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?”
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“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?
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“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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
