At that moment, doubtless, Blunt had the same idea that ran through Merriwell’s brain. Lenning seemed “flighty” and out of his head. Had his troubles unbalanced him?
“Don’t fret about anything, Jode,” said Frank. “Take things easy. There are a lot of fellows, back in Ophir, who feel sure you hadn’t anything to do with robbing the stage. Why did you leave the mine? Where did you go, and why did you take the dynamite?”
A flicker of a smile crossed Lenning’s face.
“It won’t take long to explain all that, Chip,” said he, dropping down below the top of the pile of bowlders again. “Do you remember, several weeks ago, when Colonel Hawtrey put in a charge of dynamite near our camp in the gulch? He had discovered evidences of mineral, and I put down the hole for him and he loaded it. That blast was never set off. You know why. Well, while I’ve been at the Ophir Mine I’ve been thinking of that mineral ‘prospect,’ and I made up my mind to set off the charge and see what it would uncover. That’s why I borrowed Burke’s horse for a long ride, and that’s why I took the dynamite.”
“That explanation is simple, sure enough,” Frank laughed. “The mouth of the gulch isn’t very far from here, and the place where the colonel began his blasting operations isn’t much farther. You went there, put more dynamite and a capped fuse on top of the other charge, and then set off the load?”
“That’s what I did, Chip.”
“What did you find?”
Lenning pushed one hand into his pocket and drew out a small piece of ore. The ore was white quartz, powdered thickly with yellow specks.
“Great guns!” gasped Blunt, staring. “Say, if you’ve found much of that, Lenning, you’ve got a big thing.”
“Yes, if it belonged to me. But it doesn’t. It belongs to the colonel.”