“You know what people might think, if I came over to this town in broad day, hunted you up, and had a talk with you? I’m from Gold Hill, and I used to be on the Gold Hill eleven until Jode Lenning gave me the sack. If I happened to be seen here, people would say I am sore, and that I’m trying to get even with Lenning by handing you a little information that will help when Ophir goes up against our crowd next Saturday. That’s what they’d say, Merriwell, and you know it,” Bleeker grunted. “I’m no traitor, and, while I may feel as though Jode has played it pretty low down on me, you can bet I’m not settling scores with him by doing our eleven any dirt. Understand that, don’t you?”
“Sure,” Frank answered.
“By sneaking over here, like this, and palavering with you, I’m trying to be white, that’s all. I’d like to do something to help Ellis Darrel.”
Frank’s interest went up several notches, at that.
“I know you’re a friend of Darrel’s,” said he, “and I know that you and Hotchkiss got Lenning down on you while the Gold Hill crowd was in camp a few miles from Tinaja Wells, at Camp Hawtrey. Are the Gold Hill fellows still in the gulch?”
“No, Lenning brought them back to town the next day after your crowd hiked for Ophir. Lenning kicked Hotch and me out of camp because we stood up for Darrel. Jode hasn’t any use for a fellow who tries to be a friend of his half brother’s.”
“Well, Bleek,” said Frank, “Darrel has acted like a brick all through this trouble of his; and, you take it from me, that blot on the shield is going to be rubbed out. One of these days Darrel will be able to take his uncle by the hand, and the consequences of that forgery are going to be dropped onto somebody else.”
“Now you are shouting, Merriwell!” exclaimed Bleeker eagerly. “I never thought Darrel had anything to do with that, and there are a few more, over in the Hill, who have been of the same opinion right along.”
“Who do you think did the job and arranged to involve Darrel?”
“First off, who’d be the gainer if Darrel lost his uncle’s good will? When you want to figure out a thing, the proper way is to find the chap with a motive. Now, you know Colonel Hawtrey is rich, and that the only relatives he has in the world are his two nephews, Jode Lenning and Ellis Darrel. Wouldn’t Lenning come in for all the old colonel’s property if Darrel was disgraced and run out? Sure he would. The fellow with the motive was Lenning. And that motive, by thunder, has been cropping out ever since Darrel came back.”