THE PRICE OF TREACHERY.
This most astounding event had left everybody gasping. A ghastly pallor
had rushed into Sercomb's face. His three companions were hardly in
better case. All four realized that the unexpected had happened, and
that it boded ill for them.
But Sercomb was not long in pulling himself together.
"Why, uncle!" he exclaimed, forcing a laugh; "this is a tremendous
surprise, and a glad one. I have been worried to death about you!"
He offered his hand. Mr. Lawton looked at him steadily. Under that look
Sercomb's assurance faded, his hand dropped, and he fell back.
"I would like you better, sir," said the old Englishman, "if you
showed the courage to acknowledge what you have done and face the
consequences. You must know that I am aware of all that has taken place
here; and yet you have the brazen insolence to step forward and offer
me your hand!"
"I guess we'd better be going, Sercomb, old chap," said Mings.
"I think so, too," spoke up Balt Finn. "It's getting along toward noon,
and we'll get out the car and start north."
"Come on, boys," urged Packard.
They started toward the door. At a gesture from Mr. Lawton, Tippoo
stepped in front of the door and drew the revolver from his sash. The
Denver man fell back in trepidation.
"You'll start north very soon," said Mr. Lawton keenly, "and when you
go you'll take Sercomb with you. First, however, there is something to
be told, and you'll wait to hear it.
"Ever since I came to America I have had Ralph and Dick in mind. Either
I was to divide my property between them, or else I was to cut off one
and leave all to the other. In some respects I am a particular man.
What property I have collected I want to fall into hands that will do
the most good with it. With that end in view I have tried to make a
study of Ralph and Dick.
"It was easy for me to study Ralph. Whenever I asked him to come here
and see me, he came; and he remained, as a rule, until I asked him to
go. He had ways about him which I did not like, but I feared that was
merely a prejudice. I like the youth who is open and aboveboard, who
says what he means and who is frank and fearless. Ralph did not seem to
be that.
"Dick I never could get to come to me." Mr. Lawton lifted his hand and
rested it on Ferral's shoulder. "I couldn't understand this, for by
making a little of me he had everything to gain. He was serving his
king afloat--I liked that--but I felt that he might take a little time
off for a visit, every two or three years, with the forlorn old man
'way off here in the American wilds.
"When Dick wrote me from Texas, I conceived a plan. By this plan I
hoped to bring both my nephews here, and to find out, beyond all cavil,
just which was the better entitled to what I shall some day leave.
"With the Lamy lawyer to help, the little conspiracy was hatched.
Identically the same letters were sent to Ralph and Dick, each stating
that I was tired of living alone, that I was going to get out of the
way, and that wherever I was found my _will_ would be found with me."
A grim smile hovered about the bristling gray mustache of the old man.
"I did not say what the will was," he went on, "but I will remark here
that it was purely the mental process by which I intended to judge
which of my nephews was the more worthy.
"Ralph lost no time in coming to La Vita Place. He brought with him
these friends of his"--Mr. Lawton swept his hand about to indicate
Finn, Mings and Packard--"and they carried on with liquor and cards,
spending their time sleeping, eating, gambling and hunting for the
will. There was never any concern about Uncle Jack--their interest was
all in the will and Uncle Jack's money. Everything that went on in this
house I knew about--as well as everything that went on outside. Tippoo,
with the aid of the runabout, kept me informed of events beyond the
walls; and, as for the others, I heard and saw for myself.
"This old adobe house is like a medieval castle. In the old times, when
settlers were even fewer in this country than they are now, lawless
Mexicans used the place for nefarious purposes; and, back beyond their
time, the old friars who were here under the Spaniards made this their
retreat. The walls are honeycombed with passages, and every room can be
reached secretly and secretly watched. I discovered these passages for
myself, and have passed many a lonely hour unearthing the mysteries of
the place.
"Ralph, during one of his visits here, found the passage leading from
the bushes to my sleeping-room, up-stairs. He knew of that, but none of
the others.
"One thing I did not know about until now was Ralph's plan to have
Mings meet Dick in Lamy, when he was coming here, and steal his money.
It is hard to think one of my blood is a thief----"
"Uncle!" gasped Sercomb.
"Stand as you are, sir!" cried Mr. Lawton sternly. "Let us name the
truth as it should be! It was not your hand that struck Dick down, and
his money is not now in your pocket, but yours was the plan, and you
are even more guilty than Mings. Although I could not protect Dick from
that danger, yet he was equal to it himself.
"When he came here, I was watching Ralph and his friends playing cards
up-stairs; I saw them put out the light and retreat noiselessly to my
bedroom; and I heard the shot that was fired at Dick before the young
rascals left the house by the secret way.
"All the rest that followed, during the night, I understood, save that
I did not know, until I heard Matt talking with Carl and Dick in my
room, how he had been able to spy upon Sercomb and his friends and
gather a clue to Sercomb's duplicity.
"The ruffianly attack on Dick and Carl by Mings and Packard, who, under
orders from Sercomb, were plotting to carry Dick off to the quicksands,
horrified me. I would have shown myself then and there had not Dick and
Carl protected themselves so valiantly and turned the tables on Dick's
would-be abductors.
"Tippoo, in the car, was watching the automobile in front, and he
disabled the machine so that Dick could not be carried off, in case
Mings and Packard succeeded.
"The most contemptible act of all was that where Mings and Packard
followed Dick and his friends, when they had been ordered away, and
attempted Dick's life----"
"I did not sanction that!" cried Sercomb desperately. His hopes were
crumbling in his grasp like a rope of sand. "I did not tell Mings to
tie Dick in the car and set the car toward the cliffs! Uncle! I----"
"Silence!" thundered Mr. Lawton. "I will have no false excuses. I know
what you wanted! You wanted to get Dick out of the way. In your greed
to get all of my property you shut your eyes to the heinousness of your
conduct and struggled only to achieve your aim.
"Here, in this house, Ralph, I have watched barefaced duplicity and
murderous resolve battling with frankness and fearlessness! I have seen
you deliberately, and with three unscrupulous friends to help, play
every card you could in an attempt to beat your own cousin. And I have
felt shame that one of our line could act so like a cur.
"Had I known, in the beginning, just how far your greed would lead
you, had I even remotely imagined all the dangers that would encompass
Dick when he tried to follow out my last request, I would never have
proceeded in the way I did.
"But now it is over. I have seen you both when you could not know I was
near; I have watched your actions, weighed even your words, and I am
able to judge between you."
A certain grimness of resolve came into the fine old face as Mr. Lawton
went on.
"Ralph, you can expect from me--nothing. When I leave this place for
good and all, and go to Denver--which will be in a few days--there
will not be even a deed to La Vita Place to go to you. Considering
my present mood, not a shilling of my money, sir, will go to you. To
whom it _does_ go, I will leave you to guess. Go back to your racing;
and if, before I die, you have come nearer making a man of yourself,
perhaps I will reconsider. You and your friends have an automobile in
the barn. Take it, at once, and leave here."
A deep silence fell over the room. Tippoo stepped away from the door
and tucked the revolver back into his sash. Mings, Packard and Finn
bolted--glad, no doubt, to get away so easily. Sercomb started after
them, but hesitated.
"Uncle," he began tremulously, "if you will----"
"Go!" ordered Mr. Lawton sternly.
Then Sercomb's true character came uppermost. Halting in the door he
shook his fist at Matt and Dick.
"I'll play even with both of you for this!" he gritted, then whirled
and darted after his crestfallen companions.
"Come, Carl," said Matt, hurrying toward the hall door, "we'll go and
keep an eye on the car."
"You bed you," exulted Carl, running after Matt. "It vas easy for
Verral to be jeerful now, hey? Aber id don'd vas so easy for dose odder
chaps. Donnervetter, vat a surbrise!"
When the other touring-car whisked out of the barn, through the grove
and into the road, there were four very gloomy passengers aboard.
Hardly looking at Matt and Carl, they kicked up the dust toward Santa
Fé and Denver.
Tippoo appeared, as soon as the car had vanished.
"Sahib," said he to Matt, "you go to de house. I take care of bot'
cars. Naboob sahib say so."
"Napoo sahip cuts a goot deal oof ice mit us, Tibboo," said Carl, "und
I guess dot ve go, hey, Matt?"
"Sure, we will," replied Matt. "But be careful of this car, Tippoo. It
has had so many close calls lately that I am scared of my life when
it's out of my hands."
"Me take good care, sahib," answered Tippoo reassuringly.
Matt and Carl, full of wonder and satisfaction because of the way the
affair had ended, started back along the foot-path to the house.