Clancy occupied the room with Merriwell. The latter, in order to make as little noise as possible, slipped on his shoes but made no attempt to get out of his pajamas and into his clothes. Softly opening the hall door, he stepped out into the dimly lit corridor, descended the stairs, and got clear of the hotel without arousing any one.
“This way, Merriwell,” said Bleeker, in a low tone, appearing suddenly out of the shadows and moving off toward the rear of the building.
Frank followed him, and they presently halted at a board fence.
“I reckon we can talk here,” observed Bleeker, “without any one getting next to what we say.”
“This is quite a surprise party, Bleeker,” said Frank. “I don’t often have a friend steal in on me like a thief in the night, just to make a sociable call.”
“You know what people might think, if I came over to this town in broad day, hunted you up, and had a talk with you? I’m from Gold Hill, and I used to be on the Gold Hill eleven until Jode Lenning gave me the sack. If I happened to be seen here, people would say I am sore, and that I’m trying to get even with Lenning by handing you a little information that will help when Ophir goes up against our crowd next Saturday. That’s what they’d say, Merriwell, and you know it,” Bleeker grunted.“I’m no traitor, and, while I may feel as though Jode has played it pretty low down on me, you can bet I’m not settling scores with him by doing our eleven any dirt. Understand that, don’t you?”
“Sure,” Frank answered.
“By sneaking over here, like this, and palavering with you, I’m trying to be white, that’s all. I’d like to do something to help Ellis Darrel.”
Frank’s interest went up several notches, at that.
“I know you’re a friend of Darrel’s,” said he, “and I know that you and Hotchkiss got Lenning down on you while the Gold Hill crowd was in camp a few miles from Tinaja Wells, at Camp Hawtrey. Are the Gold Hill fellows still in the gulch?”
“No, Lenning brought them back to town the next day after your crowd hiked for Ophir. Lenning kicked Hotch and me out of camp because we stood up for Darrel. Jode hasn’t any use for a fellow who tries to be a friend of his half brother’s.”
“Well, Bleek,” said Frank, “Darrel has acted like a brick all through this trouble of his; and, you take it from me, that blot on the shield is going to be rubbed out. One of these days Darrel will be able to take his uncle by the hand, and the consequences of that forgery are going to be dropped onto somebody else.”
“Now you are shouting, Merriwell!” exclaimed Bleeker eagerly. “I never thought Darrel had anything to do with that, and there are a few more, over in the Hill, who have been of the same opinion right along.”
“Who do you think did the job and arranged to involve Darrel?”
“First off, who’d be the gainer if Darrel lost his uncle’s good will? When you want to figure out a thing, the proper way is to find the chap with a motive. Now, you know Colonel Hawtrey is rich, and that the only relatives he has in the world are his two nephews, Jode Lenning and Ellis Darrel. Wouldn’t Lenning come in for all the old colonel’s property if Darrel was disgraced and run out? Sure he would. The fellow with the motive was Lenning. And that motive, by thunder, has been cropping out ever since Darrel came back.”
This subject was intensely interesting to Merriwell. He had thrown himself heart and soul into the task of redeeming the good name of his new chum, Ellis Darrel, and he believed that now events were forming which would bring about that result.
“Bleeker,” said Frank earnestly. “I’ve heard that about the time this forgery was committed you and Jode Lenning were pretty thick. If that’s so, then you ought to know something about the forgery.”
Bleeker was silent for a space. Leaning against the fence, he bent his head and pulled aimlessly at a sliver on one of the posts.
“You’ve hit it about right, Merriwell,” said he, at last. “Being friendly with Lenning was no credit to me, but he had money and I didn’t, and he had influence with the colonel and stood pretty high in the athletic club—and the colonel had founded the club. I knuckled under to Lenning—I reckon you’d call it toadying. If there were any favors to be passed around, Lenning saw to it that I got my share. I had a finger in every athletic pie the club cut open, and several plums came my way. This wouldn’t have happened, you see, if I hadn’t been training with Jode. I was wide of the right trail, Merriwell, but I got to know Jode as few know him. Ever since our outfit camped in the gulch I’ve done a lot of thinking about El Darrel and Jode Lenning, and I made up my mind that Jode and his influence wasn’t worth a single jab my conscience has been giving me formonths. As soon as I woke up, and Jode found it out, he got mad and made me leave the camp.”
Bleeker had been talking in a shamed sort of way, with his head bowed. He now looked up, and the moonlight shone full in his face, bringing out the contrition that lurked there in strong lights and shadows.
“I’ve sneaked out of Gold Hill,” he went on, “and into Ophir, as you said a spell ago, ‘like a thief in the night,’ but I’ve done it because I’m trying to act white after acting the other way for longer than I care to think about. I want,” and the words rushed forth in a torrent of eagerness, “to help El Darrel wipe that blot from his shield. I can’t do much myself, Merriwell, but I reckon I can help you.”
A thrill ran through Merriwell. When a fellow has been traveling the wrong path, and by and by turns of his own accord into the right one, there is a pleasure in meeting him halfway and going on together. Frank grabbed the hand from the post and shook it cordially.
“Bleek,” said he, “you’re all right. You and Hotch began helping Darrel some time ago, and if we can work in double harness and show Hawtrey that he had nothing to do with that forgery, it will be one of the finest things that ever happened.”
That Bleeker was pleased by Merriwell’s attitude was plain. His form straightened, his shoulders went back, and he returned the other’s handclasp with a strong and determined grip.
“It will,” he said,“and I think you can bring it around. You will be making a star play, Merriwell, and I shall have the satisfaction of feeling that I helped. Now, about Jode. I am telling you what everybody knows when I say that his reckless, hot-headed actions come to him as a birthright. His father was a desperate character, in some ways, and was killed in a brawl up in Alaska. Colonel Hawtrey never had anything to do with Lenning’s father, and it was only when the elder Lenning died, and Mrs. Lenning married Darrel, that the colonel and his sister became reconciled. If you’re next to this, maybe you won’t blame Jode quite so much for the way he’s been acting. What a fellow inherits must have something to do with his conduct.”
“A little, Bleek,” said Frank, “but not a whole lot. My father has told me that a fellow must build his own character, and not try to blame his folks when he goes wrong. But, look here. After the way Lenning showed himself up to the colonel, at the time Darrel saved him from the blast, I suppose there’s a coolness between the two? Certainly Lenning isn’t still on the Gold Hill eleven?”
“The colonel’s a queer stick,” was the answer. “There’s been no flare-up between the two, and Jode is still king bee at the Gold Hill Athletic Club. What do you make out of that?”
Merriwell was astounded. How was it possible for the stern old colonel, after having Jode’s “yellow streak” show itself so clearly under his very eyes, still to keep on friendly terms with the fellow? Merriwell was not only amazed, but a bit indignant.