The Boy Aviators in Record Flight; Or, The Rival Aeroplane
Page 25
CHAPTER XXV.
A FIGHT FOR FORTUNE.
The sheriff of Calabazos was sitting on the stoop outside the GovernmentAssay Office early the next day when he was startled by a loud clatterof hoofs up the mountain side. He looked up from his absorbingoccupation of whittling a piece of wood, and saw coming rattling downthe trail at a breakneck speed four horsemen. They were Noggy Wilkes,Hank Higgins, Fred Reade and Luther Barr.
"Hullo, Chunky," hailed the sheriff to the government clerk, who wasinside the office--a rough, clap-boarded affair on which appeared asign, which announced in white letters that it was the "GOVERNMENT ASSAYOFFICE." "Come on out here, Barton, here come them fellers that got hereyesterday with that thar skyscraper thing of theirn and purty nearbothered the life out of Skol Scovgen, the blacksmith, trying to git himto make a conniption of some kind for it."
The young man who languidly consented to serve Uncle Sam in the capacityof claim clerk joined him on the porch. He also gazed interestedly atthe group of horsemen, who were now compelled to slow up by thesteepness of the trail.
"Seem ter be in quite a hurry," he commented, picking his teeth with aquill pick that he had acquired on his last visit to what he was pleasedto term civilization.
"Yep," assented the sheriff, "I reckon they've bin up stakin' out a mineor suthin'. I hear they was talking in ther hotel last night while itwas rainin' so pesky hard about a lost mine and some chap namedWitherbee."
"Oh, I remember that feller Witherbee," struck in the clerk. "Went easta while ago. I recollect that the gossip was that he'd made quite apiece of money on a mine or had some sort of mine hidden back in thehills thar. I heard it was the one that belonged to old Fogg, whodisappeared."
"Wall, ther fellers seem to have something of ther same kind on theirminds," exclaimed the sheriff, as the party, having now left the uneventrail, came clattering down the road on their wiry horses.
It could now be seen that Luther Barr, who rode in advance of the rest,carried some sort of a paper in his hand. The arrival of the cortege hadattracted quite a crowd, who gathered about the Assay Office as theriders came clattering up.
"Is this the Government Assay Office?" queried Luther Barr as they drewrein and dismounted.
"Reckon so," replied the dandified clerk with a languid air.
"Oh, you reckon so, do you?" was the impatient reply. "Well, kindlybestir yourself a little. I wish to file a claim to a mine."
"Yep--Got ther papers all made out regilar?"
"Yes, here they are. We've gotten them all right and correct. I guessthere'll be no trouble about that part of it, eh, Reade?"
"I guess not," answered the individual addressed, tying his horse to thehitching bar in front of the assay office.
"All right, gentlemen," at length remarked the clerk, getting to hisfeet, "I guess if you come inside we can fix you up."
"Say, partner," put in the sheriff, "yer don't mind my askin' you aquestion, do yer?"
"Not at all," beamed Luther Barr, who was in high good humor, "ask adozen."
"Wall, is this yar mine yer goin' ter locate the 'Lost Mine' that oldJared Fogg, who disappeared, used ter own?"
"I believe it is. Why do you ask?"
"Wall, if you'll excuse my jay-bird curiosity, I'd jes like to know howin thunder you ever located it."
"That is our secret, my man," replied the eastern millionaire briskly."All you need to know, and this gentleman here, is that we have itlegally located, isn't it?"
"Beg your pardon," remarked the sheriff. "No harm done?"
"Oh, none at all," smiled Barr. "And now, I think we'll go in and makethe deal final."
They entered the office with the clerk, Hank Higgins and Noggy Wilkesremaining outside.
As Barr and Reade passed into the office the former whispered to HankHiggins.
"Now you and Wilkes do your duty. I don't anticipate any interruption,but if there is any----"
The two western ruffians tapped the butts of their Colts knowingly.
"We'll attend to that, guv'ner," they assured him.
Silence fell on the village street after Barr and Reade had entered theoffice. The crowd outside stood gaping in curiosity as to what could bethe business that had brought the strangers galloping in such evidenthaste to the assay office. The sheriff, with a side glance at HankHiggins and Noggy Wilkes, resumed his whittling.
Suddenly the quiet was broken by the sharp chug-chug of an approachingautomobile.
"Here comes a choo-choo cart," remarked the sheriff, springing to hisfeet and peering up the road.
"That's what it is," answered a man in the crowd, "and coming like blueblazes, too."
As he spoke, the boys' auto swept round a wooded curve and came tearingalong toward the assay office. In the tonneau stood Bart Witherbee, hisface strained and eager, and holding a crumpled paper in his hand. Frankwas at the wheel and the other boys were beside their miner friend inthe tonneau.
"Seem ter be in a hurry," drawled the sheriff, as the party swept up tothe low porch, the crowd falling back to make way for them withwondering glances.
Luther Barr's lean face appeared at the dusty window of the GovernmentOffice.
"A hundred dollars if you file that claim in time," he shouted to theastonished clerk, who thought the old man had gone suddenly mad.
Bart Witherbee made a flying leap from the auto, and almost before itstopped had raced up the steps. But before he could gain the door of theassay office he found himself looking into the muzzles of two revolversheld by Hank Higgins and Noggy Wilkes.
Bart Witherbee made a flying leap from the auto.]
"Don't come no further, pardner," grinned Hank. "It might be onhealthyfor you."
"Here, here; what's all this?" growled the sheriff. "I don't allow noshooting in my bailiwick. Put up them guns."
"Let me get by, Hank Higgins," exclaimed Bart Witherbee angrily.
"Hey, there; what's that name you mentioned, partner?" asked the sheriffeagerly.
"Hank Higgins, and there's his partner, Noggy Wilkes," exclaimed theminer. "The third one, Bill Jenkins, is in jail."
"Wall, if here ain't a bit of Christmas luck," shouted the sheriffexultingly. "I want 'em both for a dozen crimes. Here, you; you're underarrest. Don't move or I'll fire."
But Noggy Wilkes, with a desperate leap, had gained the side of hishorse that stood, western fashion, unhitched, with the reins lying onthe horn of his saddle. With one bound the desperado was mounted andgalloping off down the trail. The sheriff sent two bullets after him,but both missed. Hank Higgins, however, was not so fortunate. With amuttered:
"I guess you got me right, sheriff," he submitted to arrest.
In the meantime, Bart Witherbee had burst like a whirlwind into theGovernment office, upsetting a desk and spilling a bottle of ink overLuther Barr, who had angrily intercepted him.
"Don't file that claim to Fogg's mine," he shouted, waving his papersabove his head. "I've got a prior one."
"You have--where?" gasped the astonished clerk.
"File that claim," ordered Luther Barr. "I'll report you to Washingtonif you don't."
"Hold your horses," replied the clerk easily, "there seems to be somesort of dispute here. Do you lay claim to the mine?" he asked, turningto Witherbee.
"I sure do," replied the miner, "and here's my claim--the last will andtestament of Jared Fogg, otherwise Jack Riggs. He leaves his mine andthe treasure he has secretly hoarded from it and buried under the floorof his hut to me."
"And who might you be?" asked the clerk eagerly.
"I am Bart Witherbee, and can easily prove it," replied the miner,drawing from his pocket a number of papers.
The clerk quickly perused them and also the will.
"What time did you stake the mine?" he asked, suddenly turning to LutherBarr.
"At daylight to-day," replied the millionaire. "I guess we win."
"I guess not," snapped back Witherbee. "Old man
Fogg died shortly aftermidnight, as I can easily prove, and therefore the will became operativeat that time."
"I see you know some law," remarked the clerk. "I guess, Mr. Barr, yourclaim is not valid."
But Barr, raging furiously, had gone.
Outside the door he saw the boys. Beside himself with rage, he shook hisfist at them. His rage was too intense to permit him to speak. Thesheriff and everybody in the crowd insisted on shaking hands with BartWitherbee and hearing again and again his strange story and the detailsof how the will had been found hidden in the hut. At last, however,accompanied by the sheriff, whose duty it was in that rough community tolook after old Fogg's, or Jack Riggs' body, the boys and their minerfriend managed to tear themselves away and sped back to the hermit's hutin their auto. They found everything as they had left it, and, ontearing up the floor, according to the instructions left in the oldman's will, they found that a huge pit had been dug there, which wasfilled to the brim with ore which the old miser had painstakinglycarried through his tunnel from his mine. A rough estimate valued it at$350,000.
"How do you suppose Luther Barr ever managed to locate the mine?" askedFrank wonderingly.
"That puzzled me, too, at first," said the sheriff, "but now, since Ihave found that Hank Higgins and Noggy Wilkes knew Wild Bill Jenkins, itis a mystery no longer. Wild Bill boasted some time ago that he knewwhere the mine was, but he was forced to become a fugitive from justicebefore he had time to file any claim to it."
Suddenly the voice of Billy Barnes, who had wandered out onto the trailwith a rifle, was borne to their ears:
"Boys! Boys! Come quick!" he cried. There was urgent entreaty in histone.