The motion was put and carried (we knew that Henderson didn’t have a friend among those cowboys), and then the pocket-book was laid upon Bob’s knee. He was a rich man at last. There were fifty good rifles to back him up, and if Henderson or any of Coyote Bill’s band had been there to take exceptions to it, he would have been roughly handled. At almost any other time they would have called upon Bob for a speech, but instead of that they let him go. He passed the pocket-book back to Mr. Chisholm, with a few words expressive of his gratitude, and begged him to keep it for him until the matter was quite settled, and arose and went off into the darkness. He wanted to be alone, and none of us intruded upon him.
Mr. Chisholm was now prepared to carry out the rest of his programme, and as soon as the cattlemen had gone away he called some of his cowboys to him and told them he wanted them to take charge of Mr. Davenport’s wagon on the following morning, for he was going to Austin. He didn’t enter into any explanations, for a ride of a hundred miles was nothing for their employer to undertake, but they agreed at once, and he sent them away.
“Now,” said he, “the next thing is something else. All you boys who have been remembered in Mr. Davenport’s will, sit up close around me, for I have something to tell you. We must go to Austin as quickly as we can, for we don’t know but that man Henderson has gone there to challenge the will.”
“Will you allow me to say a word right there, Mr. Chisholm?” I asked. “That man Henderson doesn’t know the name of the bank in which the bonds are deposited.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he read only the first page of the will. If you took pains to notice, the name doesn’t occur except on the second page, and consequently he could not have seen it.”
“Well, by George! I never noticed that. Did any of you boys take notice of it? But I have got the will in my pocket. We can easily satisfy ourselves on that point. It is so,” he added, after referring to the will, “and you are just the boy—— But look here! If Henderson knows how, he can just go down there and challenge the will, anyway. He can say he doesn’t like the way that property has been left, and so make us some trouble on account of it.”
“Who will he have to go to when he challenges it?” I asked.
“Blessed if I know!”
“I’d just like to meet him to-morrow,” said Frank.