“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
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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
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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.
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“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
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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
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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.
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“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.
