CHAPTER VIII. FORTUNE’S MYSTERY.

Jimmie walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed.

“I’m all in a takin’ over what I’ve found out,” he remarked, “but in spite o’ that, I could slop down on this bunk and sleep to beat four of a kind. Er-wow!” and he threw up his arms and yawned. “Ain’t it orful,” he went on, “to be so chock full of agitatin’ things and yet feel like layin’ right down on ’em and poundin’ your ear?”

“If you’ve got anything in your system, Jimmie,” said Owen, “now is your chance to get it out. When you’ve done that, you can crawl in between those blankets and sleep as long as you please.”

“Mebby I won’t have no chanst to sleep. It all depends on how you figger out my diskiveries. Fust off, pard, I’ve found where Dirk Hibbard went when he hiked off with the jedge’s car. It wasn’t no joy ride, you can gamble, and he wasn’t jest tryin’ out the machine to see what was wrong with it. He was acrost the mountain palaverin’ with Tom Long, who’s got a past like a bandit.”

“Tom Long? Never heard of him.”

“That cimiroon has been keepin’ purty quiet for some sort of a while, and I opine he’s about due to break out. If there’s a train robbery or any other kind of a hold-up anywheres on this part o’ the range, fust thing the sher’ff does is to go inquirin’ for Tom Long, otherwise Chantay Seeche Tom. That’s the sort of a maverick he is. Whyever d’you suppose Hibbard went acrost the mountain to talk to a feller like that?”

“Give it up.”

“That ain’t all. Mebby I’ve got somethin’ that’ll help us git a twist on this little game o’ muggins. But I sort o’ begun my yarnin’ wrong end to. I ort to have commenced at the start, ’stead o’ goin’ along down toward where you write finish. When your trail and mine forked, a spell ago, I had a notion I’d keep track o’ Uncle Si and the shuffer. I seen ’em on a bench in the plaza, thick as two thieves, but I couldn’t get nigh enough to catch the run o’ their conversation. I’ll bet it was crooked palaver, though, ’cause old Rocks ain’t no better than Hibbard, and you and me sabe what Hibbard is.

“I didn’t linger long around the plaza when them two got up and hiked. Two silver dollars was burnin’ a hole in my pocket, so I moseyed over to the Palace and played ’em on the red----”

“You gambled with that money?” Owen demanded sharply.

“I didn’t think it was gamblin’, pard--I reckoned it was a cinch. You’d saved my scalp on the cliftside, hadn’t you? And you and me was pards, wasn’t we? And that thatch o’ yours is carmine! Figgerin’ from all that, I allowed I’d drop two cases on the red and pull out four, then I’d stake the four on red to win and corral eight, leave the eight on the same color and grab sixteen. I was plannin’ to keep this up till I had dinero sufficient to buy a garage for you and a private yacht and a few other things for myself, but--dog-gone it! red didn’t win that fust time, and the croupier juggled my little two bones into the till. Ain’t it scandalous?”

“I should say so!” muttered Clancy. “I didn’t give you that money to use in gambling, Fortune, but to keep you going till you landed a job. Now your money’s gone, and you haven’t a thing to show for it!”

“Easy, pard! Sure I’ve got somethin’ to show for it. If I hadn’t gone to the Palace I wouldn’t ’a’ met Slim Simmons, would I?”

“Who is Slim Simmons?”

“Desert rat. I’ve seen him a heap o’ times, and we sabe each other a hull lot. He come over the same trail we did, but he was ahead of us. I got to palaverin’ with Slim, and refers incidental to Hibbard and the way he forked me over the cliffs. Simmons allows Hibbard was the same juniper he’d seen gassin’ with Long Tom, otherwise Tom Long. You see, Slim stopped at Chantay Seeche’s for a drink, and he glimpsed Hibbard and Long powwowin’ cautious and careful by the ranch corral. Slim asked Hibbard for a ride into town, and Hibbard wouldn’t have it. Hibbard must have stayed at Tom Long’s quite a while, for Slim was able to get pretty well over the trail afore Hibbard came along and passed you and me. That’s how I diskivered where Hibbard had been. There’s more, though. While Slim and me was gassin’ in one corner o’ the Palace, who rolls into the place but Chantay Seeche himself?”

“This Long Tom came to the gambling house?”

“Surest thing you know. He walked in, big as life, and twicet as ornery, and dropped down at a table behind the pianner. I allowed I’d walk over to him, pass the time o’ day, and inquire as to what Hibbard was doin’ at his ranch. That was my idee, and jest as I was goin’ to carry it out, in comes Hibbard and sits down at the same table with Long. Neither of ’em saw me, so I jest hung back and watched.

“They got real confidential, them two. Bymby, Hibbard takes a pencil and paper from his pocket and makes a diagram. Chantay Seeche considers it. There’s more talk, a little drinkin’, then the two shakes hands and separates. They leave the table together, and they fergit to take the diagram. I ain’t more’n a minute freezin’ to that paper and lookin’ it over.

“I haven’t got savvy enough to make head or tail to it, but I thinks of my red-headed pard, and hikes for here. Not bein’ what they call persona gratter to the front of the establishment, I sneak up to your room from the rear. So here I am, gappin’ like Rip Van Winkle gettin’ ready for thirty years o’ sleep; and here’s the paper, and you’re welcome to tell me what it’s about--if you can.”

Jimmie handed over the paper. It was a small sheet, and seemed to have been torn from a memorandum book. It was marked with lines in the form of a rough, oblong square. This square was crossed and recrossed with other lines, and there were subdivisions indicated here and there. Clancy studied the diagram closely.

“Looks like a chink puzzle, eh?” said Fortune. “Can you make anythin’ of it, Red?”

“Seems to be the ground plan of a house,” Clancy answered thoughtfully.

“Well, now!” murmured the other. “Blamed if I’d thought o’ that! It might be the ground plan of a house, or the picter of tracks in a chicken yard. What makes you think it’s a diagram of a ’dobe?”

“The plan is divided into rooms, and there are little marks in the outside walls that may indicate doors and windows. But the best proof that this is a diagram of a house is given by the only written words on the paper. Along one side is the word ‘second,’ and along the other side we find the two words, ‘Cerro Gordo.’ Is there a street in this town called Cerro Gordo Street, Jimmie?”

“By glory!” gulped Fortune. “You’ve hit it right between the eyes! Sure there’s a street called Cerro Gordo, and it’s the best residence street in town. Corner of Cerro Gordo and Second Av’noo is right in the middle of Magnateville and Upper-tendom! You’ve cracked the shell of the mystery, Red!”

Clancy smiled, and shook his head.

“We’re a good way yet from cracking the shell of the mystery,” said he. “If this is really the ground plan of a house at the corner of Second and Cerro Gordo, why did Hibbard draw it and show it to Chantay Seeche? That’s the mystery, Jimmie, and we haven’t begun to solve it.”

Fortune’s face went blank.

“That’s you! I missed the p’int, and no mistake. But Hibbard and Chantay wasn’t considerin’ that plan for any good purpose, believe me. There’s a hen on, and trouble’s hatchin’. How we goin’ to find out what’s in the wind?”

“I believe I’ll go over on Washington Street, and see if I can find out anything. You stay here, Jimmie. Get in bed and go to sleep, if you want to.”

“Don’t go out by the front, pard,” begged Fortune.

“I’ll go out the way you came in.”

“Suppose somebody wants you for somethin’ while you’re gone? I might help out, but, not bein’ on good terms with the boss o’ this establishment, I reckon I hadn’t better try.”

“No,” said Clancy, “don’t try. We’ll take chances, and hope the night man won’t call on me for anything. Anyhow, I’ll not be gone long. Crawl into the blankets and go to sleep. The bed’s big enough for two, and I’ll make use of my half of it when I get back.”

Fortune had already kicked off his boots and removed his flannel shirt. He was out of his trousers in a jiffy and had rolled up head and ears in a blanket.

“Buenas noches, pard!” came in muffled tones from the depths of the blanket.

Clancy turned off the light, passed to the window, raised the shade, and then the sash, and softly climbed through and dropped to the ground. By a roundabout course he gained First Avenue, went by the front of the garage on the opposite side of the street, and so came into the main thoroughfare of the town.

Clancy did not intend to be gone long for he believed that he could discover all he wanted to know in a very few minutes. He was longer in his quest, however, than he had supposed he would be.

He went into a hotel across from the courthouse plaza, and approached the desk in the lobby. Eleven o’clock was just chiming from the courthouse bell.

The night clerk, after surveying Clancy rather uncertainly, pushed the register around and handed him a pen.

“No,” said the youth, “I’m not going to put up here. All I want is a little information.”

“Fire away,” said the clerk.

“Can you tell me who lives at the corner of Second Avenue and Cerro Gordo Street?”

“Hanged if I can! I haven’t been here long, and don’t know this town very well. Why don’t you go to the place and find out?”

Clancy didn’t care to do that, and carried his search farther. Place after place was visited fruitlessly, until it seemed that the only way for him to learn what he wanted to know was by really going to the house and making his inquiries on the spot. At last, however, he found himself in the same restaurant where he had taken supper, and the cashier gave him the required information.

“Cerro Gordo and Second?” repeated the cashier. “That’s easy. Judge Pembroke lives there and---- What’s the matter with you?”

A sudden whiteness had flashed into Clancy’s face, and he had drawn a quick, rasping breath.

“Nothing,” he answered, turning away, “nothing at all. Much obliged.”

He ran out of the restaurant and started back to the Red Star Garage, greatly excited. Twelve o’clock came booming from the courthouse plaza as he turned into First Avenue from Washington Street.

“It has taken me an hour to find out what I wanted to know,” he murmured. “If there is lawlessness going on, I wonder if we’re too late to stop it? Maybe here’s a chance for Fortune and me to do something for the judge! My guesses may be all wrong, but if they’re right Jimmie and I will have to do some quick work.”