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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
