THE MYSTERY SOLVED.
One day the two were sitting in the doorway of Bill Dawkins’ hut, where
the hospitable owner still made them welcome. They were looking over
the few specimens of rock “rich in fine silver” that Mr. Ransom had
produced that first day, when the man thrust his hands into his pockets
to see if any more fragments remained there. Finally from an inside
pocket he added to the growing pile of treasures a piece of flat,
tarnished metal. He gave a little shudder as his fingers released it,
and Jimmie glanced up in time to see a sudden change in his father’s
eye, like a glimpse of suddenly remembered fear.
“What is it, father?” Jimmie cried sharply.
The man started, looked down and then smiled foolishly.
“I don’t know, son,” he replied slowly.
Jimmie picked up the bit of tarnished metal, and gave a sudden start in
his turn. Quickly controlling himself, he asked as quietly as possible,
“Where did you get this, father?”
“I don’t know, son,” repeated the man again. “I don’t know. I must have
had it a long time,--son,--a long time.”
Jimmie looked at the little dull article a moment and then leaning
forward fastened it to the breast of his father’s coat. Mr. Ransom
began to look uneasy and a wild light sprang to his eyes for an
instant. Jimmie immediately detached the metal piece and put it in his
pocket. Then he began to chat with his father about the trees, the
mountains, the hut and kindred matters, and apparently forgot all about
the incident.
But the moment that Bill Dawkins returned from his day’s hunting in the
mountains, Jimmie was off like an arrow from a bow for the camp down on
the Big Bend.
The party were just enjoying a quiet evening meal prepared under
Mountain Jim’s tutelage, when Jimmie burst in upon them.
“See that!” he cried breathlessly, holding up the piece of tarnished
metal. “And that!” he added, turning the article over so as to show its
blackened under side.
“It’s a badge!” cried Persimmons.
“A Northwest Mounted badge!” added Ralph.
“And it has a name scratched on the back!” reported the professor.
“And the name--is--_Nevins_!” concluded Mountain Jim in a tone of awe.
“And _my father_ had that in his pocket!” said Jimmie, tears of
excitement rolling down his cheeks.
“Could your father--possibly--be--Nevins?” asked the professor slowly.
“But Nevins died in the snow!” protested Harry Ware.
“No, Carthew only _thought_ he died. No one _knew_,” said Mountain Jim
reminiscently.
“But the Indians?” suggested Ralph.
“Maybe they saved him,--who knows?” said Jimmie, his eyes shining. “And
maybe they let him wander away when he got stronger because they saw he
was crazy!”
And so the talk went on, one suggestion and one surmise following
another until the long evening was spent. The mystery could not be
fully solved, but all agreed not to remind Jimmie’s father of the
horrible experience that had been his, if he were, indeed, the subject
of Trooper Carthew’s tale.
The next day the faithful doctor approved this decision. He also
promised that he would get word to the trooper of this strange sequel
to his story.
To digress, for a moment, as we may not linger much longer over the
happy ending of Jimmie’s search. Time and the trooper proved, that Mr.
Ransom and “Nevins of Ours” were, indeed, one and the same. The second
name had been assumed as a protection, and so had prevented the finding
of Jimmie’s father long ago. A year or two after the incidents just
related there was a reunion of the two men who had long before faced
death together on the solitary trail, and by that time the clouds of
forgetfulness had been so largely dissipated from Mr. Ransom’s befogged
brain that he was able to thank the stalwart trooper for his efforts in
his behalf.
Although much that had intervened between the time of Mr. Ransom’s
disappearance in the snow and the time of his mental recovery was never
clearly known, yet flashes of memory recalled to him Indians, warm
blankets and good food. And his friends concluded that the Indians had
really captured and saved him, but through some superstitious regard
for his crazed condition, had been kindly disposed toward him and
given him his freedom.
But the silver? It was many days before Horace Ransom was strong enough
to compel his brain to work backward to locate the spot where he had
found the rich ore. Finally he succeeded, and the professor and the
boys eventually accompanied him to the recess in the hills where the
rich find had been made. The professor declared that the vein was of
great richness and would yield a vast amount of silver, and so it
subsequently proved.
The new Horace Ransom--the alert, middle-aged man of property that had
arisen from the ashes of the mysterious derelict of the mountains--was
anxious for the boys and the professor all to take shares in his mine,
but they refused. Instead they turned their interest, which Mr. Ransom
insisted they possessed, over to Mountain Jim.
All this, of course, did not take place in a day. While Mr. Ransom
was convalescing, the boys had much sport on the great Columbia in
native canoes. They also had several adventurous hunting trips and
memorable mountain climbs. But possibly of all their recollections of
the Canadian Rockies the remembrance of the strange reunion of “the boy
from nowhere” and his father was destined to stand out as the brightest
and best. Little did they imagine when Ralph rescued Jimmie from the
hands of the brutal brakeman, that before many years had rolled by the
waif would be partner in the “Border Boy” silver mine, answering to the
name “Mr. James Ransom.”
And here we will break off this tale. Another volume might easily be
written relating further doings of these boys in the Canadian Rockies.
But space forbids, and we must defer further acquaintance with our lads
till we meet them once more in the next volume of this series, THE
BORDER BOYS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE.
THE END.
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CAPTAIN JACK LORIMER; or, The Young Athlete of Millvale High.
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