"Oh! Going to turn goody-goody, are you?" sneered Billiard, not willing to admit that he had been thinking similar thoughts.
Toady bristled. "I hate goody-goodies as bad as you do," he said, with eyes flashing. "But I"m going to own up to my part in last night"s racket. We might have scared Glory to death."
"Pooh! You make me sick! Suppose you think she"ll let you off easy if you squeal. Well, go ahead, tattler! You will change your mind maybe, when she writes to Uncle Hogan."
"If she wants to write Uncle Hogan, let her write!" screamed the exasperated Toady, stung by his brother"s taunts. "I"m going to quit bothering them right here and now; and what"s more, I"m going to own up, too."
"Tattler!"
Toady turned on his heel and strode haughtily away, not daring to trust himself to further speech.
"Coward! "Fraid cat! Sissy girl!" jeered Billiard.
That was the last straw. The younger boy wheeled about and retraced his steps in a slow, ominous manner. Thrusting his angry face close to Billiard"s, and shaking his clenched fist under his nose, he said quietly, "Say that again if you dare, Williard McKittrick!"
Billiard was delighted. He had succeeded in making Toady mad, and now he would have the pleasure of thrashing him. He felt just like pounding someone.
"Coward! "Fraid cat! Sis----"
A white fist shot out with accurate aim, striking the bully squarely between the eyes. A shower of stars danced merrily about him, blood spurted from his nose, and the next thing he knew, he was stretched flat on the rocky ground, with a grim-faced Toady bending over him.
"Do you take it back?" a menacing voice was asking.
"You--you--" spluttered the angry victim, mopping his streaming nose with his coat sleeve.
"Or do you want some more?" The doubled-up fist drew perilously near the disfigured face in the gravel.
"That"s it! Hit a fellow when he"s down!" taunted the fallen bully, still unable to realize just what had happened.
"I shan"t hit you while you"re down," said Toady calmly but decisively.
"I"ll let you get onto your pins and then I"ll knock them from under you again."
And Billiard, looking up into the determined face above him, knew that it was no idle threat. Toady was in deadly earnest, but still the older boy temporized. It would never do to give in to Toady. If he took such a step as that, his leadership was gone forever. "Aw, come off!" he began, in what he meant to be jocular tones. "Quit your fooling and let me up! I"ve swallowed a bucket of blood already!"
"Will you take it back, or shall I pummel the stuffing out of you?"
Billiard capitulated. "I take it back," he said sullenly, "but,"--as Toady removed his knees from his chest and allowed him to rise--"I"ll get even with you for this."
"All right," responded the younger boy cheerfully. "But don"t forget that you will get what"s coming to you, too."
"Don"t be so sure, sonny! You took me off guard; you know you did, or you"d never have laid me out. You weren"t fair."
Toady, tasting his first victory over his bully brother, and finding it very sweet, suggested casually, "I"ll sc.r.a.p _you_ any time you say.
Now, if you like."
"My head aches too bad," said the other hastily. "That was a nasty place to fall. It"s a wonder it didn"t fracture my skull."
Toady looked back at the spot which Billiard had adorned a moment before, and remorse overtook him. "I"m sorry, old chap, if I hurt you," he said contritely. "I wasn"t aiming to put you out of business, but you made me so all-fired mad----"
"Aw, forget it! I was just fooling," protested Billiard, shamed by Toady"s frank and manly confession. "Say, ain"t that the haunted house the girls are always talking about?"
"Which? Maybe "tis. It"s the last one in town, they said. Mercy promised to point it out the next time we climbed the trail behind the house. Do you s"pose it really is haunted?"
"I dunno," Billiard answered indifferently.
Haunted houses in his opinion were things to be avoided. He had merely sought to distract Toady"s thoughts from their fistic encounter by mentioning the place. But the younger boy"s curiosity was aroused, and as they neared the deserted, unpainted, dilapidated hut, he studied it closely. To him it looked like any other untenanted shack in the mining town, and so he said musingly, "I wonder if that man really did kill himself there, or was he murdered?"
Billiard shivered. "Mercedes said he _died_ there. That"s all I know."
"She told me he was _found_ dead, with all his pockets turned inside out, and----"
"Oh, Toady," interrupted Billiard again, "here"s a plant just like those mamma always has in her garden. I didn"t s"pose things like that would grow here on the desert."
"That"s a castor bean."
"Like they make castor oil of?"
"Sure! At least, I guess so. Glory told me it"s the only thing green on the desert that the burros won"t eat. Folks could have flowers here the same as back home if water didn"t cost so much, and the burros didn"t eat the plants as fast as they came up."
"It"s the first castor bean _I"ve_ seen here."
"Why, there"s a whole bunch down by the drug-store! We"ve pa.s.sed them dozens of times. Where are your eyes?"
Billiard"s face flushed wrathfully. Toady"s recent victory had made him suddenly very important and domineering, but his fists were certainly hard enough to deal a telling blow; so the older boy, still caressing his swollen, aching nose, thought it wise to overlook such sarcastic flings, and, pretending to be deeply interested in the queer-leaved plant, he casually asked, "Do they all have such funny burrs on them?"
"When they"re big enough. That"s where the castor beans themselves grow."
Billiard gingerly picked one of the strange b.a.l.l.s and minutely examined the hooked p.r.i.c.kles of the reddish covering. Then with his jack-knife he proceeded to investigate the inside. "Do you s"pose they really make castor oil out of these? I don"t see how they can."
"Glory says they do."
"The insides _smell_ something like castor oil, but they don"t look at all oily."
"I"ll bet they taste oily."
"Stump you to eat one!"
"Huh! It doesn"t bother me to take castor oil. I can eat anything!"
To prove his boast, he plumped one white bean into his mouth, and chewed it down with apparent relish.
Billiard watched him with eagle eyes to see that he actually did swallow it, then held out another, and Toady obediently munched it.
Three, four, five,--bean by bean they disappeared down his throat; but at last he rebelled.
"You hain"t tasted one, Billiard McKittrick! How many do you think you are going to feed _me_?"
The brother laughed derisively. "Wanted to see how big a fool you was," he jeered. "Thought you were going to eat all there were on the bush."
Toady made no reply. The beans tasted anything but appetizing, and already the boy was beginning to feel queer.