CHAPTER XXIV.
THE SHERIFF'S SHOT.
Old Drew was greatly frightened, and Davis showed alarm.
"Hold that door--hold that door one minute!" cried Isa. "It will giveus time to get out of the way!"
Bruce Browning's shoulder went against the door, and he calmlydrawled:
"Anybody won't come in here in a hurry."
"Come!" whispered the girl, catching hold of Hart; "we must get away!quick!"
Davis leaped after them.
"It will not be a good thing for me to be seen here," he said. "Ifthere is a way of getting under cover, you must take me along."
"That's right," nodded Isa, "for you would peach if you were pinched.Come!"
By the way of the door that led into the back room they disappeared.
Rap-bang! rap-bang! rap-bang!
"Open this door instanter!"
Higgins roared the order from the outside.
"What's your great rush?" coolly inquired Browning.
A volley of fierce language flew from the sheriff's lips.
"I'll show yer!" he thundered. "Down goes ther door if ye don't openit immediate!"
"Be good enough, Mr. Drew, to ascertain if our friends are under coveryet," said Frank.
The old man hobbled into the back room, was gone a moment, and thenreappeared, something like a look of relief on his withered face.
"They're gone," he whispered.
"Will it be all right to open the door?"
"I reckon ye'll have to open it."
"All right. Admit Mr. Higgins, Bruce."
Browning stepped away from the door, lifting the iron bar.
Instantly it flew wide open, and, with a big revolver in each hand,the sheriff strode heavily into the room.
Behind him came another man, who was also armed and ready to doshooting if necessary.
Higgins glared around.
"Whatever does this mean?" he asked, astonished by the presence of thebicycle boys.
"Whatever does what mean?" asked Frank, innocently.
"You critters bein' here. I don't understand it."
"We are stopping here for the night."
"Sho! Is that it? Well, you're not the only ones. Where are theothers?"
"What others?"
"One in particler--the one you helped to get away to-day. You'll haveto square with me for that."
"I presume you mean Mr. Hodge?"
"That's whatever."
"I think your memory is at fault, sir. I did not aid him in gettingaway, but you owe me thanks for keeping you from shooting him. Hewould have made the unlucky thirteenth man."
"Well, hang me if you ain't got nerve! All the same, you'll have totake your medicine for aiding a criminal."
"He has not been proved a criminal yet, sir."
"Oh, you know all about it! Well, he's somewhere round this ranch, andI'm going to rope him. Watch the front, Britts."
"All right, sir," said the man who accompanied Higgins.
Then the big sheriff strode into the back room, picking up the lamp toaid him in his search.
Frank held his breath, wondering what Higgins would find.
After four or five minutes the sheriff came back, and he was in afurious mood.
"I know the critter is here somewhere!" he roared; "and I'll have him,too! Can't hide from me!"
"That's right," smiled Frank, with a profound bow. "You have an eagleeye, Mr. Higgins, and you should be able to find anything there isabout the place. I wouldn't think of trying to hide from you."
"Ye-he! ye-he! ye-he!" giggled Toots.
Higgins' face was black with fury. He pointed a revolver straight atFrank, and thundered:
"You think you're funny, but I'm going ter bore yer if you don't talkup instanter! You know where that galoot Hodge is hid, and you'lltell, too."
"My dear sir," returned Frank, as he folded his arms and looked thefurious man fairly in the eyes, "I do not know where Bart Hodge ishidden, and I would not tell if I did."
Higgins ground has teeth.
"Say yer prayers!" he grated. "I'm goin' to make you the thirteenth!"
He was in deadly earnest, yet it did not seem that Frank quailed inthe least before him. Indeed, in the face of such peril, Merriwellapparently grew bolder, and a scornful smile curled his lips.
"Shoot!" he cried, his voice ringing out clear and unshaken--"shootand prove yourself a detestable coward!"
The other lads held their breath. They felt like interfering, butsomething in Frank's manner seemed to warn them to keep still and nottry to aid him.
"You think I won't do it," muttered Higgins. "Well, I'll show ye! Ialways do exactly as I say. Now, you eat lead!"
There was a scream, a swish, a rush of feet, a flitting form, and IsaIsban had flung herself in front of Frank, protecting him with her ownbody!
The heavy revolver spoke!
Bang!
Frank had realized with wonderful quickness that the girl meant tosave him by protecting him with her body, and he caught her by theshoulders, flinging her to the floor in an effort to keep her frombeing shot at any cost to himself.
He would not have been successful, however, but for big BruceBrowning.
The big fellow had been watching Higgins as a hawk watches a chicken.At first, he had not thought it possible the sheriff would fire. Hecould not conceive that the man was such a ruffian. At the lastmoment, however, he saw Higgins meant to shoot.
Browning's hand rested on the back of a chair. With a swiftness thatwas simply marvelous in one who naturally moved with the greatestslowness, he swung that chair into the air and flung it at the furioussheriff.
Higgins saw the movement out of the corners of his eyes, and, althoughthe missile had not reached him when he pulled the trigger, his aimhad been disconcerted.
The bullet touched Frank's ear as it passed and buried itself in thewall.
Then old Drew dashed out the light, and the place was plunged indarkness.
CHAPTER XXV.
ESCAPE--CONCLUSION.
The sheriff's assistant lost no time in getting out of the cabin,rushing to one of the horses, which had been left a short distanceaway, and mounted. Then he rode madly away through the forest,deserting Higgins in a most cowardly manner.
When the lamp in the cabin was relighted, Higgins was found stretchedsenseless on the floor, the chair having struck him on the head andcut a long gash, from which blood was flowing.
"I'm afraid I've killed him!" exclaimed Browning. "I didn't mean to dothat, but I had to do something. I couldn't keep still and see himshoot Frank down like a dog."
"It serves him right!" said Diamond, but his face was pale, and helooked very anxious.
"I sincerely hope he will come around all right," said Frank, as heknelt by the man's side. "This scrape is bad enough, and, although hehas shown himself a ruffian, I do not think we care to take the lifeof any human being."
Isa Isban was looking down at the man, and her face softened andshowed pity.
"You are right, Mr. Merriwell," she gently said. "You have taught me alesson. Higgins was a handsome man in his way, and it is a pity tohave him die with his boots on like this. We'll see what we can do tofix him up."
Frank looked up at her, and one glance was enough to convince him ofher sincerity.
"Poor girl!" he thought. "She has never been taught the differencebetween right and wrong. Even now, if she had a show, she might becomesomething far better than she is."
She knelt on the opposite side of the unconscious man.
"Bring some water, Drew," she sharply commanded. "Bring something withwhich we can bandage his head."
"Why don't ye let him die?" whined the old man.
"It would be a bad thing for you if we did," she returned. "His deputyhas puckacheed, and he won't do a thing but bring a posse here as soonas possible. It will be all the better for you if Bill Higgins is allright when the posse appears."
"I'm ruined anyway," declared Drew. "I'll have
to git out. They willsearch, and they're bound to find everything if they do."
"We'll have everything out of here before morning, and then let themsearch. The first job is to fix Bill Higgins up."
Water was brought, and she bathed the head of the unconscious man, whogroaned a little once or twice. Then Frank aided her in adjusting abandage. Once their hands touched, and she drew away quickly, catchingher breath, as if she had been stung.
Frank looked at her in wonder, and saw that she had flushed and thengrown very pale. Her eyes met his, and then her lashes drooped, whilethe blush crept back into her cheeks.
What did it mean?
More than ever was this girl an enigma to him.
The boys lifted Higgins and placed him on an improvised couch in thecorner, as Drew would not permit them to place him on the bed in thelittle back room.
By this time Hart Davis had become convinced that Isa Isban was notthe girl he had married, although she looked so much like Vida that hewas filled with wonder whenever he regarded her.
He asked her pardon for his actions of a short time before, but shegave him no heed, as she seemed fully intent on making the sheriffcomfortable and restoring him to consciousness.
Hodge did not look at Davis, whom he hated with the utmost intensity,as he feared he would spring upon the man if he did so.
After a while, Higgins opened his eyes and stared around in a blankmanner.
"Did we stop the mill, pards?" he huskily asked. "The whole herd wasstampeded and goin' like a cyclone down the range, horns clanking,eyes glaring, nostrils smoking and hoofs beating thunder out of theground."
"What is the man talking about?" asked Frank, in wonder.
"He was a cowboy once," Isa explained. "He seems to be thinking ofthat time."
"It was a wild ride through the night, wasn't it, pards?" Higgins wenton, although he did not seem to be speaking to any one in particular."It was dark as ten million black cats, and the cold wind cut like aknife. But we stopped 'em--we stopped 'em at last."
Then he turned his face toward the wall and closed his eyes.
"I hope he isn't going to die," said Frank.
"So do I," muttered Browning, sincerely. "I don't want to have that tothink about."
When morning came Bill Higgins seemed quite strong, but his head wasfilled with the wildest fancies. He talked of strange things, and itwas evident that his mind wandered.
Higgins did not wish to eat anything, but Isa brought him bread andcoffee, and he took it from her.
"Pretty girl," he muttered, with a gleam of reason. "Fine girl! Wonderhow such a girl came to be out here on the ranch?"
In vain they waited for the appearance of the deputy and a posse. Theexpected did not happen.
Frank had a long talk with Bart.
"Old man," he said, "you must come with me--you must do it! I will nottake no for an answer. If Bill Higgins comes around all right in hishead to-morrow he will be after you again. You must make for SanFrancisco and lose no time in shipping for some foreign port. Afterthis affair blows over, you can come back."
Frank was not satisfied till he saw Bill Higgins delivered into thehands of friends.
As for the deputy who took to flight, he met with a fatal accidentwhile passing through the forest. Either he was swept from the back ofhis horse by a limb or was thrown off. Be that as it may he was foundwith a broken neck.
And Higgins still wandered in his mind when Frank left him.
The boys made great speed on the road to San Francisco, which theyreached in due time, and there, with the other mail that awaited him,Frank found a brief letter from Isa Isban.
"I wish to let you know what the physicians who have examined BillHiggins have to say," she wrote. "They say he has lost his memory,and, although he may recover from the injury otherwise, it is doubtfulif he will ever regain his memory. In that case, Hodge is safeanywhere, but it will be well for him to get out of California."
The news was gratifying to Hodge, and he lost no time in disappearingfrom view.
The arrival of the bicycle boys in San Francisco was the cause of twocelebrations, one among themselves and another among their friends inthe East.
The tour across the continent had been a success, and the papers wereloud in their praise of plucky Frank Merriwell and his companions.
"And now we can take it easy," said Bruce, lazily.
"That's Bruce," laughed Diamond. "Always willing to take a rest."
"Dunno but wot we hab earned a rest," put in Toots.
"Doking snownuts--no, smoking doughnuts! what a lot of adventures wehave had since we left New York!" came from Harry. "Any of us couldwrite a book of travels without half trying."
"We'll take it easy for a while," said Frank. "But not for long. I'vegot an idea for more sport, while we are out here."
Long letters followed telegrams to the East and long letters werereceived in return.
"You've done the trick," wrote one fellow student. "When you get backto Yale, well--I reckon the town won't be big enough to hold you."
"Dear old Yale!" exclaimed Frank.
That night the boys sang college songs far into the wee small hours ofthe morning. They were more than happy, and all their past perils wereforgotten.
THE END.
No. 17 of the Merriwell Series, entitled, "Frank Merriwell'sAthletics," gives full play to Frank's idea for more sport, and isfull of fun, frolic, and daring deeds.
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