For several minutes Jode Lenning continued to lie on the warm sand. He could not have been very comfortable, for his hat was gone and his clothes were soaking wet. Bleeker had removed his coat in order to work over him to better advantage, and Hotch now took the garment and wrung it out. But if Lenning was not comfortable, he was at least getting his strength back and beginning to feel more like himself.
When he next opened his eyes, he sat up suddenly and looked out over the shimmering expanse of water. His lips twitched with some passing emotion, and he finally withdrew his gaze and fixed it upon Bleeker.
“Did Shoup hit me over the head with his paddle?” he asked, in a low, colorless voice.
“Yes,” was the answer.
“Merriwell and Clancy pulled me out of the water?”
“That was the way of it.”
“Where’s Shoup now?”
“Suffering horn toads!” gasped Bleeker. “Say, I had clean forgotten about that fellow. What became of him? Anybody know?”
“I can tell you,” one of the lads spoke up. “Two or three of us hustled ashore to try and head him off, but he was too quick for us. There were a couple of horses, hitched in the chaparral, and Shoup took one of them and got away.”
A baleful glitter shone in Lenning’s shifty eyes.
“He tried to do me up,” Lenning muttered.
76
“Why?” asked Bleeker. “I thought you and he were pards.”
“You never can tell what a pard like Shoup is going to do. But I gave him cause to have it in for me. Help me up, Bleeker. I’m not going to ask much of you, nor bother you very long. Five minutes will do the trick.”
Bleeker reached down and took Lenning’s hand. The lad was weak, as yet, for it would be some time before he recovered entirely from his recent ordeal.
“Let’s go to the place where Shoup got the horse,” went on Lenning. “I want the rest of you to come, too, especially Merriwell.”
Those who had followed Shoup to the chaparral placed themselves in the lead. Bleeker and Hotch followed, with Lenning between them.
Less than twenty yards up the slope of the bank the strange party came to the edge of the chaparral.
“Pick up that stone there,” said Lenning, pointing.
A stone about the size of a man’s two fists was indicated. Clancy stooped and removed the stone. As he did so, he gave vent to a low whistle, and exclamations of astonishment came from others clustered around him.
A roll of bills had been brought into view by the removal of the stone—a large roll with a yellowback on the outside.
“You take the money, Merriwell,” said Lenning, “and give it to Blunt. It’s the roll Shoup stole from Mrs. Boorland. I didn’t know the old lady was Mrs. Boorland until I found Blunt was after us. Shoup did the stealing, and he did it without my knowledge or consent. Maybe you fellows won’t believe that, but it’s a fact. I reckon I’ve come pretty low, but I couldn’t stand for what Shoup did. All the money’s there but twenty dollars.
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 Shoup used that to buy a supply of dope in Ophir and to hire a couple of horses.”
Lenning paused. He was getting stronger, and he drew away from Bleeker and Hotchkiss.
“I took that money from Shoup last night, while he was asleep,” Lenning went on. “We brought our horses over here before daylight, and hid them in the chaparral. When we did that, I sneaked around and got the roll under that stone, and Shoup didn’t see me. I intended to let Blunt know, in some way, where the money was. That’s something else you can believe or not, just as you please, but it’s the truth.
“There was merry blazes to pay when Shoup found the money was gone out of his pocket. He accused me of taking it, and I admitted it. He threatened me, and even threw me down and went through my clothes to see if he couldn’t find it. Blunt made things so interesting for us that Shoup didn’t have any time to keep nagging at me. When we tried to get across the river to the horses, directly after that bowlder dropped from the cliff, Sho............