A RIDE FOR LIFE
Jack Bailey did not know what to do or say. He just stood there in the
morning light, gazing at Mr. Argent, as though to make sure of the miner's
words. Finally he faltered:
"Do you really mean it?"
"Mean it? Of course I do!" was the answer. "It's a joke on those rascals.
They've had all their trouble for their pains. They've gone off with a set
of dummy letters, plans and other mining information that will take them
several weeks to digest. And they'll waste a lot of time trying to locate
the claim. Only they'll be from fifty to a hundred miles from it. Oh,
they'll be fooled all right!"
Jack experienced a sudden revulsion of feeling. He swayed and seemed about
to fall. Dr. Brown caught him.
"Hold on! This won't do!" the physician exclaimed. "We must get him home.
Why he's hurt!" he cried, as he saw the blood on Jack's hands.
"It's just some cuts--from the glass I sawed the rope on," the lad
murmured. Already his strength was coming back to him. He was so glad the
robbers had not obtained the real letters. It was a clever ruse on the part
of the miner.
There was a spring not far from the place where Jack had recovered the mail
bags, and he was given some water from this. His cuts were also washed and
attended to by Dr. Brown. Then on a spare horse that had been brought along
Jack rode back to Rainbow Ridge, one of the men carrying the mail and
express stuff.
There was considerable excitement in town when the cavalcade returned.
Already preparations were under way for the organization of a posse to hunt
the robbers, and if necessary, scour the country for Jack.
But he had been found, and the mail and express matter, except the decoy
letters, recovered. So the only thing left to do was to set out after the
unscrupulous men who had attacked Jack.
There was little chance that they would be apprehended, however. They had a
start of several hours, and probably had good horses.
"Besides," said Mr. Argent, "they will very likely head for the supposed
location of the mine. It will take them out of this immediate
neighborhood," he chuckled.
"And for a good while, I hope," said Mr. Perkfeld.
"Oh yes, it will take them a few weeks to find out they've been fooled,"
the miner said. "But then they may come back again."
"If they do we'll arrest 'em!" declared Jed Monty, cracking his stage whip.
As had been expected, the posse could get little trace of the hold-up men.
They had disappeared after having cast aside the rifled mail pouches. It
developed, however, that a few pieces of registered matter, and some
express stuff had been taken, in addition to the bogus letters. The stolen
stuff was jewelry, and there was not much chance that it would be
recovered. Those to whom it was consigned would have to stand the loss.
But when it was considered that nearly all the valuable mail had come
through safe, or rather, had been recovered, and that Mr. Argent's real
letters were still safe, every one said it was a very lucky outcome indeed.
Jack's cuts did not amount to much, and he wanted to ride the route the
next day after his experience, but Dr. Brown and his father would not let
him. So a substitute was provided, furnishing his own horse, for Jack said
Sunger was too tired to be used without some rest. The pony had made the
trip alone, over the trail, and it was his appearance at the Watson home
which had led to the alarm.
A good rest, and the knowledge that nothing really serious had happened,
did much to restore Jack, and on the second day following his experience he
was back in the saddle again. His cuts had been well bandaged, so he could
use his hands. He was not actually required to ride the express route, but
he would not let any one else do it.
"Maybe I'll get a chance to trace those robbers," he said. "I feel sure I
would know at least one of them again--the man who sat on his horse all the
while. I'm going to be on the watch for him."
The excitement caused by the hold-up of the pony express soon died away. In
western communities there is so much going on that interest is soon shifted
to newer events.
The posse that went out to seek the robbers had no luck in finding them.
All traces seemed to disappear after the bags were found in the old
mine-hole. A man was kept in hiding at that place for nearly a week, ready
to give the alarm if the hold-up men returned to get the pouches which they
had hidden. But they did not come back.
Meanwhile Jack soon became himself again. His father, too, improved slowly,
though he was far from well, and would not be able to ride the trail again
for a long time.
Of course, Jennie had to hear the whole story of the hold-up from Jack
himself, and she sympathized deeply with him.
"Oh, it was just terrible!" she exclaimed, in her impulsive, but sweet and
girlish fashion. "I just can't bear to think of your lying out there all
alone, in the dark, and tied up with ropes!"
"Well, it wasn't exactly a picnic," Jack admitted.
"And to think of your cutting yourself on the glass!" she went on, as she
looked at his hands, one of which she held gently.
"Oh, it might have been worse. If it hadn't been for the glass I might have
lain there a while longer, and in that case I probably would not have found
the stolen mail bags, for if I had waited there until the rescuers came I'd
never have walked down the trail."
"Perhaps it was all for the best," Jennie admitted. "But I do hope nothing
like that happens again."
"Same here!" exclaimed Jack. "Now have you the mail ready?"
And then, for a time, it was business.
For two weeks or more Jack rode the trail, back and forth, carrying the
mail and the pony express matter. He was not again disturbed, and Mr.
Perkfeld gave orders that, except in case of great necessity, he should not
make night trips.
Nothing more was seen of the hold-up men, and Mr. Argent heard no news
concerning his mining business. Whether or not those who had taken the
bogus letters tried to locate the rich claim was not disclosed.
"But the real letters will come along some day--any day now--Jack," the
miner said, "And when they do--"
"When they do no one shall get them away from me!" Jack exclaimed, and he
was not boasting. He meant it. And you shall see how he kept his promise.
Several more attempts were made on the part of those who wanted Jack's
place to supplant him as pony express rider. But he had made himself a
favorite with the stage drivers, as well as with Mr. Perkfeld, who said
Jack could keep on riding the trail until his father was ready to resume
his duties. Several mean little things occurred, which, like the loose
planks in the bridge, Jack felt were designed to make trouble for him. But
he avoided them, fortunately, and none was as serious as the bridge
incident. The author of that remained a mystery, though Jack had his
suspicions.
Jake Tantrell continued to sneer at our hero. He made several efforts to
get Jack's place, even offering to do the work for less money, but his
offer was not accepted.
Then came an unpleasant season, when the fall rains set in. The sun seemed
to have forgotten how to shine, and Jack fairly lived in his poncho, or big
rubber riding blanket that went over his head, protecting him and the mail
bags.
"How's the Ponto river, Jack?" asked his father one day, when the lad had
stopped to speak to the invalid. "Is she rising much with all this water
that's falling?"
"Yes, she's getting pretty high, Dad."
"Look out for the bridge there. It isn't any too strong, and it may go out
with the high water."
"Oh, I'm not worrying about that. They've strengthened it within these last
two weeks, and I guess it will hold. Still the water is high in the
mountains. There's some talk of the Richfield dam not holding."
"Is that so? Well, if that goes out the folks down below will get a
wetting."
"That's what they will! But it may hold until it stops raining."
The Richfield dam was a new one, built above the small settlement of that
name on the flats about three miles to the northeast of the Ponto river.
The Richfield river was a branch of the latter, and was a turbulent stream,
often rising rapidly, for It was confined between steep, high! banks.
Jack had his talk with his father vividly recalled to his mind two nights
later. It was the first time since the hold-up that he had been obliged to
ride at night, but there was some valuable mail that had been delayed, and
that must be put through.
The pony express lad was on his trip toward Rainbow Ridge from Golden
Crossing, and it was dark when he reached the point where the Richfield
river branched off from the Ponto. And at the sight which met his eyes the
lad exclaimed:
"Say, this is certainly high water! I wonder if the dam is holding."
It had rained hard all day. Now it was but drizzling.
"I'm going to take a run down there," Jack decided. "It won't take me ten
minutes, and you can easily make that up; can't you Sunger?"
The pony whinnied in answer.
"I've time enough, anyhow," Jack went on. "I'll just go and take a look at
the dam. The water must be two feet over it now."
He turned off the main trail, and was soon approaching the dam. Before he
reached it he could hear the sullen roar of the pent-up water. And when he
had a view of the impounded flood he saw at once that it had approached the
danger point.
Jack looked critically at the dam. He knew something about such structures,
and about high water.
"I don't believe that dam will last," he argued. "There's too much water
pressure on it." Even as Jack spoke a small portion of the dam, near its
juncture with the shore, gave way, and a large volume of water rushed out.
"That's the start!" cried the pony rider. "She'll all go in half an hour.
I've got to ride down below and warn the Richfield people. Otherwise
they'll be swept away. I've got to ride and warn them!"
There was nothing else to do. Jack called to his faithful pony and guided
him into the trail that led to Richfield on the flats below. If that volume
of water were suddenly to be released through the breaking of the dam, part
of the village would be wiped out. If they were warned in time the populace
in the danger zone could take to the hills on either side and escape.
"Come on, boy!" called Jack to his pony. "It's a ride for life all right!"