“be very careful of yourself,” said claude in an earnest whisper. “they have their revolvers in their hands, and are ready to shoot the first one who steps into the office.”
“i will take care of that,” said mr. preston. “you keep out of the way.”
claude stood in the door of his uncle’s room and watched him as he moved with noiseless steps toward the office. he reached the door and went into it, and the next moment he heard the word “surrender!” spoken in a loud tone, followed by the report of a pistol. a yell came close upon the heels of it, and after that the noise of the revolvers came faster than he could count them. he felt sure that his uncle had received his death-wound. almost at the same instant, as if they had been waiting for this signal, there was the sound of hurrying feet in the hall, and the page 234 foreman and cook ran by with their revolvers in readiness. they glanced in at the office door, and then went on to the front door, which they opened in great haste, and began shooting there; but presently the sound of flying hoofs came to claude’s ears, which told him that the squawmen had succeeded in reaching their horses and were scurrying away toward the entrance of the valley. a moment afterward his uncle came out of the office. his face was very pale, but claude could see that he was not wounded.
“they have got away,” said the foreman in disgust. “did they hit you anywhere, mr. preston?”
“no, i am all right,” said his employer. “but bring a light and we will see if there isn’t some marks down here. harding drew his pistol on me, but i got the first shot and he dropped the revolver out of his hand. when he yelled so, i thought surely i had him.”
mr. preston pointing a revolver at the robbers
the robbers foiled.
view larger image.
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of course the whole house was aroused by this time. every man who was asleep under that roof was awakened by the pistol-shots, and had come out, revolver in hand, to see what was going on. foremost among them was carl, who, when he heard the particulars of the matter, ran to the front door and gazed out into the night.
“it is no use, carl,” said his father. “they had their horses ready saddled, and of course took themselves straight off. i am not hurt, and that is one thing you ought to be thankful for.”
“here’s harding’s weapon,” said carl, as the cook came in at that moment with a light. “it is all blood, too. why, father, i don’t see how you missed them at that distance.”
“probably my nerves had something to do with it,” replied his father. “a year ago i would have risked my chance of dropping them both where they stood; but my skill has gone from me.”
“here’s some more blood on the window-sill,” said one of the cowboys. “you have probably marked them both.”
“yes, i hit each one of them. now we will go back, and go to bed. claude, i owe you something for this. if they had taken page 236 what there is in the safe it would not have ruined me. a few days ago i had five thousand dollars in there, but now it is safe in the paymaster’s hands at the fort. how much do i owe you, claude?”
“nothing at all, sir,” said claude, as he shook hands with carl, who came up but did not say anything. “i have saved your money, and that is all i cared for.”
some little time was spent by the hands in talking over the incidents of the attempted robbery, and everybody except the foreman and cook were loud in their praises of claude, who had led the squawmen on till he got all their plans. they were suspicious of claude, and it would require something more than he had done to relieve them of it.
“father, i have some fault to find with you,” said carl, as they were about to separate and each one go to his own room. “why did you not take some one into your confidence?”
“i did. these two men were wide-awake and came out as soon as they heard the pistol-shots. i could not have found anybody better than they, could i?”
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“no; but you ought to have had somebody along to back up your shots. i believe i could have done better than you did.”
this raised a smile on the part of all of them, and they bade mr. preston good-night and went to their rooms. claude was the only one who did not feel very good over it. his uncle had said that he “owed him something,” but he did not say how much.
“why didn’t he promise me the money to-morrow, so that i can go back to the city?” said claude, as he took off his clothes and tumbled into bed. “they must see that i don’t want to live here. i wonder if i could punch him up and get him to draw on that five thousand dollars he has in the paymaster’s hands? that is something worth thinking of.”
morning came at length, and claude got up to find that he was treated with respect by all hands except the foreman and cook. these two did not seem to want anything to do with him. of course they bid him good-morning and answered all the questions he asked them, but they did it in a short way, as though his talking bothered them. they were careful page 238 not to let mr. preston see them in conversation with him, for they knew that their employer would take them to task about it. none of the hands referred to the matter at the breakfast-table, and in fact they seemed to have forgotten all about it, and claude listened in vain for his uncle to mention the subject of a reward. he finally concluded that he was not going to get any.
“he is the meanest man i ever saw,” said claude, as he went out to saddle his horse. “he lets me risk my life in saving his money, and doesn’t give me anything. i wish to goodness i had said nothing about it.”
a few days after this, claude found a couple of strange men in the house when he came home to dinner. they were very different from harding and his partner, for they were cattlemen on the face of them. they wore their revolvers strapped about their waists, had silk handkerchiefs around their necks, and their hats, which lay beside them on the floor, were sombreros of the widest kind.
“well, claude, it seems that you are not out of this scrape after all,” said mr. preston.
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“what scrape do you mean, uncle?” asked claude.
“why, about that safe robbery. harding and his partner have gone among the sioux indians, and are going to kill every one of us.”
“how did you find that out?” asked claude, his face growing a shade paler.
“these men, who have come down to hire in their places, brought the news straight from them. they are going to kill you on sight, for they blame you as much as anybody for their failure; and carl they are going to capture and keep until they can get some stock out of him.”
“they say you talked to them very mean in regard to mr. preston,” said one of the cowboys with a smile.
“i never said a word to them in my life,” said claude, opening his eyes in surprise. “they said something to me, and i tried my best to defend uncle preston. they got their money right along every month, and were not worked any harder than the rest of us. but how are they going to catch us?”
“oh, there are plenty of ways in which it page 240 can be done,” said mr. preston. “they are among the sioux now, and it will be easy work to get a few of the young braves to come here and steal some cattle.”
“why, they are at peace!” said claude.
“that makes no difference. the sioux are getting mighty uneasy about their money and their supplies, which ought to have been delivered long ago; and when a man gets hungry it don’t take him long to get on a cattle-stealing expedition. they will leave you here, wherever they find you, but they will capture carl.”
mr. preston laughed when he said this, and claude was half inclined to believe that he did not put any faith in what the squawmen intended to do. carl came in very shortly, and he, too, laughed over the story. he did not believe that the sioux would go on the warpath for the sake of capturing him, and he said so.
“i’ll tell you what to do, claude,” said he. “if you see an indian coming toward you, just halt him.”
“how will i do that? he speaks his own language——”
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“yes; but you have a rifle. just point that toward him, and you will see him turn and go the other way.”
there was one thing that made claude determine that he would not stay in that country any longer than he could help, and that was the idea of killing him on sight. another thing that made him angry was the cordial manner in which the foreman and cook, who were not long in finding out why they came there, greeted the newcomers. thompson told them that they were the very men he needed. claude waited some time for the men to mount their horses and go away, and then he approached his uncle, who was sitting on the porch enjoying his after-dinner pipe.
“why, claude, how does this come?” asked mr. preston. “you ought to have been away long ago.”
“yes, but i wanted to see you first,” said claude. “i am getting sick of staying in this country——”
“ah! you don’t like the idea of the sioux being down on you,” said his uncle with a laugh.
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“i don’t care anything about that. i have been discontented here for a long time, and i am impatient to get back to the city. give me some money and let me go.”
“we are very busy just now, claude, and i don’t know whether i can find anybody to show you the way to standing rock agency or not. if you can wait two or three weeks i will send somebody with you.”
claude waited for him to say something about a reward for breaking up that safe robbery, but mr. preston did not say anything about it. it was right on the end of claude’s tongue to ask him if he was going to give him anything for that, but on the whole he concluded that he would hold his peace.
“how much money have i got coming to me?” he asked. “i know i have not got much,” he added mentally, “but that will start me on the road.”
“i owe you four hundred dollars,” said his uncle. “you know you spent money pretty lively while you were down at the fort. that sum can’t help you much if you are in a big city. your expensive habits will page 243 get the better of you. what do you intend to do?”
“i don’t know. i know, or did know, of a news depot that i could buy for eight hundred dollars, and that would support me as well as anything. but the trouble is, i haven’t got the eight hundred dollars.”
“no, it takes money to make money, as i have often heard you express it. you could probably get that news depot for your four hundred dollars down, and if you were economical——”
“no, i could not. the man must have cash, for he intends to leave the country.”
“that is bad, and you will have to hit upon something else. have you ever tried book-keeping?”
“no, sir. that is altogether too confining a business for me. i want to have something to do so that i can get out of doors once in a while. a person would die for the want of exercise.”
“well, i don’t know what you will go at,” said his uncle, looking down at the floor. “book-keeping is a very nice business, and if page 244 you are careful to save your money it will last you until you take a full course at some commercial college.”
“i shall not try book-keeping, and that is out of the question.”
“didn’t your father prepare you for any business in life?”
“no, sir. he had always got through his life without being educated for any business, and he thought that i could do the same.”
“your father made a bad mistake—i will say that much for him.”
“have you educated carl for any business?” asked claude, who kept growing angrier the longer the conversation continued.
“yes; he will be able to attend to the stock business after i am gone. i had hoped to prepare you for the same business, but i see you don’t like it. if you will wait two or three weeks i will send some one down to show you the way to the fort,” said mr. preston, getting upon his feet.
this was a hint that his uncle had said all he wanted to say on the subject, and claude at once started out after his horse.
