WHEREIN UNCLE HENRY CHATTERS SOME MORE, THERE IS AN AUCTION, AND THINGS
LOOK BLACK INDEED
"And now for business," Lopez said. "And remember zat he what tells a lie
shall be right away shotted." In his excitement he lost the little English
he had.
"I only hope _he_ tells one!" Uncle Henry couldn't help saying, pointing to
Hardy.
"You wish him to be shot?" the bandit wanted to know.
"Absolutely!" Uncle Henry was quick to answer.
Angela was horrified. "You want him to kill my dad?"
"I should enjoy it tremendous," Uncle Henry kept right on, and all but
smacked his thin old lips.
Lopez was interested. "Why," he said slowly, wishing to get at the bottom
of things, "do you wish him to be shotted so tremendous?"
Uncle Henry had no hesitation in answering: "Because he come to skin us out
of this place, gol darn him!" And then, as if to save his skin, he pushed
his chair far into the alcove, and, from this vantage point, watched to see
what Hardy would do and say. He was aware that he had gotten him in a
devilish stew. It served him right. He was a robber, a thief, and he didn't
care what became of him. If Lopez took him out and had him shot at once he
wouldn't have felt a qualm.
The bandit weighed what Smith had said; then he spoke directly to Hardy.
"Zis is so? Zis is true?"
"No." The monosyllable was more emphatic than any long explanation could
have been. A scowl on his brow, Hardy came close to Lopez, fearlessly. "I
came to foreclose a mortgage I hold on this place. That is all."
But Uncle Henry was not going to see him get away with that. "Tell him why
you want this ranch so bad!" he yelled. "I dare you!"
Pell now stepped forward. Their predicament was bad enough as it was,
without having this old imbecile make it worse. "Keep still, you fool! Do
you want to get us into more trouble?"
"I certainly do," cried Uncle Henry, "an', gol darn it, I'm a-goin' to! Rob
me of ten thousand dollars, will you?"
Lopez was listening with both ears; and a glint came into his eyes, "Zat is
true?" he inquired, interested anew. "He has rob you of ten sousand
dollars? Eh--heh--a good beeg sum!"
"Ask him!" Uncle Henry said. "An' I only hope to thunder he tells a lie!"
His voice went up on a high key.
The bandit looked keenly at Morgan Pell. "Did you?" There was no reply.
"You hear me--you will answer--at once!"
"No." Morgan Pell shot out the word, and clenched his fists. The situation
was becoming hot. This old fellow would have them all dead in a few moments
if he didn't keep his mouth shut.
A look of triumph came into Uncle Henry's eyes. "There's your big chance!"
he shouted to Lopez. "Shoot him quick!"
But Pell said calmly: "I paid twenty thousand dollars for an option on the
place."
"Yes, but you didn't give me the money!" Uncle Henry insisted.
"I was going to," the other replied, not even casting a glance over his
shoulder.
Old man Smith turned to Lopez. "Oh! You didn't shoot quick enough! I got it
now! Ask him why he wants the place! Maybe he'll tell another one!" And he
tittered with glee.
Lopez put the question to Pell.
"I--I--" the latter stammered; but could get no farther.
Uncle Henry was gleeful now. "Get ready!" he yelled to Lopez. "He's going
to do it! Keep your hand on your gun!"
"I thought," Pell brought out reluctantly, "I thought there might be--oil
on it."
Lopez was dumbfounded. This was far more interesting than even he had
calculated.
"Oil?" he said.
Pell looked down. "But I think, under the circumstances, I shall not take
up my option." The paper was in his hand, and Lopez, seeing it, reached as
if to take it, when Pell handed the document to him. "In which case," Pell
informed the bandit, "the place would belong to him," shrugging a shoulder
toward Uncle Henry.
"What's that?" the latter asked.
"--making him a very rich man indeed," Pell added, significantly.
Aghast at the turn affairs had taken, Uncle Henry could scarcely speak.
"Well, for the love o' Mike!" he managed to say.
The bandit now turned full upon Uncle Henry, who was still concealed in the
shadow of the alcove. "Ah! so you would have all ze money!"
"No, I wouldn't!" Uncle Henry protested. "I--" He quickly put his hand to
his mouth, stopping it like a child caught in a lie. "I mean--yes, I
wouldn't! Only we ain't found the oil yet. And personally, I don't believe
there's any here in the first place!" Realizing what he had said, he caught
himself again. "I mean, it may be here, but--Don't shoot yet! I'll get it
in a minute!" he begged. He was agitated to the breaking point.
Hardy stepped forward, "Wait. I've a suggestion to offer," he said.
"Yes?" Lopez uttered the word as though he had grave doubts.
"You're after money," the tall, lank neighbor said. "I'll tell you how we
can make some--make a lot."
"Well?" said Lopez, still far from convinced, and taking things easily.
Hardy spoke more rapidly. "If the mortgage I hold on this property isn't
paid by eight o'clock to-night, it becomes mine. Keep that paper here until
eight o'clock, and I'll give you ten thousand dollars!" He watched the
effect of his words on the Mexican.
Pell spoke before the bandit. "Why, damn you--" he began, to Hardy.
But the latter paid no attention to his insult. He faced Lopez, as though
he were the only person in the room. "What do you say, is it a go?"
"Wait a minute!" Pell cried.
Lopez faced him. "Yes?" And puffed his cigarette.
Pell addressed both the bandit and Jasper Hardy. "I'll make a better offer.
Keep _him_ here until eight o'clock, and I'll give you twenty thousand
dollars!"
Lopez was considering, "H'm," he murmured, and stroked his chin.
Uncle Henry saw a mess ahead. He steered right into the group, crying,
"Wait a minute. I got a better idea yet!"
"You?" Lopez said, as he might have addressed a moron.
"Yes, this place don't belong to neither of 'em yet!"
"But who does it belong to?" the Mexican wanted to know.
"My nevyer," the invalid said.
"And which is 'e?"
"He's down in the shed--fixin'," the old man informed him.
Lopez turned to Pedro. "Venustiano shall find him. Before he make
trouble--you," turning to "Red," "shall show 'im where." Pedro had raised
his revolver; and one look at it was enough for "Red." These bandits meant
what they said; more, they meant every gesture they made.
"It's all right," the foreman said. "He ain't got anything to lose anyhow.
I'll show you where he is," and, followed by the sinister Venustiano, he
went out.
Uncle Henry moved his chair close to Lopez. "Now listen, robber--I mean,
bandit. You keep both these fellers here and lend us ten thousand dollars,
and we'll give you a million!"
"A million!" said Lopez, his eyes big.
"The first million we make out of the oil that's here!" "Uncle Henry
proposed. And, serious as things were getting to be, a smile went around
the group.
"I should lend you ten sousand dollar?" the bandit asked.
"Absolutely! Will you?" Uncle Henry had the temerity to say.
"I do not lend," was the hard response. "I take." And he turned away.
"But if you'll--" the old man pleaded.
"Your proposition not interests me," Lopez said. Uncle Henry wheeled over
to the staircase. The bandit turned to Pell. "You offer me twenty sousand?
Zat is so?" he said.
"Right," Pell replied.
Lopez smiled sardonically, "Twenty sousand--for what is worth millions?"
"But I don't know that there's oil here," Pell argued.
Lopez laughed. "No?" Then, to Hardy, "You? You don't know, eizer, I
s'pose?"
"I thought there might be--that's all."
The bandit gave a hearty laugh. "Oh!" he exclaimed, almost consumed with
mirth. "I see I do business wiz business men--wise business men. _Bueno_!
Now we three business men togezzer, eh? Suppose I shall show you where ze
oil is. What zen?" He looked around the room, as if he thought everybody
should be interested; and indeed everyone was. Little gasps came from Hardy
and Pell, and Uncle Henry wiggled his chair up closer.
"Show us where she is?" Hardy asked, breathless.
"_Si_," Lopez answered.
"There _is_ oil here?" Pell asked excitedly.
Another cigarette went into the bandit's mouth. "Should I waste time
talking of what ain't?" he drily said.
Hardy was still skeptical. "You know there's oil on this ranch?"
"I 'ave know so for a long time."
"On the level?" said Pell, eagerly.
"'Way down below," laughed Lopez, delighted at his ability to pun in
English, and making a motion with one hand toward the nether regions.
"You mean it?" Pell continued.
A dark scowl came over the face of Lopez. "Should you doubt my word?" he
inquired.
"Certainly not," Pell was quick to satisfy him. "Only why didn't you say so
before?"
"Oil not interests me," the bandit explained.
"But since to you gentlemen it seem so excitable--I 'ave it."
"Yes?" from Hardy.
"Ze little paper. You both want it. _Bueno!_ You shall both 'ave ze chance.
We will, 'ow you say, 'old ze little hauction."
"Auction?" Pell repeated.
"'E who bids ze 'ighest," Lopez elucidated, "shall 'ave ze little paper and
shall come wiz me while I show 'im where ze oil she is 'iding." He flicked
the ashes of his cigarette upon the floor, and sat on the corner of the
table, one foot dangling in the air.
"Gad!" Pell let out. His hands went together, his jaw set. Things were
coming out beautifully.
Lopez went on: "While 'e who does not bid ze 'ighest shall stay 'ere wiz
Pedro until eight o'clock to-night."
Hardy was delighted. "You mean the highest bidder will not only get the
place but that you'll show him where the oil is besides?"
"_Si._ Is it so agree?"
"I'm for that," Pell said.
"But I--" Hardy began.
"I bid one hundred thousand dollars," Pell quickly cried.
"I'll take it to the courts," Hardy contended.
"Take what to the courts?" Pell wanted to know.
"I was detained by force," Hardy said.
"As long as I get there by eight, what difference does that make?" Pell
asked.
But Lopez broke in: "One hundred sousand I am offer!" They mustn't
shillyshally this way. He wanted to keep things going.
"I'll make it one hundred and one!" Hardy cried.
Without a moment's hesitation, Pell jerked it up to a hundred and ten.
"A hundred and eleven!" Hardy pushed ahead.
"A hundred and twenty-five!" Pell yelled. "And what do you know about
that?"
Hardy was by no means finished. "A hundred and thirty!" he made it.
Uncle Henry couldn't stand it. While they raised each other's bids, he shot
in between them and managed to say above the din, "And me--gettin' skinned
not only out of my ten thousand, but a million dollars besides!"
"A hundred and fifty!" Pell was saying.
"A hundred and fifty-one!" the cautious Hardy added.
The face of Lopez was a study; but they were so excited that they did not
look at him. Angela rushed to her father and clasped his arm when she
heard his last raise. "That's right, father. Don't let him get it!"
"Don't worry," he reassured her, and patted her little hand, so warm on his
arm. He turned to Pell. "You city fellers needn't think you can come down
here and put it all over us."
"Nevertheless," said Morgan Pell, "I'll just bid a hundred and seventy-five
thousand."
"Then I'll make it a hundred and eighty!" his antagonist stated.
Quick as a flash, "A hundred and ninety," Pell said.
"Two hundred, by darn!" yelled Hardy, furious now.
"Two hundred and--" Pell began; when Lopez, to their amazement, rapped on
the table with his gun, as though he were an auctioneer and this his gavel,
"Señors!" he shouted. "It is enough!"
Everyone was dumbfounded, "Enough?" Hardy inquired, unbelieving.
"Too much!" Lopez explained.
"What's the idea?" Pell, shrewder than before, wanted to know. His brow
contracted. So there was a fly in the ointment, after all!
"Ze idea, my friend, is zis," Lopez calmly stated. "I am not interest in
pieces of paper. I do not accep' checks. Also I am no damn fool! You sink I
sink you bring back two 'ondred sousand dollar? Two 'ondred sousand
soldier, mebbe! But two 'ondred sousand dollar! Pah!" and he made a gesture
of disgust, and crushed the paper in his hand and let it fall on the floor
under the table.
"Then what's the idea of this auction in the first place?" Pell asked, mad
through and through that they had been tricked by this Mexican fool.
Lopez leaned back on the table. "To find out if you gentlemen was rich
enough to make it worth my w'ile to take you wiz me and 'old you for
ransom." His eyes half closed. He was enjoying their discomfiture. There
was nothing he liked more than to spring a surprise like this.
Pell and Hardy looked at each other, real terror in their faces now.
"Ransom!" the former cried.
"It is quite to be seen zat you are," the bandit grinned. "Zis, if I may
speak so, 'as been a lucky day for me!"
Pell turned to both Hardy and Lopez, and addressed them: "Bluffing, were
you?"
Lopez was quick to retort: "And was you bluffing when you bidded ze two
'ondred sousand dollars?"
Hardy was agitated. "I'm afraid we were a bit hasty," he tried to explain
things away.
This tickled Uncle Henry's bump of humor. He chuckled, and cried, "Ho, ho!
Serves you both gol darn good and right!" He seemed to go into a spasm of
laughter.
Pell's chief concern now was to get out of the mess--to get away; to have
everything settled. Lopez could probably be dealt with, man to man.
"Look here," he suggested, in a direct attack, "can't we settle things some
way?"
"Yes," the bandit replied. "From my headquarters in Chihuahua I will give
you pen, ink, messenger-boy--everysing!"
"But I--" Pell started to say.
But Lopez broke in: "You will please listen more and speak less. I 'ave
decide. You I shall 'old for ransom. And," turning to Hardy, "you; and
you," pointing to Uncle Henry, "you who 'ave nossing, I shall leave
be'ind."
Pell and Hardy felt that the game was over.
Uncle Henry, on the contrary, was jubilant. "Gee!" he sang out, "and I get
the oil, after all!"
No one heeded him. Things were too serious still.
"You wouldn't do this?" Hardy asked of Lopez.
"No?" the bandit asked.
Hardy took Angela in his arms. "But what about her--my daughter? You
wouldn't take her, would you?"
"Not for a million dollars!" Lopez smiled.
Angela's pride was hurt, "H'm!" she sniffed.
Lopez looked around him. He saw Lucia, and extended his hand to her. "And
as for you--" he began.
Lucia was frightened. What was to be her fate?
"Yes?" she breathed.
"Life 'as been unkind to you. Too long 'ave you been marry wiz ze tired
business man. You shall come wiz me to ze land of purple mountains, where I
will love you myself personal."
This animal! Lucia turned from him in horror. "But I don't want to love!"
"It is not what you want," a new tone came into Lopez's voice. "It is what
_I_ want. I am ze law, 'ere!"
"Please!" Lucia pleaded.
Pell stepped forward. "Look here!" he cried. "There must be some way out of
this!"
"Zere is," said Lopez politely. He pointed to the door. "Zat way."
Angela clung to her father's neck. "Dad!" she cried, seeing that he was
about to be forced to go--perhaps forever. Tears rolled down her pretty
cheeks.
Pell saw the seriousness of things now, and turned to Hardy in a strange
camaraderie. "I guess we're up against it," he said.
"Looks that way," the other replied. In their misfortune they were
curiously united.
Lopez turned to the whole room. "If you are ready?" he said, and snapped
his fingers as a slave-driver might have done. "Pedro!" he called, "kill ze
first one what make trouble," indicating the entire group of prisoners.
Pedro grinned hopefully. "Zey go. _Bueno!_ Zey go--all of zose ozzers. I
shall follow--wiz my woman." He turned to Lucia, who was standing like a
graven image near the table. "Come! We shall be very 'appy togezzer, you
and me!"
They were about to pass through the door--all of them--when a noise
startled them; and Gilbert, followed by "Red" and Venustiano, appeared.