CHAPTER XXV. A Blow For Nothing.

“Thompson, don’t ever let me go out of this room again and leave the key in the lock,” said Carl, as he closed the outer door of his state-room and threw the catch into place. “That was not a very bright trick on my part. It is what caused all this trouble.”

“Show me the man who did this and I will make a spread eagle of him right here,” said Thompson, placing his hand behind him.

“Put up your pistol,” exclaimed Carl angrily. “If you shoot one of those men you will only alarm the whole boat; and, besides, you can’t prove anything. But I have just thought of something. Sit down here close to me, so that you can hear what it is.”

It did not take Carl very long to tell Thompson what he had on his mind, and when he told him how the money would be Page 311 safe hereafter, his companion jumped up and drew the funds out of his bosom.

“But are you sure the clerk won’t steal it?” he asked. “Eight thousand dollars is a heap of money for some people to have.”

“Of course I am sure of it,” said Carl. “It is his business to take valuables that his customers may have and lock them up in the safe. Take your revolvers from your hip pockets and put them on the inside of your coat, and I will give mine to the clerk.”

The first thing was to wrap up the money in a piece of newspaper, and the second was to do up two more bundles as near like the first as they could, and these Carl put on the inside of his shirt. Then he picked up the money package and laid his hand upon the door.

“I like the idea of giving up the money because I never did want to take it in the first place,” said Thompson. “But I don’t like you to have it. Those men could take you down easy enough.”

“Perhaps they will not attempt it. They may suspect what we have done with the Page 312 money, and in that case they will go away and let us alone.”

Carl cautiously opened the door of his state-room, and through the glass at the front of the cabin he saw the two men sitting on the boiler deck, with their backs toward the office. They walked lightly toward the room where the clerk was without attracting the attention of the men, and pounded upon it. In an instant the door came open to them.

“Not a word out of you,” whispered Carl. “There may be some men aboard this boat who might take it into their heads to rob me, and I have here eight thousand dollars which I beg you will take and lock up for me.”

“Whew!” whistled the clerk. “Are you sure the money is in that package?”

“To be sure I am. I just put it there.”

“I would like to see it before I touch it. Unwrap it.”

Of course that was nothing more than fair for the clerk, for he did not want to take the package and find that there was nothing of value in it. Carl readily took off the wrappings, and showed him the pile of greenbacks.

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“That’s all right,” said the clerk. “Do it up again. There are only two persons aboard this boat, and one of them says he is acquainted with you.”

“The man never told you a bigger lie in his life,” said Carl indignantly. “I never saw him until to-day.”

“Do you say that he has an eye on this money? Then we’ll have him put off.”

“But we can’t prove anything against them.”

“Can’t eh?” Thompson almost shouted.

“Don’t talk so loud,” said Carl hastily. “We don’t want those men to know where we are. The fact of the matter is we left our valises in our state-rooms, and when we went in there we found our clothes all over the floor. Thompson wanted to shoot those men, but I knew he would only make matters worse.”

“Do you think those men had a hand in it?” asked the clerk. “I’ll just watch them,” he added, as he took the package and locked it up in his safe.

“That’s all right. Now I wish you would Page 314 put my revolvers with it. They are not loaded. Thompson will feel safer if he has his on, where he can put his hands on them.”

After a little more talk on the subject the clerk went out on the guards, and while he was there the cowboys slipped out behind him and came into the cabin through the passage-way which communicated with the cook’s galley. They went out on the boiler deck and stayed there until Kelly began to talk about money, and then they removed their chairs around by the side of the cabin, onto the guards. But if Carl had seen Kelly punch his companion in the ribs with his elbow, he would have known that that part of his plot had been successful. The boys stayed around on the guards until after supper, and even when the shades of night began to gather about them; they remained there until it got so dark that they could scarcely see their hands before them. This was the time that Kelly told his companion that it was the season for them to begin. Their attack upon them was so sudden that it was all over before they had time to think about it. Carl saw Thompson Page 315 thrown overboard, and before he could cry out or lift a finger he received a stunning blow on the head, and then all was blank to him.

But it was not so with Thompson. The latter was a strong man, and Hayward had scarcely picked him up before he was fighting. He clutched his assailant around the head with one hand, while with the other he attempted to save himself from going overboard. But Hayward was on the alert. He pulled himself away from Thompson’s encircling grasp and threw him over the railing; but the cowboy, whose arms and legs appeared to be everywhere, caught onto the railing with his left hand while the other slid inside of his coat. A moment more and Hayward could not have told anything about that scrape, for he would have been laid out with a bullet in his brain; but he struck him a fierce blow in the face, unclasped his fingers, and Thompson went down.

But the blow did not deprive him of consciousness. He found, in going down to the water, that he had struck upon one of the Page 316 fenders which are used to keep the steamer off from a wharf-boat when making a landing. His arms and legs instinctively closed around it, and, in place of going into the water, Thompson slid down until his feet rested on the lower guard. He had barely time to swing himself on board the boat when he heard a splash behind him. He turned and looked at it, and there was Carl, limp and lifeless, going down with the current. Something that sounded very much like an oath came from Thompson’s lips as he let go his hold upon the fender and struck out to Carl’s assistance.

If there was anything Thompson could do better than herding cattle it was to swim. With a few swift strokes he was near enough to seize Carl, and the first thought that came into his mind was that the villains, not satisfied with getting his money, had made an end of him then and there. He took Carl around the waist, lifted his head above water, and swam toward the boat. Swimming now was a necessity for him, for just below him was a sidewheel steamer coming in, and if he got Page 317 down under her guards it was a question whether or not he would ever come up again. He made headway through the water as he had never made it before, and presently caught hold of the fender that came down opposite the engine room.

“Hi there, some of you fellows!” shouted Thompson. “Lend us a hand here.”

Fortunately the engineer was not busy. He stood watching the deck hands as they were carrying the freight aboard, and he heard the hail coming from the water. He ran to the side, and with a “Heaven bless my soul! How did you get in?” he seized Carl and lifted him upon the guards. “Is he dead?” he asked, with some anxiety in his tones.

“No; but he may as well be,” said Thompson. “Now, then, help me out. I know the fellows that did all this, and if I can find them——”

Thompson could not wait to say any more. He left Carl where he had fallen and ran up the stairs to the boiler deck; but he might as well have saved himself the trouble, for Kelly and his friend were across the wharf-boat and Page 318 well on their way up the levee. There were the chairs, in which they had been sitting, both overturned, but the men who did the business were nowhere in sight. Before he returned to Carl he looked all over the boat, but still he could not see anything of Kelly and Hayward.

“Here’s the bump that did all the mischief,” said the engineer, pointing to a wound on the back of Carl’s head. “He must have been hit with something. What was the fuss all about, anyway?”

“Carl knows, and when he gets ready perhaps he will tell you about it,” said Thompson. “Is he never going to speak to me again?”

“Oh, yes. He’s coming around all right now. You had better take him upstairs and put him in his bunk.”

“I had not been off the boat twenty minutes before this thing happened,” said the clerk, who came up at the time Carl was beginning to show signs of coming to. “I have had an eye on them ever since Mr. Preston told me about it.”

“What did he do?” repeated the engineer.

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There were a good many deck hands standing around by this time, and the clerk did not think it best to speak about the money. He replied that they wanted to whip Carl for something he had done; and taking him under one arm, while Thompson took hold of the other, they took him up to his bunk and put him into it.

“It beats the world what that fellow hit me with,” said Carl, placing his hand to his head. “He struck me with something besides his fist.”

“I suppose it was a sand-bag,” said the clerk. “A scoundrel can carry one of them up his sleeve until he gets ready to use it.”

“Well, they didn’t get the money, anyway,” said Carl, drawing a long breath of relief. “Where are you going, Thompson?”

“I am going out to have those men arrested. If I can find a policeman anywhere——”

To the surprise of both Thompson and the clerk, Carl interfered.

“I beg that you will do nothing of the kind,” said he. “Thompson, come back here and sit down.”

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This was said in the form of an order, and Thompson had nothing to do but obey. Carl settled back on his pillow and closed his eyes, and the clerk, readily divining that he was not wanted there, got up to go.

“If you can think of anything you want, don’t fail to send Thompson after it and you shall have it,” said he.

Carl said he would bear that in mind, and when he was alone with the cowboy he exclaimed:

“Don’t you see that if you arrested those men you would get Claude into a mess?”

“No, I don’t. Did Claude have a hand in sending those men here?”

“Of course he did. As soon as he got ashore he went and got those fellows to come here and steal the money; and if they should be caught, don’t you see how easy it would be for them to tell on him?”

“And you want to let him go free because he is your cousin?”

“That’s it exactly. I am doing just as I believe my father would do if he were here. Besides, you would be held as a witness. I Page 321 don’t know how long it will be before court sits, probably a month or six weeks, and you would have to lay in jail all that time.”

Thompson had no more to say after that. He did not know how a jail looked on the inside—he didn’t want to, for if it looked as badly as it did on the outside it was gloomy enough—and the idea of staying there for six weeks filled the foreman with apprehension.

“Dog-gone the boy, let him go!” said he.

“That is what I say. Now, I want you to stay here.”

Carl hoped they would be allowed to finish their journey in peace, and that no further attempts would be made to steal that miserable money. By the time the boat started he had recovered from his blow so that he could be on deck, and by the time they arrived at Fort Scully he was overjoyed to find his boat there. The clerk gave Carl his money with the remark that it was a pity he did not see his way clearly toward having those men arrested, for now they would be encouraged to go on another expedition of the same kind, and saw him go ashore. In process of time their Page 322 little boat carried them in safety to Fort Yates, and, as it was early in the morning, they hitched up their team and started for home.

“Thank goodness that trip is made,” said Carl, who felt like yelling when he found himself on the prairie again, “and I hope it will be long before I am called upon to make another. Thompson, I will not take you with me, anyhow.”

“Shake,” said the foreman extending his hand. “I would sooner be here with the cattle. But if it had not been for me you would have gone under the wheels of that steamer.”

“Well, I guess that is so,” said Carl.