CHAPTER XXI.
A CRIME WITHIN A CRIME.
"Well, friend, have you decided to come out to my ranch, and look mystock over?"
It was Colonel Billings, the genial ranchman, who addressed Ted, meetinghim in the lobby of the hotel.
"Yes, I think I will," answered Ted. "When will it be convenient for youto be there?"
"I am going out to-morrow, and will be glad to see you and yourfriends."
"There are a good many of us," said Ted, laughing.
"The more the merrier. The house is large, and I could drop you all downinto it, and the house would hardly know it."
"How do we get out there?"
"I see you have a couple of ladies with you, and I shall telephone overto my manager to send a carriage in for them, and horses for the use ofyou boys. How many horses and saddles will you need? There are plenty atthe ranch."
"We will need eight horses. One of the ladies prefers to ride, and we'llneed a gentle pony for the small boy, whose experience is limited."
"Sidesaddle for the lady?"
"No," said Ted, with a grin, "this young lady will not use one. She is acowgirl, and rides a man's saddle."
"All right, my boy. The outfit will be here in the morning. By the way,I am going to have some other guests. I suppose you will not object."
"Certainly not."
"One of them is a young New Yorker, who has come West to invest in ranchproperty, and who has brought his sister with him. Charming people. Theother is a rather uncouth person, but you will forgive hiseccentricities, I am sure. To tell you the truth, he often grates on me,but I overlook it because he has lacked advantages. He made his money inthe liquor business, in which he has been all his life. But he is a goodfellow at heart, and is my partner in a way, having invested a large sumof money with me in cattle."
"I shall be very glad to meet them, although, I'm afraid I shall not beable to see much of them, as I shall be very busy."
"When you are under my roof, sir, you are as free as if you had beenborn there. I am glad you and your friends are coming. It does my oldheart good to have young people around me. I will see you in themorning, and shall feel honored to escort you to my home."
With this they parted.
"Jolly old chap," said Ted to himself. "I know just how he feels abouthaving a lot of people come to visit him. I like it myself."
Stella had been out for a ride with little Dick. She had secured acouple of ponies from the stable connected with the hotel, and had givenDick his first riding lesson.
Ted met them as they were dismounting in front of the hotel.
"Ted, that boy is going to be a second edition of you in the saddle,"cried Stella enthusiastically. "I never saw such a seat for a kid. Whyhe takes to a horse like a young duck to water."
"That's good," said Ted. "Do you like to ride, Scrub, I mean Dick?"
The boy flushed at the name Scrub, but he recovered himself immediately.
"Yes, it's fine," he answered. "I like horses, and they seem to take tome. I'd like to ride a horse all the time."
"Well, you'll have all you want of it when you get out to Moon Valley,"said Ted. "Would you like to go out again? If you do, go ahead. I guesswe can trust you not to break your neck."
The boy smiled and nodded, and climbed into his saddle again, and wasoff.
"Ted, that boy is going to be a credit to us all," said Stella. "But hemust have an education. Although he speaks well and doesn't use muchslang, that is, for a boy, he knows absolutely nothing that he hasn'tpicked up. He must go to school some day, but not now, for he hardlyknows his alphabet, and as for other branches of knowledge, why, hedoesn't know they exist, and he is as full of superstition as a Cocoposquaw. Wherever he got his beliefs, I can't imagine."
"All right, Stella, he shall go to school. It doesn't really mattermuch, that he has never been to school before. He'll learn so fast thathe'll make up for lost time, don't fear. That boy has a good head."
"I'm going to teach him myself until he is able to take his place inschool with boys of his own age. He's just crazy to learn."
"His early education is up to you. I'm not afraid he will learn anythinghe shouldn't from you. Go at him slowly and sensibly. Don't try to stuffit all into him at once. Meanwhile, I'll teach him to ride, shoot, herd,rope, and all that, occasionally impressing upon him the cardinalprinciples of the broncho boys--truth, honesty, sincerity, courage, andkindness."
"He'll be a fine fellow some of these days, Ted, and a good-looking andgood-tempered one."
"I think he will. Suppose we take a little walk, if you have nothingbetter to do. I want to get your opinion on some matters."
"The very thing. I saw a pretty little park on the bank of a river.We'll walk there."
"I have promised to go out to Colonel Billings' ranch to-morrow, and Itook the liberty of accepting the invitation for you all, as there isnothing to do around here, and I have a hunch that something good willcome of it."
"I'll be glad to go. You know how much I like the town. I wouldn't careif I never saw one again."
"It's all right, then. We'll start in the morning. I am more thananxious to go now, especially as Billings tells me he has invitedseveral other people to be his guests."
"Who are they?"
"You remember the girl who slipped the note into my pocket in the St.Louis station, and the young fellow with the pointed beard. Well, I sawthem both in town this morning. The girl ran away from me on the street,jumped into a carriage, and drove away."
"There's nothing about you to cause a girl to run." Stella looked up atTed in a teasing way.
"That'll be all right," said he. "But a few minutes after I saw thefellow with the pointed beard coming out of the private office ofNorcross, the president of the bank that was robbed of the fortythousand dollars. He went by me like a rocket, as if he were afraid ofme."
"Sure it was he?"
"Positive. But the strange part of it was my interview with the banker.He acknowledged that the bank had been robbed of the money, andidentified the bill dropped by Checkers in his flight, as one of theshipment, but when I announced that it was a counterfeit, he went all topieces, and, after trying to bluff me into giving him the note, wantedto buy it, asking me to name my own price."
"What does that mean, I wonder?"
"It means, that this case of the robbery and the murder of the expressmessenger is not the simple thing I thought. There is a crime within acrime."
"What in the world do you mean?"
"Just this, Norcross, the banker, is mixed in the crime, and Heaven onlyknows how many more men quite as prominent as he. The express-robbingsyndicate is a strong one, and hard to beat."
"But you'll beat it yet. I know you."
"Thank you for your faith and encouragement, Stella. But it's going tobe a hard pull, and it will take all of us to do it."
"What do you think of it now?"
"My idea is, that the alleged forty thousand dollars was not real moneyat all, and that Norcross was trying to double-cross the very men he wasstanding in with."
"Still, I hardly understand."
"Well, Norcross agreed with the members of the syndicate to ship fortythousand dollars to St. Louis, which was to be stolen en route by thesyndicate's own men. They would then have their forty thousand back, andthe forty thousand which they could make the express company pay them.The original forty thousand would come back to Norcross, and he wouldget his share of the money which the express company would pay."
"That was easy."
"It would have been, but for the fact that Norcross insisted upon beinginsured for the use of his forty thousand in case anything else happenedto it. In this way he got another large sum."
"I see. But from what you have found out so far, I don't quiteunderstand how you figure it out."
"All I have to go by is my own way of deducing things. The fortythousand dollars which was to be stolen was supposed by the othermembers of the syndicate to be real money. It
was for this that thesyndicate insured Norcross. But, instead, he substituted counterfeits,if, indeed, most of the supposed money was not just blank paper."
"He is a real financier, eh?"
"Yes, but he didn't take into consideration that he had scoundrels justas shrewd as himself to deal with. For instance, I believe when thetruth is known, it will be found out that the syndicate was going tobeat Norcross. But that is mere supposition. The tug of war is comingsoon. It will take place at the ranch of Colonel Billings."
"I thought you believed in him."
"I do. I have made a few inquiries about him. I wanted to find out whatsort of a chap he was before taking you and your aunt out to his place.Every one speaks of him as one of the leading men in the county andState."
"Then why should he be drawn into this mess?"
"I think he has done it unconsciously. He has a partner who has investedmoney in Billings' cattle. Do you remember the fellow in the train whomKit knocked down? The chap who insulted that pretty girl."
"Yes."
"From the description given me of one of his coming guests by thecolonel, I believe the man with the red necktie is he."
"What? That horrid thing."
"I didn't tell you, but Kit and I saw him talking to a man at thestation where we stopped for dinner, whom I am convinced was no otherthan Checkers himself."
"Whew! That looks suspicious."
"In addition to that, the colonel has invited a man and his sister tovisit him while we are there. This man is a New Yorker; I don't know hisname, but the colonel says he is out here to buy a ranch. Who do yousuppose it is?"
"Haven't an idea."
"The girl who dropped the warning note into my pocket, and the young manwith the pointed beard."
"Whew! again."
"Looks pretty complicated, doesn't it?"
"Worse than that. Ted, are you sure about this Colonel Billings?"
"One is sure of nothing in this world, but I have taken a fancy toBillings, and when I like a man he generally turns out all right, makingallowances for minor faults and habits. Yes, I think I can trustBillings."
"But not his friends. Ted, do you want to know what I think?"
"Certainly."
"I feel that the invitation out there is a trap to catch you, andpossibly keep you away from the town."
"Nonsense! Why should they want to keep me away from the town? Theredoesn't seem to be anything wrong in town that I could bother them in,except the Norcross incident, and if, as I suspect, he has duped hispartners, he will say nothing to them about me."
"Suppose they want to get out there to do away with you."
"They wouldn't ask all of you out there with me in that case."
"That is where you are mistaken. They are too shrewd to excite yoursuspicions by inviting you alone. It will not be hard for them to getyou away from the ranch to look at some cattle and then kill you. Ted,you are too dangerous to them to be let alone."
"Well, it can't be helped now, and being right in among them is a hope Idid not expect to see realized so easily. But they will have noadvantage over me, for none of the syndicate, I take it, know of thecounterfeits as yet, except Norcross and the inevitable Checkers. But atthat, I don't think they will resort to violence. We are too strong forthem, at the ranch, at least I believe they will use diplomacy."
"Well, we can play at the game ourselves. There, perhaps, I can helpyou."
"You bet you can. But let us go down to the station and see if the redmotor car, 118, has arrived yet."
When they reached the station, Ted went to the express agent and askedfor the car.
"Yes," said the agent, "the car arrived this morning, Mr. Strong, and Idelivered it according to your instructions. The charges are not paidyet. Your messenger said you would call later and settle for them, and,knowing you by reputation, I let it go."
Ted was staring at the agent.
"You delivered it according to my instructions?"
"Yes, sir."
"I didn't give any one an order for the car."
"Why, you must have forgotten it. Here it is. I happened to see one ofyour boys down here, and called him to one side and asked him if it wasyour signature, and he very promptly identified it."
"Let me see that order."
The agent produced an order written on the note paper of the hotel.
Ted stared at it incredulously.
"It looks like my writing, but I didn't write it. I'll swear to that.Look at this, Stella. Is that my hand?"
Stella looked at the paper studiously for a minute or two, then handedit back.
"A casual look at it would deceive me, but you did not write it. Itlacks several of your individualisms, and has others that are notyours."
"That is right. This order is a forgery. I did not write it. Theexpress-robber syndicate is getting bolder every minute. They'll come inand steal you some day," Ted said to the agent. "Notify your companythat my car has been stolen, and that I want it restored to me."
"Great Scott!" was all the agent could say.
"What sort of looking chap was it that presented the order?" asked Ted.
"Well, he was an ordinary-looking chap. He had on a--"
"Checked suit?"
"Yes, sir. How did you know?"
"Checkers has come into his own at last," said Ted, turning to Stella.
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