THAT TREASURE
[I1NIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES
TOM AND WILLIAM ON THE PLAINS See page 18.
THAT TREASURE
OR
Adventures of Frontier Life
BY
FRANK H. CONVERSE
AUTHOR OF
"A Voyage to the Gold Coast," " In Search of an Unknown Race," etc
PHILADELPHIA
DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER
610 SOUTH WASHINGTON SQUARE
Copyright, 1887, 1888
By Frank A. Munsey
Copyright, 1900
By Street and Smith
THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTER L
THE VISION OF THE LOST TBEASTJBE.
SHAEPLY outlined against the blue southern hori-
zon rise the summits of two mighty volcano peaks.
On every side stand mountain ranges, which the
keen, clear air seems to bring close to the broad
streets of the city; a city stately with domes, tow-
ers, and steeples, a city df ancient power and
grandeur, a city famed in history, in poetry, and in
romance, the old capital of the Aztec Emperors, the
City of Mexico.
In one of its streets was a low stone building,
with flat roof and balconied upper windows. In the
doorway there stood a handsome, athletic young
fellow in his seventeenth year, as straight as an
Apache arrow, with crisp dark hair, and keen black
eyes; American by birth, cosmopolitan from force of
circumstances.
" How do the Mexican dollars come in today, Mr.
Britzer?" Tom Dean asked carelessly of a middle
aged man, broad shouldered and long armed, but
dwarfed in stature, and with a singularly repulsive
face.
" They don't come in," growled Britzer, who was
sitting in a dilapidated rocker, that formed part of
his stock in trade. This stock consisted entirely of
2126199
6 THAT TREASURE.
second hand goods of American manufacture, some
of which were displayed about his store door. " It
was a big mistake, this op^nin' a branch store down
here, where these furriners don't know a bargain
when they see one," he went on, "and I wish I'd
stayed in New York. How's bizness with you and
the professor ?" he asked.
" Oh, so so," was the evasive answer. " I don't
think any one of us Yankees is going to make his
fortune here," Tom added.
Britzer muttered something uncomplimentary to
Mexican enterprise, and proceeded to fill a well
browned meerschaum in gloomy silence. Tom stood
idly watching the passing panorama, the novelty of
which had not entirely worn off.
Pack mules from the mountains loaded down with
ore were rambling along in single file through the
dusty streets, with now and then a Mexican horse-
man in his strikingly picturesque garb. There were
peon laborers and olive hued natives, handsome
Creoles, Europeans, and mulattoes, and everywhere
the dirty, half clad lepero with loaded revolver con-
cealed somewhere under his ragged blanket. He is
the Thug of Mexican society. When begging and
imposture fail him, he takes to robbery or murder.
A bronzed and bearded man of middle age, who
was entirely different in dress and appearance from
the throng of mixed races about him, suddenly
arrested Tom's attention. He was elbowing his way
nervously through the indolent natives, his gaze
being evidently fixed on the stores of the American
traders.
He wore the typical border dress, the wide
brimmed sombrero, the blue shirt, knotted at the
throat with a bright handkerchief, riding overalls
tucked into high boots, and the inevitable revolver
in its stamped leather holster at his hip.
THAT TEEASUEE. 7
"I reckon this yere's the place," he said, half
aloud ; and, halting directly before the doorway
where Tom was standing, he glanced upwards at a
small sign between the two second floor windows, on
which was this inscription:
PEOFESSOE DEAN,
El gran Americano Medico e Astrologo.
" Anything in my line today ?" blandly asked
Britzer, confronting the new comer; "a secondhand
rifle, good as new, or "
" There's nothin' in your line," was the curt reply.
Elbowing Britzer aside with scant ceremony the
speaker ascended the stairs to the upper room, which
Mr. Britzer had leased to Professor Dean, the great
American Physician and Astrologer.
Obedient to a call from above, Tom ran lightly up
the stairs.
" That's only four has be'n to the professor in a
week he can't be earnin' his salt," muttered Britzer;
*' next thing he'll be pulling up, and the room left
vacant."
And very wrathfully Mr. Britzer resumed bis seat
and his pipe.
Tom entered the room above, and stood waiting
the will of the professor. The latter was a tall,
gaunt man, with a smooth shaven, colorless face ;
his iron gray hair fell on his shoulders in heavy
masses.
" As I was tellin' you, p'fessor," the visitor was
saying, "I heard of you bein' kind of an an
astrologer, so I come here jest to see if you could
give me any light on the subjec' of my lost gol'
dust but, mind you, I want a fair deal an' no hum-
buggery bizness about it savey ?"
" I understand," was the quiet reply. The profes-
sor motioned the visitor, who had briefly remarked
8 THAT TEEASUKE.
that his name was William " without nothin* else,"
to a seat, and turned to Tom. The boy, knowing
what was expected of him, had seated himself in an
old chair.
"Look," said the professor, holding one of his
long, thin fingers upright; and Tom's upturned eyes
became fixed and staring. Professor Dean made a
few passes before his face Iris eyelids drooped, and
he was no longer master of his own thoughts or will.
" What do you see ?" asked the professor ; but
Tom did not immediately reply.
" He is now under the control of the spirits," said
Professor Dean to his visitor. His manner was
earnest, and he seemed to be perfectly sincere in
what he was saying.
William muttered something which sounded re-
markably like " gammon," but seemed to be im-
pressed withal.
Suddenly Tom began speaking in a clear but
monotonous voice.
" There is a desert, with white sand, and gray
dust. Prickly plants grow in little patches, but
nothing else "
" 'Ceptin' sage brush " hoarsely whispered Wil-
liam. Tom went on precisely like a person talking
in his sleep.
" Miles and miles across this desert are hills, with
trees and shrubs and grass. There are great ledges
where men have blasted the rocks, and deep cuts
where they have dug in the earth. Down through
the hills runs a stream, that divides a little settle-
ment of one story board houses all falling to
pieces, with here and there a larger building of
unburnt bricks "
" Adobe," again put in William, who now drinking
in every word with intense eageiness. " Go ahead,
young fellow."
THAT TREASURE. 9
Entirely unmindful of the interruption, Tom con-
tinued:
" There are only two men in the whole settlement.
It is night, and they are sitting at a table in the
largest of the buildings. Before them are four
little leather bags of yellow dust. All at once ^here
are fierce cries and yells outside. One of the men
springs to his feet, snatches a gun from the corner
and runs out. He fires again, and again ! Then "
And here Tom paused.
"Goon!" said the professor, fixing his eyes on
the boy's face, over which an expression of horror
was passing.
"I cannot see plain now," returned Tom in a
troubled voice. "I can only make out the man
down, with Indians dancing and yelling about him."
"All that's c'rect as fur's it goes, for I'm the man
that the hounds was on to," interrupted William,
springing wildly to his feet ; " but it ain't him I
wanter know about. it's the other man, with the
gol' dust what come to him ?" But the interruption
had broken Tom's mesmeric slumber, and with a
start and a sigh he opened his eyes.
"Say, youngster," excitedly demanded William,
" can't you tell what came to the other chap ?"
" I don't know what you mean, sir," replied Tom,
simply; and his face showed that he was speaking
the truth.
" Another crusher," muttered William, as though
in soliloquy, "an' twenty five thousan' dollars in
gol' dust apexienify as fur off as ever."
10 THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTER n.
TOM FINDS A FRIEND IN NEED.
THE professor's and Tom's frugal evening meal of
eggs, tortillas and fruit, was finished.
The building in which they were was constructed
after the Mexican style, in the shape of a quad-
rangle. A wide stone balcony extended entirely
around the square interior, only broken by flights of
stone steps leading into the patio or court yard
below.
The house was divided into tenements, whose
occupants seemed to live in the open air. Men
lounged about the court yard, smoking the inevit-
able cigarette, in the faint twilight ; senoritas and
matrons leaned over the balustrade, and children
played in and out of the rooms. The tinkle of a
guitar, blended with rather a fine voice, rose to the
ears of Tom and the professor, who were sitting on
the balcony before their windows.
" Tom," said the professor, who had been unusu-
ally silent, " my heart has been troubling me more
than ever, of late. I sometimes wish we were back
in New York, where I could see Dr. Mott again
about it."
Tom had wished so more than once, within the
past week. He was quite sure that the extreme
rarity of the atmosphere at such a height above the
sea was anything but good for the professor's
chronic ailment. Besides, he had begun to feel, like
THAT TKEASURE. 11
Britzer, that their Mexican venture would not be a
success.
" If any thing should happen to me a " suddenly
continued the professor, with something of an
effort, "our little fortune it will be yours, then,
remember is all in the old pocket book, which I put
under my pillow every night. Those five one
thousand dollar bills, Tom, have been the rounds
with us quite a "
" Hush 1" interrupted Tom, turning his head
quickly. " I thought I heard some one breathing
just oehind us."
The professor started nervously, as a dusky
winged vampire bat came sailing out of Britzer's
open window, uttering a soft hiss as it fluttered by.
"Bah !" he said, with a half shudder, " it's an evil
omen ! I don't want to talk any more. I'm going
to bed."
" And I," said Tom, who had been made uneasy
by Professor Dean's words, " shall go for a strolL
The moon is rising, and the Plaza Major will look
beautiful in half an hour."
Thus saying he turned towards the door. It
always gives him a sad pleasure to remember that
as he passed the swinging cot in which the profes-
sor lay smoking, the latter gently laid a hand on his
shoulder.
" Good night, my boy, and God bless you," he
said, tenderly. " No son could have been as dear to
me as you, Tom."
And Tom, with an unwonted moisture in his eyes,
silently pressed the caressing hand, and descended
to the street, thinking of the professor's singular
mood, and particularly of his last words.
For Tom was a waif and a stray. The professor
had found him, a sturdy urchin of four years old,
toddling about one of the steamboat piers in New
12 THAT TEEASUEE.
York, after the departure of the Fall Kiver boat,
looking for " mamma." Papa had " gone to heaven,"
as he said, and this was all the family history Tom
could relate. Advertisements were tried in vain,
and the professor, a lonely single man, had taken
Tom into his own life. The boy had accompanied
the professor in his varied wanderings through the
continent, and by his help picked up a haphazard
half education. His intense love of reading was a
great help to him. For the rest, he had been taught
to be truthful, honest and clean mouthed.
All this passed through Tom's mind. What could
he do, if anything happened to his friend and pro-
tector?
The streets were almost deserted. He met
occasionally a drowsy policeman, or a slouching
lepero, but the rest of the community was asleep.
He lingered a moment to gaze at the great struc-
ture built on the site of the former palace of the
Montezumas. With the magnificent public gardens
and wide square adjoining, it was bathed in a
splendor of moonlight. Hence he walked by the
cathedral and market place to the canal, and then
turned to retrace his steps, when he caught the
sound of a scuffle and angry voices close at hand.
Rounding the nearest corner, in a dark angle
made by the junction of two buildings, he saw a
bare headed man striking out fiercely with a clubbed
revolver at five swarthy Mexicans, who were fiercely
closing upon him, knife in hand, to accomplish their
murderous purpose.
Tom glanced quickly about him. Upon a pile of
stones, close at hand, where the pavement had been
that day repaired, lay an ironwood lever, five feet
long, a couple of inches through, and heavy enough
to fell an ox.
A second later, as Tom's powerful young arms
THAT TREASURE. 13
swung it above his head, a yell of dismay on one
hand, and of exultation on the other, echoed on the
midnight air. The sound, however, did not awaken
the nearest native policeman.
' Whoop-ee ! give 'em p'ticler I" shouted tha
assaulted man, bringing down the butt of his
revolver with telling effect upon a Mexican's head.
Two of the leperos were now disabled, and the
rest took to their heels.
" You'd better leg it, you coyotes," exclaimed the
stranger, stepping forward into the clear moon-
light.
Tom saw at a glance that it was William, of the
afternoon's interview; while without any exhibition
of surprise, that individual grasped his extended
hand.
"Gome on out of this, youngster, an' let them
fellers rekiver at their leisure," he said, with a con-
temptuous glance at the half stunned Mexicans.
And picking up his sombrero, William dropped his
revolver into place and linked his arm in Tom's.
" I thought when I see you this afternoon you was
built for somethin'better'n mouthpiecin' f or sperits,"
he said, gravely, "an' now I'm sure of it. Much
obliged; mebbe I'll do as much for you some day."
" How did it happen ?" asked Tom, quietly,
amused at the matter of fact speech of his com-
panion.
" They was into a place where I was havin' a drink
of this here Mexican pulque, that tastes wuss'n
spiced buttermilk," explained William. " I hauled
out some gol' pieces when I paid, an' they follered
me out. Fool-like, I come away from my room
without puttin' kertridges in my revolver, else I'd
ha' settled the posse of 'em in no time, same's they
been so many perary wolves."
Thus discoursing, the two walked rapidly along
14 THAT TEEASUBE.
without further signs of molestation, till they
reached San Luis Street, and turned the familiar
corner.
" Somethin's wrong to your place," exclaimed
"William. Tom saw lights flitting from room to
room, and heard the sound of excited voices at the
open window. He did not wait to hear further. He
ran through the wide open door, and up tiie stone
stairway, where half dressed men and terrified
looking women were swarming. A native police-
man at the door was solemnly waving off the curi-
ous intruders in the entry.
" "What is the matter ?" gasped Tom, pushing his
way forcibly into the room.
But the question was needless. Stretched on a
a couch covered with rawhide lay all that was mortal
of Tom's protector. Throwing himself on his
knees beside the dead man, with a great cry, the
boy hid his face in his hands.
There was little to tell; yet that little was full of
significance. The portero, or court yard janitor,
had been awakened by some one softly descending
the steps from the balcony. Upon being hailed,
the intruder gave no answer, but ran quickly to the
gate and drew back the fastenings. Convinced that
a thieving lepero had gained admission, the portero
discharged a rusty blunderbuss, and shouted lustily
for the police.
Of course the intruder was unharmed by the
fire, and escaped. Lights were brought, the little
community was aroused, and it was discovered that
the professor was dead in his swinging cot, yet
without wound or bruise on his person.
The pillow on which Professor Dean's head had
rested was lying on the tiled floor. Whether the
midnight intruder had robbed the dead, or whether
his unexpected entrance had caused the fatal
THAT TREASURE. 15
shock, none could tell; for although the lifeless
eyes were wide open, the professor's features were
calm and composed.
The old fashioned pocket book which had always
been under his pillow at night was gone, and with
it a sum of money in silver and gold kept for ordi-
nary expenses.
Britzer, who claimed to have been aroused by the
report of the bliinderbuss, said that beyond doubt
the robber was a lepero. He had seen him, he
added, quite distinctly for a moment in the moon-
light, as he fled through the gate; he wore the
regulation blanket and slouch hat of the suspected
race. The portero corroborated Britzer's statement,
and as there was no reason for suspecting any one in
the building, the authorities contented themselves
by offering a reward. On the following day, haste
being necessitated by the heat of the climate, Pro-
fessor Dean was buried in the little Protestant cem-
etery, aud Tom returned to the desolate room a
friendless stranger, alone in a foreign land 1
Desolate and down hearted, he was sitting by the
open window after the funeral. He had never real-
ized before how strong was his affection for the
good hearted man who had been a father to him,
and the tears rose to his eyes as he glanced at the
dead professor's scanty possessions scattered about
the room.
" I don't want to hurry you, Tom," said the voice
of Britzer, who appeared in the doorway, " but I've
got a chance to rent the room right away to a trav-
eling photographer, and "
Tom rose without a word. His involuntary
prejudice against the man before him had grown
stronger through certain shadowy, yet almost
baseless suspicions entertained since Professor
Dean's death.
16 THAT TREASURE.
" I suppose I am at liberty to take my own and
Professor Dean's things away?" he said, in a dry,
bard voice.
" Of course," was the reply, " provided you don't
take nothin' else; you know the room was let fur-
nished."
" I know if you make another such statement as
that I'll throw you down stairs I" exclaimed Tom,
with flashing eyes.
Britzer glared at him in silent fury and was
dumb.
There were but few things to collect. Tom had
given the porter the professor's scanty wardrobe
and such articles as he did not desire as keepsakes.
A revolver, presented him in San Francisco by a
patron who had captured it from a road agent; his
meerschaum pipe, and a long, flat pocket book in
which the professor had kept a sort of spasmodic
diary these were all, besides Tom's small stock of
underclothing. The whole was packed in a well
worn gripsack, Britzer matching the operation in
scowling silence.
"For some reason or other, you're in 'a great
hurry to get me out of this room, Mr. Britzer," said
Tom, as with a final glance about the apartment he
stepped into the entry; "but that doesn't matter
much, for I don't think I should feel altogether safe
to pass another night under the same roof with
you !"
" What do you mean ?" fiercely demanded Britzer,
while his florid features suddenly took on an ashy
pallor.
" I mean," replied Tom, slowly, " that something
tells me you were the perpetrator of the robbery
and murder for murder it was committed in this
.room last night, and some day or other I mean </*
prove itl"
THAT TEEASUEE. 17
And without awaiting a reply from the cowering
man who was trying to speak, Tom descended the
etairs to the pavement.
" By the look of things, it's lucky I arrove jest as
I did," said a familiar and welcome voice in his ear.
*' Might I be so bold as to ask," inquired "William,
for it was indeed that individual, hurried and out of
breath, " whar you an 1 that ar' gripsack is bound?"
" I don't know myself," was the half despairing
reply. " I'm turned into the street, and "
"Well, I know," interrupted William, clapping
the despondent young fellow on the shoulder; "first
an' foremost you're goin' to my room to talk matters
over, an' consider a propersition I'm goin' to make
to you. An' if you're the chap I think you are,"
continued the speaker, " you'll take up with the offer
an' go along of me down to Arizony, where I'm
bound to have another hunt for my gold dust.
Failin* in that, you an' I'll find plenty more whar
that come from. Come on without no more words."
And Tom went.
18 THAT TEEASUEE.
CHAPTER HI
HUNTED BY THE APACHES.
THBEE weeks had brought about a marked change
in Tom Dean's life and surroundings.
The stir and bustle of a large city had given place
to the silence of the almost illimitable prairie,
broken only by the dull hoof beats of the sturdy
broncos ridden by himself and his companion.
The sun beat fiercely down from a cloudless sky
on the grayish white of the alkaline soil, broken
here and there by patches of sage brush and cactus.
Strangely shaped buttea and peaks of red sandstone
rose at irregular intervals. Ten miles away, but
seemingly much nearer, was a range of purple hills
with a thread-like stream flowing down from the
heights above.
" Warmish, eh, Tom ?" remarked the elder of the
two horsemen, removing his sombrero for the
twentieth time to draw his sleeve across his per-
spiring face.
" It's more than that scorching, I should call it,"
wearily replied Tom Dean. But you would hardly
have recognized the Tom of former days in the sun-
burned young man whose athletic frame was well
shown off by the typical border costume.
He sat easily and naturally in his high peaked
saddle, balancing across the saddle bow a Reming-
ton rifle. This, as well as the heavy revolver slung
THAT 1EEASUEE. 19
at his side, Tom had already learned to use with
tolerable accuracy, thanks to a quick eye, steady
nerve, and strong arm, as well as the careful in-
structions of William, whose own proficiency with
either weapon was something bordering on the
marvelous. ,
" It's nothin' to ridin' across the * Staked Plains '
in July, youngster," philosophically observed the
other, replacing his sombrero; "an' if nothin' hap-
pens, we'll be campin' under the cottonwoods along-
side the stream yonder 'fore sundown if "
Something on the ground, which attracted the
speaker's attention, brought his speech to an abrupt
close.
Leaping lightly from his saddle, "William bent
Over what appeared to be half a dozen of the frag-
ments of meteoric stone which are common in these
regions. They were laid in regular order, pointing
in a southeasterly direction.
" What is it ?" asked Tom, pulling up his bronco.
At this the pack mule ambling behind them came to
a full stop, with with what seemed to be a prodigi-
ous breath of relief.
" Apaches ben makin' a raid on the border settle-
ments, that's all," was the reply. " Them stones
layin* in a direc' line means, to them that knows,"
said William, casting a glance about the hazy
horizon as he remounted, " that the raid was a suc-
cess, an' that means," he continued, with an involun-
tary clutch of his rifle barrel, " some white settler's
ranch burnt down, his cattle druv off, an* he an' the
whole family either butchered or made pris'ners an*
kerried away."
"I don't understand this Indian business," im-
petuously interrupted Tom, who had not been pay-
ing very close heed to the explanations; "to me, it
seems all strange and wrong. By what I've read
20 THAT TREASURE.
and things I've heard you say," he went on rapidly,
" our Government provides reservations and rations
for the Apaches as well as the peaceable tribes, and
yet whenever they take the notion the Apaches
make their raids on white settlers and still go un-
punished; why is it?"
" That's a conundrum that's puzzled older heads
than your'n," grimly returned William, "and, by
present appearances, there won't be no answer given
in this generation."
There came a sound of flying hoof beats on the
arid ground, and both turned suddenly in their
saddles. Coming towards them at a terrific rate of
speed, from behind a range of high sand hills
which they had passed an hour before, was a
mounted horseman. He was bare headed, and held
in the embrace of one arm a motionless figure,
whose long black hair streamed over the rider's
shoulder !
The horse, a coal black stallion of unusual size,
came thundering on. His glossy sides were flecked
with patches of foam.
Tom looked excitedly in the face of his com-
panion. William uttered a low exclamation and
pointed toward the sand hills. From behind them
appeared, evidently in pursuit, some twenty mounted
Indians, whose fierce cries came faintly to their
ears.
"Pris'ners that's give 'em the slip, Tom," said
William, quietly; "now, don't get flustrated, but
jest keep cool as a clam, an' show what stuff you're
made of."
" Very good," returned Tom with outward com-
posure, though his heart beat fast, as in imitation
of his companion he threw forward his rifle with a
glance at the sight; "only tell me what to do and
I'll do it"
THAT TKEASUBE. 21
There was no time for further speech. On came
the panting steed, leading his pursuers by a mile
at least. In another moment, with distended nos-
trils and heaving flanks, he was reined up beside
them!
The rider, who was a heavily built man with
stern, dark features and iron gray beard, held be-
fore him a young girl, sitting sideways in front of
the saddle.
She was supported partly by the high pommel,
and partly by the muscular arm thrown about her
waist. She was apparently some sixteen years of
age, with dark eyes, and a wealth of soft black hair
falling about her shoulders. This Tom saw at one
brief glance. Then the horseman began in hurried
accents :
" My daughter and I "
But an emphatic gesture from "William cut short
his speech.
"Make fer the butte yonder," he said, curtly;
" time enough to talk bimeby. What kind of guns
hev they?" he asked in the same breath; and, half
turning in his saddle, he drew back the hammer of
his own.
Spurring hastily forward, with the yells of the
pursuers sounding nearer, they soon reached the
foot of the butte. It was a great hillock of red
sandstone, worn by the action of wind and storm
into fantastic shapes. Above a series of shelving
projections, like irregular steps, was a plateau some
forty feet higher than the plain ; and to this William
pointed, as they dismounted, and hurried the
horses behind a huge detached fragment at the
base.
" Git up thar with the girl. Tom and I will
foller direc'ly," said William, and as the order was
obeyed, the speaker drew Tom behind the bowlder.
22 THAT TREASURE.
" Set your sight at two hundred, an' aim a bit low
than otherwise," he muttered. With fiercer and
exultant cries the Apaches rode on.
" Now, Tom! "
Tom fired. Following the report of the rifle,
there was a moment of confusion among the In-
dians; but it was a pony, not an Apache, that fell.
"A leetle too low, Tom," coolly said his comrade,
throwing his own weapon to his shoulder. Almost
instantly the sharp report rang out.
A tall Indian, half naked and glistening with oil,
tossed his arms wildly above his head, and plunged
heavily backward. There was a sudden halt, and in
the twinkling of an eye every Apache was hidden
by the body of his pony. An irregular discharge
followed from the gleaming carbine barrels just
visible over the backs of the horses; but the bullets
flattened themselves against the face of the cliff, a
dozen feet overhead.
"Nothin* sickens an Apache like a long range
rifle," chuckled William, throwing back the lever
from the guard, and forcing a new cartridge into
place from the magazine.
Tom did not reply. The sudden swerving aside
of an Indian's horse gave him the desired oppor-
tunity. His eye glanced along the barrel and his
finger pressed the trigger.
" Good boy !" approvingly muttered William, as a
stifled yell told that the ball had found its mark,
"and now we'll rejine our fren's on the bluff."
But scarcely had Tom and his companion clam-
bered to the plateau, when a sudden movement
among the Apaches indicated some new plan of
action. Each sprang to his horse's back, and in an-
other moment, with a succession of fiendish yells,
the entire party were dashing forward toward tb&
butte-
THAT TREASUEE. 28
*' Looks bad," muttered William, thrusting his re-
volver into the hands of the stranger, " thunderin'
bad but there ain't no help fer it they're desp'rit
an' don't mind losin' half a dozen or so fer the sake
of gittin' at us. Don't waste a shot, stranger."
With a set white face the man nodded, and drew
back the hammer of the heavy revolver.
The Apaches were infuriated by their losses.
After fruitlessly returning the fire while at full
gallop, they dismounted at the base of the butte.
Undismayed by the fall of two more of their num-
ber, they began with fiendish yells to scramble up
the irregular slope.
"Now for it," was Tom's thought as he awaited
the hand to hand encounter; and there was not long
to wait
24 THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTER IV.
BESIEGED ON THE BUTTE.
THE unusual lack of caution and cunning on the
part of the Apaches, which exposed them to the
open fire of the party on the bluff, was due to the
effects of whisky taken from a trader's wagon.
But even the fiery fluid failed in its effects after
the first mad rush up the irregular incline, when
the assailants came to a sudden halt behind a pro-
jecting angle which concealed them from the fire of
the little party above.
For then it was discovered that the further ascent
leading to the plateau narrowed suddenly, so that
the attack must be made in single file. And no one
seemed disposed to take the lead, with the certainty
of a ball through his head the instant he turned the
angle.
" None of 'em wants to bell the cat," dryly ob-
served William. After an animated discussion the
entire party prudently retired to the base of the
plateau; and here, keeping carefully out of range of
the enemy's fire, they seemed to bo holding a coun-
cil of war. Their ponies were called in and dis-
posed close under the bluff. Soon a camp fire was
kindled, and the smoke of dry sage brush ascended,
mingled with the more savory smell of broiling ante-
lope steak.
" Their idea is to starve us out," said the stranger.
"Exac'ly," was the concise reply. Just then
THAT TKEASUEE. 25
ball from an Indian's carbine whistled by William's
head, causing him to dodge back out of range with
alacrity. " You've jest about hit it, Mr.
" Sherard Hartly Sherard," supplied the other.
" Our ranch was about twenty miles southeast of
here," he went on, as Dolly, his pretty daughter,
drew close to her father's side. "Last night it was
burned to the ground by these fellows below, who
belong to Geronimo's Cniricahua Apaches. They
killed our Mexican servants, and while part of them
drove off the stock, the rest struck northward, with
my daughter and myself as prisoners, mounted on
Pancho, my own stallion an Indian riding on either
side of us. "We halted behind the sand hills at noon,
where the Apaches had cached a keg of whisky.
While they were gathered about it drinking, I
snatched a carbine from the one Apache left to
guard us, clubbed him from his horse, and started
Pancho off. Taking you two for the advance guard
of a wagon train, I turned his head toward you."
As though suddenly remembering her disordered
hair, Dolly withdrew herself a little from her fa-
ther's side, and began to plait the heavy masses into
a long braid. William laid his rifle across his
knees and seemed absorbed in thought.
" If they'd brung their whisky with 'em, there'd
be a chance of givin' 'em the slip before mornin'.
Once let a Injun git at liker and he never stops
short of a reg'lar drunk," he said, vainly endeavor-
ing to peer over the cliff "without exposing himself.
But the fire had been built close in to the butte at
one side, so that the Apaches could watch the only
way of descent.
" Perhaps they've sent that fellow after it," sug-
gested Tom.
He pointed to a solitary Indian rider, who had
made a long detour around the bluff, so as to keep
26 THAT TEEASUKE.
well out of range, and was galloping off toward the
distant line of sandhills.
"Mebbe they hev,"was the animated reply.
Then William, struck with a sudden idea, born of
an appetite which even on ordinary occasions was
something astonishing, laid aside his rifle. After
fumbling in the leather haversack slung at his side,
he produced a ball of fish line, with a tolerably large
hook and sinker attached.
" The las' time I went fishin'," he said, reflectively,
as the three regarded him with inquiring eyes,
" was up 'n the Santy Hose mount'ns for trout. Now
I'm goin* to try for antelope."
Without making further explanation, he crawled
cautiously from the plateau, upon a narrow ledge of
sandstone extending along the curves of the fantas-
tically shaped butte. Wriggling himself carefully
along the natural shelf, with his body pressed close
against the rock, he crept forward inch by inch.
Peering cautiously over, William found himself
directly above some half a dozen squatting Apaches,
who were watching with hungry eyes several slices
of broiling antelope steak.
"Prospects of a ketch looks small," discontentedly
muttered William, who grew hungrier as he snuffed
the tempting fumes beneath him.
Suddenly his eye was attracted to a solitary horse-
man, approaching at a hard gallop from the sand
hills. As he discovered a small black object in front
of the rider's saddle, he chuckled silently.
" The kag," he muttered.
At that moment there came a sharp report and
puff of smoke from the plateau, which caused the
Apaches about the fire to spring to their feet. A
yell arose from those standing about the tethered
horses, as they saw the distant Indian reel in the
saddle, and drop to the ground.
THAT TKEASUKE. 27
" Three hundred yards if it's an inch," admiringly
murmured William; "that boy '11 make his mark
some day, an' don't you forgit it."
There was a sudden and general stampede of all
the Apaches, apparently toward the fallen keg, and
not the wounded Indian.
Now was William's opportunity. Dropping his
line down the almost perpendicular face of the
butte, he began angling for the antelope steak with
such marked success that, before the Apaches
returned with their fire water, he had secured it all.
Then, holding the meat in one hand, he worked
himself back to the plateau.
Even Mr. Sherard smiled as William exhibited
his catch, and remarked that the only real drawback
to the success of the whole affair was his inability
to witness the Apaches' astonishment and wrath,
when the loss of their supper should be discov-
ered.
Dolly was accommodated with a bit of flat sand-
stone and a hunting knife, while the others adopted
the primitive method of eating prevalent before
knives and forks came into fashion. Thus refreshed
in body, the little company eagerly watched the fad-
ing away of the last beams of sunset, and the swift
fall of the dusky twilight
William and Tom sat watching the ascent with
cocked rifles, lest in their drunken frenzy the red-
skins should attempt another reckless dash up the
butte.
The whisky was maddening the Apaches, to judge
from the hideous shrieks and yells which rose to
their ears, growing louder and more violent as the
evening wore on. By crawling a little way out on
the narrow edge and craning his neck forward,
William managed to get a tolerably correct idea of
the situation.
28 THAT TREASURE.
Half a dozen Apaches were dancing madly around
the fire. Two or three lay wrapped iu their blankets,
snoring in drunken slumber, while the soberest of
the band had been detailed to watch the ascent to
the plateau. Sitting half hidden by a projecting
bowlder, with his carbine within reach, the red
skinned guard, gravely and with evident relish, ap-
plied himself to the contents of a tin cup.
A large fire had been kindled at the foot of the
rocky ascent, so as to betray any attempt at escape
on the part of the besieged. It lit up the scene
with a weird, flickering light.
Gradually the sounds of revelry from below began
to subside. The excited shouts died down to gut-
tural mutterings and occasional snores.
As the indications of watchfulness died gradually
away, William, after whispering to Tom, rose to his
feet and laid aside his rifle. Tom did the same, with
a glance at Dolly, who, worn out with excitement
and fatigue, had fallen asleep with her head in her
father's lap.
" Tom an' I are goin' to try fer the horses," said
William, in a rapid undertone; " an* if all goes well,
when I toss a bit of rock up here for a signal, jine
us. Bring your girl, and the guns, which we've got
to leave so's to hev the use of both han's. If things
go crooked," he added, in a lower tone, " hold out as
long as you can."
In another moment William and his young asso-
ciate had disappeared in the darkness. Stealthily
and noiselessly they crept down the incline, keeping
as far as possible in the shadow.
Not a sound was heard except the stertorous
breathing of the drunken redskins, varied by an oc-
casional snort or snore, as they lay around the fur-
ther fire. It had now burned down to smoldering'
embers, while the other was kept alive by the soli-
THAT TREASURE. 29
tary guard, who was drowsily sitting behind a
bowlder.
Gliding softly past the blaze, the two stole
through the darkness to the rear of the sleeping
sentinel. With a spring as quick and noiseless as a
mountain tiger, William clutched the throat of the
unfortunate Apache in his sinewy fingers, and bore
him backward to the ground, while Tom threw him-
self bodily on the prostrate form of the struggling
savage.
So carefully had everything been planned that be-
fore the Indian had time to wonder whether this un-
expected assault was a nightmare resulting from
bad whisky, or a horrible reality, he was lying be-
hind the bowlder with ankles and wrists knotted
tightly together. A strip of his ragged blanket
was bound over his mouth and nostrils, and his en-
tire head enveloped in the remainder of the garment.
"So far so good," whispered William; "npw for
the hosses."
Trembling with excitement, Tom took the Apache's
carbine and haversack of cartridges, and followed
softly at William's heels. The stallion with their
own broncos were picketed a little apart from the
others, while their saddles and bridles lay in a pile
at the foot of the butte.
While Tom saddled the horses with trembling
fingers, William crammed his haversack with a few of
the stores which had formed part of the pack mule's
load. Gliding away in the gloom, he returned a
few minutes later with an Indian pony saddled and
bridled.
"For Miss Dolly," he muttered; "her father says
she can ride any hoss as ever was foaled."
William cautiously led the horses round to the
opposite side of the butte. Then he returned, and
made the signal agreed upon.
30 THAT TBEASUBE.
Out of the gloom appeared the tall form of Mr.
Sherard, carrying 1 the rifles, with Dolly at his side.
Obeying William's mute gesture, they followed him
to the spot where Tom was awaiting them with the
horses.
Swinging Dolly to the pony's saddle, Mr. Sherard
mounted Pancho, while Tom and William sprang
exultingly to the backs of their steeds.
The night was intensely dark, with a heavy sultri-
ness in the air, an electric glow glimmering at in-
tervals on the northwestern horizon. It revealed
the tops of the low mountain range, and gave Will-
iam his bearings. Starting the horses into a slow
walk for a few moments, the little cavalcade, who
as \et had not exchanged a word, was again in mo-
tion.
Suddenly from out of the darkness behind them
rose a hubbub, followed by a yell so fiendish and
blood curdling, that even William felt a slight
shiver pass through him as it was repeated again
and again.
" Give 'em rein," he said in a low tone, and in an-
other moment the fugitives began a wild gallop
through the gloom. Tom Dean at least will remem-
ber it to his dying day.
" There ain't no danger of bein' chased by more'n
two or three at the best," cried William, urging his
own bronco to greater speed; "for when I got the
pony fer Miss Dolly I cut ev'ry lariat I could reach,
an' ten to one the yells stampeded the hull ca-
boodle of the loose ones." And such eventually
proved to be the case.
On and still on through the darkness ! Woe to
the horse and rider should the flying steed stumble
in a gopher hole, or get mired in an alkali slough,
whose embrace is certain death.
Flashes of lightning begin to light up the arched
THAT TEEASUKE. 9)
heavens and the wide plain beneath, while the
heavy rumble of thunder seems to shake the sul-
phurous air. And now the quick foe tfall of horse-
men in pursuit is heard in the distance.
" Thar's only three, Tom, an* I'll take care of them
easy," exultingly called William, as by a flash his
quick eye caught a glimpse of a trio of Indian
riders within a hundred yards or so.
"Indeed, you will not!" warmly returned Mr.
Sherard, reining up Pancho. At the same moment
William and Tom checked their steeds. " I have a
carbine now, and "
Mr. Sherard did not finish. A vivid glare of
lightning, illumining the plain for a brief moment
with its unearthly glare, gave two individuals an
opportunity for what William called a " snap shot."
One was William himself; he dropped an Apache
by his fire. The other was one of the two remain-
ing Indians; the ball from his carbine pierced poor
Pancho's broad chest.
The stallion reared; and scarcely had Mr. Sher-
ard time to clear his foot from the stirrup, when
Pancho gave the plaintive, half human cry of a
horse when wounded unto death, and fell heavily
over on his side.
At the same moment, one of the Indian ponies
in the distance neighed loudly, once, twice, thrice.
An answering neigh came from the pony which
Dolly was riding; it suddenly wheeled, and before
she could slip from its back it had seized the bit be-
tween its strong teeth, and broken into a mad run
in the direction of its sympathizing equine rela-
tive.
Mr. Sherard was just picking himself up, a little
dazed by his fall, and William was pushing a cart-
ridge into place. Tom was first to see the danger
which threatened the young girL
32 THAT TKEASURE.
"Jump off, Miss Dolly," he yelled, clappiEg 1 ins
heels to the side of his own bronco, and starting off
in full pursuit, "jump off!"
But Dolly, whose equestrian experience on the
ranch had made her an excellent horsewoman, knew
it was not safe to do so at such a rate of speed. She
vainly sawed at the mouth of the obstinate brute,
hoping to check his onward course.
As Dolly's pony, with a whinny of delight, re-
gained the side of its equine acquaintance, another
broad glare of lightning made visible four distinct
pictures, in one and the same instant.
The one, an Apache with a fiendish grin, twining
his brawny arm about the slender waist of a terrified
girl, and pulling her from the saddle.
The second, his copper faced companion, with his
cheek laid against the butt of a short cavalry car-
bine, whose muzzle was aimed directly at Tom's
breast.
The third, Tom himself, rising in his stirrups
with his clubbed rifle held in both hands and swing-
ing over his head, as he dashed his bronco full tilt
at the would be abductor.
And the fourth was William himself, sitting erect
upon his pony, fifty paces away; his eye glancing
along the polished rifle barrel which was pointed at
the second Apache; and his finger pressing the trig-
ger just as the blinding glare was followed by in-
tense darkness, and a thunder peal which drowned
the report of carbine and rifle.
One Apache dropped like a stone, with a ball
through his brain. The muzzle of his carbine,
jerked upwards, sent its leaden missile searing
across the fleshy part of Tom's arm, though in his
excitement he did not even notice it.
Down came the heavy butt of Tom's rifle full on
the Apache's shaven skull; and Dolly slid to th
THAT TREASURE. 3S
earth unharmed, as his lifeless form toppled from
the saddle on the other side.
" Tom," said William, who was the first to reach
the spot and who took in the situation with a glance,
" you're an ornament to your sect, an' I'm proud of
you shake !"
But Tom was otherwise engaged. For Dolly had
already taken one of his hands in her own, and with
eyes full of tears was trying to convey her sense of
gratitude.
And before she could muster words adequate to
the occasion, Mr. Sherard was grasping the other
hand with similar utterances.
So, seeing that Tom's hands were literally full,
"William, the very practical, secured the two carbines
belonging to the dead Indians, and at once pro-
ceeded to batter them out of shape on the nearest
bowlder. Then he secured all the cartridges he
could find, and turned one of the Indian ponies
adrift, reserving for Mr. Sherard the one which had
so nearly brought about Miss Dolly's recapture.
His saddle was exchanged for the one taken from
poor Pancho, and they again remounted. The
glare of the lightning was now passing off; it had
been the precursor of a few heavy drops, but noth-
ing more.
The little party pressed forward until the gleams
of approaching dawn brought them to a haven of
comparative safety.
THAT TREASURE/
CHAPTEE V.
BONANZA CITY,
THE contrast between the black darkness of the
night and the splendor of the sunrise was scarcely
more marked than that between their surroundings
of the previous day and those revealed by the morn-
ing light.
They had left the arid plain, with its sand hills
and sandstone bluffs, for a rolling prairie land,
blazing with wild verbenas, petunias, portulaccas,
asters and gorgeous poppies.
Meadow larks sang and upland plover piped;
black and white magpies croaked, and sand hill cranes
soared silently overhead.
The dense green cf the buffalo grass alternated
with high hillocks covered with shrubs of various
kinds, sheltering the long legged jack rabbits and
barking marmots, while under the very feet of the
horse scuttled sage hens and prairie grouse by
scores.
"The high breeze that riz jest before sun up set
the sand flyin' so our tracks are covered six inches
deep before this, an' now all the Apaches in Arizony
couldn't track us."
Such was "William's cheering announcement, as
they reached the banks of a deep, swift running
creek. Here a halt was ordered.
The horses were unsaddled, and picketed under
THAT TEEASUEE. 35
the cotton woods. Then a fire was kindled; care
being taken to gather the driest branches of the
willow and cottonwood, which made a clear hot
blaze, unaccompanied by perceptible smoke.
William utilized his fishing line, with large lo-
custs for bait, and pulled from the stream two dozen
good sized trout in half as many minutes.
Having cleaned them, Mr. Sherard wrapped each
fish in a coating of moist clay, and laid them in the
glowing embers. When thoroughly baked, the
dried clay was removed, and revealed the sweet
white flesh divested of skin and scales.
Salt was furnished from William's haversack, and
plates were made of bark. Then breakfast was an-
nounced.
Tom came up from the stream, his crisp black
hair shining with water drops. The dust and pow-
der smoke had been scrubbed off, and his black silk
handkerchief retied; shirt and overalls had been
brushed, and the alkali soil removed from his moc-
casins. With his fine figure, regular bronzed feat-
ures, and erect carriage, Tom Dean was worthy of a
second look.
So too was Dolly. Her heavy hair was braided
afresh, and drawn away from her brunette face, with
its jetty eyebrows, deep dark eyes, arched mouth,
and dimpled chin. Her dress of dark blue flannel
had been shaken into something like order, and
from under the folds of the skirt peeped the tips of
a pair of dainty little beaded moccasins. Dolly was
deserving, indeed, of more than a second look, and
as she seated herself at her father's side, she re-
ceived a glance of open admiration from William,
and one of shy respect from Tom.
After the repast William proceeded to fill a cob
pipe, while Mr. Sherard solaced himself with a cig-
arette. "If we'd had the utensils," remarked the
36 THAT TREASURE,
former, " I'd a brewed a pot o' coffee, for I've got
nigh a pound in my haversack. But there's utensils
in plenty where Tom an' I is bound "
" Where is that ?" inquired Mr. Sherard, with a
sudden show of interest. For it had suddenly oc-
curred to him that it might be well to begin to
make some plans for the return of himself and Dolly
to civilization.
" Bonanza City," replied William, gravely, " where
a couple o' years or so ago me and a pardner made
twenty five thousand dollars inside of six months.
Great place for money makin', is Bonanza City," he
added, with a reflective nod.
Mr. Sherard, who had never heard of the city in
question, was interested at once.
" How far is it from here, and what is the princi-
pal business ?" he asked, quickly.
" Twenty odd mile minin'," was the double bar-
reled reply to both questions.
"It seems singular that I never heard of it," said
Mr. Sherard, musingly. But then he reflected that
in his own ranch he had done little else but bury
himself in his library of books, and taken no great
interest in the building up of the country.
" On what line of road is Bonanza City ?" he again
inquired.
" Wall, the branch line from the Southern Pacific
ain't put through yet," replied William, puffing vig-
orously at his pipe.
" I think that, with your permission, Dolly and I
had better accompany you to Bonanza City," Mr.
Sherard remarked, after a moment's thought. "In-
deed I see no other resource, situated as we are
now."
Neither did William, for the nearest fort, trading
post, or line of railroad was at least a hundred miles
away. And he so stated.
THAT TREASUKE. 37
While this conversation was going on, Tom and
Dolly were beginning to get better acquainted with
each other, Tom Dean's association with the oppo-
site sex had been extremely limited. His mother he
could not remember at all, though he often dreamed
of a tender and beautiful face which bent over his
pillow with loving words . The features were always
the same, and gradually they had become photo-
graphed, so to speak, on his mental vision.
Tom was now almost for the first time thrown into
the society of pure young girlhood; and, though
naturally somewhat shy and reticent, the very pe-
culiar circumstances of their meeting broke down
this feeling.
Almost before he knew it, Dolly was listening
with eager interest while he told her of his early
life the professor's loving care, his tragic death,
and Tom's meeting with William.
In turn Dolly spoke freely of her own and her fa-
ther's experiences. They had lived in New York be-
fore the death of her mother, a Spanish lady whom
Mr Sherard had met in his travels. Then came the
loss of Mr. Sherard's fortune. With what was left
after a settlement with his creditors, he came West
with his daughter, leaving her at a school in St.
Ijouis, while he prepared a home in the far off wild-
erness, where he hoped to retrieve his fallen fort-
unes by stock raising.
So the two chatted together till the horses had
eaten tlieir fill of the nutritious buffalo grass and
another start was made.
Their course now lay due north, directly along
the bed of the deep and brawling stream. Steadily
ouward they went, gradually rising towards the
wooded hills of a high divide, whose summits,
fringed with a heavy growth, were bathed in the
soft splendor of the setting sun. Suddenly, as they
38 THAT TEEASUKE.
emerged from a narrow belt of woodland, there lay
before them a somewhat extensive settlement.
" Thar," said William, pointing forward with an
air of extreme satisfaction; "that's Bonanza City!
A pootier location was never seen nowheres this
side the Rockies; good water, drainage, an' all the
modern c'nveniences; without the improvements,
which'll come in time if nothin' happ'ns."
But no one heard the concluding words, uttered
in a whisper. Mr. Sherard was gazing rather
blankly at the collection of one story board houses
and shanties, with here and there a more pretentious
structure of adobe or sun dried brick. Even at
that distance he saw that the buildings were weather
beaten and out of repair, some being unroofed and
others in ruins.
Dolly looked bewildered, yet amused. As for
Tom, it seemed to him that he had seen it all as in a
dream before.
"But er I don't see any signs of the inhabit-
ants," exclaimed Mr. Sherard, pushing back the silk
handkerchief which was tied about his head in lieu
of a hat.
And a nearer approach developed the fact that
the one street of Bonanza City was completely de-
serted.
"Well, the fac' is," replied William, for the first
time showing some slight trace of embarrassment,
"the citizens is kinder wan tin' in Bonanza City.
But that's ruther an advantage than otherwise, as
the bulk of the bizness will fall into our hands. The
fac' is, Mr. Sherard," he went on, " four years ago a
couple of prospectors struck a rich pay streak in
yonder gulch. B'ildin's went up, an' things was
boomin', when all at once the pay streaks failed, an'
ev'rybody lit out fer new diggin's. Me an' my pard-
ner was on the prospect a couple o' years after, an*
THAT TKEASTJKE. 39
struck the city standin' as you see it not a livin*
soul but us. We had a streak of luck uucommon
for these days, and then came the Apaches. They
carried me off, and what come to Bob and the gold
I never knowed. I've come here to hev another
look for my los* gol' dust," William went on, " for
somehow I've got it inter my head that it's here in
Bonanza City. Them as helps me find it will share
with me. Failin* in this, I propose makin' search
fur a pay streak. There's a good head o' water,
sluice boxes an' ev'rything ready for work on a small
scale an' there's gold here somewheres in big lots,
else I'm no jedge of signs. If you wanter cast yer
lot here a spell, along of Tom an* me, Mr. Sherard,
well and good; thar's a chance fur you to make a
pile as well as the rest of us."
" Well, Dolly, what do you say ?" asked Mr. Sher-
ard, whose brow had gradually cleared as he lis-
tened to William's brief but forcible argument.
His hopeful mind had already begun to cherish
dreams of success in this new and unexpected vent-
ure.
"Tour wishes are mine, father; I am happy
wherever you are," was the cheerful reply. And
the matter was settled.
A rude bridge spanned the stream, and, having
crossed it in silence, William commanded a halt.
The last beams of the sun bathed the deserted
buildings and grass grown street in a flood of yel-
low light, as though prophetic of a golden future.
*' Gentlemen and ladies," said William, " allow me
as a a original discoverer to welcome the new
colernists to Bonanza City."
On the right hand side of the street, beyond the
bridge, stood what had evidently served as the
hotel. Unlike most of the other buildings, it was
two stories high, with a flat, sloping roof, in toler-
40 THAT TEEASUEE.
able repair. On a creaking sign board attached to
a post the word " Retreat " was still faintly discern-
ible.
"We'll stop to the best hotel tonight," gravely
remarked William, as the little party dismounted.
" I'll take care of the horses an' look out for some-
thin* for supper. When me an' Bob Cope was here
we used to do our cookin' in the kitchin, owin' to its
havin' the only cook stove thar was in town. Bar-
rin' rust, I guess you'll find things all right."
" How gloomy and dismal it seems," said Dolly,
with a little shiver, clinging to her father's arm.
The two followed Tom through the deserted
house, where dust and damp reigned supreme, to
the kitchen at the rear.
Tom did not reply. Stopping in the middle of
the room they had reached, he looked about him
and uttered an exclamation of astonishment.
The kitchen of the Retreat was a good sized room.
The rough board sides, which had once been white-
washed, were papered with copies of mining jour-
nals and prospectuses of mining towns. A neatly
blacked cook stove stood at the rear, and a pine
table, scrubbed smooth and white, was at one side.
There were rude stools, and a wooden cupboard dis-
played quite an array of bright tin ware cooking
utensils, and even crockery.
There was fuel by the stove, matches in a sardine
box, and a candle in a tin sconce nailed against the
wall
" I don't understand why everything looks so neat
in this kitchen," said Dolly, as Tom proceeded to
light the candle; "one would almost think some
person had left it only this morning, instead of two
years ago. Why, the stove looks as though it had
just been blacked, and there isn't a sign of damp
anywhere."
THAT TEEASUKE. 41
"It is probably owing to er the preservative
effect of the rarefied atmosphere, Dolly," returned
Mr. Sherard, who was beginning to lay a fire in the
stove.
Tom secretly wondered if the rarefied atmosphere
was the cause of the entire absence of dust and cob-
webs, and whether it had anything to do with a pe-
culiar pungent smell, as of some recently burning
drug, which he had noticed on first entering. But
he made no remark. Very soon a cheerful blaze
was started in the stove, and the place began to take
on a singularly home-like look.
Presently William appeared, carrying four tins of
preserved provisions in his arms, which he deposited
on the taolc.
" Bob Cope an' I left more'n twenty of these here
cans, to mj certin knowledge," he said, with a per-
plexed look, " but all I could find in the ol' place
was these four. I don't see, for the life of me, what's
come to the rest of 'em. How quick you've slicked
things up," he continued, looking about in evident
surprise; "why "
" We found everything just as you see it," laughed
Dolly, who had already begun to set the table, " and
it shows what excellent housekeepers you and Mr.
Cope must ha^e been to leave everything in such
nice order."
William scratched his head thoughtfully, but made
no reply.
" No signs of anythin' stirrin' anywheres outside,
wus there, Tom ?" he asked, with a shade of uneasi-
ness, as the latter entered with a couple of buckets
of clear river water.
"Only a couple of coyotes skulking across the
street," was the careless reply. A little later a very
substantial supper was prepared and eaten with a
hearty relish.
42 THAT TEEA.SUEE.
"William preserved an unwonted silence through-
out the meal. When the table was cleared, he
lighted another candle, and went up stairs, accom-
panied by Mr Sherard, to see what were the sleep-
ing accommodations.
"Tom," suddenly said Dolly, who saw no impro-
priety in using his first name, " did you ever hear or
dream of anything so funny as all this four of us
taking possession of an abandoned hotel in a town
without inhabitants "
But here Dolly stopped suddenly and turned quite
pale. And no wonder.
For, following the direction of her startled gaze,
Tom saw standing in the door two Chinamen, of un-
commonly large stature. In dress, height and
physiognomy, they were the very counterpart of
each other.
" What Melican man wantee in Chinaman house ?"
said one of them, in a harsh, threatening voice, as
he stepped into the room, followed by his compan-
ion. His lean hand stole significantly under the
folds of his blouse, as Tom laid his hand on the butt
of his revolver.
Instinctively Dolly drew nearer Tom, for there
was something evil and repulsive in the stealthy
glance which each had given her from their small,
beady eyes.
" How happens it to be your house ?" asked Tom,
quietly.
" You not mind that," said the other, whose voice
was exactly the same as that of the first speaker.
' You pay us for use dish, use stove all tings den
you git 1" and the Mongolian speaker pointed to-
wards the door he had just entered, while his com-
panion stepped forward, with an ugly smile.
" Melican man hab plitty sister; Ah Chow much
lub plitty gal," he said, insolently.
THAT TREASUKE. 43
" Don't let him come near me, Tom," whispered
Dolly, in trembling accents, as she shrank behind
him.
Trust Tom Dean for that ! Ah Chow was nearly
six feet tall, and of heavy, ungainly frame, but as
he stretched out his claw-like hand towards Dolly,
he went down like a log before Tom's muscular
arm.
Down the rickety stairs dashed Mr. Sherard, fol-
lowed by William, just as Ah Chow's associate was
lugging a clumsy " British bull dog " revolver from
beneath his blouse.
But at the sight of the new comers the China-
man's sallow face took an ashy hue. Ah Chow,
who had scrambled to his feet, seemed for the
moment turned to stone, like an ugly idol.
" Why, dern your yeller skins, Ah Chow, an* you,
Ah Sin !" wrathfully roared William, banging hia
candle on the table and throwing his right hand to
his hip; "hev you forgot what Bob Cope an' mo
told you two year ago, when we driv' you outer the
city here for tryin* to murder us whilst we was
asleep ?"
" No shootee, William," shrieked Ah Sin, in a high
falsetto, dodging rapidly behind Ah Chow; " all
one mistake. We s'pose Injun killee you both, so
we come back, lib in dis house. No shootee we
go findee 'noder house; not tlouble Melican mans
any."
" It won't be healthy if you do," was the signifi-
cant reply. "Now, see here," he went on, as the
two began shuffling towards the door; " I know the
pair of you, root an' branch, an' you know me. You
find some other house; thar's plenty to pick an*
choose from. Bob Cope an' me pre-empted this
here hotel before you two cutthroats ever struck
Bonanza City, an' I've got the prior claim; and
44 THAT TEEASUEE.
there'll be a watch kep' night an' day in these here
premises, and if I so much as 'spect the one or
t'other of you of attemptin' any trickery, I'll riddle
the pair like a cullender savey ?"
There was no doubt but that William's forcible
speech was fully understood by the two Chinamen,
who murmured something unintelligible and sneaked
towards the door. But before passing through it
Ah Chow raised his snaky eyes, with a look of evil
directed at Tom, and touched his bruised face with
his finger tip.
" Ah Chow not forgit dis," he muttered, and was
gone.
" Fd ruther a' giv' a ten ounce bag of gol' dust
if I had it," said William, looking blankly at the si-
lent group, "than that Ah Chow an* that twin
brother of his'n should hev come here agin. I hoped
they'd a' be'n lynched long afore this."
" Who ure they ?" asked Mr. Sherard, in evident
disquietude.
" Two of the wust Chinymen that ever struck a
minin' kermunity," was the uncompromising reply.
"They come here whilst Bob an' me was workin' our
claim an' begun pannin' out dust aloug the crik in a
wash basin. As they kep' their end of the town an*
we ours, Bob nor I didn't mind 'em. But by sheer
luck we found 'em one night stowed away under the
ol' broke down counter in what was the bar room,
calc'latin* to do for us whilst we was asleep, an'
mosey with our pile. We run 'em acrost the bridge
right lively with a promise of what we'd do if either
of 'em. come within shootin' distance, an' jest to
show what we meant, I shot the top off'n Ah Sin's
ear whilst he was runnin'. But 111 keep an eye on
the gen'lemen," said William, rising; "an' now we'll
kinder git ready to turn in, for tomorrer will be a
busy day for all of us, not omittin' Miss Dolly."
THAT TREASURE: 45
There were several canvas cots in various stages
of dilapidation in the bare, unfurnished rooms over-
head, and one was brought down and placed in a
small room opening out of the kitchen. To this
were added a pair of blankets belonging to William,
and Miss Dolly was provided for.
The others, who kept alternate watches till dawn,
contented themselves with saddle blankets and the
grassy turf before the house, using the saddles as
pillows.
THAT TRF.ASUBE.
CHAPTER VL
BOB COPE'S MESSAGE AKD ITS BESULTS.
IT was Tom dean who found it.
Not the missing gold dust, but some information
regarding it, which came about in this wise.
Tacked against the boards at one side of the
former dining room of the hotel, Tom had noticed
a square box cover of brown pasteboard, which
had evidently been used as a target for pistol prac-
tice.
"Some of them Chinamen's shootin'; anybody
with half an eye would see that," scornfully re-
marked William, as Tom called his attention to it.
" How do I know ? By the tracks in the dust, of
course; no white man would shoot at a mark only
fifteen feet off, to say nothin' of usin' one of them
clumsy, self cockin' thirty twos that's throwed nigh
ev'ry shot a couple o' inches above the box kiver.
Now watch the nail that hoi's the kiver," he said,
pacing off the length of the room some forty feet.
Standing with his back towards the target, and
the cocked revolver with its muzzle dropped toward
the floor, "William wheeled suddenly round, throw-
ing up his arm at the same instant.
The revolver cracked almost before William's arm
had seemed to steady itself. The ball struck the
nail, and Tom lifted the box cover from the floor
with an exclamation of surprise.
THAT TREASURE. 4?
"What's the matter? Didn't you never see no
pistol shootin' before ?" demanded William, mistak-
ing the cause of Tom's amazement. The latter
stood gazing at the pasteboard, which -was covered
with rude chirography, evidently done with a very
stumpy lead pencil.
But in place of replying, Tom began reading
aloud from the cover a message which I give below
precisely as written and spelled:
Dere Pard i stick this up whare you see it if you ever cum
bac from bein Took prisner by them (a bullet hole had luckily
cut out the adjective) 'Paches, fore I Got the bags hid they was
outer site in the Dark Takin you along of em. I stade bi the
shanty a weke hopin you mite giv em the slip I cudent find the
pay streke we los, But wosht out a few ounces frum the ol
gravil in the north clame i was Putin it Awa that evenin in the
Hole under the flore with the rest when lookin up sudint i See
them Too chinymen agin watchin threw the winder i puld an
let drive but tha ski pea. i knqwed i warnt safe There so nex
morniii i packt up the Mewil with The dust and ower Traps and
Lit out by The north eas Trale fur hqlcome sant cristofer
county whare tbares A bank And This is To sa If this ever
metes yore ize that if i git safe to holcome youle Find yore
half of The Pile Deposit in yore name whitch rufe Dalas or the
doo Drop salune or eny of the boys can Identify if I aint thar
hopin you air Alive an Will Fine this Notis sum da i am yores
Kobert g cope, orgus 3 1878.
" An' when I came back here a month after that
was writ," groaned William, " to hunt for Bob an*
the dust, I was in an' outer here fifty times, without
ever so much as noticin' that box kiver agin' the
wall. Why didn't Bob leave it in the hidin' place
where he knowed I'd look first thing ?"
" Why, then the Chinamen would have found it,
and even if they can't read, they would probably
have torn it up," suggested Tom.
"And it is something to know that your gold dust
is safe after all," added Mr. Sherard, who had en-
tered while Tom was reading the message.
"If Bob ever got to Holcomb, a good hundred
an' forty mile away, through the wust kind of
kentry," returned William, gloomily,
48 THAT TKEASUEE.
" It's no use," he continued, after a short pause; " I
must satisfy my mind about that there gol' dust, or
I shan't rest nights, so tomorrer I'll saddle up an'
light out for Holcomb."
Expostulations and pleadings were of no avail.
To use his own comparison, "William was "setter'n
any mule " when once his mind was made up.
"It's no great ride, any way; I shall be back in-
side of a fortnight, whether I find what I'm after or
no," was his reply. Seeing him so determined in
purpose, the others said no more.
That afternoon, leaving Mr. Sherard with Dolly,
William and Tom revisited the scene of the former's
labors with Bob Cope.
On the eastern side of the sloping valley flowed
Bonanza River, whose frequent falls furnished the
necessary head of water for separating the gravel
from the gold.
Running parallel with it were scattered the ruins
of the great board sluice boxes which had been
abandoned four years before. From these frag-
ments William and his associate, Bob Cope, had
constructed their own primitive gold washing ap-
paratus.
" But, dern my fckin 1" exclaimed William, indulg-
ing in his favorite expletive, " if it ain't what I've
been fearin' since I knowed them Chinymen had
come back. They've gone to work in my ol' claim
as big as life !"
" I wouldn't have any trouble with them," sug-
gested Tom, as William threw forward his rifle into
the hollow of his left arm, and suggestively clasped
the stock with his right hand.
"Oh, I shan't hev no trouble," was the reply,
uttered in anything but a reassuring tone. As he
spoke William walked rapidly forward.
" Look here, you two!" he called loudly.
THAT TREASURE. 49
Ah Sin, who was shoveling gravel into the upper
part of the sluice box, looked up quickly. Ah Chow,
at the other end, did the same, and slid his hand
into the breast of his blouse.
"Drop that!" shouted William, covering him with
his Winchester. "Yank your hand outer your
blouse, Ah Chow empty, mind an" keep both of
'em in sight, or I'll let daylight through you!"
"What you wantee Chinaman now?" growled
Ah Chow, who obeyed with considerable celerity.
"I want you two to git outer my claim right
smart," was the sharp reply; "an' mind, if I ketch
either one of you within shootin' distance of it after
this you know what'll happen."
Knowing something of mining laws, and more of
William's aptness at keeping his word, Ah Sin and
Ah Chow left the tools, which also had belonged to
William and Bob Cope, in the trench, and shuffled
away, taking their course down the stream.
"They can go to work pannin' out by hand agin,
for they're too blamed lazy to build sluice boxes for
themselves," said William as he watched them out
of sight. Then he showed Tom the workings of the
primitive sluice way in which he and Bob Cope
had washed out a small fortune. They had had
the luck to strike an uncommonly rich streak of pay
dirt.
It consisted of a series of long, narrow, gutter-
like boxes, open at the top; the upper end, where
the water was turned in, being wider and higher
than the other extremity.
All along the bottom were nailed wooden blocks,
packed on end as closely as possible. These not
only keep the bottom of the trough from the wear
of the larger pebbles, but hold such bits of gold as
may fall from the dissolving clay lumps.
The clay is shoveled in at the head of the sluice
60 THAT TREASURE.
box, and a stream of water turned on, which forces
it through the boxes. The gold, being far heavier
than the rest, remains at the bottom, and is collected
after the run.
"They ain't struck no pay streak," remarked
William, after carefully examining the riffles at the
bottom of the box; "an 5 when you an' Mr. Sherard
begin to try your luck, shift all this gearin' up the
gulch, say forty rods or so. There's a good fall
thar for work, but afore you begin operations dig
down to bed rock in three or four places, an* keep
tryin' the gravel this way." Scooping a handful
of soil into an iron prospecting pan, William stepped
to the edge of the stream, aud proceeded to initiate
Tom into the mystery of hand washing. Various
other instructions having been given, the two re-
turned to the retreat.
" And what part am I to play in all this ?" asked
Dolly, as after supper the fonr brought stools out
on the stoop, in the cool of the evening. They were
talking over the plans for the work which they in-
tended to do after William's departure.
" You're goiii' to keep house for one thing, Miss
Dolly; an' beiu' a girl of pluck and backbone ekal
to any ever I see, you're goin* to keep your pa's car-
bine right where it'll be handy whenever the men
folks is outer sight," replied William.
" But we shall not be out of sight much," quietly
remarked Tom, observing the shadow of uneasiness
that crossed Dolly's face, " for I noticed that from
where we shall begin operations in the morning, we
can see the house distinctly."
" Dolly shall come with us, and sit in the shade
with her sewing, whenever we are likely to get out
of the range of her vision," interrupted Mr. Sherard
decisively.
Then the conversation turned to William's ap-
THAT TKEASUKE. SI
preaching departure. He had arranged to get oft
before daybreak, so that his absence might be kept,
if possible, from the knowledge of the two China-
men. He clasped hands with each in turn, as his
early departure would prevent any more formal
leave taking in the morning.
"If I'm spared," he said, in a graver tone than
Usual, "I'll be with you in a fortnight, at the
furthest. If not, you may be toler'ble sure some-
thin' has happened. God bless you, Tom," he
added, taking the young fellow a little apart from
the others. " I tuk a likin' to you from the very
fust, an' ef you'n* I don't ever see each other agin'
jes' bear me in mind now'n' then, an' look out for
Mr. Sherard an' Dolly, jest as I'd do if I was here
an' an' that's all."
Clearing his throat with some little difficulty,
William wrung Tom's hand; then he went inside
and lay down on one of the cots for a short
sleep. When the morning dawned he was gone
forerer.
THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTER VIL
A GHASTLY DISCOVERY.
AND now Tom Dean was left in charge of the en-
tire colony, and began to feel quite a sense of
responsibility.
The weapon taken by William, together with the
pony, on the night of their escape from the
Apaches, was a Sharpe's carbine. From its superior
finish and initials engraved on a silver plate in the
stock, it had evidently once been the property of an
army officer. This Dolly had appropriated to her-
self, and soon became very expert in its use.
One day, while Mr. Sherard and Tom were pros-
pecting with a view to changing the location of
their sluice box, Dolly, who had accompanied them,
met with a somewhat curious adventure, which re-
sulted in the addition of a fourth member to their
colony.
She had followed the stream down for a little dis-
tance, with a view of getting a shot at some wild
turkeys, which were in the habit of roosting, tow-
ards evening, in the tall cottonwoods along its
border. Turning a bend in the stream, she came
unexpectedly upon Ah Sin and Ah Chow.
Neither of them saw her, so Dolly drew back and
watched their movements with a little curiosity. Ah
Chow was evidently washing out dust in the primi-
tive style adopted by the very earliest miners, be-
fore the cradle was introduced.
THAT TREASURE. 65
His Mongolian companion, who had been digging
for pay gravel, had laid aside his pick and spade,
and was reclining in the shade of a bowlder.
Ah Chow, seated on a rock at the water's ecige,
held in his hands an iron pan full of gravel and clay
from the trench. He sank it an inch or two under
the surface, giving it a sort of half revolving mo-
tion, so that the lighter particles of sand and gravel
were carried away by the current. Then, squeezing
up the lumps of clay in his fingers, he scooped up
the larger pebbles and stones, till nothing but the
dark iron sand remained. Tilting the pan quickly,
so as to wash away the sand and leave the glitter-
ing particles of gold clinging to the side and bot-
tom, Ah Chow peered eagerly at the result. There
was perhaps a pinch of the precious dust, which
was carefully scraped up with a knife blade and
placed in an old sardine box
A sudden exclamation from Ah Sin caused both
Dolly and Ah Chow to follow with their eyes the
direction of his gaze.
"A gray wolf," was Dolly's first thought; and with
a slight feeling of alarm she threw forward her
weapon at the sight of a great, gaunt beast who
stood at the edge of the stream.
But a second glance showed her that she was
mistaken. She gazed eagerly at the animal. His
ribs showed plainly through his hide, which was
thickly powdered with gray alkali dust, telling of
long abstinence from food and weary wandering
over the plain. Dolly uttered a little exclamation.
" It can't be possible," she whispered, with parted
lips. At the same instant, from the other side of the
narrow stream shot a long, snake-like coil of
twisted rawhide, the noose of which settled down
over the animal's head just as he lifted it at the
sound of Dolly's voice.
66 THAT TREASURE.
A shrill cry of exultation from All Sin, who had
thrown the lasso with the skill of a Mexican herder,
was echoed by Ah Chow. With a vision of baked
dog for future repasts, he sprang to his companion's
side and pulled heavily back on the taut lariat !
As the huge beast, with protruding eyes and
tongue, planted his great paws on the edge of the
stream and resisted with all his strength, Dolly
sprang forward, with her father's hunting knife in
her small hand. She drew the keen edge across
the rawhide, which parted with a twang.
Ah Sin and Ah Chow, clinging convulsively to
their half of the severed lasso, went backward so
suddenly that their heads smote the hard gravel
with great violence, and their feet were upturned to
the heavens.
But Dolly saw nothing of this. In another mo-
ment she had cut the noose from the half strangled
animal's throat and thrown her arms about its
neck !
" Oh, Brave dear, good old Brave ! have you
really tracked us from the good old home?" she
cried, hysterically. The great dog, with an in-
articulate yelp of joy, began trying to lick her face
with his rough tongue, to the manifest astonish-
ment and discomfiture of the Chinamen. They had
regained their feet, and were staring across the
stream at the unexpected sight.
"Melican gal payee Ah Chow she cuttee lasso;
gimme six dol'," yelled Ah Chow, dancing madly
about the river bank and holding aloft the severed
fragment. Dolly only laughed, for with Brave at
her side good old Brave, who had been her con-
stant companion on the ranch she would not hare
feared a small army of Celestials.
" You oughtn't to have tried to choke him, then,"
she replied.
THAT TREASURE. 67
Brave gave such a deep, ominous growl, as he
saw Ah Chow and Ah Sin, that both Chinamen in-
voluntarily stepped back.
But Dolly, in her joy at the recovery of her old
companion and friend, forgot Chinamen, wild tur-
keys, and all else. She made the dog enter the
stream at a shallow ford, where he could rid him-
self of the alkali dust and cool his feet, which were
sore and swollen with his painful journey. Then,
hurrying back to the house, Dolly fed the half fam-
ished animal with meat and marrow bones till even,
his mighty appetite was satisfied.
Great was Mr. Sherard's astonishment and delight
when he returned with Tom from their labor in the
gulch and was welcomed by the dog with every sign
of extravagant joy.
"Brave is a cross between the English mastiff
and Siberian bloodhound," he explained to Tom,
who at once made friends with the new member of
the family. " He was given to me by the ranchman
of whom I bought my place, and became Dolly's de-
voted attendant. He was away with my herder on
the night when the ranch was burned, and I never
expected to see him again. The faithful creature
must have followed our track over the plains."
"I wish his intelligence extended to gold find-
ing," said Tom.
Day after day the two men had toiled under the
burning sun. They had located their sluice box
near the spol designated by "William, and dug down
to bed rock, washing out load after load of mingled
gravel and clay. But they had not found the lost
pay streak, though they were occasionally encour-
aged, by a few shining particles, to hope that they
were nearing it.
This of itself was discouraging, but there was a
still more depressing thought in the minds of MJt
58 THAT TEEASUEE.
Sherard and Tom, which as yet they had not men-
tioned to Dolly.
Three weeks had gone by, yet "William was still
absent, and if he never returned, who would guide
them across the wild wastes lying between Bonanza
City and the abodes of civilization?
And without money what could ihey do, even if
they managed to reach the nearest settlement ?
So it is not surprising that both Tom and Mr,
Sherard were beginning to feel somewhat downcast
and depressed, as they privately talked these mat-
ters over together
The following day was Saturday, and as the three
invariably regarded the Sabbath as a day of rest,
Tom shouldered his rifle and slung his cartridge
belt over his shoulder. As he did so, he announced
his intention of climbing to the top of the divide,
in hopes that he might be lucky enough to fall in
with a mountain elk.
"Would Brave go with me, I wonder?" asked
Tom, and the great mastiff, as if he understood the
question perfectly, looked up inquiringly into
Dolly's face.
" Go, Brave," she said, quietly. The dog at once
rose, and obediently followed at Tom's heels.
" Good luck," gayly cried Dolly. Tom waved his
hand in mute reply, and left her with Mr. Sherard,
who was smoking on the stoop. Soon he was
ascending the undulating slope which led upwards
to the crest of the divide. He followed the same
trail by which William had left Bonanza City. It had
been cleared from the scrub and underbrush by
the original pioneers and projectors of the settle-
ment.
Absorbed in thought, he had reached the edge of
the sloping timber line, where it ended quite
abruptly near the narrow crest of the divide.
THAT TKEASUEE. 59
Suddenly Brave, who had been trotting on in ad-
vance, stopped and sniffed the air. Then, throwing
back his huge head, he gave a prolonged howl,
which echoed through the ravines below with a
mournful sound.
" What is it, Brave ?" said Tom. A shiver passed
over him as he glanced half fearfully around.
Yet not a living thing was near. Far down the
slope he plainly saw the deserted settlement, and
even made out the Retreat. Overhead shone the sun
from an unclouded sky. Thousands of feet in air
soared some large bird of prey, possibly an eagle, in
great concentric circles.
Great bowlders and masses of crumbling sand-
stone were scattered irregularly over the summit
of the crest. With another mournful cry, the
mastiff put his nose to the ground, and led the
way toward the base of one of the latter. Tom,
with a vague premonition of evil, kept close at the
dog's heels.
Alas, the premonition was but too true. Ghastly
and white, close at the foot of the crumbling
sandstone, lay a human skeleton, clean picked by
coyotes and the other horrid scavengers of the
plains !
The sombrero, with its silver buckle, the clothing
torn into a thousand strips by savage teeth and
claws, the beaded moccasins which had fallen from
the fleshless feet, told the horrified beholder but too
plainly whose were the ghastly remains.
A bullet hole through the skull showed the cause
of poor William's death. It was made from a ball
fired from behind. His rifle, revolver, knife, haver-
sack and cartridge belt were all missing in itself a
most significant fact.
It was a terrible sight. For a moment Tom felt
sick and faint; then, summoning all his courage,
60 THAT TREASURE.
he laid aside his rifle, and began covering the
bleached bones with slabs and fragments of
sandstone, which were everywhere strewn on the
ground.
Tom had nearly completed his task, when some-
thing in an excavation made by the removal of a
bit of fallen rock arrested his gaze.
Bemoving it from the surrounding soil, his heart
gave a great leap. It was a nugget of virgin gold
of irregular shape, weighing several ounces 1
THAT TREASURE. ' 61
CHAPTEB VHL
A BULLET THROUGH THE WINDOW.
WITH a strange mixture of emotions, Tom Dean
stood alone on the crest of the divide, staring at the
misshapen bit of yellow metal in his open palm.
That his golden dreams were about to be realized
seemed more than probable. Where one such nug-
get was to be found, it was reasonable to suppose
there might be many others.
There was no indication that the scanty soil of
the crest had ever before been disturbed, and Tom's
heart began to beat furiously as the possibilities of
untold wealth danced before his dazzled mental
vision.
At length he aroused himself. He scratched the
words " Bring the picks " on a slaty bit of rock with
the point of his hunting knife. Knotting it, with
the nugget, in his silk handkerchief, he tied the
whole to the mastiffs collar.
" Go, carry it to them, Brave," he said, pointing
down the slope; and the obedient dog, who seemed
to understand perfectly what was required, started
rapidly homeward.
Then, bethinking himself of the completion of his
sad duty, Tom very reverently went on heaping the
sandstone fragments over the remains of his former
companion, till they were hidden from sight by a
rocky mound.
62 THAT TREASURE.
That William had been murdered there was no
manner of question, and Tom felt equally positive
that the Chinamen were his assassins. The size of
the bullet hole in the victim's skull, the fact that he
had been shot from behind, and that they were
thirsting for revenge all these pointed to the guilt
of Ah Sin and Ah Chow.
Mr. Sherard received the message brought by the
mastiff, and hurried to join Tom, bearing the two
picks on his shoulder. "When he arrived he was
quite out of breath, and excited far beyond his usual
wont.
In a few words Tom told him the whole story of
his double discovery. Of course Mr. Sherard was
greatly shocked at the news of "William's untimely
fate. Before beginning the work in hand they
made a careful examination of the surroundings of
the spot. From certain slight depressions in the
dry gravel, it seemed that the unfortunate man Lad
been killed on the very summit of the divide, while
following the trail itself, and that his body had been
dragged to the spot where Tom had found it.
"If the two Chinamen were his murderers, they
now are nearly our equals in the point of weapons,"
said Mr. Sherard, " for of course they carried away
his rifle and revolver. They probably turned the
poor fellow's horse adrift, for they would not dare
to take him below, where we should be likely to see
him."
Tom glanced uneasily down at the little settle-
ment; but two motionless figures on the rude stoop
before the Retreat showed that Dolly and Brave
were in their accustomed places.
" Dolly is perfectly safe with such a guardian as
Brave, and with her knack at handling the carbine,"
observed Mr. Sherard, when he noticed the direction
of Tom's gaze. " Now, let us begin operations."
THAT TEEASUEE. 63
But the picks were really not needed. Incredible
as it may seem, gold, in nuggets from the size of a
buckshot to that of a Winchester rifle cartridge, lay
in the sandstone crevices, where it could actually be
picked out with a hunting knife. It lay in shining
pin head particles among the soft, decomposed slabs
of the sandstone, and even on the surface itself.
Singularly enough, the gold was only to be found
within a space of some sixteen feet around the
bowlder which marked the final resting place of the
murdered man, and in the crevices of the bowlder
itself, which had evidently been decomposed by the
action of water.
The sun climbed higher and higher in the cloudless
sky; but still the two worked on, unmindful of heat,
hunger and thirst.
But only inside the area where the great quartz
bowlder had crumbled into fragments was this rich
deposit to be found. Vainly they tried elsewhere;
not the slightest trace of gold was visible.
The sun had begun to dip behind the furthest
range of hills before either of them could summon
resolution to tear himself from the charmed spot.
At length it was evident that they could work but a
little longer in the waning daylight.
"Well," said Tom, exultantly, as he lifted his
haversack, heavy with yellow nuggets, and took up
his rifle, " today's work has made up for all our bad
luck in the weeks past; eh, Mr. Sherard?"
"Indeed it has," was the earnest reply; and the
two began retracing their steps.
" Well, Dolly," said Mr. Sherard, gayly, as they
hurried into the kitchen of the Retreat, " we have
good news for you. Tom and I have struck a bon-
anza indeed."
" And we have sad news as well, Miss Dolly,"
added Tom.
64 . THAT TBEASUKE.
The young girl's eyes dilated with astonishment
at the sight of the gold falling from the open haver-
sack as her father dropped it heavily on the board
table where, two years before, William and Bob
Cope had displayed their own store on the night of
the Apache attack.
It had been agreed between Tom and Mr. Sherard
that Dolly should know nothing of their suspicions
concerning the two Chinamen. As briefly and
gently as possible Tom related his discovery of Wil-
liam's remains, and left Dolly to infer that the poor
fellow had met his fate at the hand of some wander-
ing Apache.
Dolly was shocked and surprised; yet, as was not
altogether unnatural, the remembrance of the sad
tragedy soon gave place to brighter visions.
" Ah ! now we can go back to civilization again,
father," said Dolly; "you can have your books and
I my music and teachers "
There came a low growl from Brave. Crouched
by Dolly's side, he had been steadfastly regard-
ing the perforated plate of glass which testified
to Mr. Bob Cope's pistol practice on a former occa-
sion.
" What's the matter, Brave ? Good dog," she said,
as both Tom and Mr. Sherard instinctively looked
around.
Two yellow faces, with eager, covetous eyes, were
pressed against the window outside.
As quick as thought, Tom reached for his revolver,
which he had just laid in his holster on the table
with his own haversack of gold. But before his
fingers clasped the handle of the heavy weapon, the
faces had vanished like an ugly vision.
Dolly had bent down to pat the mastiff's head, and
saw nothing of all this by play.
Signing Mr. Sherard to remain silent, Tom went
THAT TKEASURE. 65
on talking in his usual easy tones, keeping his eyes
on the window. The two candles upon the table be-
fore him cast a strong light on his manly and ani-
mated features.
Mr. Sherard had pried up the flat stone under the
table, beneath which William and Bob Cope had
hidden their own treasure, and was placing the two
haversacks under it.
Suddenly the report of a rifle broke the night
stillness. Simultaneously with the sharp crack came
the whiz of a ball, which passed through another of
the window panes without shattering it, cut a lock
from Tom's dark hair where it was carelessly
brushed back from his forehead, and buried itself in
the opposite wall.
Dolly uttered a stifled cry of alarm, while Mr.
Sherard and Tom seized their weapons and rushed
out.
All was silent outside. The only sounds were an
occasional coyote's cry, or the hoot of some preda-
tory owl. Further down the deserted street glim-
mered a faint light from the small house in which
A.h Chow and Ah Sin had taken up their abode.
" Let us see if they are there," said Tom, briefly.
Making their way quietly along the grass grown
thoroughfare, the two halted before the rude struc-
ture. It was built of logs placed cobwise; it had
no windows, and was entered by a heavy door,
which stood wide open to admit the cool night air.
In former daysHhe place had been used as a sort of
lockup, or prison, for the temporary disposal of
evil doers. Why the two Chinamen had selected
it as a place of residence is best known to them-
selves.
Through the open door, and the chinks between
the logs, Tom and his copapanjqn easily saw all that
was going on inside,,
66 THAT TREASURE.
Ah Sin and Ah Chow were there, and had no ap-
pearance of having been engaged in any but the
peaceful pursuit that each was following.
Ah Sin was sitting cross legged on the hard clay
floor, and seemed absorbed in sewing a large blue
patch on the baggiest part of a pair of very short
and wide legged dungaree trousers.
Ah Chow was reclining in one of the two wooden
bunks at the side of the room. He held between
his teeth the mouthpiece of an opium pipe. He was
just applying to its tiny bowl a small pea shaped
lump of the prepared drug at the end of a steel
wire, preparatory to lighting it at the flame of a
candle on the broken stool near the bunk.
" They look altogether too innocent," whispered
Mr. Sherard, but Tom made no reply.
Stepping inside, Winchester in hand, he addressed
himself shortly and sharply to the two Chinamen.
They looked up, not exactly with the " smile that
was childlike and bland," described by Bret Harte,
but with faces as impassive and devoid of expression
as dough.
" Look here," said Tom, glancing from one to the
other, while Mr. Sherard, in the background,
thumbed the hammer of his carbine; "I saw you
two fellows watching us tonight through the win-
dow, and a minute or two afterward one or the
other of you fired at me as I sat by the table."
" Shootee at you !" interrupted Ah Chow, in a
high squeaky voice of seeming astonishment. "How
can Chinaman shootee with lifle when no Lab lifle;
on'ylil' pistol?"
"You know you are lying," replied Tom, calmly.
" You have a rifle which you took from the body of
the man you murdered up on the divide. I found
his bones this very day."
If Tom had expected to see any signs of guilt in
"Two yellow faces, with eager, covetous eyes, were pressed against
the window outside."
( See page 64)
THAT TREASURE. 67
the faces of either of the two, he had greatly mis-
taken his men.
Not a muscle in either bloodless face moved. Ah
Chow inhaled a volume of the pungent smoke and
blew two clouds from his distended nostrils; then
he seemed to subside into a doze.
Ah Sin bit another length of thread and waxed it
very carefully.
" No sabee what Melican mean," he said, with a
placid shake of his head. " Chinaman no killee no
one. Maybe Melican do; but Chinaman, no, no."
" Well," replied Tom, with an impatient shoulder
shrug, "all I've got to say is this: I shan't try
shooting by candle light, but, remember, we can
both shoot pretty straight by daylight. So look
out."
" Allee light Chinaman look out," was the im-
perturbable reply. Taking good care not to turn his
back to the speaker, Tom edged out of the door, fol-
lowed by Mr. Sherard.
" We must get away from here as soon as possi-
ble," said the latter, glancing behind him more than
once as they made their way back to the Retreat;
" for, now these two cutthroats have seen our
gold, they are ten times more to be feared than be-
fore."
Tom gave an assenting nod.
"Let us have one more search tomorrow along
the top of the divide," he said; "then, trusting to
luck and our pocket compass, we'll strike for Hoi-
comb and civilization."
Dolly looked anxiously from her father to Tom as
they entered the room.
" Did you find out who fired the shot ?" she
asked.
" It was probably one of the Chinamen," said her
father, with affected ca,re}essness. "He perhaps
8 THAT TREASURE.
discharged his revolver by accident, or possibly fired
through the window to aunoy us."
Dolly had dug out the bullet from the woodwork
in their absence. Without speaking, she placed it
on the table. It was the conical ball from a Win-
chester shell. Tom and Mr. Sherard exchanged
glances, but remained silent. So did Dolly.
That night Brave's strip of rag carpet was laid
directly over the hiding place of the gold, while
Mr. Sherard and Tom took turns at watching till
daylight.
Nothing came of it, however, and leaving Dolly in
charge of the mastiff, the two men started again for
the divide, where they dug and delved till late in
the afternoon. Though their success was nearly
equal to that of the previous day, it was evident
that the last of the golden harvest was gleaned.
" Well," Mr. Sherard said, as the two prepared to
take their leave of the spot, "as nearly as I can
judge, we must have, between us, something like
fifteen or sixteen thousand dollars; a pretty rich
find for only two days of search."
" Enough to warrant us in leaving this place as
soon as we can pack up," returned Tom, emphati-
cally. Casting a glance around, they returned to
the trail, and began their descent to the settle-
ment.
But where was Dolly, who almost invariably came
as far as the bridge to meet them ? She was no-
where in sight.
" Very likely she has gone down the river with
Brave in search of game," said Mr. Sherard, who
felt but little uneasiness about Dolly when she had
the mastiff as her companion, and carried a carbine
over her shoulder.
As he spoke he seemed to be struck by a sudden
thought, and hastily entered the empty kitchen.
THAT TKEASUKE. 69
Palling on his knees beside the hiding place of their
gold, he lifted the covering stone.
" It's all right," he said, with a half sigh of relief.
Just at that moment, perhaps for the first time in
his whole life, Mr. Sherard was thinking more of
the gold than his daughter.
"Put this with the rest," remarked Tom, stripping
off his haversack and extending it to Mr. Sherard,
" while I go after Miss Dolly. I don't think she
realizes how late it is getting." And, throwing
his Winchester in the hollow of his arm, he hurried
away.
Despite Mr. Sherard's remark, Tom somehow felt
a shadowy uneasiness. Dolly seldom ventured away
from the house so late in the afternoon.
Mr. Sherard scarcely noticed his departure.
Kneeling by the cavity, he was dropping in the
nuggets and listening rapturously as one by one
they fell with a dull metallic sound, suggestive of
the pleasant clinking of coin and rustle of bank
notes which they represented.
He was too much absorbed to be conscious of an-
other presence in the building. With stealthy, cat-
like step, the naked splay feet of Ah Sin the China-
man were stealing from the little room where Dolly
had slept. His lean but sinewy arms were bared to
his elbows, anl his claw-like fingers were clutched
about a stout whalebone stick some fifteen inches
long, one end of which was inserted in a lead ball
covered with netted twine.
Nearer and nearer he crept toward his victim,
who, all unconscious of danger, was kneeling with
his back toward the Chinaman. His small eyes
glittered with a baleful light as they rested on the
gold.
As the last nugget slipped from Mr. Sherard'*
fingers, the sound of a distant rifle shot caused him
70 THAT TREASURE.
to look suddenly up; but it was at that precise mo-
ment that the blow descended. Throwing out his
arms blindly, he dropped forward on his face !
When he recovered consciousness, he was lying
securely bound in one corner of the room, with the
worst headache he ever remembered having experi-
enced in his whole life.
Too much confused to frame his waking thoughts
into speech, ho looked stupidly about him.
By the light of a dimly burning candle, he saw
Ah Sin and Ah Chow sitting at the board table, with
the pile of nuggets between them, evidently intent
upon dividing the spoil.
Still it did not seem real, but more like a very
ugly suggestion of nightmare, when his eyes sud-
denly rested on two Winchester rifles standing
against the side of the room nearest himself.
With a thrill of horror he recognized one of them
by a peculiarly shaped knot in the polished stock as
being Tom Dean's; and he felt instinctively that its
companion was the rifle which had belonged to the
murdered William.
Where was Tom ? Where ? And then it all came
back to him.
"Great heavens!" he cried, frantically tugging
and straining at his bonds in impotent fury; " where
what have you done with my daughter my
Dolly?"
"Oh, Melican gal allee light," coolly replied Ah
Sin, without so much as taking his greedy eyes from
the pile of gold.
The proverbial honor among thieves was unknown
to these disciples of Confucius. Each was ready to
take advantage of the other, and juggle a bit of
gold up his sleeve or into the folds of his blouse
with the dexterity of a card sharper.
In vain Mr. Sherard alternately raved, entreated,
THAT TEEASUKE. 71
threatened, and wrenched at the rawhide thongs
which bound his wrists and ankles, till they cut into
the flesh. Ah Sin and Ah Chow, who had begun
shrieking and squabbling over the division, paid not
the slightest attention to his words or movements.
They merely vouchsafed an occasional swift glance
to make sure that he was securely tied, and then re-
sumed their woi'dy arguments.
It was nearly midnight before the two came to
anything like an understanding, and even then it
was evidently not an altogether friendly one.
Each knotted his pile of nuggets securely in a
big handkerchief, and mounted guard over it with
his rifle, evidently distrusting the other's inten-
tions.
Neither closed his eyes through the night. Tak-
ing turns at renewing the candles, as they burned
down to a flickering stump, they sat through the
long night which seemed almost an eternity to Mr.
Sherard, tortured alike in body and mind, impa-
tiently awaiting the day dawn.
THAT TEEASUEE,
CHAPTEE IX.
THE CHINAMEN AT BAT.
As the first gleams from the glowing east began
stealing in through the window and open door, Ah
Sin and Ah Chow, who had preserved a sullen si-
lence through the long night watches, began to
rouse themselves into something like activity.
The former laid aside his rifle, and made a care-
ful examination of Mr. Sherard's fastenings, but re-
mained deaf to all the captive's entreaties for in-
formation as to the fate of his daughter and Tom
Dean.
A few words were rapidly exchanged between the
two. Then, taking with him his rifle and his hand-
kerchief of nuggets, Ah Sin left the kitchen.
Ah Chow brought a couple of blankets from the
adjoining room, and began packing up sundry neces-
saries, evidently for a proposed departure.
"Bime by Chinaman takee all hoss an' leave Meli-
can man," he said, with an unpleasant grin. " Meii-
can man hab all town, all diggin's, mebbe fin' heap
gol' bime by; but no hab hoss, no can catchee
Chinamen."
"You infernal, squint eyed, yellow skinned
image," vociferated Mr. Sherard, beside himself
with rage and mental agony; " if a hair of my
daughter's head has come to harm through you, I'll
follow you to the ends of the earth."
THAT TEEASUEE. 73
" Oh, Melican gal allee light," repeated Ah Chow,
with exasperating calmness; and the assertion,
vague as it was, gave Mr. Sherard a shadowy sense
of comfort.
" Probably," he went on, grinding his teeth in
impotent wrath, " you've murdered poor Tom Dean
as you did the man whose bones we found on the
divide. As sure as there's any such thing as lynch
law on the borders, you shall both swing for it !"
" Mebbe, s'pose catchee Chinaman," was the phil-
osophical reply. Yet Mr. Sherard fancied he saw a
trace of uneasiness flit over Ah Chow's saffron col-
ored face, as he spoke.
The neigh and whinny of broncos and an Indian
pony, with a snuffle peculiar to the Chinaman's pack
mule, were heard in front of the building. Immedi-
ately afterwards, Ah Sin entered. In one hand was
William's Winchester; in the other a pair of raw-
hide saddle bags which are carried hanging over
the pack mule's shoulders in front of the pack sad-
dle.
In one bag was Ah Sin's share of the golden
plunder, and in the other Ah Chow deposited his
own.
Drawing a knife from inside his blouse, the lat-
ter cut the lashings of Mr. Sherard's swollen wrists.
" Bime by when Chinamen allee gone with gol' an*
gun an' hoss," he said with another exasperating
grin, "you gettee feets loose den you go lookee
for Melican gal."
The noise of the trampling of horses on the
wooden bridge caused Ah Chow to stop suddenly,
and glance with a startled look of apprehension
through the window.
The voice of Ah Sin from the front, calling some-
thing in a high key, caused his parchment face to
take on a livid hue. Hesitating a brief moment, he
74 THAT TREASUKE.
joined his companion, and Mr. Sherard heard them
hastily putting a timber prop against the front
dooi.
" The Apaches," he groaned, white to his lips with
a terror which he could not throw off. Bound and
helpless, he must lie till the bloody fiends broke
down the feeble barricade.
" Roun* to the back uv the buildin', some of ye,"
shouted a hoarse voice from the front. It gave new
life to the disheartened captive. " Git roun' thnr
quick I The Chinyman that dug inside and shoved
to the door was that derned Ah Sin we was after to
Murd'rer's Flat, an' he's up to some deviltry, or I'll
loose my guess."
Ah Sin and Ah Chow, who had evidently hoped
by fastening the front door to gain time to effect
their escape at the rear, rushed back to the kit-
chen as the foregoing order was issued.
Seizing the saddle bags and his rifle, Ah Sin ran
to the rear window, followed by Ah Chow, to be
confronted by half a dozen leveled Winchesters.
The average Chinaman would have weakened.
But Ah Sin and his villainous companion were of a
different stamp. It was, in any event, death for
them at the hands of the plainsmen, to whom they
were known by repute, when their prisoner should
make known the story of their crimes. Like rats in
a corner, they meant to fight to the last.
"S'render, you moon eyed leper !" called a bearded
man, smashing in the window sash with the butt of
his rifle. Meanwhile a fierce battering at the front
door shook the frail building to its center.
Ah Sin's answer was a shot from within, and the
speaker, with a choking cry, threw his arms in air
and fell backward.
The mad yell of rage from without was followed
by the crash of the rear window and the door in
THAT TREASURE. 7S
front, and in less time than is occupied in describ-
ing the event, Ah Sin and Ah Chow, who fought like
incarnate fiends, were overpowered and tied.
The leader of the invading band, one of whom
had at once released Mr. Sherard's ankles, was a
tall, powerfully built individual, whose sunburned
features were nearly hidden by his bushy whiskers.
"Now then, stranger," be said, turning to Mr.
Sherard, " mebbe you'll kinder explain the sitooa-
tion, so's we'll know what all this bizness means."
Part of the " bizness " to which he alluded waa
evidently the contents of the saddle bags. One of
the new comers had poured them out on the table,
amid the loudly expressed comments of the others,
who had crowded round.
It did not take Mr. Sherard long to tell his story
in brief, reserving detail for a more appropriate
season.
Darker and darker grew the brow of the leader,
as Mr. Sherard went on to the conclusion. Striding
across the floor to the spot where the Chinamen
were sitting, bound and guarded, with dogged des-
pair written on each leaden hued face, he drew his
revolver, and, cocking it, placed the muzzle against
Ah Sin's temple.
" Do you know who I be ?" he fairly shouted, while
his eyes blazed with suppressed fury.
" Yes; you Mist' Cope," was the sullen reply.
" I'm Bob Cope, an' murderin' my old pard is one
uv the things that'll come up agin you an' yer yeller
chum presently," significantly and sternly respond-
ed the bearded man. "But jes' now what I wanter
know is this : "What hev you two done with this
gentleman's little gal an' her dog? Speak quick,
for my fingers is itchin' to pull."
" Gal allee light; she in lockup," said Ah Chow,
without raising his eyes from the floor.
76 THAT TKEASUKE.
" In the lockup," repeated Mr. Sherard, in a be-
wildered but hopeful tone.
" I know whar he means," returned Bob Cope.
Instructing two or three of the men to keep close
watch of their prisoners, he saw that the gold was
returned to the rawhide receptacle, \vhichwas tossed
carelessly into the corner cupboard.
" Now them two Chinymen is tied up, yer nuggits
is as safe with us as though it war in the Holcomb
bank, whar poor William's gol' dus' hes ben layin'
all this time," said Cope. " So now we'll git along
to the lockup an' let out the little gal an' her dog."
A big fire had been started outside. At least
forty men were unsaddling horses, broncos and In-
dian ponies, while others brought cookiug imple-
ments and stores from a large tilted wagon drawn
by mules. A number of mounted men %vere to be
seen coming down the trail from the divide.
"It's a little party I got up to Holcomb fer
workin' over these here claims agin," explained Bob
Cope, as he and Mr. Sherard hurried down the
street. " An' considerable many of 'em was with
them that started in here when the diggin's was
fust struck. The Black Hills an' round there is
playin' out, so a lot of us has drifted back here
agin, for we know thar's gold here some'res '
"Hark!" interrupted Mr. Sherard, as the deep
bay of a dog was heard proceeding from some
penned up spot. In another moment they were
standing before the small square structure w r hich
the Chinamen had occupied.
" This was the lockup, when Bonanza City was
boomin'," began Bob, but Mr. Sherard did not
listen. A clear voice came from within, as he
tugged at the hasp and staple of the door.
" I'm all right, father," it said, and this interested
him far more than Mr. Cope's description.
THAT TREASURE. 77
In another moment, Dolly, looking pale and
anxious, but otherwise quite herself, was in her
father's arms, while Brave capered about them, bark-
ing in boisterous delight.
Dolly's story was short and simple. WLile sitting
with Brave on the stoop the afternoon before, Ah
Sin had run up the street, wringing his hands and
making a tremendous outcry. Ah Chow, as he de-
clared in voluble pigeon English, had cut himself
terribly in their little house at the other end of the
street. He was bleeding' to death, and they did
not know how to stop the flow of blood. Would
Missy
Of course "Missy's" sympathies were at once
roused. She tore off some strips from the cotton
cloth on which she had been working, and seized
her carbine as a matter of necessary precaution.
Then, accompanied by Brave, who growled all the
way, she followed close at Ah Sin's heels till they
reached the lockup. Stipulating, still as a matter
of precaution, that Ah Sin should stop outside,
Dolly entered, carbine in hand, with Brave at her
side.
The slam of the door, accompanied by Ah Sin's
triumphant laugh, told Dolly that she was trapped.
To her dismay, she discovered that the carbine was
unloaded, while her cartridge belt had been left be-
hind; else in this way she might have given the
alarm by discharging it between the logrs. A prey
to all kinds of fearful apprehensions, she Lad re-
mained a prisoner all night; and her joy can
easily be imagined when she was once more at
liberty.
Bob Cope listened in surprise and respectful ad-
miration, as the young girl, with her graceful bear-
ing and frank, outspoken manner, told her story,
and in turn exacted from her father a detailed ac-
78 THAT TKEA.SUKE.
count of all that had happened since her imprison-
ment.
"As plucky a gal as you'd see in a day's ride,
Jim," he said to his lieutenant that evening, when
they returned from a thorough search for missing
Tom along both banks of the river; "but when I
broke it as easy as I knowed how to 'em that we
found the marks where one of the Chinymen hed
rested his gun in a crotch, an' shot the young feller
plum through, to jedge by the blood on the grass,
an' then dragged his body to the bank an' chucked
it in I say when I come to tell her this, an' how
the current hed likely kerried him miles an' miles
down stream, through the kenyon she jest turned
whiter'n any sheet, an* I cal'lated she was goin' to
swound. But she didn't; she only sighed es though
her little heart was breakin', an' I heard her kinder
whisper to herself like, ' Oh, Tom ! Poor, dear
Tom !' I cal'late, Jim," continued Bob Cope, pro-
ceeding to light his pipe, "that Miss Dolly, as
they call her, thought an awful sight of that ar
Tom."
Jim nodded, and gravely answered:
"If signs is anything to go by, you kin jes' bet
yer sweet life she did."
THAT T&EASUBE. 79
CHAPTER X.
SWEPT DOWN BLACK CANYON.
WHEN Tom Dean left Mr. Sherard at the close of
the afternoon, and went in search of Miss Dolly, he
proceeded directly down the river's edge, hoping
each moment to hear her returning footsteps, or
meet her face to face with Brave at her side.
But as he lost sight of the settlement in the thick
growth of willow and cottonwood, he saw or heard
no trace of the missing girl. Hia uneasiness was
giving place to something like alarm.
That the two Chinamen would dare to harm an
unoffending girl, protected, as Dolly was, by the
presence of Brave and by her own skill with the
rifle, Tom could hardly believe. And yet, what did
her prolonged absence mean ?
Putting his hands to his mouth, Tom called
loudly:
" Miss Dolly 1 Miss Dolly !" but only the mock-
ing echoes from ravine and defile replied.
Filled with apprehension, Tom stood for a mo-
ment motionless on the bank of the river. Increas-
ing in width and gathering strength as it swept
onward after leaving the foot of the hills, the
stream ran deep, turbid and swift toward a distant
canyon.
A slight rustle in the underbrush a few feet be-
hind Tom caused him to turn his head suddenly.
The movement doubtless saved his life.
80 THAT TKEASUEE.
For almost simultaneous with the sound came the
stunning report of a rifle not twenty feet away; and
the ball, which would have penetrated the skull,
only struck the side of his head, just above the
right ear; and plowing its way almost to the
temple, it flew off at a tangent.
But apparently the bullet had done its work.
Stunned by the shock, Tom reeled, dropped his
rifle, and fell insensible, while a torrent of blood
flowed from the ghastly wound !
Even Ah Chow, hardened to such sights as he
was, shuddered a little as he saw the motionless
form lying in its own gore; but this did not pre-
vent him from making a thorough examination of
Tom's outside pockets, without, however, finding
much to reward his search.
Three Mexican dollars, a penknife which had
been the professor's, a pocket compass, and some
matches in a waterproof box, formed the entire con-
tents. Taking these, together with his weapons and
cartridge belt, Ah Chow launched the body into the
water with a vigorous push.
" Dead man tellee no tale," he muttered, repeating
a phrase he had heard the miners use. With one
final glance at the body drifting swiftly away, he
turned back to discover how successfully Ah Sin
had performed his own part of the prearranged
plot.
The plunge into the cold water of the rushing
river had the effect of partially restoring Tom Dean
to consciousness. It was enough, at least, for him
to realize that he had only escaped death in one
form to be threatened with it in another.
As he struck out with the blind instinct of self
preservation, his fingers touched a log which had
in some way become detached from the bridge
above, and drifted slowly down with the current.
THAT TEEASUEE. 81
Clutching this as desperately as a drowning man
grasps a straw, Torn succeeded in getting his arms
over it and resting upon it.
Weakened by loss of blood, and encumbered by
his soaked clothing, he did not feel strong enough
even to swim the few yards needful for reaching the
shore.
The flow of blood from his wound had abated.
Resting his elbows on the log, Tom contrived to
free the silk handkerchief from his neck, and tie it
about his head. Then he began slowly and pain-
fully striking out with his legs and feet for the river
bank.
But, to his alarm, Tom found that the current was
hurrying him on faster and faster. As he was swept
suddenly round an abrupt bend, the river percept-
ibly widened, and he was soon in the midst of foam-
ing rapids, against which his feeble efforts were
futile.
On and still on through the fast gathering dark-
ness, tossed hither and thither like a cork by the
mimic waves, yet clinging convulsively to his frail
support, Tom felt himself carried downwards by a
resistless force.
In this terrible situation he became delirious. He
fancied that he was swimming after a white canoe,
which Dolly, all unconscious of clanger, was pad-
dling swiftly forward a little in advance. His warn-
ing shouts and cries, echoed back as though by the
walls of a great cavern, were finally drowned by the
roar of a dashing waterfall. Then the canoe with
its fair burden plunged downward in the seeth-
ing torrent, and Tom was swept unresistingly
after it.
There was no fancy as to the latter part of Tom's
experience! Gasping and half strangled, he came
to the surface at the foot of what he dimly saw to
85 THAT TREASURE.
be a tolerably high cataract. Seized by the eddy-
ing current, he was swept in towards a white pebbly
beach, a little above which he saw a blazing fire.
Summoning all his strength, Tom reached the
shore. Regaining his feet, he staggered towards the
fire, about which two or three dark forms were
moving.
""Who's thar?" demanded a rough voice; and
then followed the sharp click of a rifle hammer
drawn back.
Tom, unable to speak, answered the query by-
tottering forward and falling insensible just inside
the circle of firelight.
"Thar, the water's about drained out of him; now
turn him over, Steve."
Like one in a half waking dream, Tom felt him-
self laid gently on a pile of skins by strong hands.
Then a fiery liquid was poured down his throat,
and, after a short period of strangling, he opened
his eyes.
" He's comin' round ail right. Now, Steve, rus'le
inside the tepee, and tell Nita to send out a towel
and some dry clo'es."
The speaker was a short man with shaggy beard
and unkempt hair, who, as he spoke, replaced the
cork in the neck of the black bottle, and rose to his
feet.
A tall Indian lad, who had been standing near
Tom's head, hurried inside what appeared to be a
camp or wigwam, into whose open entrance shone
the cheery firelight. The speaker, without much
ceremony, divested Tom of his soaked clothing.
The Indian, who had been addressed by the un-
romantic name of Steve, then proceeded to rub
Tom into animation with a rough towel, and assist
him into a dry woolen shirt and a pair of dilapi-
dated trousers.
THAT TKEASUKE. 83
"Bueno you better now," he said, in a low and
rather musical voice, as Tom raised himself to a
sitting posture, and held out his numbed fingers to
the blaze.
" Course he's better," interposed the rough voiced
man, who was bringing out Tom's wet garments and
hanging them about the fire. " Hyar, Nita 1"
In answer to the call, a woman of somewhat dark
but comely features appeared at the door of the
tepee. Her long black hair fell loose over the
reboza which was crossed in Mexican style about her
breast and shoulders.
"Bring out that there medicine bag; his head
wants tendin' to."
The woman obeyed in silence. Carefully remov-
ing the blood stained handkerchief, she washed the
wound with soft fibers of the soap plant, dipped in
warm water, and bound it up again with rags, on
which a pungent smelling ointment had been
spread. Then she went back to the tepee without
having once spoken.
The bearded man seated himself beside the blazo,
and proceeded to light a short black pipe. Tom
was vainly trying to collect his confused ideas, so as
to explain his unexpected arrival.
" Mebbe you've heard of Rube Lund, the Injun
trader; I'm him," Tom's new friend finally re-
marked, after vainly waiting for the boy to speak.
"I'm my name is Tom Dean," returned Tom,
putting his hands to his aching head. " I and an-
other man have been placer mining back of Bonanza
City. Some one shot at me today Chinaman, I
think. I fell into the river "
" Good Lord !" interrupted Mr. Lund, taking his
pipe from his mouth, and staring aghast at the
speaker. " Fell inter the river up thar 1 Why, man
alive, you've come through the rapids of the Black
64 THAT TREASURE
Canyon, that runs twenty miles an hour, and over
tlie lower fall. It's plain to see you never was born
to be drownded !"
" No," said Tom, beginning to talk very loud and
fast, as he stared confusedly around him. " The
professor used to say I was born to good luck,
though it would be a long time coming. But I must
go and find Dolly "
At this moment the Indian woman stepped from
the tepee, with a cup containing a dark colored
liquid in her hand.
" Drink," she said, quietly, and she placed the
potion to his lips. Tom instinctively obeyed.
"That stuff 11 make you sleep like lodlum. I
reck'n you'd better turn in to once," said Rube
Lund. He motioned to the Indian lad, and the two
helped Tom, who felt strangely dull and heavy, to
climb beneath the white tilt of a great prairie
wagon. The rear of the clumsy vehicle was piled
up with dressed skins, upon which Tom stretched
his aching limbs, after vainly trying to express his
thanks connectedly.
" Hope he ain't goin' to hev a fever; wot'n thun-
der will we do with him if he is ?" growled Lund,
in an undertone, as Nita laid her cool hand on
Tom's burning brow, and shook her head doubt-
fully.
But that was just what was in store for Tom
Dean.
Four long weeks of half delirium, burning heat,
and torturing thirst; and all the while the heavy
prairie schooner went creaking and rolling over the
plains.
But through all this, Nita, the Indian woman, and
"Steve," as Mr. Lund rendered his Mexican name
of Stefano, rode close beside the wagon and gave
every possible attention to their patient.
THAT TKEASURE. 86
One lovely summer evening Tom awoke to con-
sciousness, to find the tilted wagon at a standstill
by the side of a gently flowing stream, bordered
with the universal cottonwood and willow. All
around stood the picturesque tepees of the peaceful
Navajos, whcse vast herds of sheep dotted the sur-
rounding plain.
" I don't know how I shall ever pay you for all
the kindness you and yours have shown me, Mr.
Lund," said Tom, as ho sat upright on the pile of
buffalo skins, and drank in the free life giving air.
" You kin pay me, if you wanter, outer one o' them
thousan' dollar bills that's in the leather memoran-
dum book I dried fer you along of your clo'es," re-
plied Lund. He allowed no false delicacy to inter-
fere with business, and had taken Tom's remark in
its most literal sense.
Tom gazed in the trader's face in blank astonish-
ment.
"I don't know what you mean," he returned; bnt
Mr. Lund only laughed grimly, as he produced the
professor's diary, considerably the worse for its wet-
ting, from an inside pocket.
"No, I s'pose not," was the dry answer; "only
'pears to me it's a kinder resky bizness luggin' five
thousan' dollars round in a kentry \\har yer life
wudn't be wuth a busted ketrige shell ef it war
knowed you hed a quarter of it."
Extending the book as he spoke, Tom's trembling
fingers released the elastic band. Between the dis-
colored leaves, where in some places the writing
was almost illegible, lay five one thousand dollar
notes, not very much the worse for their recent wet-
ting and drying.
86 THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTEK XL
BLACK CLOUD, THE APACHE CHIEF.
LIKE a sudden revelation, it was all made plain to
Tom, though he could hardly believe the evidence
of his own eye sight.
On the night of the professor's tragical death,
feeling perhaps more than usually uneasy about
himself, he had probably mistrusted the safety of the
little legacy which he had intended for Tom.
He must have taken the bills from the old pocket
book, and placed them carefully between the leaves
of the diary, as the securest hiding place he could
think of; or, as Tom was more inclined to think,
Professor Dean had risen in his sleep and thus con-
cealed them. In either case the robber, foiled of
his plunder, had perhaps allowed some expression
of anger to escape his lips, thus awaking the
professor, who had succumbed to the sudden shock.
Tom had carried the diary in an inside pocket of
his woolen shirt, meaning some day or other to look
it over; but so many things had happened since the
professor's death, that he had never done as he in-
tended.
All these things passed rapidly through Tom's
mind, as he sat holding the partly open diary be-
tween his thin fingers. Mr. Lund's greedy eyes
were covetously fastened on the five greenbacks.
" I kin change one o' them bills, if you say so," h
THAT TEEASUEE. 87
insinuatingly remarked. Tom roused himself from
his reverie.
" What sort of an outfit can you supply me with ?"
he asked, " and what will it cost ?"
The question was music to the trader's ears.
What could not he supply in the way of an outfit ':
The Indian trader is not supposed to deal in fire-
arms or ammunition, yet Mr. Lund was able to fur-
nish Tom with a Winchester, and a revolver, to-
gether with an abundant supply of cartridges for
both. A stout hunting knife, a sombrero, and a
haversack containing the various necessaries of the
plainsman, were brought forth from the stores of
the wagon . Through the agency of the trader, Tom
also became the owner of a sturdy Navajo pony,
with the needed equipments, and when all these
were reckoned up, and Tom had made a liberal pres-
ent to his kindly entertainer, he found that he still
had five hundred dollars out of the broken bank
bill, to put away with the remaining four notes.
" An' now ef you wanter keep along of us for a
spell whilst we're a-workin' to the nor'ard, to'ards
Holcomb, whar I'm cal'latin' to store the wool an'
skins I've picked up this trip, you're welkim to," gra-
ciously remarked Mr. Lund.
Tom gladly accepted the offer. He had grown
very fond of Stefano, who, though quiet and reti-
cent like Nita, was very intelligent, a perfect horse-
man, a splendid rifle shot, and devoted to his Indian
mother.
Moreover, Tom was gaining health and strength
with wonderful rapidity in this life giving air. As
he learned from the trader that the wagon trail to
Holcomb passed a few miles to the westward of Bo-
nanza City, he knew it would be wise for him to
journey in Mr. Lund's company till he was strong
enough to strike out for himself.
88 THAT TREASURE.
Of course Tom's one definite purpose was to re-
turn to the mining camp, to learn the fate of his
friends, and of his little fortune as well. That the
two Chinamen had conspired to kill and plunder
Mr. Sherard and himself was beyond the shadow of
a doubt. How far their dastardly scheme had suc-
ceeded, with relation to the former, was as prob-
lematical as the fate of Miss Dolly. Tom ground
his teeth in silent rage as he thought of the cold-
blooded villainy of the unscrupulous fiends, one of
whom had so nearly ended his own life.
Tom was sitting near the wagon, on the evening
before the day appointed by Mr. Lund for their de-
parture. He had not quite regained his wonted
strength ; yet every day was adding to it. His face
was filling out, and the color returning to his pale
cheeks. In fact, Tom Dean was beginning to feel
something like his former self.
Stefano was away antelope hunting. Mr. Lund
was at the further end of the Indian settlement,
closing his final transaction in wool, while Nita
stood motionless in the door of the tepee. Her dark,
melancholy eyes were fixed on the glowing western
sky. She wore a tunic of buckskin reaching to the
knee, fringed with antelope hide cut in narrow
strips; leggins of the same material, and beaded
moccasins, with a scarlet reboza thrown carelessly
over her shoulders.
"Nita must have been a remarkably handsome
Indian girl when she married her first husband, the
Mexican ranchero^ mused Tom, to whom Stefano
had confided part of their simple history; "and how
she ever came to take old Lund, who must be al-
most double her own age, for number two beats
me."
As these thoughts flitted through his brain, he
saw Nita suddenly draw her fine figure to its fullest
THAT TKEASUEE. 89
height. Her dark eyes emitted an angry light, as
they rested upon the form of an approaching horse-
man, who had ridden up noiselessly from the ford
of the brawling stream. Tom instinctively reached
out for his rifle, as he followed the direction of the
Indian woman's look.
The object of Nita's gaze was a stalwart and brutal
featured Apache Indian, dressed in buckskin. His
saddle was an elaborate affair, fringed with what
were evidently scalp locks. The cantle was notched
for the rider's heel, so that he could swing himself
at full gallop over his pony's side, with his left arm
thrust through the rawhide loop which hung from
the pommel, to escape flying bullets.
Tom looked round for Nita, but she had slipped
into the tepee. Keeping the tilted cart between liim
and the Navajo encampment, the Indian walked his
pony toward Tom, as the latter rose quickly to his
feet.
" Hu !" ejaculated the Apache, with a scowl. Tom
showed no signs of being overawed by this warlike
apparition, but rather regarded him with a look of
extreme dislike. " Where ol' Rube eh ?" the In-
dian went on.
" He's away," curtly answered Tom.
" J Way where?" was the response.
" I don't know," replied Tom, shortly and sharply,
and again the Apache uttered the ejaculatory "Hu!"
and seemed to study what next to say.
" Me Black Cloud big warrior," said the Indian,
after a pause, slapping his brawny chest. " Me come
long way buy ca'tridge for hunt buff'lo nex' mont'.
Plenty money have s'pose you sell um all same ol'
Rube."
" 1 haven't anything to do with Mr. Lund's busi-
ness, and if I had I wouldn't sell you a cartridge to
save your worthless life !" Tom blazed out. For the
90 THAT TREASURE.
sight of a few short blonde tresses among the scalp
locks which decorated the Indian's saddle naps had
stirred him to the quick. He felt his anger rising
higher and higher as he stood facing the scowling
Apache, who at that moment, as Tom was quite sure,
was decked out with the arms and equipments taken
from some slain victim.
Suddenly Nita stepped from the tepee, her dark
eyes flashing with mingled excitement and wrath;
and without a word she leveled the cocked rifle in
her hands at Black Cloud's breast.
"Nita!" cried Tom, springing forward. But her
finger was already touching the trigger, and the In-
dian, who was sitting as though paralyzed at the
sudden apparition, involuntarily closed his eyes.
"Click!" and the hammer fell on the edge of an
imperfect cartridge.
Before the disappointed Indian woman could re-
cock tne rifle, Black Cloud, with a triumphant yell,
wheeled his pony sharply round and dashed away at
full speed across the shallow creek. He was fol-
lowed by an ineffectual ball from the rifle of old
Rube's step son, who had that moment appeared on
the scene.
Nita looked reproachfully at her weapon as the
Indian disappeared behind a sand hill on the oppo-
site side of the creek.
"Not miss next time, " she muttered, vengefully;
"life for life he kill my husban I kill him."
At this moment Mr. Lund arrived upon the
scene.
"Now, then, what does all this 'ere mean?" he
fiercely demanded, clutching at the shoulder of his
step son, while Tom stood looking from one to the
other in mute astonishment.
Nita stepped swiftly between the two men.
"You dare lay a finger on my Stefano 1" she ex>
THAT TREASURE. 91
claimed, in a voice of repressed passion; and the
trader stepped back with something like alarm on
his rugged features.
" She's goin' to hev one uv her tantrums," Tom
heard him mutter under his breata; but Nita went
on as though she had not heard him.
" Black Cloud shoot my husban' Manuel three
year 'go on our ranch," she said, fiercely; "you
know that ?"
It was evident from his look of something like dis-
comfiture that Mr. Lund had not known it.
" Lord, no, Nita," he replied, in a subdued voice;
" you never said who it were, an' I never heard no
one say "
" He shoot him, that why I try kill him," inter-
rupted Stefano, bending his flashing eyes upon his
step father's abashed face, " an' next time I shoot
more straight."
" Oh, come now, Steve," began the trader, coax-
ingly, and evading the point at issue; "there ain't
no use makin' all this fuss. Black Cloud is after
buff'ler, that's all. D'ye suppose," he added, in a
louder voice, as Stefano turned away with a con-
temptuous gesture, " I'd sell ketridges to him or
any other Injun, if I thought they wanted 'em for
anythin' but huntin' ?"
" Yes," scornfully replied Nita; " I s'pose you sell
me sell Stefano so you gets plenty moneys. But
look out !" she added, raising her hand warningly as
Lund was about to reply; " look out; mebbe some
day Black Cloud shoot you, same he did Manuel,
an' use same catridge you sell him."
Drawing herself proudly erect as she uttered this
cheerful prophecy, Nita followed her son into the
tepee.
On the following morning the mules were har-
nessed up, the ponies saddled; and before the sun
92 THAT TREASURE.
had fairly raised his ruddy face above the distant
ranges of wooded hills in the east, the little caval-
cade was in motion.
The trader himself was singularly gloomy and
depressed for a man who had cleared at least a thou-'
sand dollars by his exchange and barter with the
Navajos. He talked but little, and Tom noticed
that he was continually sweeping the distant hori-
zon with an old field glass which was among the
w ago u stores.
"He begin to be 'fraid that Nita said true," ob^
served Stefano, in an undertone, as he called the at'
tention of Tom to his step father's manifest uneasi-
ness.
But neither Stefano nor Nita, who rode her pony
man fashion, a little in the rear, made any fuither
allusion to the incidents of the previous afternoon,
rather to Tom's relief.
Day after day the heavy wagon rolled onward
without interruption, though monotonously alterna-
ting sand barrens, alkali plains, and rolling prairie;
and Tom began to weary of the unvarying sameness
of the scenery.
Something of this he hinted to the trader one af-
ternoon, about ten days after leaving the Navajo
settlement.
" Wall, jest to accommodate, I've b'en keepin'
c'nsider'ble furder to the west'ard this return trip,"
replied Lund; " an' if all goes well I cal'late by ter-
night we'll camp alongside Bonanza River, not but
a little ways above the canyon you come through
the night you run acrost us." And very much as-
tonished, no less than delighted, was Tom, when
with his whipstock the trader pointed out the blue
thread of the river in the distance.
Tom shrewdly suspected that the change of route
had not been made so much for his own accommo-
THAT TEEASURE. 93
dation as to insure the certainty of his further com-
panionship as far as Holcomb, Mr. Lund having not
yet recovered from his Indian scare.
By four o'clock in the afternoon the distant set-
tlement was in sight, and, hastily explaining his in-
tentions to Nita aud Stefano, Tom rode rapidly for-
ward, leaving the wagon to follow at a slow pace to
a camping place on the river banks.
With a beating heart he urged his pony up the
slight ascent leading to the little bridge, which he
had crossed so many weeks before with his three
companions.
But what was this ? As the pony's feet clattered
over the rough boarding of the bridge, which seemed
to have been newly restored, he was fain to rub his
eyes and stare about him in bewildered astonish-
ment.
Bonanza City, but no longer deserted ! Smoke
was rising from some of the stone chimneys. The
once grass grown street was trodden quite hard and
smooth. Many of the shaky frame buildings had
been repaired; some had new tent shaped roofs, and
moving here and there through the long main
thoroughfare were roughly dressed individuals in
mining costume.
Nor were the changes confined to the town alone.
The hillsides, where Tom had toiled with Mr.
Sherard, were dotted with men. Great gullies,
trenches and ditches could be seen, and cavities in
the slope where tons of earth had been dislodged
by hydraulic streams from a "Little Giant" nozzle.
An immense flume extended downward from the
hillside nearly as far as the bridge, along which the
miners were busy with pick and spade.
94 THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTEE XIL
A CHANGE AT BONANZA CITY.
OF course it was at once apparent to Tom that a
new colony had struck Bonanza City. With a
strange mixture of emotions he turned his pony's
head towards the Retreat, which had been the scene
of so many tragic events.
Three or four men were lounging about the door,
as Tom sprang from his saddle. The Retreat
seemed to have undergone the same renovation as
the other buildings. The doors were restored to
place, whole glass had been substituted for the
broken panes, and from the barroom came the
sound of loud laughter and clinking tumblers.
Something else came from the barroom. It was
an immense brindle mastiff, whose joyous whimper
was echoed by Tom's exclamation of astonishment
and delight. Amid the audibly expressed amaze-
ment of the bystanders, the great dog planted its
huge fore feet against Tom's shoulders, and tried to
lick his face with its rough tongue.
"Hallo, Bob Cope, come out here and see yer big
dog makin' love to this stranger," called out one of
the idlers.
Bob Cope ! Why, that was the name of William's
former mining companion. But how had Brave
for, indeed, it was the sturdy old mastiff come to
be called Bob Cope's dog? And even as he re-
turned Brave's eager caresses, Tom's heart sank like
THAT TREASURE. 95
lead. Where, then, was Mr. Sherard and where
was Dolly?
A heavily built man, wearing a clay soiled woolen
ehirt and dilapidated trousers tucked into long
'legged rubber boots, came out on the rough stoop,
followed by two or three others.
" It's the fust time I ever see Brave take notice of
a stranger; reck'n he must a seen you before, young
feller," remarked Bob Cope, before Tom could put
the question which was trembling on his tongue.
"Brave and I are old acquaintances," returned
Tom, setting his rifle against the side of the house.
" He belonged to a Mr. Sherard, who, with his
daughter, is a friend of mine, and we three were the
only occupants of Bonanza City for quite a little
time, till a few weeks ago "
"Wai, I'll be skelped!"
Bob's abrupt and somewhat unusual exclamation
had brought Tom's explanation to a sudden close;
he clapped his huge hand on Tom's shoulder and
stared at him in open mouthed amazement !
" Boys," he said, turning to the interested onlook-
ers, " hyar's a a reg'lar com bination. This
here, I reckon, is the youug chap Mr. Sherard an'
Miss Dolly 'specially she took on so about, when
I broke the news to 'em of how we foun' the signs
where he'd be'n shot an' throwed inter the stream
by one o' them Chinymen. Here he is fer he don't
deny his own name riz as it were from the dead ;
an' his fren's has gone off, the Lord only knows
where, a-mournin' fer him as layin' in the silent
tomb, or leastwise shot an' drownded, which is nigh
about the same. The very fellow," continued Mr.
Cope, who seemed almost moved to tears by his own
eloquence, " as Mr. Sherard toF me my respectid
fren' an* late pardner William unhappily deceased
through a yeller skinned Chinyman allowed to be
96 THAT TEEASUKE.
as plucky a young chap as need be ; an' praise from
the lamented William was wuth havin'."
Tom Dean's reception by the miners of Bonanza,
after Cope's introduction, was cordial in the ex-
treme. So much so, in fact, that he found it diffi-
cult to refuse the natural outcome of Western*
cordiality, in the shape of invitations to drink,
without giving offense.
But steadfastly declining the various proffers of
the kind Tom stood firmly outside the barroom
door, where he was joined by Bob Cope, who mo-
tioned him to a seat beside himself, on the wooden
bench on the stoop.
While his companion was filling and lighting his
pipe, Tom gave him a brief account of his own nar-
row escape from death at the hands of one of the
Chinamen, and his subsequent meeting with the In-
dian trader.
"You had a close call, for a fact," remarked Bob,
with a glance at the newly healed wound as Tom re-
moved his sombrero; "an* I reck'n that twixt the
shootin' an' bein' kerried through the Black Canyon,
an' over the fall, you. won't cjme no nigher passin*
in yer checks, if you live to be older'n Methusalem."
" But Mr. Sherard and Miss Dolly what of them,
Mr. Cope ?" impatiently interrupted Tom.
Whereupon with provoking deliberation the
miner told his eager listener the facts concerning
the two, with which we are already familiar.
" An' now about the gol'," Cope went on. " Sher-
ard was dretf ul put to it to know what to do with
your half. From what you'd tol' him, he said, he
didn't know as you'd a relashun in the world, an 1
bein' mor'lly certing them wuz his own words
you had diseased this life, he didn't know how to
figger it no way."
" Well," said Tom, as Cope calmly paused.
THAT TREASURE. 97
" He left it to us finlly," Mr. Cope went on, " an' we
settled it tbis way ; accordiu' to minin' reggerla-
shuns, he, as survivin' pardner, wuz warranted in
takin' your pile hisself, an' holdin' of hisself re-
sponserbel if any legal claimant ever turned up.
So, arter it wuz settled, Mr. Sherard an' Miss Dolly
lef far Holcom', along of one uv our wagins that
was goin' after more supplies ; fer we struck the pay
sti'eak all right the secon' day, an' are makin' a good
thing uv it, considerin'."
"But where were they going from Holcomb?"
eagerly inquired Tom.
This was the most important point of all. Bob
Cope was unable to answer. No one had thought
to inquire, and Mr. Sherard had omitted to leave
anything like a future address. They had reluct-
antly left Brave behind, on account, as Mr. Sherard
said, of the uncertainty of his further movements.
Tom had heard the former mention New York as hia
native city, and as the residence of friends and rela-
tives ; yet there was no certainty that he had gone
thither.
"You can fin' out likely enough by inquirin' to
Holcom' whar they bought tickets fer," suggested
Cope, as Tom, with a troubled face, recalled these
facts. With this scanty grain of comfort, and the
assurance of his friends' safety, he was fain to be
content.
" Holcom'," continued Cope, meditatively, as Tom
rose to take his departure, " Holcom', fer its size, is
one o' the liveliest an* sosherblest little minin'
towns this side the Rockies, considerin' that eight
year or so ago I've seen buff'ler shot whar the main
street is, but "
" But what ? " inquired his hearer, as the miner
paused, with a dubious shake of his head.
" Wall, it's here," said Bob, with a little embar-
98 THAT TREASURE.
rassment; "the Holcom' boys is a bit techy, ef they
run across a stranger that don't corne to time when
he's ast to drink. Ef I wuz you, speakin' as a frieu',
I wouldn't be offish, like you wuz with the fellers in
thar," indicating by a gesture the barroom, from
which came the sound of loud voices, and louder
laughter.
" I don't mean to be rude," firmly replied Tom,
" but I never yet touched liquor, and what's more,
I never mean to. And the Holcomb boys, or any
one else, will find it hard work to drive me into
doing anything I don't think is right," he added,
with a certain compression of his lips, which
brought an involuntary nod of approval from the
miner.
" I ruther guess they would," he remarked, dryly;
" you don't look like a chap that could be played
fer a tenderfoot easy. I guess, by the look uv
things," Bob continued, with a glance at Brave, who
had started to his feet when Tom rose, and was
looking anxiously in his face, " thet I'll hev to let
Brave go along uv you whether I want to or not
here, Brave, Brave 1 "
But the mastiff paid not the slightest heed. He
followed close at Tom's heels, as the latter re-
mounted his pony, and had evidently made up his
mind to stick by him.
" I shall be only too glad to have him," was the
hearty rejoinder.
" An' say," continued Cope, stooping down from
the stoop and resting his hand on the saddle bow,
"I don't like ol' Babe Lund none too well, for I
know he's sold army muskits an' ammynishun to
reservashun Injuns on the sly; but you can tell him
frum me, that he'd better keep the ol' wagin trail to
Holcom' instid uv crossin' the divide. Some of our
fellers see plenty of Tache signs within five miles
THAT TREASURE. 99
of here, on'y two days ago. I don't keer much wot
comes to him," added Cope, with unpleasant frank-
ness, " but I wouldn't want you to come to harm;
no more I wouldn't that ar' Injun wife an' her boy,
both uv which is a heap too good fer him; so keep
yer eyes peeled, an' good luck go with you."
"With this friendly injunction and wish ringing in
his ears, Tom, having heartily shaken the hand of
the sturdy miner, turned his horse's head away from
the little settlement, where lights were beginning
to appear in some of the windows, and rode across
the bridge through the fast gathering twilight.
THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTEE XJIL
A TRAGEDY ON THE PLAINS.
IN vain Tom glanced up and down the banks of
the stream. No sign of firelight could be seen,
though at the ordinary rate of travel, Lund and his
little party should have reached their camping spot
long before.
Thinking every moment to hear the creaking of
the heavy wagon, and old Rube's profanely ener-
getic remarks addressed to the mule team, Tom
urged his pony forward along the almost indistin-
guishable trail. It was possible that a tire might
have come off, or an axle broken. Both of these
accidents had occurred during the trip, and they
would readily account for the delay; so he felt no
particular uneasiness until a low whine from
Brave caused him to pull up his pony and listen in-
tently.
Far away, and in a direction quite contrary to
that which he had expected, sounded the roll of
the heavy wagon wheels through the stillness of the
night.
" They must have got off the track somehow, and
are going in the wrong direction for the river,"
thought Tom, with a feeling of relief. Unwisely he
left the trail, a well worn buffalo path of other days,
and urged his pony forward in the direction of the
THAT TREASURE. 101
sounds he had heard, occasionally shouting Lund's
name.
Suddenly the pony stopped with a snort of terror,
which was echoed by a deep growl from the mastiff,
' who was keeping a little in advance.
"Afraid of a dead tree trunk get on with you !"
exclaimed Tom, in an irritated tcne, as he saw an
indistinct dark shape lying on a grayish soil.
But his pony, usually tractable and obedient, re-
fused to budge; while Brave, with bristling back
and repeated growls, stood " pointing " at the ob-
ject in evident uneasiness.
"Now what on earth " began Tom; and spring-
ing from the saddle he fumbled in his haversack,
where he succeeded in finding a solitary match. As
he struck it sharply on the barrel of his rifle, his
pony, with another snort, wheeled about and gal-
loped off at full speed whether in the direction of
the mining town or not Tom was unable to tell, for
he was completely turned round !
But his vexation at tbis unexpected mishap was
lost sight of for the moment in the shock he re-
ceived when, by the glimmer of the lighted match,
he saw before him the lifeless body of a man.
Applying the match with shaking fingers to a
bunch of dried sage brush which he hastily pulled,
Tom uttered a great exclamation of horror.
It was Rube Lund himself who lay pierced with a
score of Indian arrows, with ghastly, upturned f^^ce
and outstretched hands. It was a sight which
haunted Tom's dreams for many a night afterward.
And now it was that Tom Dean's zeal far outran
his good judgment. He thought of Nita and her
step son, to whose care and nursing he probably
owed his life, as prisoners in the hands of redskins
who had slain the old trader, and were driving off
his wagon.
102 THAT TKEASUKE.
Before he could reach the settlement, by the as-
sistance of the mastiff's sagacity, and give the
alarm, the Indians and their captives would be miles
away. He had learned from William that the
Apaches hated the Navajos with a hatred equaling
that of the latter for the former, and he did not*
doubt that Nita or her son would be put to torture
at the first available moment.
If he could emulate some of the border heroes of
whom he had read and heard, and contrive in some
way by stealth or stratagem to at least make an
effort to release his friends !
As these thoughts passed rapidly through his
mind, Tom pulled his handkerchief from his neck
and knotted it to Brave's collar.
" Go, Brave," he whispered, pointing in the direc-
tion in which he supposed Bonanza City might be.
The mastiff hesitated and held back, looking in
Tom's face as though to beg that he might not be
sent away.
" Go !" repeated Tom in a sharp undertone; and
with evident reluctance Brave disappeared.
Again the faint and distant creaking of the pond-
erous wagon wheels reached Tom's ear. With a
slight shudder he stepped over the inanimate form
of old Rube Lund, and followed as rapidly as he
could in the direction of the sound.
Tom felt sure, whether he succeeded in his own
undertaking or not, that the miners would sooner
or later follow, if Brave himself reached the settle-
ment to lead them back.
So reasoning, he hurried forward as fast as pos-
sible, guided by the sound of the wheels grinding
over the dry, caked soil. As the moon began show-
ing her face over the nearest range, Tom caught a
glance of the white wagon tilt entering a dark de-
file between two tolerably well wooded hills, through
THAT TKEASUKE. 108
which he remembered having passed that very
afternoon.
" I wonder how much further they mean to go,"
muttered Tom, discontentedly. As he reached the
deep shadows cast by the overhanging cliff at the
entrance, his question was answered by the glimmer
of a newly started camp fire. As it blazed into
brightness, Tom counted something like a dozen or
more dark forms dismounting from their ponies. He
crept nearer, perfectly sheltered by the underbrush,
and saw the tired mules untethered from the wagon,
and led to a mountain pool or spring close by.
Sheltered by a dense thicket of mesquite, Tom,
not twenty feet from the blaze, could see and hear
all that passed without incurring the slightest risk
of detection.
And the first discovery he made as the band
gathered about the blaze, toasting strips of
*' jerked " deer meat over the glowing embers, was
that Black Cloud, whose ferocious features and un-
usually burly build he would have recognized
among a thousand, was the leader of the gang.
That Nita and Stefano were nowhere to be seen,
was his next discovery. A moment or two later,
however, in obedience to a muttered order from
Black Cloud, one of the Apaches approached and
threw back the wagon tilt, and Tom caught a
glimpse of two forms, lying on the skins or wool
packs, which he felt sure were those of the prisoners.
The hours wore on, and Tom listened in vain for
any sound or sign to tell him that the Bonanza City
miners were anywhere in the vicinity. One after
another of the Apaches wrapped himself in his
blanket and lay down with his feet to the blaze,
leaving Black Cloud and four others standing guard,
more from habit, it seemed, than from fear of lurk-
ing enemies.
104 THAT TREASURE.
Only Black Cloud and two or three of his sub-
ordinates had firearms. The others were provided
with the knife, hatchet, and stout lancewoud bow,
which latter, even at the present day, is carried, in
addition to a rifle, by some of the border tribes.
From this, Tom inferred that the main object of
capturing the wagon had been to obtain more fire-
arms. That they had been disappointed in this,
Tom was quite sure; he remembered having heard
the trader say that he had sold the last of a few
condemned army carbines to the Navajos of whom
he had purchased his wool.
As he was vaguely conjecturing what the Apaches
would do with their prize, and wishing that the
dozing sentinels would drift off into slumber, so
that he could attempt his release of the two
captives, Black Cloud rose, and walked to the
wagon.
A moment later Kita and her son were assisted
rather rudely to the ground, the thongs about their
ankles being loosened enough to allow them to be
led nearer the fire. A skin was thrown on the
ground, upon which the two captives were forced
to recline.
Black Cloud rolled himself in his blanket and lay
down a few feet away, with his gun at his side. A
tall Apache sat on the other side of the prisoners,
with his back against a rock; the glow of the fire
threw his ferocious features into strong relief as he,
from time to time, drowsily replenished the fire.
An idea occurred to Tom. Softly withdrawing
from the thicket, he made a long detour which
brought him to the opposite side of the fire, still
hidden by the dense underbrush. Here, he worked
away with his hunting knife as noiselessly as pos-
sible, and succeeded in cutting and trimming a long
stout sapling.
THAT TBEASUKE. 105
To one end of this he laslied the handle of the
keen double edged knife, with a thong of dried elk
skin which he found in his haversack.
Leaving his rifle where he could find it, Tom laid
himself flat on the ground and began worming him-
self through the thick clumps of alder and bois
d'arc, dragging the pole after him, till he reached
the edge of the little clearing in which the fire was
built.
Had not the Apaches been so certain of their per-
fect security, Tom could never have reached this
point without betraying his presence. He was not
skilled enough in woodcraft to imitate the noiseless
movement of the redskin or crafty scout.
The rustle of the leaves, the occasional snap of a
twig, and similar trifling sounds, would have been
at once detected; but the old Apache's usually
sharp ear was dulled, and his eyes heavy with sleep,
against the approach of which he was spasmodic-
ally struggling.
Nearer and yet nearer, and with his heart in his
mouth, Tom began extending the pole, inch by inch,
beyond him, till the end with the hunting knife
touched the shoulder of Stefano, whose eyes turned
downward toward it.
Not a muscle of his dark face moved. Without
changing the position of his body, he succeeded in
bringing his bound wrists to the ground in such a
way that Tom began softly sawing away at the raw-
hide thongs.
Suddenly the sentinel Apache uttered a convul-
sive snort, opened his eyes and glanced sharply
about him. Tom, almost paralyzed with fear, sus-
pended operations, and held his very breath.
The Indian looked at his prisoners, but they were
lying motionless, with closed eyes. Luckily the
pole itself was hidden by the short, thick grass.
106 THAT TKEASURE.
The Apache tossed another billet of dry wood upon
the fire, and pulled his greasy blanket a little more
closely about his neck. He listened intently for a
moment, and then fell into another doze.
One or two more movements, and the sapling was
softly drawn from Tom's hands! A breathless
pause ensued, during which, as Tom conjectured,
Stefauo was getting the knife loose. Then he saw
the Indian lad reaching down and severing the
lashings about his own and his mother's ankles !
Nita's wrists were then freed and w r hat next ?
"Good heavens!" muttered Tom. "I never
thought of that !"
For each had risen to a half sitting posture.
Stefano, whose glowing eyes were steadfastly fixed
on the sleeping guard, as though to spring tipon
him like a young mountain tiger at the first sign of
his awaking, silently passed the knife to Nita.
Drawing her lithe form forward, the Indian
woman crept snake-like toward her enf my, Black
Cloud, the slayer of her Mexican husband.
"With every nerve at a tension, Tom watched her
stealthy progress till she had reached the chief's
side. Then, as she raised her bared right arm, the
blade of the hunting knife glittered a moment in
the firelight and descended.
But just at that instant the Indian turned in his
slumber, and the keen blade, intended for his heart,
missed its aim and buried itself in the fleshy part of
Black Cloud's shoulder.
The yell which escaped the awakened Apache's
lips as Nita sprang to her feet, holding the dripping
knife clutched in her fingers, was echoed by one of
exultation from Stefano, as together the two darted
into the cover of the heavy growth, and in an in-
stant were swallowed up in the darkness.
As yell after yell rent the air, Tom slipped back
THAT TKEASUKE. 107
and secured his rifle. So, far, everything haa suc-
ceeded even beyond his highest expectations; he
had secured the freedom of his friends, and now he
must look to his own safety. The intense darkness
was, of course, greatly in his favor, but blundering
about at midnight among a thick growth of young
walnut and scrub oak was both difficult and danger-
ous. Tom dared not attempt to return to the more
open plain by way of the mouth of the defile, for
the entire camp was now aroused, and that point
would certainly be guarded.
Oh, if Brave's mission had only succeeded, and
the plainsmen, guided by the tumult in the defile,
could sweep down upon the Apaches what an
opportunity to put an end to their further maraud-
ing!
Tom's meditations were brought to a sudden stop
by the sound of clattering hoof beats approaching
at a gallop.
There followed in quick succession a volley of
hoarse shouts presumably as the camp fire came
in sight a sharp fusillade, a wild and general
stampede of the Apaches' ponies.
" Hurrah, there s Bob Cope and his party !"
shouted Tom triumphantly, as he turned in the
direction of the tumult, and began forcing his way
through the underbrush.
Two dark forms suddenly confronted him; and
feeling assured that he had fallen in with his
friends, Tom called out:
" Stefano, is that you and Nitn ?"
Which was very unfortunate for him. For the
only reply was a grunt and a guttural remark; and
before Tom knew what had happened, a gigantic
Apache swooped down upon him with a suddenness
and ferocity before which his own fierce resistance
was as nothing.
108 THAT TKEASUKE.
CHAPTER XIV.
TOM A PRISONER.
IN another instant Tom was disarmed, and thrown
to the ground. One Indian, kneeling on Tom's
writhing body, turned him half over, and twisted
his hands behind him with the dexterity of a Lon-
don policeman; then he knotted two or three turns
of rawhide about his wrists, which were held forc-
ibly back to back. Tom's first assailant placed his
knee on his prisoner's chest, and, covering Tom's
mouth with one brawny hand, held with the other
the sharp point of his scalping knife pressed
against his throat.
"You keep um still," he muttered; and Tom, now
aware that he was in the clutches of Black Cloud
himself, lay very still indeed.
The voices of the attacking party grew nearer,
but still the Apaches remained crouched on the
body of their helpless victim.
Tom uttered a silent prayer, for he knew very
well that his life just then was hanging by the
slenderest possible thread.
If discovered, his savage captors would kill him
before making their escape, as they easily could,
aided by the darkness. And a sound or movement
on his own part would bring about a similar catas-
trophe.
"It's no use; the cusses has lit out an' scattered
ev'ry way," Tom heard Cope call out, "an' we'll
THAT TKEA.SUEE. 109
i
on'y batter our brains out agin' the trees here, a
huntin' around in the dark; so let's git back what
the camp fire is, an' see ef we kin find out what's
become of old Rube's Injun wife, an' the half breed
boy."
" All right, Cap'n Bob," replied another; "but I'd
like derned well to know whar that there Tom got
to after he sent the dog back to camp. Mebbe
we'll find him stuck full uv arrers, same as ol' Rube
wuz."
"I wuz hopin' the dog ud track him, but instid,
he took us stret up to the 'Paches' campin' place,
said a third, " which is kinder curis, 'cause '
And then with the receding steps the voices died
away in the distance, and Tom's last hope departed
with them.
Urging the captive to his feet with no gentle
hand, the Apaches, after exchanging a few rapid
words, appropriated his rifle, revolver, haversack,
and cartridge belt.
Then, half dragging, half driving him, the two
hurried Tom into the more open ground of the
valley itself, and began a sort of forced march
through the now diminishing darkness. They took
a northerly direction, as nearly as Tom could judge
by the waning stars They traveled this way till
the glimmer of approaching dawn began lighting
up the eastern sky.
A low whistle broke the morning silence. It was
answered by Black Cloud's companion, and in an-
other moment three mounted Indians, leading as
many of the stampeded ponies, emerged from a tim-
ber line close at hand.
A hasty conference followed, and Tom was bidden
to mount one of the ponies, which he did, with the
rough assistance of two of his captors. The others
sprang into the empty saddles; and, with an Apache
110 THAT TEE A.SUKE.
at either bridle rein, poor Tom began a ride the
memory of which will abide till his dying day.
They passed over a barren desert, so arid that
only the prickly pear and solemn pithaya can exist
among the fastnesses of the volcanic rocks, which
lay in great masses, scattered irregularly about the
plain.
Sweltering with heat, tormented by thirst, driven
half frantic by sand flies and mosquitoes, galled by
the hard wooden saddle covered with green hide,
and a prey to terrible apprehension as to his ulti-
mate fate, Tom will never forget that terrible ride.
Through black gorges, between low ridges of
treeless hills, which seemed burned and baked to a
deep brick red by the fierce rays of a blazing sun,
they journeyed on; sometimes with walls of rock
like porphyry and jasper rising on either hand.
But toward nightfall the scenery changed. Be-
fore them lay the mouth of a winding canyon,
where ages ago some mighty river had swept its
way.
Its sides were irregular masses of what was once
molten lava, rising tier on tier, where successive
streams of the fiery fluid had cooled after some
great volcanic action.
In the canyon itself was a profuse growth of
vegetation with abundant grass and cooling shade;
while through the middle wound a cooling stream
from a spring far up the height.
Here was a large encampment of Apaches; and as
they dismounted among the tepees, Tom saw, with
a sinking heart, that nearly all the Indians who
came crowding round captors and captive were
decorated with war paint.
Tom was given into the keeping of two stalwart
Indian braves. After a meal of boiled deer's meat,
he was thrust into an empty tepee. With hands and
THAT TREASURE. Ill
feet securely bound, he lay tossing unrestfully
through the weary night watches; while his guard
passed and repassed between a great fire in front of
the tepee, aud the wide open entrance, where Tom's
every movement could be seen.
A thousand conflicting thoughts were busy in
Tom's excited brain as the weary hours dragged
slowly on toward the dawning of the day which had
in store for him what?
He had heard enough of Apache atrocities, even
in his short experience on the plains, to know that
mercy to a captured white is as unusual at the
present day as it was fifty years ago. He knew,
too, that from earliest boyhood the Apache de-
lights in nothing so much as to torture the helpless
bird or beast or human being that lies in his power.
As the horrible tales which he had heard passed
through Tom's mind, his mental agony became even
greater than that of the condemned man on the
night before his execution.
The latter can at least look forward to a death
which, if not painless, is quickly over. Tom was no
coward; yet it is only the hero of very improbable
fiction who can fearlessly look forward to a linger-
ing death by torture with the mental resolve that he
will not gratify his savage foe by look or word ex-
pressing his physical sufferings.
And so the long night wore away and gave place
to dawn. That another morning would never break
for him Tom felt assured. Silently, but from his
heart, he prayed that the sins of his life, such as
they were, might be forgiven him; and, as best he
knew how, he commended his spirit to the God who
gave it.
The memory of the sad beautiful face which he
had seen in his dreams, and which he intuitively
connected with that of the mother he could not re-
112 THAT TKEASUEE.
call, came before him. He thought of Professor
Dean's tender and fatherly care throughout their
wandering life, and of the friendship which had
existed between himself and Mr. Sherard and
Dolly, both of svhom believed him no longer living.
"Ugh! white fellow cry like squaw he'fraid!"
said a contemptuous voice, breaking in on the agon-
izing reflections which for the moment had forced
a few natural tears from his closed eyes.
The speaker was Black Cloud, who, in all the
glory of fresh war paint and a new blanket, had
stepped inside, and was contemplating his captive
with grim satisfaction.
Tom made no repl}' simply because he could not
call to mind words that were bitter enough to ex-
press his detestation of the murderer of helpless
women and children who stood before him.
"You cry worse 'fore long," added the Apache,
with a fiendish grin. He called something in his
native tongue to a half dozen of painted braves
standing without, and two or three of them entered
the tepee.
Tom's ankles and wrists were loosed. He was
jerked rudely to his feet, and half led, half dragged,
outside.
In a large open space before the encampment was
gathered the entire population.
There were squaws and young girls, boys and old
men, with here and there a tall "buck," strutting
grandly about, proud in the possession of a stove-
pipe hat or a dilapidated fatigue cap, the spoils of
some recent skirmish with the frontier soldiers.
Tom cast one despairing glance about him as he
was led forward. There was no trace of anything
like pity in the hard, cruel and brutal faces noth-
ing but a sort of fiendish satisfaction.
" God help me to die bravely!" was his inward
THAT TREASUKE. 113
prayer; and, summoning all his fortitude, Tom drew
himself up proudly. He compressed his lips, and
awaited the doom whose nature he could only con-
jecture.
At a sign from Black Cloud, Tom's heavy blue
shirt was pulled over his head and tossed carelessly
aside, leaving him naked to the waist. As he stood
shivering in the cool morning air, with his muscular
arms tightly folded across his broad white chest,
Tom even then found himself wondering when he
should awake from this horrible nightmare !
Without ceremony Tom was flung to the ground
and laid on his back. His arms and legs were ex-
tended in what is known as "spread eagle" fashion.
His wrists and ankles were securely fastened, by
narrow thongs of rawhide, to stout hickory pegs
driven deep in the soil.
Tom supposed that he was simply to be left to die
of slow starvation, with all the additional sufferings
of body and mind which such a position would en-
gender.
But the fiendish ingenuity of the Chiricahua
Apache has improved on this comparatively merci-
ful form of torture.
A brave approached with an armful of hard pine
splints, which he proceeded to arrange in a neat pile
on Tom's bare white chest.
" Tell you I make you cry," coolly remarked
Black Cloud, as an agonized groan escaped the
lips of poor Tom when he realized what was to
come.
Kneeling beside his prostrate victim, while a
murmur of anticipation ran through the surround-
ing throng, Black Cloud struck a match on a flat
stone, and held it a second or two between his
fingers for the flame to burn up clear and bright.
114 THAT TEEASUEE.
CHAPTER XV.
THE TABLES AKE TUENED.
" REMEMBER Ouster charge !"
The ringing cry, rising above the rapid hoof beats
of two score cavalrymen, who rode forward at full
gallop, came to Tom Dean's ears like sweetest music,
as in agonized expectancy he awaited the application
of the burning match to the heaped up splints on
his naked chest.
Like a whirlwind sweeping everything before it,
came a rush of mounted men, with wild shouts and
cries. The cracking of revolvers and carbines was
mingled with the fierce yells of the surprised
Apaches, as they rushed hither and thither for
their weapons, while on every side women and chil-
dren were flying in confusion and dismay.
But the surprise was so sudden and unexpected
that the Apaches, though outnumbering the little
detachment two to one, could make no stand against
the fierce charge.
A few were shot down in their tracks, two or
three fell before the cavalrymen's sabers; but the
larger part of the Indians succeeded in reaching
their ponies at the rear of the encampment, and
galloped madly away, followed by a scattering fire
from some of the cavalrymen.
Meanwhile Tom was quickly raised from his un-
pleasant position by Lieutenant Benham, the com-
mander of the detachment.
THAT TEEASURE. 115
" Bather lucky thing for you that we came up as
we did," he said. Tom, after trying in broken
words to express his thanks, recovered and pulled
on his woolen shirt, which, fortunately, had not
been appropriated beforehand. He hardly realized
that he was indeed rescued from a terrible death.
The cavalrymen had dismounted, and were em-
ployed in collecting such weapons as could be found
in and about the encampment. Among them Tom
recognized and claimed his own rifle, revolver and
cartridge belt, which were at once restored to their
owner.
Bows and arrows were thrown into the blazing
tepees, which had been set on fire as soon as the sol-
diers were assured that the women and children had
all escaped. A few old army muskets and carbines
were shattered and bent against the rocks. The
dead among whom Tom noticed Black Cloud
had not been numbered were left lying as they
fell.
Then the bugle sounded a recall and remount.
" Haven't time to talk," explained Lieutenant Ben-
ham, flinging himself into his saddle; " want to get
after those fiends before they get far away. We
passed old Rube Lund's wagon coming up on the
trail just the other side of the bluff you had better
join that. 'By. Close up trot !"
And before Tom could part his lips to reply to
the hasty speech, the little company went clattering
up the bed of the canyon ; leaving Tom very much
bewildered, yet profoundly thankful for his rescue
from the living death to which he had been doomed.
Half a dozen ponies were still picketed under the
willows. Tom took his pick of a steed, together
with saddle, bridle, blankets, and a saddle wallet,
stocked with jerked meat and pounded parched
corn.
116 THAT TREASURE.
Then, mounting his new acquisition, Tom reached
the top of the bluff, which overlooked the plains for
miles, and to his delight he saw the distant wagon a
couple of miles to the southward, following the well
beaten trail. Beside it rode at least half a dozen
individuals, while close behind was a black object
which he felt sure was the mastiff Brave.
"I wonder where the escort came from," he said
to himself, as his sure footed pony picked its way
down the precipitous side of the bluff and reached
the level below in safety.
The question was answered by a nearer approach,
and by the shouts of friendly greeting which
reached Tom's ear as he was recognized. Brave
rushed forward to meet him, and caracoled in cir-
cles about Tom's pony, barking in mad delight;
while Nita and Stefano for once laid aside their
stoical composure, and welcomed him with voice and
smile. They expressed in rather imperfect English,
alternated with an occasional word of Spanish, their
sense of obligation to him.
"It's all right," laughed Tom. "I've only paid
part of the debt I owed you both for taking such
good care of me while I was sick."
Tom was told by one of the horsemen a miner
named Halsted that the four had joined the wagon
partly as an escort and partly because they them-
selves were bound to Holcomb for more supplies.
" The dog came in with yer handkerchief all cor-
rec'," explained Halsted; "an* we mistrusted some-
thin' wrong to once. But Bob Cope an' some of 'm
had be'n crookin' their elbers rether strong, an' it
wuz nigh midnight 'fore we got fairly started. The
dog led us tol'rable correc', till we diskivered ol'
Kube's body. We kivered it as best we could in a
hurry, an' kep' on; but it wuz so thunderin' dark
that betwixt the dog losin' the trail and all, we wuz
THAT TKEASURE. 117
nigh turnin' back an' waitin' fur daylight, when we
ketched a glimpse uv the fire. We lit down on 'm
lively, but the ponies stampeded an' the most uv {he
gang got off in the brush. But the wagin and
mules wuz all right, an't it wuzn't long 'fore the
woman an' boy jined us an' told about thet dodge of
your'n fer gettin' 'em free. They kno wed it were you
by the knife. Sorry the woman missed of puttiu'
thet derned Black Cloud outer the way "
"Noder time come," sententiously interrupted
Stefano ; "not miss then."
"Mebbe not," returned Halsted, "but I reck'n
Black Cloud 11 keep well outer the way, now Loo-
tenant Benham is after him hot foot. I think you
said he was 'mongst them as got off."
Tom nodded, and Halsted went on to say that in
the morning the party retui-ned to Bonanza City,
leaving the four to accompany the wagon to Hoi-
comb. The cavalry detachment, which came from
Fort Boker, had overtaken them, and had been fur-
nished with such information as the little company
could give.
A bend in the trail, which had for some little
time led between a succession of sandstone buttes,
revealed an unbroken level extending several miles.
The lava ledges on the west alone broke its mo-
notony.
Owing to the rarity of the atmosphere, any distant
object, seen against the ashy gray of the soil,
loomed strangely. A buffalo's skull a mile away
seemed the size of a flour barrel. A long legged
jack rabbit, coursing over the ground with wonder-
ful leaps, appeared like an exaggerated sheep.
But to none of these things was the attention of
the party called by a suddenly exclamation from
Halsted. Unslinging his field glass, he looked
through it steadily at something far ahead.
118 THAT TKEASUEE.
" What is it, Halsted ?" eagerly asked Tom, follow-
ing the direction of the other's gaze. Two indis-
tinct moving objects he himself could make out
with the naked eye. One of the men called them
"buffier," another "antelope."
" 'Tain't neither," replied the plainsman, taking
down his glass and dropping it into the case by his
side; "it's an Injun. His Loss is dead lame, and
he's walkin' or hobblin' for he ac's to me like he
was wounded alongside him."
" One o' thim redskins gittin' back acrost the
plain to the riservashun," angrily exclaimed Micky
F$x, a burly Irishman whose wife and children had
been butchered three years before by a marauding
party from San Carlos. " Come on, boys after
him."
"But you wouldn't kill a wounded Indian, un-
armed, perhaps ?" protested Tom, as the men tin-
slung their rifles and laid them in rest across their
saddle bows, while each urged his pony rapidly for-
ward.
"Look at Nita an' her boy, thar'; see how they
feel to'ards their own race," significantly replied
Halsted, lashing his horse to fuller speed.
For scarcely had the Indian woman and Stefano
cast their eyes ahead, when, as though by consent,
they dashed forward, leading the other horsemen by
a couple of lengths. On they rode in the mad race;
but Nita and Stefano were better mounted than any
of the others, excepting Tom, whose pony was of
rare strength and speed, and they kept well in ad-
vance.
Suddenly the woman, whose long dusky hair
streamed behind her in picturesque confusion, gave
a wild and exultant cry.
Snatching the rifle from Stefano's hands, she
turned in the saddle.
THAT TREASURE. 119
"That Black Cloud," she called; "my turn come
now no one shoot but me !"
" Nita, Nita !" called Tom. He might as well have
addressed the wind. The wounded Indian, who
long before had heard and seen the approach of his
foes, had sheltered himself behind the body of his
pony, and was sighting his heavy buffalo gun across
the saddle. Stefano, resting the barrel of his long
Colt revolver on the bend of his left arm, took a
quick aim and fired before the Indian woman could
throw the Winchester to her shoulder.
The ball struck the Apache's pony, evidently in a
vital part, for, tossing its head in the air, the horse
fell over on its side so suddenly that Black Cloud
but barely cleared himself from the body.
" His gun is empty, or he'd 'a' fired 'fore this," ex-
claimed Halsted, exultantly. Nita, saying something
rapidly to her son, urged her own steed forward, its
bridle rein hanging on the pommel of the saddle.
With eyes blazing with excitement, she held the
Winchester at her shoulder, its muzzle pointing di-
rectly at the heart of Black Cloud. He sullenly
dropped his own weapon to the ground, and began
slowly stepping backward as the vengeful woman
advanced on him.
"Let her alone, you derned young fool," fiercely
interposed one of the miners, seizing Tom's bridle
rein. With the evident purpose of preventing what
he regarded as a cold blooded murder, Tom was en-
deavoring to press forward between the two. " She's
on'y actin* out her Injun natur' it's a life for a life
with them, an' you'd best stay quiet!"
Nita called something to the Indian. Halsted,
who understood part of it, said she was commanding
him to stop and hear what she had to say. before he
died like the dog that he was.
Suddenly Black Cloud, uttering a yell of terror,
120 THAT TREASURE.
threw his hands above his head, and, as suddenly as
a man who steps backward into a chasm in the earth,
he disappeared from sight.
But it was no earth chasm which had swallowed
up the Apache before their horrified gaze. Over a
mass of liquid paste is a bluish gray crust, which re-
forms like magic over the sunken mass, whether
man or beast, that breaks through its treacherous
surface. Such is the alkali sink of the plains.
As the Indian vanished, the slimy mass seemed to
palpitate for a moment with a horrid sucking sound,
like that of water escaping through a narrow out-
let.
" I've heard tell o' them death traps," said Hal-
sted, who was first to break the silence, as he drew
his sleeve across his damp forehead; "but I never
dre'mt they drawed anything down so suddin es all
that."
Tom said nothing. The strange scene had all
been enacted with such bewildering suddenness
that he could not at first take in its reality. He
glanced at Nita, who had taken her rifle from her
shoulder; but the only expression on her face was
that of genuine disappointment, which also was re-
flected in the features of Stefano.
But their enemy was beyond the reach of their
vendetta literally as well as figuratively; for what-
ever is swallowed up in an alkali sink is drawn to
unknown depths.
So Black Cloud's unloaded gun and revolvers (for
in the haste of his flight the Apache had left his
cartridge belt behind) were claimed by Stefano as
their legitimate spoil, together with the saddle and
equipments of the dead pony.
Then, turning back to the wagon, the line of march
was again taken up. Four days of heat and dust,
of thirst and general discomfort; four nights of un-
THAT TREASURE. 121
restful repose broken by a continuous fear of sud-
den attack; and as the sun was beginning to decline
toward the Pacific slopes, the lumbering wagon
rolled slowly into the main street of what was then
oe of the largest towns on the newly completed line
of the A. and P. B. B.
122 THAT TEEASUKE.
CHAPTEE XVL
WHAT TOM FOUND AT HOLCOMB.
THERE is both sameness and individuality in the
average mining town of any size that is connected
by rail with the great far away centers of civiliza-
tion. Holcomb was no exception to the general
rule.
The town proper consisted of one long, wide
street of straggling buildings, curiously contrasted
as to architectural pretensions. Midway of the
street stood a good sized block, built of the better
quality of adobe or sun dried brick. In this was lo-
cated the bank, two dry goods stores, the post office,
and the headquarters of the local magistrate, who
was also notary public, lawyer, justice of the peace,
real estate agent, and city undertaker The rest of
the town was made up of flat roofed, square fronted
wooden buildings, of different styles and shapes,
facing the street. They were used as dwelling
houses, miners' boarding houses, cheap eating
booths, gambling dens, and saloons; of which latter
the proportion was one saloon to every ten inhabit-
ants.
A gun store, two blacksmiths' shanties, a second
hand clothing store, and a jail, with some scattered
mud ranches in the suburbs, completed the picture.
Not a tree or shrub was to be seen along the border of
the street, which at night was lighted by smoking
THAT TKEASUEE. 123
kerosene lamps. These were generally without the
usual glass mclosures owing to continuous pistol
practice on the part of the cowboys or hilarious
miners.
True to their Indian nature, Nita and Stefano had
preferred to camp by the turbid stream at the out-
skirts of the town. Promising to see them on the
morrow, Tom parted from Halsted and his compan-
ions, who had naturally gravitated to the nearest
saloon. With Brave following close at his pony's
heels, he rode slowly through the street toward the
only "hotel," to which Halsted had directed him;
the enormous size of the mastiff calling forth various
audible expressions of astonishment from the street
corner groups.
The " Vendome " was hardly as imposing a struct-
ure as its name would imply. It was an unpainted
two story affair, standing nearly opposite the
adobe railway station, at the head of the long street.
A group of more than ordinarily rough looking
men occupied the piazza as Tom dismounted. They
were smoking vigorously, swearing profusely, or
laughing loudly, and all were "heeled" in the
most approved style of the "Western desperado.
The leader of the party, or more properly, gang,
was a man of herculean proportions, whose unkempt
red hair and beard had been coaxed into little
corkscrew curls at the end. Had he been dressed
with scrupulous nicety, he would not nave been of
attractive presence. In slouch hat, fiery red shirt,
and jean riding overalls tucked into long boots, with
revolver and knife, he looked what he was a
thoroughbred ruffian.
This gentleman, after winking at his companions,
stepped down from the piazza, as Tom was turning
the pony over to a half breed helper, who had first
come round from the board stable in the rear. The
124 THAT TKEASURE.
big man closely scrutinized a half effaced brand on
the pony's haunch.
" That your brand, Curly ?" called a short, thick
set individual, who was resting his chin upon a pair
of hairy hands clasped over the muzzle of a repeat-
ing rifle.
" Course it is," was the prompt reply, accompan-
ied by a hoarse chuckle, in which the others joined,
" an' come to look closter, that's my saddle an' gear-
in', jest as hoss an' all was run off my ranch las'
night. Guess I'll take charge of the fitout, an' this
young tenderfoot here is lucky if he gets off without
bein' swung up for hoss stealin'."
Tom, who had stood perfectly quiet during the
bully's harangue, though his blood was tingling to
his finger tips, turned his head as the man put a
huge hand on the pommel of the saddle, and was
preparing to mount.
" Brave," he said, and the huge mastiff, erecting
the short hair on his neck and shoulders, sprang to
Tom's side; and, steadfastly regarding the man
called Curley, gave vent to a deep and ominous
growl.
"Leave my. pony alone," exclaimed Tom, hotly,
or "
A contemptuous laugh cut short the threat. " Go
it, Curley," chorused the delighted group on the
piazza. The bully, putting the toe of his heavy
boot in the rawhide loop which served as a stirrup,
swung himself into the saddle.
But scarcely had he done so, when Brave, wrench-
ing his collar from Tom's grasp, made an upward
leap like that of a cougar. Just missing the ruffi-
an's brawny throat, he seized him by the shoulder,
and dragged him heavily to the ground in less time
than I have taken to write it.
" Shoot the dog and the feller that owns him !"
THAT TEEASUKE. 125
yelled Curley at the top of his voice, as Brave
planted his huge fore paws on the chest of the pros-
trate man, who dared not stir hand or foot. The
dog displayed a set of white even fangs, without for
a moment taking his glowing eyes from the terrified
ones of his victim.
But Tom Dean, though a stranger in a strange
land, was not so easily cowed. With the very natu-
ral feeling that attempted intimidation must in this
case at least be met with similar action, he unslung
his rifle. Stepping quickly in front of the dog and
his prostrate victim, he threw the Winchester to his
shoulder.
How the affair might have ended, but for an un-
expected interruption, is uncertain.
But just then the hotel door was swung violently
open, and a sinewy six footer, with a blonde beard
and sleepy blue eyes, stepped rapidly out.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, taking in the situation at a
glance, " Colonel North " calling over his shoulder
" just bring some of the boys out, will you ?"
"Certainly, major," was the prompt reply. Fol-
lowed by a dozen or more sunburned men, who to
Tom's inexperienced eyes looked fully as forbidding
as the group he was confronting, a new actor ap-
peared on the scene.
He was a compactly built person of medium
height, dressed with more care than his fellows.
His eyes were gray and very piercing; his smooth
shaven face wore a singularly determined look, and
in the hollow of his left arm Colonel North for it
was he carried a handsomely mounted double
gun.
" Oh !" ejaculated the colonel, very much as the
major had said " ah !"
And without any ceremony he pushed the major
on one side.
126 THAT TREASURE.
44 In behalf of my friends here, who are peaceable
and law abiding citizens," remarked the colonel,
smoothly addressing himself to Tom, who lowered
his rifle at once, " may I inquire what the particular
disturbance is now ?"
His manner was so studied and elaborately polite
that Tom hardly knew whether the speaker was pok-
ing fun at him or not. But he told his story briefly
and to the point.
A murmur of approval at the stand he had taken
rose from the colonel's party, and a corresponding
growl of disapproval from the others.
" One moment, gentlemen," politely observed the
colonel, with a wave of his hand toward the ruffianly
gang, who evidently held the smooth shaven colonel
in some fear; "young man, you may call off your
dog."
Greatly astonished at the speaker's suavity of
speech, Tom obeyed. The discomfited Curley arose,
breathing threatenings and slaughter.
" No, Curley," mildly expostulated Colonel North,
as he observed a motion of the ruffian's hand in the
direction of his pistol, and instantly covered him
with his gun. " No, that won't do !"
He spoke in a quick, sharp, incisive tone, which
was in singular contrast to the easiness of his former
manner.
Curley's hand recovered its normal position, and
he glared ferociously at the speaker. Taking down
his weapon, the colonel was about to say something
more, when Major Smith, who had been nervously
fingering the handles of two large revolvers, one at
either hip, stepped in front of him in his turn.
" I want to be heard in this matter," he said, with
an air of decision; " and the thing stands here. 1
ain't a citizen of Holcomb, no more is my friend the
colonel; but we're both on the side of law and order.
THAT "TREASURE. 127
Pete Curley, you and your dirty crowd have hung
round this respectable hotel long enough, and this
bulldozing strangers is played out. Git, the whole
passel of you, unless you want to try titles with
shootin' irons; and the sooner you leave town the
better. You hear me."
This brief but eloquent address was emphasized,
on the part of both the speaker and his backers, by
such suggestive movements with reference to weap-
ons, offensive and defensive, that the entire gang
filed sullenly down the steps, in obedience to an im-
perative gesture from Curley, and entered the near-
est saloon.
Tom's pony was led away; and, encouraged by
the friendly attitude of those around him, he ex-
plained, as briefly as possible, his errand in Hoi-
comb.
" Like enough the boss inside can tell you some-
thin' about the party you're lookin' for," suggested
a kindly Holcombite, as Colonel North and his chum
re-entered the Vendome, with an invitation to the
others to follow. Acting on the hint, Tom, after
taking Brave round to the rude stable in the rear,
stepped into the long unplastered and unpainted
room, which served as a combined office, dining hall
and barroom.
Behind a desk, near the door, stood a thickset
man, adding up a column of figures in a greasy ac-
count book, who looked up as Tom approached, and
disclosed the coarse and unshaven face of Britzer,
from whom he had parted months before, under such
unpleasant circumstances.
" Tom Deaii, by thunder 1" exclaimed Britzer, as a
sort of sickly pallor overspread his face.
" Yes, it's Tom Dean," was the cold reply, after
Tom had recovered from his own surprise. Mr.
Britzer himself speedily regained his wonted self
198 THAT TREASURE.
assurance, while Tom stood hesitating and unde-
cided Quite volubly he expressed his pleasure at
seeing Tom so stout and brown. And as Tom
made no reply, Britzer, rubbing his hands together
after his former fashion, went on to explain his un-
expected presence.
Well, accidents would happen, and he had slipped
tip on his business venture in Mexico. In fact, the
sheriff had sold him out. He had tried his hand at
one thing after another (Mr. Britzer did not go into
details), and finally drifted into Holcomb with a
trading wagon. Mr. Diggs, the proprietor of the
Vendome, was better at mixing drinks than keeping
his hotel accounts, and for the time being Mr. Brit-
zer was acting as a sort of clerk and general fac-
totum.
" Do you remember a Mr. Sherard and his daugh-
ter coming here some weeks since ?" asked Tom, as
Britzer finished.
Yes, indeed, Britzer remembered them well; nice
looking girl was Miss Dolly. Where on earth did
Tom fall in with them, he wanted to know, in evi-
dent astonishment.
" Mr. Sherard and I were in a mining venture to-
gether," was Tom's short reply.
"You don't mean it?" returned Britzer, with a
long, low whistle. " Then he had a partner, af tei
all, and if it was share and share alike, you, Master
Tom Dean, must have made a mighty good thing of
it," he went on, with a quick, penetrating glance at
Tom's immovable face; "for they say down town
that, before he left Holcomb, Sherard sold eighteen
thousand dollars' worth of pocket gold to Jacobs,
the Jew broker, under the bank."
Tom made no immediate reply, for his mind was
intent upon something else.
"Do you know where Mr. Sherard and Miss
THAT TREASURE. 129
Dolores went from here ?" he asked, too eager for
the required information to notice the evil glitter in
the eye of the man before him.
But all Britzer or any one in Holcomb knew
about it, so he said, was that Mr. Sherard kept his
own counsel as to his destination. The ticket agent, -
who boarded at the Vendome, said that Sherard
bought two tickets for Denver, but whether he
went east or west from there it was impossible to
tell.
" I suppose," said Britzer, eying Tom furtively
from under his shaggy eyebrows, as the young fel-
low, with a disappointed face, remained silent for a
moment or two, " I suppose of course you don't
know anything that is you've never tried to get
any clew to the the person who "
" Murdered Professor Dean," supplied Tom, as
Britzer stammered and hesitated without finishing
the sentence. " Yes, murdered him," he repeated,
as Britzer started, " for it was the shock the robber
gave the professor that caused his death. No,"
Tom went on, looking Britzer full in the face, " I've
never tried to get any clew for the reason that I'm
pretty sure who the party is, though unluckily I
can't prove it. But it can't be much satisfaction for
him to know that the money he failed to secure was
in the room all the time, and within his reach if
he'd only known where to look, and that I myself
found it afterwards between the leaves of an old
pocket diary in the closet, safe and sound," added
Tom, forgetting his usual discretion in his desire
of seeing what effect this disclosure would have
upon the man whom he believed to be actually
guilty of the attempted robbery and morally guilty
of Professor Dean's death.
But if his suspicions were correct, Britzer had *"
"*ery good command oyer his countenance.
130 THAT TEEASUEE.
" Well, I'm glad of it, Tom," he said, with affected
heartiness; " and though we had some words the
night you left the building, I I hope you don't
bear any grudge against me. Why, Tom," ex-
claimed Mr. Britzer, as, much to the young fellow's
disgust, he slapped him on the shoulder, " what
with the professor's little fortune and the pile I ex-
pect you made with Sherard, you'll go back East a
rich man. I suppose, of course, you don't intend
staying any longer than you can help in this for-
saken country."
" I leave tomorrow on the noon train," replied
Tom, briefly; and, finding out that he could obtain
a hot bath further down the street, where an enter-
prising Chinese barber had established a board
shanty directly over a boiling sulphur spring, Tom
went out, leaving his rifle in Britzer's care till he
returned.
Why, the moment that the door closed behind
Tom Dean, Britzer should have beckoned the stal-
wart major and the polite colonel to the desk, where
the trio exchanged several remarks in an undertone,
is best known to himself.
Colonel North and Major Smith had arrived at
Holcomb at nearly the same time as Britzer. They
represented themselves as ex army officers in search
of mining investments; and, being free and easy
gentlemen with plenty of money, they had speedily
ingratiated themselves with the guests of the Yen-
dome, who, it need hardly be said, were all of the
masculine flannel shirted order, ready to fight or
drink at the shortest possible notice.
Whether Britzer had met the pair before or not,
singularly enough a certain intimacy seemed to ex-
ist between the three, which Major Smith carelessly
explained by saying that Britzer was poor and down
on his luck, but the time had been when that man
THAT TEEASUKE. 131
was worth a cool hundred thousand. He, the major,
remembered having seen him more than once at the
Stock Exchange in New York.
Be this as it may, when Tom, refreshed by his
bath, returned to the Vendome in time for a coarse
but substantial meal, he became the recipient of
more attention than was quite agreeable from the
trio. To avoid the numerous invitations to drink,
as well as a cunning course of cross questioning
from the affable colonel, he stepped out on the
piazza.
There, seating himself on a hide bottomed stool,
he began to mentally review the situation. He took
the diary from the pocket stitched inside his woolen
shirt, and opened it on his knee.
"Four one thousand dollar notes, and enough
smaller ones to go a long way towards helping me
to get settled somewhere," he muttered as he
smoothed out the bills and arranged them carefully
between the discolored leaves.
As Tom was about closing the diary, something
pinned to a leaf in the first part attracted his atten-
tion. It was a paragraph cut from a newspaper
whose date was presumably that under which it
was pinned- or at least so Tom was inclined to
think.
" Will the gentleman who advertised in certain
New York papers in 1865 for the parents or legal
protectors of a male child aged about three years
and calling himself " Tommy " said child having
been found deserted on Pier 28, North River, after
departure of the Fall Eiver boat, communicate at
once with GK S. Greyson, 1927 Montgomery Street,
San Francisco, Boom 3, second floor."
Now, the date above the paragraph corresponded
to that of their arrival in the City of Mexico, some
five months previous; at which time, as Tom re-
132 THAT TREASURE.
membered, the professor had received from some
Eastern friend a package of New York papers by
mail, from one of which this scrap had probably
been scissored by the professor, and pinned in the
diary.
Why the professor had never spoken to him of
this paragraph, which might mean so much to him,
Tom could not understand. Nor did a further
perusal of various blotted memoranda give him any
idea whether Professor Dean had communicated
with the address given,
But the discovery settled one vexed question in
his mind. He had now a definite destination. The
uncertainty of tracing Mr. Sherard's movements
had given place to a certainty of at least learning
something concerning himself which must be im-
portant for him to know. That point once estab-
lished he could follow up his friends later on.
The shrill whistle of an East bound train cut
short Tom's musings. Returning the diary to his
pocket, he made room on the bench for the colonel,
who, with other guests of the Vendome, came
crowding out of the door to stare at the few pas-
sengers left on the platform by the departing train.
"I say," suddenly exclaimed Halsted, who had
joined the group on the piazza, and pointed across
the railway track, " ain't that what citv folks call a
'dude?'"
The person referred to was a rather fashionably
dressed young fellow, who appeared to be about
Tom's age. The Holcombites, whether miners or
engaged in other pursuits, eschewed white shirts;
though on dress occasions a fine French fiannel was
donned. Vests were regarded as purely ornamental
excepting in cold weather. A coat was allowable,
but not commonly worn, especially in the warmer
seasons.
THAT TKEASUKE. 132
Yet the new comer not only wore a well cut suit
of gray tweed, but his boots were polished, his
linen immaculate, and in one kid gloved hand he
carried a handsome traveling bag, to which was
strapped a neatly folded summer overcoat, and a
dainty silk umbrella. And when I add that, instead
of the slouch hat or sombrero familiar to Holcomb
eyes, the young stranger wore a high crowned
white derby encircled by a " weed," it is almost
needless to remark that he at once became the
cynosure of the public gaze !
"He must be a newly landed Englishman," re-
marked Colonel North, emphatically; "no dude of
American birth would dare wear such a headpiece
in this section of the country."
" Shoot the hat !" shouted a miner, of a humor-
ous turn, who had just returned from St. Jo,
where the slang expression quoted was then in vogue.
Mr. Curley, who had just come out of the corner
saloon close by, took the suggestion in its most
literal sense. As the young fellow was ascending
the wooden steps to the piazza, he drew his heavy
revolver and fired twice in rapid succession, seem-
ing scarcely to glance along the barrel.
The high crowned hat was lifted from the wear-
er's head and pitched backward to the ground,
pierced with two bullet holes, while a delighted
shout attested to the general appreciation of this
pleasing little practical joke.
But, instead of betraying any particular terror,
or even excitement, the young fellow set down his
satchel and glanced across at the corner where
Curley was returning his revolver to its sheath.
"Watched with breathless interest by the onlook-
ers, the new comer stepped quickly across the street
and confronted the bully, who stared at him in con-
temptuous amazement.
134 THAT TKEASUKE-
"I think it was you who spoiled my hat," he
quietly remarked to Curley; and before the latter
could reply, the speaker caught his burly opponent
directly under the chin with a well directed blow,
which sent him staggering backward against the
side of the saloon.
" Good boy !" shouted Colonel North. The young
man then energetically stripped off his coat, and
shaped himself in scientific fashion to meet the ex-
pected onrush of the bully, who, with a fearful im-
precation, had straightened himself for vengeance.
Meanwhile, the colonel, catching for the first time a
distinct view of the stranger's features, gave a sort
of half groan.
" Good Lord !" he muttered between his closely
shut teeth, " it's Tom himself, and the fat is in the
fire. But he must have got the money, else he
wouldn't have dared to follow me here."
Without finishing his half audible remark, Col-
onel North quickly reached his gun from behind the
door.
" Stop that drop your hands, Curley !" he shout-
ed. With a vivid remembrance of the previous
warning, and the probable results of neglecting to
heed it, Curley reluctantly gave up his loudly ex-
pressed purpose of " paralyzing " his youthful an-
tagonist. The latter seemed disappointed at the
interruption, and stepped back slowly.
But Colonel North's face resumed its wonted easy
demeanor, as the young fellow, having resumed his
coat and picked up his satchel, walked toward the
piazza of the hotel.
"Street brawls are contrary to the peace and
harmony of this community," remarked the colonel,
gravely, to the youthful stranger, who looked up at
him with apparent surprise: "and so, Mr. "
"Saxton Tom Saxton, of San Francisco/'
THAT TKEASUKE. 135
promptly answered the new comer, as the colonel
seemed to hesitate.
"Ah, thank you, Mr. Saxton," continued Colonel
North; " so, as a matter of strict duty, it was neces-
sary to interfere in this little affair, though, from
a a scientific point of view, I should have liked
to have seen the finish. Glad to know you, Mr.
Saxton," he added airily; " I'm acquainted in San
Francisco myself, and hope to have a talk with you
soon."
Mr. Tom Saxton responded politely, and the
colonel entered the door, at the head of a crowd of
thirsty admirers. With a glance at the white hat,
which was trodden out of shape by the dispersing
crowd, young Saxton pulled forward a stool upon
the piazza. Then he placed his traveling bag be-
tween his feet and opened it, while Tom sat watch-
ing him with eager interest, hoping that he would
say something to him.
Tom was not disappointed.
"I wonder if the fastidious Holcombites will find
fault with this," said Tom Saxton, pulling a soft,
black hat, of the description known as a " slouch,"
from his satchel, and placing it on his head. He
addressed himself to Tom, and at the same time
glanced half quizzically at the wide brimmed som-
brero worn by the latter.
"You look the thorough plainsman," he said to
Tom, " and I would like to trade outfits with you.
Are you open to an offer for your wardrobe ?"
Now it struck Tom that as he intended to go as
quickly as possible to San Francisco, he had no fur-
ther need for his frontier equipments; and this
might be a good opportunity for disposing of them.
"But are you ?oing to give up the garb of civili-
zation?" he said to the stranger. "Don't you come
from some Eastern city ?"
136 THAT TREASURE.
"No," replied Saxton, "I am from San Fran-
cisco."
"And don't you intend to return home?" con-
tinued Tom.
" I have no home, and I doubt if I shall ever go
back to San Francisco," answered Saxton, in a man-
ner which seemed to forbid further questioning.
Then the two began discussing the " outfit."
The upshot of the matter was that after inspecting
Tom's pony and equipments, together with his
weapons and accouterments, Saxton agreed to pur-
chase them on the following day, leaving their valu-
ation to some third party perhaps the major or his
friend Colonel North.
"You'd better throw in the dog," suggested young
Saxton, who was much taken with the appearance of
the noble mastiff. Brave lay on the ground near
the stable, watching the pony, as he filled himself
with the nutritious alfalfa, of which horses are so
fond.
But Tom shook his head decisively. Although
he knew it would be impossible to take Brave with
him, he could not bear to give the dog into a
stranger's hands.
" Some friends of mine are to liave Brave," he
said, and whistling the mastiff to him Tom left Sax-
ton to enter the house to arrange for his lodgings,
while the former made his way to the outskirts of
the town, where the trading wagon had been halted
and the Indian tepee was pitched.
The eyes of both Nita and Stefano sparkled as
Tom told them the purpose of his errand. He de-
sired to leave Brave with them.
" We always keep him and be good to him," said
Nita, patting the dog's huge head. During the jour-
ney across the plains both the Indian woman and
Stefano had become greatly attached to the mastiff,
THAT TKEASUKE. 137
who seemed to have taken a strong liking to them in
return.
As Tom caressed the dog for the last time, and
said his final farewells to Stefano and Nita, the hab-
itual stoicism of the Indian woman and her son gave
place to something like real emotion.
" Good by, Tom," said Nita, taking his hand in her
own brown one. " Nita poor Indian voman, but al-
ways pray Great Spirit take care of young white
brave;" and there was something like tears in her
dark eyes as she thus spoke.
" Adios," was Stefano's farewell; but the tremor of
his voice showed that he, too, was sorry to part
from the manly young fellow who had been so
strangely associated for a time with the two of a
despised race.
" Call Brave," said Tom, in a low tone. With
drooping head and tail, the great dog gave his
former master an almost pathetic look and obeyed
the summons of his new owners. Throwing open
the flap at the entrance of the Indian teptee, the
three passed in out of sight out of Tom's life and
out of my story forever.
138 THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTEB XVK
THOMAS SAXTON, ESQUIEE.
FEOM early morning till nightfall, excepting for
the few idlers and loafers who saunter through the
street or congregate on the corners, Holcomb's
main thoroughfare is comparatively deserted.
Occasionally half a dozen mounted Indians, a
trading wagon, a band of cowboys, or a gang of
desperadoes like those headed by Curley, who him-
self was a notorious horse thief, caused a ripple of
excitement by an unexpected incursion into to\vn;
but through the day Holcomb is, generally speak-
ing, given over to comparative quiet.
But after sundown Holcomb shakes off its leth-
argy. The one wide street teems with red and blue
shirted humanity. Miners from tunnel and shaft,
sooty workmen from the smelting furnaces, and
swarthy toilers from the stamp mills, engineers and
mine owners, adventurers and speculators, touch el-
bows in the ever restless and moving crowd.
It was early in the evening when Tom Dean re-
traced his steps from the trading wagon toward the
Vendome, and he was struck with astonishment at
the sight of so much stir and bustle.
The click of billiard balls, the clinking of glasses,
and the sounds of loud laughter, blended discord-
antly with the jangle of a cracked piano, as he passed
the wide open door of the largest, and consequently
worst, den of infamy in Holcomb.
THAT TEEASUEE. 139
Behind a long bar counter at the side stood the
proprietor, a swarthy Spaniard known as Rafe, with a
cigarette between his white teeth, overseeing his
two barkeepers, who were dealing out the liquid
poison to a noisy crowd, among whom Tom noticed
were Curley and two or three of his gang.
As Tom stood glancing in at this to him entirely
new phase of Western life, some one touched him
on the shoulder. Turning quickly about, Tom saw
young Saxton. He had discarded his white shirt
for a colored one of boating flannel, had left off his
vest, and was evidently beginning to adapt himself
to the customs of the country.
" Come in and take a drink, Dean," he said, in a
friendly voice; " and then when there's a chance at
the billiard table we'll have a game or two; in Home,
you know, one must do as the Romans do."
"I don'fc drink; I don't play billiards; and we're
not in Rome," was the uncompromising reply.
" Ah, you'll soon get rid of all that squeamish-
ness if you stay in San Francisco any time," said
Saxton, coolly. "Fact is," he went on, as Tom
shrugged his shouiaers, " it's all very well for a fel-
low to steady down after he gets to be thirty or
thereabouts; but till then I believe in a young fel-
low's having his fling sowing his wild oats, don't
you know ?"
" I know," steadily replied Tom, " that in an old
fashioned book which young fellows are apt to
make light of, it says: 'Whatsoever a man soweth,
that also shall he reap;' and, short as my life has
been, I've seen and heard enough to find that it is
true."
" Well, don't preach," was the impatient answer;
but Tom noticed a shadow pass over his compan-
ion's good looking face as he spoke.
"Preaching isn't in my line," said Tom, gently,
140 THAT TKEASUKE.
drawing Saxton a little on one side out of the glare of
light that streamed from the open door; " but look
here, Saxton, if you go in there you'll only get into
trouble with that brute Curley, who is three quarters
drunk already. Come back to the Vendome; there's
some one I want to inquire about in San Francisco,
whom possibly you may know."
Perhaps curiosity to learn something more about
Tom, whose reticence concerning himself had rather
piqued his new acquaintance, was the motive of Sax-
ton's final acquiescence. And possibly Tom's gentle
rebuke might not have been entirely lost.
" Pity I hadn't had some one like you at my elbow
all my life, instead of the one I have had," he said,
abruptly, as the two turned away from the noisy
revelry which was growing more furious every mo-
ment.
" Saxton," exclaimed Tom, impetuously, " it's never
too late to mend. If you've gone a bit wrong
which of course I know nothing about why don't
you turn square round, and go back to your home ?"
In the clear moonlight, Tom could see the mus-
cles of his companion's face twitching convulsively.
But Saxton pulled himself together, and said, de-
cisively:
" You're very kind, Dean, but you don't know. In
my case it is too late."
Tom saw that he could not well pursue the sub-
ject without seeming inquisitive, so he said no
more.
Elbowing their way along the noisy thoroughfare,
the two reached the Vendome piazza. They found
it entirely deserted, and seated themselves in the
clear moonlight.
" The person I wanted to ask about," began Tom,
referring to the paragraph in his diary, " though of
course it's only barely possible that you may know
THAT TREASURE. 141
or have heard of the name, is a Mr. Gr. S. Grey-
son "
It was probably the report of the pistol or rifle
shot, which suddenly rang out a little way down the
street, that caused Torn Saxton to start so vio-
lently at this juncture.
So at least Tom supposed as Saxton sprang to his
feet and gazed eagerly in the direction of the shot.
A number of passing pedestrians turned and ran to-
ward the open door of one of the saloons.
" There's some sort of a row at Rafe's," said Tom.
At the same moment the peace loving colonel, fol-
lowed by a number of others, dashed out on the
piazza and into the street, duly armed and equip-
ped " according to law," to quote Mr. Diggs, who
with a due regard for his personal safety had staid
behind.
" Better stay here," he added.
A sudden irregular discharge of firearms in the
street, and the whistling of two or three stray bul-
lets, in the direction of the building, gave point to
the warning.
Amid a hoarse chorus of yells and oaths, accom-
panied by popping of revolvers, half a dozen or
more mounted men dashed past the piazza like a
whirlwind.
"Curley's gang an' a mighty good riddance," ex-
claimed Mr. Diggs, with a sigh of evident relief.
And as the little affair was evidently over, he went
in to relieve Britzer at the bar.
"What was the trouble, colonel ?" eagerly asked
Tom, as that individual, breathless and hatless, re-
turned to the hotel.
"No trouble at all," returned Colonel North, pleas-
antly, after he had blown the smoke from the barrel
of his gun; "only that Curley shot the sheriff, who
was trying to arrest him, and as his gang were in-
142 THAT TKEASUKE.
dined to make some little trouble, we quietly ran
them out of town that is all; but Curley himself
he's under lock and key in the jail, by this time."
" What will be done with him ?" again inquired
" Nothing if it is left for a jury to decide," was
the energetic reply; "he has slipped through the
meshes of the law seven or eight times already, I'm
told, and - "
"A word with you, colonel," interrupted Major
>mith, hurrying up; and as he whispered something
in the colonel's ear, the latter nodded.
" I'm with them," he said, approvingly, and the
two, making quickly away together, joined an ex-
cited crowd on the nearest corner, who were talking
together in an undertone.
"What a singular person that Colonel North is,"
eaid Tom, after a short silence; "so polite, and well
educated. Yet he seems to be hand and glove with
the rough crowd who make up the town here."
" He is a singular person," bitterly replied Saxton,
very much to Tom's surprise; "a man who would
take your life, or pick your pocket, in the same
smooth, easy way, in which you hear him talk. He
is thoroughly unscrupulous, fears neither God nor
man, and has been an adventurer from the time he
was turned adrift by his father for - "
Here, conscious that Tom was staring at him ID
amazement, Saxton pulled himself up very sud-
denly.
"What confounded nonsense I'm talking," he
said, changing color slightly; " but the fact is, while
you were gone I had a long yarn with this Colonel
North, who might have let out more about himself
than he meant to. Without thinking what I was
saying, I gave you my private opinion of the man,
who, after all, may not be half so black as I've
THAT TREASURE. 143
painted Mm. But to return to what we were speak-
ing of when we were interrupted," Saxton went on,
hurriedly; "curiously enough, I happen to know
the Mr. Greyson you asked about in fact that is
he is an intimate friend of my grandfather's."
" Well, that is odd," returned Tom, forgetting his
companion's tirade against Colonel North, in his
eagerness to know more about Mr. Greyson. "Who
and what is he, please ?"
" A retired sea captain, enormously wealthy and
very eccentric," was the slow reply. "And now, do
you mind telling me why you asked about him ?" in-
quired Saxton, with a curious side glance at his
companion.
Tom did not mind in the least. On the contrary,
it was rather a relief for him to tell this young fel-
low, so near his own age, as much of his story as
was necessary. Bringing out the pocket diary, he
read aloud the newspaper fragments by the clear
moonlight, which was flooding everything with al-
most noonday radiance.
It was, perhaps, the moonlight itself which gave
such a ghastly pallor to Saxton's face, as Tom Dean
finished his narration.
" I don'fc understand why the professor kept the
newspaper scrap from my knowledge, though," re-
marked Tom, after vainly waiting for the young fel-
low beside him to break the silence.
" Perhaps," suggested Saxton, whose voice sounded
rather strangely, " the professor, as you call him,
had written to Mr. Greyson, and was waiting for
him to answer before he told you the whole story."
" I don't see why Mr. Greyson didn't answer, if
the professor wrote to him," persisted Tom.
" Mr. Greyson might never have received the let-
ter," was the low reply; and, as though anxious to
change the subject, Saxton began trying to draw
HI THAT TKEASURE.
Tom out more fully regarding his former life and
his adventures generally, of which he seemed to
have heard some hints. He probably got these
from Halsted, who was seemingly well known to
many of the habitues of the Vendome, and had been
hanging about the barroom since late in the after-
noon.
But Tom, mindful ot his companion's reticence as
to his own history, took pattern thereby so success-
fully, that Saxton finally rose. He muttered some-
thing about " turning in," and stepped inside the
door, followed a moment later by Tom himself.
The interior was no more inviting than by day-
light. The fumes of liquor and strong tobacco
poisoned the atmosphere. Half intoxicated roughs
and miners leaned against the bar counter, and
interspersed their mutual confidences with oaths and
ribald songs. Even the fluent pen of Bret Harte
could hardly evolve a picturesque character or situ-
ation from such environments.
Colonel North, whom no amount of liquor seemed
to affect in the least, was playing poker at a rough
board table near the door, with the major as his
partner, and an English lord, who was " doing " the
Western country, and a wealthy cattle buyer as
opponents.
It might have been fancy, but Tom thought, as
the colonel looked up, that a glance of intelligence
passed between him ;tnd young Saxton.
But however this was, the latter, seemingly for-
getful of his intention to retire, stepped behind the
colonel's chair, where he stood watching the prog-
ress of the game.
A few minutes later, the major rose from his seat,
exclaiming that " something he'd eat for supper
didn't seem to sit well."
He allowed the cards to fall from his hand, and,
THAT TKEASUEE. 145
pushing back the stool, made a very sudden and
abrupt exit.
" Oh, look here now," exclaimed Lord Clinghurst,
who was being initiated into the national game,
"that's not the thing, don't you know."
" Perhaps Mr. er Saxton knows enough about
the game to take the major's hand," blandly sug-
gested Colonel North. And Tom could almost
have sworn that, as he spoke, the colonel threw
a meaning glance at Saxton, who was turning
away.
Whether or not this was the case, the young
fellow stopped, said something about merely know-
ing the rudiments of the game, and dropping into
the vacated seat, took up the cards in a seemingly
awkward manner.
" Hum," thought Tom, " so he spars like an ama-
teur prize fighter, drinks, and plays poker. For a
fellow who can't be much, if any, older than myself,
I should say that was a bad lookout. No wonder he
had trouble with his grandfather. And, more than
that," so ran Tom's musing " there's something
between him and that Colonel North, although they
pretend to be strangers. Now, what does it mean,
I'd like to know ?"
But he was too tired and sleepy to pursue the
question further, so he turned toward the sleeping
loft overhead.
Carrying in one hand his haversack, which con-
tained a newly purchased brush, comb, and a few
needed articles of light underclothing, together
with some two hundred spare cartridges that
were part of the " outfit " for which young Saxton
had bargained, Tom was about to ascend the ladder
leading to the sleeping loft overhead. Just then
Britzer approached, with a somewhat uncertain
step.
146 THAT TREASURE.
" Say, Tom," he whispered loudly, at the same
time touching the bulging haversack with the toe
of his boot, " why don't you sell your gold before
you leave town, same's Sherard did, instead of lug-
ging it round ?''
*' I haven't any to sell," replied Tom, shortly;
" what makes mv haversack so heavy is a lot of car-
tridges."
" Oh, of course," returned Britzer, breaking into
an ironical laugh. Without troubling to prove his
assertion, Tom ascended the ladder to the loft, whose
uninviting interior was made dimly visible by a
lighted lantern hanging from a beam.
" There's no one sleeps in number six, Tom; you
can turn in there," called Britzer from below.
Making his way between two rows of canvas cots,
furnished with pillows and gray blankets, Tom de-
posited his haversack under, and himself upon, the
cot designated.
Tom was tired out, and his eyes were soon closed
by a heavy drowsiness. As he lay partly undressed
on the outside of the cot, he had a strange dream,
which did not seem to be all a dream, either.
He fancied that Saxton, whose cot was next to his
own, approached with a lighted candle in his hand.
After glancing about him, to make sure that he was
unobserved, he softly pushed the sleeve of Tern's
woolen shirt up to the elbow, as his arm lay partly
extended from the cot.
Bending down, he seemed to look attentively at
some tiny blue scratches in the smooth, white flesh,
which a little stretch of imagination might convert
into one or more initial letters, though Tom himself
had only thought of them as a skin blemish or birth-
mark.
" Yes, the ' T ' is there, plain enough ! I guess
the game is up, sure," Tom dreamed that he heard
THAT TREASURE. 147
Saxton say, half aloud, as he softly replaced the
sleeve, and sat down on the edge of his own bed.
Then, placing the candle on the floor, he began un-
lacing his boots.
Still dreaming if he were dreaming Tom heard
a sleepy voice near at hand, which he recognized as
that of the English tourist, remark:
"Say, Saxton, Beal and I had beastly bad luck
tonight, playing against you and the colonel.
Seems to me you play an uncommon good hand for
a young feller. I lost nearly five hundred dollars
tonight."
"Poker is a very uncertain game, Lord Cling-
hurst," replied Saxton, with a real or affected yawn,
as he blew out the candle. Then there was a short
silence.
" Should think so," finally returned his lord-
ship, who had included Holcomb in his tour simply
to see what a typical Western mining town was
like. "Have the colonel or the major come up yet,
do you know ? " he asked, duplicating Saxton's
yawn.
" Doubt if you see either of them before morn-
ing," said Saxton, coughing dryly; " as I under-
stand, they, with a number of law abiding citizens
of Holcomb, are holding a short session of court,
presided over by Judge Lynch, somewhere in the
vicinity of the jail."
"Isn't it rather late in the evening for that sort
of thing?" inquired Lord Clinghurst, innocently.
"Better late than never," was the somewhat enig-
matic answer; and then Tom's dream seemed to end
abruptly, and when he awoke the sun was streaming
in at the one uncurtained window.
"Ready for that exchange?" said a voice near
him. Starting up, Tom saw Saxton, who tossed
coat, pants and vest upon the foot of Tom's cot, and
148 THAT TREASURE.
proceeded at once to array himself in the latter's re-
jected habiliments. Tom, in exchange, donned Sax-
ton's swell suit.
When, a few moments later, the two descended
to the lower room, they found only Mr. Diggs, the
proprietor, Lord Clinghurst, and the cattle dealer
present; most of the mining men having had an
early breakfast, and gone to their work by sun-
rise.
" So you two hev made the swap off I he?rd some
of 'em tellin' about las' night," observed Mr. Diggs,
staring very hard at the two well proportioned
young fellows before him. " It's kind uv a curi's
freak on your part, but I s'pose you know your biz-
ness better'n any one else," he added.
Mr. Diggs was chosen a sort of referee to appraise
the value of Tom's outfit; which he did very fairly,
all things considered.
" Hoss I call forty; Winchester, beiii'secon' hand,
fifteen; revolver, ditto, ditto; saddle and rest of hoss
gear, includin' blankits, say thirty; an' sundries
meanin' haversack, ketridges, belt, knife, pockit com-
pass an' sich, ten more," he announced, after consid-
erable ciphering with a stumpy pencil..
"One hundred and ten take my traveling bag,
with the underclothing, etc., and call it an even
hundred, Dean," said Saxton, with a sort of forced
gayety.
"Very good," said Tom; and the bargain was
completed. From a well filled pocket book, Saxton
produced two fifty dollar bills, which he handed
Tom, who put them between the leaves of his diary,
with the rest of his little fortune. After this, they
sat down to breakfast with excellent appetites.
The meal was soon over, and the two Chinamen
employed as waiters began clearing away the
dishes.
THAT TREASURE. 149
A general adjournment to the piazza followed.
Lord Clinghurst, who never stirred without a field
glass in a case hanging from his shoulders, stood
leaning against one of the rough supports, point-
lug the glass towards a distant clump of cotton-
woods.
" Why, bless me there's a man hung himself to
on^ of the trees yonder," he exclaimed, in horrified
accents which caused every one to look up.
" 'Tain't no sooicide bizness it's only Pete
Curley," remarked Mr. Diggs, coolly, as he pro-
ceeded to light his pipe. " The boys busted in the
jail door some'res to'ards mornin'," he concluded,
blowing a cloud of smoke into the clear air; " an'
after we'd that is," said Mr. Diggs, correcting him-
self, with a slight show of contusion, "after they'd
driv the jailer an' deppity sheriffs into one o' the
cells an' locked 'em in, we they, I mean, jest took
Pete out to the cott'nwood clump yonder, giv' him
five minnits to say his prayers, an* run him up whar
he orter ben five years ago."
Just then Halsted, who had evidently been walk-
ing very fast, came up to the piazza, and addressed
Mr. Diggs.
"I dunno but it's all right, Diggey," he said,
rather hastily; "but jes' now Cherokee Charley
came in from the range, an' says jest afore sunup
that Britzer chap on your sorril mare, along of Ma-
jor Smith an' the kernel, passed him on the ol*
Piute trail, headin' to the west'ard an' gallopin' like
mad !"
The pipe dropped from Mr. Diggs's mouth per-
haps forced therefrom by the torrent of imprecations
which followed it.
" My sorril mare and five weeks' board to them
two blamed, smooth talkin' scalawags clean gone !"
yelled the unhappy Diggs, who, with his fingers
150 THAT TKEASUEE.
clutched in his unkempt hair, seemed desirous of
lifting himself off his feet in his frenzy.
But leaving Mr. Diggs to bewail his losses, and
to lament that as yet there was no telegraphic com-
munication between Holcomb and the adjoining
towns, Tom betook himself to the railway station, in
company with Mr. Beal and Lord Clinghurst. All
three of them intended to leave Holcomb on the
same train.
Tom bought a through ticket to San Francisco;
but as the 6 P. M. express from Albuquerque did not
stop at Holcomb, all three would be obliged to
change at Daggett, some ninety miles further on,
where the express did stop, for their several destin-
ations.
"That's the worst of the whole thing," growled
Mr. Beal as they returned in company to the Ven-
dome; "for these wretched local trains in this sec-
tion of the kentry are stopped by train robbers
nigh as ofen as the ol' stage line used to be."
Lord Clinghurst laughed lightly.
" Stopping a mail coach is one thing, but for rob-
bers, or road agents, as I believe you call 'em, to
stop a railway train full of passengers come, now,
that's rather too absurd !"
Mr. Beal grunted, but made no further comments,
and the trio reached the Vendome. They found
young Saxton, in his plainsman's garb, exercising
the Indian pony by running him through the street
at full speed; which, being quite one of the customs
of the country, excited neither comment nor partic-
ular attention.
" If you shoot as well as you ride," remarked Tom,
as Saxton leaped from the saddle, and gave the pony
into the hands of the half breed hostler, "you'll
make an admirable plainsman."
" I shoot fairly well," was the quiet reply. " My
THAT TREASURE. 151
grandfather," he continued, sitting down beside
Tom, "was one of the ruost indulgent of men in
some things. I had a saddle horse when I was nine
years old, and after I was big enough to handle a
gun I spent almost every vacation at a hunting
lodge in the Yellowstone Park, with some friends
of his; so I got to be quite a good shot for a young-
ster."
"And to think you'd leave such a home as you
must have had for the life that you have taken up!"
exclaimed Tom, impulsively.
"Some day I fancy you will understand better
why I did," returned Saxton, moodily; " for I have
a sort of presentiment that in the course of time
you and my grandfather will meet."
A brief silence followed.
" You're positive I didn't leave any letters in the
pockets of the coat you've got on ?" asked young
Saxton, suddenly.
Taking his big wallet from the inside pocket of
the shirt, where Tom had kept the diary which had
now been transferred to his new suit, Saxton was
turning over some papers in one of the compart-
ments with a look of anxiety.
" Perfectly sure," was the confident answer. " Why,
do you miss anything ?"
" It's no consequence. I probably left it behind
in my hurry, or perhaps tore it up. I don't know,
and don't care," replied Saxton, fretfully, as he
pushed his wallet back to place.
But he soon regained his usual demeanor, and
went on talking of what he meant to do. He had
plenty of money, and perhaps would join a wagon
train or a hunting party before long, that is, if
And here this very singular young man stopped
abruptly, and changed the subject.
" I'm going to say good by to you now," he said,
152 THAT TREASURE.
rising and reaching for his rifle, which was leaning
against the side of the house; "for I think I'll take
a little turn outside of the town, and practice at
jack rabbit shooting till dark. I suppose you'll be
off before very long."
'Well, good by, then," returned Tom, hardly
knowing what to make of his peculiar and rather
mysterious acquaintance, as he shook him heartily
by the hand ; " who knows but we shall meet again
some day?"
" Better if we don't/' muttered Saxton.
Pressing Tom's hand again, his lips parted, as
though he were about to say something more. But
if such was his intention, he checked himself, mut-
tered " Grood by and good luck;" and, a few mo-
ments later, Tom saw him riding down the street.
Near the clump of cottonwoods, from which Pete
Curley's body was still swinging, Tom saw the
young fellow draw rein and sit motionless in his
saddle for a short time.
" How can he want to look at such a horrid sight?"
thought Tom, with a shudder, as he turned and en-
tered the house.
But Saxton was looking at something else. It
was the little compass he had drawn from the
haversack.
" Strike the Piute trail south of the clump of
cottonwoods/ he was saying, with his eyes fixed on
th^ compass card; "and keep straight on to Ash
Forks. Stop at the Gayety saloon, and wait for him
there; so my orders were last night, and there's
nothing for me to do now but obey. I wonder what
new deviltry he's planning now."
And, clapping his heels to the plump sides of his
sturdy little steed, Tom Saxton galloped on toward
the Piute trail, drawn on by an irresistible destiny
to the strange events that awaited him.
THAT TREASURE. 153
CHAPTER
A DISCOVERY AND A LOSS.
THE three or four cars composing the " local
train," which ran through from Holcomb to Dag-
gett, a distance of some ninety miles, in five hours,
were certainly not designed for comfort, any more
than the wheezing engine was intended for speed.
The seat occupied by Tom Dean and his satchel was
uncushioned, and not over clean. The atmosphere
was redolent of cigarette smoke and the fumes of
aguardiente, which was being consumed by a party
of Mexicans and half breeds at one end of the
car.
Beal, who sat with Lord Clinghurst, immediately
ahead of Tom, told the latter that the rear car,
which was arranged with rude berths to serve
as a sort of "sleeper" for women and children,
contained several emigrant families, while the one
beyond was filled with a motley crowd of all sorts.
As the noble tourist seemed to be completely
taken up with some very marvelous stories of West-
ern enterprise and adventure, which the worthy
cattle buyer was relating with great solemnity, Tom,
left entirely to his own devices, took the opportun-
ity to examine more particularly the contents of
his new traveling bag, into which he had only
glanced before saying " good by " to the little town
of Holcomb.
154 THAT TKEASUKE.
The nice underclothing, stockings, collars, cuffs,
and shirts, were all marked with the initials " T. S.
G." This led Tom to believe that their former
owner had only told part of his name, which was
really Tom Saxton something.
In a flat, wallet-like receptacle, Tom found some
papers and envelopes, and, slipped in between them,
two letters which Saxton must have overlooked.
" Perhaps these are the ones he missed, when he
asked me whether I found any papers in my pocket,"
thought Tom, taking them mechanically from their
hiding place.
One of them was inclosed in a crumpled envelope
on which was a Mexican postage stamp. And with
a gasp of astonishment, Tom immediately recognized
both the handwriting and the address. The first
was Professor Dean's peculiar chirography, as
familiar to Tom as his own, while the address was:
G. S. GREYSON,
1917 MONTGOMERY ST., SAN FRANCISCO,
Up one flight. CAL.
" The letter was mailed in the City of Mexico the
very day the professor received his bundle of
New York papers," muttered Tom, turning very pale.
But what did it mean? How had Saxton, or
whatever his name was, come into possession of
Professor Dean's letter? What connection could
there be between him and this mysterious Mr. Grey-
son ? Why
But conjectures were of no avail, and in a per-
fect maze of bewilderment Tom withdrew the letter
from the broken envelope, and opened it. It read
thus:
Crrr OF MEXICO, November 3, 1878.
G. S. GBEYSON. ESQ.
DEAB SIB : I have just cut from a New York paper this day
received your advertisement relating to a notice inserted in
THAT TREASURE. 155
city papers some years ago. I had at first intended proceeding
at once to San Francisco for a personal interview, but for
various reasons must defer it till later, or, at least, till I re-
ceive an answer to this letter.
Now for the subject in hand. I presume from the wording
of your notice that you had some strong motive for insert-
ing it.
On the evening of June 30. 1865, 1 went to see a friend off ty
the Fall River boat, which left Pier 28, North River, about
6 P. M. After the boat had swung away from the wharf, and
the crowd was dispersing, I felt a tug at my coat. Looking
down, I saw a sturdy looking, well dressed little fellow, who
could not speak plainly enough to make me understand any-
thing, except that his name was " Tommy," and he wanted his
mamma, from whom " a bad man " had taken him. I took the
child up, and at once instituted an inquiry oil the pier, but
without results.
I then carried him to my boarding house, and telegraphed
the agents of the boat at Fall River regarding the boy. They
made all due inquiry on arrival of the steamer; but, strangely
enough, without success. I then inserted advertisements in
the prominent city dailies, but without avail, nor could the
police get any clew whatever to the mother or parents of the
lost child.
The only thing which might furnish a trace as to his identity
was a sort of monogram in India ink on his little arm, which
proved to be the letters "T. S. G.;" but they were so finely
traced, that at the present time only the T is discernible.
Tom is now about seventeen, and I love him as my own son.
My little sayings I intend for him when I pass to the spirit
world ; and in every way I have tried to care for his welfare as
for my own.
I think I have now told you all there is to tell. Whatever
you may know concerning his parentage, or to his advantage,
will be strictly confidential, if you choose to communicate
such mformation. I have said nothing as yet to him. for fear
of raising false hopes, and shall preserve silence till I hear
from you. Hoping that you will reply at once,
I am very truly, PKOFESSOB DEAN.
Then followed the address, giving street and
number; but Tom read no further. His head was
in a perfect whirl, and as the train went jolting
along over its uneven road bed, he glanced from the
window at the- monotonous landscape, without taking
in any of its features.
"That letter, which Mr. Greyson has probably
never read, or he would have answered it at once,
will tell my story and prove the truth of it better
156 THAT TREASURE.
than I myself could do." Such was Tom's exultant
thought.
But how came it in Saxton's possession ? Would
the other letter throw any light on this perplexing
question ?
DEAK TOM : I am planning to return to San Francisco just as
soon as it is safe to do so. The major and I have a grand
scheme in view, -which it will take about two thousand dollars
to float. You must get the money for us. Now that you have
full charge of old Greyson's rent collecting, correspondence,
and money matters generally, this will be a comparatively
easy thing. You have put G's name at the bottom of too many
smaller checks for my oenefit to stick at this, and if you can't
cover up a two thousand dollar error in the accounts ot a man
worth a million, you're not the shrewd fellow I take you to be.
You must get it some way, and run the chances, for 'there's a
pot of nwney in our new scheme about which you shall know
in good time. If worst comes to worst, you can light out and
join me here but not without bringing the, t<ro thou'. I trust,
however, that it will not come to that. You have a shrewdness
and sagacity beyond your years, or you never could have
played your part as olii Greyson's grandson and possible heir
so finely as you have done, since you were ola enough to
understand from rne how you really stood in the matter. My
address is the same. COLONEL FKANCIS NOKTH.
Holcomb, Arizona.
"Well, I wouldn't have believed there was such
villainy in the world !" exclaimed Tom, as a shadowy
idea of how things really stood began to shape
itself in his bewildered mind!
Carefully folding the two letters, which might be
of such inestimable service to him, Tom placed
them between the leaves of his diary and gave him-
self up to reflection !
Whatever else was incomprehensible in the mat-
ter, one thins: was plain. Mr. Greyson, instead of
being the intimate friend of young Saxton's so
called grandfather, was the grandfather himself,
though in name only. Colonel North's letter showed
very conclusively the imposition which had been
practiced upon the wealthy old man for purposes of
gain.
THAT TREASURE. 157
Further than this, all was purely conjecture. Re-
solved not to buoy himself up with any false hopes
which might never be realized, Tom resolutely tried
to dismiss the subject from his mind until he could
see Mr. Greyson face to face.
The voice of Lord Clinghurst, raised above the
rattle and rush of the train, disturbed his reflec-
tions.
" Can't understand it, Mr. Beal; 'pon my word I
can't," he was saying; " especially in a country
where every other fellow goes armed, whether he's
traveling or not. I s'pose " turning in his seat
"you, Mr. er Dean, carry some kind of a pistol
about you eh ?"
Tom shook his head.
" Well, you do, Mr. Beal ?"
" Only a pocket pistol of this kind," returned the
cattle drover, pulling a wicker flask from his coat
pocket and shaking it gently.
" I've got one, at any rate," said Lord Clinghurst,
exhibiting an elaborately mounted and chased
Smith and Wesson, " and if half a dozen desperadoes
such as you've been telling about were to enter the
train, do you suppose I'd sit quiet and give up my
money and valuables "
The sharp whistle of the locomotive for "down
brakes " cut short Lord Clinghurst's boast.
The grinding of the brakes and sudden slowing
down of the train, followed by a shock as though
some obstacle on the track had been encountered,
caused a general uprising of the passengers.
" Ladrones ladrones !" yelled the Mexican brake-
man, poking his head into the rear door. In au in-
stant all was confusion.
" Chance for your pistol, Clinghurst !" exclaimed
Mr. Beal, as he rapidly transferred a capacious
pocket book from his coat into a number seven shoe,
158 THAT TEEASUEE.
and slipped his watch and chain down the leg of the
other stocking.
But before Lord Clinghurst, whose healthy En-
glish color had suddenly fled, could reply, or Tom
Dean could collect his own scattered senses, a small,
plainly dressed man, whose face was hidden by a
crape or cambric mask with eyeholes, stepped
quickly inside the door, holding a cocked double
barreled gun at his shoulder.
" Money and valuables, if you please, gentle^
men," he said, in what was evidently a feigned
voice.
A thick set personage, masked like the other, and
wearing his blue shirt after the manner of a carter s
frock, entered at the rear door. He carried a heavy
revolver in his grasp. Walking swiftly up the aisle,
the train robber presented his weapon.
Lord Clinghurst, with a blanched face, handed
over his gold chronometer and a well filled note
case. Mr. Beal, uttering audible imprecations, ex-
tended a worn calf skin wallet.
" No fooling off with your shoes !" and, heavy
hearted, the cattle buyer obeyed.
"Now you !" was the sharp demand, emphasized
by the muzzle of the revolver at Tom's temple; and
he had no resource but to obey.
" Take the money that's in it, but leave me the
book and two or three papers," he began, when the
diary was snatched rudely from his grasp. With
the other valuables, it was handed over to him of the
double barrel, who, still holding his gun in readi-
ness, walked down the aisle to receive the booty.
Seizing Tom's traveling bag from the seat, the
heavily built man followed his superior officer to the
door, and the two stepped out on the platform,
where they were reinforced by two from the adjoin-
ing car.
THAT TREASUEE. 159
Suddenly Lord Clinghurst lugged out his revol-
ver, and standing erect on his seat, aimed into the
group on the platform.
" For God's sake, Clinghurst !" cried Beal, but the
remainder of the protest was lost in the sharp
crack ! crack ! crack ! of three successive shots from
the self cocker.
The thick set man, who was nearest the door,
staggered and fell backward to the ground from the
car platform a limp, lifeless mass; while the smaller
of the two, uttering an exclamation of pain, let his
gun drop from his grasp, and clapped his hand to
his shoulder.
At the same moment, a partially tipsy Mexican,
emboldened by the unexpected result, drew from
under the seat a bell muzzled flint lock blunderbuss,
of a pattern only seen nowadays in collections of
antique weapons. Drawing back the hammer, he
pointed it toward the door, shut both eyes, and
pulled.
There was an explosion like that of a tunnel blast
a crashing of glass and splintering of wood.
The Mexican was kicked nearly under the seat by
the recoil, but the handful of buckshot and bullets
with which the old trabuco was loaded dispersed the
train robbers as effectually as a charge of cavalry,
and in another moment three mounted men galloped
swiftly away, followed by two ineffectual shots from
the revolver of Lord Clinghurst, who himself was in
the highest state of excitement.
The Mexican brakeman and conductor appeared
as though by magic from somewhere under the car
wheels, while the engineer and fireman, who had
jumped off when the train came to a standstill, came
back to their respective posts as soon as the danger
was over.
Meanwhile the passengers had gathered about the
160 THAT TEEASUEE.
body of the train robber, which lay doubled up be*
side the track.
Mr. Beal stooped over and took the revolver from
his hand, while the Mexican who had used the blun-
derbuss roughly tore the crape mask from the dead
mart's face.
"I'm derned," said Mr. Beal, emphatically, "if it
ain't that Britzer that lit out with Diggs's sorril
mare ! That bein' the case, it wouldn't surprise me
none if that air poker playin' cunnel, and Major
Smith hisself, was two more of the gang."
Neither would it have surprised Tom in the least,
as he remembered young Saxton's testimony to the
colonel's little peculiarities, together with other sus-
picious circumstances.
But Tom was by no means in a talking mood. He
had picked up his traveling bag where it had been
dropped, but his money, and what was almost as
much to be lamented, the pocket diary with its con-
tents, were gone.
Silently he returned to his seat, hearing, like one
in a dream, the excited gabble of tongues about
him. After the obstructions had been removed
from the track, the train started on again, leaving
the body of Britzer where it lay.
But Tom for the first time felt discouraged and,
cast down. His railway ticket, about seven dollars
in silver, and the contents of his traveling bag, to-
gether with the clothes he stood in, comprised his
entire earthly possessions. He hardly dared to
think that he should be lucky enough to regain his
lost gold or its equivalent. In this cheerful frame
of mind, he mechanically ate and slept during the
succeeding three days and nights of railway journey-
ing, until the blue coated conductor, with an audi-
ble sigh of relief, called out " San Francisco V
THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE IMPORTANT MEETING.
PERSONS sometimes speak of the sense of loneli-
ness they have known, when, as perfect strangers in
some great city, they felt that in all the hurrying,
busy throng that passed and repassed, there was
not one who either directly or indirectly had the
slightest interest in their well being or even their
existence.
Thip is not always the case. Given a well lined
pocket book, or even a prospect of immediate ern-
ploymentj by which one can pay his own way till
something better offers, and this feeling is by no
means so depressing.
But Tom Dean crossed over from the Oakland
terminus of the railway, and entered upon the popu-
lous thoroughfares of San Francisco, with his travel-
ing bag in his hand, and less than ten dollars in his
pocket, without acquaintances, friends, or letters of
recommendation. I can assure you that such an
experience, even to a hopeful nature, is a very trying
one.
True, everything was dependent upon the result
of his interview with the mysterious Mr. Grey son.
Yet the very uncertainty of his mission, without a
scrap of writing to prove his identity or substantiate
the story he had to tell, made the situation doubly
painful and embarrassing.
16* THAT TKEASURE,
In this frame of mind, Tom, aided by the advice
of a friendly policeman, sought out a cheap but
comfortable lodging house on Kearney Street;
where, having paid in advance for a room for the
night, he left his traveling bag. After having at-
tended to his toilet with considerable care, he en-
joyed at a neighboring restaurant, for the first time
in many weeks, a well cooked meal amid civilized
surroundings.
" Now for it," muttered Tom, as he mentally girded
up his loins, and started out. Greatly wondering 1
within himself at the ups and downs of the populous
thoroughfares, he bent his steps in the direction of
Montgomery Street.
Drifting with the great tide of humanity, he soon
reached the wide and busy thoroughfare.
Suppose he could not find Mr. Greyson! Or sup-
pose, having found him, that Mr. Greyson refused
even to listen to him! True, somewhere in the
United States Tom had awaiting him a small fortune
eight or nine thousand dollars, if Britzer's state-
ment concerning Mr. Shei*ard's sale of the gold at
Holcomb was to be believed. Yet without a sum of
money to pursue his search, the lost treasure could
hardly be recovered. If he had only gone directly
to Denver, which was Mr. Sherard's destination after
leaving Holcomb, perhaps he might have discovered
something there.
With all these conflicting doubts, worries, and re-
grets agitating his mind, Tom reached the desig-
nated number and entered the great hallway between
the different offices. With a fast beating heart he
ascended the wide stairway, where a continuous
throng was ascending and descending.
" Come in," said a very gruff voice, as Tom tapped
gently on the glazed upper half of a door numbered
" 3." In obedience to the summons he entered.
THAT TKEASURE. 163
" Is this Mr. Greyson ?" asked Tom, doubtfully, as
he was confronted by a stern visaged old man, with
a red, wrinkled, smooth shaven face, deeply sunken,
piercing eyes, under shaggy gray brows, and short,
thick white hair, brushed straight up all over his
head.
" It's Cap'n Greyson what do you want ?" was the
curt response.
"I want to say this," returned Tom, standing
very dignified and erect before Captain Greyson,
who was eying him closely from beneath his heavy
brows. And then Tom told his story from begin-
ning to end, only omitting such parts of it as had
no bearing upon the main point at issue that of his
own identity.
" And here, sir," said Tom, stripping up his sleeve
and pointing with his finger to the tattooing on the
white flesh, " here is a mark, which perhaps will
convince you that I am no impostor."
If Tom had hoped at this juncture that Captain
Greyson, after glancing at the half illegible letters,
would fall on his neck, exclaiming, " me own long
lost grandson," as happens on the stage, he was
doomed to disappointment.
Captain Greyson grunted, and taking a strong
magnifying glass from a drawer of the writing table,
closely examined the tracery.
"The other Tom, who first and last has done me
out of six or eight thousand dollars, had exactly the
same mark," he said, as he laid aside the glass; and
Tom's heart sank within him at the icy tone and
manner of the strange man.
" Allowing that all this dime novel yarn you've
been spinning is as you've told it," the captain con-
tinued, leaning back in his chair, " what then what
of it?"
"Why," stammered Tom, "I I had hoped "
164 THAT TEEASUKE.
" To discover a grandfather who would leave you
a million or so when he slipped his cable," coarsely
interrupted the captain, with a grim smile. " Now,
see here," he went on, before Tom could utter the
indignant protest tfiat rose to his lips; "you've told
me your story; now hear what I have got to say.
My wife died when our son Tom was born," said Cap-
tain Greyson, in a hard, unemotional voice. " He
was the only child. I was sailing out of New York
then, and making money for myself and the owners,
hand over fist, for those were money making days.
Tom went to college, and had a big allowance.
While I was away on a long voyage he married.
The girl, who was only eighteen, was the daughter
of a man I hated like poison poor as poverty, with
only her pretty face and a talent for music for her
dowry. How mad I was when he told me," con-
tinued the captain, wrathfully, roughing up his
short, bushy hair with both hands, " I needn't say.
Not so much with him as the scheming girl "
"If you're speaking of my mother," hofcly inter-
rupted Tom, who felt intuitively that he was listen-
ing to the story of his parentage, " I'll trouble you
to be a bit more respectful !"
" Tom all over," muttered Captain Greyson, in
an undertone; and Tom, who heard the words, felt
a strange thrill of expectancy. But, affecting not
to have noticed the remark, he went on:
"I wouldn't have anything to do with the matter,
though I did tell Tom that if he'd separate from her,
I'd settle money on her, and Tom could come back.
But Tom said ne'd see me well, further first. That
settled it. Next thing I heard," said the captain,
turning and staring steadfastly out of the window,
" Tom had had died suddenly of pneumonia.
" I had Tom put away in Greenwood beside his
mother," Captain Greyson went on, hardening his
THAT TKEASUKE. 165
roice again; " and through my business agent made
the widow an allowance. But I offered to treble it
if she'd give up Tom's boy baby, so that I could
anake him my heir. She wouldn't hear of it. Some
city lots here in San Francisco, which I'd invested
in twenty years before, turned out a bonanza, and
later I came on here to live. Then I fell in with that
smooth spoken scoundrel who calls himself Colonel
North. There's nothing he won't do for money, ex-
cept be honest. He went on East, I paying ex-
penses, and managed to get Tom's boy in his posses-
sion. The devil helps his own, and it was thought
the child had been stolen by some wandering Hun-
garian street musicians. Meanwhile North, who
was going to start for San Francisco from Boston
instead of New York, where he had taken the little
three year old, got scared by seeing one of Pinker-
ton's detectives on the pier just as he was going
aboard the Fall Kiver boat; and in his flurry little
Tom got separated from him. North, who was
wanted for some old matter, managed to slip aboard
the steamer, and after it sailed, I suppose, this
Professor Dean, of whom you tell me, ran across the
little chap. Tom's widow had a brain fever or some-
thing anyhow the police weren't properly notified,
and I suppose that was the reason the professor's
advertising wasn't a success; and, as near as I can
learn from the detective, who has found out consid-
erable about the case, Professor Dean went back
into the country with little Tom to live.
" North wasn't going to miss the thousand dollars
I'd offered him over and above expenses if he
brought Tom's Doy to me, though," continued Cap-
tain Greyson, who was nervously pacing the office
floor; " so what does he do but get a three year old
waif from the Baldwin Street Home, and bring it on
to me as Tom's boy. My New York agent, having
166 THAT TEEASUEE.
seen the real one, had sent me a description of him,
even to the letters ' T. S. G.' pricked into his baby
aim through some whim of his mother. North had
imitated this with aniline ink, and I swallowed the
bait. I paid North his thousand dollars, which
gave him a sort of hold on me so much so, that*
whenever he chose he made my home his own.
When Tom was old enough, I told him of my son's
marriage against my wishes, and of the way I had
had my grandson (as I presumed him to be) kid-
naped. He was sharp enough to know when he had
a good thing, so he staid with me, as a matter of
course, instead of going into heroics, and rushing
off East in search of his mother "
" Do you mean to say," cried Tom, starting ex-
citedly to his feet, " that my that your son's widow
is alive ?"
"I don't know to the contrary; but how can I tell
my story if you keep interrupting ?" was the testy
reply.
Holding his hand before his face to hide his emo-
tion at this unexpected discovery, Tom allowed Cap-
tain Greyson to go on.
" I thought the boy took it coolly," continued the
old man, with an involuntary frown, "but now I un-
derstand it. Before that, North had told him the
real situation, and given him his choice between be-
coming a regular tool in his hands, or being ex-
posed to me as a nameless foundling instead of old
Greyson's grandson and legal heir. Being what he
was a boy with inherited badness, as I shall always
think -he naturally chose to stay where he was, and
for about three years he has been robbing me in one
way and another to put money into that scoundrel's
pocket, as well as his own. Then I happened to
overhear some talk between him and the colonel,
who had got into some scrape or other, and came to
THAT 1BEASUBE. 167
him for money to help him get safe out of town, and
this opened my eyes. And, by a coincidence, my
business agent in New York ran across an old file of
the Times of 1865, I think, with Professor Dean's
notice of finding the three year old boy. This he
sent me, and I, keeping the matter secret, had the
advertisement inserted that must have brought out
the professor's letter you have told about, which
was intercepted by that Tom. I suppose this letter
roused the boy's suspicions, and, the night before I
was going to tell him that I'd found out the whole
thing, he slipped off with something like twenty
five hundred dollars out of my safe, which he's
welcome to, if I never see the young rascal's face
again."
Here Captain Greyson drew a long breath. Tom,
whose head was in a perfect maze of bewilderment,
sat wondering what would come next.
He had not long to wait.
"Now," said Captain Greyson, clearing his throat
and speaking in a different tone, as he looked stead-
ily at the manly yonng fellow before him, " you've
heard my story and I've heard yours. I ain't what
might be called fanciful," he observed, rather awk-
wardly, "but something has been telling me, since
you explained yourself, that you are Tom's boy, and
and more than that, I begin to see Tom's face and
Tom's ways as I never saw them in the other fel-
low. Maybe the proofs you've told of will turn up
some day; but never mind that now. I'm a lonely
old man, with more money than I know Avhat to do
with; and I have neither chick nor cbild in the world
to help me spend it, or to inherit it after I'm gone.
From this time, Tom," said Captain Greyson, with a
curious softening of his harsh voice, as he laid his
wrinkled hand on Tom's shoulder, "your home will
be with me, and "
*$8 THAT TKEASUKE.
" One moment," interrupted Tom, in an agitated
voice, "you have spoken of my mother where is
" G-ood heavens !" exclaimed Captain Greyson,
with a total change of voice and manner, " what has
that got to do with what I am talking about? I
don't know where she is, and, what's more, I don't
care. Tom's widow is no more to me than any
other designing, scheming, song singing profes-
sional "
Now, Tom had inherited some of the Greyson
temper, as well as the Greyson fixedness of purpose,
and his face grew so white with anger, that Captain
Greyson pulled himself up short.
" Oh," returned Tom, with a curious inflection of
voice, " that is it. Very good, Now, grandfather,"
he said, rising to his feet and drawing himself up to
his full height, "understand me, once for all. If
you think that I can, or will, live in ease and plenty
while, for aught I knew, my mother" and as he
pronounced the sacred name, Tom's voice was trem-
ulous with emotion "is friendless, and perhaps in
actual want, why you are greatly mistaken. Then
you refuse to give me any clew whatever to her
whereabouts ?" he said, looking the old man steadily
in the face.
"Yes, I do!" thundered Captain Greyson, stamp-
ing violently on the floor; "and what's more, sir, I
repeat what I have said "
" You needn't," interrupted Tom, coolly, " once is
enough. Whatever you may think about it, sir," he
continued, " my first duty in life is to the mother
who gave me birth, and I shall never rest until I
have found her: perhaps the day may come when
you will see that I am doing only what is right.
Good by, grandfather," and before the astounded
captain could speak, Tom was gone.
THAT TKEASUKE. 169
XX.
TOM IN A QUEER COMBINATION.
'" A. SONG singing professional.'' The words rang
tn Tom's ears, as, banging the office door behind
mm, he hurried down the wide stairway into the
street. " My mother must be some sort of actress,"
he mused; for Tom, unlike most young fellows of
his age at the present clay, was not versed in theat-
rical matters; his life having been devoted to other
duties and occupations.
But how to trace her by this slender clew was a
most perplexing conundrum. Colonel North, it k
true, might know something, directly or indirectly;
but Tom had an idea that his chances of again en-
countering this most unscrupulous of smooth
tongued and gentlemanly villains was, to say the
least, an uncertainty.
A more important question presented itself, after
returning to his lodging house and reckoning up
the state of his finances. Fifty cents a day, in ad-
vance, for a small room on the fourth flight was rea-
sonable, all things considered. But when one has
less than six dollars in his pocket, and a healthy ap-
petite that refuses to be appeased by the scanty fare
of cheap eating houses, the most careful economy
will only carry one to a certain point, and then
what next ?
Day after day Tom walked the busy streets in
search of employment. The papers teemed with ad-
170 THAT TEEASUKE.
vertisements for skilled workmen in various depart-
ments for journeymen tailors and smart salesmen,
barbers, and bookkeepers, electricians, and entry
clerks; but, alas 1 without experience in the several
branches, it was of no avail to apply.
Exchanging his stylish suit for a shabby second
hand one, Tom gradually drifted from one lodging
house to another in a descending scale, and to rest-
aurants of a cheaper and cheaper order. Sometimes
he got a job about the wharves for half a day. Once
he drove a mule team for three whole days, while
the proprietor thereof was recovering from a de-
bauch. But three weeks of this kind of life was
quite enough too much in fact.
" 111 have one more try," mused Tom, as he rose
from a light and unsatisfactory repast of heavy rolk
and muddy coffee at a ten cent restaurant on Kear-
ney Street, on a certain bright breezy morning;
" and if I can't see some way to something better
than this sort of existence, I'll go back and ask
grandfather Greyson to help me find something to
do for very shame's sake he can't refuse."
"With this determination in his mind, Tom took his
way down California Street, half envious of the
dapper clerks, the neatly dressed salesmen, and the
better class of mechanics, who were hurrying along,
each to his own place of employment
\VANTED-HALF A DOZEN MEN WHO CAN KIDE WELL.
Apply at the office of the G. C. N. M. & A. A. M. CO., No. 5.
1st floor.
This peculiar placard caught Tom's eye, as he was
passing the hallway of a handsome granite block.
"Any one who can manage a bucking bronco
ought to be said to ride well, and I've done that
more than once," mused Tom, as he stepped into the
wide hall to investigate further' " so I think I'll in-
quire into this."
THAT TEEASUKE. 171
" No. 5, 1st floor," was occupied, according to the
emblazoned inscription over the door and on the
ground glass window, by the Grand Consolidated
New Mexico and Arizona Argentiferous Mining
Company, duly incorporated according to the laws
of the State. The president was one Senor Em-
manuel Gromez, and the directors were evidently if
names are any criterion titled men of foreign
lineage.
In the small outer room, which Tom entered, some
half dozen shabbily dressed individuals of different
nationalities were undergoing a sharp cross ques-
tioning from a small keen eyed man who represented
himself as Mr. Leroy, general business manager of
the Grand Consolidated.
Half an hour later a little cavalcade of horsemen
rode down one of the principal streets, whose pe-
culiar garb, no less than their method of procedure,
created a decided sensation, even in the crowded
thoroughfares of a great city where novel and curi-
ous sights are the rule, rather than the exception.
Each of the six wore the picturesque garb of a
Mexican haciendo, attired in holiday costume. A
short, natty looking, black cloth jacket, adorned
with large silver plated buttons, without a vest,
worn over a fancifully ruffled white shirt; black
trousers, with a double row of buttons following the
seam; high top boots, silver placed spurs, and a red
sash, together with a rather briganclish sombrero
this was a dashy, not to say showy, sort of street ap-
parel; and the troupe, headed by Tom Dean, on a
silver gray horse, speedily began to attract general
attention.
Before him, on his saddle, each man carried a
bright colored Mexican serape; a neatly coiled lasso
was suspended from the high pommel, and over his
left arm hung a bundle of small handbills, which
172 THAT TREASURE.
were distributed right and left to the wondering
crowd
From a copy of one of the latter, which lies before
me, I quote as follows:
The newly formed combination of wealth and enterprise,
known as the Grand Consolidated New Mexico and Arizona Ar-
entiferous Mining Company, whose office is at 304 California
treet, have taken this novel and unique method of calling the
attention of the public to an undertaking which promises, be-
yond the shadow of a doubt, the most satisfactory returns to
investors ever offered in San Francisco.
Then follows a most enticing statement, or pros-
pectus, of the mining company in question, showing
the impossibility of losses and certainty of enormous
profits to stockholders who were willing to buy one
or more shares at the low figure of ten dollars per
share; the purchase money to be used in the further
development of the rich mining lands recently dis-
covered in Northwestern Arizona, the sole property
of the G-. C. N. M. and A. A. M. Co., together with
the affidavits of various prospectors, civil engineers,
and assayers.
But with the truth or falsity of these glowing
statements Tom Dean had nothing to do. He was
to be paid two dollars a day for a comparatively easy
task, the novelty of which was not altogether un-
pleasant. Mindful of Mr. Leroy's parting injunc-
tions to keep in the principal and busiest streets,
Tom guided the little troupe through the thronged
thoroughfares, without much trouble, occasionally
pausing at some street corner long enough to circu-
late a large number of handbills to a gaping
crowd, and then riding slowing onward to another
point.
Down through Montgomery Street and into
Kearney rode the novel cavalcade, scattering their
yellow placards right and left, till the supply was
exhausted. Two men were sent back to the office
THAT TKEASUKE. 173
for a fresh supply, while the four others sat in their
saddles, surrounded by the usual cosmopolitan
crowd peculiar to the streets of San Francisco, and
patiently awaited their companions' return.
" How like you this way to make the two dollar a
day, armgof" laughingly inquired the circus per-
former, reining up his fiery little Pinto steed beside
Tom, whose own horse was rendered restive by the
encroaching throng.
Tom's reply was prevented by a sudden outcry
from the outskirts of the croAvd, which began scat-
tering right and left with marvelous celerity.
" Look out, lady !" shouted half a dozen excited
men from the nearest place of safety, as a tall, hand-
somely dressed lady, escorted by a small hungrj
faced man in broadcloth, started to cross the
street.
The warning came an instant too late. A wild
eyed, long horned steer, which had escaped from a
drove at North Beach, came dashing round the
corner of Pacific Street with gleaming eyeballs and
distended nostrils, bearing straight down toward
the lady and her escort.
Now a steer fresh from the ranch is as dangerous
to life and limb as a mad bull. It is not very sur-
prising that the small man, casting one terrified
glance at the approaching beast, turned still paler,
and, forgetful of his companion, made good his
own escape into the nearest store door across the
way.
Tom Dean was in no sense an expert in the use of
the lasso, yet under the instruction of his former as-
sociate, William the plainsman, he had learned to
throw one with some little degree of accuracy. No
sooner had his eye taken in the lady's peril, than,
snatching the lariat from his saddle pommel, he
Swung it thrice round bis head, and in another in-
174 THAT TREASURE.
stant the slender coil went hurtling through the
air.
A shout of exultation arose from the excited on-
lookers. By the merest good luck in the world the
slip noose settled down over the upraised fore toot
of the ferocious animal, whose long, sharp horns
were lowered to impale the terror stricken victim.
Fortunately for Tom Dean, who himself had no
very clear idea what next he had better do, the
horse beneath him decided the question.
For the intelligent animal was one of a number
that had belonged to a standard " Wild West Com-
bination," Mr. Leroy having bid in the horses and
their equipments at the sheriff's sale for a very low
figure.
And mindful of his equestrian performances with
the clumsy buffalo, no sooner had the lariat, whose
other end was fast to the pommel of Tom's saddle,
straightened out like a bowstring, than the horse
fell suddenly back on his haunches in such a way
that only Tom's firm seat in the saddle saved him
from a downfall.
But the desired effect was attained. The steer's
leg was suddenly jerked from beneath him, and with
a bellow of terror the huge beast rolled ignomini-
ously in the dust, where he was at once dispatched
by a ball from the revolver of a valiant policeman.
Amidst what is known as " thunders of applause,"
Tom recovered his lariat, and hung it in its coil on
the saddle peg, gazing rather interestedly the while
after the lady. Having shewn some slight symp-
toms of faintness, she had been assisted into the
nearest drug store.
But the two others had now returned with a fresh
supply of handbills. Laughingly escaping the
queries of a sharp eyed reporter, Tom and his com-
panions rode on as before.
THAT TREASUBE. 175
With an interval for lunch at a cheap restaurant
at noon, the six continued their occupation till
nearly nightfall. Then, having left their horses and
exchanged their clothing at the stable, they all re-
ported at the office, where each promptly received
his pay and departed.
" Stop a bit, young man," said Mr. Leroy, in an
undertone, as Tom, who happened to be last, was
leaving the anteroom; "the chief has seen that little
affair of yours lassoing the steer, you know in the
evening edition of the Chronicle, and wants to speak
to you in the other room."
And before Tom, who was considerably surprised
at the remark, could reply, Mr. Leroy had ushered
him into an adjoining apartment. Its fittings and
furnishings, the showy oil paintings hanging against
the frescoed walls, and the rich carpet on the floor,
were of such a luxurious order as to make Tom
open his eyes more widely than was his wont.
"President Gomez, this is the young man you
wished to see," said Mr. Leroy, respectfully, as a
medium sized personage, elaborately attired in
broadcloth and fine linen, wheeled about in a revol-
ving chair, and confronted Ihem.
If Senor Gomez started slightly, as Mr. Leroy
left Tom standing in the full glow of the softened
electric light, he cleverly covered the movement by
quickly rising and stepping to the marble mantel, on
which stood a box of choice cigars.
Senor Gomez was comparatively young, to judge
by the glossy blackness of his hair and carefully
trimmed mustache, both of which, however, betrayed
a suspicious purplish hue in certain lights. But
traces of crows' feet and wrinkles were visible in the
searching light, and Tom began to suspect that the
senor might have had recourse to art to conceal the
marks of advancing years.
176 THAT TKEASUKE.
Kather to Tom's surprise, President Gomez be-
trayed a curious sense of embarrassment or uneasi-
ness, as though in some way he had expected to see
a very different person from his visitor.
" I read in the papers of your lassoing the steer
this forenoon," he finally said, speaking in a rather
low mumbling voice, and using singularly good En-
glish for even an Americanized Spaniard. "It is a
good advertisement for us, and here you will take
this."
Nervously puffing at his cigar as he thus spoke,
the president, whose face was slightly averted, held
out a glittering five dollar gold piece.
" There, bueno, no thanks," hastily interrupted the
senor, as Tom very gratefully took the unexpected
benefaction. "Now I have business; vaya, adios."
Cling-g-g went the telephone bell at that mo-
ment. Seemingly forgetful, for the moment, of
Tom's presence, Gomez stepped quickly to the in-
strument.
" Yes what do you want ?" he said in reply to
some far away questioner; and Tom, whose hand
was on the door knob, started in his turn.
An indistinct murmur was heard, and in clear,
even, and remarkably familiar tones, Senor Gomez
replied with his lips at the orifice:
" No ! And have the extreme goodness, Major
Smith, to tell him, with my compliments, that if he
took a thousand shares the rate would be precisely
the same. Good by."
That the speaker was President Gomez, of the
Grand Consolidated Mining Company, was to out-
ward seeming an assured fact; but the voice, to
which Tom could have sworn anywhere, was that of
Colonel North, the avowed champion of the peace
and good morals of the border town, where Tom
had first met him.
THAT TBEASUBE. 177
CHAPTEK XXL
TOM'S QUEST.
WHAT did it mean ?
" Well, pray, what are you stopping for ?" angrily
demanded the president of the Grand Consolidated,
as he turned from the telephone and encountered
Tom's bewildered gaze.
"I was thinking," replied Tom, forgetting his
usual caution in the excitement of his discovery,
" how much your voice sounded like that of a Col-
onel North "
" Oh," interrupted the other, coolly, and before
Tom was aware of his intention, he had stepped to
the door, locked it, and dropped the key in his
pocket; " that was what you were thinking, eh ?
And suppose, for the sake of argument, I prove to
be the gentleman you mention what are you going to
do about it ?"
Throwing aside all attempts at disguise, the col-
onel had seated himself and relighted his cigar. He
was regarding the young fellow before him with a
look of rather malicious triumph.
"Sit down, Tom," said the colonel, blandly; and
Tom, still rather bewildered, obeyed.
" To be frank, which I seldom claim to be, Tom,"
the colonel went on, daintily flicking the ashes from
his cigar, " I never dreamed that you were the mem-
ber of my advertising troupe who er so distin-
178 THAT TREASURE.
guished himself today, or I need hardly say I should
not have had you called in, though I flatter myself
my disguise is perfect. I prefer as far as possible
to avoid disagreeable and unnecessary explanations
to a sharp eyed young fellow like yourself. Not,"
he added, with a smile, " that I fear anything you
might say about little eccentricities of mine "
" Such as abducting a child from its mother, or
passing off a fictitious grandson upon an old man,
and making him a tool to serve your own ends, for
example," interrupted Tom, impetuously.
" Ah, so you have met my worthy friend, Captain
Greyson," blandly remarked the unabashed colonel,
regarding Tom through a fragrant cloud wreath;
"so much the better, as it paves the way to some-
thing I have to say. My Tom told me of the curious
discovery he had made as to your identity, and upon
my word I could hardly believe it; it was too much
like the unexpected turning up of the missing heir,
you know. And I suppose that you showed the
proofs of your story to Captain Greyson, and are
now elevated to your rightful position, eh ?"
" The proofs were taken from me by train robbers,
headed by a man about your size, carrying a double
barreled gun exactly like the one you had at the
Vendome, Colonel North," replied Tom, looking
squarely in the face of his interlocutor.
" Sorry to hear it," was the unmoved reply. " Go
on, Tom."
" Captain Greyson my grandfather," the young
fellow continued, rather bitterly, " was good enough
to accept my statements as to my relationship with-
out demanding further proof than what I had to tell
him. But when he proposed giving me my proper
place as his grandson and heir, yet in the same
breath told me that, if I so do, my mother, who, as I
now know, is living, must be forever dead to me; and
THAT TEEASUEE. 179
when he refused to give me the slightest clew to her
whereabouts, I "
" You kicked, eh ?" said the colonel. Tom, remem-
bering to whom he was thus expressing himself, had
stopped suddenly.
"TJm," exclaimed Colonel North, thoughtfully,
after a slight pause, " and so you resign the er
flesh pots of Egypt, for the sake of your mother,
whom you've never seen, and probably or perhaps
never will. That," continued the colonel, inquiring-
ly, " explains your masquerading in the livery of the
Grand Consolidated at two dollars a day thrown
on your own resources, are you ?"
It was impossible to resist the easy good nature
of the man, bad and evil as Tom knew him to be.
"Yes," returned Tom, with a sigh and a down-
ward glance at his shabby clothing, "I've been in
rather hard luck since grandfather Greyson turned
the cold shoulder on me."
But Colonel North did not seem to hear Tom's last
remark. His crafty brain was at work planning
how to avert any possibility of an exposure on the
Eart of this young fellow. For Tom, ;if he but knew
is power, could make some damaging statements,
which might be used to his decided disadvan-
tage.
As therefore he made no response to Tom's ad-
mission of ill success, the latter glanced carelessly
at the columns of the evening paper on the table be-
side him, which was carefully folded at a certain
paragraph. On closer inspection this proved to be
the item concerning Tom's " gallant exploit," for so
it was headel. After a glowing account of the
affair, Tom read as follows:
The lady rescued from such imminent peril, through the
bravery or the employee of the Grand Consolidated Mining
Company, which is meeting with a success unparalleled in the
180 THAT TEEASUEE.
history of San Francisco stock enterprises, proves to have been
Madame Norman, the once celebrated public singer. It may
be remembered that she met with a somewhat unfavorable re-
ception from our city audiences, and returns to the East very
soon. Madame Norman has a voice which still retains its
sweetness and flexibility, but in departing from the established
usages of the concert stage we fear the singer has made, a great
mistake. That is, in undertaking to substitute for a more cul-
tured musical repertoire a programme consisting almost entirely
of the simple old fashioned ballads, etc., etc.
Tom read thus far, when Colonel North's voice in-
terrupted him.
" Tom," he said, somewhat abruptly, " though
Captain Greyson would give you no clew to your
mother's whereabouts, has it occurred to you that
possibly / might be able to do so ?"
Tom started to his feet in an instant,
" You, sir?" he exclaimed, half incredulously, and
then, remembering the colonel's complicity in his
own abduction, it suddenly came to him that the
colonel might accidentally or otherwise be speak-
ing the truth. He eagerly listened to what Colonel
North had to say.
And perhaps in all the great city of San Francisco
there was no lighter heart than that which was beat-
ing under Tom Greyson's threadbare coat, when,
after a prolonged interview with the President of
the Grand Consolidated, he ran lightly down the
marble steps into the crowded thoroughfare.
For, in the first place, he had gained an undoubted
clew to the whereabouts of his mother. Some time
after recovering from the brain fever occasioned by
the shock of her loss, she had removed to Massachu-
setts, where her late husband had owned a house, in
a town close to Boston, so Colonel North said.
Snugly stowed away in Tom's substitute for a
pocket book was a through ticket for the far away
city of Boston, and a handsome sum in cash, pre-
sented to him by the generous or prudent coloneL
THAT TKEASUEE. 181
CHAPTEK XXIL
ON THE EAST BOUND TRAIN.
TOM GBEYSON began his eastward journey with a
heart full of pleasing anticipations and hopeful ex-
pectancy. He found the section allotted him by
his sleeper ticket in the Pullman car of the long-
train, which, on the morning following the events of
the previous chapter, was being made up in the
great depot.
Having seated himself next the wide plate glass
window, he disposed his traveling bag at his feet,
and began watching the different passengers as they
entered the luxurious car, which was to be their
abiding place for the following few days.
There were millionaires and their wives, wealthy
ranchers and distinguished travelers, adventurers
and actors, a lecturer or two, and the invariable
newly married couple on their marriage tour; but
these had only a passing degree of interest for
Tom.
His own seatmate proved to be a smiling olive
hued young Japanese nobleman, making a tour of
the States, under the guardianship of Lis tutor, a
grave looking Oxford graduate, who sat opposite.
Tom's attention was diverted by the entrance of a
lady, whose escort, as he saw with a little start of
surprise, was the foreign looking gentleman who
had given him the card of Madame Norman, on the
previous day. This lady was the singer herself.
182 THAT TREASURE.
She seated herself quietly in the compartment op-
posite the one where Tom was sitting, and began
gazing abstractedly from the window.
Her attendant disposed her traveling bag, books,
cloak, and one or two packages, conveniently to
hand, after which, with a low bow, he betook him-
self into another car. With a curious degree of in-
terest, for which he could hardly account, Tom re-
garded Madame Norman's face attentively.
The fine, calm, and still handsome features, the
dark and abundant hair, threaded here and there
with gray, the deep, luminous eyes where had he
seen Madame Norman in his lifetime ?
But it was useless to try to recall either time or
place, and as he was wondering whether the lady
would recognize in himself the gayly dressed Mexi-
can ranchero of the day before, the last " all aboard "
of the conductor from without was followed by the
slow movement of the train.
Day after day the long train sped eastward now
zigzagging its way along the sides of rocky steeps,
crossing dizzy chasms and passing through deep
defiles, or across barren plains and fertile valleys.
Tom amused himself by reading, and dreaming
bright dreams of the future, in which the mother
he was hoping to meet, I need hardly say, was the
prominent feature.
" I beg your pardon."
Tom was returning from the dining car to his seat
on the fourth day of his journey, when the low, sweet
voice of Madame Norman, evidently addressed to
himself, arrested his attention.
"Will you sit down here a moment?" pursued the
singer, with a quiet frankness, which somehow put
Tom quite at his ease. Tom respectfully seated
himself opposite the lady, and wondered what was
coming.
THAT TEEASUEE. 183
" I remember faces very well, as a general thing,"
Madame Norman continued, earnestly regarding the
manly young fellow before her, "but for some little
time I could not recall where I had Been you, till
just at this moment it came to me that you were my
rescuer a few days since is it not so ?"
" It was not very much to do," replied Tom, try-
ing to laugh off his slight embarrassment, yet with
a feeling of inward pleasure at the recognition.
" It was a very brave and skillful act," warmly re-
turned the lady; "and I am glad that I have the
opportunity of thanking you most heartily, Mr.
Dean. One of your mounted companions told your
name to my old music teacher, Monsieur Pierre,
who travels with me as accompanist at my con-
certs."
It was hardly worth while for Tom to explain that
he had given his old name to the manager of the lit-
tle equestrian troupe, so he allowed the error to re-
main uncorrected, and very briefly explained how
he happened to be masquerading in such a guise
without, of course, going into unnecessary detail.
Evidently pleased with the frank manliness of
Tom's speech and manner, the singer drew him into
further conversation. By inquiring as to the way
he learned to throw the lasso, she led him to speak
of his previous life on the plains, in which Madame
Norman seemed greatly interested.
Tom was modestly replying to her questions, when
M. Pierre entered the car, and greeted him effusively.
" Unjeune brave it is, madam," said M. Pierre, beam-
ing at Tom over his spectacles, " and while I, who
should have pr-r-reserved you from the monstaire
animal, did act the lache the cow-ard, the br-r-rave
youth fly himself to your rescue !"
M. Pierre then settled himself comfortably in the
corner as a fixture.
184 THAT TREASURE.
Madame Norman, noticing that Tom spoke guard-
edly concerning his own personal history, delicately
refrained from questioning him, though it was quite
evident that her curiosity was somewhat aroused on
the subject.
She talked quite freely of her professional tour;
but like Tom himself, she told nothing of her per-
sonal history.
The days, like the cars, rolled on, and the passen-
gers began to disperse.
At New York the young Japanese noble and his
tutor said good by. Madame Norman and Monsieur
Pierre took their departure at New Haven, where
they were billed for a concert.
" We may never see each other again," said the
singer, bending her dark and still lustrous eyes on
Tom's face, as he rose respectfully for the final fare-
well, " but I shall not forget your kindness and
courtesy. Would that I had such a son to be the
stay of my declining years adieu." And with a
kindly smile, the singer, accompanied by M. Pierre,
took her departure.
There were now only strangers, Tom thought, in
the car. He was sitting well forward, where he
caught an occasional glimpse of the occupants of
the two seats immediately behind him, in the narrow
strip of mirror before him.
And all at once he was conscious of receiving a
mocking glance from the dark eyes of a fashionably
attired young man in one of the rear seats.
" If it wasn't for the mustache, I could almost
swear that was the colonel's Tom, as I saw him when
he first left the train at Holcomb!" mentally ex-
claimed Tom, with considerable excitement. "If
I could hear him speak, that would settle it." And
acting on the impulse of the moment, he rose and
stepped back a little.
THAT TREASURE 185
"I I "beg your pardon," he stammered, as the
young man, without betraying the slightest symp-
toms of recognition, lifted his eyes inquiringly, " but
are you not that is I took you for "
Slightly elevating his dark eyebrows, the individ-
ual thus addressed checked Tom's embarrassed ut-
terance by raising the tip of his gloved finger first
to his lips and then his ear, shaking his head slowly
as he did so.
" He's a deaf mute, I guess," volunteered an old
lady who sat in the same seat. " I've be'n a-askin'
of him questions ever sence I come aboard, but can't
git a word out of him. It's a dretful misfortun' for
sech a nice lookin' young feller as he is."
Was it fancy, or did the merest shadowy sem-
blance of a smile flash over the well dressed passen-
ger's features at this juncture ?
The long railway journey was now nearly at an
end. The day drew to its close, and as the length-
ening shadows began to fall across the Berkshire
hills, the long train entered the outskirts of the
Hub. Amid a clangor of engine bells, it slowed
down and stopped in the Fitchburg station, as the
brakeman flung open the door, and announced in a
stentorian voice, "Boston!"
Scarcely waiting to swallow a hasty meal at the
lunch counter, Tom obtained the necessary direc-
tions, and proceeded at once to Mapletown a few
minutes' ride by rail from Boston. At the station
he was directed to the street and number given him
by Colonel North.
Making his way hurriedly through the main
thoroughfare, Tom quickly found himself in Clifton
Avenue, at the corner of which stood an unpretend-
ing two story house, known, so the station agent
said, as " the Grey son place."
Tom's heart thumped furiously against his ribs,
186 THAT TKEASUKE.
as, having pulled the bell, he stood waiting for some
one to answer it. The door was suddenly opened by
a tall, gray haired woman, with a severe aspect, and
a very red nose, and his hopes fell. This was never
the mother of his dreams.
" Does Mrs. Thomas Greyson live here ?" he asked,
in faltering accents.
" Land of c'mpassion no," snapped the woman,
raising the hand lamp she was holding for a better
view of the speaker; " there's no sech person in this
neighborhood, that I know of."
" Ask if she was a kind of stage singer ?" called a
masculine voice from the open door of an adjoining
room; "for 'pears to me the name's kinder fa-
miliar."
" I think she was," returned Tom, hesitatingly.
" Same woman I'm thinkin of, then," responded
the voice. "I remember now about it; the lawyer
that had the mor'gage on her place here foreclosed,
and she went off somewhere, and died in some kind
of a 'sylum out West, some five or six years ago."
" Thank you good night," said Tom, faintly, and,
swallowing a great sob, he hurried back to the
station, where he took the first train to Boston, feel-
ing lonely and sick at heart.
The next morning he sat near one of the long
windows of the reading room at Parker's, in the
depths of dejection and disappointment.
Only one effort more remained to be made, and
this more as a matter of duty than from any ex-
pected results.
" I don't care so much about the money, but I
should like to know something about Mr. Sherard
and Miss Dolly," he told himself. And sitting at
the writing desk, Tom drew up the following notice :
If this notice should reach the eyes of Mr. Hartley Sherard or
his daughter Dolores, who left Arizona at some time during
THAT TREASURE. 187
the present year, will they communicate at once with the un-
dersigned ? Address :
T. G., Boom 309, Parker House, Boston.
Tom had little hope that this would aid him.
His principal mission had utterly failed, and all
that remained to do was to return to San Francisco
and try to effect a reconciliation with his grandfa-
ther. Writing briefly to this effect to Captain Grey-
eon, Tom posted the letter, and took his advertise-
ment to tbe Globe office.
Three or four days passed without incident.
Indeed, Tom had fully decided that henceforth
his life was destined to move on in the ordinary
groove of every day mortals.
His only acquaintances were the managers of the
periodical counter, with whom he chatted occasion-
ally, as he bought his papers from day to day.
These gentlemen, always courteous and well in-
formed on all points of interest, seemed to know by
sight all the "notables " who were in the habit of
frequenting the room, whether guests or habitues.
" See that young chap with the diamond solitaire
and swell velvet smoking coat, coming 1 his way?"
observed one of them in a confidential undertone, as
Tom leaned idly against the news stand. "They say
he's a daisy for spending the dollars," continued the
pleasant faced speaker, as Tom, with a great start of
surprise, recognized in the individual thus designa-
ted no other than the young deaf mute of the rail-
road train. " His name is Caton, from New Orleans,
with a big pile of money. He booked here last
night, engaged the best single room in the new An-
nex, and "
Here the speaker stopped abruptly, as the gilt
edged youth, who did not notice Tom, stepped to
the counter.
" Morning papers, please," he said, and Tom drew
a long breath.
188 THAT TREASURE.
" I knew I wasn't- mistaken. His voice gives him
away," he muttered in considerable bewilderment.
Young Caton took his papers to a seat near the
window, and after a moment's hesitation Tom fol-
lowed, and dropped into the nearest chair.
"Have you got back your hearing as well as your
voice, Saxton?" he dryly asked; and the other dupli-
cated Tom's previous start of surprise, while he
changed color visibly as he encountered Tom's
gaze.
" Confound it, Dean, or Greyson, whichever I'm to
call you," he exclaimed, irritably, " pray what is
your object in dogging me round in tins manner?"
"I hardly know what you mean," was Tom's
quiet reply, " unless you refer to our meeting on
the train, when I was uncertain whether it was you
or not. And as for the rest," he continued, " I've
been stopping here for the past four or five days,
and as you only arrived last night, you can hardly
accuse ma of dogging you."
There was something in Tom's voice and manner
which carried the evidence of his truthfulness, even
to his hearer, who, being untruthful and deceitful
himself, was accustomed to regard the world in gen-
eral as similarly afflicted.
Caton, as I shall have to call him, looked cau-
tiously at Tom for a moment, and then his counten-
ance cleared.
"All right, old chap," he said, resuming his usual
easy address. "I'm glad to see you, though I don't
mind saying that I'd nearly as soon have met the
old man Greyson himself as you on the train coming
East. That's why I bluffed you as I did." And the
speaker chuckled gleefully at the recollection of his
ruse.
" But why ?" wonderingly asked Tom.
" Well," was the half laughing reply, " a fellow
THAT TREASURE. 189
hates tremendously to run across anybody who might
call his past crookedness to mind that was one rea-
son."
Tom only started at this very unexpected admis-
sion, and \\ondered what on earth was coming.
" Then you hadn't heard of my streak of luck, eh,
Tom ?" he said, with a sharp glance at his compan-
ion, " or that I'd cut the whole concern North and
all the rest of it ?"
"I haven't heard a word about you personally
since I said good by to you in Holcomb," was the
quiet reply, "though I have thought about you
more than once, and wondered how you enjoyed the
' free wild life of the plains ' which you were antici-
pating."
" Ah," said the other, slowly. " Look here, Tom,
I'm not fool enough to try to pull the wool over
your eyes, especially when I know that you heard
old man Greyson's story, eh ?"
Here he paused interrogatively, while Tom nodded.
Looking a trifle disconcerted, the colonel's Tom
continued:
" Very well, I don't deny that I've been a bad lot,
a very bad lot, but what could be expected of a
foundling, brought up without any good influences
to keep him straight, and all the while under the
thumb of a man like North ? But we won't speak of
that. To make a long story short, after I left you I
joined a party of prospectors, bound for the Great
Northwestern Divide. We made the richest find of
the season; and when I came back to 'Frisco I sold
out my interest to capitalists, who bought the terri-
tory, staked it out, and formed the Grand Consoli-
dated "
"N. M. & A. A. Mining Company, with Senor
Gomez, alias Colonel North, for President," inter-
rupted Tom.
190 THAT TKEASURE.
" So you know all about it, said Caton, with an
uneasy glance at his companion.
"I know nothing whatever about the company or
its workings, excepting that the colonel is itu presi-
dent, and the fact that Major Smith if such is his
real name is in some way connected with it," care-
lessly replied Tom. Then he briefly explained his
recognition of the colonel, at which Caton drew a
sigh of evident relief.
" Smith is was secretary of the company," he
said, rather awkwardly; "but to go on with my
story. The colonel, of course, hung on for me to
stay by, but I had made up niy mind that if I ever
was going to turn round and cut the concern, that
was the time So I kept my counsel and my money,
which was close to ten thousand dollars, and slip-
ped off without letting any one know where I was
going and here I am, Mr. Tom Caton, of New Or-
leans, very much at your service. I came East be-
cause I wanted to see something of the country, and
I'm glad I did, for I've fallen in with some nice
people, and I'm getting interested in a pretty girl,
whose father has no end of money. She and her fa-
ther have given me an invitation to go yachting
with them in a vessel that belongs to the young
lady's uncle," he added, with an air of triumph.
" You haven't told me yet, what brought you to
Boston," continued Caton, eying Tom, curiously.
Without going into lengthy detail, Tom briefly
spoke of his errand and the sad disappointment he
had met. Young Caton expressed no particular sur-
prise; and only a few polite regrets.
" Then I suppose you go back to San Francisco at
once," he said, inquiringly.
Tom hesitated.
" I was fortunate enough to be of some service to
a gentleman and his daughter who belonged origin-
THAT TBEASUEE. 191
ally in New York, while I was in Arizona," he finally
explained, with a little awkwardness, " and, as I
would like to see them again, for certain private
reasons, I shall stay two or three days longer, hop-
ing to get an answer to this advertisement."
And Tom extended a copy of the Globe, indicating
the notice with his finger.
" A lady in your case, too," laughed Caton.
Then he stopped abruptly, as, with the journal
held in such a way that it hid his face, he glanced
at the designated paragraph.
"If that is all that keeps you here," he said at
length, speaking in a curiously constrained voice,
" you can start tomorrow; for you'll never hear from
thai advertisement."
"What do your mean?" wonderingly asked Tom.
" Simply this," replied Caton, dropping the paper
and speaking with easy assurance. "I remember
very well that some time last spring this same Mr.
Hartley Sherard, and pretty Dolly, his daughter,
were in 'Frisco and called on old man Greyson. Mr.
Sherard said he had made a small fortune in Ariz-
ona he did not explain how and had decided to
buy a coffee plantation in some part of South
America. "VVe went down to see them off the day
they sailed, and that was the last known of them, as
the steamer was never heard from, and is supposed
to have gone down with all on board."
Now, if Mr. Caton had stopped here, things might
have taken a very different turn.
But one of his weaknesses was a fondness for
boasting of his success with the fair sex, and he
went on, while Tom was almost stunned by the un-
expected news, which he had no earthly reason for
doubting,
" Dolly and I had got well acquainted, while she
was there, and the truth is, I rather flatter my
192 THAT TREASURE.
self I made a very strong impression upon her sus-
ceptible heart ! "
Tom's color rose, and with it the Greyson temper
at these boastful words, and the insolent look which
accompanied them.
"You!" he scornfully ejaculated, forgetful of self
restraint and courtesy alike. And he had no need
to add aloud his meaning, "you, the impostor, liar,
and thief ! " for Caton read it all too plainly in his
voice and manner.
All the inherent and acquired evil in the young
man's nature seemed for one brief moment to be
shadowed on his features, and he retorted hotly.
Then followed a general uprising as a handsomely
dressed young man sprang to his feet, with the im-
print of four muscular fingers across his pale face.
Uttering a fierce imprecation, he made a spring
at Tom; but the heavy weight head porter promptly
bore down upon him.
"Aisy, now, misther," he remarked, in persua-
sively Hibernian accents, as, pinning Caton's arms
to his side, he held him in the grasp of a vise; "this
ain't no place for sich doin's a gintleman like you,
too!"
"All right, porter; I forgot myself for a moment,"
said the young man, controlling himself with a
mighty effort, as a small crowd of guests began
(gathering about the little group.
"And so did I. I heartily apologize for such a
show of temper," impulsively exclaimed Tom. As
he spoke he extended his hand, but Caton cast one
look of supreme hatred at his late companion, and
hastily left the room.
Greatly ashamed at the ebullition of temper which,
as he was painfully aware, had made him the focus
of a number of pairs of eyes, Torn dropped into his
chair again.
THAT TREASURE. 1C3
" I fancy you've made a dangerous enemy, young
man," said the smooth, even voice of a plainly
dressed, middle aged gentleman, with rather inex-
pressive, smooth shaven features, who was sitting in
the chair vacated by Caton. "He is an acquaintance
of yours ?" inquiringly continued the speaker, with
seeming carelessness, as Tom only nodded in
reply.
" I have met him before," answered Tom, dis-
tantly.
" Urn," was the dubious response. Then, drawing
from a side pocket some business cards, he handed
one to Tom. " It is always well to be prepared for
emergencies," he said, gravely, " and this company
which I represent, the Risk and Accident Insurance
Company, provides against loss to your family by
shooting."
" But I have no family, Mr. er Blake," returned
Tom, glancing at the name at the bottom of the
card, and laughing, in spite of himself, at the
speaker's business-like tone.
Unlike most insurance men, Mr. Blake did not
pursue his favorite topic, but drifted off into gener-
alities. Little by little, yet seemingly without in-
tent, he tried to lead the talk back to the incident
of a few moments previous; but Tom, seeing his
drift, was very guarded in his replies.
Finally Mr. Blake took his departure, and Tom
took up a paper which had been left in one of the
chairs, and began to glance over it, though the
image of Caton seemed scampering up and down
the columns.
Suddenly his eye caught the headline of one of
the abbreviated dispatches, dated San Francisco,
and he uttered a low whistle of astonishment.
THAT TREASURE.
CHAPTER XXIII.
A TRAP FOB TOM GREYSON.
THE paragraph which caused Tom Greyson's as-
tonishment read as follows :
The absconding secretary of the Grand Consolidated N. M.
& A. A. Mining Company is now presumed to have made
good his escape, with nearly $10,000 of the company's funds, in
one of the Pacific coast steamers. President Gomez has sub-
mitted a sworn statement showing that the company's pecu-
niary standing is not affected in the slightest degree by the
defalcation. A dividend has just been declared which delights
the stockholders. Unless the matter is taken up by outside
parties, it is understood that President Gomez will oner no re-
ward for the apprehension of the fugitive.
" Well, Major Smith has feathered his nest, for a
fact," thought Tom.
Meanwhile Caton, having changed his apparel
for a handsome walking suit, had started out and
walked rapidly along Washington Street in the di-
rection of the West End. His cheek still tingled
from the effects of Tom's blow, and his thoughts
were fiercely vindictive.
" I must quiet myself down with a pipe lucky
old Lin met me in the street and gave me his card,
for I shouldn't like to go into a strange ' joint,' "
he said, half aloud, glancing at a pasteboard he had
drawn from his vest pocket, on which, under some
Cninese characters, was printed :
HOP LIN, CHINESE LAUNDRY,
1000 HARRISON AVENUE.
Caton turned into Harrison Avenue from Tremont
THAT TBEASUEE. 195
Street, without paying much heed to what was going
on about him.
" No. 1000 " was on a corner and evidently one of
the better class of laundries. Everything was neat
and orderly in the room which Caton entered from
the street.
Producing his card he pointed to the Chinese
characters at the top . One of the Chinamen grinned
vacantly, and nodded in the direction of a door at
the back. Passing through this, the new comer
found himself in a tolerably large, well furnished
room, the atmosphere of which was redolent with
the fumes of some peculiar drug.
It was an opium joint. Along the side was a row
of canvas cots, only two of which were occupied;
one by a Chinaman, the other by a thick set, burly
man in his shirt sleeves, who was puffing laboriously
at his own pipe, which had not apparently produced
much effect.
Lin, the proprietor, a sinister looking Celestial,
welcomed Caton with a slight twitching of the
muscles of one eye, which might be construed into
a wink, and motioned him to one of the couches.
Like most who begin the fearful habit of opium
smoking, Caton had " hit the pipe " for the first
time simply for the novelty of it ; but now its ter-
rible hold was becoming firmly fastened upon him.
On this particular occasion, for some reason or
other, he could not forget himself in the delirious
stupor peculiar to the soul and body destroying
narcotic.
He tossed and turned on the couch, after the pipe
had fallen from his hands, and finally began talking
aloud in a voice of fierce energy.
The occupant of the other couch, who evidently
was trying the use of the drug for the first time with
unsatisfactory results, raised himself on his elbow.
196 THAT TREASURE.
Erecting himself to a sitting position on the edge
of the cot, he began listening, carelessly at first,
then with evident eagerness, to the words which
fell from the lips of the half delirious sleeper. Then,
paying for his pipe, he went out.
An hour later, Tom Caton was roused from his
stupor by Lin.
" You sleepee on long 'nough for one dol' noder
man want hittee pipe," he said, without the slight-
est pretense of a show of courtesy; aud Caton
pulled himself together, drew on his coat, and made
his way out.
Leaning against the side of the building, with
folded arms, stood a powerfully built man with a
most villainous cast of features, whose natural ugli-
ness was heightened by a stubby growth of reddish
gray beard, unkempt hair of the same hue, a scarred
face and broken nose.
Tom glanced curiously at him, and was stepping
past, when, greatly to his surprise, the man touched
his arm.
" I'll walk along of you a bit," he said, with a
somewhat sinister smile ; " I want a bit of a yarn
with you, Mr. Caton."
"Pray who are you? and how do you know my
name?" sharply demanded Caton, made doubly irrit-
able by the headache and nausea which had followed
his opium indulgence.
"Well, I'm Cap'n Bill Smith of the schooner
Bess," was the cool reply, " an' whilst you was talk-
in* in yer sleep on the cot next to mine down in that
air den, you give away yer name an' c'nsiderable
more besides, if I'm any jedge of what embezzlin'
some one else's money means."
With all his self command, Tom Caton could not
repress a slight start of dismay. But quickly re-
covering, he laughed scornfully.
THAT TEEASUKE. 197
" You'll have hard work to make out a case of
embezzlement from what a man says under the in-
fluence of an opium pipe," he returned, with affected
carelessness.
" That ain't to the point, exuc'ly," replied Captain
Smith; " I ain't in that kind of bizness, but mebbe I
ana in a line of bizness where, if I was paid enough,
I might get that young feller outer the way for
you."
" How do you know I want any one put out of the
way?" asked Caton, with a different intonation of
voice.
"Men is mighty ap' to speak out their real minds
sometimes whilst they're asleep," Captain Smith re-
plied, with a grin; " an* when I heard you sayin'
that you'd give five hundred dollars to hev a chap
Greys'n you called him knifed or flung overboard,
you didn't care which, why I jest drawed my own
c'nclusions."
" Suppose, captain," said Caton, blandly, " that
you and I have something to drink to our better
acquaintance."
Shortly afterwards the two were seated at one of
the little tables in a neighboring saloon.
Putting their heads together, both literally and
figuratively, the plotters talked long and earnestly
in an undertone, punctuated by occasional drinks
consumed by the bibulous captain, on whom his
frequent potations produced no visible effect.
"Very good," said the latter, finally, as he rose to
his feet, after having listened to a certain proposal
advanced by his younger companion ; " you 'tend to
your part of it, an' you kin jest make sure that I'll
tend to mine; an' 'member, I don't ask no pay till
the feller is fairly under hatches."
And Captain Smith, plunging his huge hands into
the pocket of his pilot cloth coat, rolled heavily
198 THAT TREASUKE.
away in the direction of Atlantic Avenue, while
young Caton, after a few moments' reflection,
stepped into a small stationer's shop near at hand.
Having bought a sheet of the cheapest note paper
and an envelope, he asked permission to write a
letter, which, of course, was readily granted.
Tom Grreyson, after strolling aimlessly about the
streets during the day, had suddenly made up his
mind that he was only wasting time and money by
lingering in Boston, now that the two objects of his
visit had proved purposeless, and his cherished
hopes were at an end.
So, after supper, Tom settled his bill at Parker's,
and decided to take the fast night express to
Chicago, which left at 10 P. M. After a short rest in
the latter city he meant to proceed direct to San
Francisco.
He had his traveling bag brought down from his
room. Taking the evening paper to a chair under
the reading chandelier, he began looking it over.
Curiously enough, Mr. Blake, the insurance man,
was there, and from his manner Tom received a
vague impression that he had been expecting to see
him. He welcomed Tom's entrance by a nod and
a friendly smile, after which he drew a chair beside
him with the familiarity of an old acquaintance.
" Anything new in the papers tonight ?" he
asked, as Tom uttered a slight exclamation at
something which had caught his eye in the news
column.
" Nothing much," replied Tom, who went on read-
ing: "The embezzling secretary has been traced to
Chicago, and descriptive circulars have been sent
out, now that he is known to be still in the States,
instead, as was first reported, of having effected his
escape in one of the Pacific coast steamers."
Tom finished and looked suddenly up to find Mr.
THAT TREASURE. 199
Blake very coolly glancing at the same paragraph
over his shoulder.
"Curious," remarked the latter, unabashed by
Tom's look of annoyance : " but today I happened
to run across one of those very descriptive circulars
mentioned in the paper there just listen."
And, greatly to Tom's astonishment, Mr. Blake
unfolded the document between his fingers, from
which in a mumbling undertone he read:
"FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS' REWARD.
"The above sum will be paid for the apprehension of the
absconding secretary of the G. C. N. M. and A. A. M. Co. of San
Francisco. The following is his description: Age between 18
and 19, height about 5 ft. 8, weight 145. Good looking, dark
eyes and hair slightly inclined to curl, gentlemanly address
and regular features. Wears small black false mustache,
and "
" But," suddenly interrupted Tom, who had been
listening with the utmost amazement, " that's all
wrong Major Smith is a heavily built man \\ith "
" I don't know any Major Smith," rather curtly
interposed Mr. Blake; "the fellow described here
has gone by the name of Tom Caton and one or two
other aliases."
Like thunder out of a clear sky, a sudden realiza-
tion of the truth flashed across Tom's mind. For a
moment he sat staring, open eyed, at Mr. Blake,
who, having accomplished his purpose, regarded
him with a somewhat humorous smile, and placed
the refolded paper in his pocket.
"At first," he said, dropping his voice, "I was in
doubt which of you two young fellows to look after,
but I know my man now. I suppose you can't tell
me where he is, this evening ?"
" I can't and if I could I wouldn't," bluntly re-
turned Tom.
" Precisely," was the bland response. " My object
in opening your eyes as I have," added Mr. Blake, in
200 THAT TREASUKE.
a graver tone, " is simply that you may be on your
guard against further association with a criminal,
who will probably be arrested before morning ;" and
rising, the detective, for such he was, strolled out
into the office, leaving Tom in a state of intense ex-
citement.
" Letter for you, sir chap that brought it didn't
wait for no answer," said one of the bell boys, enter-
ing the room.
"In answer to my advertisement; what can it
mean?" muttered Tom, noticing the address written
in a scrawly hand: " T. GL, Room 309, Parker house."
Tearing it hastily open, Tom read as follows:
ON BOED SCOONER AT
PECK'S WHARF.
Seeing your notis in the paper I rite these few lines by a ship-
mait to say if your first Name is Tom who was in arizony with
mr Sherard i can tel you something about him that you may
like to no having jest cum from a south america voyige where
i see mr sherard at the consinee's ofis and he sent a mesige to
the states that i gess is for you by yore notis tho he said Tom
Dean, i am sick in my bunk "with roomatiz. come tonite
thursday about nine as the vesel sales erly tomorrer mornin.
she lays to the end of the peer, pecks wharf, a white scooner
with a lantern hangin in the fore rigin.
JOHN PERRY abel seem an.
Not a shadow of doubt as to the genuineness of the
letter crossed Tom's mind, as he finished the epistle,
and placed it in his pocket.
Glancing at the clock, he saw it was half past
eight. Only the day before Tom had enjoyed
a stroll along the wharves, and knew very nearly
where to find the designated pier.
" I can have my interview with John Perry, and
then take a herdic straight to the station, without
coming back bere to the hotel at all," he thought.
Recovering his traveling bag from the coat room,
Tom gave friendly Mr. Shea, at the news counter, a
cordial good by, and passing Mr. Blake, who did not
look up, he ran down the steps into the street.
THAT TEEASUEE. 201
The clock in the Old South steeple struck nine as
Tom reached the pier, on either side of which were
several schooners.
Guided by the dull glimmer of the lantern hang-
ing in the vessel's rigging, Tom made his way
through the darkness to the very end of the pier,
where lay the vessel mentioned in the letter.
The tide was running out, and the schooner's
deck was several feet below the level of the pier.
Tom, still retaining his traveling bag in one hand,
swung himself into the rigging, and descended to
the sheerpole.
" Is there a sailor named Perry John Perry, who
is sick with rheumatism on board this vessel ?" Tom
called to a man who was walking along the deck.
" Yes if you're the chap he's expectin' you'll find
him down the fore peak in his bunk," gruffly re-
turned the person addressed.
Clambering down to the deck, Tom stumbled for-
ward. Rightly conjecturing that the small open
hatchway near the windlass, from which issued a
gleam of light from below, led to the fore peak, Tom
dropped his traveling bag to the unseen floor be-
neath, and then began climbing down a clumsy lad-
der.
But scarcely had his feet reached the bottom,
when the companion way slide over his heard was
pushed suddenly to, and he heard a faint " click," as
though a key was turned in a padlock.
" Mr. Perry !" called Tom, in considerable alarm,
as he turned toward the bunks on either side of the
dingy hole, which was faintly illumined by a smoky
swinging lamp " what does this mean ? Some has
fastened the slide overhead !"
But there was no reply. As his eyes became ac-
customed to the dim obscurity, he saw that the
bunks, save for two or three dirty gray blankets and
202 THAT TREASURE.
dingy pillows, were all empty. And then for ihe first
time came the terrifying thought that he had been
decoyed on board for the purpose of robbery pos-
sibly murder.
Sitting down on one of the lockers in the dirty
place, Tom tried to conjure up some way of escape,
but all in vain. He was fairly trapped and at the
mercy of his captors.
Hour after hour dragged slowly by. An occa-
sional sound of heavy footsteps on the deck, and
the murmur of voices, sometimes reached his ear,
and then all would be still. The close atmosphere
made his head feel dull and heavy, and finally, ar-
ranging the blankets in one of the bunks, Tom
threw himself down upon them with a groan of de-
spair.
The tramping of feet directly over his head, min-
gled with the rattle of masthoops and the slatting
of canvas, aroused Tom from his drowsiness.
"They are getting under way from the pier," was
his thought. Springing from the bunk, Tom stood
on the ladder and beat frantically against the under
side of the scuttle, but all in vain.
He heard the plash of lines let go on the pier,
and felt the gentle swing of the hull as it moved
away. Then a slight heeling over was followed by
the noise of the ripple under the bows.
Throwing himself again in the bunk, in an agony
of mind hardly to be expressed in words, Tom lay
there hour after hour. The increased motion of the
vessel told him it must be well down the harbor,
while an unpleasant nausea foretold approaching sea
sickness.
All at once the slide was pulled back, but no sum-
mons on deck followed. After waiting a moment,
poor Tom clambered upon the ladder and emerged
from his prison.
THAT TREASURE. 203
A groan escaped his lips as lie glanced around
him. A thick drizzling rain was falling, and the
land on either hand was hidden by gray fog wreaths.
Under all- sail the forty ton schooner was dashing
over a short chop sea, with a strong northerly wind
distending her canvas.
204 1HAT TBEASUBS.
CHAPTER XXIV.
TOM FINDS FKIENDS.
WHEN Tom came upon the schooner's deck half a
dozen rough looking men in oilskins and heavy sea
boots were gathered aft, while a poorly clad young
fellow about Tom's age, apparently an Italian, was
scrubbing the deck.
" Hallo, who's this ?" called out a burly man, with
bloated features, who, as Tom felt instinctively, was
the captain.
" A stowaway," suggested another, and as a hoarse
laugh followed, the commander, no other than Cap-
tain Smith, came rolling forward.
" So, young feller, you thought to smuggle yerself
off to sea in my vessel's fore peak, did you?" he
roared; " an' a nice mess you've got yerself into by
doin* of it, f er my schooner ain't no deep water craft.
She's jest an eyesterman bound fer Delaware capes,
so now, my hearty, you kin make the best of it an*
turn to lively, for I'm boss here d'ye understan' ?"
" I understand that I've been trapped into coming
aboard either by you or some one else," returned
Tom, firmly, " and if there's law in America "
" Shet up!" roared Captain Smith; "none of yer
back talk here !"
And before poor Tom knew what was coming, he
caught a right hander from Captain Smith's huge
fist, which sent him reeling against the windlass.
THAT TEEASUM^ 205
The Greyson temper blazed out. With a cry of
rage, Tom snatched a short capstan bar from the
deck, and in another moment Captain Smith was
laid prostrate.
Tom hardly knew what he was doing. He recalls
striking out madly right and left, till a terrible blov/
from behind rendered him insensible.
He woke to renewed consciousness to find himself
lying in one of the fore peak bunks, having on only
his underclc thing. The rest of his garments were
nowhere to be seen, but lying on one of the lockers
were a ragged woolen shirt, the sleeves of which
were torn off at the elbows, a pair of patched trous-
ers, and an old Scotch cap.
" You, Beppo," he heard Captain Smith roar, " git
down for'ard, an' if that there Tom has come to, tell
him to put on them duds on the locker, an' git on
deck mighty sudden, d'ye hear ?"
"Aye, aye, sir!" and the Italian came tumbling
rapidly down the ladder.
"Better do what them says dey awful bad mans,'*
whispered Beppo, as Tom, seeing there was no help
for him, climbed painfully from the berth, and began
to don the dingy apparel. Then both went on deck-
" Go to work and kile up them halyards !" shouted
Captain Smith, whose head was bandaged with t-
very dirty handkerchief.
" Show him how to coil 'em, Beppo," growled an-
other villainous looking fellow, a Pennsylvania
Dutchman called Hawes, who acted as a sort of
officer.
Resistance was useless. It was plain enough to
poor Tom that at the faintest show of disobedience
he was liable to be battered and bruised at the will
of his captors, who only perhaps waited a sufficient
pretext for putting him out of the way altogether,
now they had possession of his money.
206 THAT TREASURE.
Beppo kindled a fire in the rusty stove in one
corner of the fore peak, after he had silently given
Tom his first lesson at seamanship; while the rest of
the crew, with the exception of the man at the
wheel, went down into the little cabin aft.
"Keep her well to the east'ard of tLe cape looks
like we waa goin' to hev a change of wind, an' I want
a good offiu' 'fore nightfall," bawled the captain up
the after companion way.
The rest of that day and night, Tom was merci-
fully left to himself in all the agonies of seasickness;
and on the following morning, somewhat revived by
some hot coffee prepared by Beppo, he managed to
get on deck again.
That evening the schooner lay almost totally be-
calmed a few miles east of Block Island, while grad-
ually the soft fog wreaths, drifting in from the south
and east, veiled the face of the deep.
In vain Captain Smith stamped and whistled and
swore; his vessel lay idly rocking on the long swells
without steerage way. In the distance, Block Island
light was barely discernible, and the hoarse whistle
of the automatic buoy on Cow Reef sounded
strangely through the stillness.
The wheel spoke was put in a becket; a jug of
applejack was brought out from the captain's priv-
ate locker, and placed on the cabin table, together
with a pack of greasy cards, and a jar of fine cut
tobacco. All hands gathered about the festive
board, leaving Tom and Beppo on deck, with direc-
tions to blow an immense tin fog horn at intervals.
Tom stole softly aft and reconnoitered. Unlike
most vessels, there was no after companion way
door through which to descend to the cabin, but
situply a slide with hasp and staple, like that over
the entrance to the fore peak.
" Easy as slipping off a log," he murmured, and,
THAT TEEASUEE. 207
for the first time since his capture, Tom laughed,
but very softly. Tobacco smoke and the fumes of
liquor ascended, both through the open hatchway,
and through a funnel hole in the middle of the roof,
immediately beneath which swung the cabin lamp.
" Do you want to get away from here, Beppo ?"
asked Tom, stepping forward to the Italian's side,
as he sat on the heel of the bowsprit, and blew dis-
cordant blasts on the fog horn.
" You trya me," whispered Beppo, showing his
white teeth. Tom hastily confided his plan, and the
other assented readily.
Tom whittled a stout thole pin to the required
size, and, placing it in his pocket, drew a bucket of
water from alongside, which he placed on deck.
The hilarity below grew louder and stronger, as
the applejack waned in the jug.
" Take a look round on deck, an* see if there's any
signs of a breeze, Hawes; I'll play your hand till
you come back," said Captain Smith. Tom, who
had just tiptoed away from t^e after cabin, laughed
again.
For Hawes, presuming the slide to be open, as a
few moments before, hurried to obey without glanc-
ing upward. And as his bullet head came forcibly
in contact with the closed slide, which was of toler-
ably thick oak, he uttered a howl and fell backward.
At the same moment, a drenching torrent of salt
water was poured down through the funnel hole in
the roof, instantly extinguishing the lamp, and
drenching the table beneath.
The jug of applejack was overthrown in the sud-
den uprisal, and then followed a perfect pandemon-
ium. There was no other means of exit, except
through the scuttle, and even the little plate glass
bull's eyes in the side of the trunk were tightly
closed and screwed up.
108 THAT TKEASUEE.
" Now, then, Beppo," exultantly exclaimed Tom,
" give me a hand with the top dory quick !"
In another moment the buoyant craft was tossing 1
alongside. As its stem bumped heavily against the
vessel's hull, the tremendous din in the cabin sud-
denly ceased.
" You, Tom Beppo 1" bellowed the voice of the
imprisoned captain, hoarse with rage and applejack,
" take off this here slide, or I'll murder you when I
get on deck !"
" You won't get on deck in a hurry, by the looks
of things," called Tom, glancing at the stout ash pin
which confined the slide; "hope you're enjoying
yourself down there good by !"
" Bime by you be plenty warm, cap'n," shouted
Beppo ; " I empty kerosene on old sail down blow,
an' set him 'fire, 'fore we go off in you dory !"
" Good heavens, Beppo !" exclaimed Tom, aghast,
" you haven't "
Bat a reassuring wink from the Italian showed
Tom that Beppo was revenging himself for the
abuses he had suffered, by working on the fears of
his former persecutors, at the expense of truth.
" I shmell the smoke a'ready," yelled Hawes, in
terrified accents; "ve shall burn like rats in von
hole !"
Amid a chorus of frenzied shouts and entreaties,
the dory was pushed off from the side by the two
fugitives. Beppo took the oars, and with half a
dozen strokes left the schooner astern, completely
hidden by the thick mist wreaths.
Sitting in the dory's stern, Tom steered toward
the luminous pin point representing Block Island
light, which seemed much further away than it
fteally was, by reason of the fog.
" Saya, Tom," Beppo suddenly remarked, "how
?*u getta caught 'board dat vessel eh ?"
THAT TREASUKE. 209
Tom briefly explained.
" Captain Smith, or some one of his gang, wrote
the decoy letter, I suppose," he said, " and so "
"No, no," interrupted Beppo, shaking his head
rapidly; " I tell you sometings. Night we sail, men
all 'shore 'cept Cap'n Srnit'. I lay bunk aft, 'mos'
sleep. Bime by, Smit' he come down with young
fella all dress up like gen'leman. 'So my letter
f etcha him ?' dis young chap say, an' show he teeth.
Den cap'n laugh, an' say: 'Got him sure.' Young
fella pull out money; I see him finger shake when
he hand over bill. * Member, cap'n/ he say, low
like, 'all I want get him out my way few week
not'in' more.' Cap'n Smit' grin. ' I take care of
him,' he say; den bot' go on deck."
" Could you see the young fellow's face ?" eagerly
demanded Tom, as a sudden shadowy suspicion
flashed across his mind.
" See him all plain," promptly returned Beppo.
" I know him 'gain anywheres. He "
" Stop rowing a bit," exclaimed Tom, quickly.
Out of the surrounding mist and gloom rose a
clear and beautiful contralto voice, upborne on the
light breeze.
" Hark ! " breathlessly interposed Tom, as Beppo
was about to speak.
" Where is my wandering boy tonight,
The boy of my tend'rest care ?
The boy that was once my soul's delight,
The child of my love and prayer."
It was only a melody from the too often derided
" Gospel Hymns." But the wonderful pathos and
sweetness of the singer gave to the simple words a
strangely moving power, and Tom Greyson's eyes
suddenly filled.
"Pull round, Beppo; there is a vessel somewhere
near in the fog, and we must board her," said Tom,
210 THAT TEEASUKE.
in a voice of repressed emotion, for somehow his
whole being had been strangely stirred by what he
had heard.
Beppo silently obeyed. A few strokes of the
oars, and out of the murk loomed the hull of a
large schooner, with her booms guyed out to catch
the fitful puffs of air that barely kept the white
sails full.
" Schooner 'hoy !" called Beppo, as he rounded
the dory to alongside the moving vessel. In answer
to the hail, two or three men came running to the
rail, and took the fugitives on deck.
" Show the poor fellows into the cabin, Mr.
Meyer," called a pleasant voice from the quarter,
where four or five persons were sitting. " I want to
question them."
Mr. Meyer, evidently the first officer, motioning
Tom and Beppo to follow, ushered them into the
after cabin.
The pleasant voiced gentleman, who, as Tom con-
jectured, was the owner of the yacht, descended the
after companion way, followed by the rustling
skirts of a couple of ladies, who entered their state-
rooms.
A third lady was sitting at a small, upright piano
in an alcove. As she turned her head at the en-
trance of the little party, Tom with difficulty re-
pressed an exclamation of astonishment, for it was
no other than Madame Norman. It was not sur-
prising that she did not at first recognize Tom in
his disfiguring apparel.
" Step forward, here, more into the light," said
Mr. Bivers, the yacht's owner, and very reluctantly
Tom followed Beppo, who was not in the least
abashed by his surroundings, but stood, cap in
hand, glancing about him with childish delight.
Beppo told the story of the schooner Bess and
THAT TKEASUEE. 211
her villainous crew. How he himself had been in-
duced to ship through the promise of large wages,
and, once on board, had been kept there a drudge
and a slave.
But Madame Norman was not listening. She was
studying Tom's face with a puzzled look.
"I cannot be mistaken," she said rising to her
feet. " Mr. Rivers, this young man is the one of
whom I was telling you he who acted so bravely
in San Francisco."
" Impossible, Mrs. Greyson," returned Mr. Rivers,
as the lady stepped forward and took Tom's hand
in her own.
Mrs. Greyson ! But before Tom could frame the
questions that were trembling on his lips, the singer
drew him forward.
" Madame Norman was only my stage name ;
I am really only Mrs. Greyson," she said, with a
smile.
" But I that is my name is Tom Greyson," ex-
claimed Tom, in great agitation; "and there are the
initials, T. S. G., that my father, whom I cannot
remember, pricked into my arm when I was a child,"
he added, pointing to the tattoed monogram on his
arm.
" Will you tell me more ?" gasped Mrs. Greyson,
sinking into the nearest chair, but without relin-
quishing Tom's hands, while her eyes were fixed on
his agitated face with an eager, hungry look.
"Captain Greyson, my grandfather, was angry at
his son's marriage," said Tom; " and after my father
died he had me kidnaped by a man named
North "
But before Tom could continue, Mrs. Greyson
drew him toward her.
" My boy," she said, tremblingly, " my little lost
Tom 1" With a stifled cry, Tom sank on his knees
212 THAT TREASURE.
and hid his face in her lap, and his mother placed
her arms about his neck.
" Thank God thank God !" she whispered, " for
this my son was dead and is alive again, was lost
and is found."
A slight rustling was heard at the further end of
the cabin, where, with visibly astonished looks, a
young and a middle aged lady stood as though
transfixed at the unexpected tableau.
But Mr. Rivers, recovering from his own shock
of surprise, waved them back with a mute gesture.
Then, seizing Beppo, who was grinning with de-
light, by the collar, he marched him rapidly on
deck.
"It beats melodrama and novels all hollow," he
exclaimed to the two gentlemen who stood there ;
" wait a little while, and I'll take you in to hear the
whole story."
But feminine curiosity was not thus to be held
in check. Long before the three masculines ven-
tured to intrude upon the scene, such a chorus of
voices was heard, that Mr. Rivers was fain to knock
loudly at the cabin door.
" The sailing master complains that you're all
making such a row he can't hear the automatic buoy
on Cow Reef," he called.
" Come in," was the reply, and Mr. Rivers, fol-
lowed by his two male companions, entered the
cabin.
"Papa papa Sherard what do you think?"
breathlessly cried a lovely girl in a becoming yacht-
ing suit, as she seized one of the gentlemen by the
hand and dragged him forward; " here is Tom our
Tom only he isn't Tom Dean, but Tom Greyson,
my dear Mrs. Greyson's long lost son ! And oh,
papa !" said Miss Dolly Sherard, " isn't it too lovely
for anything?"
THAT TKEASUEE. 213
" "Well, I should say it was," vacantly responded
Mr. Sherard, staring at Tom in utter bewilderment;
" Tom, my boy "
And, dropping Tom's hand before he had quite
wrung it off, Mr. Sherard turned suddenly round
and stared very hard at the barometer, the index
needle of which was pointing to "sudden change."
"Here, Caton, come and be introduced," called
Mr. Bivers, to make a diversion; but the third gen-
tleman of the party had suddenly vanished through
the door, with a face that was livid in its pallor.
" What's the matter with Caton ? I didn't know
he was ever troubled with bashfulness," laughed
Mr. Rivers.
" The young gentleman has seemed rather nerv-
ous ever since his impatience to leave Boston started
us all off a couple of days before we had arranged
to go," said Mr. Sherard, shrugging his shoulders;
'* otherwise, we might have had a longer time to
enjoy our comfortable suite of rooms at Parker's."
At Parker's ! Then Mr. Sherard and Dolly had
been under the same roof as Tom ! No wonder that
scheming Caton had wanted to get him out of the
way, lest he should meet the Sherards, and in some
way betray his knowledge of Caton's antecedents.
Like one in a dream, Tom sat holding his moth-
er's hand, while Mrs. Greyson, speechless with joy,
regarded her new found son with emotions too deep
for utterance.
It was Dolly who did the talking. She told of
her father's accidental meeting with the wealthy
young planter from New Orleans, at a broker's office
in Boston, where the latter was exchanging some
gold for bills. Being pleased with his appearance,
Mr. Sherard had invited him to call at their rooms
at Parker's, and he had haunted them ever since.
And when Mr. Eivers, who was a brother to Mr.
214 THAT TREASURE.
Sherard's deceased wife, had proposed the present
yachting trip, which, after a brief touching at New
York on some of Mr. Sherard's business, was to con-
tinue till midsummer, young Mr. Caton had con-
trived very shrewdly to have himself included in the
invitation.
It was evident that Tom felt ill at ease in his rag-
ged garb, notwithstanding his delightful sur-
roundings, a fact which Mr. Sherard was first to
discover.
" Come, Tom, I want you myself for a few mo-
ments," he said. Comprehending his meaning, Tom
left his mother, with a promise that he would soon
return, and accompanied Mr. Sherard to his own
stateroom, where the latter's wardrobe was placed
at his disposal.
Half an hour later, Tom passed out on deck, and
tossed over the rail his late ragged habiliments.
" Saya, Tom," eagerly observed Beppo, who seemed
to have been lying in wait for him, " maybe you not
b'leeve me, but while 'go I seea dat young fel' what
I tell you was 'board the Bess, an* give cap'n money;
him was on deck with oder gen'lemen."
But Tom could now believe anything, and, in fact,
Beppo's assertion only confirmed his own suspicions.
Bidding Beppo say nothing about it to any one,
Tom penciled on a card these few lines:
TOM: As I know everything that you are the embezzling
secretary of the Grand Consolidated, and that you forged the
letter by which I was decoyed on board the oyster schooner,
from which I have just escaped, it may not be pleasant for us
to meet. I will keep your secret as long as I can, but you must
know the truth will have to be told sooner or later. 1 heartily
and freely forgive you on my own part. TOM.
Knocking at the door of Caton's stateroom, he
slipped the card under the door, and made his way
to the cabin, which was tenanted solely by pretty
Dolly.
THAT TREASURE 215
His mother, so Dolly told him, with a charming
Bmile, was lying down, after so much excitement,
and Mrs. Rivers was with her. The two older gen-
tlemen were on the quarter, and Mr. Caton had sent
word that he had a headache and did not wish to
be disturbed.
" But, Dolly," said Tom, grown wondrously bold,
as he took both her small hands in his own, " do
you know I have not had time to tell you that not
the least of my happiness is that of finding you
again ?"
And, if you will believe me, this same audacious
Tom drew blushing Dolly toward him, and touched
his lips to her rosy cheek.
"What Dolly would have said, but for the entrance
of Mr. Sherard, I am unable to state. But she be-
gan talking very fast all at once, and the theme of
her conversation was Tom's mother. Mrs. Greyson
had been unsuccessful in her pet project in fact,
had lost nearly all her little savings. Then she left
the concert stage, and advertised for music pupils.
But Dolly, who had fallen in love with the graceful
lady at sight, persuaded her father that she wanted
her for companion, chaperone, and music teacher, all
in one.
And so the night wore on. Mrs. Greyson and
Mrs. Rivers rejoined them, and shortly afterward
Mr. Rivers came below, with the announcement that
a favorable breeze was rising, and that the yacht
would be in New York harbor on the following
morning.
Mr. Sherard had a long talk in private with Tom,
after the others had retired. He had prospered in
a wonderful manner, through certain investments,
and though he had turned Tom's share in with his
own, he was amply able to repay it with interest.
It was arranged that, on their arrival in New York,
216 THAT TKEASURE:
Mr. Sherard should at once proceed to make the
proper transfers, and Tom felt that he was in a fair
way of seeing his cherished dream of a home, and
a humble competency, in which his mother was to
share, fully realized.
At early dawn, every one, except Caton, turned
out to enjoy the beautiful scenery in sailing up the
harbor. A little later the steward reported that Mr.
Caton was not iu his stateroom. Not only were his
traveling bag and overcoat missing, but also the
dory in which Tom and Beppo had made their es-
cape.
It had been left towing alongside, and some time
during the night had been utilized by the missing
passenger, as was apparent from the following brief
note, left on the untouched berth:
Circumstances over which I have no control having necessi-
tated a somewhat hasty leave taking, I tender my heartfelt
thanks for courtesies received. Mr. Greyson, who I will merely
say is a white man, every inch of him, will give the full partic-
ulars. Am glad he found his mother indeed, he might give me
the credit of that. Love to Dolly. CATON.
" But what does it all mean ?" exclaimed Dolly,
coloring with vexation at the concluding passage in
this impudent, but very characteristic missive ; and
then Tom made a clean breast of the wnole matter
of Caton's career, from beginning to end.
Space does not allow me to describe at any
length the mingled astonishment and indignation
of the entire party, when they found they had been
sheltering and entertaining an audacious young
criminal.
Arrived in New York, Tom's first act was to send
to his grandfather the following dispatch :
Can't come back. Have found mother. Will write particu-
lars. TOM.
And that night, after Tom and Mr. Sherard had
THAT TKEASTTKE. 217
had a most satisfactory adjustment o? their busi-
ness matters, Tom received the following answer:
Come at once and bring your mother with you.
GREYSON.
The tears rose to Mrs. Greyson's eyes, as Tom,
with his arms about her neck, read this altogether
unexpected reply.
" Ah, Tom, it all seems too good to be true, and I
am continually fearing to waken and find it all a
dream," she softly said.
" It seems real enough to me," responded irre-
pressible Dolly, pouting never so slightly, " for if
you go, I only find dear friends to lose them again
immediately."
"It need not be," eagerly exclaimed Tom, "if Mr.
Sherard and yourself would give up this yachting
cruise and take the trip with us."
And the upshot of the matter was that Mr. Eivers,
greatly to his disappointment, had to hunt up an
entire new yachting company; while the happiest
quartet that ever traveled by rail went flying off
for San Francisco a few days later.
But why prolong this story further? At Los
Angeles, in Southern California, two beautiful
estates stand side by side. One belongs to Captain
Greyson. The captain daily repents in figurative
sackcloth and ashes his harshness and cruelty to
" Tom's widow," whom he now regards as a daugh-
ter.
Mr. Sherard owns the other estate, and has
settled down, so he asserts, for life. Dolly Sherard
is perfectly content, as well she may be. Both she
and Tom look back upon their peculiar experiences
with something of the feeling with which one re-
calls a bewildering dream. .
Perhaps it may not be amiss to say just here,
that young Caton was finally apprehended by per-
fc.8 THAT TREASURE.
sistent detective Blake. He now serves the State in
a massive stone building, where he will have a
chance to reflect upon the result of wrong doing
for the next ten years.
It was from Tom that I obtained the facts which
I have incorporated into this story. In a letter re-
cently received from him, he says:
Dolly and I are to be married some day. I tell you this,
thinking that you, as well as any who may read the story
which you say you have written about us, will know that at
last I have found
THAT TEEASUBE.
THE END.
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These books are considered the best works this well-known writer
ever produced. No better reading for bright young Americans.
Arthur Helmuth Perils of the Jungle
Check No. 2134 On the Trail of Geronimo
From Tent to White House "White Mustang
GEORGE
For the past fifty years Mr. Fenn has been writing books for boys
and popular fiction. His hooks are justly popular throughout the
English-speaking world. We publish the following select list of his
boys' books, which we consider the best he ever wrote.
Commodore Junk Golden Magnet
Dingo Boys Grand Chaco
'Weathercock
EXSKiX CLARKE FIXCH, U. S. X.
A graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and tho-
roughly familiar with all naval matters. Mr. Fitch has devoted him-
self to literature, and has written a series of books for boys that every
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
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young American should read. His stories are full of very interesting
information about the navy, training ships, etc.
Bound for Annapolis Cruise of the Training Ship
Clif, the Naval Cadet From Port to Port
Strange Cruise, A
WILLIAM MURRAY CRAYDON.
An author of world-wide popularity. Mr. Graydon is essentially a
friend of young people, and we offer herewith ten of his best works,
wherein he relates a great diversity of interesting adventures in various
parts of the world, combined with accurate historical data.
Butcher of Cawnpore, The In Barracks and Wigwam
Camp in the Snow, The In Fort and Prison
Campaigning with Braddock Jungles and Traitors
Cryptogram, The Hajah's Fortress, The
From Lake to "Wilderness "White King of Africa, The
LIEUT. FREDERICK GARRISON, U. S. A.
Every American boy takes a keen interest in the affairs of West
Point. No more capable writer on this popular subject could be found
than Lieut. Garrison, who vividly describes the life, adventures and
unique incidents that have occurred in that great institution in these
famous West Point stories.
Off for West Point On Guard
Cadet's Honor, A West Point Treasure, The
West Point Rivals, The
HEADON MILL.
The hunt for gold has always been a popular subject for considera-
tion, and Mr. Hill has added a splendid story on the subject in this
romance of the Klondyke.
Spectre Gold
HENRY HARRISON LEWIS.
Mr. Lewis is a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and
has written a great many books for boys. Among his best works are
the following titles the subjects include a vast series of adventures
in all parts of the world. The historical data is correct, and they
should be read by all boys, for the excellent information they contain.
Centreboard Jim Ensign Merrill
King of the Island Sword and Pen
Midshipman Merrill Valley of Mystery, The
Yankee Boys in Japan
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
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LIEUT. LIOTVEL LOUNSBERRY.
A series of books embracing many adventures under our famous
naval commanders, and with our army during the War of 1812 and
the Civil War. Founded on sound history, these books are written
for boys, with the idea of combining pleasure with profit ; to cutivate
a fondness for study especially of what has been accomplished by
our army and navy.
Cadet Kit Carey Randy, the Pilot
Captain Carey Tom Truxton's School Days
Kit Carey's Protege Tom Truxton's Ocean Trip
Lieut. Carey's Luck Treasure of the Golden Crater
Out With Commodore Decatur "Won at "West Point
BROOKS McCORMICK.
Four splendid books of adventure on sea and land, by this well-
known writer for boys.
Giant Islanders, The Nature's Young Nobleman.
How He "Won Rival Battalions
WALTER MORRIS.
This charming story contains thirty-two chapters of just the sort of
school life that charms the boy readers.
Bob Porter at Lakeview Academy
STANLEY MORRIS.
Mr. Norris is without a rival as a writer of "Circus Stories" for
boys. These four books are full of thrilling adventures, but good,
wholsome reading for young Americans.
Phil, the Showman Young Showman's Pluck, The
Young Showman's Rivals, The Young Showman's Triumph
LIEUT. JAMES K. ORTOP?.
When a boy has read one of Lieut. Orton's books, it requires no
urging to induce him to read the others. Not a dull page in any of
them.
Beach Boy Joe Secret Chart, The
Last Chance Mine Tom Havens with the "White
Squadron
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
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JAMES OTIS.
Mr. Otis is known by nearly every American boy, and needs no in-
troduction here. The following copyrights are among his best :
Chased Through Norway Unprovoked Mutiny
Inland "Waterways "Wheeling for Fortune
Reuben Green's Adventures at Yale
GILBERT PATTEN.
Mr. Patten has had the distinction of having his books adopted by
the U. S. Government for all naval libraries on board our war ships.
While aiming to avoid the extravagant and sensational, the stories
contain enough thrilling incidents to please the lad who loves action
and adventure. In the Rockspur stories the description of their Base-
ball and Football Games and other contests with rival clubs and teams
make very exciting and absorbing reading ; and few boys with warm
blood in their veins, having once begun the perusal of one of these
books, will willingly lay it down till it is finished.
Boy Boomers Jud and Joe
Boy Cattle King Rockspur Nine, The
Boy from the "West Kockspur Eleven, The
Don Kirke's Mine Rockspur Rivals, The
ST. GEORGE RATIIIIORXE.
Mr. Bathborne's stories for boys have the peculiar charm of
dealing with localities and conditions with which he is thoroughly
familiar. The scenes of these excellent stories are along the Florida
coast and on the western prairies.
Canoe and Camp Fire Chums of the Prairie
Faddling Under Palmettos Young Range Riders
Rival Canoe Boys Gulf Cruisers
Sunset Ranch Shifting "Winds
ARTHUR SEWELI*.
An American story by an American author. It relates how a
Yankee boy overcame many obstacles in school and out. Thoroughly
interesting from start to finish.
Gay Dashleigh's Academy Days
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
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CAPT. DAVID SOUTHWICK.
An exceptionally good story of frontier life among the Indians in
the far West, during the early settlement period.
Jack "Wheeler
The Famous Frank Merriwell Stories.
BURT I*. STAP9DISH.
No modern series of tales for boys and youths has met with any-
thing like the cordial reception and popularity accorded to the Frank
Merriwell Stories. There must be a reason for this and there is.
Frank Merriwell, as portrayed by the author, is a jolly whole-souled,
honest, courageous American lad, who appeals to the hearts of the
boys. He has no bad habits, and his manliness inculcates the idea
that it is not necessary for a boy to indulge in petty vices to be a hero.
Frank Merriwell' s example is a shining light for every ambitious lad
to follow. Six volumes now ready :
Frank MerriwelFs School Days Frank Merriwell's Trip "West
Frank Merriwell's Chums Frank Merriwell Down South.
Frank Merriwell's Foes Frank Merriwell's Bravery
VICTOR. ST. CLAIR.
These books are full of good, clean adventure, thrilling enough to
please the full-blooded wide-awake boy, yet containing nothing to
which there can be any objection from those who are careful as to the
kind of books they put into the hands of the young.
Cast Away in the Jungle Little Snap, the Post Boy
For Home and Honor Zig-Zag, the Boy Conjurer
From Switch to Lever Zip, the Acrobat
MATTHEW 'WHITE, JR.
Good, healthy, strong books for the American lad. No more in-
teresting books for the young appear on our lists.
Adventures of a Young Athlete My Mysterious Fortune
Eric Dane Tour of a Private Car
Guy Hammersley Young Editor, The
ARTHUR HI. \VIXFIi:i,I>.
One of the most popular authors of boys' books. He writes also
under the name of Bonehill and Stratemeyer. Here are three of his
best.
Mark Dale's Stage Venture Young Bank Clerk, The
Young Bridge Tender, The
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
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Ci A YI.i;
This very interesting story relates the trials and triumphs of a
Young American Actor, including the solution of a very puzzling
mystery.
Young Actor, The
A. YOUNG.
This book is not a treatise on sports, as the title would indicate, but
relates a series of thrilling adventures among boy campers in the
woods of Maine.
Boats, Bats and Bicycles
DAVLD McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
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