BLUNT’S “SURPRISE.”
The cowboy pushed his way into the tent and sat down beside Ballard on a
pile of blankets.
“First off,” said he, “let me ask you if you’re satisfied Schuster gave
me a straight tip when I met him on the way back from Gold Hill?”
“Why, yes,” Frank answered, “Schuster had a pretty good line on the
situation, all except that ‘getting even’ part.”
Blunt screwed up his black eyes and gave Merriwell a keen sizing.
“What do you think about that bowlder that dropped from the cliff?” he
asked.
“Accident,” said Frank briefly.
“Well, holy smoke!” grunted the cowboy, in disgust. “Is that what you
really think, Chip?”
“It is, Barzy.”
Blunt removed his hat and ran his fingers through his long, jet-black
hair.
“You’re a little shy in your headpiece,” he remarked. “Either that or
else you’ve got a fool notion about not wanting to go on record with
what you really think. Some of the lads outside kind of told me the way
you were leaning, and how you’d been cracking Jode Lenning up as
something of a man, in spite of his shortcomings. What Schuster said
Lenning and Shoup had up their sleeves for you, Chip, worried me a heap.
I got to thinking more of keeping the three of you apart than I had
thought about recovering the money. Pretty soon after I left you and
Bleeker in the hills, I tied up my horse and started to skirmishing in
some difficult places on foot.
“First thing I knew I was in the brush on top of the Point. The canoe
race was going on below, and I could hear the yells pretty near as plain
as though I had been down in the bottom of the gulch. Shoup and Lenning
were skulking back of the cliff’s edge. They had a rock poised on the
brink. Lenning was waiting to push it over, while Shoup was looking
down, ready to give the signal at the right time.
“It was a few minutes before I got on to what they might be up to. Just
as it rushed over me, and I started to get busy with the coyotes, Shoup
gave the signal and Lenning pushed the rock over. Then both of them took
to their heels. I was right after ’em, but they pulled a canoe out of
the bushes when they got near the water, and slid beyond my reach.
“I started back toward the place where I had left my horse, but stopped
again when I got a glimpse of the river and saw you and Clancy chasing
the other canoe. I saw the rest of what happened, too, including the bat
Shoup gave Lenning on the head, and the way you and Clancy went to the
rescue. I reckon that was fine, considering all that those skunks had
tried to do to you, but, pard, it was a whole lot more than I’d have
done in your place.”
“No, it wasn’t,” said Merriwell decidedly.
“No? Seems like you’re putting me in your own class. Chip, and you know
as well as I do that I don’t belong there. Well, we’ll let that pass. I
went for my horse with my thoughts and feelings sort of scrambled, so
that I didn’t know how I really felt. I sort of forgot about the stolen
money, and about everything else, but the way those two sneaks pushed
the bowlder down on you, and the way you went into the drink to save
the fellow that did the most of it. Finally I got into my saddle and
rode for this camp, where I was told how you believed that bowlder
business was an accident, and that Lenning had done the square thing
with the money. Then I was at sixes and sevens again. I didn’t want to
jolt you with the truth about Lenning, and yet I couldn’t see how you
were so dense as not to figure it out for yourself. Now, Chip, I come to
you as an eyewitness, and you’re getting the facts. Schuster had it
pretty straight, didn’t he?”
“Surest thing you know, Barzy,” Frank answered. “Here’s the money,” he
added, passing over the roll. “It’s all there but twenty dollars. Shoup
spent that in Ophir.”
“I’m glad enough to get hands on it, even if it is a twenty short. Mam
is coming in for quite a wad of coin, on account of that mine deal, so
maybe she wouldn’t have missed this so much as she might. It was the way
Shoup took it, more than anything else, that got me all worked up. Now,
Chip, tell me this: What’s your opinion about Lenning?”
“It was the best thing that ever happened to him when Colonel Hawtrey
kicked him out,” said Merriwell. “There’s good stuff in Lenning and he’s
going to prove it a good many times--just as he proved it this
afternoon.”
“Bosh!” said Bleeker, thrusting his head into the tent, “you’re dippy on
that point, Chip.”
“Wait and see, Bleek.”
“Supper’s ready--that’s what I looked in to tell you. Place for you,
Blunt. Going back to Ophir to-night?”
“I hear there’s a race on to-morrow forenoon,” returned Blunt, “and I’d
sort of made up my mind to hang around and take a hand in it.”
“Good for you!” cried Merriwell.
“But,” the cowboy went on, with an odd gleam in his black eyes, “I
don’t want any more bowlders tumbling from Apache Point if I’m to be in
one of the canoes.”
“Now that Shoup and Lenning have cleared out,” cried Clancy, “I’ll
guarantee there won’t be any more rocks rolling down the cliff. Come on
and let’s eat.”