CHAPTER XXII
THE MISSING PAPER
"Impossible!" cried Mr. Thornton, as he reached the group of lads standing near the wounded man. "How could he be here when you said he was hurt in the railroad accident and was in the hospital? It can't be, boys."
"And yet there he is," said Billy, passing his hand over his forehead as if to ascertain whether or not he was awake. "I leave it to Frank and Andy."
"It surelyishe," asserted the elder Racer lad. "But when we saw him last he had shaved off his black beard."
"And it's had time to grow in the meanwhile," said Andy.
"Yes," went on Billy, "and I suppose he's had time to recover from his injuries and leave the hospital, though it did not seem possible."
"Well, whether it's he or not, and, even though he tried to rob you, Billy, I guess it's up to us to look after him, now that he's hurt," said Mr. Thornton. "Lucky we've got some place to carry him to, for the storm didn't do much damage after all. Take him into the house, boys, and we'll see what ails him, and send for a doctor."
The man was unconscious, and it was easy to guess what had happened to him. Near him, lying on the ground, was a billet of wood, evidently part of the roof of the shed that had blown off. This had struck the man on the head, making a long gash, though Billy, looking at it as well as he could, gave it as his opinion that it was only a scalp wound.
As the three boys carried the limp form into the house, whither Mrs. Thornton had preceded them, they could not help being more and more sure in their minds that the man was Shackmiller. Every feature was there, but the beard was as fully grown as if it had never been shaved off. The clothing too, was such as the man had worn when hurt in the train wreck.
"Put him on the couch," said Mrs. Thornton, as the injured one was carried into the living room. "Then we'll bathe his head. I guess you'd better telephone for the doctor, anyhow, Richfield. We may need him."
"I will if the wires aren't down," replied the ranchman; "but I hardly expect that they stood that blow." They had not, as was proved when he tried to get Central, for his ranch, as well as that of several of his neighbors, was connected with the town by a telephone.
"One of the men will have to ride in," he said, as he hung up the useless receiver. "Archie, I guess you'd better go. Tell the Doc. to come right out if he can. I don't want to be mean, or inhospitable, but I don't want this fellow at my place any longer than I can help. I don't like his kind, especially after what he's tried to do to me, and the sooner he can be moved the better I'll like it. So go get the medicine man, Archie. And tell Matt to see what he can do toward rigging a temporary roof on the shed. Now that we've had one cyclone there oughtn't to be any more right away."
"Anything we can do?" asked Frank, anxious to help.
"No, I guess not, except you boys might stay around here, and if Shackmiller comes to, sort of be on the watch. He may get delirious. I've got to see to things outside."
By this time Mrs. Thornton, who was a good nurse, had bathed the injured man's head and bound it up. He was breathing heavily, and was still unconscious. Then, as household matters needed her attention, she went out, leaving the three boys in charge.
"Well, say, things are certainly happening with a rush," remarked Frank, as he looked at the figure on the couch.
"They generally do, once they start with us," commented Andy. "It's been this way ever since I can remember."
"Then I'm glad you came out here," spoke Billy. "Not that I want cyclones, and the appearance of our enemies, to happen every day of the week, but I like some excitement. I'm glad I tied up to you fellows."
"Hush! He's coming to!" suddenly exclaimed Frank, as he saw the man's eyes open.
As the boys watched they saw a look of returning consciousness come to the man's features. He gazed about wonderingly, glanced at the three lads, and then around at the room where he lay. In the minds of Frank, Andy and Billy several questions came at once.
How had Shackmiller managed to get from the distant hospital to the ranch? What was he doing so near it in the storm? How had he come to be hurt?
"Where—where am I?" asked the man, feebly.
"You don't need to ask that; do you?" Billy inquired.
"Why, yes—of course," and the voice was stronger. "I know I was near some ranch when the storm came up, and then it all got dark. I was going to ask for shelter when something hit me on the head, and that's the last I know."
"But you know me; don't you?" asked Billy. "And you know my chums, the Racer boys. You saw us at the wreck, when the boiler exploded. You know me all right, Sam Shackmiller!"
"Shackmiller!" fairly cried the man, as he struggled to a sitting position. "Then you know me! But I don't know you. The Racer boys? I never heard of them. And you—you——"
"I'm Billy Chase—from whom you tried to get the land paper," said the ranch lad. "Only you didn't. But how does it come that you're out of the hospital, Sam Shackmiller?"
"Sam Shackmiller—I'm not Sam Shackmiller!" cried the man.
"Oh, come!" exclaimed Billy. "That's too thin. Why, we know you as well as you know us, even if you have grown your beard again. Come, if you're not Sam Shackmiller, who are you?"
"I am Bruce Shackmiller, Sam's twin brother," was the quick answer, and the boys gasped in astonishment.
"Bruce Shackmiller!" cried Billy.
"His twin brother!" added Frank.
"Yes," went on the man, "and if you know anything about him, for pity's sake tell me. I have been looking all over for him, ever since he went East. He wrote me that he was coming out West again, and then I lost trace of him. I was on my way to Sageville, to go and hunt him up, for he has friends there, when this storm overtook me. Oh, if you can tell me anything about him I wish you would!"
The boys were too astonished to speak, at first. In fact, they doubted that the man spoke the truth, and, seeing this on their faces, he went on:
"I can easily prove that I am not Sam. He was lame, wasn't he?"
"Yes!" exclaimed Billy, eagerly.
"Well, I am not. See!" and, in spite of his weakness, the man walked across the floor with never the semblance of a limp. "Sam and I are twins," he went on, "and we are so near alike, except that he is lame, that few can tell us apart. And yet there are several points where we do not resemble each other. His eyes are blue, and mine are brown."
"That's right," said the puzzled Billy, after a look. "But I surely took you for Sam."
"Nearly everyone does. Oh, but what has become of him?"
Thereupon the ranch lad related briefly about the train accident, and how Sam had tried in vain to get the valuable paper.
"That is what I have feared all along," said Bruce Shackmiller, gloomily. "I was afraid Sam had gotten in with bad companions. And so he and they are trying to defeat your uncle's irrigation project; eh?"
"That's about the size of it," replied Billy. "Your brother followed me about at school, trying to get that valuable paper. But I was too much for him, and now my uncle has it safe."
"Oh, your uncle has it?" asked the wounded man, quickly.
"He sure has!" exclaimed Billy, answering in spite of the sudden nudge Frank gave him. Then the ranch boy looked at his chum, who frowned, and Billy understood. He wished he had not been so quick to reply. But it was too late now. However, there could be no danger, he thought.
"Sam always was a little wild," went on the injured man. "He got in with some fast companions, and, though I did my best to reform him, it was useless. I think he was always a little bitter against the world because of his lameness, which afflicted him from the time he was a little boy. He was never like other lads, and, as he grew older, he became morose and vindictive. But I hoped he had reformed. Of late I lost track of him, but recently I had a telegram from him, saying he was ill, and was coming back West."
"That was the one sent from the hospital I guess," said Billy. "But what about yourself? How do you feel now?"
"Oh, much better. The blow made me unconscious for a time but I'm all right now. I must go on, and see if I can find my brother."
"You had better wait until the doctor sees you," suggested Frank. "He'll be here soon, now."
Mr. Thornton came in then, to see how the sufferer was getting along, and his surprise may well be imagined when he heard the story.
"Well, I'm glad you're not the man who has been trying, with others of his gang, to make trouble for me," said the ranchman; "though if you had been we'd have done what was right by you. I wish you'd use your influence with your brother to have him drop this business. I'm willing to pay what's right for that land, though I have a valid claim to it. He'll lose out in the end, and the sooner he gives in the better for all of us."
"I'll tell him," said Bruce Shackmiller. "I'm sure that after he has suffered so much, and uselessly, he will give up. I will seek him out as soon as I can."
"Better rest up here for a day or so," suggested the owner of the Double X ranch. "The doctor will be here soon. He has an auto, and it doesn't take him long to get out from town."
The physician arrived shortly after that, bringing Matt, the foreman, with him, the latter having left his horse in town.
"Great blow we had," commented the doctor, as he came in to look at his patient. "Half a dozen of the skyscrapers in Sageville unroofed. Well, now, let's see what we have here."
He made a rapid examination, and said that the wound was only a scalp affair, which would soon heal if no complications set in. He dressed and bandaged it, and prepared to take his departure.
"Now we'll make you as comfortable as we can," said the ranch owner, to Shackmiller. "Stay a week if you like. On the whole it may be a good thing that we met you, for it may end all this trouble."
"I hope it doesn't do us out of a chance to get the treasure of Golden Peak," said Frank, softly.
"Oh, we'll have a try for that, anyhow," spoke Billy, and as he turned aside, Frank thought he detected a strange gleam in the eyes of Bruce Shackmiller.
"I'll do my best to influence Sam," said the man in a low voice, and then he was taken to a room that had been prepared for him.
"He'll be all right in a day or so," the doctor said, on leaving. "All he needs is rest and quietness. That blow must have been a glancing one."
"Oh, by the way, Billy," said Mr. Thornton, at supper a little later; "what was it you started to tell me when that cyclone crash came?"
"Great news, Uncle Richfield," replied the ranch lad. "Some of Shackmiller's crowd are on guard at Golden Peak, and they ordered us off when we went there to-day."
"They did!" cried the ranch owner. "I've got to look into that. It may mean a big change in the situation. I've got to get busy. I must beat these fellows at their game, or it will spoil everything."
The ranchman sat up late that night, going over various documents in his room. The boys, after talking over the events of the day, had gone to bed, rather tired. The effects of the big storm had fully passed away.
"Well, what shall we do to-day?" asked Frank of Billy, as they got up the next morning.
"Have another try for Golden Peak, I vote," came from Andy. "Maybe we can get the best of those fellows."
"Not so soon after we've been there once," was the opinion of the Western youth. "Give 'em time to forget about us, and we'll have a better chance. But we can go hunting to-day if you like. One of the men said he saw a lot of jack rabbits over on the far range the other day. And maybe we might meet a stray wolf or so. It's always good work to pot them, as they pull down a calf occasionally."
"Fine!" cried Frank. "We'll do it!"
"Hello, there's your uncle," said Andy, looking out of the window, and seeing Mr. Thornton dressed for a trip to town. "He's off early."
"Yes, I guess he's got a lot of business to attend to on account of the new move those fellows made," ventured Billy.
The next moment his uncle called to him:
"Billy, I say Billy! Did you take back that paper you brought from the Eastern lawyer—the title deed to the land in dispute?"
"No, Uncle Richfield. I haven't seen it since I gave it to you. Why?"
"Because it's gone!"
"Gone?"
"Yes. I had it last night, looking it over together with some other documents, and I put them all in my desk, intending to take them into town this morning. Now the most valuable document of the lot is missing!"
"Missing!" cried Billy. "How can that be? Has anyone——"
At that moment the Chinese cook appeared in the yard with a bowl of steaming coffee. Addressing Mr. Thornton he said:
"Him no can do."
"No can do what?" snapped the ranchman, not altogether pleased to be annoyed by household matters at such an important time.
"No can dlink coffee."
"Who can't? What are you talking about, Sing Lee?"
"Man no can dlink. Man what hab chopee-chopee on head—he no can dlink. Him gone—vamoose!"
"What?" cried the ranchman, a sudden suspicion coming into his mind.
"Him no can do. Him gone," blandly repeated the Celestial. "Mlissie Thornton send me him for coffee to dlink—I go—he no there. He no can do!"
"By Jove!" cried the ranchman. "That explains it! Boys, that twin brother is a sham! He's skipped with my papers! We've got to get right after him!"