“You were?” Frank returned excitedly.
“It hurts like the devil to say it, but I believe it’s a duty. Yes, I was there. Besides myself, there were Darrel, a fellow who lives in Gold Hill, and the mysterious Billy Shoup.”
“Lenning wasn’t around?”
“No. We had had one or two drinks—first and only time I ever touched the stuff, and I’ve registered a solemn vow that it will be the last—and I noticed that El was acting queerly. There was a far-away look in his eyes, and when you spoke to him it seemed like he had to come back from a thousand miles away before he could answer you. Shoup poured the stuff we drank, and I’ve thought since that he dropped something into El’s glass. I can’t be sure of that, but I know he had his hand over the glass before he set it down. The other chap and I got out of money, and when we left Darrel and Shoup were still at it. I tried to get El to go home, and nearly had a fight with Shoup because I did. El just sat in his chair and stared at me, never making a move to leave. Next day Shoup offered the forged check to the colonel. The colonel took five hundred from his safe, gave it to Shoup, and then very neatly kicked him down the front steps.”
“This has all the earmarks of a plot, and no mistake,” muttered Merry.
“It has,” agreed Bleeker. “I’ve been a year turning it over in my mind and coming to that conclusion.”
“Didn’t you go to Hawtrey and tell him about what happened?”
“No. Don’t blame me for that, Merriwell. I thought, at the time, that perhaps Darrel might have put the colonel’s name to the check. And then, consider my own situation. I didn’t want it known that I had been guzzling poison with a fellow like Shoup.”
“Shoup! You called him a moment ago ‘the mysterious Billy Shoup.’ Why did you do that?”
“Because he was a stranger in Gold Hill. No one knew where he came from, nor where he went. I saw him just twice—the night we gambled and the next afternoon. He and Lenning were in the cañon, palavering. They didn’t see me, and I didn’t care to see Shoup, so I hustled away. I told Lenning about it afterward, and he said he’d kill me if I ever mentioned having seen him with Shoup. He explained that he thought Shoup had done some crooked work, and he had been trying to pump him and do something for Darrel.”