The Boy Land Boomer Part 36

"What do you want of me, p.a.w.nee Brown? I want nothing to do with such as you--a thieving, low-down boomer--who--oh!"

Vorlange ended with a yell, for p.a.w.nee Brown had caught him by the ear and almost jerked him off his feet.

"Let up! Let up! Oh!"

"Now keep quiet Vorlange," said the scout sternly. "You can thank your stars that I didn't put a bullet through you for letting your tongue run so loosely."

"Thet's so, b'gosh," was Rasco's comment. "But say, p.a.w.nee, he's a reg'lar snake in the gra.s.s."

"I know it." p.a.w.nee Brown looked at d.i.c.k. "Has he been threatening you, lad?"

"Yes; threatened me and my father, too."

"Have no fear of him, d.i.c.k. Louis Vorlange, you have about reached the end of your rope."

"What do you mean?" and the spy's lips quivered as he spoke.

"I mean that I am here to expose you." p.a.w.nee Brown turned to the others who had come in. "Gentlemen, let me introduce to you Louis Vorlange, alias Captain Mull, once of Creede, Colorado."

"Captain Mull!" exclaimed several. "Do you mean the Captain Mull that was wanted for several shady doings, p.a.w.nee?"

"The same Captain Mull, gentlemen."

"It is a--a lie!" screamed Louis Vorlange, but his looks belied him.

"It is the truth, gentlemen, he is the man who once sported under the name of Captain Mull. But that is not all."

"What else, p.a.w.nee?"

"Some years ago a man by the name of Andrew Rickwell was murdered in the Last Chance hotel at Creede. At that time Creede was but a small place and Captain Mull ran the hotel. Who murdered Rickwell was not discovered. But he had occupied a room with another man, a mining agent from New York named Mortimer Arbuckle, the father of this lad here, and some thought Arbuckle had done the foul deed, and he had to run away to escape the fury of a mob. The horror of this occurrence unbalanced the man's mind and to this day he sometimes thinks he may be guilty. But he is innocent."

"He is guilty!" shrieked Louis Vorlange. "I saw him do the deed!"

"I see you acknowledge you were in Creede at that time," answered p.a.w.nee Bill, and Vorlange staggered back over the bad break he had made. "As I said, Mortimer Arbuckle is innocent. There is the murderer, and here are the doc.u.ments to prove it--and to prove more--that Vorlange is a thief, that he a.s.saulted Mortimer Arbuckle in the dark and left him for dead, and that he is now acting against the best interests of the United States government."

As p.a.w.nee Brown ended he pointed at Vorlange, and held aloft the packet he had taken from Yellow Elk.

"My father's doc.u.ments!" cried d.i.c.k.

"The letters!" shrieked Louis Vorlange. Then he made a sudden leap to secure them, but p.a.w.nee Brown was too quick for him. The scout turned to the captain of cavalry standing near.

"You had better arrest him before he tries to escape."

"They shall not arrest me!" came from Louis Vorlange's set lips. "Clear the way!"

Like a flash his pistol came up and he fired into the crowd, which parted in surprise and let him pa.s.s. But not more than ten steps were covered when p.a.w.nee Brown caught him by the arm and threw him headlong to the ground. At the same time the prison sentry fired, and Vorlange was mortally wounded in the side.

"I'll not forget you!" he cried to p.a.w.nee Brown. "But for you I would have lived in clover the balance of my life!" Then he fell into a faint from which he recovered presently, to linger for several days in terrible anguish, dying at last in convulsions.

With the death of Vorlange we bring our story to a close. By what was said during the man's last hours on earth, Mortimer Arbuckle was entirely cleared of the cloud which had hung over his honorable name.

Soon after this his right mind came back to him and to-day he is as well and happy as it is possible to imagine.

Whatever became of Stillwater and Juan Donomez is not known.

With the truce declared by the actions of the authorities at Washington and the word given by p.a.w.nee Brown that no attempt should be made to enter Oklahoma for the present, it was not deemed advisable to hold either d.i.c.k or Rasco longer, and the two were given their freedom, to journey at once to Honnewell, in company with the great scout and Nellie Winthrop.

From Honnewell, d.i.c.k rode post haste to carry the glad news to his father. A scene followed which no pen can describe, a scene so sacred to the two it must be left entirely to the imagination of the reader. Never was a man more proud of his son than was Mortimer Arbuckle of d.i.c.k, or more grateful than was the mine-owner to p.a.w.nee Brown for his courageous and marvelous work in clearing up the mystery.

"He is a man among men," he said. "G.o.d bless him!"

Nellie Winthrop was overjoyed to be with her uncle once again, and took good care that nothing should separate them. As for Jack, he guarded her with a care which could not be exceeded.

"Ef they carry her off again it will be over my dead body, b'gosh," he murmured more than once.

And yet Nellie was carried off four years later. But this time the carrying off was done by d.i.c.k Arbuckle, and both Nellie and Jack were perfectly willing. The wedding was a grand one, for the Colorado claims had panned out big for the Arbuckles, and the best man at the affair was p.a.w.nee Brown.

In due course of time the bill concerning Oklahoma was pa.s.sed by the United States Senate and signed by the President. This was followed by a grand rush of the boomers to get the best of the land granted to them.

The advance was led by p.a.w.nee Brown, who, riding his ever faithful Bonnie Bird, covered twenty miles in the short s.p.a.ce of sixty-five minutes and located his town site at the mouth of Big Turkey Creek. This town site, along with his other Oklahoma possessions, made the great scout a rich man. He never grows weary of telling about this great rush into Oklahoma. "It was grand, awe-inspiring," he says. "I would go a thousand miles to see it again--those hundreds of wagons, thousands of hors.e.m.e.n and heads of cattle, all going southward, over hills, through forests, crossing brooks and rivers--all bound for the land which has since made them so prosperous and happy."

And here let us take leave of d.i.c.k Arbuckle, p.a.w.nee Brown, and all their friends, wishing them well.