University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXIX.
THE FIGHT AT THE MINE.

As the auto came near, the shots became more distinct. It seemed as if a small-sized battle was in progress. Jerry stopped the car about a thousand feet away from where the camp had been.

"Take it easy until we see where we're at," advised the sheriff. "There's too many bullets flyin' around for comfort."

He got out of the machine and began creeping along on the ground on hands and knees. His deputies followed his example, and Jerry thought it well to do likewise.

It was soon evident that an attack was being made on the hill, where the forces of Nestor seemed to have entrenched themselves. Stoneham, Dalsett, Berry and Pender were drawing nearer under cover of the underbrush and were firing as they advanced. Nestor and his crowd were replying with shot after shot, though most of the bullets were high in the air.

"If I could only get a line on where they are,"

muttered the sheriff, "I'd be all right, but I can't see a thing in these bushes."

All at once the firing from the top of the hill ceased.

"I guess they're out of ammunition," said Jerry. "They didn't have very much when I came away."

"Then it's time we did somethin'," remarked the sheriff. "There, I see 'em now. Come on, boys!"

The two deputies followed him on the run, and Jerry kept as close as he could.

Suddenly the sheriff came to a halt. He motioned with his hand for the others to keep quiet. Then the officer began creeping at a slow pace. He halted once more and waved to the others to approach. They did so with all the caution possible.

"We've got 'em!" exclaimed the sheriff. "Pud Stoneham and the rest of 'em are down in a little hollow just below us. They are gettin' ready to make a rush, I think."

Peering over the edge of a little bluff on which the sheriff's party stood, Jerry looked down and saw the gambler, Bill Berry and Jack Pender, each with a revolver, crouching down and peering forward. They were within a few hundred feet of the shaft, and Jerry could dimly observe Nestor and his friends grouped about the mine.

They seemed to be making a last stand. The truth of the matter was that, as Jerry had surmised,

they were out of ammunition and could no longer reply to the fusillade that Stoneham and his crowd kept up. For a time there was a lull in the firing.

Then the shots began again, coming from Stoneham, Berry and Pender. But they did not seem to be aiming to kill or even wound those guarding the mine. Desperate as the gambler was, and great as was his wish to get the gold claim, he would not resort to extreme measures. So he and the others were firing over the heads of those they were attacking. They hoped to scare them away.

If they could do this, and rush in, securing possession of the claim, they would, under the mining laws, provided that Noddy had filed the claim, be masters of the situation. But something was about to happen.

The sheriff was watching Stoneham like a cat. The gambler and his friends were unaware how close they were to danger, and continued to fire above the heads of the party at the shaft.

From their point of vantage the sheriff, his deputies and Jerry watched what was going on below them. They saw Nestor, Broswick and the others waver, for the firing was hot, and they did not know it was a harmless one.

"Come on!" yelled Stoneham, suddenly. "We've got 'em! Come on, an' take the mine!"

The gambler leaped to his feet,flourishing his

revolver. Pender, Berry and Dalsett prepared to follow him.

"No, you don't!" cried the sheriff.

The officer leaped forward, over the bluff, and shot downward. Full and true he fell, right on the back of Stoneham, bearing him to the earth.

"I say! What's this? Oh, let me up!" yelled the gambler.

"Not until I've fixed you so's you can't do any damage!" exclaimed the officer, drawing out a pair of handcuffs and fastening them on Stoneham.

The gambler struggled hard for a few seconds. Then, finding it was of no avail, he lay quietly at the sheriff's feet.

"Where'd you come from?" he asked the officer.

"Oh, I took a little run up here in one of them new-fangled gasolene gigs," replied the sheriff, with a grin. "I heard you were up here an' I felt I couldn't get along without havin' a little conversation with you."

"Um!" grunted Stoneham.

Dalsett disappeared into the bushes at the instant the sheriff had jumped on the gambler's back, and was soon lost to sight.

"Never mind him," said the officer, when he saw that capture was not possible. "I didn't want him, anyhow. It was Pud I was after, an' I got him."

"What'll we do with this lad?" asked one of the deputies who had grabbed Pender.

"Pl-pl-please don't ki-kill me!" cried the boy, a coward, now that his side had lost.

"Kill you!" exclaimed the sheriff. "The worst that'll happen to you will be a good spankin'. That's what we do to babies out here!"

Pender showed no inclination to escape, nor did Bill Berry, who stood sullenly to one side.

"Get up!" the sheriff commanded Stoneham, and the gambler struggled to his feet. His air of bravado was gone and he hung his head. "I'll take you back to town in a little while," the officer announced.

There was a crackling in the bushes and, cautiously parting them, Nestor stepped into view.

"What's happened?" he asked Jerry.

"It's all right," replied the boy. "I filed the claim, I beat Noddy, and this is the sheriff, who has arrested Mr. Stoneham."

"Good for you!" cried the miner. "We've been havin' a pretty lively time since you went away, an' you got back just in time. So the papers are filed, eh? Well, that gives us the mine now, an' we're all rich!"

"I'd rather have Mr. Stoneham here than a gold mine," remarked the sheriff.

"Is he so valuable?" asked Nestor.

"He is to me," was the answer. "There's a reward of five thousand dollars for his capture for counterfeitin' money, an' besides that he's wanted

on half a dozen charges. When I heard he was here, I jest hustled, I tell you."

It was getting dusk now, and, after a little thought, the sheriff decided not to take his prisoner back to town that night.

"If you don't mind, I'll camp out here with you," the officer said to Nestor, and the miner extended a hearty invitation. Soon supper was prepared and partaken of sitting around the camp-fire.

Stoneham's hands were unshackled long enough to enable him to eat, but the sheriff guarded him closely. He was not going to have his captive escape if he could help it. Pender and Berry ate in dogged silence.

After supper, when the men had lighted their pipes, Nestor told the sheriff the story of the trip to the gold mine. The official was much interested.

"It's a good thing you have the claim to your mine filed," he said. "I understand there's a great rush of diggers this way. They were at Eagleville yesterday, a town about twenty miles from here, and I expect they'll be stragglin' in here tomorrow. Whenever there's news of a gold strike the miners are on the trail like a hound after a fox."

The moon rose over the trees and made the glow of the camp-fire seem like a tallow candle beside an electric light. The forest was flooded with the radiance and it was almost as bright as day.

"I could almost go out and gather some specimens,"

remarked Professor Snodgrass, who had said little since the exciting events of the afternoon.

"What do you want most?" asked the sheriff.

"I'd like to get--look out, there! Don't move for the life of you! Wait until I get my net!" cried the professor, suddenly, staring at something close to the officer.

"What is it, a rattlesnake?" asked the sheriff, somewhat alarmed at the professor's excitement.

"Don't move! Don't move!" was all the naturalist replied.

"Well, if it's a snake you can bet your boots I won't stir until you've got it," answered the sheriff. "I seen a man bit by one once and he didn't last half an hour. But say, my friend, don't be any longer than you can help. It's sort of a strain on my nerves, you know."

"Softly! Easy!" spoke the professor.

He had his net now and was tiptoeing up to where the officer sat, close beside Stoneham.

"There!" cried the professor, slapping the meshes down on the ground. "I've got him!"

"Have you got the rattlesnake?" asked Jerry.

"Rattlesnake?" inquired the naturalist, gathering something carefully in the folds of the net. "Who said anything about a snake? I've just captured a white lizard, one of the rarest that exists. It's worth one thousand dollars."

"Well," exclaimed the sheriff, "it nearly scared

me to that amount, the way you acted. I thought sure I was goin' to be bit by a snake."

After the excitement, unintentionally caused by the professor, had quieted down, and he had put his lizard away with his other specimens, it was voted time to turn in. Blankets were brought from the automobile to serve as coverings, and the fire was replenished.

In order to be sure his prisoner would not escape, the sheriff tied Stoneham to a big tree. As an additional precaution the officer passed one end of the rawhide thong about his own arm, so that the slightest movement on the gambler's part would be noted.

Then Nestor, who agreed to take the first watch, began pacing up and down in front of the camp, while the others fell asleep.