Claude was so angry when he left his chair and started out to get his horse that it was all he could do to keep from yelling. He had had a short talk with his uncle, and it amounted to nothing. The story about finding a news depot which he could have for eight hundred dollars was made up out of his own head. All he wanted was to get the money in his hands, and then he could live as he pleased.
“I see it is all up with me,” said Claude, as he mounted his horse and set out for the range. “He does not intend to give me anything. I have risked my life for him all these years—I would like to know if I did not risk my life that time the cow charged upon me when I pulled her out of the mud—and have kept his safe from being robbed; and all he means to do is to fit me for a cowman! But I guess I won’t say anything about going Page 246 home just now. Uncle Preston can’t last forever, the remedies he is using don’t help his cough one particle, and who knows but I may get Carl to divide the business with me? I tell you that is worth thinking of.”
The days passed on, and when two weeks had gone by the young cattle had all been branded and the cowboys had a little more leisure on their hands. At the end of that time his uncle called him into the office and had his money all laid out for him.
“Now, Claude, if you are resolved to go, I can send somebody to show you the way to the fort,” said he.
“Well, uncle, I have had plenty of opportunity to think the matter over, and have come to the conclusion that I will not go home yet awhile,” replied Claude. “This is the best business I can think of, and with your permission I will follow it a little while longer. Four hundred dollars, as you say, would not help me to go into anything by which I could support myself in the city.”
“Oh, yes, we will keep you, and be glad to,” his uncle hastened to answer. “And if Page 247 you keep on, Carl will give you a thousand dollars to enable you to start right.”
“That is better than nothing,” soliloquized Claude. “I hope you will rest easy after giving me that small pittance out of your unbounded wealth.” Then aloud he said: “You say that Carl will give me that amount. What is the reason you can’t give it?”
“Because I don’t expect to last very long,” said Mr. Preston. “In six months from now I expect to be under the sod.”
“Oh, uncle, don’t talk that way,” exclaimed Claude, who for once in his life felt really alarmed for his relative.
“There is no use in denying it. I feel that I am growing weaker every day. Well, I guess that is all I have to say to you. If you are going to stay with me, I will put this back in the safe.”
Claude was always angry after holding these talks with his uncle. He went out of the door respectfully enough, and, making sure that there was no one in the hall to observe his movements, he turned and shook his fist at it, at the same time muttering something under Page 248 his breath which sounded very much like an oath.
During the days that followed it was seen by everybody that Mr. Preston was gradually giving up to the dread disease, consumption, which had so long threatened him. His cough got so bad that he was finally obliged to give up riding entirely, and remained on his porch while his men were out herding cattle. When Carl saw this he gave up all hope and stayed behind with him; but affection could not curb the fell destroyer. At last Mr. Preston took to his bed, from which he never got up. The men came on tiptoe to his room to inquire after him, and even Claude felt awed in the presence of death. That is, he tried to appear so before the men; but when he got on his horse, away from everybody, he could scarcely restrain himself.
“He must have made a will,” said Claude. “No person ever died with such an amount of property on hand without doing so. Who knows but that he has left me something? I will not wait for that thousand dollars. Carl can keep it and welcome—that is, if he thinks Page 249 he cannot get along without it. I’ll take what is coming to me and go to the city, provided I cannot get around Carl and get him to divide the business with me. That is my only hope now.”
At last it was all over. When Claude came in from the range one day something told him that “the meanest man he ever saw” was out of his way for all time to come. Carl had shut himself up in his room, but Claude soon found his way into the death-chamber, where he stayed just one minute, and then came out. The three herdsmen who had gone off to engage in business on their own responsibility were there, and also several officers from the fort; for Mr. Preston was popular, and his friends believed in showing him all the respect in their power.
Two days passed, and then all that was mortal of Mr. Preston was laid away in a grave which he had selected for his eternal abiding-place. Then the mourners returned to the house to witness the reading of the will. The doctor took charge of the matter, and, beginning with the foreman, he read all through Page 250 until he came to Carl, to whom he bequeathed all his property left over after the legacies had been provided for. To each man he left one thousand dollars, and Claude’s name had not been mentioned at all. That young gentleman was surprised and thunderstruck; and all this while the doctor had been folding down the will to get at a short codicil there was at the bottom of it. He read it when he came to it, and even in death he found that his uncle was still giving him advice. He bequeathed to Claude the sum of one thousand dollars, and wound up with the hope that Claude would save his money, and that it would be the means of leading him to prosperity and success. The amount was so much smaller than Claude thought it was going to be, that for a moment or two he hardly seemed to breathe; but he finally came to himself, and taking up his hat, which lay beside him on the floor, he walked out of the house. He held in pretty well until he was behind the stables, out of sight, and then gave full vent to his feelings.
“A thousand dollars!” said he, and this time he did not try to interrupt the oaths that Page 251 came out thick and fast. “And I saved his safe from being robbed, too. I must try Carl now, although he is so awful stingy I don’t think I can make anything out of him. If I once get a drove of cattle to sell I will skip out with the first money I get.”
For a long time Claude did not go into the house. He felt enraged at his uncle, and he knew it showed itself in his face; but after a while he managed to go in in time for sup............