CHAPTER XX.
A New Plan.
Claude was so angry when he left his chair and started out to get his horse that it was all he could do to keep from yelling. He had had a short talk with his uncle, and it amounted to nothing. The story about finding a news depot which he could have for eight hundred dollars was made up out of his own head. All he wanted was to get the money in his hands, and then he could live as he pleased.
“I see it is all up with me,” said Claude, as he mounted his horse and set out for the range. “He does not intend to give me anything. I have risked my life for him all these years—I would like to know if I did not risk my life that time the cow charged upon me when I pulled her out of the mud—and have kept his safe from being robbed; and all he means to do is to fit me for a cowman! But I guess I won’t say anything about going home just now. Uncle Preston can’t last forever, the remedies he is using don’t help his cough one particle, and who knows but I may get Carl to divide the business with me? I tell you that is worth thinking of.”
The days passed on, and when two weeks had gone by the young cattle had all been branded and the cowboys had a little more leisure on their hands. At the end of that time his uncle called him into the office and had his money all laid out for him.
“Now, Claude, if you are resolved to go, I can send somebody to show you the way to the fort,” said he.
“Well, uncle, I have had plenty of opportunity to think the matter over, and have come to the conclusion that I will not go home yet awhile,” replied Claude. “This is the best business I can think of, and with your permission I will follow it a little while longer. Four hundred dollars, as you say, would not help me to go into anything by which I could support myself in the city.”
“Oh, yes, we will keep you, and be glad to,” his uncle hastened to answer. “And if you keep on, Carl will give you a thousand dollars to enable you to start right.”
“That is better than nothing,” soliloquized Claude. “I hope you will rest easy after giving me that small pittance out of your unbounded wealth.” Then aloud he said: “You say that Carl will give me that amount. What is the reason you can’t give it?”
“Because I don’t expect to last very long,” said Mr. Preston. “In six months from now I expect to be under the sod.”