With an arm clasped around Merriwell's neck, Blunt labored tremendously to turn him over. Merry, however, was like a rock, and all the cowboy's efforts failed. He expended a vast amount of strength, which was exactly what Merry wanted.

Then, with startling suddenness, Merriwell from a rocklike, passive defense became the aggressor. He seemed to yield to Blunt's pushing and hauling, but that supposed yielding was a sorry disappointment to the cowboy. Somehow, Merry regained his feet; then, in a flash, Merry's right arm had Blunt's head in chancery, with Blunt at his back. With a marshaling of his reserve strength, Merry turned the Wonder a somersault and laid him stunned and flat on his back.

"Well, I'll be blamed!" exclaimed Jordan, rubbing a dazed hand across his forehead. "That's the best I ever seen, an' no mistake."

"How the jumpin' sand hills did he do it?" murmured the bewildered Harrison.

"He's sure some on the wrestle!" exclaimed Aaron Lloyd.

"Second fall," announced Clancy crisply. "Two straight for Chip Merriwell, and he wins."

Frank, breathing a little hard, hurried to kneel at Blunt's side.

"Didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked anxiously.

Blunt sat up and stared at him, smiling wrathfully, and his jet-black eyes two points of flame.

"No, you didn't hurt me," he answered. "I'm all rawhide and whalebone, and it isn't in you to hurt me. Confound you, I'll get you at something or other yet. Want to spar with bare knuckles?"

"Not to-day," Frank answered. "A bargain is a bargain, Blunt. I won this set-to in a couple of straight falls. Now, tell me what you know about Professor Borrodaile."

Jordan brought Blunt's shirt, and began pulling it over his head. Harrison rushed to the horses and returned with a canteen. Blunt took a long pull at the canteen, and got up.

"If you're afraid to spar—" he began, but Clancy interrupted him.

"You've lost out, Blunt, and Merriwell has bought and paid for the information about Professor Borrodaile. Give it to him."

"That's right, old pard," put in Lloyd. "Come across, or let some o' the rest of us."

"I'll do the talking." Blunt answered. "Yesterday afternoon," said he, "we stopped for a while at McGurvin's. While we were watering the bronks, I looked up and saw a man's face at an upstairs window. It was the face of this professor of yours."

"Great Scott!" gulped Clancy, staring.

"At McGurvin's?" demanded Merry, no less excited.

"Yes, at McGurvin's. I asked Mac what the professor was doing in his house, and he answered that what I didn't know wouldn't bother me. It was none of my put-in, and so I let it go at that, There's something else to it, too. Tell what you found out in Gold Hill, Aaron, two days ago."

Merry and Clancy turned their eyes on Lloyd.

"I was there fer the ranch mail," began Lloyd, "an' Nick Porter was crookin' his elbow a-plenty. And talking a heap, too. In front of the Red Light he had a feller in flashy clothes with a sandy mustache, and the two was goin' it some in the gab line. I was leanin' against the front of the Red Light, at the time, a-readin' a letter, an' I couldn't help hear a little of what them two said. 'Sam'll put down a hole an' blow out a bag o' samples,' says Porter, 'an' bring 'em round about to Mac's. Turkeyfoot'll take the perfesser on from Mac's to the old camp the mornin' after Sam gits through. Arter loadin' up with the perfesser's plunder, he'll bring him back to Mac's, an' Mac'll hold him. Then you, Heppner, can go out to Mac's Tuesday arternoon an' make yer play.' That's all," finished Lloyd.

"Aaron didn't remember all that until after I'd seen the professor at the window," interpolated Blunt. "Then, as we were riding on, he let it out."

"Blazes!" exclaimed Clancy. "There's a scheme on to rob Borrodaile of that claim of his!"

"Looks thataway," said Lloyd passively.

"Who is this Sam that was to get the bag of samples and take it to McGurvin's by a roundabout way?" queried Merriwell.

"No sabe."

"He's the fellow that had the leaky bag and dropped this trail of ore! Who's Turkeyfoot?"

"Feller that lives out o' Gold Hill a ways. Does freightin'."

"The way I size it up," said Frank, "the professor hired this Turkeyfoot to came to Happenchance with him and get the goods he had left there. They halted at McGurvin's place long enough to give Sam time to do his blasting and make off with the samples. Then the professor and Turkeyfoot went to the claim, got the professor's goods, and went back to McGurvin's; and there, fellows, the professor is being held until this man in flashy clothes comes out and does something to beat Borrodaile out of the claim."

"That's you," said Blunt. "To-day's Tuesday; and it's this afternoon that the business is to be pulled off. The thing to do is to hike for McGurvin's and nip the affair in the bud. Mac is on the side of the opposition, and so is Sam, and Turkeyfoot, and the flashily dressed juniper. That makes four, Merriwell, and there are only you and Clancy to see this game through. We'll help. That was part of the bargain, and we Bar Z fellows stand up to our agreements."

"We were at McGurvin's, last night," remarked Frank, puzzled. "There wasn't any one there but the rancher himself."

"Shucks," said Blunt, "you're easy. There might have been a houseful, and you none the wiser. McGurvin's so crooked he can't walk around his house without running into himself. Everybody knows that."

Merry's dark eyes began to flash,

"This is an outrage!" he exclaimed. "McGurvin, and all the rest who are working with him, ought to be arrested!"

Blunt laughed.

"What do you want to arrest him for?" he asked. "Beat him at his own game and let it go at that. Climb aboard your chug bikes, and we'll mount and hurry along with you. We can get to the ranch in time to make McGurvin and his bunch look two ways for comfort."

Merriwell realized the need of hurry. The sun was climbing toward the zenith, and afternoon, and the working out of the plot against Borrodaile, would soon be at hand. Without further delay he got into his clothes; then he and Clancy started their machines and headed for McGurvin's. The cowboys galloped along just behind them.



CHAPTER X.

FOILING THE PLOTTERS.

Merriwell and Clancy had to diminish their speed in order to let the cowboys keep them in sight. This was annoying, and Merry formed another plan and slowed to a halt in order to broach it to Blunt.

"Clancy and I," said he, as Blunt and his friends galloped up, "can cover the ground between here and McGurvin's four times as quick as you fellows. I think we had better push on."

"What's the use?" Blunt demanded. "We'll all get there before afternoon."

"Suppose the man with the flashy clothes and the red mustache should take it into his head to come to McGurvin's before afternoon?"

"Then maybe it's too late. Possibly he's there now."

"We'll go on and see," said Merry. "You fellows can lope along and get there in time to help Clancy and me, if we find they're too many for us."

"Correct, Merriwell. We'll come a-smoking."

Frank and Owen ducked through the rough country like a couple of meteors. The daylight was all they needed to help them in their flight over a course so carefully covered the night before. Again, as once before, the professor's claim was at stake, and the motorcycles were pushed to, the utmost in an attempt to reach McGurvin's and head off the scoundrelly work of the plotters.

It seemed almost no time at all until the verdant spot, irrigated by McGurvin's well, came into view in the distance across the bare sands.

"We'll make a detour, Clan," said Merry, "and come up on the ranch from the rear. There are only two of us, you know, and we will have to proceed with care if we don't want to spoil everything."

"Sure," Clancy promptly assented. "We'd better leave our machines in the brush somewhere, and move up on the adobe on foot. If we don't, McGurvin will hear us."

This plan was carried out. The motor cycles were left at a safe distance, and the lads crept cautiously forward under the screen of McGurvin's corral. Corn was growing in the irrigated truck patch, and Merry and Clancy got into it and moved upon the house.

Presently they began to hear voices; then, catching a glimpse of McGurvin's hitching pole, they saw a saddle horse secured there.

"Looks like our man was here already," Merry whispered in his chum's ear.

"Where is the talking coming from?" returned Clancy. "It seems pretty close."

"We'll find out."

On hands and knees the boys crept on, screened by the broad leaves of the corn. Presently Merry reached the edge of the cornfield, and paused. The shady side of the house was not over twenty feet from him, and there comfortably seated, was a florid, flashily dressed, red-mustached person. Opposite him, in another chair, was not less a personage than Professor Phineas Borrodaile. He was looking over his glasses in consternation at the man with the red mustache. Grouped in the background were McGurvin and two flannel-shirted, rough-looking Arizonians.

It had been a happy inspiration of Merry's to hasten on ahead of the cowboys. It was not afternoon, yet already the stage was set and the play for the professor's claim was being made. Clancy gripped his chum tensely by the arm. They did not speak, even in whispers, but crouched at the edge of the corn and watched and listened.

"Yes, indeed," the professor was saying, in his cracked voice, "you aver rightly, Mr. Heppner, that this is a remarkable country, most remarkable. Over in the Picket Post Mountains, if you please, I have seen misty island-like protuberances, resembling greatly the post-pliocene crannoges of the Roscommon loughs. Now—"

"Call off the dog, professor," interrupted Heppner. "I'm a government agent, and I'm here on business. See? You didn't know you'd jumped a mining claim belonging to McGurvin, but such is the fact. This will have to be straightened out, or the responsibility will rest heavily upon you. Now, speaking personal, I'd hate a heap to see you sent to jail, seeing as how you're in this country for your health. Jails ain't a health resort, by any manner of means. What do you propose to do about this?"

"Dear me!" murmured Borrodaile, taking off his hat and rubbing the top of his bald head. "I am not dishonest, gentlemen. I assure you that I want only to do what's right. The claim I located was discovered by my nephew; and I am his next of kin. I supposed, you understand, that it was rightfully mine."

"Sure," answered the bogus government agent heartily, "I can see right where you made your mistake. How could you know that, in the years that followed your nephew's discovery, the claim was located again by McGurvin, there? When did you locate it, Mac?" he asked, turning on the rancher.

"Night onto two year ago," asserted McGurvin solemnly.

"There you are!" exclaimed Heppner triumphantly. "McGurvin has done the assessment work, so it belonged to him. And you jumped it. State's prison offense, professor."

The professor shuddered.

"I didn't intend to do any wrong," he answered.

"Ignorance of the law," expounded Heppner, "excuses no one. Still, speaking personal, I'm here to let you off light. You've had a lot of trouble in this matter, and McGurvin is willing to give you a hundred dollars for that. You will have to sign a quitclaim deed, though, so as to clear up the title. I call that," beamed Heppner, "mighty generous."

"A heap more'n I ort ter do," said McGurvin, in a burst of frankness.

"More'n I'd do, Mac," said one of the two others.

"Ye know, Sam," whimpered the rancher, "I allers was troubled with enlargement of the heart, I reckon, someday, it'll be the ruination o' me. Ain't that so, Turkeyfoot?"

"Not as nobody can notice," replied the other bystander. "All I wants is to see the perfesser git his rights. I was totin' his stuff ter town, an' I'm in his pay. I stick fer the hunderd, an' you can whine all ye darn please."

"Mr. Turkeyfoot," said the professor, casting a grateful look at that noble gentleman, "I shall never forget your loyalty and kindness to me. If you insist, I will accept the hundred dollars, and sign this quit claim. All I want is to do what is right. Otium oum dignitate, that is my motto, and what I am seeking. Such matters as this, in which I have unwittingly erred, distress me greatly."

Heppner had pulled a paper and a fountain pen from his pocket.

"There ain't no odium attached to this move, professor," he said reassuringly. "You have done wrong, but you are doing your best to make amends." He got up and handed the pen to the professor, and then opened out the paper. "Sign there," said he. "Mac," he added, "have your hundred dollars ready."

McGurvin went down into his trousers, fished up a roll of bills, and held it in his hand, eying it hungrily. The professor, hunting for a place on which to write, stood up and laid the paper against the wall of the house.

Merry was astounded to think that Borrodaile should prove so lacking in ordinary understanding as to take the words of that gang of tricksters in such a matter. But he was child, so far as business affairs were concerned. It was easy to make him believe anything, so long as his particular field of knowledge was not intruded upon.

Something had to be done, and Merry was not long in doing it. A bold move was necessary. If Heppner ever got that signed quitclaim deed in his hands, the transaction would be badly complicated.

Starting up, Merriwell jumped clear of the cornfield, dashed across the space separating him from the group of men in the shade of the house, and, before the astounded plotters could interfere, he had reached over the professor's shoulder, snatched the paper out of his hands, and torn it to bits.

"Blast ye!" roared McGurvin, jumping forward savagely. "What right you got buttin' in?"

Sam, Turkeyfoot, and Heppner likewise confronted Merry with flaming eyes and twitching, angry faces. The professor fell back, astounded.

"Merriwell!" he gasped, lifting a hand to his forehead.

Clancy, losing not a moment, jumped to place himself at his chum's side.

"You're a pack of curs!" cried Merriwell, "and you're trying to swindle the professor out of a bonanza mining claim. You—"

With a snarl of rage, all four of the plotters began closing in on Merry and Clancy.



CHAPTER XI.

THE COWBOYS SAVE THE DAY.

For a few moments matters took on a serious aspect for the two boys. The quitclaim deed, however, had been destroyed, and there was no fear that Professor Borrodaile would again fall into Heppner's trap. Frank had counted upon this, and had even figured that he would have to take a few hard knocks in bringing it about.

Heppner, fairly boiling, was rushing at Merry like an unleashed tornado. McGurvin, too, was plunging toward him from the right. Sam and Turkeyfoot were making Clancy the object of their attack.

Merry felt that Heppner was entitled to a little something as a memorial of the plot that failed. So, dodging the bull-like rush of McGurvin, he jumped at Heppner, and his doubled fist shot out like a battering-ram.

"Oof!" Heppner grunted, flinging up his arms.

Frank's knuckles had landed on the point of his heavy, brutelike jaw, in just the place best calculated to make a man see stars, and, incidentally, to teach him a lesson.

The "government agent" reeled back and staggered groggily. McGurvin, swearing furiously, flung his arms around Frank from behind.

"I'll wring yer neck fer ye, you young terror!" threatened the rancher.

And it was at that moment, when Merry and Clancy were hard beset, that a Bar Z yell floated down the breeze. It came with an accompaniment of wildly galloping hoofs. High above the tumult and the shouting arose the voice of Barzy Blunt:

"Hang to it, Merriwell! We're on the way!"

The coming of reenforcements had a dampening effect upon the ardor of McGurvin, Sam, and Turkeyfoot. The rancher released Frank and started at a hurried pace for the other side of his house. Sam and Turkeyfoot also attempted to decamp, but they were not quick enough.

The cowboys, throwing themselves from their horses, rushed pell-mell to take a hand in the conflict. Such a ruction appealed to them, and they proceeded to wade into Sam and Turkey foot. Frank and Blunt went on a hurried search for McGurvin.

The rancher was finally located, barricaded behind a locked door, and he was breathing fierce threats of ravage and slaughter.

"Keep away from me, or I'll fill ye fuller o' holes than a pepperbox!" was one of the rancher's many remarks.

Blunt, laughing loudly, threw himself against the door. With Frank's help, it was kicked open. And McGurvin did not shoot. It transpired that he had nothing to shoot with. He tried to fight, but Merry and Blunt got him in hand and dragged him out of doors.

"Tell us about this, you blamed coyote," said Blunt, "and be quick. You've got about as much grit as a chipmunk, and if you don't talk we'll show you a trick or two that will make you wish you had."

"What you a-tryin' to do, Barzy?" asked McGurvin in an injured tone. "Takin' the part o' this Eastern crowd agin' me?"

"Pah!" exclaimed the Cowboy Wonder, in disgust. "I'm no friend of yours, you old tinhorn. What were you trying to do? Out with it."

"It wasn't me, Barzy," whimpered McGurvin, "it was Heppner—Heppner from Tombstone. He put it all up—him an' Nick Porter."

"Put what up?"

"Why, this scheme to beat the perfesser out o' that claim o' his. I was drawed inter it innercent like."

"Yes, you were mighty innocent!" put in Frank scathingly. "You pretended that you had located the professor's claim a long while ago, and that the professor had jumped it. Heppner professed to be a government agent sent here to straighten the matter out, and you were to give Borrodaile a hundred dollars for a quitclaim deed to the mine."

"A hundred dollars?" gasped Blunt. "Great snakes! Why, that claim's worth thousands. The professor stood for that yarn?"

"They had him scared stiff," said Merriwell. "He was signing the deed when I jumped out of the cornfield and grabbed it away from him."

"It was Heppner's doin's," insisted McGurvin. "He was ter gi' me a hundred for helpin' him."

"You were to sign the quitclaim over to him, eh?" asked Blunt.

"That's the how o' it, Barzy. He's a villain, that Heppner person, but I was took in by his wiles."

"How much was Sam to get?" asked Merry.

"He was gittin' another hunderd fer the bag o' samples, an' fer helpin' in other ways."

"And Turkeyfoot?"

"Another hunderd was comin' ter him, same's to the rest o' us."

"How about Nick Porter?"

"Dunno how much he was ter git. He told Heppner about the perfesser an' the claim in the fust place, so I reckon he come higher. The perfesser is kinder weak in the headpiece. He'd b'leeve anythin'. Nick Porter tole me so when he was here last night."

"Oh!" said Merry. "So Porter was here, was he, when Clancy and I came looking for him?"

"Well, yes. I didn't say nothin' ter you about it, Merriwell, bec'us' I didn't dare. Porter would 'a' killed me, if I had."

"You're a skunk!" gritted Barzy Blunt.

"Where's Porter now?" demanded. Frank.

"He hiked out early this mornin'. Say, Barzy, I heerd ye wasn't no friend o' Merriwell's."

"I'm not," was the answer. "I made a bargain with him, and this is part of it."

"Where are the professor's goods and Turkeyfoot's wagon?" Merry questioned.

"Out in the scrub," was the rancher's reply. "So's Sam's burro, which he took when he went arter the ore t'other day. Sam was gittin' the ore ter show Heppner. He lost part o' it on the way here, but enough was left ter make Heppner open his eyes a whole lot. He allowed it was the richest claim he ever seen."

"Yes," remarked Blunt, "we know all about Sam's losing the ore. But for that golden trail, Merriwell, you and I would never have got together out there in the desert, and this scheme against the professor might have worked to a fare you well. I'd never have butted in, if you hadn't bested me with two straight falls."

"Have you been keeping the professor here against his will?" demanded Frank of McGurvin.

"Nary, I wasn't. Turkeyfoot had him skeered. He tells the perfessor there's a gov'ment agent arter him, named Heppner, an' that the claim he thought he located he really jumped. That was Turkeyfoot's part a' it—purtendin' ter be the perfesser's friend an' goadin' him on ter fall in with Heppner's plan. Oh, Turkeyfoot's a missable skunk, all right."

"The professor stayed here because Turkeyfoot told him to?" asked Frank, far gone with wonder on Borrodaile's account.

"That's the how of it, an' I'm givin' it to ye straight." Clancy had come up during part of the talk with McGurvin, and presently Ben Jordan arrived with Turkeyfoot, and Harrison and Lloyd with Sam. The professor, dazed and bewildered, came pottering along presently, and stood off at a distance while he tried to adjust his wits to the sudden whirl of events.

"Where's Heppner, Clan?" Merry asked.

"Concluded he hadn't better stay, Chip," Clancy explained. "Just as the cowboys got here, Heppner jumped to the back of his horse and began hitting the high places. He took your mark along with him, though," the redheaded chap finished, with a laugh.

Merry walked over to Borrodaile and laid a soothing hand on his shoulder.

"Wake up, professor," said he. "It's all over, and you've still got your claim."

"My boy," answered the professor, still a little "flighty," "I don't want that claim if it's not legally mine."

"It is legally yours. Heppner was only pretending to be a government agent, and McGurvin never saw the claim."

"Well, well!" murmured the professor, mildly surprised. "Then they were dishonest?"

"I should say!"

"But Mr. Turkeyfoot is my friend. He thought I had done wrong, and he fought loyally to get me off and to make McGurvin give me a hundred dollars."

Clancy turned away to hide a laugh.

"Turkeyfoot deceived you, just as the others did," Frank explained patiently. "You hired him to go to Happenchance after the stuff you had left there?"

"Yes. We came thus far on our way, and Mr. Turkeyfoot explained how I had laid myself liable to fine and imprisonment for stealing a claim. He said I must remain here at McGurvin's for a time, and—er—keep shady. That is the term he used, I believe. Well, I kept shady until he came to go to the old town. Then, when we returned from there, I had to keep shady again. A little while ago Mr. Heppner arrived, saying he represented the government, and—and—Well," and the professor drew a long sigh, "I'm glad to know I haven't stolen anything from anybody."

"Why did you leave Ophir for Gold Hill?"

"Mr. Porter told me about Mr. Turkeyfoot, and said he was the one to go out and bring in my personal effects, You had had enough trouble on my account, Merriwell, and I did not want to bother you further. Yet it seems," he finished regretfully, "that I have done the very thing I tried not to do."

"I'm going to take you back to Ophir," declared Merry, "and do what I can to look out for you."

"I am quite capable of looking out for myself, Merriwell; nevertheless, I shall be glad to have you near me to offer advice. Your father had a very good business head, and I presume you are likewise gifted." His face brightened perceptibly as he went on: "While returning from Happenchance with my personal effects, I clipped a really excellent specimen of amorphous diapase from a reef among the hills. The cellular crystallization of the diapase is intensely interesting. It will give me pleasure to show it to you, Merriwell, and—"

"Never mind that just now, professor," Frank answered. "Turkeyfoot is getting ready to take you on to Ophir. Clancy and I have a couple of motor cycles, but we're going to load them in Turkeyfooty's wagon and ride with you."

"Just why do you inconvenience yourself in that manner?"

"To make sure that nobody takes the mining claim away from you between here and the Ophir House," said Frank.

The professor looked puzzled, but was wise enough not to ask Merriwell to explain.

THE END.

"Frank Merriwell, Junior's, Competitor; or, The Honor of the Game," is the title of the story that will be found in the next issue of this weekly. In this story, Barzy Blunt is defeated by young Merriwell in another feat of strength and skill, and he begins to see light. Frank gets a letter from his father which is full of interesting surprises. You will find this narrative of the doings of Chip Merriwell and his chums to be full of incident and sustained excitement. It is No. 12, and will be out October 19th.

THE END