A FRIEND IN NEED.
“Well, fellows,” said Ellis Darrel, after Merry had introduced him to
all the other fellows, “it looks a whole lot as though I had dropped
into the wrong pew. If I haven’t forgotten the country hereabouts, this
is sure Tinaja Wells.”
“Surest thing you know, Darrel,” smiled Frank.
“I was told in Gold Hill that a bunch of athletes belonging to the Gold
Hill Athletic Club had gone into camp here.”
“Some one got mixed,” put in Clancy. “It’s an Ophir outfit that’s taken
over the Wells.”
“Blamed queer,” muttered Darrel, “and I’ll be hanged if I can _sabe_
the layout at all. The man in Gold Hill who gave me the information is
an officer of the club there. It’s a cinch that he ought to know.”
“We’ve been here for four days,” observed Ballard, “and we haven’t seen
a thing of the Gold Hill chaps.”
“Live in the town, Darrel?” asked Frank.
“Used to,” was the answer. “Don’t live much of anywhere now. Home’s
wherever I hang my hat. I——” He broke off abruptly, hesitated, then
recovered himself and went on. “I trained with the Gold Hill crowd
something like a year ago. When I drifted into town last night and
heard the gang was off in Mohave Cañon, I kind of warmed up on the
subject of athletics, bundled up my track clothes, and moseyed in this
direction.”
Darrel’s announcement that he was, or had been, a member of the Gold
Hill club, caused the Ophir fellows to draw back into their shells
somewhat, and to eye him with distrust. Their altered demeanor was so
plain that Darrel noticed it.
“What’s the trouble?” he asked, looking blankly into the faces that
surrounded him. “Have I stepped on the tail of somebody’s coat, or
trampled on somebody’s toes?”
“Never mind, Darrel,” laughed Frank. “Professor,” he added, to
Borrodaile, “take Darrel to our wickiup and make him comfortable. I’ll
have a talk with him as soon as we take a dip in the pool.”
The professor led the puzzled Darrel away, while Merry and his
companions hurried off for a short swim after their dusty run.
“Don’t like the way this Darrel is shaping up,” grumbled Spink,
splashing around in the water.
“Nor I,” seconded Handy. “How do we know but that the Gold Hill crowd
have steered him this way to spy on us?”
“If he’s a spy, Handy,” said Frank, “then he’s a good deal of a fool.
Would a spy talk like he did?”
“He would not!” declared Ballard.
“The last time we went up against Gold Hill at football,” remarked
Bradlaugh, “we found that they had all our signals down pat. Maybe
they’re making another play of that kind.”
As hurriedly as he could, Frank gave himself a rub-down and got into
his clothes.
“Take it from me, Brad.” said he, “Darrel isn’t that kind of a chap.
He’s straight goods, and I’ll bet on it.”
When he got back to the camp he found Darrel sitting on a blanket just
within the open front of the tent. He was peering off across the cañon,
with a thoughtful, almost a sad, look on his face. He turned his head
quickly when he heard Frank, and the thoughtfulness and the sadness
vanished in a bright smile.
“You needn’t have rushed things on my account, Merriwell,” said he.
“All I wanted was a plunge,” answered Frank, dropping down beside him.
“If you were in Gold Hill, even as long as a year ago,” he proceeded,
“you must have known that there is a hot rivalry between the athletic
club in that town and the one in Ophir.”
A grim expression flashed through Darrel’s eyes.
“Haven’t they got over that, yet?” he asked. “Why can’t they act
like good sports instead of a lot of kids? I had a notion that Uncle
Alvah——” He bit his words short. “I had a notion,” he finished, “that
they’d see what a rotten exhibition they were making of themselves, and
get together and play the game as it ought to be played.”
“Probably they will, some time. Just now, though, if you mention Gold
Hill in an Ophir crowd, it’s like a spark in a powder magazine. That’s
why the fellows suddenly got back of their barriers when you said
that you were a Gold Hiller, and had once trained with the Gold Hill
Athletic Club.”
“Well, strike me lucky!” grinned Darrel. “It’s plain enough, now.
They’re afraid I’m here to do a little dirty work, eh? ’Pon honor,
Merriwell, such a thought never entered my noodle. As far as that goes,
I doubt whether I’m on very good terms with the Gold Hill bunch. My
half brother, Jode Lenning, is a big, high boy among the Gold Hillers,
and—and—well, Jode hasn’t much use for me,” Darrel flushed. “Haven’t
seen Jode for a year—nor any of the other fellows, for that matter—and
I was bound for their camp to see what sort of a reception they’d give
me.”
A strained silence fell over the two boys. Darrel was touching upon
personal matters, and he was doing it in a way that made Merry
uncomfortable.
“You see,” Darrel went on, a touch of sadness again showing in his
face, “it’s been a year since I had a home. For more than twelve months
I’ve been knocking around the West, and—and——”
“You don’t have to dig down into your personal history, Darrel,” said
Frank, “in order to convince me that you’re straight goods. I’ll take
your word for it.”
“Much obliged, Merriwell. Not many fellows would take the word of a
perfect stranger—especially as you’re from Ophir, and I was from Gold
Hill—once.”
“I’m only temporarily from Ophir.” laughed Frank. “Mr. Bradlaugh asked
me to coach the Ophir eleven for the Thanksgiving Day game with Gold
Hill, and we’re doing a certain amount of practice work every afternoon
up on the mesa back of camp.”
“Wow! And I came right along and jumped into the thick of you! Well,
anyhow, there’s something about you that makes a big hit with me; and
it’s been so long since I’ve had a friend I could trust that I’d like
to have a heart-to-heart talk with you. You see, I’ve been in a heap
of trouble, and now that I’m back from Nowhere, I’m guessing a lot as
to which way the cat’s going to jump. I’d like to get a little of that
trouble out of my system, and, if you don’t mind, I’ll begin to unload.”
“Go ahead,” said Frank. “I’m sure you’re the right sort, and if I can
help you any I will be glad to do it.”
“Shake!” exclaimed Darrel, reaching out his hand.
The professor was under a cottonwood with his book, and the rest of the
campers, seeming to realize that Merriwell’s talk with Darrel was of a
private nature, kept away from them. Darrel pushed farther back into
the tent and sat on a cot. Merriwell fallowed him and took possession
of a camp stool.
“I’ve been over a good bit of the country during the past year,” said
Darrel, “but in all my wanderings I’ve never let out a whisper of what
I’m going to tell you. I said that Jode Lenning was my half brother. My
father, John Darrel, died when I was a little shaver, and a year later
my mother followed him. Darrel was my mother’s second husband, and
David Lenning, Jode’s father, was her first. I’m over seventeen, and
Jode’s close to twenty. My mother’s maiden name was Hawtrey, and after
her death, Jode and I went to live with her brother, Colonel Alvah
Hawtrey.”
“Why,” exclaimed Frank, “Colonel Hawtrey is a big man over in Gold
Hill! There’d be nothing to the Gold Hill Athletic Club if you took the
colonel out of it. At least,” he added, “that’s what I’ve heard over in
Ophir.”
“Well, that about hits the thing off. Uncle Alvah is a fine old chap.
He saw to it that Jode and I got our share of physical training. I
was just a little bit better than Jode at pretty nearly everything in
the athletic line, although he could give me cards and spades in book
learning, and then leave me at the quarter post. The colonel insisted
that our mental and physical training should go on side by side, but
he’s got a sportsman’s love for athletics, and I think he was secretly
pleased because of my good showing on the field and track. While
he tried to be impartial in his dealings with Jode and me, yet it
became pretty clear that I was his favorite nephew. Jode didn’t like
that at all; and when the colonel took us to an athletic meet in Los
Angeles, and I won a silver cup in the two-twenty dash, Jode was soured
completely.
“I reckon I hadn’t ought to talk like this, Merriwell, and it may look
to you like mighty poor policy for me to run my half brother down, but
I can’t put this business up to you in a way that you’ll understand if
I’m not frank in telling what I know.”
“I guess I understand how you feel,” said Frank, “so push ahead.”
“Just after winning that silver cup,” proceeded Darrel, “I made the
mistake of my life. Jode was drinking a little and gambling a whole lot
on the sly, and I was young and foolish and thought I’d have a little
of the same fun on my own hook. I hadn’t savvy enough to understand
that by keeping away from drink and tobacco, while Jode was taking them
aboard a little on the q. t., I’d been able to do a fair amount of
successful work in athletics. That’s where I had the best of Jode, you
see, but didn’t realize it. Well, I got into Jode’s crowd, went from
bad to worse, and woke up one day to find that I’d forged the colonel’s
name to a check for five hundred dollars. Anyhow, that’s what they said
I’d done, and as I had been rather hazy from liquor at the time the
forging was done, I couldn’t deny it. I wish I could forget the bad
half hour I had with the colonel when he found it out!”
Darrel shivered.
“Uncle Alvah’s notions of honor are pretty high,” he continued, “and
he had always prided himself on the fact that Jode and I never smoked,
or drank, or gambled. The blow was a tough one for him. He used to
be in the army, and he’s as bluff and stern as any old martinet you
ever heard of. When he told me to clear out and never let him see my
face again, I—I cleared. That was a little over a year ago, and I’ve
been running loose all over the Pacific slope ever since, earning a
living at whatever turned up, and was honest and square. But I’d had my
lesson; and drink, cards, or tobacco couldn’t land on me again. I’m
physically more fit than ever I was in my life, for the batting around
I’ve had has toughened me a heap. What’s more, I’ve had a year to think
over that forgery business, and I’ve got a notion that I didn’t—that
I _couldn’t_—have done such a thing, no matter how hazy I was. It was
up in Spokane that I was struck with the idea that I’d better stop
drifting, come back to Gold Hill, and look into matters a little. I
don’t know what I can find, nor what I can do, but, if it’s possible,
I’m going to prove to the colonel that I didn’t put his name to that
check for five hundred. The first thing I wanted to do was to see Jode.
I was told that he had come to Tinaja Wells, with a camping party, so
I——”
Footsteps, approaching quickly, were heard outside the tent, and Darrel
suddenly ceased speaking. The next moment Clancy, his freckled, homely
face filled with excitement, showed himself at the tent opening.
“Say, Chip,” he cried, “here’s a go! A crowd of Gold Hillers have just
reached the Wells, bag and baggage, and claim that they’re entitled to
this camping site and are going to have it. It’s an ugly mess, and I’m
looking for all kinds of trouble. Better come out and see what you can
do.”
Without a moment’s delay, Merriwell jumped up from his seat and hurried
out of the tent.