CHAPTER III

THE LAW OF CLUB AND FANG

“Where’s the note?” asked Frank.

“It isn’t here,” Harry answered, “so I guess Ned must have taken it with him. He had it the last time I saw it.”

“What kind of a note was it?”

“Just a short note written on letter paper in pencil.”

“Well, what did it say?”

“It said for Ned to come to where you were, and leave the others in camp. You say you never sent it?”

“Of course, we never sent it!” replied Jimmie scornfully. “We don’t carry paper and pencil with us every time we leave camp!”

“Who brought it?” Frank cut in.

“Why, a dark-skinned little chap who said he had left you in a gulch not far away.”

“Did he look like the boy Ned described this morning?” asked Jimmie.

“Come to think of it, I guess he did!” answered Jack. “Anyway, he was a ragged little chap and looked hungry.”

“Hungry after eating three or four loaves of bread and a lot of canned beans!” grinned Frank. “Did Ned go away with him?”

“Of course, he went away with him.”

“Then there’s some deviltry afloat,” Frank declared. “Some one out there in the thicket told us to ‘beat it while the beating was good,’ and then ducked away. I’ll bet it was the same person.”

In answer to numerous questions, Jimmie and Frank related their experience in the pines.

“Now, what are we going to do about it?” asked Harry with a troubled look on his face. “There certainly is mischief afoot.”

“The first thing to do,” Jack replied, “is to scatter and see if we can find Ned. He’s been lured away, and may be in trouble.”

“We’re the original trouble-getters!” Harry grumbled. “I believe we’d get into a mixup of some kind if we went to a Sunday School picnic.”

“And the strangest part of it all is,” Frank went on, “that the boy who told us to ‘beat it’ proved to be a Boy Scout!”

“Anyway,” Jimmie declared, “he answered our challenge correctly.”

While the boys consulted together, anxious for the safety of their chum, a shout came from the summit above.

“There’s something new,” Jimmie grinned. “I wonder whether that fellow wants bread and beans, or whether he wants to coax one of us away into the woods? Tell him this is our busy day!”

“Are you there, boys?” came the voice from above.

“Hello yourself!” Jimmie called back.

“All right, now,” the voice went on. “All I needed was something to enable me to locate you. I’ll be down there in a minute.”

“That’ll be nice!” Jimmie answered. “If you’ve got a trunk full of trouble, just bring that along with you. We’re in the market for trouble.”

Although the boys made light of the approach of another visitor, they were very anxious. They were certain that Ned had been lured away for some sinister purpose, and were consequently fearful that this new arrival might be connected in some way with future complications.

In a few moments rolling stones and exclamations of impatience announced the near approach of the man who had hailed them. Directly he turned around an angle of rock and came into full view.

He was a short, fat, heavily built man of perhaps thirty, with the pale face and assertive manner of a city dweller. At all events it was plainly evident that he was not familiar with mountain work, for he stumbled about as he advanced down the declivity, and more than once fell to his knee and caught hold of projecting boulders with a pair of hands not at all familiar with such service.

Jack eyed the fellow critically for a moment, and then advanced to meet him with a shout of welcome.

“Gilroy!” he cried. “What the Old Harry are you doing away out in California? Boys,” he continued, turning to his chums, “this is Gilroy, one of Dad’s confidential clerks. Nothing wrong at home, I hope,” he continued addressing the newcomer.

“All were well and happy when I left New York,” Gilroy returned, puffing with his long struggle with the mountain side.

“Did Dad give you a vacation?” asked Jack.

“Vacation nothing!” Gilroy answered. “He sent me flying over the continent on a special train, and told me to get to you in seven days. This is the tenth day I’ve been on the road.”

“Whew!” whistled Jack. “Dad won’t like that.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help it,” Gilroy returned. “Your father measured surface distances only. He didn’t figure how many thousands of miles I’d have to go up in the air in order to find you!”

“It is some climb,” Jack admitted, “but what’s the rush?”

“If you’ve got a place here where we can talk without being in danger of being overheard,” Gilroy suggested, “I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Oh you can say whatever you have to say in the presence of my chums,” Jack answered. “They won’t leak.”

“That isn’t the idea,” Gilroy stated. “Your father even instructed me to report to your chums if you were not to be found. I know the boys are all right, but the fact is that he is afraid of rank outsiders.”

“Rank outsiders!” repeated Jack with a laugh. “Who is there up here on the mountain to listen to private conversation? Eavesdroppers couldn’t get within sound of our voices without being seen if they tried.”

“They couldn’t, eh?” Harry cut in. “They couldn’t get close enough to steal our beans, or to tell you boys to beat it while the beatin’ was good, or to send a fake note in order to get hold of Ned!”

“What’s that you say?” asked Gilroy. “Has Ned Nestor already been lured away?”

“He certainly has!” answered Jimmie. “While Frank and I were away a strange boy brought a note and Ned fell for it.”

“And some one stole your provisions, too?” the fat clerk asked.

“Stole everything last night that wasn’t locked up in the provisions boxes,” answered Harry.

“And appeared to us in the bushes and told us to beat it,” put in Jimmie. “I wonder if he did that before he brought that lying note to Ned? Oh, we seem to be keeping busy all right!”

“Why,” Frank suggested, “he must have seen us before he brought the note, for he went away with Ned.”

Gilroy looked very much puzzled for a moment and then said:

“I’m afraid that this is a scheme to get Nestor out of the way. If I could only have reached you on schedule time, this would never have happened. Still, I did the best I could under the circumstances.”

“I hope you also didn’t come out here to tell us to ‘beat it,’” laughed Frank. “We’ve just got to enjoying ourselves.”

“I came out to deliver a message from Mr. Bosworth,” Gilroy answered. “He has some work he wants you boys to do.”

“Work is right in our line!” Harry answered with a laugh.

“Well, hurry up and tell us all about it,” Jack suggested calmly, “because, you know, we ought to be out looking for Ned.”

“It’s just this way,” Gilroy began, “Jack’s father is acting as attorney for a large mining corporation. His employers have always believed their title to certain lands in this vicinity absolutely flawless. Some of these lands are valuable for timber, some for minerals, and some for agricultural purposes. As I said before, some of these lands lie in this vicinity, and a railroad the employers own will soon build a spur in here to market the minerals and the lumber.

“Now,” the confidential clerk went on, “it has been discovered that there are other claimants to these lands. It is asserted that they were given to the descendants of Franciscan monks who were here at the time so many missions were scattered over California. At any rate, people who came over with the Franciscans, if not Franciscans themselves, left progeny who now claim these lands.

“The Mexican government recognized the titles, but the United States government never did. The claimants have no standing whatever in the courts, but they propose to keep possession under the old law of club and fang. Of course, they can’t keep possession long, but they can put the corporation to a great deal of trouble.”

“It looks to me,” Jack interrupted with a grin, “that father should have sent a regiment of United States troops instead of one confidential clerk. Now, just what is it he wants us to do?”

“He wants you boys to scout about and find out exactly who is at the bottom of all this trouble. He believes that the alleged heirs are ignorant pawns in the hands of a corporation with which his own companies are at sword’s points.

“His first thought was to send a company of detectives in here, but he concluded later on that a vacation crowd of Boy Scouts would attract less attention, and might not be suspected at all. In accordance with this reasoning he sent me out to tell you to learn everything possible regarding present complications.”

“Does he think this corporation he is fighting has already sent mercenaries out here to make trouble?” asked Jack.

“He is quite positive that such is the case,” answered Gilroy. “At any rate, he wants you to find out what kind of people they have leading this outlaw gang.”

“I knew it would come,” Jack laughed. “Every time we go out for a vacation, we get mixed up in a scrap of some kind.”

“Well,” Frank suggested, “we have all the more fun because of the trouble we get into. I like to be doing things.”

“But how are we going to get a line on these people?” asked Jack.

“It seems to me that they’ve got in the first blow,” Harry declared. “If we only had Ned here, he could tell us exactly what to do.”

“We’ll have him here before night!” Jimmie answered.

“You ask how you are to get a line on the people you are to watch,” Gilroy said, “and I think I can tell you what you ought to do first. It is said that somewhere out in the hills, perhaps within a few miles of this very spot, there are the ruins of an old Franciscan mission. It is said to stand high up on a mountain, facing east. Our information is that the walls of the original mission have been leveled to the ground, but that the subterranean rooms and passages reaching under the mountain are still fairly intact. You must find this mission.”

“And after we find it, what then?” Jack asked.

“It is said to be the headquarters of the outlaw claimants who are making us all this trouble,” replied Gilroy. “If you find the ruined mission, you will also find, without doubt, the agents of the corporation we are fighting. They are undoubtedly there.”

“And after we find them, what then?” Frank questioned.

“What Mr. Bosworth wants,” the confidential clerk continued, “is to connect this hostile corporation, through its agents, with what is going on here. Once in the possession of positive information that the corporation is instigating this revolt against law and order, and he will know exactly what to do. He expects you boys to bring in the proof.”

“Are you going to remain and help us?” asked Jack in a moment.

“Remain and help you?” repeated the fat little confidential clerk in dismay. “I should say not! In fact, Mr. Bosworth was thoughtful enough to intimate to me that I would better get out of the mountains as soon as possible after delivering my message. Personally, I wouldn’t stay in these hills for a thousand dollars a day!”

“If you’ll wait until we find this romantic old mission,” Jack grinned, “we’ll make you a suite of rooms that will beat anything in New York.”

“Say, boys,” Gilroy answered with a grim smile, “I’d rather be blind and be tied to a lamp post in New York than to own all the country west of the Mississippi river.”

“Well, then,” Jack said, “run back to Dad with your little old story about Ned’s being abducted the day you reached us!”

“If you do,” Jimmie called out, “we’ll murder you when we get back to New York! Ned will be with us before you get down to the foot-hills.”

“I certainly hope so,” Gilroy answered.

“Because,” Jimmie declared, “we’re going out right now to find that romantic old mission and dig him out of a ruined chamber!”