"I am Pierre Costello," said the latter; "and I was waiting for you."
CHAPTER XII.
OFF FOR THE MOUNTAINS.
Arthur looked at the robber with curiosity. Yellow-covered novels had always been his favorite reading, and highwaymen, brigands, and pirates were, in his estimation, the only heroes worthy of emulation. Pierre, but for one thing, would have come up to his beau ideal of a robber. He was loaded with weapons, and he was tall and broad-shouldered, sported a ferocious mustache, and his hair fell down upon his shoulders. He was dressed in the gayest Mexican style, but his clothing had seen long service, and was not quite as neat as Arthur would have liked to have seen it. It was plain that Pierre did not waste much time upon his toilet; but, after all, he was a very good-looking villain.
The robber was quite as much interested in his visitor as the latter was in him. He had often heard of Arthur through Joaquin; and, if the boy had known all Pierre"s intentions concerning him, he might not have felt quite so much at his ease.
"I can"t spare much time," said the robber, breaking the silence at last.
"Nor I either," returned Arthur; "so I will begin my business at once, and get through as soon as I can. I have heard the particulars of your fights with Frank Nelson, and I propose to put you in the way of making five times the amount of money you would have made if you had captured him when you met him in the mountains. I want to be revenged upon Frank and his crowd, for they have grossly insulted me."
"Of course they have," said Pierre. "I know all about it."
"I can"t punish them by myself," continued Arthur, "for they are three to my one. I am not afraid of Johnny Harris, or Archie Winters; but there"s that other Yankee, Frank Nelson. He is as strong as a lion, and if he once gets his blood up, he don"t care for any thing. I am afraid of him."
"I don"t wonder at it. I have had some experience with him, and, if he had a few more years on his shoulders, I should be afraid of him myself."
"I can"t punish them unless I have help," repeated Arthur; "and, if you will lend me your a.s.sistance, you can make sixty thousand dollars by it.
I heard those fellows say, yesterday, that they are going on a hunting expedition, next week. I will make friends with them again, and find out when they intend to start, and I propose that you capture them, and take them to some safe place in the mountains, and demand twenty thousand dollars apiece for them. You can demand more, if you choose, and get it, too; for Mr. Harris is rich, and so is Mr. Winters. You must have some men to a.s.sist you, however."
"I understand that," said Pierre. "I"ll find the men."
"Will you do it?"
"Certainly, I will."
"Give me your hand, Pierre; I knew you would help me. But let me tell you one thing, and that is, when you capture them you must look out for yourself. They will have plenty of weapons, and, from what I have seen of them, I don"t think they would hesitate to use them if they got a chance. There"s one thing about this business I don"t exactly admire. Of course, I shall start with their expedition--I want to have the satisfaction of seeing them captured--and my idea was, that, when you made the attack on them, you should give me a chance to escape; but Joaquin says, that won"t do at all."
"Certainly not;" said Pierre, quickly. "I shall have five men with me, and if we should let you get away, the boys would be suspicious of you at once."
"That"s just what Joaquin said; and since I have thought the matter over, I have come to the conclusion that he was right. I don"t want them to know that I had a hand in this matter, for they might make me some trouble."
"Very likely they would. You must allow yourself to be captured with the others."
"Well, I sha"n"t mind that, for, I believe, I can enjoy myself among the mountains for a month or two. But, Pierre, when you get them you must hold fast to them."
"I am not the man to let sixty thousand dollars slip through my fingers," said the Ranchero, with a laugh.
"And there are three other things I want you to remember," continued Arthur, earnestly. "The first is, you must not demand any ransom for me."
"Oh no; of course not."
"The second is, I shall expect to be treated at all times like a visitor. I am a gentleman, and a gentleman"s son."
"I am well aware of that fact. I knew it the moment I put my eyes on you."
"The third thing I want you to bear in mind, is, that I shall not be captured without a struggle; and that every chance I get I shall try to escape. I am going to show those fellows that I have some s.p.u.n.k. I want you to act natural, and to prevent me from getting away from you; but you must not abuse me. You can treat the others as roughly as you please. Do you agree to all this?"
"I do, and there"s my hand on it," said Pierre. "I fully understand your plans now, and know just what you want me to do; and, what"s more, I"ll do it. If you have got through with what you have to say, you had better be off. I have a good many enemies, and I am in danger as long as you are here. Watch those boys closely, and keep Joaquin posted. I can find out every thing I want to know from him."
"My plans are working nicely," chuckled Arthur, as he rode homeward.
"I"ll teach these backwoodsmen manners, before I am done with them."
"Eighty thousand dollars!" said Pierre, gazing after the retreating horseman. "That"s a nice little sum to be divided among six of us."
This remark will show whether or not the robber intended to abide by the promises he had just made to Arthur Vane; and, while we are on this subject, it may not be amiss to say, that the scheme Arthur had proposed, was one on which the robber had been meditating for many days.
During the time he had lived in the mountains, he had kept his brain busy, and had been allowed ample opportunity to decide upon his future operations. He had been astonished and enraged at his failure to secure the twelve thousand dollars, and to make Frank Nelson a prisoner, and he had resolved to make amends for his defeat by capturing Frank and all his companions, including Arthur Vane. Pierre had plenty of friends to a.s.sist him, but there was one question that troubled him, and presented an obstacle that he could see no way to overcome; and that was, how to capture all the boys at once. That must be done, or his plan would fail.
He could get his hands upon Arthur Vane at any time; but the others were like birds on the wing--here to-day, and miles away to-morrow--and Pierre did not know where to find them. Now, however, the difficulty was removed. Frank and his friends were going on a hunting expedition, Arthur would ascertain when they were going to start, and what road they intended to take, and when the day arrived, the robber could call in his men, who were employed on the neighboring ranchos, and capture the boys without the least trouble. Pierre was very glad that Arthur had got angry at Frank.
Meanwhile Frank, Archie, and Johnny, all unconscious of the plans that were being formed against them, enjoyed themselves to the utmost, and wasted a good deal of time every day in laughing over the incidents that had transpired during their ride to Captain Porter"s ranch. Archie, especially, had a great deal to say about it. He had an accomplishment, of which we have never before had occasion to speak: he was a first-cla.s.s mimic; and he took no little pride in showing off his powers. He could imitate the brogue of an Irishman the broken English of a Dutchman, or the nasal tw.a.n.g of a Yankee, to perfection; and one day, while he was in the barn saddling his horse, he carried on a lengthy conversation with Bob Kelly (who was on the outside of the building), about some runaway cattle, and the old trapper thought all the while that he was talking to his chum, d.i.c.k Lewis. Now Archie had a new subject to practice upon. He laid himself out to personate Arthur Vane; and he not only successfully imitated that young gentleman"s pompous style of talking, and his dignified manner of riding and walking, but even the tone of his voice. He criticised Frank and Johnny continually, and made them laugh, till their jaws ached, by recounting imaginary adventures on the burning sands of Patagonia, and among the icebergs and polar bears of India.
The day following the one on which Arthur Vane visited the robber in the mountains, found the three boys on the back porch of Mr. Winters"s rancho, making preparations for their hunting expedition. Frank was cleaning his rifle, and Archie and Johnny were repairing an old pack-saddle, in which they intended to carry their provisions and extra ammunition. Archie was seated on the floor, with an awl in one hand, and a piece of stout twine in the other; and, while he was working at the pack-saddle, his tongue was moving rapidly.
"I am young in years, fellows," he was saying, "but I am aged in experience. If I had my rights, I should long ago have been gray-headed.
I have seen thrilling times in my life, and have been the hero of adventures, that, were I to relate them to you, would make each particular hair of your heads stand on end, like the quills of a punched hedge-hog. I am--if you will kindly permit me to use a slang expression--an old hand at the business of hunting and trapping, and have accomplishments in which I can not be beaten. Among them, stands my ability to whip a grizzly bear in a fair fight, with no weapon but my knife. I have hunted wild gorillas in the streets of New York City; have"--
"Good morning, fellows!"
Archie brought the story of his adventures to a sudden close, and, looking over his shoulder, saw Arthur Vane standing at the end of the porch. The boys had never expected him to call upon them again, and Archie and Johnny were too surprised to speak; but Frank, who always kept his wits about him, returned Arthur"s greeting, and invited him to occupy the chair he pushed toward him. He was not at all pleased to see the visitor, but he was too much of a gentleman to show it.
One would suppose, that the remembrance of what had happened, three days before, would have caused Arthur some embarra.s.sment; but such was not the case. On the contrary, he was as dignified as ever, and seemed to be perfectly at his ease. Frank and his friends were considerate enough to refrain from making any allusions to the fright he had sustained, but Arthur brought the subject up himself.
"I received your note," said he, "and also the articles you were kind enough to send me; and I am here now to say, that I feel heartily ashamed of myself. From some cause or another, that I could not explain if I should try, I was extremely nervous that day; but I may, some time, have an opportunity to show you that I am not as much of a coward as I know you now believe me to be."
Arthur remained at the rancho all that day, sitting down at the same, table, and eating his dinner with the boys he was about to betray into the hands of the robbers; and, when he went home that night, he had asked, and received, permission to accompany them to the mountains.
Their consent had been given reluctantly, and with very bad grace; but they could see no way to get around it. Arthur was a boy with whom they did not care to a.s.sociate; but he had done them no injury, and they could not bring themselves to refuse his request.
"They will start early Monday morning," soliloquized Arthur, as he rode homeward, "and will take the road that leads to Captain Porter"s. This is Friday. I shall send word by Joaquin to Pierre to-night, and he will have plenty of time to make all his arrangements."
Arthur spent the next day with the boys at Mr. Winters"s rancho, and, when he rode over on Monday morning, he brought with him a supply of provisions, which were stowed away in the pack-saddle with the rest.
Frank and his friends had been waiting for him, and now that they were all ready, they mounted their horses and rode off--Archie leading an extra horse, which carried the pack-saddle. As they galloped through the Rancheros" quarters, d.i.c.k appeared at the door of his cabin, and shouted after them words, which, taken in connection with the events that were about to transpire, seemed like prophecy.
"You"ll be wishin" fur me an" Bob, to get you out of the hands of that ar" greaser, afore you"re two days older," yelled d.i.c.k.
"You don"t suppose that we four fellows will let one man capture us, do you?" shouted Archie, in reply. "If we do get into trouble, and you find it out, you"ll come to our rescue, won"t you?"
"Sartin. Now, don"t be keerless, like you allers are."
The boys kept their horses in a rapid gallop until they reached the bridle-path in the mountains, and then Archie went ahead with the pack-horse, and the others followed in single file. They rode along singing and shouting, and little dreaming of the danger that was so near, until they arrived in sight of the spring, near which Frank had his last encounter with the robber. He soon found that he was to have another adventure there; for, as he and his companions rode toward the spring, they were startled by a shrill whistle, which echoed among the mountains, and was answered on all sides of them; and, before they had recovered from their surprise, Pierre Costello appeared in the path, as suddenly as though he had dropped from the clouds, and came toward them, holding a pistol in each hand.
"Halt!" shouted the robber.
The boys looked about them, as if seeking some avenue of escape, and then they saw that Pierre was not alone. Every thicket, toward which they turned their eyes, bristled with weapons, and a dozen revolvers were leveled straight at their heads. It was useless to think of flight.