IN THE TOILS

The Overlanders groaned.

“Hippy, Hippy! You go right down and get the poor boy out,” cried Nora. “The idea! That poor boy in jail!”

The messenger demanded the dollar that had been promised to him.

“Who gave you the message?” questioned Miss Briggs, stepping up to the newcomer.

“One of the soldiers. I don’t know his name, and never seen him before. Do I get the dollar?”

“This letter says that the writer is in jail. We wish to know where and why. What do you know about it?” demanded Lieutenant Wingate.

“Nothing. I’ve told you all I know about it.”

“Very well. Here is your dollar. You may go now,” said Hippy, handing a dollar bill to the messenger; whereupon the boy ran away.

“This is a fine mess,” complained Tom Gray. “I suppose we might as well do as Nora has suggested, and see what we can do for him. What do you say, Hippy?”

“Say? I’ll say that I am going to bed and get some sleep. To-morrow morning we will go down and take this matter up. Were we to go into it to-night, we probably should have nothing but our trouble for our pains.”

“Yes, I think you are right,” agreed Emma. “Besides, it will do Stacy worlds of good to stay in jail until morning. I’m not sure but that a longer time there might be beneficial to him.”

“Emma!” cried the Overland girls in shocked tones.

“We do not wholly agree with the sentiment, Emma, but we will, I think, be wise to follow Hippy’s advice and go to bed. There really appears to be nothing that we can do to-night. I’m going to turn in,” announced Grace.

“So am I. And, girls! There’s one great satisfaction that I hope you have not lost sight of—Stacy is in a perfectly safe place. No harm can come to him, so let sweet peace hover over our dreams to-night. Good-night,” said Elfreda.

The Overlanders turned in laughing, despite their worry over Stacy. Early on the following morning, immediately after breakfast, Tom and Hippy started down to the hotel, it having been decided to leave the girls in camp with the guide. Tom was of the opinion that two men could do more for Stacy than the entire party could do, so the two went alone.

On their way down they discovered Hippy’s pony, saddled and bridled, grazing on the mountain-side. The animal either had broken loose or someone had released him. Hippy caught the pony and led it along with them. Reaching the hotel, they secured the animal, then walked over to the office of the commanding officer, but it was locked and no one, not even a sentry, was to be found. After waiting about for nearly an hour a guard appeared and unlocked the door. In reply to Tom’s question, he said that Stacy Brown had spent the night in the guard-house where he then was, and that his case would be called before Lieutenant Chambers at nine o’clock that morning.

“May we see Mr. Brown?” asked Tom.

The guard said he had no right to permit them to do so, but that the acting commanding officer might give his permission. Rather than disturb the officer, Tom and Hippy decided to await his coming.

“This looks serious,” muttered Hippy.

“I hope Stacy looks upon it in the same light,” answered Tom.

Promptly at nine o’clock Lieutenant Chambers arrived at the office. Tom and Hippy followed him in and introduced themselves, explaining why they were there.

“I know nothing about the case, except that I have been informed that Sergeant Stape of the Park guards made an arrest last evening. I will have the young man brought in at once, and we shall soon see if he is the one you gentlemen are looking for,” said Lieutenant Chambers.

Following the lieutenant’s command to his orderly, Stacy Brown entered the office, assuming a painful limp as he walked, his face red and his hair crumpled as if it had not been combed in some time. After him came Sergeant Stape and a civilian, a surly-faced, bewhiskered fellow, whose shifty eyes avoided those of the officer and the Overland Riders present.

Lieutenant Chambers perused the written report of the arresting guard. As he laid the paper down, Elfreda Briggs tripped into the room and quietly took a seat behind Tom and Hippy, who frowned their disapproval at her coming there. Stacy grinned sheepishly at Elfreda and sat down.

“Don’t be cross, you two. Grace insisted that I come,” whispered Elfreda to Tom and Hippy. “Just leave this affair in my hands.”

“Sergeant Stape, you will state what you know about this case,” commanded the officer tersely.

“Two of our men reported yesterday that the ‘Infant Geyser’ had been blown up, and that there were reasons for thinking that it had been tampered with, so, at Colonel Appleby’s direction, I ordered them to make a further investigation; then last night along comes this fellow Bill Taggart and tells me he saw the deed done,” said the Sergeant, indicating the bewhiskered civilian. “Later in the evening. Taggart met this man Brown, who, he says, had committed the act, so I arrested Brown and put him in the guard-house. That’s all I know about it.”

The lieutenant then began questioning Taggart. Taggart said that he was a coach driver, and that, while conducting a party over Five Mile Pass, he had seen Brown fussing with the “Infant Geyser”; then saw it blow up. He further testified that, when he met Stacy near the hotel that night, he recognized the boy and told the sergeant, who made the arrest, of what he had seen.

At this juncture Elfreda Briggs rose and stood gazing at Lieutenant Chambers.

“Sir,” she began, “if I may be allowed to interrupt. This young man is one of the Overland party to which I belong. I am a lawyer, and I ask the privilege of questioning this witness. May I be permitted to do so. Lieutenant?”

“Certainly.” Lieutenant Chambers smiled and nodded: whereupon Miss Briggs turned to Taggart and stood regarding him with a steady gaze.

“You say, Mr. Taggart, that you were on Five Mile Pass when you discovered Mr. Brown doing something to the ‘Infant Geyser’?” asked Elfreda.

“Yes.”

“How far is it from the point where you were standing at the time to the ‘Infant’?”

“I reckon half to three-quarters of a mile.”

“You next saw Mr. Brown last night. Tell the lieutenant where Mr. Brown was at the time?”

“Walkin’ behind the barracks headed towards the hotel.”

“It was dark then, was it not?”

“So black you couldn’t see yer hand afore yer face,” answered the coach driver, whereupon Hippy Wingate grinned broadly.

“I submit, sir,” said Miss Briggs, turning to Lieutenant Chambers, “that this man’s testimony is most interesting. First he sees Mr. Brown half to three-quarters of a mile away; then in a night so dark that he could not see his hand before his face, he instantly recognizes the young man. I submit, sir, that this man’s vision is most remarkable.”

The officer frowned on the coach driver, but ere he could speak, Miss Briggs resumed.

“It is not my intention, sir, to attempt to sway your decision. Our outfit at the time the geyser blew up was in the immediate vicinity, but we do not know the cause. I think that Mr. Brown does, and I would suggest that he relate the facts to you. He is somewhat temperamental at times, and apparently not always wholly responsible for his acts,” finished Elfreda, and sat down.

“Oh, what did you do that for? You had the lieutenant ready to discharge Chunky,” whispered Hippy.

“In the interest of truth and justice, young man,” replied Elfreda briefly.

“You win,” chuckled Hippy.

Stacy’s eyes were large and troubled when he rose at the command of Lieutenant Chambers and began telling the story of the explosion.

“It was this way,” he said by way of introduction. “I stayed behind, while the rest of my outfit went on up the terraces, waiting for the geyser to let go. I wanted to see it spurt into the air. Well, it didn’t let go at all, and though I waited a long time it didn’t throw enough water to satisfy a canary’s thirst. I got tired of waiting; then I thought I would make the hole a little larger. I did so, whereupon the ‘Infant’ just bubbled and stopped erupting. That made me think I’d better put it back as I found it, so I plugged the opening and stamped the plugging down with my heels and waited to see what happened next. Nothing did, so I began poking it with my hunting knife when all of a sudden the thing went off and I got a bath of steam and hot water. I was almost scalded to death. That is the whole story, Sir,” finished the fat boy.

“Hm-m-m,” mused the officer, regarding the now thoroughly subdued Chunky. “You were called before this department once before, were you not?”

“Yes, sir, for shooting at a bear that I thought was wanting to make a meal of me.”

“In view of the fact that you have admitted your fault and this being a second offense, I have no alternative. I am sorry, but I am obliged to fine you a hundred dollars.”

“A hundred dollars!” gasped Stacy Brown. “I—I—Uncle Hip, can you cross my hand for a hundred?”

Lieutenant Wingate nodded.

“May I ask, sir, whether, in a case like this, there is a reward going to the informer?” questioned Miss Briggs, who had been narrowly observing Taggart.

“Yes. Half of the fine goes to the informer.”

“Thank you,” answered J. Elfreda sweetly, smiling as she noted the frowning expression on Lieutenant Chambers’ face as he regarded the coach driver. Elfreda had obtained information that was to prove of great use to the Overland Riders as well as to the Park officials in the near future.