impatient of the sudden and unexpected pull on the traces, stopped and
began to back. A shout from somewhere, booming clearly above the roar of
the stamps, apprised the colonel of his danger from the ore car.

Snatching the whip from its socket, he struck Blixen sharply. The horse
plunged ahead, breaking away from the carriage. The colonel, by the pull
on the lines, was dragged over the dashboard and flung across the
tracks. His limp hand released the reins, and Blixen raced on among the
buildings and ore dumps of the camp.

But the colonel, stunned by his rough contact with the iron rail, lay
unconscious across the track. He was in deadly peril. There was no one
near enough to drag him out of his dangerous predicament, and the heavy
ore car was plunging toward him at frightful speed.

Burke, coming suddenly out upon the ore platform at the head of the
mill, gasped as he stared downward and took in the tragic scene. The
next moment, he groaned and staggered back.

“Nothing can save him!” he cried huskily. “The runaway car will grind
him to pieces!”

But the superintendent was wrong in his conclusions. At the very moment
the car broke from its moorings, Merriwell was standing beside the
track, halfway down the hill. He was waiting for Lenning to climb to his
side from the laboratory building.

Lenning, having seen Burke come to the ore platform, changed his course.
Instead of making straight toward Merriwell, who was part way down the
hillside, he started for the crest of the hill at the place where Burke
had appeared.

He was close to the track, a little below the ore platform, when the
runaway car came charging down the grade. Merriwell was perhaps three
hundred feet below him. Far below Merriwell, lying unconscious across
the rails, was Colonel Hawtrey. Lenning, his ears accustomed to the roar
of the stamps, heard and distinguished the stricken, hopeless cry of the
super from the platform above. And then, in a flash, the outcast nephew
planned a move which might save his uncle.

“The switch!” he yelled, motioning with his hands. “The switch,
Merriwell! _Throw it!_”

Merriwell, although frantically alive to the colonel’s danger, yet
managed to keep his wits about him. Ten feet below him was a switch by
which cars were sometimes placed upon a short spur track. If Merry could
throw the switch before the car reached it, the car would be hurled to
the siding and the colonel would be saved.

But, as Merry quickly realized, the car was coming so rapidly that the
switch could not be thrown before the leaping ore carrier was past the
spur. Then Merry realized something else.

Utterly oblivious of danger to himself, Jode Lenning had crouched beside
the rails and then leaped recklessly at the flying car. Fortune favored
him. Although cruelly buffeted by his landing on the loaded ore, Lenning
gained the car and laid hands on the brake. Then, to Merriwell, Jode’s
purpose became clear. Jode would put on the brakes, thus slackening the
car’s speed and giving Merriwell time to throw the switch.

The next moment Merry had flung himself at the target and twisted the
hand lever.




CHAPTER XLVII.

THE YELLOW STREAK GONE.


All this had happened in a very brief space of time. The many details
which, combined, made the accident possible, stretched over a period of
some duration, but the accident itself passed from beginning to
conclusion in a few ticks of a watch.

Sick and unnerved, Merriwell leaned against the target. The screech of
the ore car’s wheels rasped wildly in his ears. He had a glimpse of the
runaway ore carrier sliding from the loop track to the switch, with Jode
kneeling on the ore and clinging to the brake wheel.

The next instant Merriwell realized that Jode, by his daring work, had
plunged himself into a fresh catastrophe.

The spur track was short and lay on level ground. There was no barrier
at the end of it, but a plunge downward for half a dozen feet right from
the ends of the rails. Lenning, with the car and its load, must take
that plunge!

The events of Lenning’s past life were such as to lead people to believe
that he was a coward, and had a yellow streak. Yet how could that be
when he voluntarily threw himself into terrible danger to save his
uncle?

Under Merriwell’s horrified eyes the ore car sped out to the end of the
spur and dived downward. Not a cry escaped Lenning as, white-faced and
rigid, he tipped off into space with the load of ore.

Colonel Hawtrey was himself a witness of his nephew’s plunge from the
end of the spur track. His senses returned to him quickly and he lifted
himself on one elbow. As it chanced, his eyes were fixed on the spot
where Jode and the car were shooting off into space from the spur.

Burke was another eyewitness. Quickly as he could come, he rushed down
the hill and hurried out to the end of the little siding. There he and
Merriwell stood together, looking down.

The car lay bottom up on the ground below. The ore it had carried was
scattered widely.

“Do you see him?” Burke whispered hoarsely in Merriwell’s ear.

“Yes,” Merriwell answered, and forthwith began descending to the foot of
the slight slope.

Lenning had been thrown quite a little distance from the car, and was
lying face downward in the sand and gravel. He was silent and
motionless.

“Jode!” called Frank, kneeling beside him and touching his shoulder.

There was no answer from the lad who had fought so hard to clear his
record. With a sinking sensation at his heart, Frank lifted Jode in his
arms and turned his face upward. His cheek and temple were gashed and
bleeding, and his eyes were closed.

“Can’t he talk?” asked Burke. “Is he unconscious?”

Frank nodded. “Let’s take him somewhere,” said he; “to the bunk house,
where we can get him on a bed. He must be badly hurt, Burke.”

“I don’t see how he ever came through that alive!” muttered the
superintendent.

A crowd had gathered, racing to the scene from the cyanide works, from
the blacksmith shop, from the mill.

“That was the bravest thing I ever saw!” declared King, the cyanide
expert. “Is he going to live, Burke?”

“Of course he’s going to live!” declared Frank, white-lipped but with a
voice of conviction. “What do you think now,” he added, “you fellows
that thought Jode was a thief and had a yellow streak?”

“If he had ever had a yellow streak,” returned King, “he has wiped it
out for good and all.”

“King,” said Burke quietly, “telephone to town for a doctor. The rest of
you men,” he added, “go back to your work. Everything possible will be
done for Lenning--I don’t need to tell you that. Come on, Merriwell,” he
finished, “and let’s get him to the bunk house.”

As carefully as they could, Frank and the super lifted Lenning between
them and bore him away to the long, low building where the miners and
mill men had their sleeping quarters.

They had hardly laid Lenning down on his cot, before Colonel Hawtrey,
his face ashen, pushed into the bunk house and up to the side of the
unconscious boy. The colonel’s clothing was torn and his hat was gone,
but he was giving no thought to himself.

For a moment he stared into the haggard, bleeding face of his nephew;
then he turned to Frank and the superintendent.

“Tell me about this,” he said, in a queer, dry voice. “I missed some of
the details. The ore car broke loose, I remember that; then I tried to
get out of the way, and one of the front wheels of my carriage became
locked in the track; I struck Blixen with the whip, and the singletree
broke, and I was jerked over the dashboard. When I came to myself, the
ore car, with Jode aboard, was pitching off the end of the spur tracks.
Fill in the gaps for me, please.”

“Jode yelled to me,” said Frank, “to run and throw the switch. At the
same time Jode jumped aboard the car as it rushed past him. If he hadn’t
put on the brakes, the car would have got by the switch before I could
have thrown it. That’s all, colonel. Jode tipped off the end of the spur
with the car and the ore.”

The colonel moistened his dry lips with his tongue.

“Is--is he dead?” he asked, in a low voice.

“No,” replied Burke.

“Send for a doctor and do everything possible to save him.”

“We have sent for a doctor, colonel, and I don’t think there’ll be any
trouble about saving him. He was in splendid physical condition to stand
such a shock. But if the car had fallen on him, or the ore--well,
there’d have been another story to tell.”

Without a word, Colonel Hawtrey drew a chair to the head of the bed and
sat down to wait. And all the while he was waiting he never took his
eyes from Jode’s unconscious face.

In less than twenty minutes the doctor was at the mine. Removing his
coat, he rolled up his sleeves and went to work with professional
briskness.

“What is your verdict, doctor?” inquired Colonel Hawtrey, after the
examination had been finished.

“A fractured leg is about all the damage, colonel,” was the answer, “so
far as I can see. He may be hurt internally, but I don’t think so. We’ll
know more about that later on. Jode has been doing some great work, eh?
He not only recovers the stolen mail bags and sends them to town, but he
caps his exploits by saving your life, colonel. There must be something
pretty fine about a fellow who can do all that.”

“Saved the mail bags?” repeated Hawtrey. “What do you mean by that?”

Just here Frank took the conversation into his own charge, and proceeded
to tell the colonel all that had happened in Mohave Cañon. The colonel’s
face was a little pale as he listened, but his expression did not
undergo a change in any particular. He was an iron man, with an iron
control of his feelings.

The doctor set the broken leg; then, when it was done, he took measures
to revive the injured lad. Under the doctor’s ministrations it was not
long before Jode opened his eyes.

At first his gaze was troubled and bewildered. Finally, realization came
to him and he stretched out his hand to Merriwell.

“Chip,” said he, “we had to do it quick, but we did it well. I--I wonder
how I ever had the nerve!”

“Never mind about that, old man,” answered Frank, with twitching lip and
blurred eyes. “You saved the colonel. It was you, Jode. I had mighty
little to do with it.”

The colonel arose from his chair and stepped to the side of the cot. For
a moment uncle and nephew gazed into each other’s eyes.

“I have wronged you, my lad,” said the colonel. “Are we going to let
bygones be bygones?”

“If you want it that way, colonel,” Jode answered.

And then their hands met in one long, lingering clasp. Merriwell stepped
out of the bunk-house door, and stood in the clear, bright sunshine.

“At last!” he murmured.




CHAPTER XLVIII.

CONCLUSION.


Jode Lenning’s experience with Shoup and Geohegan, his recovery of the
stolen mail bags, and his rescue of Colonel Hawtrey from the runaway ore
car were topics of discussion in that part of Arizona for a good many
days.

Geohegan, it developed, was the cracksman who, on a former occasion, had
helped Shoup break into the safe at the cyanide works and make off with
four bars of bullion. Hawkins had been hunting for Shoup and Geohegan on
the score of that attempted robbery, and he had about given up finding
the rascally pair, when they dropped into his hands through that holdup
in the cañon.

Shoup, although a young fellow, was a drug fiend. He had gone from bad
to worse, until now he had committed a crime which, in all likelihood,
would have to be expiated in some government prison.

In the confession which Geohegan made, it appeared that the two thieves
had blundered upon Lenning entirely by chance. Taking his clothes and
his horse was a plan of Shoup’s. After hiding the mail bags in the
cañon, the two robbers had gone into the gulch. Here they discovered
some of Hawkins’ posse, and fled to escape them. They were followed
relentlessly, and finally captured.

Two drafts for twenty-five thousand dollars each, one for the professor
and one for Mrs. Boorland, were found in one of the stolen mail pouches.
Thus the matter of the mine in the Picketpost Mountains was wound up,
and nothing further remained to delay the departure of Frank and his
chums from southern Arizona.

The one thing Frank had wished for with all his heart--the
reconciliation between Colonel Hawtrey and Lenning--had been
accomplished. The lad now felt that he could leave Ophir with a cheerful
spirit.

Among the first to pay Lenning a visit in the Ophir bunk house and
congratulate him on his brightening prospects were Clancy and Ballard.

“Don’t congratulate me, fellows,” said Lenning. “Give Merriwell the
credit. He was my friend when every one else had turned against me.
Whenever I needed a boost in the right direction, I could always count
on him to give it. I’ll never forget Chip, and I’ll never cease to be
grateful to him.”

“Chip is all to the mustard,” said Clancy loyally, “and I can only find
fault with him about one thing.”

“What is that?”

“He wouldn’t let Pink and me go along with him and Blunt when they
answered that mysterious call from Dolliver. See what a lot of
excitement we missed!”

“That was a case, Clancy,” smiled Lenning, “where two of you were
company and four would have been a crowd.”

“All right,” assented Ballard cheerfully, “we’ll leave it that way.
Going to Gold Hill to live, Jode, as soon as that broken pin is mended?”

“No,” replied Lenning, “I’m going to stay right here and work for Mr.
Bradlaugh and Mr. Burke. The colonel has done the fine thing by me, and
he’d do more, but I don’t intend to let him. From now on I shall make my
own way in the world.”

And for this determination, Clancy, Ballard, and all the rest of
Lenning’s friends thought more of him than ever.

It was Wednesday when Frank and his chums took their leave of Ophir.
The last thing Frank did, before getting out of the town, was to send
Borak to Barzy Blunt with a card. The card presented Barzy with Frank’s
compliments and best wishes, and begged him to accept Borak as a
present.

Borak had once belonged to Blunt. When dire necessity urged, the cowboy
had been compelled to sell the famous black steed. Frank had purchased
the animal, but had always intended, on leaving Arizona, to return the
saddler to his former owner.

When the stage, which was to take the boys to Gold Hill, the nearest
railroad point, pulled up at the door of the Ophir House, Pophagan, Woo
Sing, and a host of others were gathered on the veranda to bid
Merriwell, Clancy, and Ballard good-by. A miner, whose regard Frank had
won by coaching the Ophir football squad to victory, presented each of
the lads with a nugget of placer gold to be made into a scarfpin.

“You’re sartinly the clear quill, kids,” said the miner, “and we’re a
heap proud to have had ye among us. Pure gold, them nuggets is, and I
reckon as how you’re all three the same. Come back to us some time.
Don’t let this be the last time we see ye.”

“Maybe we will,” said Frank, shaking hands all around with a smothered
feeling in his throat. “You’ve been mighty good to us, all you Ophir
people.”

“That’s no jolly,” said the red-headed chap.

“We almost feel like we belonged to Ophir,” added Ballard.

The professor had gone on to Gold Hill the day before, and the boys were
to meet him in that town, and they were all to proceed northward
together.

When the lads had shaken hands until their arms ached, they climbed into
the stage, and the driver whipped up his team. As they rolled down the
straggling, familiar street, cheers went up from the hotel and were
echoed all along the sidewalks.

“Three cheers for Merriwell, Clancy, and Ballard!” rang out the cry, and
they were given again and again with a hearty good will.

“Seems almost like we were leaving home,” sniffed Clancy.

“That’s right, Red!” agreed Ballard.

But Merriwell said nothing. He could not trust himself to speak.


THE END.


“Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s Mission” will be the title of the next volume of
the MERRIWELL SERIES, No. 218. Burt L. Standish has outdone himself in
this latest narrative. It is a tale of sympathetic understanding and
real friendship, as well as a story of action and excitement.




BOOKS FOR YOUNG MEN

MERRIWELL SERIES

ALL BY BURT L. STANDISH

Stories of Frank and Dick Merriwell

Fascinating Stories of Athletics

A half million enthusiastic followers of the Merriwell brothers will
attest the unfailing interest and wholesomeness of these adventures of
two lads of high ideals, who play fair with themselves, as well as with
the rest of the world.

These stories are rich in fun and thrills in all branches of sports and
athletics. They are extremely high in moral tone, and cannot fail to be
of immense benefit to every boy who reads them.

They have the splendid quality of firing a boy’s ambition to become a
good athlete, in order that he may develop into a strong, vigorous,
right-thinking man.

_ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_

  101--Frank Merriwell’s Nomads
  102--Dick Merriwell on the Gridiron
  103--Dick Merriwell’s Disguise
  104--Dick Merriwell’s Test
  105--Frank Merriwell’s Trump Card
  106--Frank Merriwell’s Strategy
  107--Frank Merriwell’s Triumph
  108--Dick Merriwell’s Grit
  109--Dick Merriwell’s Assurance
  110--Dick Merriwell’s Long Slide
  111--Frank Merriwell’s Rough Deal
  112--Dick Merriwell’s Threat
  113--Dick Merriwell’s Persistence
  114--Dick Merriwell’s Day
  115--Frank Merriwell’s Peril
  116--Dick Merriwell’s Downfall
  117--Frank Merriwell’s Pursuit
  118--Dick Merriwell Abroad
  119--Frank Merriwell in the Rockies
  120--Dick Merriwell’s Pranks
  121--Frank Merriwell’s Pride
  122--Frank Merriwell’s Challengers
  123--Frank Merriwell’s Endurance
  124--Dick Merriwell’s Cleverness
  125--Frank Merriwell’s Marriage
  126--Dick Merriwell, the Wizard
  127--Dick Merriwell’s Stroke
  128--Dick Merriwell’s Return
  129--Dick Merriwell’s Resource
  130--Dick Merriwell’s Five
  131--Frank Merriwell’s Tigers
  132--Dick Merriwell’s Polo Team
  133--Frank Merriwell’s Pupils
  134--Frank Merriwell’s New Boy
  135--Dick Merriwell’s Home Run
  136--Dick Merriwell’s Dare
  137--Frank Merriwell’s Son
  138--Dick Merriwell’s Team Mate
  139--Frank Merriwell’s Leaguers
  140--Frank Merriwell’s Happy Camp
  141--Dick Merriwell’s Influence
  142--Dick Merriwell, Freshman
  143--Dick Merriwell’s Staying Power
  144--Dick Merriwell’s Joke
  145--Frank Merriwell’s Talisman
  146--Frank Merriwell’s Horse
  147--Dick Merriwell’s Regret
  148--Dick Merriwell’s Magnetism
  149--Dick Merriwell’s Backers
  150--Dick Merriwell’s Best Work
  151--Dick Merriwell’s Distrust
  152--Dick Merriwell’s Debt
  153--Dick Merriwell’s Mastery
  154--Dick Merriwell Adrift
  155--Frank Merriwell’s Worst Boy
  156--Dick Merriwell’s Close Call
  157--Frank Merriwell’s Air Voyage
  158--Dick Merriwell’s Black Star
  159--Frank Merriwell in Wall Street
  160--Frank Merriwell Facing His Foes
  161--Dick Merriwell’s Stanchness
  162--Frank Merriwell’s Hard Case
  163--Dick Merriwell’s Stand
  164--Dick Merriwell Doubted
  165--Frank Merriwell’s Steadying Hand
  166--Dick Merriwell’s Example
  167--Dick Merriwell in the Wilds
  168--Frank Merriwell’s Ranch
  169--Dick Merriwell’s Way
  170--Frank Merriwell’s Lesson
  171--Dick Merriwell’s Reputation
  172--Frank Merriwell’s Encouragement
  173--Dick Merriwell’s Honors
  174--Frank Merriwell’s Wizard
  175--Dick Merriwell’s Race
  176--Dick Merriwell’s Star Play
  177--Frank Merriwell at Phantom Lake
  178--Dick Merriwell a Winner
  179--Dick Merriwell at the County Fair
  180--Frank Merriwell’s Grit
  181--Dick Merriwell’s Power
  182--Frank Merriwell in Peru
  183--Frank Merriwell’s Long Chance
  184--Frank Merriwell’s Old Form
  185--Frank Merriwell’s Treasure Hunt
  186--Dick Merriwell Game to the Last
  187--Dick Merriwell, Motor King
  188--Dick Merriwell’s Tussle
  189--Dick Merriwell’s Aero Dash
  190--Dick Merriwell’s Intuition
  191--Dick Merriwell’s Placer Find
  192--Dick Merriwell’s Fighting Chance
  193--Frank Merriwell’s Tact
  194--Frank Merriwell’s Puzzle
  195--Frank Merriwell’s Mystery
  196--Frank Merriwell, the Lionhearted
  197--Frank Merriwell’s Tenacity
  198--Dick Merriwell’s Perception
  199--Dick Merriwell’s Detective Work
  200--Dick Merriwell’s Commencement
  201--Dick Merriwell’s Decision
  202--Dick Merriwell’s Coolness
  203--Dick Merriwell’s Reliance
  204--Frank Merriwell’s Young Warriors
  205--Frank Merriwell’s Lads
  206--Dick Merriwell in Panama
  207--Dick Merriwell in South America
  208--Dick Merriwell’s Counsel

In order that there may be no confusion, we desire to say that the books
listed below will be issued during the respective months in New York
City and vicinity. They may not reach the readers at a distance
promptly, on account of delays in transportation.

To be published in January, 1929.

  209--Dick Merriwell, Universal Coach
  210--Dick Merriwell’s Varsity Nine

To be published in February, 1929.

  211--Dick Merriwell’s Heroic Players
  212--Dick Merriwell at the Olympics

To be published in March, 1929.

  213--Frank Merriwell, Jr., Tested
  214--Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Conquests
  215--Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Rivals

To be published in April, 1929.

  216--Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Helping Hand
  217--Frank Merriwell, Jr., in Arizona

To be published in May, 1929.

  218--Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Mission
  219--Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Ice-boat Adventure

To be published in June, 1929.

  220--Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Timely Aid
  221--Frank Merriwell, Jr., in the Desert




Round the World Library

Stories of Jack Harkaway and His Comrades

Every reader, young and old, has heard of Jack Harkaway. His remarkable
adventures in out-of-the-way corners of the globe are really classics,
and every one should read them.

Jack is a splendid, manly character, full of life and strength and
curiosity. He has a number of very interesting companions--Professor
Mole, for instance, who is very funny. He also has some very strange
enemies, who are anything but funny.

Get interested in Jack. It will pay you.

_ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_

By BRACEBRIDGE HEMYNG

    1--Jack Harkaway’s School Days
    2--Jack Harkaway’s Friends
    3--Jack Harkaway After School Days
    4--Jack Harkaway Afloat and Ashore
    5--Jack Harkaway Among the Pirates
    6--Jack Harkaway at Oxford
    7--Jack Harkaway’s Struggles
    8--Jack Harkaway’s Triumphs
    9--Jack Harkaway Among the Brigands
   10--Jack Harkaway’s Return
   11--Jack Harkaway Around the World
   12--Jack Harkaway’s Perils
   13--Jack Harkaway in China
   14--Jack Harkaway and the Red Dragon
   15--Jack Harkaway’s Pluck
   16--Jack Harkaway in Australia
   17--Jack Harkaway and the Bushrangers
   18--Jack Harkaway’s Duel
   19--Jack Harkaway and the Turks
   20--Jack Harkaway in New York
   21--Jack Harkaway Out West
   22--Jack Harkaway Among the Indians
   23--Jack Harkaway’s Cadet Days
   24--Jack Harkaway in the Black Hills
   25--Jack Harkaway in the Toils
   26--Jack Harkaway’s Secret of Wealth
   27--Jack Harkaway, Missing
   28--Jack Harkaway and the Sacred Serpent
   29--The Fool of the Family
   30--Mischievous Matt
   31--Mischievous Matt’s Pranks
   32--Bob Fairplay Adrift
   33--Bob Fairplay at Sea
   34--The Boys of St. Aldates
   35--Billy Barlow
   36--Larry O’Keefe
   37--Sam Sawbones
   38--Too Fast to Last
   39--Home Base
   40--Spider and Stump
   41--Out for Fun
   42--Rob Rollalong, Sailor
   43--Rob Rollalong in the Wilds

          *       *       *       *       *

   44--Phil, the Showman               By Stanley Norris
   45--Phil’s Rivals                   By Stanley Norris
   46--Phil’s Pluck                    By Stanley Norris
   47--Phil’s Triumph                  By Stanley Norris
   48--From Circus to Fortune          By Stanley Norris
   49--A Gentleman Born                By Stanley Norris
   50--For His Friend’s Honor          By Stanley Norris
   51--True to His Trust               By Stanley Norris
   52--Facing the Music                By Stanley Norris
   53--Jungles and Traitors            By William Murray Graydon
   54--The Rockspur Eleven             By Burt L. Standish
   55--Treasure Island                 By Robert Louis Stevenson
   56--In Fort and Prison              By William Murray Graydon
   57--The Rockspur Rivals             By Burt L. Standish
   58--George Arnold’s Pluck           By John De Morgan
   59--The Golden Harpoon              By Weldon J. Cobb
   60--The Rockspur Nine               By Burt L. Standish
   61--Always on Duty                  By John De Morgan
   62--On the Wing                     By Weldon J. Cobb
   63--Twenty Thousand Leagues         By Jules Verne
         Under the Sea
   64--A Legacy of Peril               By William Murray Graydon
   65--Lost in the Ice                 By John De Morgan
   66--The Young Railroader            By Stanley Norris
   67--The Tour of the Zero Club       By Capt. Ralph Bonehill
   68--The Young Railroader’s Flyer    By Stanley Norris
   69--The Silent City                 By Fred Thorpe
   74--The Young Railroader’s Long Run By Stanley Norris
   75--The Treasure of Star Island     By Weldon J. Cobb
   76--The Young Railroader’s Comrade  By Stanley Norris
   77--In Unknown Worlds               By John De Morgan
   78--The Young Railroader’s          By Stanley Norris
         Promotion
   79--A Trip to Mars                  By Weldon J. Cobb
   80--The Young Railroader’s Chance   By Stanley Norris
   81--Rob Ranger’s Mine               By Lieut. Lounsberry
   82--Zip, the Acrobat                By Victor St. Clair
   83--Rob Ranger’s Cowboy Days        By Lieut. Lounsberry
   84--On His Merit                    By Victor St. Clair
   85--Out For Sport                   By Wallace Kincaid
   86--Where Duty Called               By Victor St. Clair
   87--Engineer Ralph                  By Frank H. MacDougal
   88--Fortune’s Winding Trail         By Roy Franklin
   89--The Boy Conjurer                By Victor St. Clair
   90--The Go-Ahead Boys’ Legacy       By Gale Richards
   91--With Odds Against Him           By Weldon J. Cobb
   92--Sunset Ranch                    By Stanley Norris
   93--Chums of the Prairie            By Stanley Norris
   94--The Young Range Riders          By Stanley Norris
   95--Jack Lightfoot, the Athlete     By Maxwell Stevens
   96--Jack Lightfoot’s Crack Nine     By Maxwell Stevens
   97--Jack Lightfoot Trapped          By Maxwell Stevens
   98--Jack Lightfoot’s Rival          By Maxwell Stevens
   99--Jack Lightfoot in Camp          By Maxwell Stevens
  100--Jack Lightfoot’s Canoe Trip     By Maxwell Stevens
  101--Jack Lightfoot’s Iron Arm       By Maxwell Stevens
  102--Jack Lightfoot’s Hoodoo         By Maxwell Stevens
  103--Jack Lightfoot’s Decision       By Maxwell Stevens
  104--Jack Lightfoot’s Gun Club       By Maxwell Stevens
  105--Jack Lightfoot’s Blind          By Maxwell Stevens

In order that there may be no confusion, we desire to say that the books
listed below will be issued during the respective months in New York
City and vicinity. They may not reach the readers at a distance
promptly, on account of delays in transportation.

To be published in January, 1929.

  106--Jack Lightfoot’s Capture        By Maxwell Stevens
  107--Jack Lightfoot’s Head Work      By Maxwell Stevens

To be published in February, 1929.

  108--Jack Lightfoot’s Wisdom         By Maxwell Stevens
  109--The Pride of Annapolis          By Com. Luther G. Brownell

To be published in March, 1929.

  110--The Haunted Hunter              By Edward S. Ellis
  111--An Annapolis Adventure          By Com. Luther G. Brownell

To be published in April, 1929.

  112--The Two Scouts                  By Edward S. Ellis
  113--An Annapolis Hero               By Com. Luther G. Brownell

To be published in May, 1929.

  114--Among the Redskins              By Edward S. Ellis
  115--Making Good in the Navy         By Com. Luther G. Brownell

To be published in June, 1929.

  116--Tracked Through the Wilds       By Edward S. Ellis
  117--A Dash for Glory                By Com. Luther G. Brownell




Nick Carter Still Lives!

For many years the stories of the adventures of Nicholas Carter, the
great American detective, have been favorites with busy men in all walks
of life. The reason is not hard to find. They afford splendid relaxation
and complete entertainment.

Some of the Nick Carter stories are among the greatest detective stories
ever written and will remain so, as long as the English language is
read.

Look over the list of these titles in the NEW MAGNET LIBRARY and buy
yourself a real treat.




NICK CARTER STORIES

New Magnet Library

_Not a Dull Book in This List_

ALL BY NICHOLAS CARTER

Nick Carter stands for an interesting detective story. The fact that the
books in this line are so uniformly good is entirely due to the work of
a specialist. The man who wrote these stories produced no other type of
fiction. His mind was concentrated upon the creation of new plots and
situations in which his hero emerged triumphantly from all sorts of
troubles and landed the criminal just where he should be--behind the
bars.

The author of these stories knew more about writing detective stories
than any other single person.

Following is a list of the best Nick Carter stories. They have been
selected with extreme care, and we unhesitatingly recommend each of them
as being fully as interesting as any detective story between cloth
covers which sells at ten times the price.

If you do not know Nick Carter, buy a copy of any of the New Magnet
Library books, and get acquainted. He will surprise and delight you.

_ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_

   901--A Weird Treasure
   902--The Middle Link
   903--To the Ends of the Earth
   904--When Honors Pall
   905--The Yellow Brand
   906--A New Serpent in Eden
   907--When Brave Men Tremble
   908--A Test of Courage
   909--Where Peril Beckons
   910--The Gargoni Girdle
   911--Rascals & Co.
   912--Too Late to Talk
   913--Satan’s Apt Pupil
   914--The Girl Prisoner
   915--The Danger of Folly
   916--One Shipwreck Too Many
   917--Scourged by Fear
   918--The Red Plague
   919--Scoundrels Rampant
   920--From Clew to Clew
   921--When Rogues Conspire
   922--Twelve in a Grave
   923--The Great Opium Case
   924--A Conspiracy of Rumors
   925--A Klondike Claim
   926--The Evil Formula
   927--The Man of Many Faces
   928--The Great Enigma
   929--The Burden of Proof
   930--The Stolen Brain
   931--A Titled Counterfeiter
   932--The Magic Necklace
   933--’Round the World for a Quarter
   934--Over the Edge of the World
   935--In the Grip of Fate
   936--The Case of Many Clews
   937--The Sealed Door
   938--Nick Carter and the Green Goods Men
   939--The Man Without a Will
   940--Tracked Across the Atlantic
   941--A Clew from the Unknown
   942--The Crime of a Countess
   943--A Mixed-up Mess
   944--The Great Money-order Swindle
   945--The Adder’s Brood
   946--A Wall Street Haul
   947--For a Pawned Crown
   948--Sealed Orders
   949--The Hate that Kills
   950--The American Marquis
   951--The Needy Nine
   952--Fighting Against Millions
   953--Outlaws of the Blue
   954--The Old Detective’s Pupil
   955--Found in the Jungle
   956--The Mysterious Mail Robbery
   957--Broken Bars
   958--A Fair Criminal
   959--Won by Magic
   960--The Piano Box Mystery
   961--The Man They Held Back
   962--A Millionaire Partner
   963--A Pressing Peril
   964--An Australian Klondike
   965--The Sultan’s Pearls
   966--The Double Shuffle Club
   967--Paying the Price
   968--A Woman’s Hand
   969--A Network of Crime
   970--At Thompson’s Ranch
   971--The Crossed Needles
   972--The Diamond Mine Case
   973--Blood Will Tell
   974--An Accidental Password
   975--The Crook’s Double
   976--Two Plus Two
   977--The Yellow Label
   978--The Clever Celestial
   979--The Amphitheater Plot
   980--Gideon Drexel’s Millions
   981--Death in Life
   982--A Stolen Identity
   983--Evidence by Telephone
   984--The Twelve Tin Boxes
   985--Clew Against Clew
   986--Lady Velvet
   987--Playing a Bold Game
   988--A Dead Man’s Grip
   989--Snarled Identities
   990--A Deposit Vault Puzzle
   991--The Crescent Brotherhood
   992--The Stolen Pay Train
   993--The Sea Fox
   994--Wanted by Two Clients
   995--The Van Alstine Case
   996--Check No. 777
   997--Partners in Peril
   998--Nick Carter’s Clever Protégé
   999--The Sign of the Crossed Knives
  1000--The Man Who Vanished
  1001--A Battle for the Right
  1002--A Game of Craft
  1003--Nick Carter’s Retainer
  1004--Caught in the Toils
  1005--A Broken Bond
  1006--The Crime of the French Café
  1007--The Man Who Stole Millions
  1008--The Twelve Wise Men
  1009--Hidden Foes
  1010--A Gamblers’ Syndicate
  1011--A Chance Discovery
  1012--Among the Counterfeiters
  1013--A Threefold Disappearance
  1014--At Odds with Scotland Yard
  1015--A Princess of Crime
  1016--Found on the Beach
  1017--A Spinner of Death
  1018--The Detective’s Pretty Neighbor
  1019--A Bogus Clew
  1020--The Puzzle of Five Pistols
  1021--The Secret of the Marble Mantel
  1022--A Bite of an Apple
  1023--A Triple Crime
  1024--The Stolen Race Horse
  1025--Wildfire
  1026--A _Herald_ Personal
  1027--The Finger of Suspicion
  1028--The Crimson Clew
  1029--Nick Carter Down East
  1030--The Chain of Clews
  1031--A Victim of Circumstances
  1032--Brought to Bay
  1033--The Dynamite Trap
  1034--A Scrap of Black Lace
  1035--The Woman of Evil
  1036--A Legacy of Hate
  1037--A Trusted Rogue
  1038--Man Against Man
  1039--The Demons of the Night
  1040--The Brotherhood of Death
  1041--At the Knife’s Point
  1042--A Cry for Help
  1043--A Stroke of Policy
  1044--Hounded to Death
  1045--A Bargain in Crime
  1046--The Fatal Prescription
  1047--The Man of Iron
  1048--An Amazing Scoundrel
  1049--The Chain of Evidence
  1050--Paid with Death
  1051--A Fight for a Throne
  1052--The Woman of Steel
  1053--The Seal of Death
  1054--The Human Fiend
  1055--A Desperate Chance
  1056--A Chase in the Dark
  1057--The Snare and the Game
  1058--The Murray Hill Mystery
  1059--Nick Carter’s Close Call
  1060--The Missing Cotton King
  1061--A Game of Plots
  1062--The Prince of Liars
  1063--The Man at the Window
  1064--The Red League
  1065--The Price of a Secret
  1066--The Worst Case on Record
  1067--From Peril to Peril
  1068--The Seal of Silence
  1069--Nick Carter’s Chinese Puzzle
  1070--A Blackmailer’s Bluff
  1071--Heard in the Dark
  1072--A Checkmated Scoundrel
  1073--The Cashier’s Secret
  1074--Behind a Mask
  1075--The Cloak of Guilt
  1076--Two Villains in One
  1077--The Hot Air Clew
  1078--Run to Earth
  1079--The Certified Check
  1080--Weaving the Web
  1081--Beyond Pursuit
  1082--The Claws of the Tiger
  1083--Driven from Cover
  1084--A Deal in Diamonds
  1085--The Wizard of the Cue
  1086--A Race for Ten Thousand
  1087--The Criminal Link
  1088--The Red Signal
  1089--The Secret Panel
  1090--A Bonded Villain
  1091--A Move in the Dark
  1092--Against Desperate Odds
  1093--The Telltale Photographs
  1094--The Ruby Pin
  1095--The Queen of Diamonds
  1096--A Broken Trail
  1097--An Ingenious Stratagem
  1098--A Sharper’s Downfall
  1099--A Race Track Gamble
  1100--Without a Clew
  1101--The Council of Death
  1102--The Hole in the Vault
  1103--In Death’s Grip
  1104--A Great Conspiracy
  1105--The Guilty Governor
  1106--A Ring of Rascals
  1107--A Masterpiece of Crime
  1108--A Blow for Vengeance
  1109--Tangled Threads
  1110--The Crime of the Camera
  1111--The Sign of the Dagger
  1112--Nick Carter’s Promise
  1113--Marked for Death
  1114--The Limited Holdup
  1115--When the Trap Was Sprung
  1116--Through the Cellar Wall
  1117--Under the Tiger’s Claws
  1118--The Girl in the Case
  1119--Behind a Throne
  1120--The Lure of Gold
  1121--Hand to Hand
  1122--From a Prison Cell
  1123--Dr. Quartz, Magician
  1124--Into Nick Carter’s Web
  1125--The Mystic Diagram
  1126--The Hand that Won
  1127--Playing a Lone Hand
  1128--The Master Villain
  1129--The False Claimant
  1130--The Living Mask
  1131--The Crime and the Motive
  1132--A Mysterious Foe
  1133--A Missing Man
  1134--A Game Well Played
  1135--A Cigarette Clew
  1136--The Diamond Trail
  1137--The Silent Guardian
  1138--The Dead Stranger
  1140--The Doctor’s Stratagem
  1141--Following a Chance Clew
  1142--The Bank Draft Puzzle
  1143--The Price of Treachery
  1144--The Silent Partner
  1145--Ahead of the Game
  1146--A Trap of Tangled Wire
  1147--In the Gloom of Night
  1148--The Unaccountable Crook
  1149--A Bundle of Clews
  1150--The Great Diamond Syndicate
  1151--The Death Circle
  1152--The Toss of a Penny
  1153--One Step Too Far
  1154--The Terrible Thirteen
  1155--A Detective’s Theory
  1156--Nick Carter’s Auto Trail
  1157--A Triple Identity
  1158--A Mysterious Graft
  1159--A Carnival of Crime
  1160--The Bloodstone Terror
  1161--Trapped in His Own Net
  1162--The Last Move in the Game
  1163--A Victim of Deceit
  1164--With Links of Steel
  1165--A Plaything of Fate
  1166--The Key Ring Clew
  1167--Playing for a Fortune
  1168--At Mystery’s Threshold
  1169--Trapped by a Woman
  1170--The Four Fingered Glove
  1171--Nabob and Knave
  1172--The Broadway Cross
  1173--The Man Without a Conscience
  1174--A Master of Deviltry
  1175--Nick Carter’s Double Catch
  1176--Doctor Quartz’s Quick Move
  1177--The Vial of Death
  1178--Nick Carter’s Star Pupils
  1179--Nick Carter’s Girl Detective
  1180--A Baffled Oath
  1181--A Royal Thief
  1182--Down and Out
  1183--A Syndicate of Rascals
  1184--Played to a Finish
  1185--A Tangled Case
  1186--In Letters of Fire
  1187--Crossed Wires
  1188--A Plot Uncovered
  1189--The Cab Driver’s Secret
  1190--Nick Carter’s Death Warrant
  1191--The Plot that Failed
  1192--Nick Carter’s Masterpiece
  1193--A Prince of Rogues
  1194--In the Lap of Danger
  1195--The Man from London
  1196--Circumstantial Evidence
  1197--The Pretty Stenographer Mystery
  1198--A Villainous Scheme
  1199--A Plot Within a Plot
  1200--The Elevated Railroad Mystery
  1201--The Blow of a Hammer
  1202--The Twin Mystery
  1203--The Bottle with the Black Label
  1204--Under False Colors
  1205--A Ring of Dust
  1206--The Crown Diamond
  1207--The Blood-red Badge
  1208--The Barrel Mystery
  1209--The Photographer’s Evidence
  1210--Millions at Stake
  1211--The Man and His Price
  1212--A Double-Handed Game
  1213--A Strike for Freedom
  1214--A Disciple of Satan
  1215--The Marked Hand
  1216--A Fight with a Fiend
  1217--When the Wicked Prosper
  1218--A Plunge into Crime
  1219--An Artful Schemer
  1220--Reaping the Whirlwind
  1221--Out of Crime’s Depths
  1222--A Woman at Bay
  1223--The Temple of Vice
  1224--Death at the Feast
  1225--A Double Plot
  1226--In Search of Himself
  1227--A Hunter of Men
  1228--The Boulevard Mutes
  1229--Captain Sparkle, Pirate
  1230--Nick Carter’s Fall
  1231--Out of Death’s Shadow
  1232--A Voice from the Past
  1233--Accident or Murder?
  1234--The Man Who Was Cursed
  1235--Baffled, But Not Beaten
  1236--A Case Without a Clew
  1237--The Demon’s Eye
  1238--A Blindfold Mystery
  1239--Nick Carter’s Swim to Victory
  1240--A Man to Be Feared
  1241--Saved by a Ruse
  1242--Nick Carter’s Wildest Chase
  1243--A Nation’s Peril
  1244--The Rajah’s Ruby
  1245--The Trail of a Human Tiger
  1246--The Disappearing Princess
  1247--The Lost Chittendens
  1248--The Crystal Mystery
  1249--The King’s Prisoner
  1250--Talika, the Geisha Girl
  1251--The Doom of the Reds

In order that there may be no confusion, we desire to say that the books
listed below will be issued during the respective months in New York
City and vicinity. They may not reach the readers at a distance
promptly, on account of delays in transportation.

To be published in January, 1929.

  1252--The Lady of Shadows
  1253--The Mysterious Castle
  1254--The Senator’s Plot

To be published in February, 1929.

  1255--A Submarine Trail
  1256--A War of Brains

To be published in March, 1929.

  1257--Pauline--A Mystery
  1258--The Confidence King

To be published in April, 1929.

  1259--A Chase for Millions
  1260--Shown on the Screen

To be published in May, 1929.

  1261--The Streaked Peril
  1262--The Room of Mirrors

To be published in June, 1929.

  1263--A Plot for an Empire
  1264--A Call on the Phone




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STREET & SMITH NOVELS!

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  Street & Smith Corporation
  79 Seventh Avenue      New York City

  Printed in the U. S. A.




Transcriber’s Note:

The Contents has been provided by the transcriber.

Punctuation has been standardised. Spelling has been retained as
published in the original publication except as follows:

  Page 9
    neither of us got a soo _changed to_
    neither of us got a sou

  Page 14
    As the drew out the little square _changed to_
    As she drew out the little square

  Page 24
    you can bet your last soo _changed to_
    you can bet your last sou

  Page 43
    I’ll go you, Chip _changed to_
    I’ll go with you, Chip

  Page 54
    they didn’t pay any atention _changed to_
    they didn’t pay any attention

  Page 65
    Then and there the Farnum Hall lads began _changed to_
    Then and there the Farnham Hall lads began

  Page 71
    the frail craft and disapeared beneath _changed to_
    the frail craft and disappeared beneath

  Page 78
    with some diffiiculty, climbed _changed to_
    with some difficulty, climbed

  Page 78
    hasn’t a soo in his jeens _changed to_
    hasn’t a sou in his jeans

  Page 80
    had up their sleves for you _changed to_
    had up their sleeves for you

  Page 85
    it was his awkardness that caused _changed to_
    it was his awkwardness that caused

  Page 101
    I’v got a hunch that _changed to_
    I’ve got a hunch that

  Page 112
    my private oponion that _changed to_
    my private opinion that

  Page 119
    From the zinc boz the solution drops _changed to_
    From the zinc box the solution drops

  Pages 131 and 138
    The first pages of Chapters XX and XXI, transposed in the
    original publication, have been ordered correctly in this
    ebook

  Page 133
    Supose we rummage around _changed to_
    Suppose we rummage around

  Page 140
    Between you and me, Ping, I believe _changed to_
    Between you and me, Pink, I believe

  Page 146
    who was the the other fellow _changed to_
    who was the other fellow

  Page 165
    Mirable dictu! _changed to_
    Mirabile dictu!

  Page 187
    Shaw was down with tonsilitis _changed to_
    Shaw was down with tonsillitis

  Page 192
    sound a whole lot worst _changed to_
    sound a whole lot worse

  Page 209
    finish coronat opus _changed to_
    finis coronat opus

  Page 218
    “Tough luck, Joe,” commisserated Clancy _changed to_
    “Tough luck, Joe,” commiserated Clancy

  Page 238
    makee tlouble for’ you _changed to_
    makee tlouble fo’ you

  Page 243
    not been very succesful _changed to_
    not been very successful

  Page 260
    by jim’ Klismas _changed to_
    by jim’ Klismus

  Page 271
    a whale of a mystey _changed to_
    a whale of a mystery

  Page 296
    we didn’t come to Opir to camp _changed to_
    we didn’t come to Ophir to camp

  Page 302
    carried full to the ore platfom _changed to_
    carried full to the ore platform