CHAPTER XX. A New Plan.

Claude was so angry when he left his chair and started out to get his horse that it was all he could do to keep from yelling. He had had a short talk with his uncle, and it amounted to nothing. The story about finding a news depot which he could have for eight hundred dollars was made up out of his own head. All he wanted was to get the money in his hands, and then he could live as he pleased.

“I see it is all up with me,” said Claude, as he mounted his horse and set out for the range. “He does not intend to give me anything. I have risked my life for him all these years—I would like to know if I did not risk my life that time the cow charged upon me when I pulled her out of the mud—and have kept his safe from being robbed; and all he means to do is to fit me for a cowman! But I guess I won’t say anything about going Page 246 home just now. Uncle Preston can’t last forever, the remedies he is using don’t help his cough one particle, and who knows but I may get Carl to divide the business with me? I tell you that is worth thinking of.”

The days passed on, and when two weeks had gone by the young cattle had all been branded and the cowboys had a little more leisure on their hands. At the end of that time his uncle called him into the office and had his money all laid out for him.

“Now, Claude, if you are resolved to go, I can send somebody to show you the way to the fort,” said he.

“Well, uncle, I have had plenty of opportunity to think the matter over, and have come to the conclusion that I will not go home yet awhile,” replied Claude. “This is the best business I can think of, and with your permission I will follow it a little while longer. Four hundred dollars, as you say, would not help me to go into anything by which I could support myself in the city.”

“Oh, yes, we will keep you, and be glad to,” his uncle hastened to answer. “And if Page 247 you keep on, Carl will give you a thousand dollars to enable you to start right.”

“That is better than nothing,” soliloquized Claude. “I hope you will rest easy after giving me that small pittance out of your unbounded wealth.” Then aloud he said: “You say that Carl will give me that amount. What is the reason you can’t give it?”

“Because I don’t expect to last very long,” said Mr. Preston. “In six months from now I expect to be under the sod.”

“Oh, uncle, don’t talk that way,” exclaimed Claude, who for once in his life felt really alarmed for his relative.

“There is no use in denying it. I feel that I am growing weaker every day. Well, I guess that is all I have to say to you. If you are going to stay with me, I will put this back in the safe.”

Claude was always angry after holding these talks with his uncle. He went out of the door respectfully enough, and, making sure that there was no one in the hall to observe his movements, he turned and shook his fist at it, at the same time muttering something under Page 248 his breath which sounded very much like an oath.

During the days that followed it was seen by everybody that Mr. Preston was gradually giving up to the dread disease, consumption, which had so long threatened him. His cough got so bad that he was finally obliged to give up riding entirely, and remained on his porch while his men were out herding cattle. When Carl saw this he gave up all hope and stayed behind with him; but affection could not curb the fell destroyer. At last Mr. Preston took to his bed, from which he never got up. The men came on tiptoe to his room to inquire after him, and even Claude felt awed in the presence of death. That is, he tried to appear so before the men; but when he got on his horse, away from everybody, he could scarcely restrain himself.

“He must have made a will,” said Claude. “No person ever died with such an amount of property on hand without doing so. Who knows but that he has left me something? I will not wait for that thousand dollars. Carl can keep it and welcome—that is, if he thinks Page 249 he cannot get along without it. I’ll take what is coming to me and go to the city, provided I cannot get around Carl and get him to divide the business with me. That is my only hope now.”

At last it was all over. When Claude came in from the range one day something told him that “the meanest man he ever saw” was out of his way for all time to come. Carl had shut himself up in his room, but Claude soon found his way into the death-chamber, where he stayed just one minute, and then came out. The three herdsmen who had gone off to engage in business on their own responsibility were there, and also several officers from the fort; for Mr. Preston was popular, and his friends believed in showing him all the respect in their power.

Two days passed, and then all that was mortal of Mr. Preston was laid away in a grave which he had selected for his eternal abiding-place. Then the mourners returned to the house to witness the reading of the will. The doctor took charge of the matter, and, beginning with the foreman, he read all through Page 250 until he came to Carl, to whom he bequeathed all his property left over after the legacies had been provided for. To each man he left one thousand dollars, and Claude’s name had not been mentioned at all. That young gentleman was surprised and thunderstruck; and all this while the doctor had been folding down the will to get at a short codicil there was at the bottom of it. He read it when he came to it, and even in death he found that his uncle was still giving him advice. He bequeathed to Claude the sum of one thousand dollars, and wound up with the hope that Claude would save his money, and that it would be the means of leading him to prosperity and success. The amount was so much smaller than Claude thought it was going to be, that for a moment or two he hardly seemed to breathe; but he finally came to himself, and taking up his hat, which lay beside him on the floor, he walked out of the house. He held in pretty well until he was behind the stables, out of sight, and then gave full vent to his feelings.

“A thousand dollars!” said he, and this time he did not try to interrupt the oaths that Page 251 came out thick and fast. “And I saved his safe from being robbed, too. I must try Carl now, although he is so awful stingy I don’t think I can make anything out of him. If I once get a drove of cattle to sell I will skip out with the first money I get.”

For a long time Claude did not go into the house. He felt enraged at his uncle, and he knew it showed itself in his face; but after a while he managed to go in in time for supper. The officers at the fort had gone away, and there was no one left except the three men who had gone off herding cattle for themselves. When he got there he found that something of moment was being discussed.

“I don’t know how I shall act,” said Thompson, looking down at his plate. “I never have been in the city in my life.”

“You can do just as I do,” answered Carl. “I never have been in the city but a few times in my life, and I shall stay there no longer than I can help. There are some men in St. Louis who ought to be in jail, and if they found out that we had that amount of money with us they would try to steal it. You will Page 252 go with us, won’t you?” he added, turning to his cousin, who at that moment came in. “Father has given by his will ten thousand dollars that I have not got, and I shall have to go to St. Louis after it. Thompson don’t want to go.”

Claude did not say anything immediately, for the words brought a new plan into his head. If he was going to St. Louis after more money, what was the reason he could not get that money for himself? He knew some pretty rough characters in St. Louis, more’s the pity, and it would be no trouble at all to induce them to waylay Carl in some manner and get that money from him. But there was Thompson, who didn’t want to go. He would go armed, of course—he could not go anywhere without his revolvers were strapped around him—and he would be in the way. If he could only think of some method to induce his cousin to leave Thompson behind. Seeing that Carl’s eyes were fastened on him with an inquiring look, Claude answered the question.

“Of course I will go with you, for St. Louis is the place I want to see,” said he. “If Thompson would rather stay here——”

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“But he isn’t going to stay here,” Carl hastened to reply. “I have given my orders, which are for him to be ready to start for the city to-morrow. He will be ready, of course. I will pay you your thousand dollars after we get there.”

This put a stop to further conversation on the subject, for everybody saw that Carl had made up his mind and that all argument was useless. When supper was ended Claude went out on the porch and sat down with his cousin.

“If I was in your place I would leave Thompson at home,” said he. “He will be out of place there among all those nice people, and he won’t be of any use to you, either.”

“I will risk that,” said Carl. “I want somebody along who is not afraid to shoot if I get into trouble, and Thompson is the only one I know of.”

His cousin was firmly set upon this point, and Claude did not think it best to pursue the subject any further. He now came to the matter that was uppermost in his mind.

“Did Uncle Preston say anything to you Page 254 about dividing this business with me?” he asked suddenly.

“Not a word,” said Carl in astonishment.

“Well, he said something to me about it, and I supposed you had got your instructions from him.”

“He never said a thing about it. He left the whole business in my charge. He told me, however, that if you stayed here until you are able to herd cattle for yourself I was to give you a thousand dollars to help you along.”

“I confess that that is a surprise to me,” said Claude, as if he were almost overwhelmed with astonishment. “I supposed that he was going to provide for me during my lifetime.”

Carl was really amazed to hear this. Of one thing he was sure: If his father had said anything to him about taking Claude into partnership with him, he would have done it, although he would have rebelled against it. But Claude did not know anything about herding cattle. He would have felt as safe by taking some tenderfoot out of an office in a city, who had never seen cattle on a stampede, and giving him a half interest in his business.

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“I had but a little over four hundred dollars coming to me, and he said that amount was not enough to set me going till I could support myself,” said Claude, leaning his elbows on his knees and gazing thoughtfully at the floor. “I don’t know what I shall do now.”

“I don’t know, I am sure. I shall carry out the terms of his will, and more than that I cannot do.”

“You are willing to leave me to starve, I suppose?” said Claude, allowing his rage to get the better of him.

“If fifteen hundred dollars won’t keep you till you can find something to do, you ought to starve.”

During all the months that Claude had been with his cousin, living under the same roof with him, and seeing him in no end of scrapes with wild horses and wilder cattle, he had never seen him exhibit so much spirit before. He started up in his chair and looked at Claude as if waiting for him to say something else. Claude returned his gaze, and then picked up his hat and walked away; but Page 256 the moment he got behind the stables he straightened up and shook both his fists in the direction of the porch.

“I didn’t know that boy had so much pluck,” said Claude. “No matter which way I turn, I am to be left out in the cold. Never mind. I’ve seen worse men than Thompson got away with, and we’ll see whether or not he gets away with all the money.”

“The idea of my dividing this business with him,” said Carl in disgust. “Father never said a word about it. I would feel a great deal safer if I had Thompson. But I don’t intend to stay around here after I get back from St. Louis. I don’t want to be here, where everything will remind me of father. I shall go down to the fort and hire out to the commandant for a scout. I know the country as well as anybody, and I will not get lost.”

Carl’s first care was to get himself ready for the journey that was to come off on the morrow. He had been in the city but a few times with his father, and he thought he was pretty well acquainted with the banker who had charge of his father’s money; but in order to make Page 257 assurance doubly sure there was a letter in his sire’s will addressed to the gentleman in question, and he was sure that it would gain him the identification necessary for him to get the funds. This letter he put carefully away in the inside pocket of the moleskin suit which he laid out in readiness for the trip. Thompson came in after he had set the men to work and seated himself on Carl’s bed.