u 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