Jode Lenning’s face was pinched and haggard. He was also wearing a suit of clothes in which Merriwell had never seen him before, and yet which struck an oddly familiar note in Merriwell’s memory.
Frank had suspected that this mysterious call from Dolliver might have something to do with Lenning; but that he and Blunt should find him, hiding in Mohave Cañon and apparently disguised, furnished most of the surprise that entered into the situation.
“Come over here, Chip, you and Blunt,” Lenning called. “I’ve got something to tell you, and there are a good many reasons why we should not do our talking in the cañon trail.”
The cowboy was plainly bewildered. His brows knotted into a frown, and silently he followed Merriwell to the heap of bowlders.
“We can look each way from here,” Lenning said nervously, “and we can see whoever comes in time to get out of sight before they get close to these rocks.”
“Who are you expecting, Jode?” Frank asked.
“Shoup,” was the answer, “and a fellow who is with him and is called Geohegan. They’ll come, I’m pretty sure.”
“Shoup! What makes you think he’s still in this part of the country?”
“I’ve got plenty of reason for thinking so,” said Lenning angrily. “Before I talk more about him, though, just tell me what’s happened, will you?”
“What’s happened?” repeated Frank. “Where?”
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“In Ophir. Hasn’t something happened there recently?”
“Two things have happened,” spoke up Blunt, his face dark with doubt and suspicion of Lenning. “One happened yesterday and the other this morning. You borrowed a horse from Burke and went for a long ride—but you didn’t come back. Then——”
“I’ll tell you about that,” broke in Lenning eagerly. “What happened this morning?”
“The stage from Gold Hill was held up.”
“That’s it, that’s it,” Lenning half whispered, dropping a trembling hand on the cowboy’s arm. “Do they think I had anything to do with holding up the stage? That’s what I want to know.”
Blunt studied the haggard face before him and looked into the shifty, dark eyes. His voice was less hard as he went on.
“There were two of the robbers, and one of them looked like you, Lenning. What’s more, he rode a horse that answers the description of Burke’s.”
Lenning struck his hands together sharply.
“So that’s what he tried to do!” he muttered fiercely; “that was his game all along! Isn’t there any chance at all for a fellow who wants to do right—who’s trying to clear his record? I suppose, now, that everybody thinks Jode Lenning is up to his old tricks, and was one of those who robbed the stage?” Lifting himself high above the bowlders, Lenning looked up and down the cañon. “I wish they’d come!” he gritted. “Why can’t they come now?”
At that moment, doubtless, Blunt had the same idea that ran through Merriwell’s brain. Lenning seemed “flighty” and out of his head. Had his troubles unbalanced him?
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“Don’t fret about anything, Jode,” said Frank. “Take things easy. There are a lot of fellows, back in Ophir, who feel sure you hadn’t anything to do with robbing the stage. Why did you leave the mine? Where did you go, and why did you take the dynamite?”
A flicker of a smile crossed Lenning’s face.
“It won’t take long to explain all that, Chip,” said he, dropping down below the top of the pile of bowlders again. “Do you remember, several weeks ago, when Colonel Hawtrey put in a charge of dynamite near our camp in the gulch? He had discovered evidences of mineral, and I put down the hole for him and he loaded it. That blast was never set off. You know why. Well, while I’ve been at the Ophir Mine I’ve been thinking of that mineral ‘prospect,’ and I made up my mind to set off the charge and see what it would uncover. That’s why I borrowed Burke’s horse for a long ride, and that’s why I took the dynamite.”
“That explanation is simple, sure enough,” Frank laughed. “The mouth of the gulch isn’t very far from here, and the place where the colonel began his blasting operations isn’t much farther. You went there, put more dynamite and a capped fuse on top of the other charge, and then set off the load?”
“That’s what I did, Chip.”
“What did you find?”
Lenning pushed one hand into his pocket and drew out a small piece of ore. The ore was white quartz, powdered thickly with yellow specks.
“Great guns!” gasped Blunt, staring. “Say, if you’ve found much of that, Lenning, you’ve got a big thing.”
“Yes, if it belonged to me. But it doesn’t. It belongs to the colonel.”
“It belongs to the fellow that gets his monuments up
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 first, and files his location. If the colonel hasn’t done that, Lenning, the claim is as much yours as his.”
“It’s the colonel’s by right of discovery,” asserted Lenning, “and I’m not going to try and beat him out in locating it. All I wanted to set off the charge for was to satisfy my curiosity. I reckon I’ve explained why I left the mine, haven’t I? It doesn’t look much as though I had planned to hold up the stage, does it?”
“No,” said Frank.
“You have explained why you left the mine,” spoke up Blunt, “but you haven’t explained why you didn’t go back.”
“Look here.” Lenning held out his hands close together. The wrists were red and swollen. “And look here.” He............