Jode Lenning was alone in the tent, which had been erected for his use, when Mingo, a Mexican distance runner, who belonged to the G. H. A. C., thrust his head through the flap and announced that Colonel Hawtrey had arrived in camp.
Lenning, at the moment, had his back to the opening and was wrapping a long, flat package in his handkerchief.
“What?” he gasped, throwing a startled look over his shoulder at Mingo.
The other repeated his announcement.
“The devil!” gulped Lenning, in a flurry. “He’s found out what happened at the house, and put for here on the jump. Now for merry blazes, and a little slick work by yours truly.”
His hand shook a little as he crowded the handkerchief-wrapped package into the breast of his Norfolk jacket; then, getting up, he hurried out of the tent and ran to meet the tall man with the gray mustache.
“Ah, my boy!” exclaimed Colonel Hawtrey, making no effort to conceal the pleasure the meeting gave him. “You’re looking fit, I must say, so there’s not much use asking how you feel.”
“Fine as silk, uncle,” said Lenning, clasping the colonel’s hand. “How did you find everything at the mines?”
“The mines are all right,” was the answer,“but it was something I discovered after I got home this morning that has rather shaken me. Take me to a place where we can be by ourselves and talk.”
“My tent will fill the bill.” They walked together in the direction of Lenning’s headquarters. “Was that Hawkins I saw leading away the horses?” Lenning asked.
“Yes, that was Hawkins.” That there was a load of some sort on the colonel’s mind was evidenced by his tone and manner. “It’s possible,” he added, “that I am going to need Hawkins in—er—an official capacity.”
“This sounds pretty warlike!” exclaimed Lenning.
“I suppose so,” and the old soldier stiffened a little. “I have made some discoveries, Jode, which will astonish you. They nearly carried me off my feet. By the way, what started you on this camping trip?”
“I thought it would be a good thing for our eleven,” Lenning explained. “This Merriwell chap took the Ophir team out into the hills, and I reckoned we’d follow suit. And, say! We bumped into the Ophir outfit right here at Tinaja Wells. How’s that for a coincidence?”
“Queer, to say the least,” answered the colonel. “I hope all you fellows will remember that you are true sportsmen, which is only another term for gentlemen, and avoid any unpleasantness.”
“You can depend upon us to prove a credit to you, colonel!” said Lenning, with a fine show of admiration for the erect, soldierly old fellow beside him. “I have a lease from Struthers, and Merriwell has one from Packard. Now,” and Lenning laughed, “which of us has the right of it?”
“That’s hard to tell, my boy, until the lawsuit is decided. What sort of a character is young Merriwell? Anything like his father?”
“I don’t know much about his father, sir; but young Merriwell seems to be trying to make himself the whole thing. Of course,” Lenning added,“I tried to smooth matters over, and it looks as though I had succeeded. As you see, we’re both camped on the same ground.”
“I’ll have a talk with Merriwell myself, and see what I can do with him. All that, however, must wait on the important business that brings me here. I have never had anything make such an impression on me. Is this your tent, Jode?”
“Yes, uncle. Walk inside and make yourself comfortable.”
When Colonel Hawtrey had seated himself comfortably on a camp stool, and Lenning had dropped down facing him on a pile of blankets, the colonel lighted a cigar—possibly to soothe or cover his nervousness—and began.
“You remember, Jode,” said he, “that I drew a thousand dollars from the bank on the forenoon of the day I left town, expecting to pay it out to Judson for an interest in that promising claim of his.”
Lenning nodded.
“You drew the money,” said he, “and Judson didn’t show up; then you were called from town in a hurry, and locked up the money in your safe. I remember all that very distinctly.”
“You knew the combination, and were to give Judson the money if he called for it.”
“Yes, sir; but he didn’t call.”
“I know that. I had scarcely reached town when I saw him, and he said he’d be around this afternoon to get the thousand. Then I went home—and found that I had been robbed!”
“Robbed!” gasped Lenning, starting up.
“Yes, my boy, robbed! Of course, a thousand dollars isn’t very much to me, but it’s losing the money in such a way as that that gets under my skin. The safe in my study was open, the window had been unlocked, and the thousand was gone!”
“Had the safe been blown open?”
“No. Some one had worked the combination and——”
“Uncle!” exclaimed Lenning, in consternation. “You and I are the only ones who know the combination. You were away from home, and I—I——”
The colonel leaned forward and dropped an affectionate hand on his nephew’s shoulder.
“Tut, tut!” said he brusquely. “You know I trust you as I would myself. There is some one else who knows the combination, and who at one time had as free access to that safe as you or I. I refer to—to your half brother, Darrel.”
“But Ellis perished in that train wreck!”
“Supposed to, but I have always had a feeling that there might be some mistake. That graceless young scamp wasn’t born to shuffle off in any such way as that. What I should have done, I suppose, was to have the combination changed. But I did not. This is the result.”
“I wouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to judge Ellis, Uncle Al,” pleaded Lenning. “You’re only working on a theory, you know, and——”
There was sorrow in the fine old face of the colonel, but over all was the sternness of an iron will.
“I have evidence,” he interrupted; “much as it grieves me to tell it, Jode, yet I have evidence which cannot be denied. It is like you, boy, to plead for the rascal who has disgraced our blood; but, as for me, I shall not be victimized a second time without making him pay the penalty. I—— You are pale!” exclaimed the colonel, leaning forward to stare into his nephew’s face;“and you are trembling, too! What ails you, Jode? Brace up; don’t take this too much to heart.”
“I have something to tell you, uncle,” answered Lenning; “but, first, let me hear your evidence.”
The colonel took a knife from his pocket and handed it to Lenning.
“You recognize that, don’t you?” he asked harshly.
“Why,” murmured Lenning, “it’s the knife you gave Ellis years ago.”
“It is,” was the grim rejoinder, “and I found it under the unlocked window in my study.”
Lenning seemed stunned and incapable of words.
“But that isn’t all,” preceded the colonel. “I hunted up Hawkins, who happened to be in town, and together we learned that a fellow answering Darrel’s description had been in Gold Hill the night before I got home. He had called on Haff, our club secretary, and asked for me, and about you. Haff told him that you were camping, with some of our lads, at Tinaja Wells. Supposing that Darrel had come here, Hawkins and I secured a couple of mounts and made a quick trip down the cañon. Have you seen anything of Darrel?”
“Then it’s true, it’s true!” Lenning was muttering, as though to himself.
“What is true?” demanded his uncle. “Don’t try to shield the fellow, Jode. Your first duty is to me, not to him.”
“There is a fellow here—Merriwell seems to be looking after him—who says he is Ellis Darrel.” Lenning spoke with apparent reluctance. “I believed him to be an imposter. How could I think anything else after the report we had of that Colorado wreck? The fellow seemed bent on proving that he was really my halfbrother, and challenged me to run a race with him. You see——”
“What folly!” cut in the colonel.
“I’m pretty fast in a sprint, uncle, but El was a shade faster. And you know he had a queer way about him when he was running. I think he is counting on that race to make his identity known to me and the rest of the Gold Hill fellows.”
“We don’t need any proof of his identity, Jode! We can take his word, and then confront him with this damning evidence of his rascality!”
Lenning put out his hand and rested it on his uncle’s arm.
“Colonel,” said he, his voice shaking, “let us have this race to-morrow afternoon. Don’t interfere. There’s a chance that, after all, the fellow is not Darrel.”
“There’s not a shadow of a doubt, not a shadow!”
“But you needn’t hurry about arresting him, need you? Let’s find out how far Merriwell will go in trying to shield him. Wait until after the race; and then—well,” and Lenning drew a long, regretful sigh, “do what you think you have to—what you think you must.”
“If Darrel knows I am here with Hawkins he may suspect something, and clear out,” demurred the colonel. “It isn’t well, my boy, to dally too much with an affair of this kind.”
“Have Hawkins watch him,” suggested Lenning.
“True,” said the colonel, “I could probably do that. It’s impossible, though, that Young Merriwell is mixed up, in any way, with Darrel’s wrongdoing. He has been deceived in the fellow. I know of the elder Merriwell, and a straighter man or a better all-round athlete the world never produced.”
“I hope young Merriwell is square, and a real chip ofthe old block, as I understand his friends mean to suggest when they call him ‘Chip’—but, well, I don’t like the way he has been acting. To-morrow afternoon, uncle, we may know a lot more about him and about Darrel, too.”
“Very well,” said the colonel, though reluctantly, “we’ll leave the matter, Jode, as you desire.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Lenning gratefully.
Why was Lenning so anxious to have his uncle defer action against Darrel? Had the packet, wrapped in his handkerchief and stowed in the breast pocket of his Norfolk jacket, anything to do with his wish to delay proceedings? In view of what happened later, this seemed like the logical explanation.