CHAPTER XXIII.
IS THIS STRANGE STORY TRUE?
It was decidedly despairing.
Moreover, Dick was intensely puzzled to understand how Mudd and Tony came to be there.
The fact was Dick still had a lot to learn about the twists and turns of this mysterious mountain.
As a matter of fact he was now on the trail leading over into the Black Hills, and not far from the spot where the attack had been made on Clara, and, if he had but known it, he was also at no great distance from the hut at the head of Izard Lake. There was a path known to Mudd and his friends leading down from the hut to the trail of which Dick had no knowledge at all.
Both men had sobered up a bit now, and were fully able to take care of themselves and of Dick, too, as they soon demonstrated, for they pounced upon the boy, and, each catching him by an arm, hurried him along the trail.
“Well met, my noble young scientist!” said Mudd, sneeringly. “We had given up all hope of finding you. Where are your friends, Master Charles Nicholson and Miss Clara Eglinton, just at the present time?”
“Find out,” retorted Dick. “I shall tell you nothing, Mr. Mudd; so you may as well hold your tongue.”
“Civil, upon my word,” sneered Mudd. “Did you ever hear such gentlemanly language, Tony? Ha! Ha! It takes these young Washington sprigs to come out here in the wild and woolly West and show us how to do it. I take it from the way you put it that they did not make a meal for that long-necked what-you-may-call-him, as I at first supposed.”
“Mr. Mudd,” said Dick, with all the calmness he could assume, “I want nothing to do with you. You have captured me again, and I can’t help it, but if you expect to make anything out of me, let me tell you right now, you are going to get left.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Mudd. “My lord puts it plain. But then, you see, my lord does not understand the situation. Now, then, here we are. Tony, you go ahead and see if the boss is coming. Blow the whistle as soon as you catch sight of him to give me warning. I want to have my trump card all ready to play, and that same trump card is this boy.”
“Don’t forget to play a trump card for me, boss,” growled Tony. “I don’t want to kick none, and I hain’t a-kicking, but it does seem to me of late that in all this business you are only figuring on lining your own pockets and leaving me out in the cold.”
“Rats! Rubbish! Get along with you!” roared Mudd, with a fierce display of drunken anger.
Tony hurried on up the trail and never said a word, while Mudd motioned Dick into a small cave which opened in under the cliff.
Not for one instant had he failed to keep Dick covered, and to have attempted to escape from him would have surely meant death.
“Now, sit down there, boy, and listen to me,” said Mudd, pointing to a big flat stone; “and before I begin to talk I’ll tell you one thing. I am going to shoot you dead at the first move you make toward escaping; do you understand?”
“I do,” replied Dick. “I’m badly shaken up, Mr. Mudd. I am going to sit still here for a while. You might just as well put your revolver up. I shan’t attempt to escape.”
“Come, now, that’s sensible.”
“I try to be sensible at all times.”
“So do I, boy. I am going to be sensible now. I’m going to try to come to terms with you once for all. If I fail now, I shall never try again, and you will probably be shot by the order of Colonel Tom Eglinton, whom I expect here in twenty minutes’ time.”
Dick was silent. He did not know whether to believe this or not. He did not know what to say, so he said nothing at all.
“I see you don’t believe me,” continued Mudd; “but it is true, just the same. I have sent for Eglinton, and he is coming down here to ransom his daughter. Perhaps you wonder how I dare to meet him alone, and if you do, look behind you. Ha! Ha! We were all drunk a while ago, but we are all sober enough to attend to business now. You ought to have finished up your work at the hut, young fellow. You and your friend, Doctor Dan.”
There they sat in the back of the cave, the same old gang.
Each man had his rifle lying across his knees; they were silent and motionless, but Dick saw that they were ready for business just the same.
“Now, what do you think of that?” demanded Mudd. “Am I up and dressed or am I asleep? Answer me that, boy.”
“Oh, what’s the use bothering to answer you?” retorted Dick. “You have got the big end of the stick, that’s all there is about it—go ahead.”
“Very well, then,” said Mudd, dropping his voice to a whisper. “Dick Darrell, listen to me. You are the true owner of the Gold Queen mine. The claim was located by your father. It adjoins one which was worked out belonging to Colonel Tom Eglinton, and he made up his mind to join the two properties together, and when old Tom Eglinton once sets his heart on accomplishing a certain object I want you to understand, something has got to give.”
“All this is old business,” said Dick, as Mudd paused for breath. “Tell me something new.”
“That’s what I will. Tom Eglinton tried to buy your father out, but he wouldn’t sell. Then he hired a man to pick a quarrel with him and shoot him, which was done. Oh, you needn’t glare at me, Dick Darrell. It’s true. I’ve got the papers about me to prove it. I have papers which prove the mine his. I’ve got Colonel Tom’s letters to me offering me money to kill you. There! What do you think of that?”
“Want to know?” demanded Dick.
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, then, I think you are the man who killed my father and——”
“Oh, Dick! Dick!”
It was Clara!
Calling out Dick’s name she rushed into the cave, and, without the slightest ceremony, threw her arms about his neck, calling out:
“Oh, Dick, I am so glad you are alive!”
“Cool, upon my word!” cried Mudd. “By thunder, here comes the other one, too! What manners these city folks have!”
In rushed Charley, but he halted at the sight of Mudd and the men at the back of the cave.
“Stand there!” cried Mudd, throwing up his revolver. “You are all my prisoners, every one of you! Stand there where you are, or——”
A sharp whistle sounded further up the trail.
Was Clara’s father coming?
Dick thought so as he gently disengaged the girl’s arms from about his neck.
It was rather an awkward time to be introduced to Colonel Tom Eglinton, the millionaire mine owner of the Black Hills.