“I think if you give him three thousand dollars he will be all right.”
“That is what I think, too,” said Elam. “He don’t belong in this country.”
“I know he don’t. He wants to get up the States, where quail and black squirrels are handy, and have some more fights with ‘Our Fellows.’ On the whole I think the scenes he passed through with those robbers are more exciting than the scenes he passed through here. If he can get a letter from his uncle, stating that those things have been forgotten, he’ll go back.”
“Well, I shan’t stay in his way,” said Bob. “You think three thousand dollars are all he needs? I’ll see him this morning. If he wants more he can have it.”
“You wouldn’t have found your pocket-book if it hadn’t been for him,” said I. “He reminded me of a dog on a blind scent. He poked around till he found it.”
This was all that was necessary for Bob to know, and during that day I saw him several times during the round-up talking with Tom; but Tom insisted that he didn’t want anything. About the time that night came, however, and the cowboys came in tired and hungry, Bob tipped me a wink, and I followed him behind one of the wagons out of sight.
“I took him right where he lived,” whispered Bob. “I told him he could go back to his uncle, who was all the time worrying about him, with more money than he had stolen, and he agreed to take time to think it over.”
“He took it, didn’t he?” I asked.
“Yes, and it was all he needed. I shall be sorry to part with Tom, but then home is the place for him.”
So it was settled that Tom Mason was to leave us as soon as he could get a letter to his uncle. We had always treated Tom as one of the family, but somehow we got into the habit of treating him better than usual. But time went on and we didn’t see anybody who was going into Austin to take a letter for him. Meanwhile, we had bidden good-by to Mr. Chisholm and all his friends, and were fairly settled down to our business again. But there was one thing that was different from what it was during Mr. Davenport’s lifetime. Lem and Frank stayed about the ranch now entirely. Bob hadn’t got over his experience with Henderson and Coyote Bill; in fact, Mr. Chisholm was the one who recommended him to keep them always near him, and Bob intended that, if they came to his house, he would give them as good as they sent.