HEARING ALECK'S SIDE OF THE STORY.
That good and hearty laugh on the part of the sheriff did more to
reassure the scouts than anything else could have done. Giraffe, who
had been holding his very breath in consternation, allowed the air to
flow in and out of his lungs again; Bumpus regained his color, while
his staring eyes concluded apparently not to pop out of his head this
time; and as for Allan and Bob White, they lost some of the look of
alarm that had spread over their faces.
"Yes, it was as good as a circus to just sit thar, and enjoy reading
that little talk," the sheriff went on to say. "I could 'most imagine
myself back again in the army, out in the Philippines, teachin' some
of the awkward squad their p's and q's. And the news was some
interestin', too. So Aleck, he was to make himself scarce, was he?
Seems like he did that same, too," with another chuckle, and a shrug
of his shoulders toward the tents which he had so lately examined
without profit.
Allan hardly knew what to say; but boldly taking up the cudgels he
presently remarked:
"Well, Mr. Sheriff, what else could we do? Aleck was a scout, one of
our organization; and if you've got a son who belongs to it, you must
know that a scout is always supposed to be ready to hold out a helping
hand to a fellow member. Aleck was in trouble. He had fallen into the
hands of a party of prospectors, headed by Colonel Kracker, who were
bent on forcing him to give up the secret they thought he carried,
concerning the long-lost silver mine his father was said to have
discovered years ago."
"H'm! say you so, boy?" the other observed, while the lawyer pricked
up his ears, as if suddenly interested. "Kracker around here, is he?
Well, that's some interesting news, you're telling me. You say the boy
had fallen into their hands, and that you rescued him?"
"If you'd like to hear about it, I'll be only too glad to tell you,"
Allan went on to say, eagerly; for somehow he had already taken quite
a fancy toward this sheriff with the humorous twinkle in his eye, and
thought it only right to make a friend of him, if it could be done.
"All nonsense, Mr. Sheriff," spluttered old Artemus, who feared lest
his case might be losing its grip, and that the officer would refuse
to aid him even were the boy found. "He's trying to swing your
sympathies around against my interests. Remember that you carry a
warrant, and are sworn to serve it."
"I always does my duty, Mr. Rawson, don't you fear," replied the
sheriff, with a frown; "but just now it's a part of my business to hear
all I can concerning the way your nephew came to join in with these Boy
Scouts. Now, just go on telling me what you started to say, my boy."
At that Allan picked up fresh courage. The sheriff was inclined to
favor them, he realized, even at the expense of straining his "duty."
"Why, one of our number, Giraffe here," he said, "happened to be
practicing the wigwag code outside the camp, in the darkness, using a
brand he'd picked from the fire; when to his astonishment he saw
answering signals from what seemed to be the sky. Well, when we made
out the one word 'help!' you see our interest was at once raised to
fever pitch."
"I should say it would be," remarked Sheriff Bob, showing the deepest
attention, as though the prospect for developments in the story began
to excite him.
"Our scoutmaster took matters in hand," Allan went on. "You just said
he was clever at sending and receiving messages. Well, he's a
cracker-jack, that's what he is. And it so happened that Aleck, he not
only belonged to the scouts, and had learned everything about
signaling; but he served as a telegraph operator for a short time on a
side road, when the regular man was taken sick; so he could even beat
our Thad at talking with his hands; and that's going some, I tell you."
"But what was Aleck doing up there; and where was he at the time?"
asked the deeply interested sheriff.
"Kracker and his two men had caught Aleck; and unable to make him tell
what they wanted, what do you think the cowards did? Lowered the boy
down to a shelf on the face of the cliff, and left him there, saying
he would starve unless he weakened, and gave up his secret; which
Aleck vows belongs to his mother alone, and nothing on earth would
make him betray."
"And they left him there, did they?" growled Sheriff Bob, frowning in
a way to indicate his opinion of the said Kracker.
"Just what they did. He saw us come into the valley, but thought we
might only be some more of the same kind of wolves, wanting to torture
a poor boy. But when he saw Giraffe, here, making letters with his
fire-stick, something told Aleck we must be Boy Scouts. So, finding
some wood on the ledge, he managed to make a little fire in a crack
that ran into the rock; and with a brand from this he started to call,
repeating that one word over and over again--'help'!"
"This here is some interesting to me, son," remarked the big sheriff,
as Allan paused to get his breath, for he was talking so fast and so
eagerly that he had almost exhausted himself. "And so, after you
learned where he was, and how he came to be thar, I reckon now you
boys started to climb up and rescue the other--how?"
"That's what we did, sir," broke in Giraffe, eagerly. "Four of us,
counting the guide, managed to climb up the mountain, and with a rope
we carried, hooked Aleck up off that ledge the prettiest you ever saw,
that's what we did," with a defiant look toward old Artemus, who was
sniffing through all this talk, just as though he refused to believe a
word of it.
"And that's the way we came to have him in our camp, sir," Allan went
on to say. "We heard his story, and believed it, too. He's got a
mother, and a lot of little sisters, who look to him to carry out the
work his father started. But every one who ever hears a word about
that hidden mine Jerry Rawson once found, seems to be just crazy to
take it away from his widow. She has hardly a single friend to trust.
Even her relatives plot to beat her out of this valuable mining
property, and try all sorts of things, in hopes of getting hold of the
secret. And now you know just where we stand, Mr. Sheriff. As scouts
we must stay friends of Aleck. He _was_ here, just as you know; but
he's gone away, and none of us know where to. Thad took him off during
the night, and all he said was we might expect to see him again when
he showed up. So you can't pump any information out of us, you see."
"And even if we knew anything, we wouldn't tell," asserted Giraffe,
belligerently, feeling that the honor of a scout was in question right
then.
The sheriff looked from one to another of those four boyish faces.
"By George! now, I reckon it wouldn't be any use in me tryin' to scare
you by threatening to jail you for aiding in the escape of a desperate
criminal, would it?" he remarked, pretending to look very serious, but
with that twinkle again in evidence, as Allan saw.
"You just couldn't;" declared Giraffe, while Bumpus began to move a
little uneasily in his seat; "in the first place, we don't know
anything more'n we've told you; secondly, we haven't assisted anybody
to escape, because we're right here, johnny-on-the-spot, and it's our
scoutmaster who's gone; and then, last of all, there ain't any
desperate criminal at all; only a poor, persecuted boy, with the grit
that you just want your own chap to show, Mr. Sheriff,--ready to fight
everybody, for the sake of his mother and sisters."
Sheriff Bob wagged his head slowly, as though mentally digesting what
the other had just said.
"H'm! that remains to be seen, boy," he remarked; although Giraffe
believed he did not feel one-half as ferocious as he chose to look
just then. "Duty is duty, no matter how unpleasant it may seem,
sometimes."
"I'm glad to hear you take that sensible view of the matter, Mr.
Sheriff," said the old Denver lawyer, in his oily tones. "You mustn't
believe one-tenth of what boys say. They would as soon prevaricate as
eat their breakfast; that is, some of the breed would, though
doubtless your son is an exception to the rule. These scouts, as they
choose to call themselves, have fixed up a story to suit themselves,
and they hope to enlist your sympathy; but I know that a stern sense
of duty will compel you to close your ears to anything they may say. I
demand that you exercise every effort possible, looking to the
immediate arrest of my rascally nephew, Alexander Rawson, whom I
accuse of stealing valuable papers from my pocketbook while I was a
guest under his mother's roof, and then disappearing."
"Oh! very well, sir, don't excite yourself about my movements,"
remarked Sheriff Bob, assuming a pompous air, though Allan thought he
winked slily in his direction while speaking. "You will find no cause
to complain to my superiors concerning any shortcomings on my part.
And up to now, you must admit I have been unflagging in my endeavor to
locate the fugitive from justice. Make your mind easy, Mr. Rawson, I
see my duty clear in the premises, and can be depended on to do it."
Watching his chance a little later Allan followed the sheriff, when
the latter went to get a drink of water near by. Artemus looked as
though he wanted to keep them from having any communications out of
his range of hearing; but he sank back in his seat again, plainly
afraid of invoking the anger of the big sheriff, who, he already felt,
did not feel any too warmly toward him and his cause.
And as they sat down by the little stream to dip up some of the clear
water with the tin cup Sheriff Bob had made sure to fetch along, Allan
made it a point to tell the other all that Aleck had said about the
motives of his father's lawyer brother, and how for a long time he had
bothered the widow, trying to find out if she knew anything about the
hidden mine; which until lately of course she had not.
Allan knew how to talk. Moreover, he had an interested listener in the
officer, and that counted for a great deal. Besides, he felt deeply
for the persecuted boy, and his heart was filled with a desire to
assist him secure the legacy left by his father, than whom no living
soul had ever gazed upon the hidden mine.
Sheriff Bob listened to all that the boy said. Several times he
scratched his head reflectively, and made a grimace, as though
conflicting forces had begun to engage him in an inward war.
And when finally Allan declared that he now knew all, the officer
drew a long breath, and remarked, quietly:
"I seem to smell a pretty good-sized rat about this game Mr. Artemus is
putting up; but as I said, the warrant he swore out is in my hands for
serving, and I just reckon I'll have to do my sworn duty and arrest this
same Aleck----that is, if so be he shows up while we're around here."
Allan looked him squarely in the eye; and he was sure one of the lids
above the blue orbs of the official dropped a little in a suggestive
way.
He too drew a long breath, and with a smile on his boyish face, said
as he arose:
"Thank you, Mr. Sheriff, thank you very much!"