“Here too,” said Lem. “You wouldn’t have to do all your shooting alone, I can tell you.”
“But you see you aint likely to meet him,” said Mr. Chisholm. “Now, I think we had better go to Austin right straight, in order to get the start of him. Catch up!”
“Do you mean that we are all to go?” I asked.
“Yes, I do mean all of you; everyone who is remembered in Mr. Davenport’s will, and Bob and those of us who witnessed his signature. Even Elam will have to go, for he made his mark. I know the president of that bank down there, for he holds a thousand dollars or two of my money, and perhaps a word coming from me will help straighten the matter out. Lem, you and Frank get the grub together. Elam, you hunt up Bob.”
And this was all the ceremony that was employed in getting under way. In a few minutes more there were ten of us, all well mounted and armed and with provisions enough to last us to Austin, who rode away from the camp. I made up my mind to one thing, and that was if Coyote Bill should discover us and try to get that pocket-book away, he would have a good time in doing it.
CHAPTER XI.
HENDERSON IN NEW BUSINESS.
“I will get even with you for this. Bob is not your son, and I will see that you don’t adopt him, either. Whenever I see a notice of your death—and you can’t live forever—I will hunt that boy up and make him know what it is to be in want, as I am at this moment.”
I don’t suppose that when Clifford Henderson shouted this defiance at his brother, on the day he left him, after Mr. Davenport had refused to take any further steps toward paying his debts, that he really intended to go to Texas, or, if he did, he never expected to meet Bob there. He wanted to get away by himself and think over his misfortune; for he considered it a misfortune when his brother, who was fairly rolling in wealth, should decline to advance him the small sum when he was so much in need of it. Henderson was in sore straits—that is, for him. He had money, but he was anxious to get a little more, in order to go into a speculation in which he was certain to lose all he had; and it was when his brother declined to meet this demand that he went into a rage.
“Old Bob wants me to go to work,” said he, as he turned and shook his fist at the house. “Not if I know it! I have seen him, when he was not any older than I am, looking around for a chance to put his money at interest, and he never would have anything to do with what I suggested to him. Never mind; he is ’most dead with consumption, and I will see what will become of Bob after that.”