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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack of the Pony Express, by Frank V. Webster
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Jack of the Pony Express
+       Or, The Young Rider of the Mountain Trails
+
+Author: Frank V. Webster
+
+Posting Date: May 31, 2012 [EBook #8410]
+Release Date: July, 2005
+First Posted: July 8, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK OF THE PONY EXPRESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks, Christopher Lund and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JACK OF THE PONY EXPRESS
+
+Or
+
+The Young Rider of the Mountain Trails
+
+
+By
+
+FRANK V. WEBSTER
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I. JACK IN THE SADDLE
+
+II. POSTMISTRESS JENNIE
+
+III. A NARROW ESCAPE
+
+IV. IMPORTANT LETTERS
+
+V. JUST IN TIME
+
+VI. THE SECRET MINE
+
+VII. THE STRANGERS AGAIN
+
+VIII. A NIGHT ATTACK
+
+IX. IN BONDS
+
+X. A QUEER DISCOVERY
+
+XI. DUMMY LETTERS
+
+XII. A RIDE FOR LIFE
+
+XIII. THE INSPECTOR
+
+XIV. THE CHASE
+
+XV. A CAUTION
+
+XVI. SUNGER GOES LAME
+
+XVII. AN INVITATION DECLINED
+
+XVIII. A QUEER FEELING
+
+XIX A DESPERATE RIDE
+
+XX. AT GOLDEN CROSSING
+
+XXI. THE ARGENT LETTERS
+
+XXII. THE MASKED MAN
+
+XXIII. THE ESCAPE
+
+XXIV. JACK'S IDEA
+
+XXV. JACK'S TRICK--CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+JACK IN THE SADDLE
+
+"Your father is a little late to-night, isn't he Jack?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Watson, he should have been here a half-hour ago, and he would,
+too, if he had ridden Sunger instead of his own horse."
+
+"You think a lot of that pony of yours, don't you, Jack?" and a
+motherly-looking woman came to the doorway of a small cottage and peered
+up the mountain trail, which ran in front of the building. Out on the
+trail itself stood a tall, bronzed lad, who was, in fact, about seventeen
+years of age, but whose robust frame and athletic build made him appear
+several years older.
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Watson," the boy answered with a smile, "I do think a lot of
+Sunger, and he's worth it, too."
+
+"Yes, I guess he is. And he can travel swiftly, too. My goodness! The way
+you sometimes clatter past my house makes me think you'll sure have an
+accident. Sometimes I'm so nervous I can't look at you."
+
+"Sunger is pretty sure-footed, even on worse mountain trails than the one
+from Rainbow Ridge to Golden Crossing," answered Jack with a laugh, that
+showed his white, even teeth, which formed a strange contrast to his tanned
+face.
+
+"Sunger," repeated Mrs. Watson, musingly. "What an odd name. I often wonder
+how you came to call him that."
+
+"It isn't his real name," explained Jack, as he gave another look up the
+trail over which the rays of the declining sun were shining, and then
+walked up to the porch, where he sat down. "The pony was once owned by a
+Mexican miner, and he named him something in Spanish which meant that the
+little horse could go so fast that he dodged the sun. Sundodger was what
+the name would be in English, I suppose, and after I bought him that's what
+I called him.
+
+"But Sundodger is too much of a mouthful when one's in a hurry," and Jack
+laughed at his idea, "so," he went on, "I shortened it to Sunger, which
+does just as well."
+
+"Yes, as long as he knows it," agreed Mrs. Watson. "But I guess, Jack, I
+had better be going, I did think I'd wait until your father came, and put
+the supper on for you both, but he's so late now--"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Watson, don't wait," interrupted Jack. "I don't know what to
+make of dad's being so late. But we're used to getting our own meals, so
+you needn't worry. We'll get along all right."
+
+"Oh, I know you will. For two men--for you are getting so big I shall have
+to call you a man," and she smiled at him. "For two men you really get
+along very well indeed."
+
+"Yes, I'm getting to be something of a cook myself," admitted the lad. "But
+I can't quite equal your biscuits yet, and there's no use saying I can.
+However, you baked a pretty good batch this afternoon, and dad sure will be
+pleased when he sees 'em. I wish he'd come while they're hot though," and
+once more Jack Bailey arose and went out to peer up the trail. He listened
+intently, but his sharp senses caught no sound of clattering hoofs, nor
+sight of a horseman coming down the slope, a good view of which could be
+had from in front of the house that stood on a bend in the road.
+
+"Well, then, I'll be getting along," Mrs. Watson resumed, as she threw a
+shawl over her shoulders, for, though the day had been warm, there was a
+coolness in the mountain air with the coming of night. "Everything is all
+ready to dish-up" went on the motherly-looking woman, as she went out of
+the front gate, "The chicken is hot on the back of the stove."
+
+"Oh, we'll make out all right, thank you," called Jack after her, as she
+started down the trail. Mrs. Watson lived about a quarter of a mile away.
+Her husband was a miner, and she had a grown daughter, so it was quite
+convenient for Mrs. Watson to come over twice a week, or oftener on
+occasions, and do the housework in the cottage where Mr. Peter Bailey and
+his son Jack lived. Mrs. Watson would do the sweeping, dusting and as much
+cooking as she had time for, and then go back to her own home.
+
+Jack's mother was dead, and he and his father had managed for some years
+without the services of a housekeeper. Mr. Bailey was a pony express rider,
+carrying the mail and small express packages between the settlements of
+Rainbow Ridge and Golden Crossing. Mr. Bailey and Jack lived on the
+outskirts of Rainbow Ridge.
+
+This was in the Rocky Mountain country of one of our western states, and
+the trails were so wild and winding, and, for that matter, so unsafe, that
+it was out of the question to use a mail or stage coach between the two
+places.
+
+From Rainbow Ridge, however, there was a stage route going east, which took
+the mail and express matter as it was brought in by Mr. Bailey. And from
+Golden Crossing going west the same arrangement was made. Golden Crossing
+was a settlement on the banks of the Ponto River, a small enough stream in
+ordinary times, but which was wild and dangerous during heavy rains or
+freshets.
+
+So the pony express, as run by Mr. Bailey, was the only regular means of
+communication between Golden Crossing and Rainbow Ridge. It was of
+importance, too, for often valuable mail and packages went through, the
+route being shorter and quicker than by a roundabout stage line.
+
+When Mrs. Watson was out of sight around a bend in the trail, Jack went
+into the cottage. It really was a cottage, though when Mr. Bailey first
+brought his family to the West it had been but a cabin, or shack. But Mr.
+Bailey and his wife had labored hard to make it more of a "home," and they
+had succeeded very well. Then came the sad occasion of Mrs. Bailey's
+illness and death, and for a time life had seemed very hard to Jack and his
+father.
+
+The latter had been interested in mines, but found the work too difficult
+with his failing health, so he had secured the pony express contract, which
+he had carried on now for several years.
+
+"It certainly is a shame to have this fine supper spoil," mused Jack, as he
+lifted the cover from a pot of chicken, and glanced at the pile of browned
+biscuit in the warming oven.
+
+"I can't understand what makes dad so late," he went on. "Of course, the
+mail from the Golden Crossing office might not have been ready for him to
+take. It's been pretty heavy of late, and is almost more than Aunt Matilda
+can handle. Though I suppose Jennie gives her a hand now and then," and as
+he said that Jack looked at the photograph on the mantel of an attractive
+girl, who seemed to smile at him. Jack looked cautiously around the room,
+and then raised a hand to his lips and threw a kiss from the tips of his
+fingers at the picture.
+
+This done he blushed--but you would not have known it, he was so bronzed by
+the sun and the wind. Mrs. Matilda Blake was a distant relative of Mr.
+Bailey's, and Jack called her "Aunt Matilda," though she really did not
+bear that relationship to him. She was a widow, and she and her only
+daughter, Jennie, a girl of about sixteen, lived in Golden Crossing, where
+Mrs. Blake was postmistress. Jack and Jennie were the best of friends.
+
+"Well, if dad doesn't come pretty soon, I'm going to eat," decided Jack.
+"He won't mind, I'm sure. But I would like to know what's keeping him. I
+hope he hasn't had any accident. His pony is sure-footed, I know, but I'd
+feel better if he had Sunger."
+
+Jack was plainly nervous--that is as nervous as a young, healthy lad can
+be. He went outside again, and walked a little way back along the trail
+over which his father would come. But the trail seemed deserted. The Bailey
+cottage was in a rather lonely location, there being no other habitation in
+sight.
+
+There were other houses not far away, and a number in the town, but because
+of the winding nature of the trail, and the ruggedness of the mountains,
+they could not be seen from where Jack stood.
+
+As the lad was about to turn back and again enter the cottage with the
+determination to eat his supper, he heard something which caused him to
+start.
+
+"Here he comes!" he exclaimed. "But he's walking his horse! That's queer!
+Something must have happened!"
+
+Speed was one of the prime requisites of the pony express. The men who rode
+the routes over plains and mountain trails secured the speediest horses or
+ponies possible. Their life, when in the saddle, was a continual rush, for
+the mail and express matter must go through as quickly as possible, and
+where no steam and railroads were available recourse was had to horseflesh.
+And knowing the value of speed Jack wondered when he heard the approach of
+a horse at a walking pace.
+
+Mr. Bailey was supposed to arrive at Rainbow Ridge in time to deliver his
+express and mail matter to the night stage coach going east, and the hour
+for its leaving had passed some time since. Of course, the stage would wait
+for the pony express, but this meant a delay all along the rest of the
+route.
+
+"Something sure must have happened!" said Jack to himself. "I'll go to meet
+dad."
+
+He set off on foot, but came running back.
+
+"I'll get Sunger," he told himself, speaking aloud, a habit engendered by
+the loneliness of the mountains. "He's quite a way off yet, but Sunger will
+make short work of the distance."
+
+Though the sound of the approaching footsteps of the horse of the pony
+express rider could be plainly heard by Jack, so clear and resonant was the
+mountain air, he realized that his father had yet nearly half a mile to
+travel.
+
+Leaping to the saddle of his pony, and patting the animal lovingly on the
+neck, Jack set off once more. He went quickly, for Sunger was fresh and
+eager.
+
+In a few minutes Jack turned at a place where the trail followed a great
+rocky ledge, and in front of him, almost collapsed in the saddle was a man.
+He seemed to sit on his horse only by a great effort, and on his face was a
+drawn look of pain.
+
+"Why, Dad!" cried Jack. "What's the matter? Has anything happened? Did they
+hold up the mail?"
+
+"No, the mail and other stuff is all right," was the answer, broken by an
+exclamation of pain. "But I'm all in, Jack. I'm afraid I'm going to be
+quite ill. It was all I could do to ride the last few miles, but I wouldn't
+give in."
+
+Jack was at his father's side in an instant.
+
+"Get on Sunger," he urged. "He's easier for you to ride. Let me help you.
+What is the trouble? How did it happen?"
+
+"I don't know, Jack, my boy. But I won't change horses. I can keep on until
+I get to the cabin. Here, you take the mail and express and ride on with it
+to the stage. I'll keep on toward home. Come back as soon as you can, and
+you--you'd better bring the doctor with you!" he faltered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+POSTMISTRESS JENNIE
+
+For a moment Jack Bailey did not know what to do. He looked at his father,
+who was evidently quite ill and suffering much pain. Then the lad glanced
+at the bags of mail and small express matter which lay over the saddle in
+front of Mr. Bailey.
+
+"Take the mail, Jack, my boy!" the pony express rider exclaimed, with an
+effort. "Take the mail, so the stage can get off. I'm late now, but I
+couldn't make the trail any faster. Get the mail through, and then stop and
+bring a doctor back with you if he'll come."
+
+"But I can't go away and leave you like this, Dad!"
+
+"You must, Jack!"
+
+"But you're too ill!"
+
+"That can't be helped. The mail and express must go through on time if I'm
+to keep the contract. And I certainly don't want to lose it. I'll manage to
+get to the cottage. Once there, I can sit down, and if I get a cup of hot
+tea I may feel better. It seems to be acute indigestion, though I don't
+remember eating anything that didn't agree with me. But ride on, Jack. And
+don't worry. I'll get to the cottage all right and be there when you come
+back."
+
+"All right, Dad! I'll do it. But I sure do hate to leave you like this!"
+
+"It's better than having the mail delayed. Ride on. Explain to Jed Monty
+how it is. I think Jed takes the stage out to-night."
+
+"Yes, he does. I'll tell him."
+
+Jack quickly transferred to his own saddle the bags of mail and express
+matter. Mr. Bailey seemed easier now, though there was still that look of
+pain on his face.
+
+"Come on, Sunger," called the lad to his pony. "We've got to make time!"
+
+The intelligent and beautiful animal whinnied as if he understood. Then,
+with a fond and anxious look at his father, Jack wheeled about and set off
+down the trail at a gallop, Mr. Bailey going on more slowly, for every
+motion of his horse gave him pain.
+
+Jack was soon out of sight around a bend of the trail. He flashed past his
+cottage, and thought with satisfaction that there was hot water on the
+range, so his father could make himself a cup of tea.
+
+Jack paused long enough at Mrs. Watson's cabin to tell her what was the
+matter, and to inform her that he was taking the mail over the last mile of
+the route into town.
+
+"Your father ill!" exclaimed Mrs. Watson. "I'll go right over there, Jack,
+and look after him."
+
+"I wish you would. It will be awful good of you."
+
+"Of course I'll go. Mary can look after things here," and she hurried into
+the house to get ready for her second trip that day to the Bailey cottage.
+
+Jack galloped on, trusting to the sure-footedness of his pony to avoid the
+dangers of the rough mountain trail. And Sunger justified the confidence
+reposed in him.
+
+"Hello! We've been wondering what kept you! Why, it's Jack!" exclaimed Jed
+Monty, the grizzled stage driver, as the lad galloped up to the Mansion
+Hotel, whence the start for the east was made.
+
+"Sorry to be late, but dad's taken sick!" cried Jack, as he flung the bags
+to the driver.
+
+"Sick, eh? That's too bad. Well, I guess I can make up the lost time.
+Haven't much of a load on to-night."
+
+The stage was all ready to start, the few passengers having been
+impatiently waiting.
+
+"Pile in!" cried Jed, and with a crack of his long whip he sent the four
+horses off at a gallop.
+
+Jack did not linger, but, wheeling his pony, set off for the doctor's
+office, hoping he would find the physician in. He was fortunate in this
+respect, and Dr. Brown promised to come at once. Jack did not wait for him,
+however, but hastened back to the cottage.
+
+There he found that Mrs. Watson had made his father some hot tea, which had
+relieved him somewhat. The look of pain was not so apparent now.
+
+"The doctor will be here right away," Jack reported. "Now tell me how it
+happened, Dad. We were quite worried about you."
+
+"Indeed we were, when you didn't come in on time, as you nearly always do,"
+said Mrs. Watson.
+
+"I can't tell just how it did happen," said the pony express rider, "but I
+was taken with a sharp and sudden pain soon after leaving Golden Crossing.
+I'd have turned back then, and gotten some one else to ride the route for
+me, but I knew there were important letters in the mail, and it had to come
+through. So I kept on, hoping I would get better. But I grew worse, and I
+had to slow up. I thought I'd never get here! But I did." And he shut his
+lips grimly.
+
+Pony express riders have to be made of stern stuff and they have to keep on
+their routes in rain or shine, calm or storm; and often when it is torture
+to sit in the saddle on a galloping horse.
+
+"You'd better get your supper, Jack," advised Mrs. Watson.
+
+"No, I don't feel like eating," the lad objected.
+
+"Yes, you'd better, son," said his father. "There's no telling what you may
+have to do tonight, and it is possible you will have to ride for me
+to-morrow, though I hope I'll be able. But eat, and keep up your strength."
+
+This was good advice, and Jack realized it. So he sat down to the meal
+which Mrs. Watson had prepared as a finish to her housekeeping work earlier
+that day. Jack had scarcely finished when Dr. Brown came in, and spent some
+time ministering to Mr. Bailey.
+
+The pony express rider felt much relieved after he had been given some
+quieting medicine, and as Dr. Brown was about to leave Mr. Bailey asked:
+
+"Shall I be able to ride the route to-morrow?"
+
+The physician shook his head.
+
+"No, indeed!" he exclaimed. "I'm sorry to have to tell you that you have a
+severe illness. I'm afraid you're going to be laid up for several weeks, if
+not longer. You have been neglecting yourself too long, and you've been
+worrying haven't you?"
+
+"Well, yes, I have," admitted Mr. Bailey.
+
+"Oh, Dad! worrying?" cried Jack. "Is it about that old Harrington matter?"
+
+"Yes, Jack, it is. I can't get that off my mind."
+
+"Why, every one knows that wasn't your fault!" exclaimed Dr. Brown.
+
+"Of course," chimed in Mrs. Watson.
+
+"Well I can't help thinking that the Harrington crowd believes I was to
+blame," went on the pony express rider. "But I never let that letter get
+away from me. It never left my bag from the time it was put in until I
+delivered it. But I can't prove that, and I can't help worrying over what
+people think of me."
+
+"You're foolish to let a thing like that annoy you," said Dr. Brown.
+"That's what has helped to make you ill. Now you must take a good rest.
+I'll be in to see you to-morrow."
+
+"But what about the trail, Doctor? Some one will have to carry the mail."
+
+"You can't!" exclaimed the physician, with decision. "That's certain!"
+
+"I will, Dad, of course!" cried Jack. "Who has a better right than I?"
+
+"Well, I'd like to see you do it, Jack, for I'd be sure the mail and
+express would be safe with you and Sunger," said the man. "But I don't know
+that the company will consent. You're not of age--"
+
+"I couldn't ride any better if I were twenty-one than I can now,"
+interrupted Jack. "I'll go to see Mr. Perkfeld the first thing in the
+morning. I'll meet the early stage and make the trip to Golden Crossing.
+Are they all well there?" he asked, trying to make his voice sound
+indifferent.
+
+"Pretty well," answered his father. "Aunt Matilda is ailing a little, but
+Jennie is a big help. She handles all the mail alone now. Well, Jack, I
+guess it's the only thing to do. You see Perkfeld in the morning, and
+explain things. The only thing I'm afraid of is that he may make the
+Harrington matter an excuse to take the contract away from me. There are
+several who want to ride the trail in my place. But do the best you can."
+
+Amos Perkfeld was the president, as well as general manager of several
+stage and pony express lines. He controlled the one between Golden Crossing
+and Rainbow Ridge, and it was he who had engaged Mr. Bailey.
+
+The "Harrington matter" had taken place some time before. Tyler Harrington
+was an influential mine owner, and an important letter had been sent to him
+by one of his agents. This letter was carried by Mr. Bailey, and, in some
+manner, the contents of it became known to interests opposed to Mr.
+Harrington and his associates. In this way they lost in a mining deal.
+
+While there were no open accusations, there had been hints on the part of
+the Harrington interests that the pony express rider might have been bribed
+to let some one open and read the letter on the journey over the mountains.
+Of course, Mr. Bailey had done nothing of the kind, and he had no idea how
+the contents of the letter became known. He felt distressed because he was
+suspected, and worried greatly over the matter. But he could not disprove
+the unfounded suspicion against him.
+
+As he had admitted, he had been worrying more than usual lately over the
+affair, and this, with a general run-down condition, and the hardships of
+his calling, had made him ill.
+
+Mrs. Watson offered to stay all night and help look after Mr. Bailey, and
+Jack was glad to have her do so. The sick man was a little better in the
+morning, but far from being able to ride the mail route.
+
+So Jack saddled Sunger and went into town to meet the early morning stage
+which arrived every other day with mail and express matter to be taken to
+Golden Crossing and points beyond. The pony express was a connecting line
+between the two settlements.
+
+To Jack's relief Mr. Perkfeld made no objection to the young man's taking
+his father's place.
+
+"I can't say just how long it will last," went on the manager, "but we'll
+make it a temporary arrangement, anyhow. You've ridden the route before,
+you say?"
+
+"Yes, twice, when father was laid up with slight ailments."
+
+"Well, do the best you can. And another matter. There are some valuable
+letters--But never mind. I'll speak about them later," and Mr. Perkfeld
+turned away. Jack wondered what he had been about to say.
+
+"If there are any valuable letters to be carried," mused the young rider,
+"I hope none of them gets lost, or that the contents become known. I'll
+have to be careful."
+
+He was given the bags of mail and light express matter from the stage as
+soon as it rumbled in, and then Jack set off over the mountain trail to go
+to Golden Crossing. The trip would take about four hours, and if the other
+mail matter was ready he would come back with it, making the round trip in
+about eight or nine hours.
+
+But sometimes there were delays at one end or the other, for accidents
+happened to the stages once in a while. There had been hold-ups, too, but
+not since Mr. Bailey had taken charge.
+
+If the stage at Golden Crossing was not on time the pony express rider had
+to wait for it, sometimes all night. On such occasions Mr. Bailey had
+stayed with his relative, Mrs. Blake, and Jack reasoned that he could do
+the same thing. He caught himself almost wishing that the stage might be
+late this time, as it would give him a chance for a long visit with his
+"cousin" Jennie.
+
+On his way past his cottage Jack stopped to see how his father was, and
+also to report that he had been commissioned, at least temporarily, to
+carry the mail.
+
+Jack found his father better. Mrs. Watson said she thought it would be best
+if he could be moved down to her house, and both Jack and Mr. Bailey agreed
+to this, Dr. Brown sanctioning the suggestion.
+
+"I can look after him better then," said the housekeeper, "and my daughter
+can help me. And then, too, Jack, if you're delayed and have to be away all
+night, you'll know that he's being well cared for."
+
+"Yes, it will be best," Jack agreed. And so, as he rode off, preparations
+were made to transfer Mr. Bailey to the other place.
+
+"Now, Sunger, we'll show 'em what we can do when we carry the mail!"
+exclaimed Jack, as his faithful pony started off along the mountain trail
+again.
+
+Nothing of moment occurred on that ride. Jack half-wished that he might be
+called upon to defend the mail and express from bandits. He was armed, and
+he dwelt on the thought of what a hero he might prove himself to be.
+
+But everything was very prosaic. His pony did not even slip and fall, but
+came through on schedule time, or, rather, a little ahead of it, for Jack
+urged Sunger on.
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it, Jack!" exclaimed Jennie Blake, as our hero rode up to
+the post office with the bags. "Why is this? Where's your father?"
+
+"My father is ill. But aren't you glad to see me?"
+
+"Oh, yes, of course!" she answered, and then she seemed obliged to look
+down very closely at some mail matter she was sorting.
+
+"The in-stage will be five hours late," she said. "A messenger rode in to
+say that one of the horses died, and he had to take back another. So you'll
+have to stay over, Jack."
+
+"That's good!" he exclaimed.
+
+"What? Good that a poor horse died?"
+
+"Oh, I don't mean that. But--er--say, what's that big official-looking
+envelope addressed to you? From Washington, too, and without a stamp," and
+Jack looked over the girl's shoulder.
+
+"Oh, official letters from the post office department don't require
+stamps."
+
+"What are you getting official letters for?" Jack wanted to know.
+
+"Why, didn't I tell you?" Jennie asked with a teasing laugh. "I'm going to
+be postmistress at Golden Crossing from now on. That's my official
+appointment! Aren't you going to congratulate me?" and she looked archly at
+Jack and smiled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A NARROW ESCAPE
+
+"Say, Jennie, what is this; a joke?" asked Jack, as he leaned up against
+the table on which was piled the mail and some express matter, for the post
+office was also used as the headquarters of the pony express company and
+stage line.
+
+"A joke? The idea! How dare you!" and the young lady appeared to be very
+indignant, indeed. "A joke! I guess not! Look at that, Mr. Jack Bailey,"
+and she flourished in front of him an important-looking document whereon
+her name could be discerned in large letters.
+
+"Hum! So you are really postmistress of Golden Crossing," remarked Jack.
+"Is your mother--"
+
+"Oh, it isn't anything serious," was the quick answer. "But we are going to
+make certain, changes, and--"
+
+"Changes!" cried Jack, in some surprise. "I hope you aren't thinking of
+going away!"
+
+"Oh, no indeed!" Jennie answered. "We like it too well here. But mother has
+a chance to do some sewing, at which she can make some much-needed money,
+and she realized that she would be too busy at that to look after the post
+office properly. So I said I'd apply for the place. I know all about the
+work," Jennie went on, "for whenever mother went away I used to look after
+the mail. Tim does the heavy work, lifting the pouches and packages and all
+that," and she indicated a red-haired and freckled lad named Timothy
+Mullane, a genial Irish chap, who did odd jobs around the post office, and
+in the settlement of Golden Crossing.
+
+"So, with Tim to help me, I felt that I might just as well be the
+full-fledged postmistress," the girl went on. "As soon as mother had
+arranged to do this sewing I applied for the place to the President--"
+
+"To the President--in Washington?" cried Jack, in surprise.
+
+"Well, I wrote to the President, though I don't suppose he ever saw my
+letter," Jennie said. "I thought he appointed all postmasters and
+postmistresses. But I had an answer from some official of the post office
+department, and I received the appointment!" she laughed in conclusion.
+
+"So after this, Mr. Jack Bailey, of the pony express, you'll get the mail
+from me and deliver it to me."
+
+"No greater pleasure, I'm sure," Jack answered with a low bow, and he also
+laughed. "When did all this happen?" he asked.
+
+"The letter came yesterday," Jennie answered.
+
+"And I received my temporary appointment this morning," Jack said. "You
+didn't beat me by very much, Jennie! Shake!" and with true western good
+fellowship, Jack held out his hand, meeting the warm clasp of the pretty
+and smiling girl.
+
+The two young persons found much to talk about. Jennie was sorry to hear of
+the illness of "Uncle Pete," as she called him, and when her mother came in
+to greet Jack, Mrs. Blake had to hear the whole story over again.
+
+Mrs. Blake was a widow, whose husband had been killed in a mining accident.
+She was left with Jennie, then a little girl, to bring up, and friends
+secured for her the place as postmistress of Golden Crossing. She managed
+to make a living from the money received in this way, and from the sewing
+she was able to do for the residents of the settlement.
+
+And now, as she explained to Jack, her needlework would take up much of her
+time, so she and Jennie planned that the latter should be made postmistress
+so that she could act officially when her mother was not on hand.
+
+"Of course, I'll help her, Jack," Mrs. Blake said, "for it isn't easy for a
+young girl to have to do this work."
+
+"And I'll help, too!" cried the young pony express rider.
+
+"I knew you would, Cousin Jack!" Jennie exclaimed, clapping her hands. "But
+now we must talk business. Let me have your slips to sign, and here is a
+registered letter that you'd better put in an inside pocket where the stage
+robbers won't find it," and she laughed merrily at her joke.
+
+There was considerable routine work attached to the post office and to the
+pony express route, and for some time Jack and Jennie were busy over this.
+The mail and express matter which Jack had brought in on the back of his
+pony, Sunger, had already been sent off on the outgoing stage.
+
+"Will you ride back to-night, after the other stage comes in, or will you
+stay here?" asked Mrs. Blake.
+
+"I guess I'll stay," Jack said. "But I can go back as far as Painted Post,"
+naming a mountain settlement a few miles east of Golden Crossing. "I
+stopped there on my way here, and Harry Ward said he was going to ride in
+to Rainbow Ridge to a dance to-night. I can have him take a message for me,
+saying the mail will be late. And he can also tell my father that I'll stay
+over night, and be in early to-morrow morning."
+
+"That would be a good idea," said Mrs. Blake. "We'll try and make you
+comfortable, Jack."
+
+"Oh, you won't have to try very hard," he laughed. Jennie blushed and
+smiled, and Mrs. Blake looked wise.
+
+Jack spent that afternoon helping Jennie straighten up her post office, for
+she had determined on a new arrangement of tables and desks, which Mrs.
+Blake had never had time to settle on.
+
+"It's your post office, Jennie," her mother remarked. "Do just as you
+please as far as the regulations permit."
+
+The in-coming mail was later than had been reported, and did not arrive
+until nearly dark. In such cases, when a night trip would be necessary over
+the mountain trail between Golden Crossing and Rainbow Ridge, the pony
+express rider was permitted to postpone his trip until the next day. The
+trail was rather dangerous at night, though on occasions, when there had
+been a bright moon and some important letters and express packages had come
+in, Mr. Bailey made the night trip. Jack had done so once, but he did not
+greatly care to do so again.
+
+"But if there were any need of it I'd do it now," he said, though he would
+have regretted leaving Jennie, with the prospect of a pleasant evening in
+her company.
+
+However, as it happened, there was nothing of such importance that it could
+not wait over until the next day, so Jack did not have to ride away. He put
+up his pony in the express stable, and he and Jennie spent a pleasant
+evening together.
+
+Jack was a little worried about his father, and made an early start the
+next morning, carrying the mail and expressage. He made a quick trip and
+was relieved, on stopping off for a moment at the Watson cabin, to find
+that his father had passed a fairly comfortable night, and was considerably
+better.
+
+"But he can't ride the trail yet," said Mrs. Watson.
+
+"And I don't intend to let him!" exclaimed Jack. "I'm going to be the pony
+rider for a while."
+
+Dr. Brown confirmed what he had at first said--that Mr. Bailey would be ill
+for a long time, and when this had become known Jack at once made
+arrangements to be permanently named as rider between Rainbow Ridge and
+Golden Crossing. Mr. Perkfeld agreed to this, but, most unexpectedly, some
+opposition developed among the members of the express firm. It appeared
+that one of the stockholders wanted the place of express rider for a
+relative of his. There were several others who wanted the place, and there
+was quite a scramble for it.
+
+But Jack really had the most logical claim to it, and, as Mr. Perkfeld was
+able to make the appointment, at least for the time being, it came to Jack.
+
+But there was bitter feeling against him on the part of some unscrupulous
+men who wanted the place, for it paid well and carried some privileges. It
+was also an honor.
+
+"You want to watch yourself, son," said Mr. Bailey, rather weakly, to Jack
+one day, before the lad was about to set out on his ride to Golden
+Crossing. "Watch yourself, for there is no telling what tricks some of
+those fellows may be up to."
+
+"Tricks, Dad? What do you mean?" asked Jack in wonder.
+
+"Well, I mean they might try to do something to discredit you. Try to make
+you late with the mail, or even have you lose a valuable letter or package.
+They might think, if you failed to deliver promptly, you would lose the
+place, and they'd have a chance. So be careful. Hold on to it, for I'll
+need it when I get well again. My illness is going to cost a pile of
+money."
+
+"Don't you worry about that Dad!" exclaimed the young mountain trail rider.
+"I'll watch out, and they won't catch me napping!"
+
+He rode off up the road, followed by the fond looks of his father.
+
+"He's a good boy," murmured Mr. Bailey, "A good boy!"
+
+Once again the in-stage to Golden Crossing was late, but as Jack was told
+by Jennie on his arrival at her post office that several important pieces
+of mail were expected, he decided to ride back with the pouches, even if it
+was after dark.
+
+"There's half a moon," he said, "and I know the trail like a book. I'll
+make a night ride of it."
+
+While waiting for the stage to come in Jack remained about the post office.
+Among those who came in for mail was Jake Tantrell, one of the men who had
+tried unsuccessfully to get Jack's place.
+
+"Goin' back to-night?" he inquired casually.
+
+"Yes," Jack answered. "Anything you want carried?"
+
+"No," was the surly answer. "An' if I had I wouldn't trust a kid like you
+with it! It's a man's job to ride pony express, an' I'm surprised that they
+let you have the place."
+
+"Oh, if that's the way you feel about it, I don't want to take any of your
+stuff," snapped Jack, filled with indignation. "But I've made good so far,
+and I expect to keep on."
+
+"Huh! Maybe you will, an' maybe you won't!" was the snarling retort.
+
+It was quite dark when Jack finally started with the mail. He also had
+several express packages, one of which was securely sealed, indicating that
+it contained valuables.
+
+"Guess I'll stow that away in an inside pocket," Jack said to himself, and
+he suited the action to the words.
+
+The first part of the trail leading out from Golden Crossing was not
+especially bad, and Jack ambled along it slowly enough. About two miles out
+from the settlement he had to cross, on a rather frail wooden bridge, a
+rushing mountain stream.
+
+As Jack neared the middle of the bridge he felt a plank suddenly give way
+with the pony. In an instant he clapped his heels to the side of the horse,
+and slapped him sharply on the flank.
+
+Sunger sprang forward, and only just in time, for in another second he
+would have stepped through a hole in the bridge where a plank had fallen
+off into the stream below. And had the pony fallen Jack would probably have
+been thrown over the bridge railing into the water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+IMPORTANT LETTERS
+
+"Whoa! Steady old boy! Easy now!"
+
+Thus Jack exclaimed, as he leaped from the Saddle and held the reins
+lightly to restrain Sunger.
+
+The pony snorted, whinnied, and, after prancing about a few moments, stood
+still.
+
+"That's better!" commented Jack. "Now let's see what happened."
+
+There was, as Jack said, "half a moon," and by the light of this he was
+able to see, as he glanced over the part of the bridge he had traversed, a
+place where a plank had fallen out. A gap was left--a gap wide enough to
+have allowed a horse's leg to slip through, with disastrous results to
+animal and rider.
+
+"Well, Sunger, old boy," went on Jack, "did we do that; did it just happen
+of itself; or was it done on purpose?"
+
+For, in a second's flash, there had come to him his father's warning.
+
+"Well, if it's some one after my job, it's a mean trick they have played in
+trying to get it," mused Jack, aloud. "I wouldn't so much mind for myself,
+for I guess I could have swum out all right. But I guess you'd have been
+pretty well banged up, old boy," and he patted his pony, which now had
+gotten over his first fright.
+
+Jack, whose wildly-beating heart had now somewhat calmed itself, stood
+beside his faithful pony and considered what his next move had best be.
+Among other thoughts was the one that he must, in some way, repair the
+bridge so that any one coming after him would not slip through the holes
+left where the misplaced planks had fallen into the stream.
+
+"I can get a couple of logs or some big branches in the woods," thought
+Jack, "and stick them in the holes."
+
+Instinctively he looked to see if the mail and express pouches were safe.
+Yes, there they were on the saddle front. None of them had slipped off when
+the pony rider himself had so narrowly escaped.
+
+Then, with a quick motion, Jack's hand went to the breast pocket of his
+coat, where he had placed the small, sealed express package. To his
+consternation he felt no bulky protuberance there, such as would have been
+made by the parcel.
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jack. "Great Scott! I hope I haven't lost that!"
+
+It was very possible that he might have done so, for he remembered pitching
+forward on his pony's neck, as he leaned over to save himself. The package
+could easily have slipped from his pocket.
+
+In a veritable frenzy of alarm, Jack rapidly searched through his other
+pockets, thinking he might, by some chance, have thrust the valuable parcel
+into one other than the first he had selected as being the most secure. But
+it was not to be found.
+
+"Just my luck!" he cried aloud. "It's lost. This will end my services as a
+pony express rider!"
+
+His steed whinnied, thinking, perhaps, that his master might have been
+speaking to him, as Jack frequently did. Indeed, the lad often talked to
+his horse as one might to a human being, and Jack stoutly maintained that
+Sunger understood as much if not more than some people.
+
+"Well, if it's gone, it's gone," Jack said, sadly enough "And it wasn't my
+fault, either. I couldn't know those planks in the bridge were loose. It's
+lucky Sunger felt them giving in time, and gave me the alarm, or we might
+both be lying somewhere with broken legs, if not worse."
+
+He glanced back to the place where the accident had so nearly occurred. In
+the gleam of the moon he could see two black streaks in the otherwise level
+flooring of the bridge, the planks of which were white from the bleaching
+of the sun and the dust of the mountain trail.
+
+"That's where I nearly went through," mused Jack. Hardly had the thought
+come to him than he saw, lying on the very edge of one of the black
+openings, a small, light object.
+
+"Jove! If that could be it!" he murmured. Cautiously he started toward it,
+in fear lest the vibration of his steps jar the sealed packet into the
+stream, for that it was the sealed packet Jack now felt sure.
+
+As the lad started forward his horse followed him, so well trained was
+Sunger.
+
+"No; stay back, old fellow!" Jack exclaimed. The pony, whinnying, obeyed.
+Jack noticed that one of the mail bags was hanging loose, as if about to
+fall, but he reasoned that he could fasten that securely after he had
+learned whether or not the white object was the package missing from his
+pocket.
+
+Cautiously he approached, and there, lying on the very verge of one of the
+openings made by the missing planks, was the packet, which Jack was sure
+contained jewelry, if not money.
+
+"Well, if this isn't lucky!" he cried, as he picked it up, and thrust it
+into the bottom of his inside vest pocket. "Just pure luck! You won't get
+out again," he added, patting the package.
+
+It was the work of but a few minutes to drag from the nearby woods some big
+branches to fill in the holes left by the missing planks. Of course, the
+branches did not make the bridge secure, but they could easily be seen,
+even after the moon went down, and would warn chance passersby of the
+danger. There was a chance that some one might come after Jack passed,
+though the pony express trail was one not often followed after nightfall.
+
+Jack tried to ascertain by careful looking how the planks had come to give
+way under the hoofs of his steed. But there was no clew that he could
+discover. The bridge was not a carefully made one, and it would have been
+an easy matter for any one to so loosen a couple of the planks that the
+least motion would send them into the stream below.
+
+"But who would want to do a thing like that?" Jack reasoned. "I might have
+been killed, and so might Sunger. Well, all's well that ends well, I guess.
+Now I'd better be getting along."
+
+The bridge was as secure as Jack could make it in his haste, and having
+made sure that nothing was missing from the mail and express pouches, and
+fastening them securely, he mounted his horse again, and set off at a
+lively pace. For a while he was worried lest his pony might have strained a
+shoulder or a tendon, but Sunger appeared to be none the worse for the
+adventure.
+
+Jack rode on, and had covered about half the distance to Rainbow Ridge when
+he heard, on the trail ahead of him, the sounds of other hoof-beats. At
+first he thought it might be the echo of his own, but a moment of listening
+told him it was some one else on the road.
+
+"I wonder who it can be," he asked himself.
+
+He saw a few minutes later. It was Jake Tantrell, the man who had sneered
+at him--the man who was anxious to have his place. Was it fancy, or did
+Tantrell start and draw back his horse at sight of Jack.
+
+"Look out for the bridge," Jack called as he passed the man, making up his
+mind, even though the fellow had scorned him, that he could do no less than
+warn him. "A couple of planks gave way with me a while ago."
+
+"Oh--er--they did! Planks gave way?" Tantrell stammered.
+
+"Yes," Jack said. "I nearly had a bad fall."
+
+He said nothing about the dropped package.
+
+"Well, that's too bad," the man said. "They ought to fix that bridge."
+
+"Some one did," said Jack.
+
+"Eh? What's that?"
+
+"I said some one did. I mean some one fixed it for me, I think."
+
+"What--what do you mean?"
+
+"I mean those planks never came loose by themselves. I stuck a couple of
+branches in the holes. Look out when you ride over."
+
+"Oh--I--I will. Thanks!" the man exclaimed, almost as an afterthought.
+
+Then Jack rode on, and Tantrell passed him, giving the lad a sharp glance
+in the gloom, for the moon was now down below the hills.
+
+Rather shaken by his night's adventure, and a bit anxious, Jack finally
+reached his own cottage. He turned in there, preferring to do so rather
+than to awaken Mrs. Watson and her family at this hour, though he was
+anxious to know how his father was feeling.
+
+"But I guess he must be all right, or they'd have sent me some word,"
+reasoned Jack.
+
+He put his horse in the stable, and, after a hasty lunch from the cupboard,
+turned into his own room, and slept soundly until morning. He was up early
+in order to deliver the mail for the stage which would soon go out, and
+among the things he turned over to the driver was the package that had so
+nearly been lost.
+
+"I'm glad to get rid of that," he said to Jed Monty. "It looks as if it's
+worth something," and he pointed to the many seals.
+
+"That's so, it does," Jed replied. "Guess I'll stow it in a safe place
+myself."
+
+Jack gave a warning about the missing planks of the bridge, and the road
+commissioner promised to have repairs made. The lad said nothing of his
+suspicions that the planks had intentionally been loosened, for he felt it
+would do no good.
+
+"I'll just keep my eyes open myself," he reasoned, "and maybe I can find
+out a few things. It might be that some one who wants to be a pony express
+rider in my place might try to make trouble for me in that way. Maybe they
+didn't actually want to harm me or my horse, but they might have wanted me
+to lose some mail. But I didn't!"
+
+For the next few days nothing of moment occurred. Jack rode the trail
+without anything happening to him, and there were only light loads to
+carry. His father improved slightly, but Dr. Brown predicted that it would
+be at least two months before he could be out.
+
+At Golden Crossing Jennie was busy with her post office duties, but she
+found time to spend a few hours with Jack when he was at the settlement.
+
+It was one morning when the young rider went to the Mansion Hotel, as the
+one hostelry in Rainbow Ridge was called, that Samuel Argent, who had once
+been a prominent miner, but who had lost several fortunes, came to the
+stage station and post office with several letters in his hand. Each one
+was sealed with red wax.
+
+"Going to make the trip straight through today, Jack?" he asked, for he
+knew the lad slightly, though better acquainted with his father.
+
+"Yes, I expect to, Mr. Argent," was the answer. "Is there anything I can do
+for you?" Jack often executed small commissions, for which he was paid
+extra.
+
+"Well, this is in your regular line," the miner said, "but I have some
+important letters here, and I'd rather give them to you, personally, than
+put them in the mail. I'd like to have you hand them over to the Golden
+Crossing stage man and--"
+
+At that moment a man came running out of the hotel. He waved his hand to
+Mr. Argent.
+
+"Don't send those letters!" he exclaimed, and he seemed quite excited.
+"Hold 'em! Don't let Jack take 'em!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+JUST IN TIME
+
+Mr. Argent paused in the act of handing the sealed documents to the young
+pony express rider, and turned to look at the man who had called to him.
+Jack recognized him as a mining expert who did assaying. He had not lived
+in Rainbow Ridge long, but he had done considerable work elsewhere for Mr.
+Argent.
+
+"What's that you said?" inquired the miner.
+
+"I said, don't send those letters by Jack!"
+
+The young pony rider felt the hot blood come into his cheeks. To him there
+seemed to be but one meaning in the warning. He was being distrusted. The
+service which he performed in riding at top speed from Rainbow Ridge to
+Golden Crossing was under suspicion.
+
+Was this because of the letter that had put his father under suspicion--the
+Harrington epistle--or was it because of false reports being spread by
+those who wanted Jack's place?
+
+Something of what was passing through Jack's mind seemed to communicate
+itself to the mining assayist, whose name was Payson Wayde. He smiled at
+our hero, and said:
+
+"Don't worry, my lad. It isn't that I think you wouldn't carry the mail
+safely. It's that I have just heard something," he went on, turning to Mr.
+Argent, "that makes it advisable to postpone the sending of those letters
+now. Hold them until we can investigate a bit."
+
+"Oh, that's different," the miner said. "I thought from the way you spoke
+that you didn't want Jack to take them."
+
+"Well, I don't; that is, I don't want him to take them just yet. Perhaps
+you won't want to send them for a week or more after you hear what I have
+to say," he went on to his employer. "But when we do send them you shall
+take them, Jack," he said, with a smile of confidence.
+
+The young pony express lad felt better on hearing this.
+
+"Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked the two men.
+
+"Not this trip, Jack, I guess," was the answer from Mr. Argent. "I may have
+something for you day after to-morrow, though. Not these letters, but some
+more samples I want checked up. I'll see you on your return trip."
+
+"All right, Mr. Argent. Then I'll be getting along." And, having secured
+his pouches of mail and express stuff to the saddle, Jack leaped to the
+back of Sunger and was off at a gallop.
+
+"A fine lad," murmured Mr. Wayde to the miner, as they turned back to the
+hotel.
+
+"Yes, indeed. I was afraid you were going to hurt his feelings by saying it
+wouldn't be safe to send mail by him."
+
+"Oh, no, indeed. I guess you can trust him, can't you?"
+
+"I should say so! Jack is really doing his father's work, you see, Mr.
+Bailey being laid up with a severe illness. Jack is working hard to make
+good on this express route, and I'd hate to see him lose it, though there
+are several around here who would be glad to take his place. But what's
+up--why didn't you want me to mail these letters, after our agreement of
+last night?"
+
+"I'll tell you. I think some of your enemies have gotten wind of what is
+going on."
+
+"You mean about the new claim I'm going to stake?"
+
+"Hush!" the other cautioned him. "No use in talking secrets out here. Come
+to my room and I'll tell you all about it. Perhaps it may be well to take
+Jack Bailey into your confidence a little later. You can decide on that
+after I've told you just what came to me."
+
+"Well, it all seems a bit mysterious," commented Mr. Argent, "but maybe you
+know what you're talking about."
+
+And as Jack rode off on his usual trip, the two mining men went into the
+hotel deeply engaged in conversation.
+
+Jack had several stops to make that morning before getting on the more
+lonesome part of the trail, where he could give Sunger free rein to make as
+good time as possible. In some places this would only be a walk, for the
+road was treacherous and difficult. In other places along a comparatively
+level slope, or down grade, Sunger would make up for lost time.
+
+As Jack made a turn in the road, he saw, riding ahead of him, two men on
+horseback. They turned in their saddles at the sound of his steed's
+hoof-beats, and Jack recognized one of the men as Jake Tantrell. The other
+man was a stranger to the pony rider.
+
+"I hope Jake doesn't take it into his head to give me some mean talk now,"
+mused Jack.
+
+He made up his mind not to speak to the fellow, but he reckoned without
+Jake. For as Jack came up the bully held up a hand as a signal to halt.
+Jack was not a little apprehensive at first, but Jake, in surly tones, only
+asked:
+
+"You got anything for me?"
+
+"Not this trip," answered Jack.
+
+"Well, I'm expectin' a package and it ought to be here. Keep your eyes open
+for it, young feller, and don't lose it," was the unnecessary caution.
+"It's a valuable package."
+
+"I'm not in the habit of losing things," Jack answered, with dignity. As he
+rode on he heard the stranger remark to Jake:
+
+"They ought to be there now? oughtn't they?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply. "They ought to be there now. But I'm not so sure
+they'll get what they want. She's a plucky little girl, and she may be so
+spunky she won't answer their questions."
+
+"Well, they know how to make her," responded the stranger.
+
+"Humph!" mused Jack, as he heard this. "I wonder who it is they are going
+to try to make answer questions? A spunky little girl, so Jake said. I
+wonder--"
+
+It suddenly flashed into his mind.
+
+"Could it be Jennie? She's in the post office, and she's sometimes there
+alone! If some one should try to find out something about the mail or
+express business they had no right to know!"
+
+Jack hardly knew what to think. But there came a sudden desire in his heart
+to be near Jennie--to be ready in case she called.
+
+"Come on, Sunger, hit it up!" Jack cried, as this idea came to him. "We've
+got to hustle and get to Golden Crossing as soon as we can!"
+
+The intelligent beast appeared to know what was said to him, and increased
+his pace. Jack thundered over the bridge where once he had so nearly had an
+accident. He thought of the loosened planks, which had been fixed, and
+again he wondered who had misplaced them--if it had been done by design.
+
+On and on he rode over the trail, until he swung into Golden Crossing. He
+was ahead of time, and the crowd that usually congregated about the post
+office to wait for the sorting of the mail was not there.
+
+The road about the little office was thick with dust, and the feet of
+Jack's pony made scarcely a sound as he rode up. As he leaped to the ground
+he heard through the open windows of the place voices in loud conversation.
+One voice was that of a man, and said:
+
+"Well, now, miss, you'd better tell us what we want to know. We'll find out
+somehow, and the more trouble you give us, the more trouble we'll give you.
+If you don't--"
+
+"There's no use asking me!" broke in the voice of Postmistress Jennie
+herself. "You're not going to get that information, and the sooner you
+understand that the better!"
+
+"Say!" exclaimed the third voice--that of a man--"if you don't tell us,
+we'll--"
+
+"Mail!" cried Jack, in a loud voice, as he sprang into the place through
+the window. "I thought I was too early, but I guess I'm just in time," he
+grimly added, as he swung around and faced two men who stood in front of
+Jennie Blake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SECRET MINE
+
+Whether the young postmistress, or the two strange men, was the more
+surprised could not be told. Both Jennie and her annoyers started at the
+sudden appearance of the young pony rider. Then looks of anger and
+annoyance came over the faces of the two men, while Jennie appeared
+relieved.
+
+"What's the trouble?" asked Jack, and with a seemingly careless motion he
+threw open his coat. In his belt was a revolver, which he carried more
+because the regulations compelled him to than because he really thought he
+would ever need it.
+
+"Trouble? There's no trouble," said one of the men in surly tones. "Who are
+you, anyhow, to come butting in?"
+
+"Oh, Jack!" exclaimed Jennie. "They want--"
+
+"I'm the pony express rider on this route," interrupted Jack, with a nod at
+Jennie, as if to beg her pardon for not letting her finish. "I just came in
+with the mail. It's outside, but I thought I heard some trouble in here, so
+I just jumped in--just in time, perhaps, too," he added, significantly.
+
+"If you're looking for trouble," began one of the men, "I guess we can
+accommodate you."
+
+"That's enough," his companion said. "Come on out. Don't you know when to
+quit?"
+
+"Oh, Jack, they were so annoying!" cried Jennie. "They came in here when I
+was all alone, and insisted on knowing the times when all the mails and
+express shipments went out and came in. I said I wasn't supposed to tell
+strangers that unless there was a particular reason why they should know.
+Ought I to have told them? They said if I didn't they would make trouble
+for me."
+
+"They'd better try it!" Jack exclaimed, with flashing eyes. "Now, look
+here, you fellows!" he went on. "I don't know who you are, nor what your
+game is, but you'd better get out of here. This is government property, and
+I'm a government employee for the time being, and I've got authority to
+order you out of here. Now, you--get!"
+
+For a moment one of the men hesitated, though the other seemed anxious to
+leave. Jack threw open the door, and pointed in the direction of the trail
+outside.
+
+"Get out!" he exclaimed again, "and if you think I'm not big enough to
+handle you I can get help. Tim!" he called, as he saw the doughty
+red-haired youth who helped Jennie, "just come in here, will you?"
+
+"Why sure I will, Jack," was the answer, Tim having just loomed into sight.
+"I didn't know you were here. Is there mail to carry out?"
+
+"Well, there are a couple of _males_ who need putting out, if not carrying
+out," said Jack, smiling grimly at his play upon the words.
+
+"Come on!" muttered the more conciliatory of the two intruders, and with
+black looks at Jack and Jennie, the two men left the post office.
+
+"Were those the men?" asked Tim, coming in as the two went off down the
+rail.
+
+"Yes," said Jack. "But they saved us the trouble of carrying them out. Now,
+Jennie, what was it all about?"
+
+For a moment the girl seemed on the verge of tears, and Jack found himself
+earnestly hoping that she would not have hysterics. But she bravely
+conquered her inclination.
+
+"Oh, Jack! I'm so glad you came!" she exclaimed, as she held out both her
+hands, which the young pony rider clasped warmly.
+
+"I guess this is no place for me!" muttered Tim, with a sly wink.
+
+"Oh, yes, Tim, stay!" Jennie begged. "I'll tell you about it, too. You'll
+want to know in case these men ever come back."
+
+"If they do!" exclaimed Jack, doubling up his fists, "I'll--"
+
+"Oh, please don't fight with them!" pleaded Jennie. "Just let the sheriff
+deal with them, Jack."
+
+"Well, if I can't manage them myself, I'll call for help," promised the
+youth. "But now tell me about it. Who were they?"
+
+"I don't know, Jack. They are strangers around here. I was working all
+alone in the office, getting my reports into shape, and was just going to
+check up my stamps, when they came in. I had left the private door open, as
+I didn't expect any one. Mother is away for the day, but I didn't in the
+least mind being left, as I had a lot of work to do.
+
+"Well, these men began asking all sorts of questions. I don't mind giving
+information to strangers if it's the kind I can safely let out of the
+office, but they wanted to know too much. Why, they even asked about you!"
+
+"They did? Why, they didn't seem to know me just now!"
+
+"Perhaps they didn't by sight, but they knew your name, and they asked me
+how often you made the trips, where you stopped, how long it took, and they
+even wanted to know what kind of a horse you rode.
+
+"I simply refused to tell them, and then they began to threaten and
+bluster. I was beginning to get frightened, but I made up my mind I
+wouldn't give in to them. And then--well, you came along, and I guess I
+never was so glad to see you, Jack! But, of course, they really did me no
+harm. How did it happen that you got here ahead of time?"
+
+"Oh, I just hurried, that was all," Jack answered. He did not want to tell
+Jennie what he had overheard on the road. It might make her nervous, as she
+might think there was some plot afoot to rob the post office.
+
+"And there is something in the wind, or I'm mistaken," mused Jack, "though
+what it is I can't guess. I'm going to be on the watch harder than ever.
+The plot is beginning to thicken, as they say in stories," and he made a
+mental picture of the two men.
+
+The stage coach came in a little later, and Jack received a number of
+parcels for transmission to Rainbow Ridge. As he was ahead of time, and as
+there was some mail of importance, Jack resolved to make an immediate trip
+back, though he would not arrive at the other end of the trail until after
+dark.
+
+"Oh, Jack! Do you think it will be safe?" Jennie asked.
+
+"What safe?" he asked, with a smile. "The mail?"
+
+"No--you!"
+
+"Why shouldn't I be safe? I've ridden the trail before after dark."
+
+"I know. But those--those men--"
+
+"Nonsense! I'm not afraid."
+
+Nevertheless, Jack was a little nervous as he galloped along the mountain
+path after night had fallen. He started at every little noise, for while
+there had been no robberies of the mail for some time, still such things
+were known to happen occasionally.
+
+But the two strangers who had annoyed Jennie were not seen around town
+after the episode, and Jack did not think they were desperate enough to try
+to hold him up. Besides, while there were some letters and parcels of
+importance, there was not enough of value in the pouches this trip to make
+it an inducement for robbery.
+
+"They wouldn't take the risk for what I've got with me," reasoned Jack. And
+he was right. At least there was no attack on him, and he reached Rainbow
+Ridge safely and delivered his stuff.
+
+Mr. Bailey was not quite so well next day, and Jack was worried about him.
+But Dr. Brown said the ailment, which was a form of intermittent fever,
+might often take a turn like that. Jack said nothing to his father about
+the two men who had annoyed his cousin, but he did report the occurrence to
+Mr. Perkfeld, who promised to have an investigation made.
+
+But nothing was heard of the men, nor could any trace of them be found,
+after a somewhat limited search was made.
+
+"I guess they were just fresh tenderfeet," said the manager of the pony
+express company.
+
+Jack, however, did not altogether share this view.
+
+It was about a week after this that, as Jack reached the Mansion Hotel one
+morning to receive the mail, he was approached by Mr. Argent, who had a
+number of red-sealed letters in his hand.
+
+"This time I'm really going to let you take them, Jack," he said. "My
+friend Wayde thinks it's all right to forward them to their destination
+now."
+
+"Are they as important as ever?" asked Jack, with a smile.
+
+"Yes, and more so, Jack. I'll just give you a hint," the miner said, in a
+low voice. "Wayde and I have discovered a secret mine, and if things go
+right it may mean a big thing for us."
+
+"A secret mine?" questioned the young pony express rider.
+
+"Yes. It was one located by a prospector some years ago, but he died after
+he came into town with some mighty rich nuggets. He gave the location of
+the mine to a friend, but the latter lost the papers and never could find
+the claim. Lately a relative discovered the documents in an old coat
+pocket, and sent them to me, suggesting that we work the claim on shares.
+
+"I went into it with Wayde, and we've found the mine. It's rich, too, and
+it isn't far from here. But there are certain legal forms to comply with
+before we can actually begin work, and these letters refer to those
+matters. The reason Wayde didn't want to send them the other time was
+because he feared a counter legal move on the part of some men who are
+trying to locate the mine and get it away from those entitled to it But now
+matters are about straightened out, and I'm going to send off these letters
+by you. I'll expect answers back soon, and when they come--"
+
+Mr. Argent paused suddenly, for a sound came from around the corner of the
+porch where he and Jack had been standing during their talk. The miner
+suddenly turned the corner of the hotel, with Jack following. They saw a
+man walking rapidly away along the other part of the porch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE STRANGERS AGAIN
+
+"Was he listening?" asked Jack of the miner.
+
+"It rather looks so," was the answer. "I thought I heard some one moving
+about there as I was talking to you, and I wanted to make sure."
+
+"Well, you did all right," replied Jack, grimly. "Do you know who he is?"
+
+"No, but--"
+
+"Say! Wait a minute!" suddenly exclaimed Jack. He had but a glimpse of the
+man's back, but there seemed to be something familiar about the manner in
+which the man walked off. Like a flash it came to Jack.
+
+"I think I know him--at least I've seen him before," he said hurriedly to
+Mr. Argent. "I'm going to find out for sure."
+
+In a flash Jack had sprung over the porch railing, and was rapidly running
+alongside the porch on the soft grass. He did this in order to get ahead of
+the retreating man. Had he remained on the porch Jack's footfalls on the
+boards would have given the alarm.
+
+As it was, he was able to get ahead of the eavesdropper, and obtain a view
+of his face. And Jack was not mistaken in his surmise. It was one of the
+two men who had annoyed Jennie in the post office. The fellow seemed
+startled on confronting our hero.
+
+"So you're here now, eh?" asked Jack.
+
+"Well, is that any of your business?" was the challenge. "Isn't this a free
+country?"
+
+"Of course," Jack answered. "But even in a free country there are certain
+laws about causing trouble, and listening to private talk."
+
+"Who was listening?" demanded the fellow.
+
+"You were!" Jack exclaimed.
+
+At that moment Mr. Argent came sauntering along the piazza. The fellow
+turned sharply. Neither appeared to recognize the other.
+
+"This chap is the same one I thought he was," explained Jack, "It was he
+and a partner of his who made the fuss in the Golden Crossing office, Mr.
+Argent. If you could find Mr. Perkfeld we might make a charge against him."
+
+The man seemed disconcerted at this.
+
+"Charge? What charge?" he blustered.
+
+"You'll find out soon enough," Jack replied.
+
+He started off, thinking Mr. Argent would keep the man there until Mr.
+Perkfeld could be summoned. But the fellow made a sudden dash, leaped to
+the saddle of a horse that was near the end of the porch, and was off down
+the road on a gallop.
+
+As he rode off he was joined by another man, who also made a hurried exit
+from the hotel and leaped to the back of his horse. But he was not so quick
+but what Jack recognized him as the other man who had annoyed the young
+postmistress of Golden Crossing.
+
+"Well, they got away!" Jack said, regretfully, as he came back to Mr.
+Argent.
+
+"Perhaps it's just as well," answered the miner. "I don't know that you
+could have really held them on the charge of being impudent and rough to
+Miss Blake, and you tell me that is all they did."
+
+"Yes, that's so. But what about one of them listening to what you were
+telling me about the secret mine."
+
+"Oh, bless you, that doesn't worry me!" said Mr. Argent, with a laugh.
+"I'll defy anybody to find that mine without the proper directions, and I
+don't intend to tell even you those, Jack--at least not yet. I really
+didn't let out any information of any account, and what that chap
+overheard, if he heard anything, won't do him any good. I'm not worrying,
+but, of course, I don't like to have strangers sneak up and listen to what
+I say. But no great harm has been done."
+
+"I'm glad of it. And perhaps it's just as well we didn't have them
+arrested. It would make it unpleasant for Jennie to be brought into court."
+
+"That's right, Jack. Well, the fellows got away, so we won't worry about
+them. Now take these letters, and I needn't tell you to be careful of
+them."
+
+"I sure will look out for them," Jack promised, earnestly.
+
+"And just mention them to your cousin at the other end of the line," went
+on the miner. "Have her use a little extra care."
+
+"I'll tell her," promised Jack.
+
+"Another matter," went on the miner, and this time he lowered his voice to
+a whisper as if afraid of being overheard. "These letters aren't so
+important as their answers will be."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Jack.
+
+"I mean that we expect some legal documents by mail, after these letters
+have reached those for whom they are intended," answered the miner. "The
+replies will be very important, and I wouldn't want them to fall into the
+hands of those who are trying to get the property away from us.
+
+"So if you'll just mention to your cousin to bear in mind when any letters
+like these come for me that they're important, and if you'll remember that
+yourself, Jack, why, we'll be much obliged to you."
+
+"I sure will be on the watch," promised Jack. "They'll be registered, of
+course."
+
+"Oh sure! But I don't imagine anything will happen to them. For no one can
+know exactly when they will come. Only be on the watch for them."
+
+"I certainly will! Now if you'll give me those I'll put them in a safe
+place."
+
+Mr. Argent handed over the missives, and Jack put them in his inside
+pocket, and then used a safety pin to close the opening.
+
+"Safety first!" he exclaimed with a laugh.
+
+"That's right," assented the miner.
+
+As Jack rode off on the back of his pony, which was becoming quite famous
+because of his speed and the regularity with which he made the trips, the
+young express rider thought of the two strangers who had suddenly
+reappeared after having annoyed Jennie.
+
+"I just wonder who they are, and what their game is," he reflected. "After
+all, maybe it would have been a good thing if we had caught them. I guess
+Jennie would be game enough to go to court and testify. But I don't know on
+just what charge we could have held them."
+
+"Anyhow, we haven't got 'em, so perhaps it's all for the best. But I sure
+will be on the watch for them again. And I'll have to be on the lookout for
+the replies to these letters. Well, it's all in the game," Jack reflected.
+"Dad probably has gone through the same, and worse, maybe, and he never
+backed down. I've got to keep up his reputation, if I'm doing his work. It
+would be fine, too, if I could find some way of proving that he wasn't at
+fault in that Harrington matter. But I suppose that's too much to expect."
+
+Thus reflecting, Jack rode on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A NIGHT ATTACK
+
+Naturally, after the little experience of the morning, having received the
+sealed letters, and having again seen the two men who had acted so roughly
+toward Jennie, Jack was a little apprehensive as he rode along the trail
+toward Golden Crossing. There were several places very favorable for
+holding up a stage coach, had one used the mountain road, but, as has been
+said, the route was too difficult for a vehicle to traverse.
+
+"Though they might hold me up, more easily than they could a coach if they
+wanted to," reflected Jack. Consequently he approached all suspicious
+places with more than his usual caution.
+
+But as he covered mile after mile and nothing happened, he became easier in
+his mind.
+
+"I guess they aren't going to have a try for us, after all, Sunger," he
+said to his faithful pony. The plucky creature whinnied in answer, as Jack
+patted his neck.
+
+"It wouldn't do 'em much good to make us stand and deliver," mused the
+young express rider. "For Mr. Argent said these letters weren't of prime
+importance. Still, I wouldn't like to have them taken away from me, or lose
+them, and get a bad reputation in this business. I don't want to lose my
+job just now, when dad is laid up."
+
+Jack had feared that the two strangers who had fled in such a hurry from
+the hotel in Rainbow Ridge, might at least try to annoy him on the road, as
+they had taken the trail leading up the mountain to Golden Crossing.
+
+But nothing like this happened, and in due time Jack arrived at the other
+post office and was greeted by Jennie. Jack gave Jennie the message about
+Mr. Argent's letters, but said nothing to her about having again seen the
+two men who had annoyed her.
+
+"It would only worry her," he reflected, "and she has worries enough
+without my adding to them."
+
+Jack remained that night in Golden Crossing, spending a pleasant evening
+with Aunt Matilda and Jennie. He was off early the next morning for the
+ride to Rainbow Ridge. Having delivered the mail, and before going to see
+his father, Jack made some inquiries around the Mansion Hotel about the two
+strangers who had left so suddenly.
+
+No one knew much about them, except that they had ridden in early the
+previous morning, and had eaten a hasty breakfast It had been observed that
+they kept well to themselves, and conversed in low tones.
+
+Then had come the episode of the listening on the part of one, and the
+flight of both of them. That was really all Jack could learn.
+
+"And as long as you didn't see anything of them on the road," said Mr.
+Argent, "I guess you needn't worry. You got my letters off all right?"
+
+"Oh yes."
+
+"Well, now the next thing will be the replies. Watch out for them."
+
+And Jack said he would.
+
+The young pony express rider had a few hours' spare time that day, and he
+spent them with his father. Mr. Bailey was discouraged at the progress he
+was making.
+
+"I don't seem to get at all better, Jack," he complained.
+
+"Well, Dad, it takes time, Dr. Brown says," his son observed.
+
+"I know. But it seems as if I ought to get stronger. I want to be back at
+work."
+
+"Oh, don't worry about that, Dad! I'm on the job, you know. I may not be
+doing as well as you, but I'm taking the mail and express stuff back and
+forth, and I haven't heard any complaints yet."
+
+"Then you haven't lost anything, Jack, and nothing has been taken from
+you?"
+
+"No, Dad. Not a thing."
+
+"And the contents of no important letters have leaked out?"
+
+"Not yet. But I know what you're thinking of, Dad. It's about that
+Harrington letter."
+
+"Yes, Jack, I am. I wish I could prove that it wasn't my fault."
+
+"Don't worry, Dad! Your friends know it wasn't your fault, and some day we
+may be able to prove to your enemies that it wasn't."
+
+"I hope so, Jack, but I've about given up," was the weary answer.
+
+Jack had carefully kept from his father all the little worries that had
+occurred since the change in the pony express business had been made. He
+had said nothing about the misplaced planks of the bridge, nor about the
+two strangers.
+
+"What's the use of worrying dad?" reflected our hero. "He has troubles
+enough of his own. I'll keep mine to myself."
+
+That afternoon, late, as Jack was waiting at the Golden Crossing post
+office for the mail, a messenger rode in to say that the stage would be
+delayed because of a slight accident.
+
+"But the driver wants you to wait," the messenger told Jack, "as there are
+some important letters to go to Rainbow Ridge, and be forwarded from there
+on."
+
+"All right, I'll wait," promised Jack.
+
+"It will mean a night ride," suggested Jennie.
+
+"I know it, but it can't be helped. It's part of the game. I'm not afraid."
+
+But when Jack helped Jennie sort the mail a little later, and found among
+the letters and parcels some large envelopes addressed to Mr. Argent and
+sealed with red wax, a strange feeling came over him.
+
+"Here are those answers," he thought. "These must be the important papers
+about the secret mine. And I've got to carry them through on a night ride.
+Well, I wish they hadn't come just at this time, but there's no help for
+it. I've got to take them through."
+
+He paused for a moment, with the important letters in his hand.
+
+"What are those?" asked Jennie.
+
+"Oh just some stuff for our town," Jack answered, indifferently.
+
+In a flash he had made up his mind not to tell his cousin of the value and
+importance of the mail that night. She would worry if she knew what he was
+carrying along the trail after dark.
+
+And Jack had another plan. He realized that the enemies, or business rivals
+of Mr. Argent, (call them what you will) might know of the arrival of the
+documents.
+
+"They may try to get them away from me," reflected Jack. "Now, I've' read
+somewhere that the best way to throw off suspicion is to make something
+important look unimportant. That's what I'm going to do."
+
+There were a number of newspapers in the mail. While Jennie was out of the
+room a moment Jack opened one bundle of papers, folded the red-sealed
+letters up in one of the papers, put back the wrapper and tossed the
+package into the pouch he would carry over his saddle.
+
+"There!" he thought. "That doesn't look like anything of value. If I am
+held up, the thieves will throw away the newspapers anyhow, and I can get
+them later. I think that's a pretty good scheme, myself."
+
+An hour later Jack was on his way along the mountain trail. It was quite
+dark, for there was no moon. But Jack laughed and sang as he parted from
+Jennie. He pretended that his heart was light, though, truth to tell, he
+was a bit apprehensive.
+
+"Maybe those fellows don't know that the letters have arrived, and, if they
+do, my newspaper stunt will fool 'em," he decided.
+
+It was near the bridge where once he had so nearly had a serious accident
+that, as Jack was riding along, he heard a sudden command:
+
+"Halt!"
+
+"Go on, Sunger! Go on!" yelled Jack in his pony's ear, as he slapped the
+animal on the flank. Then Jack felt himself suddenly attacked, as some one
+rode up alongside him, and dealt him a blow on the head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+IN BONDS
+
+For a moment Jack was so overcome by dizziness and a faint, sick feeling,
+that he could do nothing. Everything seemed black before his eyes, a
+blackness not of night, but the blackness of a fainting fit.
+
+The young express rider reeled in his saddle, but he kept his seat by a
+great effort. Then he fought back the growing faintness that was overcoming
+him.
+
+"I mustn't give in! I mustn't give in!" he told himself fiercely, over and
+over again. "I mustn't give way! I won't! I've got to protect the valuable
+letters--the mail--the express."
+
+Then, somehow, Jack's head cleared. He felt more able to hold himself back
+from that terrible black void. He straightened up in the saddle, and his
+vision was again normal.
+
+In the darkness he could see several men, three at least, standing around
+him. These three were not mounted, though off to one side of the trail Jack
+could see several dark forms which he could make out to be horses. Then he
+saw, as he turned in his saddle, a man behind him on a big horse. This man
+held something in his hand, and Jack guessed it was this individual who had
+struck him. All four of the men wore masks.
+
+"What--what does this mean?" faltered Jack, though he could pretty well
+guess.
+
+"Huh! Don't you know?" was the question shot back at him. He tried to
+distinguish the voice, but could not. It was the mounted man who had
+spoken.
+
+"A hold-up, eh?" asked Jack, his tones faltering in spite of his effort to
+make them steady. That this should come to him in spite of his watchfulness
+was a bitter thing. And a robbery, of all time, when the valuable papers
+and letters expected by Mr. Argent were in the mail pouches, too! There was
+also some valuable express matter. Jack gritted his teeth in anger. Then
+his hand moved toward the pocket where he carried his weapon.
+
+"No you don't!" was the sudden and fierce exclamation of the man on the
+horse beside him, and with a quick motion he caught hold of Jack's hand,
+and jerked it away. "Take his gun!" the man directed. "I'll hold him."
+
+One of the dismounted men came up, and while the man on the big horse held
+Jack in a cruel grip, another of the robbers brought out the revolver which
+Jack's father had given him to carry for protection. But it had afforded
+little of that in this instance.
+
+The young rider tried in vain to pierce behind the masks, and ascertain the
+identity of those holding him up, but it was of no avail.
+
+"What do you want? What's the game?" Jack asked, as the man let go of his
+wrist. The fellow, however, kept one hand on the bridle of the pony, so
+that there was no chance for Jack to make a sudden spurt to escape.
+
+"The game is we want what you've got with you," said one of the men. "And
+you might as well admit that we're going to get it. You may be a pretty
+smart lad, or think you are, but I guess we've got you right now!"
+
+"No, you've got me all wrong," Jack answered bitterly. "And while you were
+about it why didn't you bring a few more along. Four crooks seem hardly
+enough to hold up one pony express rider. Aren't you afraid I'll do
+something to you?"
+
+He spoke lightly--sarcastically. He was fighting for time. Trying to think
+of some plan of escape. He even thought perhaps some one might come along
+to whom he could appeal for help. But there was as small a chance of that
+as there was of his being able to get away by his own efforts.
+
+"I suppose you could have scared up half a dozen more like yourselves," he
+went on. "There are more outlaws in the mountains. Or, maybe, you have
+another force back on the trail, and another ahead here."
+
+"Say, young feller, none of your fresh talk now!" cried one of the men,
+fiercely. "I won't stand it!"
+
+"No, let's get it over with," remarked another.
+
+At these words a chill of fear, such as he had not experienced before,
+seemed to flash over Jack. Did the men mean to harm him--put him to death,
+perhaps, to hide the living witness of their crime? He tried to be brave,
+but again came that faint feeling, and his head ached where he had been
+struck--ached cruelly.
+
+"Yes, lets finish and get a move on," agreed the man on the horse. "Here,
+one of you take the pouches, and another hand me the ropes. I'll have him
+triced up in a jiffy."
+
+Jack breathed more easily. He was only to be bound then, as the outlaws of
+the mountains usually did bind the stage drivers or express messengers whom
+they robbed. There seldom was a killing, unless the victims resisted or
+shot at the hold-up men.
+
+One of the three unmounted men advanced to Jack, and began loosening the
+fastenings of the mail and express pouches.
+
+"Don't touch them!" the pony rider cried. "Leave those mail sacks alone!"
+
+So vehement was he, and so much energy did he put in his voice that, for
+the moment, the man was startled, and drew back.
+
+"What's the idea?" he asked.
+
+"That is government property!" went on Jack, trying to follow up the
+impression he had made. "You are interfering with the United States' mail.
+And I don't need to tell you what sort of a crime that is! You won't have
+to deal with me, you'll have to answer to the government, and the
+inspectors will be on your trail inside of twenty-four hours! Don't you
+touch that mail!"
+
+For a moment the men did seem impressed by Jack's sharp warning. Then the
+man on the horse laughed, and said:
+
+"Oh, quit your talking. Go on, take the sacks and we'll get away. We can't
+stay here the rest of the night!"
+
+"Say, he has a pretty lively tongue," observed the man who was loosening
+the sacks from Jack's saddle. "He gave me a start for a second or two."
+
+"Forget it! Yank 'em off and come on."
+
+Jack felt that it would be useless to protest further. Besides, there was a
+growing feeling of sickness and pain. The man took the express and mail
+packages and tied them on one of the three horses.
+
+"Now then get off, you pony rider!" ordered the man on the big horse. "Get
+off, and get off quick! We're in a hurry and we're done fooling!"
+
+"What--what are you going to do?" faltered Jack. He was beginning to be
+afraid of what was to come.
+
+"We're going to tie you up so tight that you won't get loose in a jiffy,"
+was the answer he received. "You say the inspectors will be on our trail
+inside of twenty-four hours. Well, maybe they won't if you can't get loose
+to give the alarm. So we're going to tie you up."
+
+"That won't prevent the alarm from being given," Jack said. "When I fail to
+arrive there'll be a search made, and they'll find me."
+
+"That's right," Jack heard one of the unmounted men say in a low voice.
+"He's right about that."
+
+"Oh, what of it?" impatiently asked the man on the horse. "Of course this
+thing is bound to be found out sooner or later. I expect that. But we can
+gain a little time by trussing him up with ropes. Now come on--be lively.
+Get off or I'll yank you off, and I won't be easy about it, either!"
+
+Jack felt it best to obey. He leaped from the Saddle, and then, with a
+sharp slap on the flank of Sunger, he cried to his pony: "Go on, boy!
+Home!"
+
+The intelligent animal sprang forward, and before any of the men could
+catch him had darted off down the dark trail in the direction of Rainbow
+Ridge.
+
+"Look out--get him!" one of the men cried, sharply.
+
+"What's the use--he's gone, and he's one of the fastest horses in the
+mountains; we'd never catch him," said the mounted man. "It was a sharp
+trick, lad, but it won't do you any good. Tie him up!"
+
+Jack was handled roughly by the outlaws, and was soon so tightly bound that
+he felt he never could get loose without help. He once more tried to look
+behind one of the masks, but it was so dark that he could see nothing. He
+tried to get a mental picture of the shapes of the men and the tones of
+their voices, so he might know them again if he ever saw or heard them.
+
+"Lay him over here, on one side of the road," ordered the man who seemed to
+be the leader. "Some one may be along before noon to-morrow and take care
+of you," he said to Jack, who did not answer. "If they don't we'll send an
+anonymous message, telling where you can be found. We don't want to hurt
+you, but we had to have this stuff from you, and this was the only way to
+get it," the outlaw went on. "Come along, boys," he concluded.
+
+Then the four men, taking with them the mail and express pouches, galloped
+away in the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A QUEER DISCOVERY
+
+Left to himself, tied tightly with the ropes that cut into his wrists and
+made his legs ache, poor Jack lay in a sort of stupor. He could hardly
+understand what had happened, and his head hurt him very much where he had
+been struck. He was lying on the road at one side of the trail. Overhead he
+could see the stars twinkling. It was still very quiet.
+
+"Not much chance of any one coming along the trail to-night," mused Jack.
+It was the first thought that had come clearly to him, and, in a measure,
+it served to rouse him from his stupor. Then his brain seemed to clear.
+
+"I've got to do something! I can't lie here and wait for some one to come
+and help me!" he decided, Already there was more vigor in the activity of
+his mind.
+
+Jack's first idea, as soon as he had begun to think clearly, was that he
+must loosen his bonds. To this end he writhed and struggled as he lay on
+his back. He managed to roll over on his side, but he found himself more
+uncomfortable than in his first position, and soon rolled back to that.
+
+During this operation he tried, by every means in his power, to stretch or
+strain the knots. He thought if he could only get one of the bonds to give
+he might manage to get one hand out.
+
+"And if I can do that, I'll soon be clear," Jack reasoned, "But it isn't
+going to be easy to get one hand out."
+
+It did not take him long to discover this. The robbers had done their work
+well. They were taking no chances. Jack rested after his struggles. His
+head ached worse than ever because of the rush of blood to it from the
+strain.
+
+"I wonder if it will do any good to call?" he mused. "I'm going to try. But
+I've got to get my breath first."
+
+A little later he began shouting and calling for help, doing it at
+intervals. But he had not much hope. He was on the lonesomest part of the
+trail, which, at best, was seldom traveled. Often days would pass without
+any one, save the pony express rider, going over the mountain.
+
+"I might as well save my breath, I guess," reasoned Jack. "This is only
+playing me out. Maybe they'll come for me when Sunger gets home. Whoever
+sees him without me and the mail will know something has happened. The only
+trouble is they won't know where to look. But it's my best chance, I
+think."
+
+He lay quiet for a period, thinking over the momentous events that had just
+occurred.
+
+"I wonder who those men were, and what they were after," mused Jack. "There
+wasn't enough valuable stuff in the express packages to make four men risk
+state's prison for it. It must have been the mail they were after. And
+nothing of great value was in the mail, except the letters for Mr. Argent.
+Of course, they were what they wanted. And in that case he ought to know
+who would be most interested in taking them. We may be able to arrest the
+men yet.
+
+"But it may be too late," Jack reflected. "They may get the information
+they want and take the secret mine away from those to whom it belongs. That
+would be too bad! But if my plan only works, and those fellows don't open
+that bundle of papers, the letters may be safe yet. It was my best chance.
+If I could only get loose!"
+
+Again Jack struggled and squirmed, but the ropes would not give an inch.
+Suddenly, as the young pony express rider was trying to work loose his
+bonds, he felt a sharp pain in one hand, which was under him, behind his
+back, pressing on the earth.
+
+"Whew! Something cut me then!" Jack exclaimed. "Must be a knife one of the
+men dropped. If I could only get at that and on a rope!"
+
+Carefully he felt along on the ground, so as not to cut himself again. His
+fingers touched something sharp.
+
+"A piece of glass--part of a broken bottle," he murmured. "Well, it may be
+as good as a knife, but I'll probably cut myself more in using it."
+
+He managed to work himself down until he had a firm grip on the piece of
+glass under him--a grip that did not cut.
+
+"Now let me figure this out," he mused.
+
+It was obvious that he could not hold the piece of glass in his fingers and
+saw away at the ropes around his wrists. He could not bend his fingers back
+far enough.
+
+"If I could only get the glass between my feet, I might be able to bend
+them back far enough, by lying on my face, so I could saw on the ropes that
+way," he reflected. He tried, but soon had to give it up. He also
+endeavored to do this by lying on his side, but it was of no use. Then, in
+a flash, it came to him.
+
+"I'll bury the glass in the ground, to hold it," he told himself. "By
+leaving a sharp, jagged edge sticking out I ought to be able to saw through
+the ropes on my wrists, by rubbing the cords up and down against the glass.
+I'll do it!"
+
+It was hard work, but by lying on his side Jack managed, after a fashion.
+He had to work without seeing what he was doing. Even daylight would not
+have helped him, for he could not see behind his back.
+
+By using the glass as a sort of shovel, Jack managed to dig a hole in the
+earth. He then put the long piece of glass in this, upright, and packed
+dirt around it. His fingers came in contact with a small stone, and he used
+this to tamp the soil and gravel around the glass knife, to hold it more
+firmly upright. He cut himself several times while doing this, but he kept
+on.
+
+Finally he was ready to make the attempt. It was more than an hour after he
+first began his operations, and he was weary, for he had to work in a
+cramped and uncomfortable position. He rested a few minutes, and then began
+sawing the rope around his wrists up and down on the sharp piece of glass
+stuck upright in the ground.
+
+It had to be done slowly and gently, because too much pressure would have
+overturned the queer knife. Jack knew he must be patient. He cut his wrists
+more than once, but the gashes were slight, and he thought the bleeding
+would soon stop.
+
+Finally he felt the bonds loosening slightly. Some of the rope strands were
+cut through.
+
+"It won't be long now," Jack thought, gladly.
+
+Again and again on the jagged edge of the glass knife did he rub the cords,
+and finally, with a sudden spreading apart of his hands, he found he could
+break the remaining strands.
+
+His hands were free!
+
+Jack's heart beat high with hope now. He waited a few minutes to let the
+slackened circulation of blood take up its work. Then it was the work of
+but an instant, with the same piece of glass that had served him so well,
+to sever the ropes about his legs. But when Jack tried to stand up he
+nearly toppled over, so weak was he, and so numb were his legs. They had
+gone to sleep from the lack of circulation of the blood.
+
+But in a little while he was all right, and could walk about.
+
+"Now, the question is, what's the best thing to do?" he asked himself.
+"Make for home, as soon as I can, and give the alarm," he reasoned. "I've
+got to give the alarm, if Sunger hasn't already gotten there and given it
+for me."
+
+Off on the dark and lonely trail he started. It was quite different from
+traveling over it on the back of his speedy pony. But it was something to
+be free, and free sooner than the robbers had any idea he would be.
+
+"I may even be able to catch up to them, and trace which way they go," Jack
+thought.
+
+He walked on for nearly an hour, when he heard the trot of a number of
+Horses some distance ahead of him. Jack halted and listened intently.
+
+"I wonder if those are the hold-up men coming back, to make sure I'm still
+tied up, or if it's my friends?" thought Jack. "I can't afford to take a
+chance. I'll hide in the bushes until I see who they are."
+
+He knew every inch of the trail. Near the spot where he was, was a hole in
+the side of the hill where some badly directed man had once started to dig
+a gold mine. He had not gone far before he discovered that iron pyrites was
+the only "gold" in that locality. The hole was never filled up, and was now
+almost hidden from sight by a heavy growth of underbrush.
+
+"That's the place for me," Jack mused. A few strides took him to it, and he
+stepped in to await, in concealment, the passage of the oncoming horsemen.
+
+Something soft and yielding came in contact with Jack's foot. He started,
+thinking he must have stepped on some sleeping beast. But there came no
+outcry, which would have followed in that case.
+
+"It can't be dead leaves," mused the lad, "it doesn't feel that way.
+What--"
+
+He stooped down and felt with his hands. A thrill ran through him.
+
+"The mail pouches!" he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper. "The mail pouches the
+robbers took from me! They hid them here, and I've found them! What luck!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+DUMMY LETTERS
+
+Jack was so overjoyed at his queer and unexpected discovery that, for the
+moment, he forgot all about the approaching horsemen from whom he had
+hidden himself. Then there came a thought to him.
+
+"Perhaps the pouches are empty! If the rascals have taken all the mail out
+and just thrown the empty pouches in here, that isn't such a great
+discovery after all!"
+
+Once more he felt of the pouches in the darkness. He could tell that they
+were well filled--almost the same as when he had tied them to his saddle.
+
+"I don't believe they opened them!" he exclaimed, half aloud. "They must
+have been frightened and thrown them in here, thinking to come back for
+them when they had the chance."
+
+Then he had another idea.
+
+"And that must be the robbers coming now!" he reasoned. "They're coming
+back to get the pouches. What shall I do?"
+
+There was but one answer to that question--he must hide the mail and
+express matter in some other place. He paused a moment to listen. The
+galloping hoof-beats were nearer now, but it would still be some time
+before the riders would be opposite the old mine hole. The trail wound in
+and out at this point, and while sounds came up plainly through the
+rarefied mountain air, bodies themselves could not travel so swiftly.
+
+"I've got five minutes, anyhow," reasoned Jack.
+
+He caught up the mail pouches, one in either hand, though his cut fingers
+and wrists hurt him cruelly. But he gritted his teeth and kept on. He knew
+the ground well. Back of the hole was a slope that extended to a deep patch
+of woods. Jack would hide himself and the mail in there.
+
+He was too excited to notice whether or not the locks on the bags had been
+tampered with. In fact he could not see in the dark and he had no time for
+extended investigation. He just tucked the bags under his arms, and ran
+with them. That is he made as good time as was possible under the
+circumstances. The ground was rough, and Jack himself was very weak. He had
+suffered much that night.
+
+He found a good hiding place down in between two big logs, and there he
+stuffed the mail bags, covering them over with dried leaves. Then he
+hurried back to the hole to get the express stuff.
+
+Fortunately that was light, this trip, and he could easily carry the few
+small parcels that had been entrusted to him. In fact, in those days, only
+light packages were accepted by the pony riders. The mail was their chief
+concern.
+
+So Jack had no trouble in carrying the sacks of express matter to their new
+hiding place. This done he had only to watch to see who the approaching
+riders might be.
+
+Jack worked quickly, and when he had taken the last of his recovered stuff
+to the place between the two logs he sat down in such a position that he
+had a view of the trail. It was getting lighter now, for the dawn was at
+hand. There was a faint glow in the east.
+
+"Well, I certainly have put in a night of it!" Jack thought. "And I may be
+in for more if these are the robbers coming back. They may look for their
+stuff, and make a search if they find it missing. But I don't believe
+they'll find me."
+
+Nearer came the approaching hoof-beats, Jack peered from his hiding place.
+He could hear voices now, but the sound was uncertain. It would not do to
+call out. He must see who it was that was coming.
+
+Suddenly several men rode into view. Jack counted their heads as they were
+outlined against the faintly-glowing eastern sky. There were seven of them.
+Unless the robbers had come back reinforced these must be members of a
+searching party looking for the pony express rider. Yet Jack would take no
+chances. He must be certain.
+
+"Hello, Jack! Jack Bailey! Pony Express! Where are you?"
+
+This was the cry that echoed on the dying night.
+
+Now there was no doubt of it!
+
+Jack leaped to his feet.
+
+"Here I am!" he cried. "Be with you in a second! Send some one up to help
+me carry down the mail!"
+
+He was wildly excited, but he managed to calm himself long enough to light
+a match, and ignite a piece of bark. He wanted to indicate his position to
+the rescuers. They saw the flare and some one cried:
+
+"All right, Jack! Be with you in a minute! Are you all right?"
+
+It was the voice of Dr. Brown.
+
+"Yes, I'm all right. It was a hold-up," Jack explained. "But I have the
+mail and express stuff back--that is I hope I have it all," he added.
+
+Another moment and he was surrounded by his friends. There were Jed Monty,
+the stage driver, Dr. Brown, Amos Perkfeld, the president of the express
+company, Payson Wayde and Mr. Argent, besides Henry Applebaugh, the hotel
+keeper, and one of his stable boys.
+
+"Are you all right. Jack?" Dr. Brown repeated, "Your father insisted that I
+come out and help look for you."
+
+"Yes, I'm all right. Just cut a little, where I sawed off the ropes on a
+piece of jagged glass. But does my father know?"
+
+"Yes, your pony came galloping up to the Watson house, all lathered up,
+with you and the mail missing. We knew right away something had happened,
+after Mr. Watson came rushing into town with the news. So we organized a
+searching party at once. But what happened to you?"
+
+Jack told everything, down to his unexpected finding of the mail, and his
+hiding from the anticipated robbers.
+
+"And so you got everything back!" exclaimed Mr. Perkfeld. "Well, I call
+that luck! Of course neither the government nor I could blame you for being
+robbed, but it is good to get it all back."
+
+"And did my pony get home safe?" asked Jack eagerly. Sunger meant much to
+him.
+
+"He's all right," said the hotel keeper. "I had one of my boys look after
+him. He's a bit winded, that's all. Smart little horse, that! If ever you
+want to sell him, Jack--"
+
+"You needn't ask. I don't," was the quick answer. "But what about my
+father, Dr. Brown? Is he worrying, much?"
+
+"Well, some, of course, Jack. But I gave him Some quieting medicine, and
+he'll soon hear the good news. He's much better these last few days."
+
+The men questioned Jack at length about the appearance of the hold-up men,
+but he could not give a very clear description. No one recognized them as
+any one they knew.
+
+"But we'll get a posse out after them as soon as we get back to town,"
+declared Mr. Perkfeld. "We'll show them they can't hold up the pony express
+and get away with it."
+
+"They didn't get away with it--that's the joke," said Mr. Argent. "I guess
+Jack is right. They probably feared pursuit, or might have gotten an alarm,
+so they dumped the stuff in the old mine hole and rode away, intending to
+come back later. Only Jack got ahead of them."
+
+"That is I hope I did," interposed the pony express rider. "Maybe they have
+looted the bags, though they feel as full as when I look them from Golden
+Crossing."
+
+"Well, we can soon tell," replied Mr. Argent. "It's getting light enough to
+see. The locks have been forced, anyhow, so it isn't any crime for us to
+open the United States' mail under these circumstances."
+
+Jack and his rescuers gathered around while the miner opened the bags. They
+were filled with letters, papers and small parcels.
+
+"There was some stuff for you, Mr. Argent," said Jack. "It was the matter
+you were expecting, I think."
+
+"Yes," assented the miner.
+
+"I think I played a trick on the robbers," Jack went on. "At least I fixed
+up a trick, whether it worked or not we'll have to see now. I put your
+stuff inside a roll of newspapers thinking they wouldn't look there."
+
+"Good plan," said the miner. "I get your idea. But some of the bundles of
+papers have been opened. Maybe the hold-up men thought they would find
+something to eat inside."
+
+Jack's heart fell at these words. If the robbers had opened the packages of
+newspapers it must have been because they expected to find something hidden
+in one of them. And the only thing that was hidden was the parcel of
+valuable letters.
+
+"They evidently opened the bags, looked through the contents, and, after
+putting the stuff back in them, hid the pouches in the hole," said Mr.
+Argent, as he picked up and looked at several packages of newspapers.
+
+"That's the one I wrapped your stuff in, Mr. Argent," said Jack, pointing
+to one newspaper packet. "But--but it's been opened!" he cried, as he saw,
+in the fast-coming morning light, what had happened.
+
+"Yes, it's been opened," the miner agreed. His voice seemed strangely calm
+and collected.
+
+"Are--are the letters gone?" faltered Jack.
+
+"Well, they don't seem to be here," went on the miner, while the others
+looked on, somewhat at a loss what to make of the little scene. "No,
+there's nothing here belonging to me, Jack. Are you sure you put the sealed
+stuff inside this bundle of papers?"
+
+"I'm positive!" Jack answered. "I remember it very well. It was the only
+bundle of papers with that kind of a wrapper."
+
+For a moment there was a silence in the group.
+
+"Well, they are gone," Mr. Argent went on.
+
+Once more Jack wondered at the peculiar manner in which the miner spoke.
+
+"I--I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Argent," said Jack, brokenly. "I thought I was
+doing the best thing to put the letters inside a newspaper bundle. I
+figured that the thieves would pass that over as of no importance. I had
+read of such things being done."
+
+"But I guessed wrong. They must have been looking for the things you
+expected. They must have been on the watch, and were waiting for me to hold
+me up. I'm awfully sorry!"
+
+Jack thought of the suspicion that had been directed against his father
+because the contents of a letter entrusted to him had been made public. Now
+the son had failed in a trust. It was no excuse to say it could not be
+helped. The valuable letters were gone, and that alone mattered now. Jack
+saw himself disgraced, and the pony express route ridden by some one else.
+
+"I'm--I'm awfully sorry," he said again.
+
+"Oh, you needn't be!" exclaimed Mr. Argent, and he was actually laughing.
+"You needn't be."
+
+"Needn't be! What--what do you mean?" gasped Jack.
+
+"Why I mean that those robbers have had their trouble for their pains!
+Those letters were only a dummy set, sent through the mail to throw them
+off the scent. They contained information of absolutely no value. I thought
+there might be a hold-up, Jack, though I could not tell when it would
+occur. So I had my friends send me back a dummy set of letters. It was
+those useless documents which the hold-up men took. The real letters will
+come through later. It's a joke on those outlaws all right," and again Mr.
+Argent chuckled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A RIDE FOR LIFE
+
+Jack Bailey did not know what to do or say. He just stood there in the
+morning light, gazing at Mr. Argent, as though to make sure of the miner's
+words. Finally he faltered:
+
+"Do you really mean it?"
+
+"Mean it? Of course I do!" was the answer. "It's a joke on those rascals.
+They've had all their trouble for their pains. They've gone off with a set
+of dummy letters, plans and other mining information that will take them
+several weeks to digest. And they'll waste a lot of time trying to locate
+the claim. Only they'll be from fifty to a hundred miles from it. Oh,
+they'll be fooled all right!"
+
+Jack experienced a sudden revulsion of feeling. He swayed and seemed about
+to fall. Dr. Brown caught him.
+
+"Hold on! This won't do!" the physician exclaimed. "We must get him home.
+Why he's hurt!" he cried, as he saw the blood on Jack's hands.
+
+"It's just some cuts--from the glass I sawed the rope on," the lad
+murmured. Already his strength was coming back to him. He was so glad the
+robbers had not obtained the real letters. It was a clever ruse on the part
+of the miner.
+
+There was a spring not far from the place where Jack had recovered the mail
+bags, and he was given some water from this. His cuts were also washed and
+attended to by Dr. Brown. Then on a spare horse that had been brought along
+Jack rode back to Rainbow Ridge, one of the men carrying the mail and
+express stuff.
+
+There was considerable excitement in town when the cavalcade returned.
+Already preparations were under way for the organization of a posse to hunt
+the robbers, and if necessary, scour the country for Jack.
+
+But he had been found, and the mail and express matter, except the decoy
+letters, recovered. So the only thing left to do was to set out after the
+unscrupulous men who had attacked Jack.
+
+There was little chance that they would be apprehended, however. They had a
+start of several hours, and probably had good horses.
+
+"Besides," said Mr. Argent, "they will very likely head for the supposed
+location of the mine. It will take them out of this immediate
+neighborhood," he chuckled.
+
+"And for a good while, I hope," said Mr. Perkfeld.
+
+"Oh yes, it will take them a few weeks to find out they've been fooled,"
+the miner said. "But then they may come back again."
+
+"If they do we'll arrest 'em!" declared Jed Monty, cracking his stage whip.
+
+As had been expected, the posse could get little trace of the hold-up men.
+They had disappeared after having cast aside the rifled mail pouches. It
+developed, however, that a few pieces of registered matter, and some
+express stuff had been taken, in addition to the bogus letters. The stolen
+stuff was jewelry, and there was not much chance that it would be
+recovered. Those to whom it was consigned would have to stand the loss.
+
+But when it was considered that nearly all the valuable mail had come
+through safe, or rather, had been recovered, and that Mr. Argent's real
+letters were still safe, every one said it was a very lucky outcome indeed.
+
+Jack's cuts did not amount to much, and he wanted to ride the route the
+next day after his experience, but Dr. Brown and his father would not let
+him. So a substitute was provided, furnishing his own horse, for Jack said
+Sunger was too tired to be used without some rest. The pony had made the
+trip alone, over the trail, and it was his appearance at the Watson home
+which had led to the alarm.
+
+A good rest, and the knowledge that nothing really serious had happened,
+did much to restore Jack, and on the second day following his experience he
+was back in the saddle again. His cuts had been well bandaged, so he could
+use his hands. He was not actually required to ride the express route, but
+he would not let any one else do it.
+
+"Maybe I'll get a chance to trace those robbers," he said. "I feel sure I
+would know at least one of them again--the man who sat on his horse all the
+while. I'm going to be on the watch for him."
+
+The excitement caused by the hold-up of the pony express soon died away. In
+western communities there is so much going on that interest is soon shifted
+to newer events.
+
+The posse that went out to seek the robbers had no luck in finding them.
+All traces seemed to disappear after the bags were found in the old
+mine-hole. A man was kept in hiding at that place for nearly a week, ready
+to give the alarm if the hold-up men returned to get the pouches which they
+had hidden. But they did not come back.
+
+Meanwhile Jack soon became himself again. His father, too, improved slowly,
+though he was far from well, and would not be able to ride the trail again
+for a long time.
+
+Of course, Jennie had to hear the whole story of the hold-up from Jack
+himself, and she sympathized deeply with him.
+
+"Oh, it was just terrible!" she exclaimed, in her impulsive, but sweet and
+girlish fashion. "I just can't bear to think of your lying out there all
+alone, in the dark, and tied up with ropes!"
+
+"Well, it wasn't exactly a picnic," Jack admitted.
+
+"And to think of your cutting yourself on the glass!" she went on, as she
+looked at his hands, one of which she held gently.
+
+"Oh, it might have been worse. If it hadn't been for the glass I might have
+lain there a while longer, and in that case I probably would not have found
+the stolen mail bags, for if I had waited there until the rescuers came I'd
+never have walked down the trail."
+
+"Perhaps it was all for the best," Jennie admitted. "But I do hope nothing
+like that happens again."
+
+"Same here!" exclaimed Jack. "Now have you the mail ready?"
+
+And then, for a time, it was business.
+
+For two weeks or more Jack rode the trail, back and forth, carrying the
+mail and the pony express matter. He was not again disturbed, and Mr.
+Perkfeld gave orders that, except in case of great necessity, he should not
+make night trips.
+
+Nothing more was seen of the hold-up men, and Mr. Argent heard no news
+concerning his mining business. Whether or not those who had taken the
+bogus letters tried to locate the rich claim was not disclosed.
+
+"But the real letters will come along some day--any day now--Jack," the
+miner said, "And when they do--"
+
+"When they do no one shall get them away from me!" Jack exclaimed, and he
+was not boasting. He meant it. And you shall see how he kept his promise.
+
+Several more attempts were made on the part of those who wanted Jack's
+place to supplant him as pony express rider. But he had made himself a
+favorite with the stage drivers, as well as with Mr. Perkfeld, who said
+Jack could keep on riding the trail until his father was ready to resume
+his duties. Several mean little things occurred, which, like the loose
+planks in the bridge, Jack felt were designed to make trouble for him. But
+he avoided them, fortunately, and none was as serious as the bridge
+incident. The author of that remained a mystery, though Jack had his
+suspicions.
+
+Jake Tantrell continued to sneer at our hero. He made several efforts to
+get Jack's place, even offering to do the work for less money, but his
+offer was not accepted.
+
+Then came an unpleasant season, when the fall rains set in. The sun seemed
+to have forgotten how to shine, and Jack fairly lived in his poncho, or big
+rubber riding blanket that went over his head, protecting him and the mail
+bags.
+
+"How's the Ponto river, Jack?" asked his father one day, when the lad had
+stopped to speak to the invalid. "Is she rising much with all this water
+that's falling?"
+
+"Yes, she's getting pretty high, Dad."
+
+"Look out for the bridge there. It isn't any too strong, and it may go out
+with the high water."
+
+"Oh, I'm not worrying about that. They've strengthened it within these last
+two weeks, and I guess it will hold. Still the water is high in the
+mountains. There's some talk of the Richfield dam not holding."
+
+"Is that so? Well, if that goes out the folks down below will get a
+wetting."
+
+"That's what they will! But it may hold until it stops raining."
+
+The Richfield dam was a new one, built above the small settlement of that
+name on the flats about three miles to the northeast of the Ponto river.
+The Richfield river was a branch of the latter, and was a turbulent stream,
+often rising rapidly, for It was confined between steep, high! banks.
+
+Jack had his talk with his father vividly recalled to his mind two nights
+later. It was the first time since the hold-up that he had been obliged to
+ride at night, but there was some valuable mail that had been delayed, and
+that must be put through.
+
+The pony express lad was on his trip toward Rainbow Ridge from Golden
+Crossing, and it was dark when he reached the point where the Richfield
+river branched off from the Ponto. And at the sight which met his eyes the
+lad exclaimed:
+
+"Say, this is certainly high water! I wonder if the dam is holding."
+
+It had rained hard all day. Now it was but drizzling.
+
+"I'm going to take a run down there," Jack decided. "It won't take me ten
+minutes, and you can easily make that up; can't you Sunger?"
+
+The pony whinnied in answer.
+
+"I've time enough, anyhow," Jack went on. "I'll just go and take a look at
+the dam. The water must be two feet over it now."
+
+He turned off the main trail, and was soon approaching the dam. Before he
+reached it he could hear the sullen roar of the pent-up water. And when he
+had a view of the impounded flood he saw at once that it had approached the
+danger point.
+
+Jack looked critically at the dam. He knew something about such structures,
+and about high water.
+
+"I don't believe that dam will last," he argued. "There's too much water
+pressure on it." Even as Jack spoke a small portion of the dam, near its
+juncture with the shore, gave way, and a large volume of water rushed out.
+
+"That's the start!" cried the pony rider. "She'll all go in half an hour.
+I've got to ride down below and warn the Richfield people. Otherwise
+they'll be swept away. I've got to ride and warn them!"
+
+There was nothing else to do. Jack called to his faithful pony and guided
+him into the trail that led to Richfield on the flats below. If that volume
+of water were suddenly to be released through the breaking of the dam, part
+of the village would be wiped out. If they were warned in time the populace
+in the danger zone could take to the hills on either side and escape.
+
+"Come on, boy!" called Jack to his pony. "It's a ride for life all right!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE INSPECTOR
+
+Down the rocky slope, toward the little settlement on the flats below the
+dam, rode Jack. He thought rapidly. If he could beat the flood, there would
+be time to warn the sleeping population so they could flee to the hills.
+There were not many who had their homes in the danger zone, not more than
+twenty-five families.
+
+"I'll wake some of 'em up," Jack reflected, "and then they can warn the
+others. I don't imagine they'll have time to save anything. Too bad! But
+that dam is certainly going."
+
+The rain came pelting down once more, the drops stinging in Jack's face. He
+tried to listen, to ascertain if he could hear the roar of the waters that
+would indicate that the dam had already gone out, but all he could catch
+was the splash of the rain.
+
+Jack's course was along the now turbulent stream that was formed from the
+overflow of the pent-up waters. In normal times this was but a mere brook,
+most of the waters being led off through a pipe line to supply a distant
+irrigation scheme. But now there was so much water that not only was the
+pipe line filled, but the overflow from the dam had turned the brook into a
+river.
+
+"The people ought to have seen the danger, and gotten out before this,"
+reflected Jack, "but perhaps they haven't. Well, I'll do my best to save
+'em!"
+
+On galloped the faithful pony. Jack wished he could put the mail and
+express stuff somewhere until he could conclude his ride for life, but it
+would not be safe to leave it anywhere. Fortunately, he had not much of a
+load that night.
+
+To Jack it seemed that he never would reach the little town, nor see the
+lights of the first cabin loom into sight.
+
+"That is there'll be lights if the folks are up," mused Jack, "and I hope
+some of them are. There'll be some tall scrambling if I have to get 'em all
+up out of bed."
+
+The rain was a perfect torrent now, and the lad realized that, with all
+this additional water falling into the reservoir, and with what it would
+receive from the swollen mountain streams flowing into it, the dam would be
+further endangered.
+
+The pony slipped and almost fell as he went around a bad turn, where the
+trail was filled with rocks.
+
+"Look out there, Sunger!" Jack cautioned him, as he pulled up the faithful
+animal "This is no time to fall!"
+
+But Sunger recovered himself, and galloped on.
+
+Suddenly a light flashed into view, then another.
+
+"A house!" exclaimed Jack. "The first one. Now for the alarm!"
+
+He rode up to the door, glad in his heart that the light was burning.
+
+"Though that doesn't indicate that they're awake," the lad mused.
+
+He pounded on the door, not getting out of the saddle.
+
+"Get up! Get up!" he cried. "The dam will give way in a moment! Get up, and
+help give the alarm!"
+
+There was a moment of silence, broken only by the patter of the rain.
+
+"Hurry! Hurry!" Jack cried, again pounding on the portal.
+
+This time he heard, after a wait of a few seconds, some one moving in the
+house, then a sleepy voice demanded:
+
+"What is it? What's the matter? Who's there?"
+
+"Never mind who I am!" Jack replied. "It's the pony express rider, between
+Golden Crossing and Rainbow Ridge, if you have to know. But the dam is
+giving way! It may have gone out now! There'll be the biggest kind of flood
+on these flats in half an hour! Get up! Take to the hills!"
+
+The door was thrown open, revealing a man wrapped in a blanket He seemed
+just to have gotten up out of bed.
+
+"What's that?" he inquired, sleepily.
+
+Jack repeated his warning. The man understood now. He rushed back in to the
+room.
+
+"Come on, 'Mandy!" he yelled. "Git the children! Hustle into what clothes
+you can! We've got to skip! The dam is going out! Quick now!"
+
+"Warn the others nearest you!" Jack cried, as he turned Sunger away from
+the house. "I'm going to ride on down below and give the alarm."
+
+"I will!" the man answered. "You've probably saved our lives!"
+
+A woman could be heard crying, and children were screaming in fear within
+the house, but Jack could not stay for that. There were others to warn.
+
+On he rode, going past without pause the few houses near that of the man he
+had first called. Jack depended on him to give the alarm to his neighbors.
+
+But the lad called at other cabins, repeating his warning. Some folk he had
+difficulty in arousing, but the news soon spread, and in a short time the
+whole settlement was on the alert.
+
+As Jack knocked on the door of the last house, farthest removed from the
+upper end of the settlement, he heard far off a dull boom like the
+reverberation of an explosion.
+
+"There goes the dam!" cried Jack. "Now the flood will come!"
+
+But the people had been warned in time. They had no chance to save anything
+save their most easily-carried belongings, and with these they fled to high
+ground.
+
+The noise Jack had heard was the breaking of the dam, and a little later a
+great wall of water swept down the narrow valley. It carried everything
+before it, sweeping away the frail cabins in its path. But there was no
+loss of human life, thanks to the brave pony rider.
+
+Jack wished he could stay and help the unfortunates, but he had other
+duties. And, anyway, the residents on the higher ground, who were in no
+danger, came to the relief of their neighbors. Houses were thrown open to
+those whose homes had been swept away, and the refugees were given
+clothing, food and shelter.
+
+The flood did not last long, for the reservoir was soon emptied. But in
+that short time it did great damage; that is comparatively great, for the
+cabins were mostly those of poor persons.
+
+The mass of water gradually subsided, though the heavy rains had made a
+river of the mountain brook, and it was several days before it went back to
+its normal level. Then the work of repairing the damage of the flood was
+taken up.
+
+When Jack saw, that night, that he had done all he could, he turned back on
+the trail, for the mail must not be delayed longer than could be helped,
+and already nearly three hours had been lost.
+
+It was almost morning when he rode into Rainbow Ridge with the first news
+of the burst dam. He made light of his own part in the affair, but that
+came out later, and much honor was paid the lad. He bore his honors
+modestly, however, and the greatest praise--or what he considered such--was
+when his father said:
+
+"I'm proud of you, Jack, my boy!"
+
+Relief for the unfortunate flood victims was sent both from Rainbow Ridge
+and Golden Crossing, and when Jennie heard of the disaster she insisted on
+doing up some of her own clothing and forwarding it to some of the girls
+who had lost theirs.
+
+Every one helped, as is always the case at a time like that, and though
+many families lost everything, still there was no mourning for lives that
+never could be given back. Jack had provided against that by his brave
+ride.
+
+It was two weeks after the flood, and now the mountains were calm and
+peaceful again. The long season of rain had passed, and the weather was
+glorious. Jack enjoyed every moment of it as he rode the trail.
+
+"It certainly is a great life!" he reflected. "I'm glad the way is so
+rough, otherwise they'd be wanting me to use a motor-cycle or an
+automobile. But none of them for me, while I have you, Sunger!"
+
+The pony whinnied his answer, as Jack patted him on the neck.
+
+"Well, anything big to-day, Jennie?" he asked, as he rode up to the Golden
+Crossing office one afternoon. "Anything important? Why, what's the
+matter?" he asked in some concern. "You look worried."
+
+"I am, Jack," she said, and she did not answer his smile.
+
+"What about? Your mother isn't ill; is she? You haven't lost any registered
+letters?"
+
+"No, it isn't that, but a post office inspector has been here, asking me a
+lot of questions. He intimated that things weren't being done right, and
+he's coming back in an hour to check up my accounts."
+
+"Well, I suppose they have to do what they're hired for. Was he mean or
+ugly?"
+
+"No, but he seemed terribly in earnest. And suppose my accounts aren't
+exactly right? I may have made little mistakes. Then he'll report me and
+I'll lose my office. Oh, Jack, I couldn't bear that!"
+
+"Don't worry," Jack soothed her. "I'll stay and have a talk with this
+inspector. Maybe I can help straighten matters out, if they're a bit wrong.
+You say he is coming back in an hour?"
+
+"Yes, and the time is nearly up. There he is now."
+
+Jack looked out, and a strange feeling came over him as he saw a large man,
+on an unusually high horse riding up to the post office.
+
+"Is he the inspector?" asked the pony rider.
+
+"Yes," Jennie answered.
+
+Jack shut his teeth grimly, and a strange look came over his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE CHASE
+
+"On, Jack, what shall I do?" asked Jennie. She was trembling, and seemed
+much alarmed.
+
+"Do? Why you don't have to do anything," the pony express rider answered.
+"Let this inspector ask his questions, and then we'll see what course to
+take."
+
+"Oh, but suppose he finds something wrong--not the proper amount of stamps
+on hand--I can't be sure I counted them right."
+
+"Say, little girl, don't you worry!" Jack went on. "I don't believe this
+fellow will do much questioning."
+
+"Why, Jack, what makes you talk that way? He's a government inspector. He
+told me so! Do you know him?"
+
+"I rather think I do, but I'm not sure," Jack answered. Again there was a
+grim shutting of his lips, and a determined look came into his eyes. "I
+want to hear him speak first," the lad said "Then I can tell better."
+
+The inspector, if such he were, had stopped outside the post office to
+light a cigar. He sat easily on his big horse, and Jack could not help
+admiring the noble animal. The man himself was a fine physical specimen,
+but he had a hard, cruel face, and shifty eyes. There was no one in the
+immediate vicinity of the post office at that time, for Jack had delivered
+the mail an hour before, and he had sauntered back to the office, after
+doing some errands about town, to have a talk with Jennie. The other mail
+would not arrive for another hour, so there was no excuse for the gathering
+of the crowd which always awaited the incoming mail.
+
+Having lighted his cigar, the man again advanced slowly. He looked all
+about, Jack thought, to see if he was likely to be interfered with, but
+this may not have been so.
+
+He dismounted with easy grace, and tied his horse to a post in front of the
+office. Then he sauntered in. Jack sat down in a chair behind a door, out
+of sight. He did not want the inspector to see him until the right moment.
+
+"Well, Miss--er--Blake, I believe you said your name was," began the man,
+and his tone was insolent, "I suppose you are ready to have me go over your
+accounts now?"
+
+Jack started at the sound of his voice.
+
+"That's the fellow--I'm positive of it!" he thought "Now I've got him--got
+one of them, anyhow! Oh, this is luck!"
+
+Jack's eyes gleamed.
+
+Jennie hardly knew what to make of the situation. She half expected Jack to
+do something, or say something, to help her.
+
+Still she was postmistress, and only she was qualified to answer the
+official questions. But if something was wrong?
+
+"Well, then maybe Jack will help me out," she thought. She was trembling
+and was much upset. It was the first time an inspector had called at her
+little office.
+
+"Now, I want to see the records of the registered mail, going and coming,
+Miss Blake. I also must check over your stamps and cash. Have you had in,
+lately, any special delivery stuff?"
+
+"Why, yes--that is--Oh, I hardly know where to begin," said the flustered
+girl, wishing Jack would say something, "You see I've never been inspected
+before."
+
+"Humph!" sneered the man. "You act as though something was wrong. Most
+offices where I go don't have such nervous persons in charge. If everything
+is all right you have nothing to fear. Perhaps you had better step outside
+and let me go over matters myself. That would be better, and you wouldn't
+be so nervous.
+
+"If everything is all right you have nothing to fear, and if there is
+something wrong, well, I'll be as easy in my report to Washington as I can.
+I won't make it too hard for you. Yes, I think that will be best. Just
+leave the office to me for a little while."
+
+Jennie flashed, over the man's head, a look at Jack in the corner behind
+the door. The young pony express rider had arisen, and, to her alarm,
+Jennie saw his hand go toward the pocket where she knew he carried his
+revolver--a new one since the robbers had taken his first one.
+
+Jennie wanted to scream.
+
+"Just run along, little girl, and let me have the place to myself," the man
+urged.
+
+It was time for Jack to act.
+
+He fairly sprang out from behind the door and confronted the man.
+
+"Are you sure," Jack asked, "that if she left the post office to you that
+you wouldn't run off with it?"
+
+The man started back. He turned a little pale, and then a flood of red
+surged into his face. He seemed to recover himself with an effort.
+
+"I--I don't know what you mean. Who are you?" he demanded, curtly.
+
+"Never mind who I am, but who are you?" and Jack fairly shot out the words.
+
+"Why, I'm the post office inspector for this district," was the answer, and
+again the man's tone was sneering. "Are you connected with the department,
+if I may ask?"
+
+"I am," said Jack, grimly.
+
+"In what capacity?"
+
+"Pony express rider!" shot out Jack. "The same pony express rider that you
+and your gang of outlaws held up not long ago! I know you now. I was sure
+of you the minute I set eyes on you on that big horse, and when I heard
+your voice I was doubly sure. Wearing your mask didn't help any. I know
+you! You're no more a post office inspector than I am. You're a post office
+robber, that's what you are!"
+
+The man started to speak, but stopped suddenly. As Jack was about to draw
+his weapon to order the man to submit, the fellow with a sudden leap was
+out of the place. In another instant he had jumped to the back of his
+horse, yanking loose the tie rope as he leaned over the saddle. Then with a
+clatter of hoofs he was off.
+
+Jennie screamed, but Jack, flashing past her to get outside, yelled:
+
+"Stop him! Get after him! He's one of the fellows who held up the mail, and
+robbed me! Stop him!"
+
+Jack fired in the air to attract attention, for the neighborhood was
+deserted. He could not bring himself to fire at the man, nor even at the
+splendid horse. Though the provocation was great, and though Jack would
+have been justified, he could not do it.
+
+"Stop him! He's a post office robber!" Jack yelled, again firing a shot
+Then, leaping on the back of his pony which was waiting for him outside the
+building, Jack gave chase after the escaping outlaw.
+
+"We've got to get him, Sunger!" he cried. "We've got to get him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A CAUTION
+
+Shots always attract attention, especially in a western community where
+they usually mean something. In cities there are so many noises constantly
+being heard, and back-fires and tire blow-outs from automobiles so nearly
+resemble the discharge of firearms, that if a revolver actually were to be
+fired in a crowded street it is hardly likely that it would attract notice.
+
+But in the quiet little western town of Golden Crossing shots were rather a
+novelty. The place was peaceful and law-abiding, and, as was said, when
+pistol reports were heard, there usually was some good reason for them.
+
+In consequence, when Jack shot off his revolver, it was not long before the
+main street in front of the post office was thronged.
+
+Men came rushing out of stores and houses, and there appeared also not a
+few women and children. Jack, racing down the street after the escaping
+outlaw, looked back and saw that he was able to call for reinforcements.
+One man had already jumped on his horse and was joining in the chase.
+
+"What's the row?"
+
+"It's one of the men who held me up!" exclaimed Jack in answer.
+
+"We'll get him!" was yelled back, and several more men hurried to loosen
+the tie-straps of their horses to lend their aid.
+
+"I don't know whether we'll get him or not," Jack mused, as he urged his
+pony on. "He's got a good start of us, and that horse of his can go some,
+or I miss my guess. Besides, he's a regular ox, and can keep going for
+hours at a time.
+
+"You're all right, Sunger, and there isn't a better pony living," Jack went
+on, "but it's like putting a little runabout auto up against a big racing
+car. It isn't equal. Still we'll do our best."
+
+Several men were now taking part in the chase. The first one who had heard
+what Jack said had passed the word to the others, and the posse, so hastily
+organized, understood what sort of man they were after.
+
+Some of the men were miners, and others were rough characters--that is
+rough in the sense that they lived in the open and were ready for whatever
+came along. Some of them began firing their "guns," as they called their
+revolvers, but there was no chance of hitting the fleeing man, as he was
+now out of sight beyond a turn in the trail. Realizing this the men fired
+in the air, hoping, perhaps, that the sound of the shots would intimidate
+the fellow, and cause him to stop.
+
+But the man ahead was made of as stern and as desperate stuff as were the
+majority of his pursuers. He must have known that Jack had recognized him,
+and he realized the penalty if he were caught. So he made up his mind that
+he would not be taken.
+
+Jack was the nearest to him, and as the pony express rider caught
+occasional glimpses of the fellow, he saw him beating his horse to urge the
+magnificent animal to still greater speed.
+
+"There's no use trying to catch him," thought Jack, "he's got too much of a
+start, and his horse can beat anything around here. I guess he knows that."
+
+Still Jack would not have given up had not something occurred that made it
+absolutely certain that the chase was useless.
+
+Coming to a bit of soft ground Sunger stumbled and fell, throwing Jack
+cleanly over his head. Fortunately the lad landed on a bank of thick ferns,
+so that his fall only jarred him. The pony was not hurt, and soon scrambled
+to his feet and looked at his owner, Jack imagined, with a sort of
+apologetic expression.
+
+"I know you couldn't help it, Sunger, old boy," the lad said. "It wasn't
+your fault."
+
+He limped toward his steed and patted him. Then Jack saw that one of his
+saddle girths had broken. With that unmended it would be useless to try to
+continue the pursuit. The saddle would slip from under him, and bareback
+riding on the mountain trail is out of the question.
+
+Jack realized this, and when the first of the posse came up it was decided
+to abandon the pursuit for the time being.
+
+"We can't get him now, but maybe we can trail him later," said Jack.
+"There's no use in my going on."
+
+"No. And you'll be needed to carry the mail," a man replied. "The stage
+will be in soon. You'd better get back. Some of us will plan to follow the
+fellow. We can ask along the way, and maybe get trace of him. If so, we'll
+let you know."
+
+One or two of the pursuers who had no special duties to take them back to
+the town agreed to follow the trail of the pursued one for some distance
+further. The others went back with Jack, temporary mending having been done
+to the saddle girth.
+
+"Well, he got away, Jennie," said Jack, regretfully, as he entered the post
+office again.
+
+"I'm glad of it!" she exclaimed impulsively.
+
+"What!" he cried
+
+"I mean for your sake," she added. "He might have shot you, Jack!"
+
+"Oh, thanks for your care," he laughed, "But I wish we could have gotten
+him. It would be a big feather in my cap."
+
+"I don't care for caps with feathers," Jennie retorted. "But what in the
+world do you suppose he wanted, Jack? And why did he pass himself off as a
+post office inspector?"
+
+"So he could have a chance to look over your records And he may have
+thought there was something of value in the waiting mail that he could take
+away with him, if he got you out of the place.
+
+"That was his game. You see the gang of outlaws didn't even make what might
+be called expenses out of their hold-up of me. They had their trouble for
+their pains, and I suppose they were wild when they found out the valuable
+letters they took were only dummies.
+
+"Probably the fellow thought the real letters might be coming along soon
+now, and he wanted to get them. I guess he must be the head one of the
+crowd that is trying to get control of the secret mine Mr. Argent is going
+to work. Those fellows are desperate. But this one didn't get anything."
+
+"He came near it, though," Jennie said. "Only for you I suppose I would
+have been foolish enough to go out and leave him in the office alone. There
+wasn't much he could take, however. But I did get a new supply of stamps
+yesterday, nearly fifty dollars' worth. If he had taken them--"
+
+"He wasn't looking for any such small change as stamps," said Jack. "I know
+what he was after--it was the real Argent letters. Well, he got away from
+us, more's the pity, though the men may overhaul him later. Now I've got to
+get ready for the back trip."
+
+But Jack did not have to make it that night. The incoming mail was late and
+as there was nothing of importance to go through, Jack followed the
+previous instructions he had received and remained in Golden Crossing.
+
+He was glad he did not have to take the night Tide. His pony was quite
+shaken up by the fall, and a little lame. Jack himself felt sore and stiff,
+and it was much pleasanter to remain with his relatives, spending the
+evening in Jennie's company, than to ride the lonely mountain trail after
+dark.
+
+Late that night the men who had kept on with the pursuit came back to
+report that they had lost the trail of the man they were after. He had made
+good his escape, at least for the time being.
+
+"But we'll get him yet!" some of them boasted.
+
+"They won't if he gets a start on that horse of his," thought Jack.
+
+When Jack made his appearance at the Mansion Hotel the next morning to
+deliver the mail, and take that which was to go back to Golden Crossing,
+the pony express rider was met by Mr. Argent.
+
+"Just a word with you, Jack," said the miner. "You remember the bogus
+letters that were taken away from you, I suppose?"
+
+"I should say I did!" Jack exclaimed. "Why, have they found them?"
+
+"No. But it doesn't matter about them. I want to tell you now that the real
+papers and letters--the ones that contain the information about the
+mine--may be along any day or night now. And I want to ask you to be
+specially careful about them."
+
+"I will, Mr. Argent."
+
+"I know you will, Jack, but I want to caution you, not only about them, but
+about your own safety. There are a number of desperate men who would go
+almost any length to get possession of that package of documents. So be on
+your guard."
+
+Mr. Argent suddenly ceased speaking and looked around. They were out in
+front of the hotel, near a clump of bushes. Without saying anything further
+Mr. Argent suddenly made a leap behind the shrubbery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SUNGER GOES LAME
+
+Jack was on the alert, ready to follow, but there was no need. Mr. Argent
+came back with a grim smile on his bronzed face.
+
+"I thought I heard a movement there, as if some one were listening," he
+said, "but it was a false alarm."
+
+"Are they trailing you as closely as that?"
+
+"Yes, and more so," was the answer. "There's a big fight on to get this
+mine away from me and my friends, but we're going to beat our enemies.
+They'd give anything to get the information that is to come to me through
+the mail, and that's why I'm always on the lookout, fearing some one may
+overhear what I say."
+
+"But I thought you knew where the mine is," said Jack.
+
+"So I do, and I'm one of the very few men who do know the exact location."
+
+"Then why are you expecting information through the mail that will disclose
+the place where it is?"
+
+"You don't exactly understand," was the reply. "You see, after the man who
+first located the mine came back with some rich samples of gold from it, he
+died, and the place where he had made the strike was lost for some time.
+Then the documents giving the location were found by those entitled to
+share the wealth, and I came in on the deal.
+
+"Now, in order to have everything perfectly legal it was necessary, in this
+particular case, to send to the authorities to have our titles made good.
+To do that we had to describe exactly where the mine was located. We had to
+send this information to the government officials in San Francisco. But of
+course our secret is safe with them.
+
+"The trouble is, however, that they are now sending back to us our original
+documents, which give the location of the mine, and with them come our
+proofs to the claim, our legal title so to speak. Of course all these
+papers contain the written description of the location of the mine. If
+these papers fall into the hands of the men who are working against us they
+may jump our claim, as they call it, for it is not yet legally secured to
+us.
+
+"That is why I am so anxious not to have the expected letters lost. So if
+you get them, Jack, take good care of them."
+
+"You can make sure I will!" exclaimed the pony rider.
+
+"Oh, I'm not worrying about you, Jack. I mean I know I can trust you, just
+as I could have trusted your father were he on the express route. It's the
+other fellows I'm worrying about. They held you up once, Jack, and--"
+
+"They won't get a second chance!" exclaimed the lad, with flashing eyes.
+"I'll be on the watch."
+
+"Well, they're pretty foxy and cunning," went on the miner. "It's treachery
+more than anything else you have to fear now; treachery and guile. They'll
+try them now they've found out their hold-up methods didn't work!"
+
+"Well, they may try them again," said Jack, "but they won't catch me
+napping again."
+
+"Oh, I guess you weren't napping, Jack."
+
+"No, not exactly. It all happened so suddenly they didn't give me a chance.
+Though I suppose that was their game. Well, I'll do my best."
+
+"I know you will, Jack. Now, as I said, I don't know just when the
+documents will come. If I did I'd be there myself, and bring 'em through. I
+wouldn't ask you to take the risk."
+
+"Oh, the risk is part of the game," Jack said.
+
+"I know it is, but I don't believe in anybody--man or boy--taking too many.
+But, not knowing when they'll arrive, I'll have to trust the regular mail
+service. Only one thing, Jack. Don't bring them through at night. I mean by
+that, don't make a night trip just for my papers. Of course, if you have to
+make a night ride anyhow, and the documents arrive at Golden Crossing,
+bring them along with you. But don't make a special trip on their account,
+as there is no rush about them. I suppose you can depend on the people at
+the other end of the line--I mean in the Golden Crossing office?"
+
+"Well, I should say I could!" declared Jack, energetically. "Jennie Blake
+is postmistress there and--"
+
+"Oh, I forgot. She's a relative of yours, isn't she?"
+
+"Yes," answered Jack, and he blushed under his coat of tan.
+
+"Well then of course it's all right. I am not greatly worried about the
+transportation from San Francisco to Golden Crossing. It's from there to
+here the documents will be taken, if at all."
+
+"They won't be taken at all!" declared Jack. Of course, he was boyishly
+enthusiastic. For that one can not blame him. He was deeply interested in
+his work. To him it meant everything. He wanted to bring the mail through
+safe, and on time every trip. And, so far, he had more than made good.
+
+That one hold-up did not count against him, especially as he had so soon
+recovered the bulk of the stuff.
+
+"Well, I guess that's all I have to say to you, Jack," concluded the miner.
+"As I remarked, I can't say just when the papers will arrive. And when they
+do--well, take the best care of them you can."
+
+"I wonder how it would do to try another ruse, and hide them, say in a
+loosely tied package, that looked as if it didn't contain anything more
+valuable than a pair of old shoes?"
+
+"That might answer. But as you tried that game once, and it didn't work, it
+would hardly deceive the outlaws a second time. But use your own judgment,
+Jack. I leave it all to you. Only bring me the papers, and don't let the
+other fellows get them."
+
+"I won't!"
+
+"Shake!" exclaimed the miner, and their hands met in a firm clasp.
+
+Jack rode the trail that day, reaching Golden Crossing with the packages
+and letters.
+
+"Well, Jennie," he remarked, "the game is on."
+
+"What game?" she asked. "I hope you don't mean any more bogus inspectors
+are coming here."
+
+"No. I mean that any time now that package of mine documents may reach
+here. When it does, put it in the safe if I'm not here."
+
+"And what are you going to do with it?"
+
+"Carry it to Rainbow Ridge, of course."
+
+"Oh, Jack! Suppose something happens?" half whispered Jennie.
+
+"Well, I hope it doesn't. And I'm going to do my best to see that something
+doesn't happen. But if it does, well, I'll have to put up with it, I
+suppose," Jack said, with a shrug of his shoulders.
+
+"I almost hope the old package doesn't come," murmured Jennie, with a pout
+of her pretty lips.
+
+"Oh, that wouldn't do," said Jack. "It's very valuable and important. And
+that's what the pony express is for--to transport speedily valuable and
+important packages and letters. I'll make out all right, I guess."
+
+"I--I hope so," she faltered.
+
+For several days after that Jack watched the mails anxiously for a sight of
+the package of documents relating to the mine. But it did not come, and as
+he made each trip he planned what to do at certain points of the road,
+where he might possibly be held up again.
+
+"Though it's a question, just as Mr. Argent says, whether they would try
+the same tactics twice," Jack reasoned. "They may try some other game. I'll
+have to be on the watch for both."
+
+Mr. Argent himself was getting anxious now. Each time Jack came into
+Rainbow Ridge from his trip, the miner asked if the letters had come. Each
+time Jack answered in the negative.
+
+"Well, they'll be along any day now," Mr. Argent would say. "Be on the
+lookout."
+
+Jack was idling about the Golden Crossing post office about a week after he
+had received the caution to be on his guard. He was waiting for the stage
+to come in with the western mail, with which he expected to make the ride
+back to Rainbow Ridge.
+
+A dusty messenger rode up on a tired and lather-covered horse, and called
+to Postmistress Jennie:
+
+"Is the pony express rider here?"
+
+"Yes," answered Jack, coming forward. "What's wanted?"
+
+"Stage has had a bust-up a little way out," the messenger said. "I come in
+to get help, and to say that the driver wants to see you."
+
+"Wants to see me?"
+
+"Yes, he's got a bundle of mail that's marked '_Rush_,' and he wants to
+know if you can ride out there, get it and take it on to Rainbow Ridge."
+
+"Well, I suppose I can," Jack said, "though it isn't regular."
+
+"No, he told me to tell you he knowed that. And he said he'd have sent the
+mail in by me, only there's some valuable stuff in it, and he wants a
+regular man to take it. So will you go out?"
+
+"I think I'd better, yes. How far out is the stage?"
+
+"About five miles. Half way between Bosford and Tuckerton," was the answer.
+
+"All right, I'll ride out and get the mail," decided Jack, and in due time
+he arrived at the place where the stage had been delayed because of a
+broken wheel. The mail was transferred to Jack, and he started back with
+it.
+
+"I wonder if the important letters can be in this bag," mused Jack, as he
+urged Sunger onward. There was no way of telling.
+
+The stage, as the messenger had said, had broken down half way between
+Bosford and Tuckerton. These were two small settlements, the last one being
+about three miles from Golden Crossing.
+
+As Jack was passing through the eastern outskirts of Tuckerton he noticed
+that Sunger was limping slightly.
+
+"Hello! What's this? Got a stone under your shoe?" he exclaimed, as he got
+off. He made an examination and found that such was the case. Sunger had
+gone lame, though not so badly but that, with the removal of the stone, the
+animal could be ridden.
+
+"I'll fix you up," Jack said, as he guided the pony to a shady spot on the
+trail, and proceeded to get out a simple kit he carried with him for
+emergencies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+AN INVITATION DECLINED
+
+Jack's first idea was that he could soon and easily remove from between the
+hoof and shoe the small stone that was making his pony lame. But when he
+got to work at it, with a peculiarly shaped hook, such as is used for that
+purpose, the lad found the work was going to take longer than he had
+anticipated.
+
+"But it's got to be done, old boy," he said, addressing the little horse.
+"It's got to be done, and I've got to do it. I can't very well walk you to
+the blacksmith shop back in town, for you'd be lamer than ever, and I'd
+probably have to stable you; and I can't leave you with the mail and go and
+get the smith to come out here. So I've got to do the work myself. I'll be
+a little late with the mail, but it can't be helped."
+
+Jack realized that he would have a good excuse to offer for not getting
+back to Rainbow Ridge on time, as he had had to go out of his usual route
+to bring in the mail to Golden Crossing, which was still some miles away.
+
+"They can't expect me to do two men's work in the time of one, and
+especially when my pony goes lame," Jack murmured, as he worked over the
+stone, which persisted in staying where it had become wedged.
+
+"Well, old boy, I don't seem to be coming along very fast," Jack went on,
+as he sat down to rest, for the day was hot, and, in spite of being in the
+shade, he felt the heat very much.
+
+"I don't want to loosen your shoe too much, or it will come off, and then
+I'd be in a worse pickle than ever," he continued, talking aloud, as he
+frequently did when on the trail. "And yet if I don't, I can't see how I'm
+going to get at that stone. Well, we'll have another try in a minute."
+
+Sunger did not seem to mind the rest. He began quietly cropping grass by
+the wayside when Jack let down the hoof in which the stone was imbedded. As
+long as the pony rested no weight on that foot he was all right. It was
+when he walked or galloped with Jack and the sacks of mail on his back,
+bringing pressure to bear, that the lameness was noticeable.
+
+Again the young express rider busied himself with the task. He shook his
+head over the work, for it seemed more and more impossible to get the stone
+out without taking off the shoe, and that would mean going back to the
+blacksmith's shop to have it nailed on again.
+
+"Regular nuisance, having this happen," said Jack. "But of course I know it
+isn't your fault, Sunger."
+
+The sound of hoof-beats on the trail caused Jack to look up as he was
+bending over the shoe. He saw riding toward him a stranger. The latter drew
+up his horse, nodded in friendly fashion, and remarked:
+
+"You seem to be having some trouble there."
+
+"Yes," Jack admitted. "Pony's gone lame. Got a stone under his shoe, and I
+don't seem to get it out."
+
+"A bad thing in your business, I should judge," the man went on. "Pony
+express rider, aren't you?"
+
+That could be told by a glance at the mail sacks.
+
+"Yes," Jack answered, for the man seemed anxious to be friendly. "I ride
+between Golden Crossing and Rainbow Ridge."
+
+"Sort of out of your way here, aren't you?"
+
+"Yes. I had to ride out to get the mail. Stage broke down again. I'm going
+in to Golden Crossing now, and then on to the Ridge. That is, I am if I can
+get this stone out."
+
+"Say, if you don't mind, let me have a chance at it," suggested the man,
+getting off his horse with an ease that showed he was accustomed to the
+saddle. "I used to know something about smithy work, and I've got a better
+hook than the one you're using."
+
+"Well, if you don't mind, I wish you would have a try," said Jack,
+straightening up his bent and aching back. "It seems to have gotten the
+best of me."
+
+The stranger patted Sunger, who sniffed at him and seemed satisfied. The
+pony rubbed his velvet nose against the man's coat. This was his way of
+making friends. Sunger did not do this with every one, either, and Jack
+felt more interest in the newcomer on that account.
+
+"Now, let's see what we have here," the man went on, as he lifted the
+pony's lame foot. "Oh, my name's Ryan," he added, as an afterthought.
+
+"And mine's Jack Bailey," said our hero, completing the introduction.
+
+"Glad to meet you. I'm riding your way, and I'll go on with you after I get
+you fixed up, or, rather, your pony.
+
+"Think you can do it?" Jack asked.
+
+"Oh yes, I'll soon have this out. You almost had it yourself, but you were
+working at it the wrong way."
+
+He proved that he knew what he was talking about a few minutes later, by
+exclaiming:
+
+"There it is!"
+
+He held up the stone that had caused all the trouble. It was of peculiar
+shape, which accounted for the manner in which it had become wedged fast.
+
+"Thanks!" Jack exclaimed. "Now the question is about the shoe. Is it so
+loose that I can't go on?"
+
+"It is a bit loose," the man said. "But I can fix that for you. I carry a
+spare shoe or two myself. They wouldn't fit your pony, for they are too
+large. But I've got a hammer and nails in my saddle bags. I ride about a
+good bit, and my nag often casts a shoe, so I go prepared. I'll have this
+one tightened up in a jiffy."
+
+Jack watched Ryan interestedly. The man seemed very capable, and it is
+often the custom of cowboys or range riders to carry with them spare shoes,
+nails and a hammer, to reset a shoe of their mounts when far from a
+blacksmith shop.
+
+In a few minutes the shoe was as tight as necessary, and Jack could again
+mount his pony and ride on.
+
+"I'm a thousand times obliged to you," he said to Ryan. "It was quite a
+job, wasn't it?"
+
+"Well, yes. Not so hard as some I've tackled, though. But it's a warm day,
+and I think after that we're entitled to a little refreshment. What do you
+say?"
+
+For a moment Jack did not understand.
+
+"Refreshment," he repeated. "There's no place around here where you can get
+anything to eat. No places short of going back to Tuckerton. And I'm not
+hungry enough for that."
+
+"Hungry? Shucks, no! I'm not myself. I wasn't talking about anything to
+eat. I meant something to drink."
+
+"Oh," said Jack, and a queer sort of feeling came over him. "Well, there's
+no ice cream soda place around here, either," and he smiled.
+
+"Ice cream soda? Shucks! I'm talking about a man's drink! And I don't need
+any one to wait on me, either. I carry it with me. It's safer in case of
+emergency," and he laughed in what he evidently meant to be taken as a
+friendly fashion.
+
+"Here, have a smile with me," he went on, producing a pocket flask. "It's
+stuff I can recommend," he added. "It'll do you good after working over
+that shoe. Come on, help yourself, and then I'll take what you leave,
+though there's plenty in that bottle, and more where that came from."
+
+He held out a dark flask to Jack.
+
+Jack backed away and shook his head.
+
+"No, thank you," he said, firmly.
+
+"What!" the man exclaimed in seeming surprise. "You don't drink?"
+
+"No," Jack replied. "It wouldn't do in my business, you know. Besides, I
+wouldn't drink anyhow."
+
+"Oh, shucks! Just one wouldn't hurt you, and there's no one to know. Your
+boss won't find it out, for I won't tell. After going through what you have
+you need a drink."
+
+"Perhaps I do," said Jack with a smile, wiping the perspiration from his
+forehead, "but I don't want that kind of a drink. There's a spring just a
+few steps on, and it's the coldest and best water for miles around. I'm
+going to have some of that, and give the pony some, too. Your horse would
+appreciate it, I think."
+
+"Humph! Water may be all right for horses, but I don't care for it," was
+the somewhat sneering answer. "Then you won't drink with me, Jack Bailey?"
+
+"No, thank you. I'll join you in a tin dipper of spring water, but that's
+all."
+
+"Well, if you won't you won't, I suppose," the man said, slowly. "Everybody
+to their notion. I don't take much, but I like a little now and then. So
+here goes."
+
+Jack did not stay to see what the man did, but walked on to the spring with
+Sunger. The pony showed no trace of lameness, now, for which Jack was glad,
+as he had a hard ride ahead of him.
+
+As the lad was getting himself a drink, and letting Sunger get some from a
+pool below the spring, Jack heard the sound of a galloping horse, and
+looked up in surprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A QUEER FEELING
+
+Jack's first thought was that Ryan had ridden off in haste after having
+helped himself to a drink from the flask, but, somewhat to his surprise, he
+saw the man who had removed the stone from the pony's hoofs still standing
+beside his horse. The galloping came from another rider who seemed in
+haste. He waved his hand to Jack, and cried:
+
+"Hold on! Wait!"
+
+"Well, I wonder what's up now?" mused the pony express lad. "He seems to
+want me."
+
+"I was afraid I wouldn't catch you," exclaimed the young fellow who had
+ridden up in such haste. Jack recognized him then as Harry Montgomery, an
+employee of the stage line that ran out of Golden Crossing to the west.
+
+"Do you want me?" Jack asked.
+
+"Yes. They forgot to give you some important mail stuff when you rode out
+to the stage a while ago. The stage has come on into Tuckerton now, and the
+driver sent me on to see if I could catch you. He wants you to ride back
+into town, if you will, and get the stuff he forgot to give you."
+
+"Why didn't he let you bring it?" asked Jack, not much relishing the ride
+back. It would delay him still further, and he had enough valuable mail in
+his possession now without wishing for any more.
+
+"The driver said he didn't like to have me carry it, as I'm not supposed to
+do that. Besides he wants you to receipt for it. But if I couldn't catch up
+to you I guess he intended to hold the stuff over until your next trip."
+
+"Oh well, as long as it's only a case of a mile's ride back to Tuckerton, I
+suppose I'd better do it," Jack reasoned. "You wouldn't have caught me,
+only my pony went lame and I was delayed getting the stone out," he said to
+Harry. "This gentleman helped me."
+
+"Oh, it wasn't much," said Ryan, nodding to Harry. The latter did not
+appear to know him. The flask which had been in so much evidence a little
+while before was not in sight now.
+
+"Yes, I'll ride back and get the stuff," Jack decided. It had come into his
+mind that perhaps the forgotten package contained the letters Mr. Argent
+was expecting. They might have been sent by special mail, and not be in the
+regular sacks. It would be best for Jack to go, though he would be delayed.
+
+"And if it's too late, and if I think they are the letters about the secret
+mine, I won't do any night-riding," Jack decided, mentally.
+
+"Well, I'm glad I caught you," Harry said, as he turned his horse about.
+
+"Yes, it would have been too bad if you had had your ride for nothing," the
+pony express lad said. "Well, Sunger, old boy, we'll hit the back trail
+again for a little while," and Jack swung himself up into the saddle.
+
+Somewhat to Jack's surprise, when Ryan mounted, he, also, turned his
+horse's head in the direction of Tuckerton.
+
+"Are you going back, too?" Jack asked him.
+
+"Yes, I guess I might as well."
+
+"But I thought you were going to Golden Crossing."
+
+"So I am. But it just occurred to me that I am hungry, and there's an
+eating place in Tuckerton, isn't there?"
+
+"Yes," answered Harry. "But it isn't a very good one."
+
+"Oh, well, when a man's hungry he can't be too particular. I guess I can
+stand it."
+
+The three rode back together, and in a short time had reached the small
+town. The stage had pulled in, temporary repairs having been made, and the
+driver who handed Jack a sealed package expressed regret at having to bring
+him back.
+
+"It was all my fault, too," the driver said. "I ought to have remembered
+about this special package, for they told me there was some hurry about it.
+But I was sort of knocked out by the accident, and it slipped my mind. I'm
+glad you've got it now."
+
+Jack looked at it. The packet might contain letters, though it did not look
+large enough to hold maps of any size. And, to Jack's surprise, it was
+addressed, not to Mr. Argent, but to the postmaster at Rainbow Ridge. He
+had been so sure that it was the valuable letters and papers the miner
+expected that for the moment Jack almost expressed his astonishment. But
+Ryan and some others were standing near-by, and the lad felt it better to
+keep still.
+
+Besides, the letters Mr. Argent expected might be in the regular mail bags,
+which Jack carried on his saddle, those bags not having been opened since
+he received them from the broken-down stage.
+
+"Well, I guess now you're all right," the stage driver went on. "You can
+get on your way, Jack. I won't have to call you back again."
+
+"I hope not. I'm late enough as it is."
+
+"I'm sorry, my boy."
+
+"Well, it couldn't be helped, I suppose. I don't want to make a night trip,
+If I can help it."
+
+"Do you often do that?" asked Ryan.
+
+"Oh, occasionally. But since I was held up once I don't hanker after it."
+
+"Were you held up?" Ryan seemed much interested.
+
+"Yes," Jack said, but he did not go into details. He had no time.
+
+"I say!" exclaimed Ryan, as Jack was about to ride off again. "It wouldn't
+be a bad idea for you to have a blacksmith look at that shoe I fixed. I did
+the best I could, but I can't guarantee that it will stay on. There's a
+smithy right across the way."
+
+"I believe I will do that," Jack said. "It won't be any joke if Sunger
+casts a shoe when I get on the mountain trail. I'll take him over to the
+shop."
+
+The smith was busy, but Jack decided to wait.
+
+"I'll have plenty of time if I don't have to make a night ride," he
+remarked.
+
+"Say, while you're waiting," suggested Ryan, who had followed Jack over to
+the blacksmith shop, "why not come and have a bite to eat with me. You
+wouldn't drink with me, but you can't object to eating."
+
+He seemed so much in earnest about it, and so friendly, that Jack did not
+like to refuse. After all, Ryan had been very helpful to him, and the
+matter of drinking Jack could overlook. It was more or less a settled
+custom in the West, anyhow.
+
+"I'm not very hungry," Jack began, "but--"
+
+"Oh, well, come and have a cup of coffee," suggested Ryan. "It won't take
+long, and by the time we're through with our little snack your pony will be
+ready for you. Come along."
+
+"All right," Jack agreed, and he followed his new acquaintance across the
+street to a small restaurant. Jack ordered a sandwich and a cup of coffee,
+but Ryan called for a more substantial meal.
+
+"And I'll have mine in a hurry, if you don't mind," said Jack to the
+waiter. "I've got to get back on the trail."
+
+"Have it right away," was the answer.
+
+Jack sipped some of his coffee, and ate the sandwich. He was waiting for
+the beverage to cool somewhat before taking the remainder, when Ryan,
+nodding in the direction of the entrance to the restaurant, toward which
+Jack had his back, said:
+
+"Is that a friend of yours? He seems to be looking for some one."
+
+Jack turned. A man was standing in the doorway of the eating place, his
+eyes roving about as though looking for somebody, but Jack did not know
+him, nor did the stranger show any sign of interest in the pony express
+rider.
+
+Jack turned back in time to see Ryan setting down the cup of coffee from
+which Jack had been drinking.
+
+"Huh! That's one on me!" laughed the man. "I picked up your cup for my own.
+Don't worry though. I didn't drink any of your coffee."
+
+"That's all right," Jack said, pleasantly. "I'll finish now, and get
+along."
+
+"Well, good luck to you," returned Ryan. "I'll stay and finish my meal," he
+added. "Good-bye. Glad to have met you."
+
+"Good-bye," answered Jack. "Much obliged for your help, and for this feed."
+
+"Shucks! I don't call that much of a feed. Leave me the checks, waiter.
+Well, I may see you again," he called, with a wave of his hand as Jack went
+out.
+
+"Yes, I'm back and forth quite often, though I seldom get to Tuckerton,
+unless there's some accident to the stage," the lad said.
+
+He found his pony's shoe had been properly tightened, and the animal was
+now ready for him. Jack paid his smithy bill, jumped up to the saddle and
+rode on through the town again.
+
+"We'll have to make time," whispered the lad to his pony, making sure that
+the mail sacks were securely fastened, and that he had the sealed packet
+which he had ridden back to get. "Yes, Sunger, we'll make time, so in case
+we do have to make a night ride we won't be delayed too long. Queer chap,
+that Ryan," mused Jack. "It was good of him to blow me to coffee. But I
+can't say I think much of that eating place. That was about the poorest
+coffee I've had in a good while. Whew! The bitterness of it is in my mouth
+yet! I'll wash it out with a drink of water when I get to the spring again.
+I wonder what Ryan's business is, and where he is headed for? He must be
+pretty hungry to order so much eating stuff."
+
+If Jack could have looked back into the restaurant he would have been
+surprised to see the same Ryan hastily leave, soon after he himself had
+come out. And the same Ryan left most of his dinner untouched.
+
+"What's the matter, don't you like the grub?" asked the waiter, as Ryan
+hurried out.
+
+"Sure, it's all right!" and he tossed him a tip. "But I forgot I had an
+engagement," and with that he jumped into his saddle and rode off. But not
+in the direction Jack had taken.
+
+"My, my!" said Jack, talking to himself as he galloped along, "that coffee
+certainly was bitter. It seems to be getting worse--that taste in my mouth.
+I believe it's giving me a head ache, too. I certainly do feel queer--sort
+of dizzy. Maybe it was the hot sun. I'll cool off at the spring. But I do
+feel so queer," and Jack passed his hand across his forehead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A DESPERATE RIDE
+
+Nearing the spring, where he had taken a drink before that day, Jack was
+about to dismount to get some cooling water. But such a strange feeling of
+weakness and dizziness came over him that he had to hold himself in the
+saddle.
+
+"I--I'm afraid if I get out I won't be able to get up again," he murmured
+weakly. "Sunger, what's the matter with me, I wonder?"
+
+Then, ill as he felt himself becoming, like a flash an idea came to Jack.
+The meaning of it all came to him instantly.
+
+"I've been drugged!" he said, hoarsely. "That Ryan! That was his game. He
+drugged my coffee, that time when he made me turn around! I saw him putting
+back my cup! He put some drug in my coffee to make me unconscious!"
+
+For a moment the thought of the desperate trick that had been played on him
+made Jack so angry that he succeeded in fighting off the feeling of
+weakness and dizziness. But it was only for a moment. Then it came back
+with increasing distress.
+
+"That was the game," he murmured, scarcely able to see now. "He probably
+had doped the whiskey in that flask, but I didn't take that. Then he
+watched his chance, urged me to take something to eat with him, and put
+some drug in my coffee. No wonder it tasted bitter and queer! What a
+simpleton I was to take it! But I did not know."
+
+Jack was reeling in the saddle. The pony sensed that something was wrong
+with his master, and stopped.
+
+"No, don't stop! Go on! Go on!" urged Jack. "Oh, what am I going to do?" he
+murmured. "I'm on a lonely trail, with the valuable mail and express.
+That's what Ryan counts on. He thinks I'll fall by the wayside and he can
+come up and get what he wants when I'm unconscious.
+
+"But what is it he wants? The Argent letters, of course. That's what he's
+after! He's drugged me. He's going to give me time to fall in a faint, and
+then he's coming along to rob the mail. The Argent letters must be in the
+sacks that aren't opened. He must have found that out in some way, and have
+been on the watch for me.
+
+"But he won't get them. I'll not let him roll the mail!" cried Jack,
+speaking aloud, and trying to put some fierce energy into his voice. But it
+died away faintly.
+
+"How can I stop him? How can I foil him?" mused the ill and almost fainting
+rider. "I--I've got to do something. But what? I can't stay in the saddle
+much longer. Go on, Sunger! Go on!"
+
+For the pony had stopped again.
+
+Jack wanted desperately to get a drink from the cold spring, but he dared
+not.
+
+"If I leave the saddle I'd not have strength to get up in it again," he
+reasoned. "But I've got to do something! I've got to do something!"
+
+He repeated the words over and over again, until they rang in his numbed
+brain like the refrain of some song. Sunger did not know what to make of it
+all. He could tell something was wrong, and whinnied once or twice. But
+Jack was too ill to answer him, or pat him caressingly as he always did.
+
+"Sunger, we've got to do something! We've got to do something to save the
+mail!" whispered the poor lad. He was too weak to do more than whisper.
+
+Jack tried to listen, and to ascertain if the outlaw who had played this
+trick on him was coming behind him on the trail, for he realized that Ryan
+would soon follow, to reap the fruits of his villany. But there was no
+sound save the echo of Sunger's hoof-beats. It was getting late in the
+afternoon.
+
+Jack was reeling in the saddle now. He could hardly hold himself upright.
+Once or twice he nearly fell out, but clutched the pommel in time. Once or
+twice, too, the pony stopped, but Jack urged him on. He knew his only hope
+lay either in reaching Golden Crossing, or in some one on the trail seeing
+his plight and looking after him. But there was not much chance of this
+last, for the disabled stage would not be along for some hours yet.
+
+Then, as he thought of what it would mean to him to have the mail robbed a
+second time while in his possession, a desperate plan came into Jack's
+mind.
+
+"I'll tie myself to the saddle!" he whispered "I've got plenty of rope for
+that. I'll lash myself fast. Then if I do get unconscious, which I'm afraid
+is going to happen, I won't fall out.
+
+"And when I tie myself fast, Sunger," Jack went on, speaking as loudly as
+he could; "when I'm lashed fast, and don't know anything, you've got to go
+on and carry the mail--and me. You've got to take the mail safe through to
+Jennie at Golden Crossing, and you've got to do it without my guidance. You
+know the trail, Sunger! You've got to take the mail through! It's the only
+way to save it!"
+
+Jack felt that it was useless longer to try to fight off the effects of the
+drug. It was too strong and powerful for him, and he realized that he must
+have been given a heavy dose. He could hardly see now.
+
+Jack carried with him a light but strong rope for often he had to tie mail
+pouches on the saddle behind him. With hands that trembled, with his head
+aching terribly, and his eyes burning, Jack managed to pass about his legs,
+and under the saddle girths, several turns of the rope. He made himself
+fast in the saddle, so he would not fall off.
+
+Then, when the last knot had been tied and made secure, Jack fell forward
+on his pony's neck.
+
+"Go on, Sunger!" he said feebly. "Go on to Jennie and Golden Crossing. It's
+my only chance. You've got to run now as you never ran before! You've got
+to carry the mail! Go on, Sunger! Don't fail me now, or it will be all up
+with dad and me! Don't fail, Sunger! Go on!"
+
+With this last urging Jack's eyes closed, and he felt himself going off
+into unconsciousness.
+
+Then the brave and intelligent Sunger sprang forward. Somehow the pony must
+have understood. At any rate, he knew that all haste must be made on the
+trail. He was carrying the mail, and Jack always urged him to top speed on
+such occasions.
+
+With the instinct that characterizes dogs, horses and other animals, Sunger
+knew that he must go on to the Post Office. Just what had happened to his
+master, of course Sunger did not know. But it was something wrong--the pony
+sensed that.
+
+And so with the unconscious form strapped to the saddle, with Jack's head
+pillowed on Sunger's neck, the plucky animal started to foil the plans of
+the plotters. On and on he galloped over the mountain trail, Jack swaying
+from side to side, but remaining safe because of the holding ropes.
+
+It was about this time that Ryan, who, by a roundabout road, had reached
+the trail leading from Tuckerton to Golden Crossing, looked at his watch in
+a secluded place where he was waiting, and remarked:
+
+"Well, it ought to be working by this time. I guess I'll amble along and
+see what's doing. I ought to get the letters without any trouble. I
+certainly dosed his coffee good and strong," and he smiled in an evil
+fashion.
+
+Springing into the saddle he urged his horse along the trail. He did not
+hurry, for he wanted to give the drug time to work its full and stupefying
+effect. Ryan was a different sort of worker from the other outlaws. He did
+not believe in their rough and ready methods, but, instead, used sneaking
+means, such as drugs, that were often no less successful.
+
+"This hold-up work doesn't pay when you can get the same results without
+attracting so much attention," he murmured as he rode on. "Now I wonder if
+I had better take that last package they gave him. I don't believe the maps
+will be in that, though. They must be in the sacks. I hope I have a key
+that will fit the lock. I don't want to cut the bags if I can help it.
+
+"If I can come up when he's lying unconscious, pick the locks, and get out
+what I want, I can lock the mail pouches again, and he won't know he's been
+robbed for some hours. That will give me that much more time to get away.
+Yes, that's my best plan," and as Ryan rode along he examined several keys
+which he took from a pocket. He had made his plans carefully.
+
+It was not until the outlaw had reached a point near the spring that he
+began to be at all concerned. Up to then he had felt sure of the result of
+his desperate work.
+
+"Why, I ought to have come upon him before this," he reasoned, wonderingly.
+"That stuff would knock out a strong man, let alone a lad like him. He
+ought to have fallen off, or have gotten off, and become unconscious before
+this. I wonder if I made any mistake."
+
+He went over in his mind the different points of his plot. It seemed
+perfect. But where was his victim who should have been lying unconscious
+beside the road?
+
+"Something's wrong!" Ryan exclaimed, as he passed the spring. He looked
+about. The trail was dusty, but he could sec no signs of Jack's having
+dismounted, or indications that the lad had fallen and gotten up to the
+saddle again.
+
+"Something's wrong," Ryan repeated. Then he put spurs to his horse and
+galloped down the trail toward Golden Crossing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+AT GOLDEN CROSSING
+
+"Jack is late, isn't he, Jennie?" asked Mrs. Blake, as she sat in the
+Golden Crossing post office. She had finished her sewing, and had stopped
+for a little chat.
+
+"Well, you know he had to ride out and get the mail from the disabled stage
+coach," replied the girl, as she made some entries in her books. "And
+perhaps he had to go farther than the messenger said. There's plenty of
+time, though."
+
+"Well, he's late," Mrs. Blake repeated. "I hope he doesn't have to make a
+night trip."
+
+"So do I," her daughter murmured, as she thought of the time Jack had been
+held up. "It isn't likely he will, though. You know, Mr. Perkfeld said he
+needn't make those night trips any more unless there was something very
+important."
+
+"You never can tell when some important matter will come in though,"
+resumed Mrs. Blake, after a pause, during which she had gone to the window
+to peer down the trail in the direction from which Jack would come. "And
+isn't he expecting something for Mr. Argent?"
+
+"Yes, and that is the only thing I'm worrying about," confessed Jennie. "If
+those letters come in Jack will be sure to want to ride off with them at
+once, night or day. And we won't know when the letters do arrive until the
+mail sacks come here and I open them."
+
+"Well, it certainly is a risky business, this pony express," sighed her
+mother.
+
+"It wouldn't be so risky if it wasn't for those desperate outlaws, and the
+other men who want Jack's position," Jennie said, her eyes flashing. "It
+makes me so mad when I think what an unfair advantage they take that I wish
+I were a man so I could help Jack fight them!"
+
+"My!" laughed Mrs. Blake. "But I guess you're better off inside here, than
+out on the mountain trail."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. That's all we women are good for, anyhow, to sit and
+wait and worry!"
+
+"Any one would think you were twice as old as you are," said Mrs. Blake
+with a smile at her daughter. "Hark! Is that he coming?"
+
+They both started toward the door, but, with a sigh of disappointment,
+Jennie said:
+
+"No, it's only Tim Mullane."
+
+The red-haired, genial Irish lad entered with a grin.
+
+"Jack not here yet?" he asked, with some surprise.
+
+"Oh, I wish you wouldn't say that!" Jennie exclaimed, and her voice was not
+her usual one.
+
+"Why, what's the matter?" her mother asked, in some surprise.
+
+"Oh, it makes me nervous when any one speaks about Jack's not being back.
+It--it's just as if--as if something had happened to him!" she faltered.
+
+"Oh sure, miss, what could happen to him?" asked Tim, seeing with his Irish
+quickness "which way the wind blew."
+
+"Nothing, of course," Jennie went on. "He just rode out to get the mail
+because the stage was broken down. Maybe he knows there is nothing
+important in it, so he can stay here all night."
+
+"Of course," agreed Mrs. Blake. But to herself she said. "I do wish Jack
+would come!"
+
+There was nothing to do, however, save wait, and that is often the hardest
+kind of work, as it is certainly the most nervous. Jennie and her mother
+busied themselves about the post office, Jennie asking the advice of Mrs.
+Blake on certain matters connected with the reports she had to send in to
+the officials.
+
+"I suppose there will be a real post office inspector along some day to go
+over my accounts," she ventured.
+
+"Perhaps," her mother admitted. "And if any more bogus ones come on the
+scene, I hope I'm here--or that Jack is."
+
+"Yes, Jack routed that other chap finely," said Jennie.
+
+And so they waited for the return of the pony express rider.
+
+Meanwhile, what of Jack? Brave and intelligent Sunger was galloping on with
+his senseless burden. The pony seemed to know just what to do. He took the
+easiest part of the mountain trail, avoiding places where he might stumble
+or fall, for he seemed to realize that Jack's guiding and careful hand was
+not at the reins now.
+
+On and on galloped the animal, making the best speed he could, though the
+trail was hard and steep in places.
+
+Suddenly, from the road back of him, Sunger heard the sound of galloping.
+The pony pricked up his ears. Another rider was coming. Who it might be
+Sunger, of course, did not know. But the little pony had been trained never
+to let another horse pass him from behind on the mail route. It was not so
+much a matter of necessity as it was of pride, and Jack's pony now
+increased his pace.
+
+And then, at a level place on the trail, and one that was straight, where a
+good view could be had ahead, there swung into view behind Sunger a horse,
+carrying a man who was urging his mount on with whip, spur and voice.
+
+"So that's why I didn't find him as I expected to!" exclaimed Ryan, for he
+it was who was galloping behind the unconscious form of Jack Bailey. "He's
+sticking to his horse, but he must be all in. That lad's got grit and
+pluck, and I'm almost sorry I had to do him up. But I had to. We simply
+must get the information about that mine, and this was the only plan I
+thought would work. But he sure has grit and spunk to ride on with that
+dose in him."
+
+From where he was, Ryan could not see the device of ropes Jack had used to
+prevent falling from the back of his pony during his unconsciousness. The
+outlaw merely thought that Jack was only partly under the influence of the
+drug, and that the youth was clinging with his arms about Sunger's neck.
+
+"I wonder if I can ride him down?" mused the desperate man. "I've just got
+to, that's all. I let him get too much the start, but I sure did think I'd
+find him senseless beside the road!"
+
+But Ryan reckoned without his host. Sunger was not going to be caught The
+going was better now, and the little pony had the advantage of not carrying
+as much weight as did the larger horse. Moreover, Sunger was naturally
+fleeter.
+
+So, though Ryan urged his own steed as he had seldom urged it before, the
+gap between the two animals did not close up. In fact it seemed to widen,
+and when Ryan saw that he became desperate.
+
+"Who'd think he could beat me this way?" he asked himself. "No human being,
+I thought, could keep his senses after that dose I put in his coffee. It
+won't do him any permanent harm, that's one thing I'm glad of, for after a
+lad has made the plucky fight he has I don't wish him harm, even if we have
+to take desperate measures against him. He'll be all right again in a
+couple of hours. But why doesn't he fall off?"
+
+It was not until some time later that Ryan learned why, and then his
+admiration for Jack increased. For, bad and unscrupulous as he was, Ryan
+had once been a good man, and he could admire grit and fine qualities in
+others, though he could not exercise them himself.
+
+"I've got to get him soon, or we'll be plump into Golden Crossing, and then
+the jig will be up, I fear," Ryan said fiercely. "They'll say I bungled the
+job, and they'll try another hold-up, I suppose. For those letters are in
+that mail, and we must have them!"
+
+But as he galloped on for another quarter of a mile, it became increasingly
+evident that Sunger was not to be overtaken. The louder the hoof-beats of
+the other horse sounded, the faster the plucky little pony ran, though he
+was now tiring. But he was game, all the way through, and never would give
+up while he had an ounce of strength left in him.
+
+"Well, there's only one way to end it," said Ryan aloud. He drew his
+revolver. "I hate to shoot a fine little pony like that," the man went on,
+"but I've got to stop him somehow, and I can't ride him down. It's the only
+way!"
+
+Carefully he took aim, and was about to pull the trigger. Then he hesitated
+and lowered the weapon.
+
+"No, I haven't the nerve," he muttered. "If I kill the pony he'll go over,
+and the boy may be killed too. I can't do it. It goes against me. I'm bad
+enough all the way through, but I'm not going to do anything like that, and
+I'll tell the gang so. If I can't ride him down he'll have to get away, as
+far as I'm concerned. I can't do that!"
+
+He shoved the weapon back into the holster, and exclaimed:
+
+"Now, you brute, I'm going to make you run!"
+
+He whipped his own horse cruelly, and the animal, in terror, did respond
+with a burst of speed. It came too late, however, for a few minutes later
+the trail turned, and Ryan knew he was near Golden Crossing--too near for
+safety.
+
+"No use!" he muttered! "I've got to give up. I'll go and tell the gang.
+Maybe they can get the letters some other way. They aren't in Rainbow Ridge
+yet, and lots of things can happen on the road. I'll tell the gang and
+we'll think up something new."
+
+He reined in his nearly exhausted horse, and swung back down the trail,
+riding slowly. Sunger, with his unconscious burden, kept on. The race was
+almost run, and it was high time, for the pony was all but fagged out.
+
+And then into the very streets of the mountain town went the little horse.
+Straight through the streets, bearing unconscious Jack. And those who saw
+wondered, though some may have guessed what had happened.
+
+Several raced after Sunger, who was now abating some of his speed. For he
+saw, just ahead of him, the post office. That was the goal for which he had
+striven, and he seemed to realize that the race was won.
+
+No one attempted to stop Sunger. They knew where he would go. And reaching
+the rail where Jack always tied him at one side of the Golden Crossing post
+office, the pony stopped. He spread his legs far apart, for he was
+trembling from weariness.
+
+"Oh, it's Jack!" cried Jennie, looking from the window to see the meaning
+of the galloping, and of the strange cries. "It's Jack! Something has
+happened!" she faltered, as she saw the unconscious form in the saddle.
+"Oh, Mother! He--he's dead!"
+
+Tim Mullane was at the side of the unconscious pony rider.
+
+"No, he isn't dead!" he shouted, "but he's in a bad way. Here, some of yez
+give me a hand and we'll loosen him up, and take him inside. Poor lad! He's
+had a hard time!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE ARGENT LETTERS
+
+They carried Jack inside, and laid him on a couch. Jennie and her mother
+used what simple remedies they had at hand to rouse him from his
+unconscious state. Tim took the exhausted pony to the stable, for Sunger
+was much in need of rest.
+
+"What was it? What happened to the pony Express?" asked several of the
+crowd that had gathered outside when they had seen the animal canter up
+with Jack on his back.
+
+"I don't know what happened," replied the red-haired helper. "But maybe it
+was Indians tied him that way, and was going to make his pony jump over a
+cliff. Them Indians is fierce!"
+
+"Indians! There aren't any around here!" said some one, laughing at Tim's
+notion. Tim had not been out West long.
+
+"More likely it was some of those hold-up fellows," suggested a man in the
+throng. "Though why they should tie him to his horse Is more than I can
+figure out."
+
+"Well, Jack came through all right, or, rather, that smart pony of his
+brought him," another voice said. "And he brought the mail safe!"
+
+"That's what he did!" cried several.
+
+Meanwhile inside the little cottage, part of which was given over to the
+Golden Crossing post office, Jennie and her mother were working hard over
+the unconscious form of Jack.
+
+"I guess we'll have to send for the doctor, Jennie," finally said Mrs.
+Blake. "I've tried ammonia and camphor, and he doesn't come to. He may be
+badly hurt, thought it doesn't show."
+
+"Oh, mother!" faltered the girl. "Poor Jack!"
+
+"Eh? What's the matter? Who's calling me?" asked Jack himself in a faint
+voice. It was as though he had murmured in his sleep. He slowly opened his
+eyes.
+
+"Oh, mother! It's all right! He's waking up!" Jennie exclaimed. "We won't
+need a doctor right away. Oh, Jack, what happened you?"
+
+Jack's senses were slowly but surely clearing. His head hurt him very much,
+but that terrible, sick feeling was passing away. He was in a daze yet, and
+the voices of Jennie and her mother seemed far away, indeed.
+
+"Why I'm here--in the post office!" Jack suddenly exclaimed, with more
+energy than before. His eyes were wide open now, and he looked about the
+familiar room.
+
+"Of course you're in the post office, or, rather, in our sitting room that
+opens from it," said Jennie.
+
+"But the mail! The mail!" Jack suddenly cried, trying to sit up. The motion
+sent such a rush of blood to his head that he had to fall limply back.
+
+"I--I'll be all right in a minute," Jack said, after a pause. "But what
+about the mail? Tell me that! Did I bring it through safely?"
+
+"That's what you did!" exclaimed Mrs. Blake. "It was safe on your saddle,
+and you were tied fast to your pony. Who did that."
+
+"I did it myself," Jack answered. "But I'm glad I brought the mail in
+safely. I was afraid I couldn't do it, but I did."
+
+"Do you mean to say you roped yourself fast that way?" demanded Jennie,
+somewhat incredulously.
+
+"I did," Jack replied.
+
+"Why, the idea! We thought the hold-up men did."
+
+"I did it to fool the hold-up rascals," said Jack. He was feeling better
+every minute now, and when he had taken some of the spirits of ammonia Mrs.
+Blake held out to him, his head cleared very much.
+
+"One of them, named Ryan, put up a game on me," Jack explained. "He tried
+to get me to take a drugged drink, and, when I refused, though of course I
+didn't know it was drugged, he put some stuff in my coffee. Queer stuff it
+must be. For it certainly knocked me out, but I don't feel nearly so bad
+now."
+
+Just what sort of drug it was that Ryan used on Jack was never revealed. It
+was said later that the man himself had once been an expert chemist, and he
+probably knew the secrets of drugs better than the average criminal.
+Whatever it was he gave Jack, it left no harmful after effects, and for
+that the pony rider was thankful.
+
+"Do you want a doctor?" asked Mrs. Blake. "We'll send for one, Jack, if you
+say so."
+
+"No, I think I'll be all right," he answered. "I'm feeling better by the
+minute. Oh, but I was sick!" and he shuddered at the recollection. "But
+where is the mail?" he demanded, and this time he followed his question by
+sitting up. "Where is it?" he repeated.
+
+"Tim brought it in," Jennie replied. "I haven't opened it yet. There was so
+much excitement when we saw what a state you were in that I let the mail
+wait. There's a crowd outside now, waiting to hear the story."
+
+"Well, I don't feel like telling them," said Jack. "I want to sit here and
+rest. Is Sunger all right?"
+
+"Yes," Mrs. Blake reported. "I'll go out and tell the folks something of
+what happened. Later on they can hear the whole story. But shan't I notify
+the sheriff or some one, and have them get after this Ryan? What became of
+him?"
+
+"The last I saw of him was when he was sitting in the restaurant," Jack
+answered. "He said good-bye in the friendliest fashion. And to think of the
+trick he played on me! Said he'd see me again, the scoundrel!"
+
+"And did he see you again?" asked Mrs. Blake.
+
+"No," Jack answered. But he did not know how Ryan had pursued him, and then
+disappeared.
+
+"He must have had it all figured out," the lad went on. "He planned to come
+up to me after I had fallen unconscious. Then he'd take the mail. Are you
+sure it's safe?" he asked again.
+
+"Yes," replied Jennie. "I'll bring it in here and let you see it if
+necessary."
+
+"No, I'll go out to it," replied Jack. "I'm feeling almost myself again."
+
+"Better take a little more rest," suggested Mrs. Blake.
+
+She had gone outside to explain matters to the waiting and anxious crowd,
+which, having had its curiosity satisfied, in a measure, now dispersed.
+Some of the younger lads went over to the stable where Sunger was resting.
+They wanted to look at, and marvel over, the plucky pony that had done so
+much to safeguard Jack and the mail.
+
+Jack got to his feet. He had, however, overestimated his strength, for he
+tottered and would have fallen had not Jennie put out her hands to steady
+him.
+
+"Look out!" she cautioned him.
+
+"Humph! I'm a regular girl!" complained Jack, somewhat ashamed of his
+weakness.
+
+"Take care!" Jennie playfully retorted. "Girls are a whole lot better than
+boys, in many ways."
+
+"Yes, I know," confessed Jack. "If it were not for you and your mother I
+don't know what I'd do. But I guess I can walk now. Queer how that stuff,
+whatever it was, knocked me out."
+
+"Here, drink this," suggested Mrs. Blake, and she held out a cup of coffee
+she had brewed.
+
+"Coffee!" Jack exclaimed, with a grim smile. "Are you sure it's all right?"
+
+"No drug in that," Jennie's mother assured him. "It will make you feel
+better. Then I'll get supper. You can eat, can't you?"
+
+"Yes, my appetite doesn't seem to have left me in spite of what I went
+through. I didn't take much in that restaurant. I was too anxious to get
+away with the mail."
+
+Jack drank the coffee, and it made him feel better. Then he said:
+
+"Now for the mail. I want to see it opened, Jennie, so I'll know just what
+it was I brought through."
+
+"But you're not going on through to Rainbow Ridge to-night, are you?" she
+asked anxiously.
+
+"I guess not," was his answer. "Can't tell though, until I see what's in
+the mail. I may have to."
+
+"Well, we'll just not let you!" exclaimed Mrs. Blake with vigor. "If there
+is anything that has to go through I'll get Tim, or some one else, to ride
+the trail. We'll even send two men if necessary."
+
+"Oh, I can't give up that way!" Jack protested.
+
+"Well, maybe there isn't anything to carry," suggested Jennie. "I'll open
+the mail and we'll look."
+
+She turned the key in the lock of the first sack, and spilled the contents
+out on the sorting table. Almost the first thing she and Jack saw was a
+flat package, sealed with red wax. Jack quickly turned it over.
+
+"It's for Mr. Argent!" he exclaimed. "I wonder if these can be the
+important letters and plans he is expecting? They must be, and that's why
+Ryan tried to get them!"
+
+Jennie said nothing, but looked at Jack with troubled eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE MASKED MAN
+
+For a few seconds the two young people remained looking alternately at one
+another, and then at the packet which they guessed contained the
+long-expected and important papers. The red wax, with which the package was
+sealed, gleamed in the lamp-light, for one had been set aglow. It was dark
+early on this night, as clouds overcast the sky.
+
+"Yes, these must be the papers Mr. Argent is expecting," Jack said,
+musingly. "I wonder what I'd better do about them?"
+
+"What is there to do?" asked Mrs. Blake.
+
+"Well, I think I ought to take them to him. I feel all right now. The
+effects of that drug has passed off, and--"
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Jennie's mother; "you shall do nothing of the sort.
+No trip to Rainbow Ridge to-night!"
+
+"But he may want them!" insisted Jack. "And I promised to bring them
+through for him. I think I must go."
+
+"Please don't," pleaded Jennie. "We can lock the letters in the safe here,
+and you can take them the first thing in the morning. You know you were
+told not to make a night trip unless it was absolutely necessary, and it
+isn't. There isn't anything here that must go through before morning," and
+she rapidly sorted over the mail and express matter to prove what she said.
+
+"And didn't Mr. Argent tell you not to take the risk of a night trip just
+for these letters?" asked Mrs. Blake.
+
+"Yes, he did, but--"
+
+"Then don't go. In fact it would not be fair to him to risk taking them
+after dark, when you know his enemies are after them. You have had a narrow
+escape this afternoon, you are weak, and--"
+
+"Oh, I'm all right now!" insisted Jack. "I feel fine."
+
+He certainly looked it. His health had enabled him to make a quick recovery
+from the effects of the drug, the life he lived in the open air doing much
+to help his system throw off the effects of the narcotic. Jack looked able
+to make a night ride.
+
+"You may feel fine," said Mrs. Blake, determined to carry her point, "but
+there is no telling when there might be a reaction, and a return of that
+dizzy feeling. If you fell off your pony in the dark, at some lonesome
+point of the mountain trail, you might not only suffer yourself, but it
+would give Mr. Argent's enemies the very chance for which they are
+scheming."
+
+"Well, that's so," Jack admitted. "I didn't think of that."
+
+"Then you won't go?" asked Jennie.
+
+"No, I think perhaps I'd better not But is there a good place here to keep
+the package?"
+
+"We have a safe," replied Mrs. Blake. "It isn't a very big one, and I
+suppose a real burglar wouldn't have much trouble in opening it. But there
+aren't any burglars around here--there may be desperate men, but they're
+not burglars. They can't work the combination. Besides, we'll be on the
+lookout and watch, and you'll stay here all night, Jack, of course."
+
+"Oh yes, thank you, Aunt Matilda. I'll stay as long as I'm not going back
+to Rainbow Ridge. And if any attempt is made to rob the safe, well,
+there'll be some trouble," and Jack took out his weapon to make sure that
+it was fully loaded.
+
+"Oh!" Jennie exclaimed, "I wish you wouldn't do that."
+
+"Do what?"
+
+"Flourish that revolver so recklessly. It makes me nervous."
+
+"I'm not reckless," said Jack. "And I've got to be sure it will go off if I
+need it."
+
+"I hope you won't need it," said the girl in a low voice.
+
+The matter of Jack's staying having been decided, he helped Jennie sort the
+mail and express matter, so there would be no delay in the morning. For the
+pony express rider had determined to make an early start.
+
+"I want to get those letters in the hands of Mr. Argent just as soon as I
+can," he said. "Then the worry will be off my mind."
+
+"And it is a worry," Jennie admitted. "Any one might think that to have a
+mail route over these mountains wasn't very important, but things seem to
+have crowded in on you lately."
+
+"You haven't had it altogether easy yourself," said Jack, as he thought of
+the bogus inspector. "Ever since I took dad's place there has been
+something to worry you."
+
+"Well, it isn't your fault, Jack," she said. "It just seems to be a
+combination of circumstances, all more or less connected with Mr. Argent's
+mine. But perhaps this is the end and from now on everything will go along
+all right. I hope so!"
+
+"So do I!" Jack declared. "Now I think I'll go over and have a look at the
+pony. I may have a bit of hard riding to do to-morrow, and I want him to be
+in good shape."
+
+"Do you think they'll try again to-morrow to this package away from you?"
+asked Jennie, looking around the room apprehensively, as though some one
+might be lurking in the shadows.
+
+"There's no telling," Jack responded.
+
+He was glad to get out in the air again for a little while. There was a
+fresh breeze blowing from the west, cold and refreshing from the distant
+mountains, and the air cleared away from Jack's head the last lingering
+feeling caused by the drug.
+
+"Well, Sunger, old boy, they didn't get us that time, did they?" he asked
+as he went into the stall and petted his faithful animal. "They didn't get
+us though they tried mighty hard. We gave them a run for their money all
+right, and we'll do it again if they make another try. How are you,
+anyhow?"
+
+He talked to the pony as though the plucky little fellow were human. And
+perhaps Sunger understood more than Jack gave him credit for doing.
+Certainly he had proved his intelligence that day.
+
+Having seen that his mount, on which so much depended, was well bedded down
+and had enough food and water, Jack went back to the Blake home.
+
+"And now for a pleasant evening," suggested Jennie. "We'll have a game of
+checkers, Jack. I think I can beat you this time, though you didn't give me
+half a chance the last time."
+
+"I'll concede you two men," he said, smiling.
+
+"No, indeed!" she exclaimed, half indignantly. "If I can't beat you evenly
+I don't want to win at all. Just because I'm a girl you'll handicap
+yourself!"
+
+"Oh well have it your own way," he agreed, smiling at her energetic words.
+
+"Well, isn't this better than riding on the lonesome mountain trail,
+thinking every minute you're going to be held up?" asked Jennie, when one
+game had been finished, Jack winning as usual.
+
+"It certainly is!" he agreed, as he looked around the pleasant room. "But
+then, you know, business before pleasure."
+
+"Not when it isn't absolutely necessary," remarked Mrs. Blake.
+
+The living rooms of Jennie and her mother were upstairs, over the post
+office and the express department. There was a spare room that Jack used
+when he remained over night with his relatives.
+
+"But I think I'll not sleep there to-night," he said, when preparations
+were being made for retiring.
+
+"Why not?" asked Jennie.
+
+"I want to be down here, near the safe," Jack replied, nodding toward the
+steel box in which the Argent letters and some registered mail had been
+placed for security until morning. "I suppose nothing will happen," he went
+on, "but I shall feel better if I am down here."
+
+"But there is no place to sleep--no bed," objected Jennie.
+
+"A blanket and the soft side of a board will do for me," Jack answered,
+with a laugh. "I've camped out and slept on the ground often enough not to
+mind one night of discomfort. Don't worry, I'll be comfortable enough
+here."
+
+"We can bring down the old lounge if you insist on sleeping here," Mrs.
+Blake said.
+
+"Well, I should like to, if you don't mind," Jack answered. And so it was
+arranged. Jennie and her mother went up stairs, and Jack, without
+undressing, stretched out on the couch, pulling the blankets over him, for
+the night was cool with the approach of fall.
+
+Jack's improvised bedroom was in a part of the post office, and in the room
+adjoining stood the safe, containing the valuable letters. By peering out
+of a nearby door Jack could have a glimpse of the strong box.
+
+"Maybe I'll have my trouble for my pains," Jack reasoned, "but I'll worry
+less this way. I wonder if they'll really make any attempt to get in here?"
+
+He hardly knew what to think. When he recalled the desperate chance Ryan
+had taken to get possession of what he must have known was in the mail
+sack, Jack was sure the attempt would not easily be given up. But as the
+plotters had so far been successfully evaded and their tricks set at
+naught, it might be that they would give up now.
+
+"It's about six of one and half a dozen of the other," Jack mused, "and I
+think the odds are in my favor."
+
+He did not feel sleepy. Perhaps the after-effects of the drug were such as
+to produce an abnormally active state of the brain, and the brain must be
+quiet to have sleep come. For a time Jack lay quietly on his couch. Then he
+had an attack of the fidgets, and he tossed restlessly to and fro.
+
+Up stairs all was quiet, and he hoped his aunt and cousin were sleeping in
+comfort. Now and then Jack assured himself that his revolver was ready to
+his hand. As the hours were ticked off on the office clock, Jack became
+more and more nervous.
+
+"Come, this won't do!" he told himself. "I won't be fit for much to-morrow
+if I don't get some sleep, and I may have a hard day of it. Guess I'll get
+up and have a drink of water. I've heard that's a good thing to do when one
+can't sleep."
+
+He tried to move about cautiously, so as not to disturb Jennie and her
+mother. But as often happens when one moves about in the dark, objects are
+struck that one hardly knew were in the room. The things all seem to mass
+themselves under foot.
+
+Jack banged into a table, and knocked over a chair.
+
+"Oh!" screamed Jennie from the room above. "Mother! Jack! They've come!"
+
+"It isn't anything--I just got up to get a drink," quickly explained Jack,
+wishing he had kept still. "Sorry to have disturbed you."
+
+"I haven't been asleep," Jennie confessed, calling down the stairway.
+"Isn't it nearly morning?"
+
+"A little after twelve," Jack reported, striking a match and looking at his
+watch.
+
+Going back to his couch he soon found himself sinking off into a
+comfortable doze. He really needed natural sleep after his experience that
+day, and a little later he found it stealing over him. He turned on his
+side, and, before he knew it, was oblivious to his surroundings.
+
+How long he slept Jack did not know, but he awoke with a start, and he was
+at once aware that his awakening had been caused by some sudden noise. For
+a moment he was so confused that he could not think clearly, or recall
+where he was.
+
+He passed his hand across his head, and this slight action seemed to make
+his brain work. Then he sat up. He was at once aware that something unusual
+was going on.
+
+There was a dim light shining in through the room where the safe was. And
+as Jack had left none burning, and as there were no street lights in Golden
+Crossing, the express rider at once realized that some one had brought a
+light into the room since he had fallen asleep.
+
+Jack was about to call out, thinking perhaps his aunt or cousin had come
+down stairs, but he restrained himself.
+
+"I'll just go and see who it is," he thought. A wild idea came to him. He
+reached under his pillow and brought out his revolver.
+
+"If it's any of the outlaws I'll be ready," he murmured.
+
+Moving with the silence of a cat, Jack, who had taken off his shoes,
+tiptoed to the door between the two rooms. As he advanced he could hear a
+succession of small noises. One was a sort of purring sound. Then came the
+tinkle of metal on metal--a faint sound that would not have been audible
+but for the deep silence over the place. Then Jack saw a flicker of the
+light, as though some one or some object had come near enough to it to
+produce a shadow.
+
+Then, as Jack looked, he saw the outlines of a man's head, and the man
+seemed bent over, of stooping. Again came the tinkle of metal on metal.
+
+All at once the truth flashed into Jack's mind.
+
+"They're going to blow open the safe" was his thought. "It's the outlaws!
+I've caught 'em! They've drilled the safe and are going to blow it open!"
+
+He managed, by going slowly, and trying each board with his foot advanced,
+to guard against a creak, finally to reach the door that opened into the
+room where the safe stood.
+
+And there, kneeling on the floor in front of the strong box, was a masked
+man. He was in front of the safe, and a partly-opened dark lantern gave
+light enough for Jack to see what was going on.
+
+The safe was not open, but, as Jack looked, and as he was about to give the
+command: "Hands up!" he saw the masked man suddenly spring back and slide,
+on rubber-soled shoes, to a far corner.
+
+There was a tiny curl of smoke near the door of the safe. Jack realized,
+too late, what it was--the fuse attached to a charge of nitroglycerine. The
+safe was about to be blown open.
+
+And then, ere Jack could spring forward and tear loose the fuse, the
+explosion came.
+
+It was not loud, but the force of if blew Jack backward, knocking him down.
+His head hit on something and, for the moment, he lost consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE ESCAPE
+
+Jack did not remain senseless long. When he recovered he became aware of a
+confused shouting, and an acrid smell of smoke filled his nostrils.
+
+"Jack! Jack!" he heard Jennie and her mother shouting. "Jack, are you
+hurt?"
+
+By a great effort, overcoming the faintness that seemed to be returning,
+Jack scrambled to his feet. It was dead black in the place now.
+
+"I'm all right!" Jack cried, "but something has happened. They've been here
+all right Stay up there until I call you."
+
+He struck a match, for he had a box in readiness in his pocket.
+
+A glance into the room where the safe stood showed what havoc had been
+wrought by the explosion. It was not much, for only a small charge had been
+used. But the door of the safe was blown off, and some damage was done to
+the fixtures and furniture of the place.
+
+The interior of the strong box--for it was that and nothing more, being an
+old-fashioned safe--was plainly exposed to view. Jack was in front of it on
+the jump. Lighting another match he peered within.
+
+"They're gone!" he cried aloud. "He's got the Argent letters! And me
+sleeping right beside them! This is fierce!"
+
+With trembling fingers, and a deep sense of humiliation in his heart, Jack
+lighted a lamp. But even with this greater light there was no trace of the
+missing packet. Only that seemed to have been taken, as far as Jack could
+make out.
+
+But now Jennie and her mother, frightened and alarmed, were begging to know
+what had happened. There was no trace of the masked man. He had slipped out
+while Jack lay unconscious, our hero thought. Though, indeed, he felt
+little like a hero just then.
+
+"Oh, Jack, what is it? Can't we come down? Are you hurt?" Jennie begged.
+
+"No, I'm not hurt. Come down if you like. They blew open the safe!"
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Blake, and there was fear and alarm in her voice.
+Certainly any one might fear those unscrupulous outlaws, who seemed to halt
+at nothing to gain their ends.
+
+For a moment Jack gazed dumbly at the ruin wrought. His eyes sought for
+some trace of the package he had done so much to bring through with safety,
+but which, after all, had been taken while he slept. Certainly it was an
+unfortunate and distressing affair.
+
+"Oh, isn't it awful!" gasped Jennie, as she and her mother picked their way
+through the confusion of furniture in the room, and looked at the looted
+safe. "It's just terrible!"
+
+"Jack, sound an alarm at once!" cried Mrs. Blake, recognizing the need for
+quick action, "Fire your revolver out of the window--yell--do something!"
+
+"Of course! And here I stand like a booby!" Jack cried. "We must get a
+posse after that fellow!"
+
+An open window showed how the robber had entered and gone. Jack thrust his
+weapon outside and fired the five shots in quick succession. The explosion
+by which the safe was shattered did not appear to have roused any of the
+townspeople. Probably the report was too muffled to carry far.
+
+But Jack's shots, ringing out in the open, were heard, and soon windows
+began to go up. Heads were thrust out, and there came many demands to know
+what was going on.
+
+"Post office safe blown and robbed!" cried Jack. "It was done by one man,
+though there may have been more. We must get after them!"
+
+"That's what we must!" cried Tim Mullane, one of the first on the scene.
+
+Jack slipped on his shoes, and, with a lantern, hurried across to where
+Sunger was stabled. As he approached the place the open door made his heart
+sink.
+
+"If he has taken Sunger--" he faltered.
+
+That was what the masked robber had done. The pony's stall was vacant. Jack
+felt a fierce longing to do something desperate. This was the last straw.
+
+"Sunger gone! Sunger gone!" Jack repeated, blankly.
+
+He did not want to believe it, but there was nothing else to do. The masked
+robber had made his escape on Jack's speedy mount.
+
+By this time all those living in the vicinity of the post office were
+aroused. They came, hastily dressed, mostly men and boys, to crowd into the
+small place and look at the wrecked safe.
+
+"That job was done by professionals all right," said the town marshal.
+"That's no amateur work. He just put some of the nitroglycerine in a crack
+between the door and the casing, or maybe in a hole he bored, and touched
+it off with a fuse. Yes, it was a neat job."
+
+"Neat!" Jock exclaimed, rather indignantly. "When he took that valuable
+package? Neat!"
+
+"Oh well, you know what I mean," the marshal said. "Now, boys, we've got to
+get these fellows, and get after them hard!"
+
+"I only saw one," Jack put in.
+
+"Well, he probably had confederates. Now, boys, get your horses and we'll
+hit the trail. There's only two he could take, and we'll cover 'em both.
+You come along, too, Jack, that is if you feel able. I see you got a cut on
+your head."
+
+Jack put up his hand. It came away bloody, and Jennie screamed.
+
+"It's only a little cut where I fell, when the force of the explosion
+knocked me down," Jack said. Up to then, so great had been the excitement,
+he had not been aware of the slight injury.
+
+"Well get on your pony then, and come along," the marshal urged him. "We'll
+want you to identify the fellow if we catch him. That is if you can."
+
+"I'm not sure I could," Jack said. "I only saw his back, and he wore a
+mask."
+
+"Well, come along anyhow. Hop on your pony and--"
+
+"I can't!" Jack exclaimed. "The fellow took Sunger!"
+
+"He did!" the marshal cried. "Well, now we certainly must get him! If he's
+a horse thief, as well as a safe-blower we sure will get him! Scatter,
+boys! Be lively! Jack, I'll lend you a horse. Come on now. Jim Hickey, you
+lead one bunch over the Tuckerton trail, and I'll head another on the road
+to Rainbow Ridge. But most likely the fellow will take to the mountains and
+hide out for a spell."
+
+"He won't be very likely to go to Rainbow Ridge," said Jack.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because he's got a valuable package of letters and mining documents
+addressed to Mr. Argent of that place. He wouldn't go there."
+
+"I don't know," returned the marshal. "He wouldn't stay there, but he might
+go through that way."
+
+It did not take long to organize two posses, and Jack went with the one led
+by the marshal. The young express rider bestrode a borrowed steed, and
+though it was good enough, as horses go, it was not at all like his beloved
+Sunger.
+
+"I wonder if I'll ever get him back," mused the lad, as he trotted along
+beside the others.
+
+"A measly horse thief!" muttered the marshal. "We'll get him if it takes a
+year."
+
+In the West horse-stealing is a crime almost on a par with killing; for out
+there a man's life often depends on his horse, and if a thief takes the
+horse away he may also be responsible for the death of the man. That is why
+horse-stealing is visited with such swift and sure vengeance when the
+culprit is caught.
+
+Since there was a moon that night, there was fairly good light to see to
+follow the mountain trails. The robber had not much of a start, but he was
+riding Jack's fleet pony, and that, in itself, meant a great deal, for
+there were few horses in that part of the country who could distance him.
+
+Over the trails they rode, and, as they went, the hope of soon catching the
+robber grew less and less.
+
+"I'm afraid he's escaped us all right," the marshal said, ruefully. "But
+we'll get him yet. I'll never let a horse thief get the best of me!"
+
+"You seem to forget that he also took those valuable letters," Jack
+remarked.
+
+"No, I'm not forgetting it," the marshal said, "but to my way of thinking
+that ain't half so bad a crime as taking your horse. And I'd say the same
+thing if he took any other horse, or one of mine. I just naturally hate a
+horse thief!"
+
+"That's right!" chimed in several of the men in the posse.
+
+There were no places, or, rather, only one or two places, along the
+mountain trail, where inquiries could be made as to whether or not the
+robber--or some night-rider--had passed. But at such lonely cabins as Jack
+and his friends came to they roused the inmates and put their questions.
+
+"Seems to me I did hear a hoss gallopin' about an hour back," said one old
+man. "I thought maybe it was the pony express goin' through, though, so I
+didn't pay no attention."
+
+"I wish it had been the pony express," murmured Jack regretfully. "If I had
+taken the letters on the night ride I might have gotten safely through with
+them."
+
+"I don't hardly believe it," the marshal told him. "I guess those outlaws
+were watching the trail. They were bound to get them, and when they found
+you weren't going through with 'em they came in and blowed the safe."
+
+"I suppose so," murmured Jack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+JACK'S IDEA
+
+Morning came. At least the dawn was heralded in the east, where the dark
+clouds turned to pink, growing brighter and brighter, until the sun himself
+peeped above the horizon.
+
+The posse with which Jack was riding had come almost all the way to Rainbow
+Ridge, and so far had not had a sight of the robber or any of his
+confederates, if he had any, which was scarcely to be doubted.
+
+"Well, boys, we may as well go back, I guess," the marshal said. "We'll
+have to organize a regular hunt, and scatter through the mountains. But
+we'll have to go back and get some grub. I'm getting hungry, and a man
+can't hunt a horse thief on an empty stomach."
+
+"That's right!" several of the men agreed.
+
+"Why not keep on?" some one asked. "We can get to Rainbow Ridge quicker
+than we can to Golden Crossing."
+
+"That's true," added Jack. "I'd ask you all to our cabin, but there's
+nothing there to eat, since dad is being taken care of by Mrs. Watson."
+
+"Oh, we can get grub easily enough," the sheriff said. "I guess it will be
+as well to go on to Rainbow Ridge. We want to spread the news there anyhow,
+and get some men out after the robbers from this end. And I suppose you'll
+have to report the robbery, won't you?" he asked Jack.
+
+"Yes," replied the pony express rider, and his voice was sad. "I'll have to
+admit that they got the best of me."
+
+"Oh, shucks! It wasn't your fault at all!" declared the marshal. "Those
+fellows were bound to get the letters, and if they didn't one way they
+would another. You couldn't help it."
+
+"But I was asleep right alongside the safe."
+
+"Yes, but maybe they chloroformed you. Such things have been done."
+
+"No, that wasn't done," declared Jack with conviction.
+
+"Well, you'd gone through enough, in that drugging business, to make
+anybody tired enough to sleep hard," one man said. "They can't blame you."
+
+"No indeed!" agreed another.
+
+But Jack blamed himself. He felt that he had failed in his trust. He did
+not know what to do. His brain seemed incapable of thinking. If he could
+only catch the robber and get back the letters!
+
+As he went along with the others over the mountain trail in the early
+morning, he looked eagerly about, as though he might see some sign of the
+much-wanted rascal. But the trail was deserted, save for the posse.
+
+They rode into Rainbow Ridge, and that place was soon buzzing with the
+startling news. As soon as possible a number of men were started out
+through the mountains, to cover even the bridle paths and trails seldom
+used. All strangers who could not give a good account of themselves were to
+be brought into the town.
+
+Mr. Argent was told of the stealing of the valuable letters. He looked
+grave when Jack explained what had taken place.
+
+"Of course it isn't your fault, Jack," the miner said, "and I'm not in the
+least blaming you."
+
+"I wanted to come through with them last night, but--"
+
+"It probably wouldn't have done any good, and you might have been attacked
+and hurt. I'm glad that didn't happen. Of course losing the papers is going
+to make it very bad for my friends and myself in making good our claim to
+the mine. But it can't be helped. You did the best you could. No one could
+have done more. That was a plucky thing you did--tying yourself on the
+pony's back when you felt you were going to become unconscious."
+
+"But it didn't result in any good in the end," said Jack bitterly. "And now
+Sunger is gone, too."
+
+"That's too bad. But still we may catch this fellow. So my package was the
+only one he took?"
+
+"Well, I didn't stay until all the mail was checked up," answered Jack,
+"but I'm sure that was missing from the opened safe. I half hoped that this
+might be another dummy package," said Jack, "and that your other letters
+might be in the one addressed to the postmaster here."
+
+"No such luck!" exclaimed the miner. "The package addressed to me contained
+the real and important letters and mine plans that I've been expecting so
+long. There was some stuff for me in that other package you mention, but it
+isn't important.
+
+"I wish now," he went on, ruefully, "that I had had a dummy package come
+through. But I worked that plan once, and I didn't think it would have an
+effect a second time. Well, it's all in the game, and if I lose this inning
+I may make it up later. But whatever happens, Jack, don't in the least feel
+that I blame you."
+
+"Well, it's awfully good of you to say so," replied the pony rider, "but I
+can't help feeling bad about it."
+
+"Oh, I feel bad myself," the miner said. "But there's no use crying over
+spilled molasses."
+
+"I think you mean milk," Jack corrected, with a smile.
+
+"Well, perhaps I do. Anyhow the thing to do now is to see if we can't round
+up these fellows. For there were more than one of them, though you only saw
+one at the safe. I have an idea who some of them are, too."
+
+As soon as it was seen that a hasty and quick search was not going to
+result in the capture of the robber and his confederates, a well-planned
+organized hunt was instituted, to take in as much as possible of the
+surrounding mountain country. Jack could not take part in this, as he had
+to ride the express route.
+
+At first he feared lest he might be discharged for having been robbed, but,
+as a matter of fact, technically he was not in the least to blame. The
+matter taken was not in his charge, but was in the safe in a post office,
+and his responsibility ended with the delivery of the mail. Nor was Jennie
+Blake blamed. The post office authorities did not in the least censure her
+or her mother. In fact they paid them the compliment, and Jack, too, of
+saying that extraordinary precautions had been taken, but that the robbery
+had occurred in spite of them.
+
+Another point was that no express stuff was taken, but only United States'
+mail. And so the express people had no complaint against Jack, or any one
+else, as they had lost nothing. Such being the case, there was no good
+reason for displacing Jack, especially as the robbery had not occurred on
+his route. So those who hoped to get his position were disappointed.
+
+"You can keep right on riding for us, Jack, my boy," said Mr. Perkfeld.
+"We're glad to have you. It isn't often we get as plucky a lad as you. And
+when your father gets well, and wants his place back, he can have it, and
+I'll find an opening for you on another route, if you like."
+
+"I certainly would like!" Jack exclaimed, warmly.
+
+In addition to the posse organized in Golden Crossing and Rainbow Ridge the
+post office authorities also sent out inspectors and detectives to try and
+round up the robbers. This was done the day after it occurred, so that
+within forty-eight hours the mountain trails were being well patrolled by
+men eager to apprehend the offenders. And in the mountains, off the trails,
+were others on the same errand. Jack wished he could be with them, but he
+had to keep to the mail and express route.
+
+As far as Mr. Argent could learn, no use had yet been made of the stolen
+documents.
+
+"And that is a good sign," he said to Jack. "I've been in touch with
+matters, and I and my friends would know as soon as some use was made of
+them. The people who could best use those documents would have an
+injunction out against us in a jiffy, and be in possession of the mine as
+soon as they laid their hands on the papers. But they haven't got them yet,
+that's sure."
+
+"What does that mean?" asked Jack.
+
+"Just this. Those who would gain the greatest advantage from the possession
+of our papers, which would give them control of the mine, didn't do the
+actual stealing themselves. They hired these outlaws to do it, and from the
+fact that no action has been taken makes me sure that the robber who blew
+open the safe and took the letters, has not had a chance to deliver them."
+
+"You mean he has them in his possession yet?"
+
+"That's about it, Jack. He is probably hiding out somewhere in the
+mountains, waiting for a chance to deliver them. He dare not mail them, and
+he can't get in touch with the rascals who hired him or worked with him.
+And if any of our men see him first, why we'll save the day yet."
+
+"Good!" cried Jack. "I wish it would be my luck to nab him!"
+
+"Yes. And I suppose you want your pony back?"
+
+"Do I?" cried Jack, and there was no mistaking his longing.
+
+He had provided himself with another horse to ride the mountain trail, and,
+though it was good, still it was not Sunger.
+
+Mrs. Blake and Jennie were very nervous after the safe robbery, and Mrs.
+Blake wanted her daughter to give up the post office. But the plucky girl
+would not.
+
+"They won't bother us again," she said. "It's like lightning. It won't
+happen the second time In the same place. I'm not afraid, though I am a
+little shaken."
+
+The damage done by the explosion was soon repaired, and a new and more
+up-to-date safe provided by the post office department.
+
+It was a week after this momentous occurrence that one afternoon, as Jack
+was riding along the trail from Golden Crossing to Rainbow Ridge, he
+stopped to water his horse at the lonely cabin where the old man, on the
+night of the chase, had told of hearing some one riding past, he thinking
+it was the pony express.
+
+"Well, Jack," asked the old man, as the lad paused for a moment's chat,
+"they didn't catch that there safe burglar, did they?"
+
+"No, haven't seen a trace of him, worse luck! Anybody been along to-day?"
+
+"Why, yes, there was a feller here not long ago. He stopped for a drink,
+and asked for a bite to eat. He looked as if he was in hard luck."
+
+"What sort of a fellow was he?"
+
+"Oh well, I didn't take particular notice. He was afoot."
+
+"Afoot?" cried Jack. "That's queer."
+
+"I thought so myself," agreed the old man. And it was queer to see a man
+traveling afoot in a country where riding and driving was universal. "I
+asked him where his horse was, and he said down the road a piece!"
+
+"That was also queer," Jack said. "I wonder why he didn't ride right up
+here? No excuse for walking when one has a horse."
+
+"That's what I thought," the old man went on. "But I didn't want to ask too
+many questions. He didn't seem relishin' answerin' 'em."
+
+"Which way was he going?" asked the pony express lad.
+
+"Towards Rainbow Ridge. It wa'n't more'n ten minutes ago."
+
+As Jack rode off a sudden thought came to him.
+
+"I wonder if this could be a clew to the robber?" he asked himself. "Queer
+thing about his not riding his horse up to Ford's cabin. Why should he do
+that unless he was afraid the horse would be recognized. Why should
+he--Great Scott!" suddenly exclaimed Jack aloud. "I believe I know why. He
+had Sunger, and didn't dare let Ford see him! That's it! I believe I'm on
+the track of the man who has my pony and the Argent letters!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+JACK'S TRICK--CONCLUSION
+
+Jack called to his horse, which really was a speedy mount.
+
+"Come on, old boy!" he cried. "You may not be as good as Sunger, but he's
+had a hard time lately, being kept out among the mountains, and I don't
+believe he's up to the mark. We may catch him if that fellow stays to the
+road, though ordinarily my pony would run away from you, Dobbin."
+
+Jack didn't care much what he called this horse. But he really liked the
+animal, as he did all horseflesh, and the beast responded readily to him.
+
+On they swept down the mountain trail. Jack's eyes watched eagerly as he
+made turn after turn at top speed; but for some time he saw no signs of any
+rider ahead of him.
+
+"There's no way of getting off on a side trail for the next half mile,"
+reflected Jack, as he rode on. "If I can come up to him in that distance
+I'll have him."
+
+He felt to see if his revolver was in readiness. He did not know just what
+he would do, but it was a desperate situation, or it would be if he should
+overtake the fellow.
+
+And luck was with Jack--luck and good judgment. As he made the last turn in
+that part of the trail from which there was no escape by a side road, he
+saw, just ahead of him, a rider on a horse which Jack knew in a moment.
+
+"That's Sunger!" he cried. "I've found him!"
+
+Of course Jack could not be sure that the man on his pony was the same one
+who had robbed the safe. But Jack knew his own steed, and when, out West, a
+man is found riding a stolen horse, it is prime evidence against him. He
+has to prove his case, and is subject to arrest on sight. Of course he may
+have innocently acquired the stolen animal; but he has to prove this to be
+the case.
+
+"That's my pony, and I'm going to have him back!" thought Jack. "And I'm
+going to get that man, too! Come on, boy!"
+
+For one of the few times in his life Jack used the whip. But he was humane.
+His horse responded with a burst of speed. But now the man ahead, hearing
+galloping hoofs behind him, urged on Sunger. And Sunger still could run.
+Though Jack saw, with regret, that his pony had suffered, still the
+wonderful speed of the animal had abated but little.
+
+"He's going to get away from me!" cried the lad, as he saw how Sunger was
+running. "And that's the man, else why should he try to escape?"
+
+Then Jack began to think quickly. He had trained Sunger to halt instantly
+when he called "Whoa!" to him, in a certain tone. If the animal were going
+at top speed, and Jack yelled that word, Sunger would brace up with his
+fore feet, slide with his hind ones, and bring up standing, like a train of
+cars when the engineer throws on the emergency air brakes.
+
+Of course Jack was never in the saddle when he worked this trick with
+Sunger. Had he been he might have been hurt. But he had given his pony this
+training so that in going down dangerous slopes Sunger would know how to
+bring himself suddenly to a halt.
+
+"I wonder if I can make him hear," thought Jack. "If I can, and if he'll
+stop, there'll be something doing in a minute."
+
+Jack saw that he could not hope to overtake the man ahead of him by an
+ordinary chase. The horse the pony rider bestrode was not fast enough. And
+a short distance ahead was a place on the trail where the suspect could
+escape by a side path.
+
+"Here goes!" murmured Jack.
+
+In his loudest voice he cried out:
+
+"Whoa, Sunger!"
+
+Something happened at once. The pony, which had been running his best in
+order not to let the horse behind pass him, pulled up so short that the man
+was flung with great force from the saddle, and over Sunger's head. Over he
+went, vainly trying to save himself, and the next moment he landed heavily
+on the side of the trail and did not move.
+
+"Well, I guess that ends your riding for a time," thought Jack, grimly.
+Then he rode forward while Sunger, with a whinny of delight, turned back to
+meet his master.
+
+"Oh, Sunger! Sunger, old boy! You did it!" cried Jack. Then his heart smote
+him as he saw the motionless figure beside the trail.
+
+Pausing only a moment to caress his recovered pony, Jack hastened to the
+side of the man who had been thrown off by Sunger's sudden stopping. The
+fellow was a stranger to Jack, who could not tell whether or not he was the
+post office robber. The man was unconscious, and, with little compunction,
+Jack rapidly searched through his pockets.
+
+In an inner one he came upon a package. With beating heart Jack pulled out
+the bundle. He knew it in a moment. It was the packet of letters addressed
+to Mr. Argent. A look at the seals convinced the lad that they had not been
+broken.
+
+"Talk about luck!" he cried, "I'm certainly in it to-day! I've got Sunger,
+got the papers back, and caught the robber, too. At least I think he must
+be the safe-cracker, though I can't be sure. I've got him right! Sunger,
+old boy, we worked the trick to perfection!"
+
+Jack thrust the strangely-recovered package into his pocket, and then gave
+more attention to the man. He lay senseless, and from the manner in which
+one leg was doubled up under him Jack felt sure it was broken.
+
+"But it couldn't be helped," he mused. "I had to stop you, and you brought
+it on yourself. I'll go and get help for you, though."
+
+Jack worked quickly. His first care was for his pony, who was delightedly
+rubbing his velvet nose against his master. Sunger did not appear to have
+suffered so much as Jack had feared.
+
+"I guess you can ride trail yet," Jack mused. "I'll use you in place of
+Dobbin."
+
+He transferred the mail sacks to his own pony, and then rode back to the
+cabin, taking the other horse with him.
+
+"For you might come to, and manage to ride off," Jack said looking at the
+unconscious man. But the fellow did not. He was still senseless when the
+help sent by Jack reached him.
+
+As for our hero, he rode post-haste into Rainbow Ridge, where, after
+stopping but a moment to tell his father the good news, he hastened to
+deliver the recovered packet to Mr. Argent and tell his news.
+
+"Say, you don't mean to say you have it Jack!" cried the miner. "Why,
+that's great! And it's all here, too--every paper!" he added as he broke
+the seals and made a quick examination. "Now everything will be all right,
+and we'll start to work the mine. That fellow you caught didn't have time
+to deliver the goods and didn't dare go where he could do so. It was a
+great trick! Great!"
+
+Jack was pretty well pleased with himself.
+
+The rest of the story is soon told. The man whom Jack had caught by the
+trick of making the pony stop suddenly was not mortally hurt, though a
+broken leg, and other injuries laid him up for some time. He confessed he
+was the safe-robber, and a member of the outlaw gang that had been engaged
+by the enemies of Mr. Argent to get possession of the papers.
+
+And, as the miner had surmised, the trails had been so quickly and closely
+watched and guarded, that he had had no chance to communicate with those
+who engaged him, to give them the papers he stole from the safe. He and
+Ryan, as well as others, had worked together to waylay Jack, or, in any
+manner they could, get possession of the documents.
+
+This much was learned from the man's confession, and, though he did not
+disclose the whereabouts of his confederates, they were captured a little
+later, and sent to prison for long terms. Jack's testimony went far in
+this, for he identified Ryan, as well as the bogus post office inspector,
+who was also one of the men who held him up.
+
+Ryan was among the first arrested, and admitted that he had planned for
+some time to drug Jack, and had seen his opportunity the day the pony went
+lame.
+
+Not only was Mr. Argent's mine secured to him, and the pony express route
+rendered safe by the capture of the outlaw band, but several other crimes
+in the vicinity were cleared up. The gang was at the bottom of them.
+
+"Well, I only wish I could be cleared of suspicion in that Harrington
+matter," said Mr. Bailey one day, a month or so later, when he had so far
+recovered that he was thinking of going back to the pony express route.
+
+"Maybe you will be. The trials of those fellows aren't ended yet," Jack
+said. "Maybe something will come out in them."
+
+And that is just what happened. In the testimony, it was brought out that,
+for some time, confederates of the outlaws, of whom Jake Tantrell was one,
+had been trying to get for one of their number the position of pony express
+rider. They thought if they did this they would have no trouble in robbing
+the mail.
+
+One of these unscrupulous men was responsible for the leakage of the
+information contained in the Harrington letter. This was admitted, and Mr.
+Bailey was cleared of all blame in the matter.
+
+It was Tantrell, too, who loosened the planks in the bridge, just as Jack
+suspected.
+
+"Well, that makes me feel fine!" Mr. Bailey said, when the good news came
+to him. "It's all your doings, Jack, catching that fellow!"
+
+"No, it's Sunger's," Jack said, with a laugh. "If he hadn't learned the
+trick of stopping suddenly the man might have gotten away, and the mine
+might have been lost to Mr. Argent."
+
+"But it wasn't lost," said the miner, "and as a little reward for your
+pluck and services, Jack, I'm going to give you a small interest in one of
+my mines, for I have two."
+
+"Oh, I don't want any reward!"
+
+"But you're going to need it some day. You can save the income for the time
+when you'll want to get married; eh?" and he pinched Jennie's blushing
+cheek.
+
+Jennie didn't say anything. But she looked at Jack, and he would have
+blushed as red as she, only he could not. He was too tanned.
+
+In due time Mr. Bailey fully recovered, and was able to take up his former
+work of riding pony express. Jack regretted giving it up, glad as he was to
+have his father out again. But Mr. Perkfeld was as good as his word, and
+Jack soon had another route to ride, and one where he could see Jennie
+nearly as often as before.
+
+Jennie still kept her place as postmistress at Golden Crossing, but there
+was no more danger from the outlaws or the bogus inspector, as they had the
+prospect of long terms in prison before them.
+
+"And when they do come out you won't be working in the office here any
+more," said Jack, with a smile.
+
+"How do you know?" Jennie asked demurely.
+
+"Oh, I just guess it," was the answer, and he looked at Jennie in a way
+that meant a good deal.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Jack of the Pony Express, by Frank V. Webster
+
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