Frank Merriwell's Backers Part 28

"Just a leetle beet."

"Ha! What was it? What did you hear?"

"De man with hurt hand he geef oder man monee. Oder man take eet. Say eet not enough. Must have two times more as much before he do something man with hurt hand want heem to do. Man with hurt hand mad. Eet do no goode. Oder man say breeng as much more twice over to heem at same place same time to-morrow."

It is needless to say that this revelation was intensely interesting to Merriwell.

"Why, Hop Anson has no money!" exclaimed Frank. "Where did he get it? It must have come from Bill. In that case, an attempt is being made to bribe my foreman. I have a traitor in the mine, and he means to deliver me into the hands of the enemy."

"Tracy man he say to man with hurt hand that Pablo, the brother of Gonchita, ees here."

"So Tracy told Anson that?"

"_Si, senor_."

"Well, I think I need a new foreman--and need him bad! It is about time for Mr. Tracy to get out!"

"You wait and watch, you ketch heem."

It was arranged that Pablo should return in advance to the mine, in order that they might not be seen coming in together. So the Mexican boy strolled back with a.s.sumed carelessness.

But it happened that Jim Tracy was watching, and he saw Pablo, whereupon he hastened to meet the boy.

"Where have you been?" harshly demanded the foreman.

Pablo looked surprised.

"I go to tak' de walk," he said.

"You little liar!" snarled Tracy. "You have been playing the spy! I know what you have been doing!"

"De spyee--how you mean?"

The Mexican lad seemed very innocent.

"I've seen you sneaking around. Why are you hanging around here, anyhow?

Why don't you get out?"

"Dat none of your busineeze," returned the lad saucily.

"You little runt!" growled Tracy, catching the boy by the shoulder. "Do you dare talk to me that way?"

"You beeg rufeen!" cried Pablo. "You hurt! Let of me a-go!"

Then he kicked the foreman on the shins. Immediately, with a roar of rage, Tracy struck Pablo with his fist, knocking the boy down.

Pablo was armed with a pistol, and this weapon he s.n.a.t.c.hed out when he scrambled to his feet. But Tracy was on hand to clutch him and wrest the weapon from his grasp.

"You little devil!" grated the man. "I'll cut your throat on the spot!"

There was a terrible look in his eyes as he whipped out a knife and lifted it.

"Drop that!"

Crack!--the report of a revolver emphasized the command, and the bullet struck the knife and tore it from the hand of the aroused ruffian.

Frank Merriwell had arrived just in time to save Pablo, who was bent helplessly backward over Tracy's knee, the hand of the wretch being at his throat.

Tracy shook his benumbed and quivering hand, releasing the boy and looking at Frank resentfully.

"Oh, you're not badly hurt!" said Merry, as he strode up. "My lead struck the knife blade, not your hand. And I seemed to be barely in time, too."

"Oh, I wasn't going to hurt the kid!" declared Tracy harshly. "I was going to teach him a lesson, that was all. I wanted to frighten him a little."

"Well, your behavior looked remarkably bloodthirsty. You seemed on the point of drawing the knife across his throat. That was enough for me.

You may go, Tracy, but you are to let Pablo alone in the future."

"If he insults me----"

"Report to me; I'll make him apologize. Go."

Tracy seemed to wish to linger to argue over the matter, but the look in Merriwell's eyes forbade it, and he picked up the knife and slouched sullenly away.

"I hope he did not hurt you much," said Frank, lifting Pablo's hat to see the bruise made by the ruffian's fist.

With a cry, the boy grasped his hat and pulled it down upon his head.

But Frank had made a most surprising discovery, and it was enough to give Merry something to meditate over.

He decided that the boy must be closely watched, and he longed for the presence of old Joe Crowfoot, than whom no one was more fitted to such a task.

But the outlaws had averred that old Joe was "food for buzzards," and the protracted absence of the redskin led Merry to fear that he had looked into the Indian's beady eyes for the last time.

Frank spoke to no one of his discovery. As far as possible, he kept his eyes on Pablo, as if he believed the boy meditated treachery of some sort.

Frank's friends wandered about the place and investigated the mine, watching operations.

The calm of the valley was most deceptive, and both Ready and Gallup declared they could not conceive any possible danger lurking near.

Hodge, however, professed to feel a warning in the very peacefulness, which he declared was the calm before a storm.

Jim Tracy sulked. His treatment by Frank was altogether displeasing to him, and he felt that he had been humiliated, which caused him to register a secret vow of vengeance.

Pablo was generally found lingering about Frank's cabin or somewhere near Merry.

"He knows a good thing when he sees it," said Ready sagely, "and he means to stick to it. He doesn't seem in any great hurry about rushing to the rescue of his 'seestar.'"

Frank smiled in a knowing manner, observing:

"Perhaps he has reasons to know that his sister is in no great peril at present, and he is satisfied to stay here."