“We’ll surprise Tony Traddles,” growled Jackson. “I’d like to get my paws on to him.”
“You leave him to me,” Mr. Havens advised him. “Now, Chet, you say you’ve a horse near. Maybe you can boost me on to him, and we’ll go over to the Silent Sue. Let me lean on your shoulder, boy.”
Chet did as he was told, and as he walked beside his father down the mountainside he added some details about John Peep and the mystery of the caved-in Crayton shaft. He also told Mr. Havens of seeing the strange white man with the Indian youth as he and Dig rode over from the Silent Sue.
“Who did he look like?” queried Mr. Havens.
“Nobody I ever saw around here before,” Chet replied.
“Well, it’s a puzzle,” muttered his father. “And somehow those papers have got to be carried to John Morrisy. The old man’s funny. Something might happen to him. I shan’t feel safe till our contract is fulfilled.”
Chet knew that his father was not speaking directly to him; so he remained silent. But he kept up a tremendous thinking. He wanted to get his chum off to one side and talk over a most wondrous idea that had come to him.
They found the two horses safely tethered where Dig had left them, and Mr. Havens was helped into the saddle of the bay horse without much difficulty. Hero was willing to walk if so commanded, therefore Chet’s father could ride without being badly shaken. His injured foot gave him great pain; yet he insisted upon going around by his mine before descending the mountain to Silver Run.
The other men who had been shut in the mine tramped on ahead, and as the boys led their horses they did not catch up with the five miners on their way to the mine. Besides they were delayed.
As they approached the clearing in which John Peep had first appeared to Chet and Digby, the trio smelled smoke.