The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 118: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

114 is what it means. I must tell the madre!” and she sprang up and darted from the room. Straightway the Gonzales family were plunged into a seventh heaven of felic- ity. Before Pablo had done giving his thanks, Gonzales and his wife burst ra- diantly into the room and overwhelmed the manager with expressions of grati- tude. Next morning Pablo entered upon his new duties. Whipple’s chamber was over the sitting-room, and his bed was drawn up before a window that gave him a view of the works. Much of his time that Monday was spent in watching the new foreman come and go about the tanks. From all he could see, his faith in Pablo was be- ing justified. Very early Monday morning Whip- ple dictated a letter to the cyanide com- pany, Teresa acting as his amanuensis., The letter finished, Teresa herself car- ried it over to the stage trail and gave it to the driver to be posted in Phoenix. Those two weeks of enforced idleness passed very slowly for the manager. He was philosophical, however, and rarely permitted himself the luxury of worry- ing about anything. | Amy reported daily the progress of affairs, and Pablo came regularly every night with a minute account of all that had taken place at the tanks. Gualterto was also a frequent caller, and in the sitting-room he would fre- quently linger, before taking his leave, to assure the madre and Teresa that Sehor Whipple was a wonderful man, a man of iron, who made no more of a knife-thrust than he would of a pin- prick. Nevertheless, the senor would not get up in two weeks; no, no, that was impossible. But Gualterio was wrong. It chanced that he called on Monday, a fortnight and a day from the time of his first visit, and found the chamber over the sitting-room empty. Senor Whipple, he was told, was on duty again at the works. He shook his head in amaze and blinked his round little eyes, and would not believe until he had gone to the tanks himself to make sure. Another clean-up wag im_ progress, and Whipple. as he expressed it, felt THE ARGOSY. that he had been long enough on the retired list. When the five bars of bul- lion had been turned from the molds, Whipple added them to the five taken from under the office-floor, where they had lain undisturbed, placed the entire treasure in a sack, loaded it upon Gonzales’ buckboard, and started alone for Phoenix. The journey was accomplished with- out incident, and the ten bars were safely deposited in the bank to the credit of the cyanide company. Whipple was not to make the return trip till next day, and the horses and buckboard were left at a corral for the night. On leaving the corral, he made his way to a hotel, and in the hotel office found no less a personage than Christopher. “ By Jupiter! ” exclaimed the sheriff, grasping the manager’s hand in a cor- dial grip; “ this is luck and no mistake. How are you feeling, Whipple? ” “Well enough to take hold and finish the work that brought me to Arizona,’ answered the manager. “You seem to have something on your mind, Christopher. What is it? ” The sheriff bent forward until his lips brushed Whipple’s ear. “A clue, that’s what it is,” he whis- pered. “ Got it about an hour ago, and it’s the first bit of luck I’ve had since I left you in bed at the Golden Eagle. Heard you were in town and picked out this hotel as the most likely one you’d stop at; came here, and, by Jupiter, here you are! It’s a good omen. I hope the luck will keep up.” “ What’s the clue?” asked Whipple, after they had taken chairs. “One of my deputies just came down from Wirckenburg, and he says that a man answering Jeffries’ description is working on the night-shift at the Royal Ophir mime.” “Why didn’t your deputy go after him? ” “He had his hands full and couldn't. Went up there after another man, you see, and had to bring the fellow in. The train leaves in an hour and I’m going. The question is, Whipple, do you want to go along?” “ Of course.” “Then be at the train and we’ll go - (SO) MICOOO (COL