Part 24 (1/2)
”Well, let's get at it now,” suggested Pan. ”I'll start you boys on it, then ride down to Mother's.”
In the succeeding hour, leading to noon, what with sundry trips down to the store, the trio learned some news that afforded much satisfaction.
Jim Blake had a.s.saulted a guard and broken jail. No doubt he must have had outside a.s.sistance. According to rumor Matthews accused Hurd, the guard, of being party to the escape, and had discharged him. Sentiment in town was not equally divided. Most everybody, according to the informers, was glad Blake had escaped. It developed that the jail was not a civic inst.i.tution. Already there had been talk of the permanent citizens getting together.
All this was exceedingly welcome to Pan. He could hardly wait till noon to saddle the sorrel, to ride over to his mother's.
”Aw, cowboy, hug thet gurl fer me!” sang Blinky, with ecstatic upward gaze. ”Sh.o.r.e she's put the devil in you. An' this heah outfit is steppin' high!”
On the way out to the farm, halfway beyond the outskirts of town, Pan met his father rus.h.i.+ng up the road. At sight of Pan he almost collapsed.
”Just--heard--the news,” he panted, as Pan reined in the sorrel.
”What news, Dad?” queried Pan, gazing down with both thrill and anxiety at that haggard face, slowly warming out of its havoc.
”Bill Dolan an' his--boys--stopped at the ranch to--tell me,” Smith, wiping his clammy face. ”They just left town.... Bill saw you take that walk down main street.”
”Well, what's that to be all set up about?”
”Reckon I was scared wild... Bill says to me, 'Bill, you oughtn't show yellow like thet. You sh.o.r.e don't savvy thet boy of yours.' ... I thought I did, son, but when it come to a showdown I was chicken-hearted. Your comin' home was a G.o.dsend to Mother an' Lucy.
An' more to me! Then to think you might get shot right off.... Wal, it was too much for my stomach.”
”Dad, I bluffed them--that's all. I braced them quick and hard, before they could figure. It worked, and I believe I got most of the town with me.”
”Pan, is it true that you accused Jard Hardman of robbin' me--an' you knocked him flat?”
”Sure it's true.”
”Lord, but I'd like to have seen that,” declared Smith vehemently.
”An' son, you got Jim Blake out of jail. Bill didn't hint you had anythin' to do with that. But I knew. It was sure great. If only Jim does his part!”
”You doubt that, Dad?”
”Sh.o.r.e do. But I'll tell you, Pan. If we could be with Jim all the time we could pull him up.”
”Let's hope he's far on the way to Siccane by now.... Does Lucy know?
I hope you didn't tell her about my meeting with Hardman and Matthews?”
”I didn't. But Bill sh.o.r.e did,” replied his father. ”Reckon I would have squealed, though. Mother an' Lucy have a lot more nerve than me.
Fact is, though, Bill didn't give 'em time to go to pieces. He just busted out with news of Blake's escape. Say, boy, you should have seen Lucy.”
”I will see her p.r.o.nto,” replied Pan eagerly. ”Come on. What're you holding me up for, anyhow?”
Pan walked the horse while his father kept pace alongside.
”Some more news I most forgot,” Smith went on. ”Bill told about a shootin' sc.r.a.pe out in Cedar Gulch. Them claim jumpers drove a miner named Brown off his claim. They had to fight for it. Brown said he wounded one of 'em. They chased him clean to Satlee's ranch. Sh.o.r.e wanted to kill him or scare him off for good.”
”I know Brown,” replied Pan. ”And from what he told me I've a hunch I know the claim jumpers.”
”Wal, that'd be hard to prove. In the early days of a minin' boom there's a lot of trouble. A miner is a crazy fellar often. He'll dig a hole, then move on to dig another. Then if some other prospector comes along to find gold on his last diggin's he yells claim jumpin'.
As a matter of fact most of them haven't a real claim till they find gold. An' all that makes the trouble.”