THE MISSING PAPER
"Impossible!" cried Mr. Thornton, as he reached the group of lads
standing near the wounded man. "How could he be here when you said he
was hurt in the railroad accident and was in the hospital? It can't be,
boys."
"And yet there he is," said Billy, passing his hand over his forehead
as if to ascertain whether or not he was awake. "I leave it to Frank
and Andy."
"It surely _is_ he," asserted the elder Racer lad. "But when we saw him
last he had shaved off his black beard."
"And it's had time to grow in the meanwhile," said Andy.
"Yes," went on Billy, "and I suppose he's had time to recover from his
injuries and leave the hospital, though it did not seem possible."
"Well, whether it's he or not, and, even though he tried to rob you,
Billy, I guess it's up to us to look after him, now that he's hurt,"
said Mr. Thornton. "Lucky we've got some place to carry him to, for
the storm didn't do much damage after all. Take him into the house,
boys, and we'll see what ails him, and send for a doctor."
The man was unconscious, and it was easy to guess what had happened to
him. Near him, lying on the ground, was a billet of wood, evidently
part of the roof of the shed that had blown off. This had struck the
man on the head, making a long gash, though Billy, looking at it as
well as he could, gave it as his opinion that it was only a scalp wound.
As the three boys carried the limp form into the house, whither Mrs.
Thornton had preceded them, they could not help being more and more
sure in their minds that the man was Shackmiller. Every feature was
there, but the beard was as fully grown as if it had never been shaved
off. The clothing too, was such as the man had worn when hurt in the
train wreck.
"Put him on the couch," said Mrs. Thornton, as the injured one was
carried into the living room. "Then we'll bathe his head. I guess you'd
better telephone for the doctor, anyhow, Richfield. We may need him."
"I will if the wires aren't down," replied the ranchman; "but I hardly
expect that they stood that blow." They had not, as was proved when he
tried to get Central, for his ranch, as well as that of several of his
neighbors, was connected with the town by a telephone.
"One of the men will have to ride in," he said, as he hung up the
useless receiver. "Archie, I guess you'd better go. Tell the Doc. to
come right out if he can. I don't want to be mean, or inhospitable,
but I don't want this fellow at my place any longer than I can help.
I don't like his kind, especially after what he's tried to do to me,
and the sooner he can be moved the better I'll like it. So go get
the medicine man, Archie. And tell Matt to see what he can do toward
rigging a temporary roof on the shed. Now that we've had one cyclone
there oughtn't to be any more right away."
"Anything we can do?" asked Frank, anxious to help.
"No, I guess not, except you boys might stay around here, and if
Shackmiller comes to, sort of be on the watch. He may get delirious.
I've got to see to things outside."
By this time Mrs. Thornton, who was a good nurse, had bathed the
injured man's head and bound it up. He was breathing heavily, and was
still unconscious. Then, as household matters needed her attention, she
went out, leaving the three boys in charge.
"Well, say, things are certainly happening with a rush," remarked
Frank, as he looked at the figure on the couch.
"They generally do, once they start with us," commented Andy. "It's
been this way ever since I can remember."
"Then I'm glad you came out here," spoke Billy. "Not that I want
cyclones, and the appearance of our enemies, to happen every day of the
week, but I like some excitement. I'm glad I tied up to you fellows."
"Hush! He's coming to!" suddenly exclaimed Frank, as he saw the man's
eyes open.
As the boys watched they saw a look of returning consciousness come to
the man's features. He gazed about wonderingly, glanced at the three
lads, and then around at the room where he lay. In the minds of Frank,
Andy and Billy several questions came at once.
How had Shackmiller managed to get from the distant hospital to the
ranch? What was he doing so near it in the storm? How had he come to be
hurt?
"Where--where am I?" asked the man, feebly.
"You don't need to ask that; do you?" Billy inquired.
"Why, yes--of course," and the voice was stronger. "I know I was near
some ranch when the storm came up, and then it all got dark. I was
going to ask for shelter when something hit me on the head, and that's
the last I know."
"But you know me; don't you?" asked Billy. "And you know my chums, the
Racer boys. You saw us at the wreck, when the boiler exploded. You know
me all right, Sam Shackmiller!"
"Shackmiller!" fairly cried the man, as he struggled to a sitting
position. "Then you know me! But I don't know you. The Racer boys? I
never heard of them. And you--you----"
"I'm Billy Chase--from whom you tried to get the land paper," said the
ranch lad. "Only you didn't. But how does it come that you're out of
the hospital, Sam Shackmiller?"
"Sam Shackmiller--I'm not Sam Shackmiller!" cried the man.
"Oh, come!" exclaimed Billy. "That's too thin. Why, we know you as
well as you know us, even if you have grown your beard again. Come, if
you're not Sam Shackmiller, who are you?"
"I am Bruce Shackmiller, Sam's twin brother," was the quick answer, and
the boys gasped in astonishment.
"Bruce Shackmiller!" cried Billy.
"His twin brother!" added Frank.
"Yes," went on the man, "and if you know anything about him, for pity's
sake tell me. I have been looking all over for him, ever since he went
East. He wrote me that he was coming out West again, and then I lost
trace of him. I was on my way to Sageville, to go and hunt him up, for
he has friends there, when this storm overtook me. Oh, if you can tell
me anything about him I wish you would!"
The boys were too astonished to speak, at first. In fact, they doubted
that the man spoke the truth, and, seeing this on their faces, he went
on:
"I can easily prove that I am not Sam. He was lame, wasn't he?"
"Yes!" exclaimed Billy, eagerly.
"Well, I am not. See!" and, in spite of his weakness, the man walked
across the floor with never the semblance of a limp. "Sam and I are
twins," he went on, "and we are so near alike, except that he is lame,
that few can tell us apart. And yet there are several points where we
do not resemble each other. His eyes are blue, and mine are brown."
"That's right," said the puzzled Billy, after a look. "But I surely
took you for Sam."
"Nearly everyone does. Oh, but what has become of him?"
Thereupon the ranch lad related briefly about the train accident, and
how Sam had tried in vain to get the valuable paper.
"That is what I have feared all along," said Bruce Shackmiller,
gloomily. "I was afraid Sam had gotten in with bad companions. And so
he and they are trying to defeat your uncle's irrigation project; eh?"
"That's about the size of it," replied Billy. "Your brother followed me
about at school, trying to get that valuable paper. But I was too much
for him, and now my uncle has it safe."
"Oh, your uncle has it?" asked the wounded man, quickly.
"He sure has!" exclaimed Billy, answering in spite of the sudden nudge
Frank gave him. Then the ranch boy looked at his chum, who frowned, and
Billy understood. He wished he had not been so quick to reply. But it
was too late now. However, there could be no danger, he thought.
"Sam always was a little wild," went on the injured man. "He got in
with some fast companions, and, though I did my best to reform him, it
was useless. I think he was always a little bitter against the world
because of his lameness, which afflicted him from the time he was a
little boy. He was never like other lads, and, as he grew older, he
became morose and vindictive. But I hoped he had reformed. Of late I
lost track of him, but recently I had a telegram from him, saying he
was ill, and was coming back West."
"That was the one sent from the hospital I guess," said Billy. "But
what about yourself? How do you feel now?"
"Oh, much better. The blow made me unconscious for a time but I'm all
right now. I must go on, and see if I can find my brother."
"You had better wait until the doctor sees you," suggested Frank.
"He'll be here soon, now."
Mr. Thornton came in then, to see how the sufferer was getting along,
and his surprise may well be imagined when he heard the story.
"Well, I'm glad you're not the man who has been trying, with others of
his gang, to make trouble for me," said the ranchman; "though if you
had been we'd have done what was right by you. I wish you'd use your
influence with your brother to have him drop this business. I'm willing
to pay what's right for that land, though I have a valid claim to it.
He'll lose out in the end, and the sooner he gives in the better for
all of us."
"I'll tell him," said Bruce Shackmiller. "I'm sure that after he has
suffered so much, and uselessly, he will give up. I will seek him out
as soon as I can."
"Better rest up here for a day or so," suggested the owner of the
Double X ranch. "The doctor will be here soon. He has an auto, and it
doesn't take him long to get out from town."
The physician arrived shortly after that, bringing Matt, the foreman,
with him, the latter having left his horse in town.
"Great blow we had," commented the doctor, as he came in to look at his
patient. "Half a dozen of the skyscrapers in Sageville unroofed. Well,
now, let's see what we have here."
He made a rapid examination, and said that the wound was only a scalp
affair, which would soon heal if no complications set in. He dressed
and bandaged it, and prepared to take his departure.
"Now we'll make you as comfortable as we can," said the ranch owner, to
Shackmiller. "Stay a week if you like. On the whole it may be a good
thing that we met you, for it may end all this trouble."
"I hope it doesn't do us out of a chance to get the treasure of Golden
Peak," said Frank, softly.
"Oh, we'll have a try for that, anyhow," spoke Billy, and as he turned
aside, Frank thought he detected a strange gleam in the eyes of Bruce
Shackmiller.
"I'll do my best to influence Sam," said the man in a low voice, and
then he was taken to a room that had been prepared for him.
"He'll be all right in a day or so," the doctor said, on leaving. "All
he needs is rest and quietness. That blow must have been a glancing
one."
"Oh, by the way, Billy," said Mr. Thornton, at supper a little later;
"what was it you started to tell me when that cyclone crash came?"
"Great news, Uncle Richfield," replied the ranch lad. "Some of
Shackmiller's crowd are on guard at Golden Peak, and they ordered us
off when we went there to-day."
"They did!" cried the ranch owner. "I've got to look into that. It may
mean a big change in the situation. I've got to get busy. I must beat
these fellows at their game, or it will spoil everything."
The ranchman sat up late that night, going over various documents in
his room. The boys, after talking over the events of the day, had gone
to bed, rather tired. The effects of the big storm had fully passed
away.
"Well, what shall we do to-day?" asked Frank of Billy, as they got up
the next morning.
"Have another try for Golden Peak, I vote," came from Andy. "Maybe we
can get the best of those fellows."
"Not so soon after we've been there once," was the opinion of the
Western youth. "Give 'em time to forget about us, and we'll have a
better chance. But we can go hunting to-day if you like. One of the men
said he saw a lot of jack rabbits over on the far range the other day.
And maybe we might meet a stray wolf or so. It's always good work to
pot them, as they pull down a calf occasionally."
"Fine!" cried Frank. "We'll do it!"
"Hello, there's your uncle," said Andy, looking out of the window, and
seeing Mr. Thornton dressed for a trip to town. "He's off early."
"Yes, I guess he's got a lot of business to attend to on account of the
new move those fellows made," ventured Billy.
The next moment his uncle called to him:
"Billy, I say Billy! Did you take back that paper you brought from the
Eastern lawyer--the title deed to the land in dispute?"
"No, Uncle Richfield. I haven't seen it since I gave it to you. Why?"
"Because it's gone!"
"Gone?"
"Yes. I had it last night, looking it over together with some other
documents, and I put them all in my desk, intending to take them
into town this morning. Now the most valuable document of the lot is
missing!"
"Missing!" cried Billy. "How can that be? Has anyone----"
At that moment the Chinese cook appeared in the yard with a bowl of
steaming coffee. Addressing Mr. Thornton he said:
"Him no can do."
"No can do what?" snapped the ranchman, not altogether pleased to be
annoyed by household matters at such an important time.
"No can dlink coffee."
"Who can't? What are you talking about, Sing Lee?"
"Man no can dlink. Man what hab chopee-chopee on head--he no can dlink.
Him gone--vamoose!"
"What?" cried the ranchman, a sudden suspicion coming into his mind.
"Him no can do. Him gone," blandly repeated the Celestial. "Mlissie
Thornton send me him for coffee to dlink--I go--he no there. He no can
do!"
"By Jove!" cried the ranchman. "That explains it! Boys, that twin
brother is a sham! He's skipped with my papers! We've got to get right
after him!"