The Merriweather Girls in Quest of Treasure Part 28

"Let's sit down away over here and have a look at it," the Judge suggested. "And if anyone is spying on us, he'll not be apt to suspect anything."

Judge Breckenridge examined the disc carefully then spoke.

"Now there is a possibility--a slight one, we'll say, that there is a treasure in that vault somewhere. Do you think your friend Ramon is suspicious?"

"It's hard to say," Kit burst out. "Kie Wicks may be watching us this minute from over the hill across the canyon."

"We will want to carry on the work as quietly as possible, but if Kie hears about a treasure, we'll not have a minute's peace," said the Judge, rising and surveying the ground. "The first thing we ought to do," he continued, "is to stake out a claim covering this wall. Then we'll own it."

"Yes, and have Kie Jump that claim, if he is watching us." Bet shrugged her boyish shoulders.

"We'll get ahead of him on that. We'll stake the claim and I'll send a man over to record it first thing in the morning, and tonight we'll have a watchman--two in fact. We'll not leave the tunnel unguarded for a minute until we find out what it contains."

"Oh, please, Judge, let us guard it!" cried Bet.

"No!" There was a harsh, decided ring in the Judge's voice and the girls did not urge him further. That "no" meant exactly that.

"I think it might be a good idea for me to go back to the ranch and get Tommy and some of the boys to move the professor's tent up here and Tommy and Seedy Saunders might stay for a few nights to guard your claims. You'll have all the excitement there is in it, even if there is no treasure."

Bet flared up at once. "We're not so silly as to want excitement and nothing else. We want the treasure now that we have started out to find one. Nothing else will do."

The Judge laughed as he mounted his horse and rode down the trail.

But when he returned to the ranch and informed the boys what he wanted, he was met with roars of laughter.

"You want us to guard a buried treasure! That's a good one!" said Seedy Saunders, the old cowboy who was now staying with Judge Breckenridge. "Let Tommy do it! He has a treasure map in his shack that he paid five dollars for. He'd love to do it!"

However, when the cowboys heard how much it meant to the girls to have the tunnel guarded against Kie Wicks, they entered into the spirit of it, and even though they laughed and joked, they carried out the Judge's instructions.

They moved all the professor's belongings over the mountain, and took another tent and cots for themselves.

"There just naturally has to be two of us," insisted Seedy. "We'd be scared stiff to sleep alone there, even with the professor."

"Which are you scared of?" laughed Tommy Sharpe. "Kie Wicks or the ghost of the Indian Chief's daughter?"

"Both," returned Seedy pretending to shake with fright. "But I'm mostly scared of that there ghost that walks."

The boys were hilarious as they unpacked their stuff at the Orphan Annie claim.

"By rights we ought to camp in the canyon, we'll have to pack all the water up the hill," suggested Tommy.

"You'll camp right at the mouth of that tunnel, boy!" insisted Enid, and there was something of Tilly the Waif in her command. Tommy looked up at her quickly, then burst into laughter.

"Yes'm," he said meekly with a twinkle in his eye. "I obey!"

They had the tents pitched and the girls were arranging the beds and making them cozy when Judge Breckenridge returned, with a boy driving a burro loaded with provisions.

In his hand he held something white which he waved as he came up the mountain?

"It's a letter!" exclaimed Bet. "I hope it's from my Dad. I haven't had a letter for a week."

"It's a letter for me," announced the Judge, "but it may contain news that will please you. The boys will arrive this week. Phil and Bob are going to join us."

A shout went up and echoed through the hills.

Tommy gave an Indian war-whoop and the girls danced about, hugging each other in their joy.

"Won't it be good to see them!" exclaimed Bet.

"Is Paul coming with them?" asked Enid. "I'm homesick for my brother,"

she murmured with a happy sigh.

"Yes, the three boys will come together by airplane to Phoenix," said the Judge.

"By airplane!" echoed Bet Baxter. "If they don't let me go up with them, I'll never speak to them again, never. I want to fly!"

The hunting for treasure took second place now. The coming of their friends was more important than anything else.

"You know," said Kit solemnly, "we shouldn't get so fond of those boys.

We'll spoil them."

"I've never seen any spoiling!" Billy Patten had helped Judge Breckenridge bring over the supplies, and now confronted Kit. "Don't pretend you're soft-hearted, for you're not."

Kit laughed at her teasing brother and with a wave of her hand pushed him aside. "Children should be seen and not heard," she said.

"What did Joy say when you told her that Bob was coming?" asked Bet.

"She shed a few tears; perhaps she was afraid she would miss all the fun with her sprained ankle."

"She's in luck if she only knew it," laughed Enid. "A girl with a sprained ankle will just appeal to the sympathy of those boys. Joy will be the center of the stage."

"And won't she love it?" chuckled Kit.

With many final instructions to the boys to guard the tunnel, the girls mounted their horses and hurried toward home, their faces glowing with joy.

From the mountain opposite, where Ramon had watched the previous day, Kie Wicks was on guard. He saw the preparations for camping at the claims and wondered what it was all about.

His eyes narrowed to pin-points when he saw the professor examining the wall of the cliff.

"What's he got there?" he muttered to himself. "But he can't put anything over on me. If I could get my hands on Ramon, I'd teach him to do as I tell him. If he had stuck around, I'd know what all this fuss is about."

But that was all that Kie was to know for some days. He watched by the hour, he questioned every man, woman and child he met, but the professor and his men were not talking. The location work on the Orphan Annie claim and the digging of a tunnel seemed to be their only interest.

Kie noticed that a monument had been built to cover the claim where the tunnel was being driven and smiled to himself. "These city fellows think they've got a mine with a couple of claims. They've got a lot to learn!"

The secret had to come out, of course. And when Kie Wicks heard it a few days later, he was wild with fury.

"Digging for treasure, are they?" he snorted. "I'll get them yet, those two-faced, underhanded robbers. They haven't got no business in these mountains. I'll show them!"