“Never mind, now. I seem to be full of pipe dreams. Say, what do you think about Jode and the colonel? You know, of course, that Jode’s still king bee of the Gold Hill bunch. He’s got a stranglehold on the colonel, all right!”
A shadow crossed Darrel’s face. Through it showed disappointment and a little sadness.
“When I heard how your uncle had treated Jode, after that eye opener in the gulch,” Frank returned, “I had begun to think that the old colonel was in his dotage. But now I’ve changed my mind.”
“What caused the change?”
“A talk I had with the colonel last night. He came out to Dolliver’s purposely to have a word with me.”
Darrel showed symptoms of curiosity and excitement.
“What did he say, Chip?” he asked.
“I couldn’t tell you all he said, for I haven’t time, but he gave me a message for you. He wanted me to say, if I saw you before the game, that you’re not to draw any wrong conclusion from the way he has been behaving; he said that, when you know all, you’ll see how he’s acting for the best interests of all concerned.”
“That’s mighty hard to swallow,” said Darrel, with a trace of bitterness. “I saved his life when Jode failed, and yet he keeps right on with Jode just as he was doing before. I’m not finding any fault with him—he’s his own boss, and I’ve nothing to say. But I’m not the only one that’s doing a heap of guessing because of the way he’s acting.”
“Don’t form any snap judgments, Curly,” urged Frank. “Wait for a while, anyhow.”