CHAPTER XXII
SOLVING THE MYSTERY
The Kid sat up all night with the sufferers at short intervals administering to each a small portion of potato juice. Ike had recovered consciousness before they reached the cabin. He was but little injured. One foot had been burned a little, that was all. It had been the long strain and the sudden startling appearance of the bear that had caused the plucky lad to faint. A couple of cups of hot coffee put him into fair shape, but his astonishment at finding himself safe and in the warm cabin was great and his surprise at seeing the Kid greater. “Have I been dreaming and just woke up, Mr. Kid?” he demanded.
The Kid told him of what had happened, softening the horrible details as much as possible.
“It was Teddy Bear,” Ike declared. “I got one look a him before everything goes black.”
“Maybe, the Kid admitted. “I thought there was something familiar about him, but it was too dark to tell much.”
“Those fellows tell me this place where the mountain is, is Rainbow Bend.”
“It is, I bet,” exclaimed the Kid. “I’ve been wondering for a month what it was the name suggested to me. I was sure there was no place along the river named that, but still, it suggested something familiar to me, and now it’s all come back to me. I’ve passed it a couple of times when the sun hit it just right and made the mountain appear like a great big rainbow. It’s a wonder I didn’t guess the place when you asked me before. A bend in the river with a rainbow mountain on the point of the bend. Why, no other name could just describe it so well as Rainbow Bend.”
“Then that settles it,” said the little Jew, with tears in his eyes. “Them fellows, I guess, wasn’t lying all the time. They said it was Rainbow Bend and that uncle used to live there in a little log cabin against the side of the mountain. They told me uncle was dead now and they took me to the cabin to see his bones, but they were not there. They looked so frightened when they found them gone that I felt sure uncle had died there and someone had found his body and carried it away or buried it. Maybe it was the boys and they keep quiet so as not to let me worry too much. I think maybe that be it. I feel so bad over uncle, you understand, that I do not care much what them fellows do to me.”
“Lay down boy, and get a bit of sleep if you can,” interrupted the Kid, kindly. “Save your yarn till the boys are able to hear it. It will save a second telling of it. Just try to go to sleep now. You’ll have to take my place tomorrow.”