Between joking and laughing and driving on the wagon to meet the cowboys at nightfall, we passed the time agreeably enough. Just before dark we came within sight of a grove of post-oaks which had been selected for our encampment, and there we found a colony of wagons and almost all the cowboys. Mr. Chisholm was there. He had ridden his horse hard all the afternoon in the effort to find all the men attached to his outfit to summon them to appear at this hour, and when we got up there I found that there were two wagons missing. Everyone was glad to see Bob. I never knew that boy had so many friends, especially when Lem and Frank came up, whom Mr. Chisholm had found herding some cattle on the furthest flanks. Of course they shook me warmly by the hand, but devoted the most of their time and attention to Tom Mason.
“I knowed you would find it, pilgrim,” said Lem, holding fast to Tom with one hand and patting him on the shoulder with the other. “Whenever I lose anything I am going to send you after it.”
Supper didn’t take much time, for all hands were anxious to hear what was in the will, so as soon as the motions had been gone through they flocked up around the wagon to listen. The time came for Mr. Chisholm to lay by his pipe, which he did, and drew out the pocket-book.
“I reckon we’ll find a little better reading in this one than we did in the last,” said he, holding it up where all could see it. “Has our friend Henderson come in yet?”
Although they all knew that the culprit was miles from there by that time, they all looked at each other, but no one spoke.
“I reckon he’s skipped,” continued Mr. Chisholm. “’Cause he was allowed to have the reading of these papers I hold here; and when he said we were all thieves, our friends told him to be careful how he showed his face in our camp to-night. The first paper I hold in my hand is indorsed: ‘The last will and testament of Robert Davenport.’ I will now read it.”
Mr. Chisholm took off his hat and laid it down beside him, and in a much slower and more deliberate manner than he had used in reading the contents of the other pocket-book, the one that contained the receipts, he proceeded to read the paper he held in his hand. The testator made Robert Davenport the heir to everything he possessed, horses, cattle, and bonds, which were deposited for safe keeping in the Merchant and Cattlemen’s Bank of Austin, with a few exceptions. To each of his cowboys, “for services long and faithfully rendered,” he gave the sum of one thousand dollars, and then came something I was glad to see. To his half-brother, Clifford Henderson, “to show that he had not forgotten him,” he gave the sum of one dollar, and he hoped that before he got through spending it he would learn that honesty was the best policy. The will was somewhat long, and I was pleased to note one thing: the name of the bank in which the bonds were kept did not occur on the first page, but on the second! and Henderson, when reading it, had read all he wanted to see on the first page! By reading that and going off in such a hurry he tried to play a bluff game on us. He did not know the name of the bank at all!
After that followed the letter of instructions, which was so plain that anybody could have understood it, and it wound up with the entreaty to Bob to be honest; but having been brought up all his life in that way the testator did not think that Bob would depart from it. Bob told me afterward that the letter talked just as plainly as his father would to him. Bob was very much overcome, and during the reading he sat with his hands covering his face, and I could see the tears trickling through his fingers. By the time Mr. Chisholm was through all the cowboys had their hats off. He folded up the paper and waited for somebody to make known his pleasure concerning it. It was a long time before anyone spoke. They seemed to be as much affected by the reading of the will as Bob was.
“The will seems to be all right, Mr. Judge,” said the oldest cattleman at last, “and I move it be accepted by this meeting.”
“Second the motion!” shouted a dozen men at once.