Nevertheless, he looked wonderfully pleased, as though this announcement concerning the identity of the third thief went far to brush aside some of the mystery.
“Jared Scott!” he repeated, after Reddy.
“Yes, that’s the sneak who fooled us,” replied the other, with bitterness in his voice.
“He had a balloon—did you know that?” demanded Frank.
“Naw he didn’t—then. Found it, arter he give us the slip, and hurried back to where we cached the stuff. He told us he had a hoss hid somewhere near by, an’ had rid in from Phoenix. That wasn’t so. I knowed that Jared Scott had been helpin’ one of these here fliers as gives exhibitions at fairs. Reckon as how he just run away with the old gas-bag, an’ had her hid in the hills awaitin’ his chance to get away with our treasure.”
“How did you find out that he had a balloon?” asked Frank.
“Why,” explained Reddy, with a sickly grin; “after he piled the three sacks of gold aboard he had to drop off all his bags of ballast, and we seen ’em there in the open place. There was other evidences too, that made us mad. But what could we do? No use tryin’ to chase a balloon, son. And by that time we reckoned that Mr. Riley’d be on the hunt. So we picks up our hosses, and runs. The rest ye knows.”
It was all very plain to Frank now; and to Bob as well. The latter had not been able to say a word while this interesting conversation was going on between his chum and the leader of the gold thieves. But now that the story had all been told, Bob began to “get back to earth” again.
“Well, if that don’t beat everything!” he exclaimed. “Just to think, Frank, we actually saved Jared Scott, when his balloon was running away from him, after something happened to make it unmanageable. But Frank, I looked in the broken basket, and there wasn’t a single bag of ballast, or anything else there!”
“No,” said Frank, with a broad smile beginning to cover his boyish face; “because Mr. Jared Scott had been compelled to heave the three bags of gold overboard, one at a time, perhaps, to try and lighten his falling air craft, which was threatening to dump him out on the ground from loss of gas!”