_THE "ORPHAN ANNIE" CLAIM_
Disappointments could not long dampen the spirits of The Merriweather
Girls. Youth soon conquered discouragement and by the time they were
awake the next morning, they were happy and ready to take the next step
in the adventure.
But Judge Breckenridge, with his strong ideas of justice, was not so
easily appeased. And when the girls told him of what had happened he
sat for a long time with a worried frown on his brow, then got up and
walked in the court. It was plain to be seen that he was agitated
about the claim jumpers.
"If you are bothered about us, Judge Breckenridge," said Bet, linking
her arm in his and skipping into step beside him, "You might just as
well not think about it. We didn't like it at first either, but now we
don't care at all--not much, I mean. It will save us lots of work.
And probably we couldn't be mine owners very well, anyway."
"You're a great little girl, Bet!" The Judge patted her hand
affectionately. "You're a sport, all right. Now, _I'm_ mad clean
through!"
"That's what I thought, and I have never seen you angry before."
"I'm sorry, child, I didn't mean to have you see me in this mood,
ever," said the Judge with a trembling voice.
"But I'm so glad I did. I usually snap and snarl when I have a temper
spell, and I did not know it could be done in such a dignified way. I
think it was wonderful!"
The Judge stopped short in his walk and laughed, his voice echoing
through the patio.
Enid heard it in her own room and came on the run to see what amused
her father so greatly. When she saw Bet, she smiled.
"I might have known it was you. Dad always laughs at you." And the
tall girl slipped up at the other side of her father, and snuggled
close with her head on his shoulder.
"Two daughters are better than one!" The grey-haired man clasped his
girl to him as if he had not seen her for weeks. Then turning to Bet
he said:
"Aren't you going to work your one claim?"
"Is it worth it?" she asked.
"I think I would. You can get a Mexican to do the assessment work, and
he'd be glad of the money. You never can tell what may happen,"
advised Judge Breckenridge.
"I had a sort of hunch that we ought to keep it, but then again in the
night I decided that it would be foolish. We can go elsewhere and
locate more claims."
"I'll take a trip over there with you this afternoon and have a look at
'Little Orphan Annie.' Tommy Sharpe is threatening to lay in wait for
Kie Wicks with a shotgun."
"Tommy's a fool! He always was!" exclaimed Enid impatiently. "He
can't imagine there is any way of getting the better of a person except
by shooting him. He even wanted to go after Sol Curtin. I believe he
had the notion that he could do it all by himself. He's a funny boy!"
The Judge frowned. Although a year had passed since Enid had been
found, the father could not talk, without emotion, of the man who had
kidnapped his daughter when she was a child. Sol was in jail and would
be there for many years, but still the father was uneasy.
"This Kie Wicks makes me think of Sol," he said bitterly. "And I want
you to keep as far away from him as possible. Have a man do the work
for you if you keep this claim near his."
That afternoon the Judge rode with the girls down Lost Canyon, through
the Iron Gate to the smaller creek and picked their way around the
boulders of the river bed.
About a mile from the claim, they met Professor Gillette. He had been
far over one of the hills in search of the ruins. Half a dozen
arrowheads were his reward. He was preparing a belated dinner in the
creek-bed, over a smouldering fire.
The girls were impatient to go on, and dragged the Judge away from his
friend.
"Come on up over that hill when you finish your lunch," invited the
Judge. "I have to obey, so I'm off."
"What made you think of coming away up here to locate claims, Kit?" the
Judge asked as they brought their horses to the summit.
"Dad said there were some good claims over this way, and I've had
experience. I've lived out here all my life and know how they go about
their location work."
"I'll say your view is worth as much as 'Orphan Annie,'" enthused Judge
Breckenridge, as he looked over the ranges of mountains and the
deep-cut canyons.
"But views are not worth a Mexican dime out here. You can't cash in on
a good outlook," returned Bet with a chuckle. "It's the mine that
counts. Now tell us, don't you think we made a good job of locating
those claims?"
"I think you did, Bet. However as Ramon Salazar and Kie Wicks will
reap the benefit, I think we might go on to other promising spots and
let them have a free hand here. You are only girls and can't fight men
like them."
No other remark could have roused all the spunk in the girls.
"I don't see why we can't hold our own against any man," sniffed Kit.
"Ramon Salazar is a cross-eyed Mexican with a lame leg, and Kie Wicks
is a coward. I guess The Merriweather Girls could beat them with their
eyes shut."
"That a girl, Kit! Of course we can," cried Bet indignantly. "And we
will!"
The Judge chuckled at their flare of independence, and turned to Joy,
the timid one.
"What about you, Joy? Do you want to help the girls fight for the
claim?"
"I'm not saying that I want the old mine, if we can hold it, but I'm
willing to help fight, if the girls say so. The Merriweather Girls
stand together."
"Good for you, Joy Evans! I didn't expect it of you."
"You didn't? What are you trying to insinuate, Bet Baxter? I'm not a
traitor!"
"Why, of course not, Joy, but you don't like digging mines and riding
horseback and all that sort of thing."
"Maybe not. But you've never known me to back out of anything,
especially where the honor of The Merriweather Girls was at stake."
"That's right," responded Bet quickly. "I didn't mean to hurt your
feelings. You've always been a sport when it came to doing things,
although you've sometimes made a frightful fuss about it."
"That's part of the game," laughed the butterfly girl. "Somebody has
to be a kicker. And I'm it."
"Please do it with your feet from now on, it's much more graceful!"
teased Enid.
"I may do it with my feet and I may do it with my tongue," returned Joy
with a happy laugh, "but you'll find me ready to back up any one of
you."
"Well said, fair lady. Now let's have a look at 'Orphan Annie.'" The
Judge's eyes were sparkling with amusement as Bet led him up the gentle
slope of the mountain. Suddenly Bet threw herself from the saddle.
"See folks, I found an arrowhead! Oh, boy! Isn't that lucky?"
The girls dismounted and grouped about her, all except Kit, who had
picked up arrowheads since babyhood.
"It's a perfect one. I'm the happiest girl in all the world!"
"Doesn't take much to make some people happy," began Joy, then she
started to laugh. "Come on, where's our little orphan?"
"This way, follow me," called Shirley Williams. "This is it, isn't it,
Bet?"
"Yes, that's our baby. Poor little thing." Bet was trying to be
cheerful but there was a tinge of bitterness in her voice. There was
always a great soul conflict when Bet's well developed plans went amiss
and in this case, where it involved double dealing, it was harder than
usual to give up.
"Nine chances out of ten," remarked Enid quietly and with little
emotion, "those other claims have all the ore and this one has nothing."
"For my part, I don't care if it hasn't any ore in it at all, I like it
anyway," and Bet squatted down on a big flat rock within the boundaries
of the claim. "It feels good to be on my own property," she added with
a sigh of contentment.
But in a moment she had started up with a little cry of surprise.
"What's the matter, Bet? Be careful! If it's a strange bug, it might
bite you. There are so many stinging things out here," cautioned Kit.
Bet's head was bent over the rock. She did not hear what was said.
Suddenly she called, "Judge Breckenridge, do come here and look at
these strange markings on the rock."
"Markings on a rock," said Joy Evans contemptuously. "I thought it was
a tarantula or something."
"Well, you wouldn't have liked to see a tarantula any better than the
markings, and these at least are not poisonous," Bet retorted.
Judge Breckenridge was examining the markings with interest, and gave a
low whistle of astonishment. "This is the sort of thing one reads
about. I'm wondering though if Kie Wicks put them here to fool you."
"It might be markings that tell of a buried treasure. See the arrow!
Look the way the arrow points."
"Yes, look the way the arrow points," mimicked Joy. "Now at last you
have your mystery, Bet. I wish you joy of it. Follow the arrow and
then you'll come to a tall cactus, and in the cactus you'll find a
bullet..."
"Oh, keep quiet, Joy Evans!" flashed Bet angrily.
"We haven't found a mystery and I don't believe there is a treasure
here. This is far away from Lost Canyon," said Kit.
"I'm going to believe in the treasure!" cried Bet, fired with
enthusiasm at the prospect of finding something unusual. "Why, I could
easily believe in a buried treasure. What's more I'll find it."
"I'm going to go and call Professor Gillette," called Enid, already in
the saddle. "He can probably tell us what it means and what the
Indians looked like who made the markings."
"These lines were not made by Indians," remarked the Judge
thoughtfully. "There's a Spanish word there."
But when the professor came a few minutes later, he was all at sea as
to the meaning of the tracings on the rock.
"It is very much like the sort of thing people used to draw when they
buried treasure. You've seen the map in Tommy Sharpe's room but that
doesn't say that if we located the proper spot that there would be any
treasure left. Other people can read signs the same as we can, and
many people have been over this ground since that sign was carved,"
Judge Breckenridge explained to the girls.
"Why be so sensible, Judge?" laughed Bet wistfully. "Why not let us
think that there is a treasure hidden in the ground somewhere? I'm
thrilled all to pieces just thinking about it."
"And that's right, too, Bet. Don't let an old fellow like me spoil
your dreams by my common sense." The Judge acted as if he wanted to
believe it himself and only needed a little urging.
"And there is just as much chance that no one has passed over this rock
since the early days and that we may find a fortune hidden." The
professor smiled around at the group with a happy, child-like stare as
if he were one of the characters of a fairy story.
"Now that's the way to talk, Professor Gillette. You never can be sure
unless you look around." Bet nodded at him approvingly.
The Judge suddenly looked at his watch. "I move we get home to dinner.
Tang will be waiting and he hates that."
Bet very carefully spread some tiny twigs and sand over the rock so
that no one else would see the markings on the stone.
"Come along up with us to dinner, Professor," suggested the Judge
cordially. "We'll have a meeting tonight and talk things over and see
what is best to do. I have a feeling that the shrubs and rocks have
ears around these claims of Ramon's."
"That's what I say. Otherwise how did Ramon and Kie Wicks find out
about the claims in the first place?" asked Bet.
"There's no mystery in that, Bet. Kie saw us coming here and followed.
He spied on us, saw us building the monuments and then came and jumped
the claims," explained Kit.
"All but one!" cried Bet as she clapped her hands. "And on that one
little neglected claim, we find the tracings that will perhaps lead us
to the buried treasure. That's luck!"
"Oh Bet, wake up, you're dreaming!" laughed Shirley, the quiet,
sensible girl. Never in the world would Shirley have dreamed or let
her imagination run wild. She was a practical, well-balanced girl, a
clear thinker and not given to romantic flights of fancy.
"The bubble's burst!" sang Joy tantalizingly.
"It has not!" Bet swung easily into the saddle. "The bubble isn't
blown yet. Just wait and see!"
In single file they rode down into the canyon below them and let their
horses pick a way through the rocks of the creek bed.
Just as they passed through the Iron Gate, the narrow pass that led to
Lost Canyon, they met Kie Wicks.
"Nice weather for a picnic!" he called to them gaily with a wave of his
dusty sombrero. "That's an interesting canyon!"
"Yes," the judge replied with his most courteous air. "We find it very
interesting. The girls located a claim up that way, and have started
work on it."
"You don't say so! Well, everybody to his liking. I'm through with
locating claims. It's a slave's life, forever digging, digging,
digging! I don't care if I never see another copper claim as long as I
live," Kie Wicks returned with decision. "I run a store, that's a
good, clean business."
"You're right, Mr. Wicks. Stick to storekeeping," advised the Judge as
he took the trail toward the ranch.
The girls smiled back at Kie Wicks and waved him good-bye. They had
decided to play a part with this man. And not for worlds would they
let him know that they suspected that he had anything to do with the
claim jumping. Later, much later, they might get strong evidence
against him. They would deal with him then. Just now they could not
afford to antagonize the man. Open enmity might be worse than the
present situation. Kie and Maude, as long as they were making a
pretense of friendliness, might let drop some of their plans without
meaning to. People who talked so freely often did that.
"We'll string 'em along," said Joy slangily. "Maude Wicks can't keep a
secret, if _I_ know anything."
"Which is doubtful!" laughed Bet.
"Say, who are you talking about? Maude Wicks or yours truly?" retorted
Joy, at the same time making a face at her friend.
"Both!" cried Bet and gave her horse a tap on the neck, getting out of
the way of Joy's quirt.
Everybody liked to tease Joy, perhaps because she flushed so prettily
as her slight anger rose. But whatever the reason she was always the
butt for their good natured teasing. And no matter how much she
resented it, she turned it off with a joke. Yet it could be seen that
she always turned to Shirley Williams, who never teased her.
Tang was watching anxiously from the kitchen door when they rode up the
trail. He was always punctual and frowned on the late comers.
In the corridor of the patio, after dinner, the council met. Mrs.
Breckenridge, although she could scarcely hope to be able to take such
a long ride to see the claim, was the most enthusiastic one of the
group. She was a dreamer by nature, and the thrill of hidden things
always intrigued her. Bet threw both arms impulsively around her.
"You're a darling," Bet cried. "You are a real chum, a person after my
own heart."
"But you see I've been reading lately and it seems that there is basis
for the story of hidden treasure in Lost Canyon. Lots of people have
believed it."
"And lots of people have hunted for the treasure and failed," returned
Kit skeptically.
"Perhaps we won't fail. It's that word 'perhaps' that adds the
greatest spice to life. It won't do any harm to spend a little time
studying out this sign on the rock. Tomorrow I'll make an accurate
copy of it and then we can have it here at home to puzzle over. And if
you say so, I'll begin that assessment work on your one claim so that
there will be an excuse for being over there so much." Professor
Gillette suggested.
"You're a dear! That's an awful good idea! But what about your Indian
ruins? You must find them." Bet was anxious for the old man to
realize his desire and find the ancient village of the vanished tribe.
It meant so much to his crippled daughter.
"That can wait for a little while. This looks as if it might be much
more interesting." The professor's wrinkled face was flushed with the
excitement of a mystery to be unearthed. "I'll begin tomorrow," he
declared as he rose to join Kit and her mother and accompany them home.
Bet's face was radiant. "Here's where the fun begins!" she laughed at
the prospect.
But little did Bet realize that the hunting for a treasure was to bring
to the girls, not only the most thrilling adventure of their lives, but
danger, suspense and fear.