THE RETURN TO HOLBROOK.
Haggard from worriment and need of sleep, her face seeming drawn and
old, her eyes feeling like coals in her throbbing head, Mrs. Arlington
welcomed Eliot Dodge, who came into the room, looking dejected yet
seeming to appear hopeful.
"June! June, my child?" cried the tortured mother. "Have you no news of
her?"
"Nothing but--this," said Dodge, pulling out an unsealed letter.
Then he briefly told of being held up by three ruffians, who had given
him the letter.
Mrs. Arlington read it, and fell half-fainting on the couch, while Dodge
bent over her with protestations of sympathy.
"My poor girl!" gasped the miserable woman. "And she is in the power of
such monsters! The ransom money must be paid! She must be saved at
once!"
"Is there no way to avoid paying the money?" said Dodge. "Is it not
possible she may be saved in some other manner?"
"I think it is," said a clear voice, as the door was thrust open and
Frank Merriwell, covered from head to heel with the dust of the desert,
escorted the rescued girl into the room. "Mrs. Arlington, I have
brought you your daughter."
With a scream of joy, Mrs. Arlington leaped up and June ran into her
arms.
Eliot Dodge seemed to turn green. He stood and stared at the girl in a
sort of blank stupor, failing to observe that just behind Frank
Merriwell, who still wore the clothes taken from the intoxicated
Mexican, there was the officer newly appointed to fill the place left
vacant by the death of Ben File.
"June! June! June!" cried Mrs. Arlington, her face flushed with
gladness. "Is it you, my poor girl! I can scarcely believe it! How does
it happen? Tell me how you come to be here!"
"I am here, mother, because I was rescued from those horrible ruffians
by that brave gentleman whom you have so greatly wronged, Frank
Merriwell. He risked his life for me. I will tell you all, but
first--first I must tell you that you have trusted a snake. I mean that
monster there!"
She pointed her finger at Dodge, who started and looked startled, but
pretended the utmost amazement.
"He is the villain who planned it all!" declared June. "I know, for I
heard them talk it over. But he shall not escape!"
"I hardly think so," said Frank. "Officer, he is a desperate man. Be
careful of him."
"This is an outrage!" declared Dodge, as the new city marshal grasped
him. "I'll not permit it! I----"
Frank clutched him on the other side, and, a moment later, the officer
had ironed his prisoner.
Mrs. Arlington would have interfered, but Merry declared he had sworn
out the warrant for Dodge's arrest, and she saw it was useless.
"Madam," said Frank, "I will leave you alone with your daughter. When
she has told you all, you will be ready, I am confident, to prosecute
Eliot Dodge. I shall then withdraw my charge and permit you to have him
arrested. In the meantime I bid you good day. I shall be in this hotel
for the next day or so."
He bowed gracefully to both Mrs. Arlington and June and left the room.
* * * * *
When there was plenty of time, Frank and his friends talked it over. He
told them of his experience in the dance-room, and they told him how
they had lingered near, ready to rush to his rescue. When they heard the
sounds of the quarrel between Cimarron Bill and Handsome Charley they
hurried to the door, but there they halted, for they looked in and saw
nothing of Frank. Thus it was that they beheld the shooting of Bill as
he tried to draw on Charley. He was shot down from behind by Charley's
tools, and they fired several bullets into his body as he lay weltering
on the floor.
Frank shook his head as he heard this account of Bill's end.
"He was a bad man, a very bad man," he said; "but somehow I'm sorry
that he met his end that way. They had to shoot him from the rear. Not
one of them dared pull on him face to face."
Frank received a brief letter from Mrs. Arlington, thanking him for what
he had done for her daughter. Not one word did she say of her own
malevolence toward him, not one word of the manner in which she had
wronged him. And the doctor, who brought the letter, told Merry that she
was in such a precarious condition that she could not write more, nor
could she be seen by any one but June.
Frank smiled grimly, disdainfully, over the letter, then deliberately
tore it into shreds.
But he had proved his manhood, and June Arlington, for all of her
mother, found time to see him a few moments before he left town. After
that brief time with June he rode light-heartedly away, his friends
galloping at his side and listening to the cowboy song that came from
his lips.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Because of extensive use of dialect, all apparent errors within dialogue
have been assumed intentional and retained.
Page 5, "Merriell's" changed to "Merriwell's" (Frank Merriwell's Rough
Deal)
Page 24, changed erroneous period to comma ("I have no desire or
intention of irking you up, sir," he said.)
Page 27, "referrring" changed to "referring" (Certain papers referring
to the Queen Mystery and San Pablo Mines, which I own.)
Page 93, added missing opening quote ("I think I'll finish you!")
Page 213, "Cimaroon" changed to "Cimarron" (Cimarron Bill watched his
tool depart, smiling darkly and muttering to himself)
Page 216, removed extraneous quote after "hurriedly" ("Oh, velly good,
velly good!" answered the Celestial hurriedly, backing off a little, his
face yellowish white.)
Page 217, "cant" changed to "can't" ("I can't beat him at his own
game.")
Page 300, changed single quote to double quote at end of sentence ("In
the first place," Frank distinctly heard Dodge say, "Ben File is dead.")
Page 318, "Merriwel" changed to "Merriwell" (He stood and stared at the
girl in a sort of blank stupor, failing to observe that just behind
Frank Merriwell, who still wore the clothes taken from the intoxicated
Mexican, there was the officer newly appointed to fill the place left
vacant by the death of Ben File.)