what bob davenport thought when he saw me waving that pocket-book to him, i don’t know. i held it extended in my left hand and tapped it with my right as if to say, “here’s your will,” until he came up, and then i saw his face was whiter than it was when he thought he had lost his cattle.
“you’ve got it! you’ve got it as sure as the world!” he exclaimed, as soon as he came within speaking distance. “is it mine?”
“tom mason found it for you, and it is all yours,” said i. “i don’t know how much there is in it, because i haven’t read the will; but i heard your father say that it was all yours.”
with hands that trembled bob took the pocket-book and opened it; and as he gazed upon the hand-writing of his father now laid[180] away among the willows, his eyes filled with tears. mr. davenport, i afterward learned, had been buried near the scene of his death, and the cattlemen had made a heavy box and loaded it with stones to protect it from the wolves. bob had not yet recovered from his father’s sudden death, but clifford henderson was not at the funeral, and when remonstrated with by the cattlemen for his want of sympathy for the fate of his brother, said gruffly:
“why should i want to see him buried? he drove me away from home by his ingratitude eight years ago, and i have never got over it. he seems to have one mourner there, and that is enough.”
bob davenport, we repeat, read the will from the beginning to the end, also the letter of instructions, and we sat on our horses waiting for him to finish. when he was through he folded up the letter, closed the pocket-book, and handed it back to me.
“why, bob, it is yours,” i said.
“no,” he replied; “you fellows found it. i should never have seen it if it hadn’t been[181] for you, and i wish you to take and hand it to mr. chisholm. when he says i may have it all, i will take it; not before. i left him here at the wagon when i came up.”
we followed bob back to the wagon, and there we found mr. chisholm, smoking as usual. he knew there was something up, for we had waited almost fifteen minutes for bob to read the letter, but he said not a word until i rode up and gave him the pocket-book. then he opened it and read the first line of the will, after which he folded it up and placed it in his own pocket.
“is it all right?” he asked.
“it is all there,” replied bob. “i read the whole of it.”
“which was the lucky fellow?”
i jerked my thumb over my shoulder toward tom mason, and in another moment mr. chisholm had him from his horse.
“by george, tommy, you did nobly!” said he, lifting tom from the ground with one hand and giving him a grip with the other that must have brought tears of pain to his eyes. “i believe now that you found the nugget,[182] but i was not prepared to swallow it all when i first heard of the story.”
“course he did! didn’t he find my nugget when it had been buried out of sight longer than i can remember? give us your grip, tom.”
we looked up, and there was elam storm coming around the wagon. he had his sleeves rolled up, and a person who knew him would have hesitated about shaking hands with him; but tom took it without ceremony. there was genuine affection between the two boys, and it showed itself in the way they greeted each other.
“now, boys,” said mr. chisholm, who could not have been more delighted if the will he had in his possession had deeded some property to him instead of to bob, “the next thing is something else. i wish when you start out again that you would see every cowboy that you can, and tell him to come to my wagon after supper, for i have got some things that will interest them. i promised to do some more talking to them when i got the will, and now i am in a condition[183] to do it. tell henderson to come along too.”
“henderson won’t be here,” said our spokesman.
“ah! skipped out, has he?”
“yes. he said we were thieves, the last one of us, and we asked him to take it back and never show his face in our camp again. he left in a mighty hurry, and i guess he was going somewhere.”
“humph!” said mr. chisholm, with a sidelong glance at me. “well, you send all the boys up here. we have something here now that will put a different look on the matter.”
“now, bob,” continued our spokesman, “we haven’t had a chance before to tell you how pleased we are at your good fortune. shake!”
“oh, i took it for granted,” said bob, accepting the cowboys’ hands, one after the other. “you have been so good to me ever since i lost my cattle that i knew you sympathized with me. i am glad to receive your congratulations.”
[184]
we stood there at the wagon and saw the cowboys ride away and elam engaged in conversation with tom, and then i motioned to mr. chisholm to follow me off on one side. there were two things that i wanted to speak to him about.
“you know when henderson read that will, do you not?” i began.
“i thought i did,” he replied. “you had him cornered so that he couldn’t get away or destroy it?”
“yes, sir. he read it rapidly, much more so than i could have done if i had had the paper, and he wanted to get at the name of the bank where the money was kept on deposit—that is, where the bonds were kept. then i interfered and the men took the paper away from him.”
“well?” said mr. chisholm.
“he said i was too late,” i continued. “and then he gave me to understand that he had got all he wanted. he said that the next time i saw him would be in austin——”
“w-h-e-w!” whistled mr. chisholm.
“yes. and then he would have the law to[185] back him up. he would go to the surrogate and challenge the will. now, it seems to me that he could make us a heap of trouble by doing that.”
mr. chisholm knocked the ashes from his pipe and filled up for another smoke, all the while keeping his eyes fastened upon me. i knew he was thinking deeply about something, and made no attempt to interrupt him.
“well?” said he, when he had come to some conclusion.
“and there’s another thing i wanted to speak to you about,” i continued. “i can’t help it because coyote bill should be so friendly with me, can i?”
“why—no; if you haven’t done anything to make him so.”
“well, you know what mr. davenport told you, don’t you? he thinks because i lost my cattle i am down on everybody who has not lost theirs. now, he was one of the party who came up there to search the house.”
“that doesn’t matter. you couldn’t have kept him away from there if he was a mind to come, and i confess i thought something was[186] up when henderson came up missing the next morning.”
“but i don’t want to get these men down on me because he acts so. he asked me if i was going with him and help him steal cattle, and i told him i was not. he tried his best to get me interested in the matter before he made any move, but i wouldn’t do it, and it was only by taking elam into my confidence that i was able to upset him.”
“well, you just let coyote bill go and trust to me,” said mr. chisholm, giving me his hand to shake. “if anybody says anything to you about it send them to me. but i don’t know what to make of henderson’s going to austin. if he should get the cattle thrown into the hands of a trustee, and have some sort of an arrangement made by which he could keep the bonds out of our grasp—— who-pee! by george! we would be in a fix then.”
“but could he do that?” i asked, alarmed at the proposition. “just see all the writings we would have.”
“he could do it if we had a thousand times[187] as much. he could just challenge the will, and by giving some little pettifogger money enough, and promising him as much more if succeeded, he could have it thrown into chancery and keep us out of it forever. he could do it easily enough. i never did like that man henderson, anyway.”
of course mr. chisholm made things different from what they were, and anybody could see that he didn’t know much about law; but it had an effect upon me, as i didn’t know anything about the ins and outs of the profession. i had never had any experience in it in my life, and i was appalled by his story of what that bad man could do in the way of contesting the will if he tried. it was bob’s, and why couldn’t bob have it? in a new state like texas, law was not considered to be of as much use as it was in some older communities, and there was but one thing i could think of to use in henderson’s case, and that was, to get him out of the way. i looked at mr. chisholm and could see that he was thinking of the same thing.
“there is but one way out of it,” he continued,[188] after he had thought the matter over, “and that is a revolver shot. that will end all difficulty. this thing that he has got on his side may be law, but it is not justice.”
“there may be a better way than that,” i added, for i was disposed to be a boy of peace, “and it won’t do any harm to try it, for it will bring mischief to no one but henderson. if we could prove that he was in cahoots with coyote bill——”
“set me down for a blockhead!” exclaimed mr. chisholm, once more extending his hand. “but you are the very boy i want. you think of everything before i do. of course we can prove it, for didn’t you and tom mason see him and talk with him when he came out there to the ranch? carlos, you be around to-night, for we are going to austin. we’ll take along sufficient men to keep coyote bill away from us if he sees us on the way, and go down and prove the will. now, keep mum, for i don’t want any man around here to know it. so long!”
mr. chisholm and i returned to the wagon, and i invited myself to the dinner which[189] elam had served up in great shape for tom mason. of course bob was there and his face was radiant. i didn’t exactly understand what mr. chisholm meant by saying that we would go down to austin to prove the will, but i was in for it. he seemed to think there was going to be a fight before we got there, but when i looked at bob, so joyous now when he had been so distressed and cast down when he thought he had lost all his father’s property, i told myself that i was in for that too. there was one thing about it: clifford henderson wouldn’t get those bonds, or the cattle either, by simply asking for them.
“tom mason is the one you want to thank for finding that pocket-book,” i said, as i sat down beside him. “elam, have you got a slice of bacon for me?”
“i know just what you both did and what you passed through when you were there,” said bob. “this is no place for me to thank you. i will do that at some future time.”
for the first time it occurred to me that bob might want to give tom some present for being so lucky, and i was strongly in favor of[190] that. for myself i didn’t want anything, for i had sold all my property to uncle ezra, who still had some of my money left in case i should happen to find him when dead broke; but tom had suddenly taken it into his head that he must return home with the amount of money he had stolen from his uncle, and i was in favor of helping him out. when bob got all his cattle and bonds safe to himself, that would be the time for him to act. i resolved that if he ever said anything to me, i would tell him just what i thought about it.
between joking and laughing and driving on the wagon to meet the cowboys at nightfall, we passed the time agreeably enough. just before dark we came within sight of a grove of post-oaks which had been selected for our encampment, and there we found a colony of wagons and almost all the cowboys. mr. chisholm was there. he had ridden his horse hard all the afternoon in the effort to find all the men attached to his outfit to summon them to appear at this hour, and when we got up there i found that there were two[191] wagons missing. everyone was glad to see bob. i never knew that boy had so many friends, especially when lem and frank came up, whom mr. chisholm had found herding some cattle on the furthest flanks. of course they shook me warmly by the hand, but devoted the most of their time and attention to tom mason.
“i knowed you would find it, pilgrim,” said lem, holding fast to tom with one hand and patting him on the shoulder with the other. “whenever i lose anything i am going to send you after it.”
supper didn’t take much time, for all hands were anxious to hear what was in the will, so as soon as the motions had been gone through they flocked up around the wagon to listen. the time came for mr. chisholm to lay by his pipe, which he did, and drew out the pocket-book.
“i reckon we’ll find a little better reading in this one than we did in the last,” said he, holding it up where all could see it. “has our friend henderson come in yet?”
although they all knew that the culprit[192] was miles from there by that time, they all looked at each other, but no one spoke.
“i reckon he’s skipped,” continued mr. chisholm. “’cause he was allowed to have the reading of these papers i hold here; and when he said we were all thieves, our friends told him to be careful how he showed his face in our camp to-night. the first paper i hold in my hand is indorsed: ‘the last will and testament of robert davenport.’ i will now read it.”
mr. chisholm took off his hat and laid it down beside him, and in a much slower and more deliberate manner than he had used in reading the contents of the other pocket-book, the one that contained the receipts, he proceeded to read the paper he held in his hand. the testator made robert davenport the heir to everything he possessed, horses, cattle, and bonds, which were deposited for safe keeping in the merchant and cattlemen’s bank of austin, with a few exceptions. to each of his cowboys, “for services long and faithfully rendered,” he gave the sum of one thousand dollars, and then came something i was glad[193] to see. to his half-brother, clifford henderson, “to show that he had not forgotten him,” he gave the sum of one dollar, and he hoped that before he got through spending it he would learn that honesty was the best policy. the will was somewhat long, and i was pleased to note one thing: the name of the bank in which the bonds were kept did not occur on the first page, but on the second! and henderson, when reading it, had read all he wanted to see on the first page! by reading that and going off in such a hurry he tried to play a bluff game on us. he did not know the name of the bank at all!
after that followed the letter of instructions, which was so plain that anybody could have understood it, and it wound up with the entreaty to bob to be honest; but having been brought up all his life in that way the testator did not think that bob would depart from it. bob told me afterward that the letter talked just as plainly as his father would to him. bob was very much overcome, and during the reading he sat with his hands covering his face, and i could see the tears trickling[194] through his fingers. by the time mr. chisholm was through all the cowboys had their hats off. he folded up the paper and waited for somebody to make known his pleasure concerning it. it was a long time before anyone spoke. they seemed to be as much affected by the reading of the will as bob was.
“the will seems to be all right, mr. judge,” said the oldest cattleman at last, “and i move it be accepted by this meeting.”
“second the motion!” shouted a dozen men at once.
the motion was put and carried (we knew that henderson didn’t have a friend among those cowboys), and then the pocket-book was laid upon bob’s knee. he was a rich man at last. there were fifty good rifles to back him up, and if henderson or any of coyote bill’s band had been there to take exceptions to it, he would have been roughly handled. at almost any other time they would have called upon bob for a speech, but instead of that they let him go. he passed the pocket-book back to mr. chisholm, with a few words expressive of his gratitude, and begged him to[195] keep it for him until the matter was quite settled, and arose and went off into the darkness. he wanted to be alone, and none of us intruded upon him.
mr. chisholm was now prepared to carry out the rest of his programme, and as soon as the cattlemen had gone away he called some of his cowboys to him and told them he wanted them to take charge of mr. davenport’s wagon on the following morning, for he was going to austin. he didn’t enter into any explanations, for a ride of a hundred miles was nothing for their employer to undertake, but they agreed at once, and he sent them away.
“now,” said he, “the next thing is something else. all you boys who have been remembered in mr. davenport’s will, sit up close around me, for i have something to tell you. we must go to austin as quickly as we can, for we don’t know but that man henderson has gone there to challenge the will.”
“will you allow me to say a word right there, mr. chisholm?” i asked. “that man henderson doesn’t know the name of the bank in which the bonds are deposited.”
[196]
“how do you know?”
“because he read only the first page of the will. if you took pains to notice, the name doesn’t occur except on the second page, and consequently he could not have seen it.”
“well, by george! i never noticed that. did any of you boys take notice of it? but i have got the will in my pocket. we can easily satisfy ourselves on that point. it is so,” he added, after referring to the will, “and you are just the boy—— but look here! if henderson knows how, he can just go down there and challenge the will, anyway. he can say he doesn’t like the way that property has been left, and so make us some trouble on account of it.”
“who will he have to go to when he challenges it?” i asked.
“blessed if i know!”
“i’d just like to meet him to-morrow,” said frank.
“here too,” said lem. “you wouldn’t have to do all your shooting alone, i can tell you.”
“but you see you aint likely to meet him,”[197] said mr. chisholm. “now, i think we had better go to austin right straight, in order to get the start of him. catch up!”
“do you mean that we are all to go?” i asked.
“yes, i do mean all of you; everyone who is remembered in mr. davenport’s will, and bob and those of us who witnessed his signature. even elam will have to go, for he made his mark. i know the president of that bank down there, for he holds a thousand dollars or two of my money, and perhaps a word coming from me will help straighten the matter out. lem, you and frank get the grub together. elam, you hunt up bob.”
and this was all the ceremony that was employed in getting under way. in a few minutes more there were ten of us, all well mounted and armed and with provisions enough to last us to austin, who rode away from the camp. i made up my mind to one thing, and that was if coyote bill should discover us and try to get that pocket-book away, he would have a good time in doing it.
