THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED.
By this time the boys were fully aroused. An investigation showed that
Merriwell's wheel was gone.
"Didn't I tole yeh old debbil skillerton would done cotch some ob us!"
cried Toots, in great distress.
"I hardly understand what the skeleton could have wanted with Merry's
wheel," observed Browning.
"G'way dar, boy! Didn' de skillerton ride a hawse!"
"And you think it is an up-to-date skeleton that has decided to ride a
bicycle hereafter. In that case, I congratulate Mr. Skeleton on his
good sense."
"It must be that Frank has gone on a ride without saying anything to
us," said Jack. "I do not see any other way of explaining it."
"But why should he do such a thing?" asked Rattleton.
"That is where you stick me."
Browning slowly shook his head.
"It is remarkable that he should do such a thing without saying
anything to us," declared the big fellow.
"And he must have taken that ride in the night," said Jack.
"While he should have been on guard," added Harry.
The boys stood looking at each other in sober dismay.
"It isn't possible that Merry could have gone daffy," muttered
Rattleton. "He is too well balanced for that."
"I don't know," came gloomily from Diamond. "This dismal, burning
desert is enough to turn the brain of any fellow."
"Yah!" cried Toots. "Don' yeh git no noshun dat boy ebber had his
brain turned! It am de weak brains dat git turned dat way. His brain
was all right, but I jes' know fo' suah dat he hab been cotched."
"And I suppose you want to run away as soon as possible before you are
'cotched?'"
Then the colored boy surprised them all by saying:
"No, sar, I don' want teh go 'way till we knows what hab become ob
Marser Frank. Dat boy alwus stick by his frien's, an' dis coon am
reddy teh stick by him, even if he do git cotched."
"Good stuff, Toots!" cried Rattleton, approvingly. "You are all right!
If anything has happened to Frank we'll know what it is or leave our
bones here."
The boys were worried. They hurriedly talked over the remarkable
disappearance, trying to arrive at an understanding of its meaning.
At length it was agreed that Frank might have gone back to try to
solve the mystery of the skeleton, and then they decided that two of
the party should remain where they had made their night bivouac, while
the other two proceeded to search for Merriwell.
Diamond insisted on being one of the searchers, and Rattleton was
determined to be the other, so Browning and Toots were left behind.
The boys mounted their wheels and rode back toward the pass through
the bluffs.
Diamond was downcast again.
"Everything is going against us," he declared. "There is fate in it. I
am afraid we'll not get out of this wretched desert."
"Oh, you're unwell, that's what's the matter with you!" declared
Harry, scornfully. "I'll be glad when you are yourself again."
"That's all right," muttered Diamond. "You are too thoughtless, that's
what's the matter with you."
They approached the spot where the mysterious skeleton had been seen,
and both were watching for the niche in the rocks.
Suddenly they were startled by hearing a wild cry from far above their
heads, and looking upward they saw Frank Merriwell running along the
very brink of the cliff, but limping badly, as if he were lame.
But what astonished and startled them the most was to see a
strange-looking, bare-headed man, who was in close pursuit of Frank.
Above his head the man wildly flourished a gleaming, long-bladed
knife, while he uttered loud cries of rage.
"Smoly hoke!" cried Harry. "Will you look at that!"
Diamond suddenly grew intensely excited.
"What can we do?--what can we do?" he exclaimed. "Frank is hurt! That
creature is running him down! He will murder him!"
"If Merry had a pistol he would be all right."
"But he hasn't! We must do something, Harry--we must!"
"Neither of us has a gun."
"No, but----"
"We can't get up there."
"But we must do something!"
"We can't!"
Jack grew more and more frantic. He leaped from his wheel and seemed
to be looking for some place to try to scale the face of the bluff.
"Oh, if I could get up there!" he groaned. "I'd show Frank that I was
ready to stand by him! I'd fight that man barehanded!"
And Rattleton did not doubt it, for he well knew how hot-blooded
Diamond was, and the young Virginian had never failed to fight when
the occasion arose. He would not shirk any kind of an encounter.
Merriwell saw them and shouted something to them, but they could not
understand what he said.
"Turn! turn!" screamed Jack. "You must fight that man, or he will stab
you in the back! He is going to strike you!"
Frank seemed to hear and comprehend, for he suddenly wheeled about and
made a stand. In a moment the man with the knife had rushed upon him
and struck with that gleaming blade.
A groan escaped Jack's lips as he saw that blow, but it turned to a
gasp of relief when Frank stopped it by catching the man's wrist.
"Give it to him! Give it to him!" shrieked Diamond, dancing around in
a wild frenzy of anxiety and fear.
Then the boys below witnessed a terrific struggle on the heights above
them.
The man seemed mad with a desire to plunge the knife into Frank, and
it was plain that Merriwell did not wish to harm the unknown, but was
trying to disarm him.
"What folly! what folly!" panted Diamond. "He'll get his hand free and
stab Merry sure! Beat him down, Frank--beat him down!"
Once Frank slipped and fell to his knees. A fierce yell of triumph
broke from the man, and it seemed that he would succeed in using the
knife at last.
With a groan of anguish Diamond covered his eyes that he might not
witness the death of the friend he loved. For Jack Diamond did love
Frank Merriwell, for all that he had complained against him of late.
A cry of relief from Rattleton caused Jack to look up again, and he
saw Frank had regained his feet and was continuing the battle.
And now the man fought with a fury that was nerve thrilling to
witness. His movements were swift and savage, and he tried again and
again to draw the knife across Frank's throat.
Jack and Harry scarcely breathed until, with a display of strength and
skill, Frank disarmed his assailant by giving his arm a wrench,
causing the knife to fly through the air and fall over the edge of the
cliff.
Down to the ground below rattled the knife, and then Diamond said:
"Now Frank will be able to handle the fellow!"
But, flinging his arms about the boy, the man made a mad effort to
spring over the brink. For some seconds, locked thus in each other's
arms, man and boy tottered on the very verge, and then they swayed
back.
Frank broke the hold of the man, striking him a heavy blow a second
later. The man reeled and dropped on the edge of the precipice. He
scrambled up hastily, but a great slice of rock cleaved off beneath
his feet and went plunging downward.
Then the watching boys saw the unknown tottering on the brink, wildly
waving his arms in an endeavor to regain his balance. Frank sprang
forward to aid him.
Too late!
With a wild scream of despair, the strange man toppled over and
whirled downward to his death.
Frank climbed down.
"It's all up with him, poor fellow," said he, as he stood near the
body of the unknown man, looking down at the face that was white and
calm and peaceful in death.
"Who is he?" asked Harry.
"What is he?" asked Jack.
"I am afraid those questions cannot be answered," confessed Frank.
"That he was a raving maniac I am sure, and he lived in a remarkable
cave close at hand; but who he is or how he came to be there in that
cave I do not know."
"Well, how you came to be up there with him running you down to stick
a knife in you is what I want to know," said Harry.
"That's right," Jack nodded. "Explain it, old man."
Then Frank told them how, after the moon rose the night before, he had
taken his wheel with the intention of riding around the camp, feeling
he could keep watch as well that way as any. After the moon was well
up, he saw there was no one anywhere about, and a desire to revisit
the spot where they had seen the skeleton seized upon him. He rode to
the spot, but there was no skeleton in the niche among the rocks.
Leaving his bicycle, he climbed up there to examine once more, and to
his astonishment, found that what seemed to be a solid, immovable
stone had turned in some manner, disclosing an opening.
Then, with reckless curiosity, Frank resolved to investigate further,
and he descended into the opening, found some stone steps, and was
soon in a cavern. The first thing he discovered was the skeleton,
still decorated as the boys had seen it in the first place, and he
remained there till he found how it could be placed in view on the
block of stone and then removed in a twinkling. He also found a lamp
with a strong reflector, which had thrown its light on the skeleton
from a hole in the rocks. There was another opening near that, where a
person in the cave could look out on the desert, and Frank knew the
ghostly voice they had heard must have come from that place.
Merriwell continued his investigations, having lighted the lamp, by
the light of which he wandered through the cave. Suddenly he came face
to face with an old man, who seemed surprised, but spoke quietly to
him.
The old man declared he was "Prof. Morris Fillmore," but did not say
what he was professor of, and he volunteered to explain everything to
the boy.
This he did, telling how he worked the skeleton to frighten away those
who might molest him in his solitude, as he wished to be alone. There
was another entrance to the cave, and, in a large, airy chamber a
horse was kept. The horse was coal black, but on one side of him was
drawn the outlines of the skeleton frame of a horse, and the strange
old man explained that he had a suit of clothes on one side of which
he had traced the skeleton of a human being. This had been done with
phosphorus, and it glowed with a white light in the darkness.
The old hermit had entered the pocket and ridden near the camp of the
Indians. When he turned about the skeleton tracings in phosphorus
could not be seen, and so the ghostly horse and rider seemed to
disappear in a most marvelous manner.
Frank questioned him concerning the treasure, and the old man seemed
to grow excited and suspicious. He said something about the treasure
being the property of some one who had fled from the destroying angels
of the Mormons in the old days, but had perished in the desert. Frank
was led to believe that the skeleton was that of the original owner of
the treasure.
But when the boy would have left the cave the stranger told him he
could not do so. He informed Frank that he could never go out again,
and then it was that the boy became sure Fillmore was crazy.
As the man was armed, Frank decided to use strategy. First he sought
to lull the man's suspicions, and after being watched closely for
hours he found a chance to slip away.
Almost immediately the man discovered what had happened and pursued.
By chance Frank fled out through a passage that led upward till the
top of the bluff was reached, but he fell and sprained his ankle, so
he was unable to get away. The hermit followed, and the mad battle for
life took place.
"Well, this is amazing!" gasped Jack. "What are you going to do with
that treasure?"
"Take it to some place for safe deposit and advertise for the legal
heirs of Prof. Millard Fillmore."
"And if no heirs appear----"
"The treasure will belong to us."
"Hurrah!"