“And I’m not sure, but I think Mr. Barnhardt stole one of my letters from the Chicago lawyers, and found out what we was doin’ here; so he plants dynamite under the bunk-house, after he misses two well-meant shots. Oh, he was a friendly sort of a jigger. Now, Barnhardt, tell us yore story.”
But the Blue Wells attorney merely goggled, trying to deny it all with a shake of his head.
“You planned to make a getaway, yuh know,” smiled Hashknife. “Yore little vacation was goin’ to be permanent, but I cracked yore safe the night before, because I knew yuh wouldn’t go away broke, and I wanted time to land the train robbers. Yeah, I’ve got all yore stuff. It’ll send yuh over for a long time.”
“This is funny,” said Tex Alden. “I had a letter from that same firm, askin’ me a few questions. It kinda looked to me as though Barnhardt was playin’ crooked; so I held out that eight thousand and faked a loss to Antelope Neal, who was in on the game with me. I wanted to see if Barnhardt was crooked enough to doctor the books for me, but he was pretty shrewd, and I really got afraid he might have me arrested for embezzlement and put me in pretty bad; so me and Neal marked all those bills and I gave ’em back to him.”
Hashknife held out his hand to Tex.
“I couldn’t figure yuh out for quite a while,” said Hashknife smiling.
“Barnhardt sure tried to put me in bad, Hartley. He told me about that pay-roll comin’ in, because he thought I’d do anythin’ to pay him back that eight thousand, and he also wanted his split of the thirty thousand dollars.”
Jimmy had gone to the house, and now he came staggering back, followed by Geronimo, barking joyfully. The sheriff turned from handcuffing Barnhardt, and stared at the dog.
“We had him in the cellar,” laughed Hashknife. “He’s the dog that was on the express car, and Jimmy Legg is the big burly who fought with the messenger.”
The boys crowded around Jimmy, slapping him on the back; which, under the circumstances, did not appeal to Jimmy, who was just beginning to find out how sore he really was.