CHAPTER XVIII
_THE OLD CHIEF'S DAUGHTER WALKS_
"If the professor is really hidden in that hut, perhaps we can get himtonight," exclaimed Bet Baxter, as she swung up the trail carrying herIndian baskets.
"I wish we could find him before tomorrow afternoon when the boyscome," said Enid. "It would be nice to give the boys our fullattention."
"You'll spoil them if you do," Shirley responded.
Bet was quiet the rest of the way home. Thoughts of the professor keptcrowding into her mind, schemes for his release; these things demandedher attention. Kit spoke to her three times without getting an answer,then with a smile turned to her chums.
"Bet is trying to solve a problem. She is never this way unless she ismaking plans of some sort."
By the time they reached the ranch house, Bet's eyes were glowing in anabsent-minded way and she passed Ma Patten in the patio withoutspeaking.
She was so intent on the problem that was bothering her that she stoodstaring at her father a long time before she recognized him, then witha cry she threw herself into his arms.
"Oh Daddy! I've been so lonesome for you! How did you get here andwhen did you come?"
"Easy, girl, or you'll choke on all those questions," laughed ColonelBaxter. "I just arrived an hour ago, and I would have let you know ifI'd been sure that I could come. And then at the end, I decided tosurprise you. Are you glad?"
Bet laughed happily, her blue eyes glowing now with a very differentlight. There was snap and joy in them as she held tightly to herfather's hand.
In her joy at seeing her father she had not paid any attention to whatthe other girls were doing. Now as she heard the sound of happy voicesshe turned and saw the boys, Phil and Bob and Paul.
"Oh, you boys! Why we didn't expect you until tomorrow afternoon," shesaid, extending her hand to Phil Gordon.
"If you don't want to see us tonight, perhaps we could go back and sitin the station at Benito."
"Don't be silly, Bob Evans. You're just the same as ever." Betlaughed as she always did at Bob.
"What did you expect me to do in three weeks time? Get grey headed andgrow a beard?"
Bob had helped Joy to her feet when they heard the girls arriving andhe now stood supporting his sister while he laughed and teased.
"Isn't it good to see them?" cried Joy.
"Does that include me, too?" inquired Colonel Baxter.
"Of course it does! You don't know how often we've talked about youand wished you were here," answered Enid, before Joy could reply.
There was a real change in Paul Breckenridge since the girls had seenhim the previous winter. The old brooding, shy look was gone, and nowhe entered into the pleasures around him as the other boys did. Onecould see that he liked to be near Enid, teasing her constantly as ifhe had to make up for those years of separation.
Judge Breckenridge smiled around at his happy family, well pleased witheverything.
"The one thing that would make it perfect would be to have the oldprofessor here," he said. "But we'll find him before long."
Kit gave a little cry. "How terrible of me to have forgotten to tellyou, Judge! We know where the professor is."
"Where?" asked the Judge eagerly.
"Young Mary says that he is in the shack in Rattlesnake Creek."
"But Kie Wicks took us through that hut this afternoon," replied theJudge. "He isn't there!"
The girls showed their disappointment.
"Maybe they just moved the old man out for an hour until you finishedyour search," said Bet. "I wouldn't put that past Kie Wicks. Nothingis too bad for him to do."
"We hunted inside and outside of that hut," insisted the Judge. "If hehad been there, surely there would have been some sign."
"I have an idea!" cried Bet, jumping to her feet. "I believe he's inthat hut, they put him back after you'd been there. I'm going to findhim tonight."
"You'll do no such thing, Bet. Chasing around among a lot of bad menis no place for a girl," began her father, but Bet interrupted:
"Just wait until I have worked out my plan and you'll see I'll be assafe as if I were at home. You can come with me, Dad. Will you helpme, Judge? I'll need several men."
"Let us in on this," exclaimed Phil and Bob in the same breath. "We'dlike to have a hand in solving your latest mystery."
Bet flew to her room and returned in a few minutes in a strangecostume, a long dress of buckskin. Dark braids fell over her shouldersand feathers rose from her hair. She had no resemblance to the boyishgirl they knew.
The Colonel looked puzzled but Judge Breckenridge caught the idea."You're a wonder, Bet! And I do believe you are right. You'll be assafe as if you were in your own bed."
An hour later, the watchers by the hut rubbed their eyes and staredabout them. A wild, weird cry rang through the canyon, and in themoonlight Kie Wicks and his bad men saw, far above them on the cliff,the figure of an Indian girl.
"She wasn't walking, she was just floating in the air, it seemed, andas she moved, she moaned and shrieked. It was terrible! There was nodoubt about it. It was the ghost," Kie Wicks told his wife when he wassafely at home.
"What happened?" Maude urged him to continue the story.
"You should have seen those Indians go! 'The Old Chief's daughterwalks! It's the ghost girl!' they cried hoarsely. And that's the lastI saw of them."
"And what did you do?" Maude pressed him further.
"I--well, I ran, too. I got out of there in record time, let me tellyou. I don't mind shooting it out with a human being, but I don't takeno chances with a ghost. I vamoosed."
"And the old man?" she inquired.
"He's there yet. One thing certain, I'll never go into that canyonlate at night again."
Bet's ruse had worked better than she had hoped. In less than twominutes after she stepped out on the cliff, the place was deserted, thehut left unguarded and Judge Breckenridge and his men rushed in, brokeopen the door and found the old man asleep on a sack of straw.
The Judge touched him and the professor tried to shake him off.
"What are you going to do with me now?" he asked peevishly, "I want togo to sleep. Can't you let me be?"
"Ssh! Don't talk! We've come to take you home. This is JudgeBreckenridge."
The professor recognized his voice and breathed a sigh of relief. Herose unsteadily and did not speak again until they were a long way upthe trail.
Then he suddenly got weak and felt as if he were going to faint.
"Don't worry, I get this way sometimes. I have some medicine over atthe tent."
As it was only a short distance to the claim, the Judge decided to gethim there as quickly as possible.
The professor was like a child in his eagerness to stay at the camp,and finally toward morning the Judge left him there in charge of theboys and Seedy Saunders.
And when Kie Wicks, deciding that he would have a look at the tunnelwhich he had left in charge of the two ruffians, climbed the trail tothe summit the next morning about dawn, the first person he saw was theold professor, smoking his pipe and gazing far off over the hills witha smile of happiness on his face.
Kie wheeled his horse as if he had been shot at and raced madly away.He was muttering excitedly:
"The mountains are bewitched! That ghost has spirited the old man outof the hut and back to the tunnel."
When his horse finally stopped before the store in Saugus, he wascovered with foam and the man who bestrode him was trembling in everylimb.
Yet he said nothing to Maude. What was the use? She would only worryand fret, and besides he had always made light of ghosts and said hedidn't believe in them.
"But seein' is believin'," he said to himself as he dismounted. "I'moutdone by a ghost."
And Bet, as she put away the Indian costume the next morning, hugged itto her as if it had been responsible for the whole affair. "Whatevermade you think of it, Bet?" asked Enid.
"Tho
ughts like that just come to her. It's what you might callinspiration, or intuition," laughed Shirley.
"Why give it such a big name," returned Bet. "I simply had a hunch,and it worked out."
"Just like that!" exclaimed Joy, as she tried to dance on the lamefoot, snapping her fingers in time to the step.
"What's the next thing on the program, Bet?" asked Bob Evans. "Haveyou a bulletin board with the adventures scheduled?"
"I wish you'd stop teasing me. It isn't my fault if I'm always gettinginto the middle of a problem."
"Whose is it, Bet?" laughed her father.
"Yours, I think, Dad. You brought me up." She slid an arm around herfather's neck. "And are you very much disappointed in me?"
"Fishing for compliments?" Colonel Baxter pinched her rosy cheek.
"No, I only want a little appreciation," she replied.
At that moment Billy Patten poked his head into the corridor.
"The old man at the tunnel. He says for the girls to come quick."
"Something important has happened!" insisted Kit. "Hurry up, let's go!"
Colonel Baxter hurried to his horse and followed after the girls. Hismind was not, for the moment, on possible treasure, he was overwhelmedby the magnitude of the hills, their rugged outlines and the blazingsun that beat down upon them.
When they reached the summit, the girls spurred their horses across theflat.
What they saw was an excited little old man, waving his arms anddancing about a huge box.
As the girls approached, he cried.
"Come quickly. It's a brass-bound chest. It's the treasure!"
Tommy Sharpe pried the rusty lock, and as the cover was swung back, thegirls gave a gasp of astonishment and dismay.
The chest was empty!
The Merriweather Girls in Quest of Treasure Page 18
