“Henderson won’t be here,” said our spokesman.
“Yes. He said we were thieves, the last one of us, and we asked him to take it back and never show his face in our camp again. He left in a mighty hurry, and I guess he was going somewhere.”
“Humph!” said Mr. Chisholm, with a sidelong glance at me. “Well, you send all the boys up here. We have something here now that will put a different look on the matter.”
“Now, Bob,” continued our spokesman, “we haven’t had a chance before to tell you how pleased we are at your good fortune. Shake!”
“Oh, I took it for granted,” said Bob, accepting the cowboys’ hands, one after the other. “You have been so good to me ever since I lost my cattle that I knew you sympathized with me. I am glad to receive your congratulations.”
We stood there at the wagon and saw the cowboys ride away and Elam engaged in conversation with Tom, and then I motioned to Mr. Chisholm to follow me off on one side. There were two things that I wanted to speak to him about.
“You know when Henderson read that will, do you not?” I began.
“I thought I did,” he replied. “You had him cornered so that he couldn’t get away or destroy it?”
“Yes, sir. He read it rapidly, much more so than I could have done if I had had the paper, and he wanted to get at the name of the bank where the money was kept on deposit--that is, where the bonds were kept. Then I interfered and the men took the paper away from him.”
“He said I was too late,” I continued. “And then he gave me to understand that he had got all he wanted. He said that the next time I saw him would be in Austin----”
“Yes. And then he would have the law to back him up. He would go to the surrogate and challenge the will. Now, it seems to me that he could make us a heap of trouble by doing that.”
Mr. Chisholm knocked the ashes from his pipe and filled up for another smoke, all the while keeping his eyes fastened upon me. I knew he was thinking deeply about something, and made no attempt to interrupt him.
“Well?” said he, when he had come to some conclusion.
“And there’s another thing I wanted to speak to you about,” I continued. “I can’t help it because Coyote Bill should be so friendly with me, can I?”
“Why--no; if you haven’t done anything to make him so.”