The Merriweather Girls in Quest of Treasure

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.

CHAPTER XIV

TREASURE TROVE

To the delight of the girls, the next morning was clear. It had rained in the night and they had been sure that it would storm and they might have to stay at home.

The sun rose pleasantly warm, but the hour was five o'clock and the girls knew that before breakfast time it would be almost unbearably hot.

"But what do we care?" laughed Bet gaily. "We're out for adventure.

Today is the grand and glorious event. We will hunt for treasure."

"Oh, no, we won't," Enid returned decidedly. "You forget that Professor Gillette and Dad decided that it would be better to do the location work on that claim first."

Bet frowned. It was not her way to be patient. At last she said, "Oh, well, if it has to be done, we'll do it. We'll go over early and finish that ten foot hole by noon, then we'll have all afternoon for the treasure."

"Kit said it would take us at the very least, a full week, to do that work," returned Enid.

"Don't be a spoil-sport," pouted Bet. "You don't know anything about it."

But Shirley Williams and Joy Evans both backed up Enid. "Why, Bet, that hole has to be dug through solid rock, almost."

"How stupid!" shrugged Bet.

"If you should dig right into a vein of rich copper ore, you won't think so. Why not have hopes of a mine and forget the treasure?" said Shirley quietly. "Have you given up the idea of being a mine owner?"

"Not exactly. But to tell the truth, 'Orphan Annie' doesn't look very hopeful to me." Bet shook her head dolefully. "Well, it's no use fretting. If that hole has to be dug before we start looking for the treasure, it has to be, that's all."

"Now you're being sensible, Bet. It's just as the professor says, it's wise for us to have a real claim on the land around that tracing. It might be worth something. Perhaps there is a treasure buried there, but it isn't likely." Shirley was not a dreamer and Bet, for the moment, was disgusted. She turned away and left them.

"Let's get breakfast over," called Enid, leading the way toward the dining room. "We'll be pleasing Tang and that's a good start for the day. Then we'll be ready for Kit when she comes."

"Where do we meet the professor?" asked Shirley.

"He'll be waiting for us by the pass into the small canyon. Isn't he a dear to help us out instead of looking for his village? I like him!" declared Bet.

It was only seven o'clock when the girls bade good-bye to Mrs. Breckenridge, listened to her instructions about taking care of themselves, and started down the trail, Kit in the lead.

Although it was twenty minutes before the appointed time, Professor Gillette was waiting for them. On his burro, borrowed for the occasion from Dad Patten, he carried all the tools needed for prospecting.

"You look as if you expected to dig twenty mines," laughed Bet, as she drew up her pony beside the old man.

"Only one," insisted the professor. "At least I hope that is all we will need. But no one can tell for sure."

"I think it is all foolishness anyway," Joy exclaimed. "What we want now is that treasure, and instead of looking for it, you are going to dig a well."

Kit laughed as she always did at Joy's mistakes. "Call it a well if you want to," she said patronizingly, "but don't let Tommy Sharpe or Seedy Saunders hear you say it. They'll tease you unmercifully."

"It's this way, Joy," explained Bet, impatiently. "Kie Wicks might get wise to it, and come in at the end of two months and snap up this claim too, if we haven't done our work. That has to be done within two months."

"Then he'd get the stone with the markings?"

"Yes, that's it. And he might find the treasure, if we don't watch out," added Kit.

"Then let's get to work at once!" cried Joy, digging her spur into Dolly's side.

"You mean, Professor Gillette will get to work at once while you and the rest of us stand around and look pretty," said Enid.

"Why we don't mean any such a thing, Enid Breckenridge. I'm perfectly willing to work and do my share," snapped Bet, her face red with anger. "I'll not have Professor Gillette imposed on like that."

"We'll all do what we can," soothed Kit. "Although I'm not sure we'll make much headway with the pick and shovel."

"I think we should have a Mexican do the work, girls," said Enid.

"He'd do it in half the time."

"Professor Gillette said it was better not to have anyone else around for a while until we could find out something about this treasure," Bet said. "So we might as well make up our minds to dig right in and work hard."

Once on the site of the claim, the professor unloaded his tools and looked about for a suitable place to put down the ten-foot shaft. His knowledge of mining was not very great but he and Kit finally decided on the best spot.

The old man started in at once, swinging the pick as if it were a hammer. He soon dug away the thin layer of earth and crushed rock, and reached solid stone.

"It's a good thing I brought the drills along!" the professor threw down his pick and took up a drill and heavy hammer.

"Isn't it exciting!" cried Bet. "Do let me try to use the drill.

"All in good time, child, all in good time," he promised her as he adjusted the tool. "This is a two-man job anyway. Somebody has to help me."

Bet crouched down close beside him and held the drill steady while the old man prepared to hit. She glanced up at him, dubiously. The old man laughed.

"Don't know as I blame you any," he said as he twisted a piece of heavy wire about the drill and gave Bet an end to hold. "There, you can steady it with that, so I won't hit your fingers."

"Oh, I wasn't afraid," began Bet but the professor laughed and Bet did not finish her sentence.

"You looked as if you were very much frightened indeed. You were certain I would hit your fingers, and I'm not sure I wouldn't have," he chuckled.

And his first strong blow did miss the drill and the girls, watching him, laughed.

"Gee, if Bet's fingers had been there!" gasped Joy.

"Well, maybe I'd have been more careful if her hand had been there. I never take chances."

While Bet held the drill in place the professor dealt blow after blow until he was ready to drop with exhaustion.

"And some men keep that up all day, I'm told," he gasped as he threw down the tool and dropped to the ground. "I don't believe they do," he added.

"I've seen men keep at it pretty steadily for hours," interrupted Kit, "but they don't go at it so strenuously. You put all your soul and body into it. They don't get excited and they don't wear themselves out with wild flourishes. You see when a prospector has that work to do, he doesn't have to hurry. He has all the time there is."

"To tell you the truth," laughed the professor sheepishly, "I'm so anxious to start looking for the treasure that I don't want to dig this shaft, I'm like a child with a new toy."

"Come here, Kit," called Bet. "You hold this drill for a while and let me swing the hammer. I'm just dying to do it."

"And maybe I'm not glad there is a wire to hold. You'd hit me, sure."

"Don't trust me even yet," Bet returned with a gay laugh.

"That's right, Kit," trilled Joy. "You are only two feet away from her hammer, she might easily miss the mark by that much." Joy was glad of a chance to tease Bet.

Bet swung the hammer with vigor, bringing it down on the drill with a force that seemed impossible from her slender arms.

"Go it, Bet. You'll get there yet," shouted Joy.

Bet was soon worn out and the girls took turns and had the joy of finishing one hole to the required depth for setting the charge.

The professor was bending over the tracings on the rock. He had forgotten all about the location work that had to be done. While the arrow pointed southwesterly and showed the direction in which to look, it pointed over a deserted country that stretched for miles into Mexico.

"If there is anything thrilling about this, I'd like to be shown," pouted Joy. And in sheer boredom she got up, walked to a rocky ledge and scrambled up the steep face of it.

Enid and Shirley, who were watching the professor studying the markings on the rock, heard a cry of surprise from Joy, but before they could turn toward her, they saw her falling, clutching wildly at the ledges in an attempt to save herself.

Joy had turned her head to speak to her friends and had missed her footing. As she touched the ground, her ankle bent under her and she fell with a groan.

Bet ran to her help. "Speak, Joy, speak to me," we said shaking the girl. Joy's face was deathly white but her eyes fluttered open and seeing Bet she cried hysterically:

"I found it! I found it!"

"Found what, Joy? What did you find?"

"Another arrow. Right there on the rock!" Joy was struggling to her feet, but at the attempt she fell back with a groan.

"For the love of Mike, is that all? Why, Joy Evans, you'd get so excited over an arrowhead that you'd lose your footing!" Kit cried. "I thought you had more sense than that."

Between clenched teeth Joy answered, "It wasn't an arrowhead! It was an arrow carved on the rock."

"Don't be silly, Joy. You're dreaming!" laughed Kit.

"If I thought you were just teasing me, Joy, I wouldn't be sorry about your poor foot." Bet stared at the girl with a threatening look. "It isn't nice to tease about things as serious as hidden treasure."

"But the arrow's there," Joy answered.