Boy Scouts on the Great Divide Part 7

Tommy laid a finger on his lips as a request for low-voiced conversation. All the time he kept busy with the skillet.

"He's back there watching us with a loaded automatic in his hand,"

whispered the boy. "I wish one of the boys would get up and put a bullet through his head. That's what he deserves!"

"Who is it?" whispered Sandy.

"One of the train robbers!" was the startling reply.

"Where'd you get him?"

"He geezled me out here on the slope!"

"And came in with you and ordered his dinner?"

"That's it!" was the reply.

Sandy sat down on the gra.s.s beside the fire and chuckled until he was red in the face. Tommy almost permitted the bacon to burn while he watched his chum with wide-open eyes.

"If that train robber should send a bullet out this way, you wouldn't think it so funny!" Tommy declared. "He's a mighty suspicious fellow. He wouldn't permit me to wake any of the boys to help get supper."

"Look here," whispered Sandy, "I've got that imitation detective out there waiting for me to tell him whether Chester Wagner is here or not.

He says he's hungry, too, and insists that I give him a night lunch. Now I'll tell you what we'll do," the boy continued. "I'll go and steer the detective up against the train robber, and we'll see what he'll do."

Before Tommy could reply, Sandy was away in the darkness, whistling softly to the detective.

"Say," he said, when Katz came lumbering into the edge of the illumination, "the boy isn't there, but I've got good news for you, just the same. The man who went in with my chum is one of the train robbers the cowboys are in search of. There's ten thousand dollars reward offered for him, and all you've got to do is to walk in there, hold a gun to his head, and march him off to Green River. You ought to give me half the reward, though," the boy added, "for you wouldn't have caught him only for me."

"All right," whispered the detective in a shaking voice. "I'll creep back into the shadows and come up from behind. When you go back, point with your hand to where he is. I'll be right there with a gun on him in half a minute!"

"All right," replied Sandy, and the detective disappeared from view.

Then the boy walked back to Tommy's side and explained what sort of circus there would be there in about a minute.

CHAPTER VI

THE CALL OF THE BEAVER

"Oh, I don't believe there'll be any circus!" whispered Tommy.

"And why not?"

"Because Katz will get the fellow handcuffed so quick by that there won't be any fun in it! There's a big reward out for that fellow!"

"Huh!" grinned Sandy. "You didn't see how scared the detective was when I told him the train robber was here by our fire. It's a hundred to one that the train robber will give the detective a swift kick in the pants and go back to his own camp."

The boys listened and waited for a considerable length of time, but heard no evidence of the approach of the detective.

"Say," Tommy whispered, "this is a pretty nice supper I've been getting for that robber. It looks good enough for me to eat myself!"

"We can eat it after Katz takes the robber away," suggested Sandy.

"I don't see anything of Katz, do you?" asked Tommy with a wink.

"Je-rusalem!" exclaimed Sandy. "You don't think he's run away, do you?

He wouldn't do that, I'm sure!"

"He wouldn't," laughed Tommy. "I'll bet that fellow's running away now with a face so pale it leaves a white streak in the night."

"Well, it takes him a long time to get here, anyway," admitted Sandy.

"You just wait a minute," Tommy chuckled, "and I'll fix this business all right. You just tend this skillet until I come back."

Tommy moved away toward where the robber sat on the ground, watching every move that was made, and keeping a particularly keen eye on Sandy, whose temporary absence from the camp had attracted his suspicions.

"Look here," Tommy whispered, "we're not anxious to see you boys get into trouble, and so we're going to give you a tip. Sandy went out a moment ago to steer away one of the detectives who came in from Chicago last night."

The hold-up man got softly to his feet and began moving out of the light of the fire. Tommy urged him by look and a motion to remain where he was for the present.

"I didn't know that there were any detectives from Chicago in here," he said. "They must have made a quick jump to get here!"

"I guess they did," replied Tommy. "One of them was here before you were yesterday. He chased you up the valley, but came back, saying that he couldn't get a shot."

"Pretty nervy kind of a fellow, eh?" asked the train robber.

"He looks to me," declared Tommy, "as if he'd fight a rattlesnake and give him the first bite. He may have a swarm of his men in the vicinity of the camp, and if I were you, I'd turn away to the east and get out of sight as soon as possible."

"I can't fight a whole army," declared the train robber, as, crouching low, he moved away.

"Wait a minute," whispered Tommy chuckling so that he was afraid the other would discover the merriment in his voice. "Why don't you wait and have some of the supper I've been cooking for you?"

The train robber did not even pause to hear the conclusion of the boy's remarks, and Tommy went back to the fire and lay down and rolled back and forth until Sandy threw a cup of water into his face.

"What do you think of that!" he exclaimed. "There's a b.u.m Chicago detective chasing off to the north at a forty mile gait, because he thinks there's a train robber after him, and there's a a train robber chasing off to the east at a forty-mile gait because he thinks there's a Chicago detective after him! Some day," the boy added, "I'm going to make a motion picture scenario of that."

While the boys were enjoying the joke, Will and George came out of the tent where they had been sleeping. Both looked grave when the incidents of the night were related to them.

"It means," Will declared, "that we are suspected by the train robbers of harboring a detective, and suspected by the detective of harboring the convict and his son."

"Aw, they won't come back here again, any of them!" a.s.serted Tommy.

"Don't you think they won't," replied Will. "Here," he added, as Tommy dipped into the skillet of bacon and eggs. "What are you boys doing with the third or fourth supper?"

"I cooked this for the train robber!" grinned Tommy, "How'd you like to have a few bites of it?"

"I don't mind!" declared Will.