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
271
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?”
272
“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.”
273
“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
274
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.”
275
“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
276
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.
