Polly and Eleanor Part 2

"Tree hoss go by--see." Mike pointed out three different kinds of horse-shoe imprints.

"One hoss carry pack an' go lame. Two hoss all light."

"How do you know he is lame--and maybe he isn't packed," Eleanor said.

Mike sniffed derisively, and pointed at the lighter impression of one hind foot. Then he showed his admiring audience how a slight rip in a flour-sack allowed the contents to trickle down upon the ground at each limp the lame horse gave.

Mike now said to Mr. Brewster: "Dem go slow--lame hoss no go fas', mebbe jus' ahead."

"If we ride on we can catch up with them!" eagerly exclaimed Anne.

Mike shook his head and lifted a finger for silence. Then the girls heard a faint clip-clop of hoof-beats on the rocky trail leading along Top Notch.

"Two tenderfut 'mos' catch up. We-all wait an' talkee," suggested Mike, settling himself in his saddle to await the riders.

"Mike's right, because they will only follow us and find out where our claim is located, if we start on now," added Polly.

Mr. Brewster shook his head. "Ah reckon you-all talk sense but Ah would offer an amendment to your plan: to have Polly and Anne take Jeb for an escort and ride on at once. Let the horses have their head and get to the cave as soon as you can. Hold the fort until we-all join you. We-all will see these two men and find out what they are after."

"Daddy, you must remember a grizzly bear lives in that cave. He may have been injured but he may not have died, the other night. I have my small rifle but Anne hasn't any weapon at all. As for Jeb--he's great on the farm, but for this work, huh! Then there are those three miners who are up ahead: they wouldn't hesitate to put two mere girls out of their way, if we interfered with their staking our mine or jumping our claims,"

said Polly.

Mike smiled and expressed his opinion. "Miss'r Brooser wait wid two ten'erfut, an' Mike go wid leedle leddies. Ef cabe hab trouble of grizzle er miner, Mike shoot."

"Good! And Ah'll wait for Simms and the others, and then come after you-all," agreed Mr. Brewster.

"I won't go with Mike if there is any danger at the cave. I didn't come to the Rockies to be killed!" declared Barbara.

"Daddy, you must keep Eleanor and Barbara here with you and Jeb, and wait for mother and the sheriff's men. Anne and I will go with Mike and see that our rights are protected," now said Polly.

"I have as much right to go with you, Polly, as Anne has. Why must I remain here with Bob?" demanded Eleanor.

"I know that, Nolla, but three of us will be too many--especially as Anne and you have no firearms. I may need Anne to help me load but you can't even do that. So it will be far better for us all if you remain here. Mike will not have to bother over so many of us, then," explained Polly.

"But everything may be safe at the cave, and all this worry about fighting may be a farce," argued Eleanor.

"In that case Mike will leave us safely there and come back to guide you-all to us. Once we are safe on that ledge with a pile of dry wood in front of the entrance to the cave, we can defy the whole country."

"All right! Hurry away and get on to that ledge before any more rascals steal a march on you. But be sure to send Mike back for us, the moment Anne and you arrive there and find everything is all right," replied Eleanor.

So Mike spurred his broncho along the trail, while Polly and Anne rode after him. Soon they disappeared around the bend where giant pines formed a wall on either side of the narrow going.

CHAPTER II

THE CLAIM-JUMPERS

The moment the three had pa.s.sed out of sight, Sam Brewster jumped from his horse and led him over to the great tree that caused the trail to turn aside and run around it. He looped the reins over his arm and placed his hands in his coat pockets. As he leaned against the tree-trunk nibbling nonchalantly at a sprig of gra.s.s, a tenderfoot would never have dreamed that his fingers were tensely held against the triggers of the revolvers hidden in his pockets.

Soon after Mr. Brewster had taken his stand where he could see the first appearance of any one coming up the trail, two riders approached eagerly scanning the large trees, in evident search of something. As they came to the giant tree where the rancher waited, both men started in surprise.

"How-dy, friends? Out early this morning, eh?" was the greeting the two amazed men received from the alert man at the tree.

"Oh--oh, yes!" stammered one, plainly uneasy.

"Hoh, it's Sam Brewster of Pebbly Pit, ain't it?" said the other, also confused in his manner.

"Right you are, Hank. You see, when a man has to attend to the girls'

gold mine, he has to be up right early to forestall the plans of any claim-jumpers who read the records at Oak Creek, yesterday, after we left there. That's why I got a posse to guard the place. I reckon, now, Hank, that your boss sent you-all on to help we-all up yonder, eh?"

laughed Mr. Brewster, tantalizingly, as he recognized Hank to be the clerk at the filing office in Oak Creek.

The man Hank laughed also, but a discordant note rang through his forced merriment. "We-all ain't claim-jumpers, Mr. Brewster, but it seemed so quare to find Old Montresor's Mine hed ben found again, that Ah sez to my pal, here, 'How'd you-all like to run up to the Slide and have a squint at that cave?' An' havin' a day off, he reckoned he'd enjy the trip. So here we-all are."

"Yes--so Ah see! Here you-all are. And Ah says to my girls and the posse, says Ah: 'There'll be a lot of fools start off at night-fall, to hit this trail to the Slide just out of dern-fool curiosity to have a squint at Old Montresor's Mine. But human nature is human nature, girls,' says Ah, so when they get that squint, they may forget one of the Ten Commandments and want to covet their neighbor's property. And seeing how they have lost a good night's sleep through climbing the Top Notch Trail just to arrive early to have that squint, they will sort of feel justified in stealing an acre, or so, of gold-land. That would make them break another Commandment; so Ah felt it a duty, Hank, to send on a regiment in advance, to save the souls of such curious sightseers." Sam Brewster never changed a muscle of his serious face nor did his voice have the slightest sign of any other feeling than a reverent desire to help his fellow-man. But the two men knew Sam Brewster by experience as well as from hearsay.

"Right-o! Hank told me what a good man you war," said the miner who accompanied Hank. But his shifty eyes belied the tone.

Mr. Brewster smiled. "Yes. Ah did hate to see any one lose a good night's sleep and then get thus far only to be mistaken for claim-jumpers by the Sheriff's men up yonder. Of course, Hank and you-all aren't going to take such chances with the law."

The miner glanced about uneasily but only saw two girls sitting on their horses a short distance away. Hank's face lowered, however, and he growled forth: "Ah don't see whose business it is whether we break the Sheriff's law or not."

"Perhaps _you_ don't see--but Ah do, Hank. And when the Sheriff says, 'Keep the trail free from all trespa.s.sers till my posse can take charge,' you know me--Ah'll see that his orders are carried out,"

returned Mr. Brewster sternly, his pockets moving suspiciously.

"You-all hain't got no orders, and thar hain't no posse up yander, neither, 'cause they hain't a-comin' till after Simms leaves," exclaimed Hank, unguardedly.

"Ah! So you and your man thought you'd get a lead on the Sheriff, eh?"

laughed Mr. Brewster. "Oh, but you are an easy tenderfoot to stuff, Hank! Did you-all really believe such a story would have been told at Oak Creek if the posse planned to wait for morning? Why, man, that is just what they wanted to do--to catch a lot of rascals red-handed and clean Oak Creek out, once for all! How do you know that there is a real claim staked out up there--or whether it is the Sheriff's joke to land a ring of crooks?"

Eleanor and Barbara were so interested in the way Mr. Brewster handled the two rascals without telling a direct falsehood that they sighed when the claim-jumpers backed their horses and withdrew to confer anxiously on what they had heard. But Sam Brewster interpolated with:

"If it is curiosity that brought you-all to lose a night's rest, pa.s.s right along and tell the Sheriff and Bill your yarn. They will not only let you take a squint at what you think is a mine, but they will pay you to remain and help arrest all the claim-jumpers who are already on the way."

Even as he spoke, Mr. Brewster saw the sly move of Hank as he tried to pull his gun from the holster; instantly a hand came from the rancher's pocket and brought to light a c.o.c.ked revolver. The other man suddenly changed his mind when the bore of Brewster's gun was leveled so that the clerk could look right down into his grave if he made the slightest mistake in this outing of his.

But the miner became ugly; then he saw the other hand of Sam Brewster come from his pocket and he knew that he was a dead rascal too, if he made one false step. So his expression changed to a wily smile, and he said:

"What you-all ha'r fur ef th' Sheriff's up thar guardin' th' precious mine?"

"Told to warn away any foolish town-clerks who might be heading straight to Kingdom Come! You know Bill likes to give every chump a loop-hole to save himself, if possible," retorted Mr. Brewster.

"We ain't lookin' fer no argyment with Bill ner the Shuriff, so we-all'll mosey back an' tell others we meet. Howsomever, you-all won't find it so easy to git rid of curious folks when that miner-gang gits ha'r. Ah happen to know who and how many are plannin' to come."

With that farewell, Hank turned his horse's head and led the way down the trail, slowly followed by the unwilling miner.

"Oh, Mr. Brewster! hadn't we better ride after Mike and the girls before the miners' gang gets here?" cried Barbara, fearfully.