“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
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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?”
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“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.
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“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,
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“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.
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“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.”
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“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.”
