A BLOW FOR NOTHING.
“Thompson, don’t ever let me go out of this room again and leave
the key in the lock,” said Carl, as he closed the outer door of his
state-room and threw the catch into place. “That was not a very bright
trick on my part. It is what caused all this trouble.”
“Show me the man who did this and I will make a spread eagle of him
right here,” said Thompson, placing his hand behind him.
“Put up your pistol,” exclaimed Carl angrily. “If you shoot one of
those men you will only alarm the whole boat; and, besides, you can’t
prove anything. But I have just thought of something. Sit down here
close to me, so that you can hear what it is.”
It did not take Carl very long to tell Thompson what he had on his
mind, and when he told him how the money would be safe hereafter, his
companion jumped up and drew the funds out of his bosom.
“But are you sure the clerk won’t steal it?” he asked. “Eight thousand
dollars is a heap of money for some people to have.”
“Of course I am sure of it,” said Carl. “It is his business to take
valuables that his customers may have and lock them up in the safe.
Take your revolvers from your hip pockets and put them on the inside of
your coat, and I will give mine to the clerk.”
The first thing was to wrap up the money in a piece of newspaper, and
the second was to do up two more bundles as near like the first as they
could, and these Carl put on the inside of his shirt. Then he picked up
the money package and laid his hand upon the door.
“I like the idea of giving up the money because I never did want to
take it in the first place,” said Thompson. “But I don’t like you to
have it. Those men could take you down easy enough.”
“Perhaps they will not attempt it. They may suspect what we have done
with the money, and in that case they will go away and let us alone.”
Carl cautiously opened the door of his state-room, and through the
glass at the front of the cabin he saw the two men sitting on the
boiler deck, with their backs toward the office. They walked lightly
toward the room where the clerk was without attracting the attention of
the men, and pounded upon it. In an instant the door came open to them.
“Not a word out of you,” whispered Carl. “There may be some men aboard
this boat who might take it into their heads to rob me, and I have here
eight thousand dollars which I beg you will take and lock up for me.”
“Whew!” whistled the clerk. “Are you sure the money is in that package?”
“To be sure I am. I just put it there.”
“I would like to see it before I touch it. Unwrap it.”
Of course that was nothing more than fair for the clerk, for he did
not want to take the package and find that there was nothing of value
in it. Carl readily took off the wrappings, and showed him the pile of
greenbacks.
“That’s all right,” said the clerk. “Do it up again. There are only two
persons aboard this boat, and one of them says he is acquainted with
you.”
“The man never told you a bigger lie in his life,” said Carl
indignantly. “I never saw him until to-day.”
“Do you say that he has an eye on this money? Then we’ll have him put
off.”
“But we can’t prove anything against them.”
“Can’t eh?” Thompson almost shouted.
“Don’t talk so loud,” said Carl hastily. “We don’t want those men to
know where we are. The fact of the matter is we left our valises in our
state-rooms, and when we went in there we found our clothes all over
the floor. Thompson wanted to shoot those men, but I knew he would only
make matters worse.”
“Do you think those men had a hand in it?” asked the clerk. “I’ll just
watch them,” he added, as he took the package and locked it up in his
safe.
“That’s all right. Now I wish you would put my revolvers with it. They
are not loaded. Thompson will feel safer if he has his on, where he can
put his hands on them.”
After a little more talk on the subject the clerk went out on the
guards, and while he was there the cowboys slipped out behind him and
came into the cabin through the passage-way which communicated with the
cook’s galley. They went out on the boiler deck and stayed there until
Kelly began to talk about money, and then they removed their chairs
around by the side of the cabin, onto the guards. But if Carl had seen
Kelly punch his companion in the ribs with his elbow, he would have
known that that part of his plot had been successful. The boys stayed
around on the guards until after supper, and even when the shades of
night began to gather about them; they remained there until it got so
dark that they could scarcely see their hands before them. This was the
time that Kelly told his companion that it was the season for them to
begin. Their attack upon them was so sudden that it was all over before
they had time to think about it. Carl saw Thompson thrown overboard,
and before he could cry out or lift a finger he received a stunning
blow on the head, and then all was blank to him.
But it was not so with Thompson. The latter was a strong man, and
Hayward had scarcely picked him up before he was fighting. He clutched
his assailant around the head with one hand, while with the other he
attempted to save himself from going overboard. But Hayward was on
the alert. He pulled himself away from Thompson’s encircling grasp
and threw him over the railing; but the cowboy, whose arms and legs
appeared to be everywhere, caught onto the railing with his left hand
while the other slid inside of his coat. A moment more and Hayward
could not have told anything about that scrape, for he would have been
laid out with a bullet in his brain; but he struck him a fierce blow in
the face, unclasped his fingers, and Thompson went down.
But the blow did not deprive him of consciousness. He found, in going
down to the water, that he had struck upon one of the fenders which are
used to keep the steamer off from a wharf-boat when making a landing.
His arms and legs instinctively closed around it, and, in place of
going into the water, Thompson slid down until his feet rested on the
lower guard. He had barely time to swing himself on board the boat when
he heard a splash behind him. He turned and looked at it, and there was
Carl, limp and lifeless, going down with the current. Something that
sounded very much like an oath came from Thompson’s lips as he let go
his hold upon the fender and struck out to Carl’s assistance.
If there was anything Thompson could do better than herding cattle it
was to swim. With a few swift strokes he was near enough to seize Carl,
and the first thought that came into his mind was that the villains,
not satisfied with getting his money, had made an end of him then and
there. He took Carl around the waist, lifted his head above water,
and swam toward the boat. Swimming now was a necessity for him, for
just below him was a sidewheel steamer coming in, and if he got down
under her guards it was a question whether or not he would ever come
up again. He made headway through the water as he had never made it
before, and presently caught hold of the fender that came down opposite
the engine room.
“Hi there, some of you fellows!” shouted Thompson. “Lend us a hand
here.”
Fortunately the engineer was not busy. He stood watching the deck hands
as they were carrying the freight aboard, and he heard the hail coming
from the water. He ran to the side, and with a “Heaven bless my soul!
How did you get in?” he seized Carl and lifted him upon the guards. “Is
he dead?” he asked, with some anxiety in his tones.
“No; but he may as well be,” said Thompson. “Now, then, help me out. I
know the fellows that did all this, and if I can find them——”
Thompson could not wait to say any more. He left Carl where he had
fallen and ran up the stairs to the boiler deck; but he might as well
have saved himself the trouble, for Kelly and his friend were across
the wharf-boat and well on their way up the levee. There were the
chairs, in which they had been sitting, both overturned, but the men
who did the business were nowhere in sight. Before he returned to Carl
he looked all over the boat, but still he could not see anything of
Kelly and Hayward.
“Here’s the bump that did all the mischief,” said the engineer,
pointing to a wound on the back of Carl’s head. “He must have been hit
with something. What was the fuss all about, anyway?”
“Carl knows, and when he gets ready perhaps he will tell you about it,”
said Thompson. “Is he never going to speak to me again?”
“Oh, yes. He’s coming around all right now. You had better take him
upstairs and put him in his bunk.”
“I had not been off the boat twenty minutes before this thing
happened,” said the clerk, who came up at the time Carl was beginning
to show signs of coming to. “I have had an eye on them ever since Mr.
Preston told me about it.”
“What did he do?” repeated the engineer.
There were a good many deck hands standing around by this time, and
the clerk did not think it best to speak about the money. He replied
that they wanted to whip Carl for something he had done; and taking him
under one arm, while Thompson took hold of the other, they took him up
to his bunk and put him into it.
“It beats the world what that fellow hit me with,” said Carl, placing
his hand to his head. “He struck me with something besides his fist.”
“I suppose it was a sand-bag,” said the clerk. “A scoundrel can carry
one of them up his sleeve until he gets ready to use it.”
“Well, they didn’t get the money, anyway,” said Carl, drawing a long
breath of relief. “Where are you going, Thompson?”
“I am going out to have those men arrested. If I can find a policeman
anywhere——”
To the surprise of both Thompson and the clerk, Carl interfered.
“I beg that you will do nothing of the kind,” said he. “Thompson, come
back here and sit down.”
This was said in the form of an order, and Thompson had nothing to do
but obey. Carl settled back on his pillow and closed his eyes, and the
clerk, readily divining that he was not wanted there, got up to go.
“If you can think of anything you want, don’t fail to send Thompson
after it and you shall have it,” said he.
Carl said he would bear that in mind, and when he was alone with the
cowboy he exclaimed:
“Don’t you see that if you arrested those men you would get Claude into
a mess?”
“No, I don’t. Did Claude have a hand in sending those men here?”
“Of course he did. As soon as he got ashore he went and got those
fellows to come here and steal the money; and if they should be caught,
don’t you see how easy it would be for them to tell on him?”
“And you want to let him go free because he is your cousin?”
“That’s it exactly. I am doing just as I believe my father would do if
he were here. Besides, you would be held as a witness. I don’t know how
long it will be before court sits, probably a month or six weeks, and
you would have to lay in jail all that time.”
Thompson had no more to say after that. He did not know how a jail
looked on the inside—he didn’t want to, for if it looked as badly as it
did on the outside it was gloomy enough—and the idea of staying there
for six weeks filled the foreman with apprehension.
“Dog-gone the boy, let him go!” said he.
“That is what I say. Now, I want you to stay here.”
Carl hoped they would be allowed to finish their journey in peace, and
that no further attempts would be made to steal that miserable money.
By the time the boat started he had recovered from his blow so that he
could be on deck, and by the time they arrived at Fort Scully he was
overjoyed to find his boat there. The clerk gave Carl his money with
the remark that it was a pity he did not see his way clearly toward
having those men arrested, for now they would be encouraged to go on
another expedition of the same kind, and saw him go ashore. In process
of time their little boat carried them in safety to Fort Yates, and, as
it was early in the morning, they hitched up their team and started for
home.
“Thank goodness that trip is made,” said Carl, who felt like yelling
when he found himself on the prairie again, “and I hope it will be long
before I am called upon to make another. Thompson, I will not take you
with me, anyhow.”
“Shake,” said the foreman extending his hand. “I would sooner be here
with the cattle. But if it had not been for me you would have gone
under the wheels of that steamer.”
“Well, I guess that is so,” said Carl.