“Yes.”
“And, according to your notion, Shoup and Geohegan will surely return for their loot, at which time you, and Chip, and I will make a surround and take a little of the deputy sheriff’s work off his hands?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“Bueno! All that makes the biggest kind of a hit with me. Chip, those two curs will certainly come back after the bags, and we can work through the program just as Lenning has chalked it up. It’s a great plan, by thunder!”
“It’s a plan for the deputy sheriff,” said Merriwell, “and he’s the fellow who ought to be on the job. Why didn’t you figure it that way, Jode?” he asked. “Why did you send for Blunt and me, instead of Hawkins?”
Lenning swerved his eyes quickly to Merriwell.
“You understand, don’t you, that I had to have my two best friends?” he asked. “I couldn’t take chances with Hawkins, nor with any one else. Had the deputy sheriff found me here, like this, with both mail bags in my possession, his first move would have been to arrest me for holding up the stage. My record is against me; circumstances are against me. Hawkins would never swallow that yarn I gave you fellows.”
“I reckon that’s correct,” agreed Blunt. “You had to make something of a mystery out of that telephone message to Chip in order to play safe.”
“That’s it,” Lenning nodded. “I only wanted two to come, because two would be enough for my work here. I wanted those two to be my best friends, so they’d take my word as to what had happened. I didn’t want Chip to know who had sent for him, or to tell anybody where he was going, because, if the news got out, some one else who wasn’t so friendly might have taken it into their heads to come to the cañon and interview me. I had to fight shy of that.”
“By glory,” breathed Blunt, “but you’ve sure got a head for plans! You worked through that complicated puzzle with ground to spare.”