Jack Ranger's Western Trip Part 34

Jack showed the rings and card.

"Um!" grunted the man. "What do you want?"

"I want to see Orion Tevis, and ask him about my father."

"It will take me three days to bring you an answer," Mr. Hardy went on. "Will you wait here until then?"

Jack bowed his a.s.sent.

"You must trust the rings and card to me," Mr. Hardy went on. "Oh, they will be safe," he added, as he saw Jack give a start of surprise. "You can ask any one in Fillmore about me."

Without a word Jack handed over the two rings and the bit of pasteboard.

"This is Tuesday," the strange messenger went on. "I will be back here with an answer Friday night."

"Then I can start for Mr. Tevis's place the next day," spoke Jack.

"If the answer is favorable," Mr. Hardy said, as he left the room.

CHAPTER XXII

JACK HEARS OF HIS FATHER

For a few moments Jack stood looking at the door that had closed on Mr. Hardy. The man seemed a link between the boy and his long-lost father, and Jack felt as if he would not like to allow Mr. Tevis's confidant to be out of his sight. But he reflected if he was to see the man who held his father's secret he must follow out the line laid down.

He went to where he had left Nat and John, and told them what had happened. Jack announced antic.i.p.ation of a favorable reply from Mr.

Tevis, who, he said, would, no doubt, keep his promise made years ago to those to whom he had presented the rings.

"Then we'll get ready to go with you," announced Nat. "Hopping halibut! I forgot to write to my uncle. I heard from the hotel clerk he had waited here for us two days, and then went back, leaving word we could come on to the ranch, or wait for him. He'll be back inside of a week."

"That fits into our plans," Jack said. "Write and tell him we arrived and will be ready to go with him a week from to-day, I think I can learn what I want in that time."

Accordingly Nat got a letter ready, and intrusted it to the hotel clerk, who promised to send it to Double B ranch at the first opportunity. Mr. Kent's ranch was known by the device of two capital B's, one placed backwards in front of the other, and this brand appeared on all his cattle. His uncle's place, Nat learned, was on a big plateau in the midst of a mountain range. Men from it frequently rode into Fillmore, and it was by one of them the hotel clerk proposed sending the boy's letter to Mr. Kent.

This done, the three chums sat in their rooms discussing the strange things that had come to pa.s.s since they had left Washington Hall.

"Seems as if it was several months, instead of a couple of weeks,"

said John. "I'll be glad when we get out where it's good and wild."

The boys found much to occupy their time in the hustling city of Denver. They went about viewing the sights, but all the while Jack was impatiently awaiting the return of Mr. Hardy.

"I wonder if the days are any longer here than back east," he remarked.

"It's you," replied Nat. "Stop thinking about it, and Friday night will come sooner."

"Can't help it," Jack went on, with a deep sigh.

Friday night came at last, though it was nearly ten o'clock before Jack, who was anxiously waiting in his room, received a message that some one wanted to see him. He went down and was met by Mr. Hardy.

The man showed the dust and grime of travel.

"Well?" asked Jack.

"When do you want to start?" asked Mr. Hardy.

"To-morrow morning," was Jack's quick reply, and a load was lifted from his mind.

"Then I'll have a horse for you here at nine o'clock," Mr. Tevis's friend went on, as he handed back the rings and the card.

"Can't John and Nat go along?" inquired Jack, for he had mentioned his friends to Mr. Hardy.

"I suppose so," was the answer. "It will take longer if so many of us go, but I have no orders to keep your friends back if they want to accompany us. It's a wild trip, and has to be made on horseback."

"They'll want to go. None of us is a good rider, but we'll do our best"

"Very well, I'll have three horses."

"Do you think Mr. Tevis will have some news of my father?" asked Jack, a note of anxiety coming into his voice.

"I shouldn't be surprised," was the cautious answer. "Mr. Tevis can generally be depended on to produce the goods. Now I'll leave you, as I have lots of work to do before morning. I'm glad I succeeded in arranging it for you,"

"So am I," exclaimed Jack, as he held out his hand and met that of Mr. Hardy's in hearty clasp.

"Can you two stand a hundred mile ride on horseback?" asked Jack of his two chums, when he was back in his room.

"Two if necessary," replied John.

"And two it will have to be," Jack went on. "I forgot it's a hundred each way. Well, we're in for it," and he explained what Mr. Hardy had told him.

The horses which Mr. Tevis's messenger brought around the next morning proved to be steady-going animals. Their backs were broad and they carried easy-riding saddles. Under the direction of the guide the boys packed up some blankets and enough "grub," to last several days, since they could not expect to make as good time as had Mr.

Hardy. Leaving their trunks and grips at the hotel the boys, with their new-found friend in the lead, started for Mr. Tevis's mountain home.

"He's a strange man," said Mr, Hardy, as he rode along by Jack's side a little later. "He had so much trouble with a band of bad men once that he made up his mind he would have no more. He knows the gang is still trying to get the best of him, and that's why he takes so many precautions. It is the same ugly crowd that made your father an exile, I understand."

"But his exile is almost up," said Jack earnestly. "The eleven years will pa.s.s this summer, and he can come back to us."

"If you can only find him to get word to him."

"Do you think I can't find him?"

"Well, the mountains are a wild place. It's hard enough to keep track of men who have no motive for hiding, let alone those who believe every effort to locate them is made with an idea of doing them some harm."

"If I can only get word to him I know my father will wander no longer. I need him and he needs me."

Half a day's riding brought them to a wild part of the country. The trail was a narrow one. Now it led along a high range of foothills, skirting some deep ravine. Again it was down in a valley, along the course of some mountain stream that was now almost dry.