Boy Scouts of America -- Juvenile fiction; Rocky Mountains -- Juvenile fiction
After breakfast, when they got good and ready, Westy and Artie started
off around the lake, feeling for all the world like two officials of the
law. Westy, in the lead going up the Cliff trail, had Uncle Jeb’s rifle
nonchalantly slung over his left shoulder. No matter how indifferently
placed it looked to the beholder, Westy was perfectly aware of its exact
position, for it took him at least five minutes to get it placed in the
right position, just as he wanted it. Artie had a club in his hand that
looked rather primitive in design, but nevertheless he felt that it was
a weapon of defense at least.
Reaching the precipice cautiously, these two boy scouts made sure they
were unheard before they approached the enemy.
Ollie was too busy concentrating his gaze toward the lake and didn’t see
or hear them coming.
“Hands up!” Westy commanded authoritatively. “Hand the money over quick
or I’ll blow your brains out!” He was now waving the rifle menacingly
back and forth between Ollie’s little eyes.
“You mean throw the money up, don’t you, Wes?” Artie said in a very
un-official tone.
Westy gave Artie a black look that rather told him how unseemly his
remark had been.
“Of course, that’s what I did say!” he lied gallantly to save his face.
“What youse kids trying to do, scare me?” Ollie said in the east-side
vernacular and with a show of bravado. “Youse haven’t a chanct in the
woild!”
“Is that so!” exclaimed Westy and more for something further to say than
anything else continued, “Your old friends, the bulls, are just coming
up the trail now with a nice pair of bracelets for you. Are you going to
throw that money box up here?”
“I can’t!” said Ollie, visibly pale. “It’s too heavy.”
“Very well,” said Westy, master of the situation at once. “I’ll hand you
the rope and you can tie it around the box, so we can haul it up.”
“Aw-right!” said Ollie, his teeth chattering now. “Are the bulls there
now?”
“Coming!” said Westy.
He kept the rifle pointed directly at him, as Artie struggled with the
heavy steel box coming over the precipice. When it had landed safely,
Artie carried it back a way on the Cliff. Westy, his curiosity aroused,
drew back from the precipice to look at the incentive of all the
trouble. He and Artie were conversing in low tones about the weight of
the box.
“Say, Wes,” asked Artie very softly, “what made you say that?”
“About the bulls?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I just hit the nail on the head too. I suppose though
it must have been my own common sense told me that Ollie was a criminal
before, or he wouldn’t have done such a low, despicable thing to poor
Ol’ Pop.”
Whether Ollie Baxter thought that the bulls had finally arrived on the
scene is a question. Westy has always thought so anyway, and we are
inclined to believe him. He claims that Ollie must have become
panic-stricken, mistaking his and Artie’s low converse for the bulls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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