CHAPTER XII
DOUBLE DEALING
An anxious group was waiting for the girls to arrive in camp. Ma Patten had run over to make her daily call on Mrs. Breckenridge. Even Tang and the two Chinese hoys were watching eagerly and scowling toward the tempestuous sky. A thunder and lightning storm in the hills was not a thing to laugh at. A flash! A roar! And a large mass of rock was cleft apart as if a mighty hammer had struck it.
Tommy Sharpe and Seedy Saunders had saddled their horses and gone in search of the girls as soon as the storm threatened, but not knowing in which direction they had headed, it was like hunting for a needle in a hay stack.
They did find Professor Gillette, however, soaked to the skin, a bedraggled, shivering figure that set the boys laughing in spite of the pathetic look of the old man. They helped him up the hill to the Patten household where he could be taken care of, and once more went in search of the girls.
But it was not until the storm was over and the girls were climbing up the last trail to the ranch that Tommy spied them.
"There they are, Seedy! They're safe!" Tommy's voice trembled with emotion. The mountain | storms still terrified the boy, although he had experienced so many of them.
By the time the girls reached the house, the strain they had undergone was beginning to wear off and they were able to laugh at their adventure. That all except Joy, who shuddered whenever she thought of it and turned pale when the women asked excited questions.
"I hate these mountains," whispered Joy to Shirley. "I wish I were going home tomorrow!"
"Why, Joy Evans, you know you don't." Shirley put her arm around the frightened girl. "You're having a grand time here, and the fun is just beginning. You're not going to quit over the first unpleasant thing that happens to you. That's not playing the game. What would Lady Betty Merriweather do?"
Joy laughed in spite of herself. "We always used to ask that question when we were in Lynnwood. Lady Betty meant a lot to us, didn't she? I guess she wouldn't have cried and taken on the way I did down there on the cliff."
"Do you remember," said Shirley softly, "how Lady Betty rode through the night to help her wounded husband? That was bravery!"
"But that was so long ago. The Revolutionary War seems like a story and not real life," Joy said with a toss of her head. "Maybe it didn't happen at all."
Lady Betty Merriweather had been the first owner of the Merriweather Estate, Bet's home on the Hudson, and from an old picture of her that adorned the great entrance hall of the Manor, the girls had come to feel that she was their friend and companion, an ideal for them to live up to.
"Anyway," continued Joy, "she liked horses. And I don't. And I don't like their old cactus plants with their sharp needles that seem to jump at you. And the sun is cruel. It bites. And even the mountains look hard and angry as if they wanted to do you a mean turn. – And that storm! Did you ever see anything more terrifying? I thought the day of judgment had come. I don't believe Lady Betty would have been any braver than I was. Well, not much braver!"
Shirley laughed softly. "Joy dear, how you exaggerate things! Arizona is wonderful. Did you ever see such glorious sunsets? I'm crazy about them."
"The sunrises are just as wonderful!" interrupted Bet. "And I'm wondering who is going to be game enough to start to Saugus before daylight some morning. Kit says we will have to take an early start if we are to make the trip in one day."
"Why are we going there?" asked Joy.
"To record our claims. We could mail the filled-in blanks but it's lots more exciting to take them. And it's good experience for us. Besides the County Recorder should get acquainted with us, for someday we'll own a great big mine and be people of importance."
The girls laughed at Bet's seriousness.
"Are you going to say you don't want to go?" Bet asked in a vexed tone.
"Of course we'll go!" assented Enid. "We're The Merriweather Girls; one for all and all for one! What day do we start?"
"Why not go tomorrow, if our folks agree? I'm anxious to see those claims put on record," said Shirley, "and the sooner business matters are attended to, the better for everyone. And just think, girls, it's our second business venture. Shirley's Shop was a success and still is, for mother is keeping it going, and she said in her last letter that she was not doing badly at all."
"Shirley's Shop was a success and the Merriweather Mining Company will be, too," Bet declared. "It must be a success."
"It will be!" determined Enid.
Only Joy did not share their optimism. "I think the storm was a bad omen, don't you, Kit? It's hoodooed!"
"Joy Evans!" cried Bet her eyes flashing. "Half an hour ago I would have let you say that, but now if the creek were near, in you'd go!"
Joy laughed and got beyond the reach of Bet's hand, then said impishly: "As for boys, I think they are simply wonderful! Mexican boys have beautiful eyes and Phil Gordon always smiles at you, Bet."
For answer Bet ran into the house and slammed the door to her own room. Joy had wept after the storm, and thus relaxed her nerve tension but Bet had not had any such relief. As a result of the strain she found herself irritated by Joy's nonsense and got out of the way to avoid a quarrel.
It was two days later when the girls started on their trip to Saugus. The first faint flush of dawn was in the sky as they set out, the exhilarating air acting as a stimulant. Even the horses seemed to feel it as they tossed their heads and pawed the ground when the girls were getting ready to start. The restless animals were as eager to be off as their riders, and at the first touch of the reins they sprang forward as if for a race.
"Take it easy, Powder," laughed Kit as she tightened the rein and drew up the horse's head. "You have a full day to show how clever you are." Kit talked to the pony as if it were a human being and the horse seemed to respond to whatever mood she was in. He slowed to a prancing trot, high-stepping along the level like a spirited race horse.
Kit leaned over and patted his neck with pride as she called: "Look, Bet, isn't he a beauty?"
"He is! – That is in looks. But I don't like his disposition. You are welcome to ride him." Bet laughed aloud in her joy as she made her pony dance along the trail.
"But if Powder didn't act up like a perfect fiend at times, I'd be bored to death with him. I like them naughty. I hate a horse without any spirit. Powder keeps me on my toes all the time." Kit ran her finger along the horse's mane and with a spring Powder reared and bucked, and did all the things that an untamed bronco would do when he was first introduced to the saddle.
"You can have it all to yourself," said Bet, as Kit finally brought her quieted horse to a standstill. "I like riding, but I don't want to be a bronco buster."
Although they planned on being in the town by noon, the girls carried a lunch strapped to their saddles. A rest and a bite to eat along the way was half the fun and they had not gone more than a mile before Joy was digging into the little bag that hung from the horn of her saddle.
By ten o'clock when the other girls were ready for a rest and something to eat, Joy was down to the bottom of the bag.
"Never mind, Joy, you can have half of mine. Mother always puts up enough for an army."
"Aren't we ever going to get there?" complained Joy, as she squatted in the scant shade of a mesquite tree and ate some fudge.
"Five miles more!" Kit announced.
"I'll never be able to do it! If they only had a change of scenery, I wouldn't be so bored. And those tall, smokestack cactus make me sick."
"Smokestack cactus!" snapped Kit with contempt. "If you'd only take enough interest to learn the names of the trees and things you see, you wouldn't be so bored."
"Well, what are they called?"
"Sahuara. And if that word is too big for you to remember, call them Giant Cactus."
Suddenly Bet shook Joy by the arm. "Keep quiet and watch that road runner. Isn't he a beauty?"
The bird had risen and poised above the mesa, then with fluttering wings darted downward. There was a rattling brr, and the girls knew what was happening. The road runner was attacking a rattlesnake.
"That bird isn't much of a sport," declared Bet, watching the little drama with eager eyes. "It doesn't give the snake a fighting chance. I feel sorry for it."
Kit laughed. "Don't waste your sympathy on rattlesnakes. Take something worthy of your respect."
Kit watched the struggle with little emotion but the other girls turned away not wanting to see the end of the uneven fight.
"Let's go," said Enid, jumping to her feet. "I've seen enough."
An hour later when the girls were entering the little desert town of Saugus, and just as they came to the first adobe houses, they saw a horseback rider coming toward them. As he rode nearer the man waved them a greeting.
"It's Kie Wicks! And he's good-natured," grunted Kit suspiciously. "Wonder what he's doing over here today? Up to some meanness, I know, otherwise he wouldn't be so cordial to us."
"Well his meanness doesn't concern us," answered Bet.
"You can't be sure of that. He's probably bought up some second hand food stuff that he plans to work off on the ranchers during the summer."
"And what's your errand over this way?" inquired Kie Wicks bluntly.
"I came to visit an ice cream parlor and go to a movie," chuckled Joy.
But Kit did not deign to answer the man. She dug her spurs into Powder's sides and he leaped past the rider and raced toward the town.
"That fellow looks as if he had been taking advantage of someone. Wasn't he feeling good? On top of the world! The old cheat!" blustered Kit, as she dismounted at the stables where they were to leave their horses for a rest and a good feed.
The girls took their time, went leisurely about the town, ate their lunch at the Grand Palace Hotel and later went to the County Recording Office.
"Why, that's funny!" said the clerk, giving them a searching look. "Those same claims were recorded not more than an hour ago. Man by the name of Ramon Salazar. What are you trying to do, jump his claims?"
"Why, we wouldn't do such a thing," exclaimed Bet indignantly.
"Was Ramon here in person?" asked Kit.
"No, he sent the papers in by a neighbor," returned the young man. "A fellow by the name of Kie Wicks."
"Kie Wicks!" That explained everything.
The girls suddenly wilted. All their sparkle was gone as they watched the clerk checking over the descriptions with the ones already recorded.
"You have one here that has not been recorded," the clerk announced when he had finally finished the checking.
"Wonder how he happened to leave out that one?" snapped Kit.
Bet held out her hand for the blank. "Let's see which one it is. Oh, girls, what a shame! It's the most unpromising claim of all. That's the last one we located, the one we called, 'Little Orphan Annie.' It's too mean for anything." There were tears of disappointment and anger in Bet's eyes.
"Do you want it recorded?" The girls heard the clerk's voice but it seemed to come from far away.
"What's the use of one claim? You can't make a mine out of just one miserable claim!"
"I don't care, I want it anyway!" Bet shrugged her shoulders defiantly.
"I told you there was a hoodoo on those claims," Joy spoke cheerfully, as much as to say, "I told you so."
Joy's pessimism was all that was needed to decide Bet.
"Yes, we'll record it, and we'll be locating some more soon," she announced with determination. "We are not going to let Kie Wicks and Ramon Salazar beat us. We'll get even with them somehow."
"They wouldn't have dared to do this if we were men. Just because we are girls, they think they'll get away with it."
"Oh, by all means!" Joy taunted provokingly, "Be sure to locate some more claims and let that man take them away from us again."
Bet turned her back on Joy and watched the clerk as he put the blank through the usual routine and then turned to leave the office. The Merriweather Girls were the owners of one very unpromising copper claim.
They dragged wearily out into the fierce sunlight. There was a discouraged droop to their shoulders, but Bet suddenly straightened. Her eyes were flashing as she said:
"I have a hunch! Something tells me that we are not down and out on this deal."
Joy squatted on the steps of the General Mining Supply Company's office and laughed. "You ought to win with a disposition like that, Bet Baxter. I don't admire your judgment, but I do like your spunk. I'm with you. I'll never say a discouraging word again."
"I don't know why, but somehow that Little Orphan Annie claim is going to help us win out!"
"But how?" whispered Kit to herself.
CHAPTER XIII
THE "ORPHAN ANNIE" CLAIM
Disappointments could not long dampen the spirits of The Merriweather Girls. Youth soon conquered discouragement and by the time they were awake the next morning, they were happy and ready to take the next step in the adventure.
But Judge Breckenridge, with his strong ideas of justice, was not so easily appeased. And when the girls told him of what had happened he sat for a long time with a worried frown on his brow, then got up and walked in the court. It was plain to be seen that he was agitated about the claim jumpers.
"If you are bothered about us, Judge Breckenridge," said Bet, linking her arm in his and skipping into step beside him, "You might just as well not think about it. We didn't like it at first either, but now we don't care at all – not much, I mean. It will save us lots of work. And probably we couldn't be mine owners very well, anyway."
"You're a great little girl, Bet!" The Judge patted her hand affectionately. "You're a sport, all right. Now, I'm mad clean through!"
"That's what I thought, and I have never seen you angry before."
"I'm sorry, child, I didn't mean to have you see me in this mood, ever," said the Judge with a trembling voice.
"But I'm so glad I did. I usually snap and snarl when I have a temper spell, and I did not know it could be done in such a dignified way. I think it was wonderful!"
The Judge stopped short in his walk and laughed, his voice echoing through the patio.
Enid heard it in her own room and came on the run to see what amused her father so greatly. When she saw Bet, she smiled.
"I might have known it was you. Dad always laughs at you." And the tall girl slipped up at the other side of her father, and snuggled close with her head on his shoulder.
"Two daughters are better than one!" The grey-haired man clasped his girl to him as if he had not seen her for weeks. Then turning to Bet he said:
"Aren't you going to work your one claim?"
"Is it worth it?" she asked.
"I think I would. You can get a Mexican to do the assessment work, and he'd be glad of the money. You never can tell what may happen," advised Judge Breckenridge.
"I had a sort of hunch that we ought to keep it, but then again in the night I decided that it would be foolish. We can go elsewhere and locate more claims."
"I'll take a trip over there with you this afternoon and have a look at 'Little Orphan Annie.' Tommy Sharpe is threatening to lay in wait for Kie Wicks with a shotgun."
"Tommy's a fool! He always was!" exclaimed Enid impatiently. "He can't imagine there is any way of getting the better of a person except by shooting him. He even wanted to go after Sol Curtin. I believe he had the notion that he could do it all by himself. He's a funny boy!"
The Judge frowned. Although a year had passed since Enid had been found, the father could not talk, without emotion, of the man who had kidnapped his daughter when she was a child. Sol was in jail and would be there for many years, but still the father was uneasy.
"This Kie Wicks makes me think of Sol," he said bitterly. "And I want you to keep as far away from him as possible. Have a man do the work for you if you keep this claim near his."
That afternoon the Judge rode with the girls down Lost Canyon, through the Iron Gate to the smaller creek and picked their way around the boulders of the river bed.
About a mile from the claim, they met Professor Gillette. He had been far over one of the hills in search of the ruins. Half a dozen arrowheads were his reward. He was preparing a belated dinner in the creek-bed, over a smouldering fire.
The girls were impatient to go on, and dragged the Judge away from his friend.
"Come on up over that hill when you finish your lunch," invited the Judge. "I have to obey, so I'm off."
"What made you think of coming away up here to locate claims, Kit?" the Judge asked as they brought their horses to the summit.
"Dad said there were some good claims over this way, and I've had experience. I've lived out here all my life and know how they go about their location work."
"I'll say your view is worth as much as 'Orphan Annie,'" enthused Judge Breckenridge, as he looked over the ranges of mountains and the deep-cut canyons.
"But views are not worth a Mexican dime out here. You can't cash in on a good outlook," returned Bet with a chuckle. "It's the mine that counts. Now tell us, don't you think we made a good job of locating those claims?"
"I think you did, Bet. However as Ramon Salazar and Kie Wicks will reap the benefit, I think we might go on to other promising spots and let them have a free hand here. You are only girls and can't fight men like them."
No other remark could have roused all the spunk in the girls.
"I don't see why we can't hold our own against any man," sniffed Kit. "Ramon Salazar is a cross-eyed Mexican with a lame leg, and Kie Wicks is a coward. I guess The Merriweather Girls could beat them with their eyes shut."
"That a girl, Kit! Of course we can," cried Bet indignantly. "And we will!"
The Judge chuckled at their flare of independence, and turned to Joy, the timid one.
"What about you, Joy? Do you want to help the girls fight for the claim?"
"I'm not saying that I want the old mine, if we can hold it, but I'm willing to help fight, if the girls say so. The Merriweather Girls stand together."
"Good for you, Joy Evans! I didn't expect it of you."
"You didn't? What are you trying to insinuate, Bet Baxter? I'm not a traitor!"
"Why, of course not, Joy, but you don't like digging mines and riding horseback and all that sort of thing."
"Maybe not. But you've never known me to back out of anything, especially where the honor of The Merriweather Girls was at stake."
"That's right," responded Bet quickly. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. You've always been a sport when it came to doing things, although you've sometimes made a frightful fuss about it."
"That's part of the game," laughed the butterfly girl. "Somebody has to be a kicker. And I'm it."
"Please do it with your feet from now on, it's much more graceful!" teased Enid.
"I may do it with my feet and I may do it with my tongue," returned Joy with a happy laugh, "but you'll find me ready to back up any one of you."
"Well said, fair lady. Now let's have a look at 'Orphan Annie.'" The Judge's eyes were sparkling with amusement as Bet led him up the gentle slope of the mountain. Suddenly Bet threw herself from the saddle.
"See folks, I found an arrowhead! Oh, boy! Isn't that lucky?"
The girls dismounted and grouped about her, all except Kit, who had picked up arrowheads since babyhood.
"It's a perfect one. I'm the happiest girl in all the world!"
"Doesn't take much to make some people happy," began Joy, then she started to laugh. "Come on, where's our little orphan?"
"This way, follow me," called Shirley Williams. "This is it, isn't it, Bet?"
"Yes, that's our baby. Poor little thing." Bet was trying to be cheerful but there was a tinge of bitterness in her voice. There was always a great soul conflict when Bet's well developed plans went amiss and in this case, where it involved double dealing, it was harder than usual to give up.
"Nine chances out of ten," remarked Enid quietly and with little emotion, "those other claims have all the ore and this one has nothing."
"For my part, I don't care if it hasn't any ore in it at all, I like it anyway," and Bet squatted down on a big flat rock within the boundaries of the claim. "It feels good to be on my own property," she added with a sigh of contentment.
But in a moment she had started up with a little cry of surprise. "What's the matter, Bet? Be careful! If it's a strange bug, it might bite you. There are so many stinging things out here," cautioned Kit.
Bet's head was bent over the rock. She did not hear what was said. Suddenly she called, "Judge Breckenridge, do come here and look at these strange markings on the rock."
"Markings on a rock," said Joy Evans contemptuously. "I thought it was a tarantula or something."
"Well, you wouldn't have liked to see a tarantula any better than the markings, and these at least are not poisonous," Bet retorted.
Judge Breckenridge was examining the markings with interest, and gave a low whistle of astonishment. "This is the sort of thing one reads about. I'm wondering though if Kie Wicks put them here to fool you."
"It might be markings that tell of a buried treasure. See the arrow!
Look the way the arrow points."
"Yes, look the way the arrow points," mimicked Joy. "Now at last you have your mystery, Bet. I wish you joy of it. Follow the arrow and then you'll come to a tall cactus, and in the cactus you'll find a bullet…"
"Oh, keep quiet, Joy Evans!" flashed Bet angrily.
"We haven't found a mystery and I don't believe there is a treasure here. This is far away from Lost Canyon," said Kit.
"I'm going to believe in the treasure!" cried Bet, fired with enthusiasm at the prospect of finding something unusual. "Why, I could easily believe in a buried treasure. What's more I'll find it."
"I'm going to go and call Professor Gillette," called Enid, already in the saddle. "He can probably tell us what it means and what the Indians looked like who made the markings."
"These lines were not made by Indians," remarked the Judge thoughtfully. "There's a Spanish word there."
But when the professor came a few minutes later, he was all at sea as to the meaning of the tracings on the rock.
"It is very much like the sort of thing people used to draw when they buried treasure. You've seen the map in Tommy Sharpe's room but that doesn't say that if we located the proper spot that there would be any treasure left. Other people can read signs the same as we can, and many people have been over this ground since that sign was carved," Judge Breckenridge explained to the girls.
"Why be so sensible, Judge?" laughed Bet wistfully. "Why not let us think that there is a treasure hidden in the ground somewhere? I'm thrilled all to pieces just thinking about it."
"And that's right, too, Bet. Don't let an old fellow like me spoil your dreams by my common sense." The Judge acted as if he wanted to believe it himself and only needed a little urging.
"And there is just as much chance that no one has passed over this rock since the early days and that we may find a fortune hidden." The professor smiled around at the group with a happy, child-like stare as if he were one of the characters of a fairy story.
"Now that's the way to talk, Professor Gillette. You never can be sure unless you look around." Bet nodded at him approvingly.
The Judge suddenly looked at his watch. "I move we get home to dinner.
Tang will be waiting and he hates that."
Bet very carefully spread some tiny twigs and sand over the rock so that no one else would see the markings on the stone.
"Come along up with us to dinner, Professor," suggested the Judge cordially. "We'll have a meeting tonight and talk things over and see what is best to do. I have a feeling that the shrubs and rocks have ears around these claims of Ramon's."
"That's what I say. Otherwise how did Ramon and Kie Wicks find out about the claims in the first place?" asked Bet.
"There's no mystery in that, Bet. Kie saw us coming here and followed. He spied on us, saw us building the monuments and then came and jumped the claims," explained Kit.
"All but one!" cried Bet as she clapped her hands. "And on that one little neglected claim, we find the tracings that will perhaps lead us to the buried treasure. That's luck!"
"Oh Bet, wake up, you're dreaming!" laughed Shirley, the quiet, sensible girl. Never in the world would Shirley have dreamed or let her imagination run wild. She was a practical, well-balanced girl, a clear thinker and not given to romantic flights of fancy.
"The bubble's burst!" sang Joy tantalizingly.
"It has not!" Bet swung easily into the saddle. "The bubble isn't blown yet. Just wait and see!"
In single file they rode down into the canyon below them and let their horses pick a way through the rocks of the creek bed.
Just as they passed through the Iron Gate, the narrow pass that led to Lost Canyon, they met Kie Wicks.
"Nice weather for a picnic!" he called to them gaily with a wave of his dusty sombrero. "That's an interesting canyon!"
"Yes," the judge replied with his most courteous air. "We find it very interesting. The girls located a claim up that way, and have started work on it."
"You don't say so! Well, everybody to his liking. I'm through with locating claims. It's a slave's life, forever digging, digging, digging! I don't care if I never see another copper claim as long as I live," Kie Wicks returned with decision. "I run a store, that's a good, clean business."
"You're right, Mr. Wicks. Stick to storekeeping," advised the Judge as he took the trail toward the ranch.
The girls smiled back at Kie Wicks and waved him good-bye. They had decided to play a part with this man. And not for worlds would they let him know that they suspected that he had anything to do with the claim jumping. Later, much later, they might get strong evidence against him. They would deal with him then. Just now they could not afford to antagonize the man. Open enmity might be worse than the present situation. Kie and Maude, as long as they were making a pretense of friendliness, might let drop some of their plans without meaning to. People who talked so freely often did that.
"We'll string 'em along," said Joy slangily. "Maude Wicks can't keep a secret, if I know anything."
"Which is doubtful!" laughed Bet.
"Say, who are you talking about? Maude Wicks or yours truly?" retorted Joy, at the same time making a face at her friend.
"Both!" cried Bet and gave her horse a tap on the neck, getting out of the way of Joy's quirt.
Everybody liked to tease Joy, perhaps because she flushed so prettily as her slight anger rose. But whatever the reason she was always the butt for their good natured teasing. And no matter how much she resented it, she turned it off with a joke. Yet it could be seen that she always turned to Shirley Williams, who never teased her.
Tang was watching anxiously from the kitchen door when they rode up the trail. He was always punctual and frowned on the late comers.
In the corridor of the patio, after dinner, the council met. Mrs. Breckenridge, although she could scarcely hope to be able to take such a long ride to see the claim, was the most enthusiastic one of the group. She was a dreamer by nature, and the thrill of hidden things always intrigued her. Bet threw both arms impulsively around her.
"You're a darling," Bet cried. "You are a real chum, a person after my own heart."
"But you see I've been reading lately and it seems that there is basis for the story of hidden treasure in Lost Canyon. Lots of people have believed it."
"And lots of people have hunted for the treasure and failed," returned Kit skeptically.
"Perhaps we won't fail. It's that word 'perhaps' that adds the greatest spice to life. It won't do any harm to spend a little time studying out this sign on the rock. Tomorrow I'll make an accurate copy of it and then we can have it here at home to puzzle over. And if you say so, I'll begin that assessment work on your one claim so that there will be an excuse for being over there so much." Professor Gillette suggested.
"You're a dear! That's an awful good idea! But what about your Indian ruins? You must find them." Bet was anxious for the old man to realize his desire and find the ancient village of the vanished tribe. It meant so much to his crippled daughter.
"That can wait for a little while. This looks as if it might be much more interesting." The professor's wrinkled face was flushed with the excitement of a mystery to be unearthed. "I'll begin tomorrow," he declared as he rose to join Kit and her mother and accompany them home.
Bet's face was radiant. "Here's where the fun begins!" she laughed at the prospect.
But little did Bet realize that the hunting for a treasure was to bring to the girls, not only the most thrilling adventure of their lives, but danger, suspense and fear.