CHAPTER XX--THE MAD STALLION
Somehow Ruth Fielding could not find herself subscribing to this opinionof "the hermit" so flatly stated by Min Peters. She begged theprospector's daughter to hush.
"Let us not say anything to each other that we will later be sorry for.Of course, we all understand--and must admit--that the finding of thisgold-bearing ledge is a matter that cannot be long kept from the generalpublic."
"Sure! There'll be a rush," growled Flapjack.
"And when this feller's men git here they'll hog it all," declared Min.
"They won't hog our claims--not unless I'm dead," said her fatherviolently.
"Oh, hush! hush!" cried Ruth again. "This is no way to talk. We canstake out our claims and the other girls can stake out theirs. Youunderstand we honestly found this ore just the same as you and yourpartner did?" she added to the lame young man.
"I found it first," he said, gloomily. "I found it months ago----"
"Great cats!" broke in Flapjack. "Why didn't you file on it, then, andgit started?"
"Yes, Mr. Royal," said Ruth, puzzled. "Why the delay?"
"Well, you see, I hadn't any money. I had to write to--to my partner.Ahem! I had to get money through my partner. I was afraid to file on theclaim for fear the news would spread and the whole ridge be overrun withprospectors before I could be sure of mine."
"And what you considered yours was the cream of it all," repeated Min,quickly.
"Well! I found it, didn't I?" he demanded.
"We were going to do the same thing ourselves," Ruth said. "Let us befair, Min."
"But this feller means to git it all," snapped the prospector'sdaughter, nodding at "the hermit."
"It means a lot to me--this business," the young man muttered. "More thanI can tell you. _It means everything to me_."
He spoke so earnestly that the trio felt uncomfortable. Even Min did notseem able to ask another personal question. Her father drawled:
"Seems to me I seen you 'round Yucca, didn't I, Mister?"
"Yes. I stayed there for a while. With a man named Braun."
"Yep. Out on the trail to Kaster."
"Yes," said "the hermit."
"Oh!" ejaculated Ruth, suddenly. "Was his rural delivery box numbertwenty-four?"
"What?" asked "the hermit." "Yes, it was."
Ruth opened her lips again; then she shut them tightly. She would notspeak further of this subject before Flapjack and Min.
"Well," the latter said irritably. "No use standin' here all day. We'regoin' to stake out them claims and put up notices. And we don't want 'emteched, neither."
"If mine are not touched you may be sure I shall not interfere withyours," said the young man stiffly, turning his back on them andhobbling to his waiting pony.
Ruth wanted to say something else to him; then she hesitated. Then theyoung man rode away, the crutches dangling over his shoulder by a cord.
She left Peters and Min to stake out the claims, having written thenotices for her own, and for Helen's and Jennie's and Rebecca Frayne'sclaims as well. It was agreed that nothing was to be said at the campabout the find. As soon as she arrived she took Helen and Jennie asideand warned them.
"As Min says, we'll 'button up our lips,'" Jennie said. "Oh, I can keepa secret! But who will go to Kingman to file on the claims?"
That was what was puzzling Ruth. Flapjack, who knew all about suchthings--and knew the shortest trail, of course--was not to be trusted. Hehad money in his pocket and as Min said, a little money drove the man todrink.
"And Min can't go. She is needed in several further scenes of thepicture," groaned Ruth.
"I tell you what," Helen said eagerly, "we have just got to take oneother person into our confidence."
"You are right," agreed Ruth. "I know whom you mean, Nell. Tom, ofcourse."
"Yes, Tom is perfectly safe," said Helen. "He won't even go up there andstake out a claim for himself if I tell him not to. But he _will_ rushto Kingman and file on our claims."
"And take these specimens of ore to the assayer," put in Ruth.
It was so agreed, and when Min and her father reappeared at the camp thesuggestion was made to them. Evidently the Western girl had been muchpuzzled about this very thing and she hailed the suggestion withacclaim.
"Seems to me I ought to be the one to file on them claims," Flapjacksaid slowly. "And takin' one more into this thing means spreadin' it outthinner."
"I wouldn't trust you to go to Kingman with money in your pocket,"declared his daughter frankly. "You know, Pop, you said long ago that ifever you did strike it rich you was goin' to be a gentleman and cut outall the rough stuff."
"That's right," admitted Mr. Peters. "Me for a plug hat and a white vestwith a gold watchchain across it, and a good _seegar_ in my mouth. Yes,sir! That's me. And a feller can't afford to git 'toxicated and roll'round the streets with them sort of duds on--no sir! If this is my luckystrike I've sure got to live up to it."
Ruth wondered if clothes were going to make such a vast difference toboth Min and her father. Yet lesser things than clothes have beenelements of regeneration in human lives.
However, it was agreed that Tom must be taken into the gold hunters'confidence. He was certainly surprised and wanted to rush right over tolook at the ridge. But they showed him the gold-bearing ore instead andhe had to be satisfied with that.
For time was pressing. "The hermit's" partner might return with a crowdof hired workers and trouble might ensue. Without doubt Royal and hismate had intended to open the entire length of the ledge and gainpossession of it. The mining law made it imperative that the claimsshould be of a certain area and each claim must be worked within so manymonths. But there are ways of circumventing the law in Arizona as wellas in other places.
"I wonder who that partner of the lame fellow is?" Ruth murmured, asthey were talking it over while Tom Cameron was making his preparationsfor departure.
"Same name as R'yal," said Min, briefly. "Must be brothers."
This statement rather puzzled Ruth. It certainly dissipated certainsuspicions she had gained from her visits to the cabin in the distantarroyo, where "the hermit" lived.
Tom left the camp before night, carrying a good map of the trails to thenorth as far as Kingman. He was supposed to be going on some privateerrand for himself, and as he had no connection at all with the movingpicture activities his departure was scarcely noted.
Besides, Mr. Grimes and the actors were just then preparing for one ofthe biggest scenes to be incorporated in the film of "The Forty-Niners."This was the hold-up of the wagon train by Indians and it was staged onthe old trail leading south out of Freezeout.
The wagons that had carted the paraphernalia over from Yucca had topsjust like the old emigrant wagons in '49. There were only a few realIndians in Mr. Grimes' company; but some of the cowboys dressed inIndian war-dress. For picture purposes there seemed a crowd of them whenthe action took place.
Everybody went out to see the film taken, and the fight and massacre ofthe gold hunters seemed very realistic. Indeed, one part of it came nearto being altogether too realistic.
One of the punchers working with the company had announced before thatthere was either a bunch of wild horses in the vicinity, or a lonestallion strayed from some ranch. The horse in question had been sightedseveral times, and its hoofprints were often seen within half a mile ofFreezeout.
The girls, while riding in a party through the hills, had spied theblack and white creature, standing on a pinnacle and gazing, snorting,down upon the bridled ponies. The lone horse seemed to be attracted bythose of his breed, yet feared to approach them while under the saddle.And, of course, the horses of the outfit were all picketed near thecamp.
In the midst of the rehearsal of the Indian hold-up, when the emigrant'sponies were stampeded by the redskins, the lone horse appeared and,snorting and squealing, tried to join the herd of tame horses and leadthem away.
"It's an 'old rogue' stallion, that's what it is," Ben Lest
er, one ofthe real Indians remarked. He had been to Harvard and had come back tohis family in Arizona to straighten out business affairs, and waswaiting for the Government to untangle much red tape before getting hisshare of the Southern Ute grant.
"He acts like he was locoed to me," declared Felix Burns, the horsewrangler, who, much to his disgust, had to "act in them fool pitchers"as well as handle the stock for the outfit. "Looky there! If he comesfor you, beat him off with your quirts. A bite from him might send manor beast jest as crazy as a mad dog."
"Do you mean that the stallion is really mad?" asked Ruth, who wasriding near the Indians, but, of course, out of the focus of the camera.
"Just as mad as a dog with hydrophobia--and just as dangerous," declaredBen. "You ladies keep back. We may have to beat the brute off. He's apretty bird, but if he's locoed, he'd better be dead than afoot--poorcreature."
The strangely acting stallion did not come near enough, however, for theboys to use their quirts. Nor did he bite any of the loose horses. Heseemed to have an idea of leading the pack astray, that was all; andwhen the ponies were rounded up the stallion disappeared again,whistling shrilly, over the nearest ridge.