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up here to make me any. trouble.” Bitterness throbbed in»
Sercomb’s voice “That fellow has been a drawback to
me ever Sitice we were kids, and now he’s got to step in
and try to knock me out of Uncle Jack’s money !”
“You wasn’t a favorite of your Uncle Jack, eh?”
queried Balt Finn. oe Pp
“No, blast the old codger! _He never seemed -to like
me, and I was always around him. . Dick, who never
came near, was the one he had always in mind.” a
“Well, has the old fluke cashed in?” asked. Packard.
“That’s the point.” a
“Of course he has!’ He was always-a high liver, and”
it’s a wonder apoplexy didn’t take him long ago. Feel-
ing that he was about to die, he made his will, put it in
his pocket, and tucked himself away somewhere, just to
. see whether Dick or~I would be first to locate him.
Precious little I care about the old juniper, if I could
lay hands on the will.” :
“The one you’ve made out, Ralph,” said Packard, “is
pretty well gotten up. You've imitated your uncle’s sig-
nature in great shape.” oo us ,
“The'deuce of it is,” returned Sercomb, “I don’t know
just what property he’s got, so I can schedule it. If I
could find the original-will, I could copy that part of it.”
“Maybe,” suggested -Finn, “this is only. a tempest ina
teapot, and that the old man’ left you all his property,
afterall” 9 “ ae
-“T don’t’ know, of course, but: I’m afraid he’s given’
Dick too much. I don’t want him to have a cent,”" 0 -
“Well,” growled Mings, “I’m hoping you'll make good
your claim to the estate, Ralph. You've promised to re-
member us all around, you know.” eee
“That promise goes!” averred Sercomb. “Once I get
my hooks on Uncle Jack’s money, you can bet I’ll do the
handsome thing by. you fellows. Just now, though, what
we've got to think about is this: Dick was started to-
ward the cliffs in that car of King’s, and King showed
up in that confounded white runabout and chased after
Dick and the touring-car. What I’d like to know, did
King save Dick? Everything hangs on that. If Dick
got smashed against the cliffs, he can’t tell about, that
Lamy business, nor about Mings and Packard tying him
in the car. You fellows,” and here Sercomb turned to
Mings and Packard, “ought to have hung around to sce
how it came out?
“ “Oh, yes,” returned Mings sarcastically, “we ought ‘to
have hung around and given them a chance to nab us.
I guess not! We got back here as quick as we could.
But you take it from me—King never saved Ferral.” .
“Vou fellows went too far,’ continued Sercomb. “TI
- told you to smash the car, but I didn’t tell you to smash
Ferral along with it.”
“That’s what you meant, Sercomb, whether you said
it or not,” spoke up Packard. “You wanted him taken
away last night and dropped.in the quicksands——”
“T wanted him put out of the car close to the quick-
sands,” qualified Sercomb, “so that he’d have got into
them himself.” SL.
“It’s all the same thing,” said Balt Finn. “Call a spade
a spade and don’t dodge.”
' “Tf that was. Tippoo
hie
eats ee ed a
MOTOR STORIES. oo
“Who was that fellow with the queer head-gear we saw,
in the car?” asked Packard. oo
A look of dismay crossed Sercomb’s face.
— he began, but got.no ‘
far-
ther. ms
Just then there were steps in the hall, and Ferral. en-
tered the room, followed by Matt and Carl. -Sercomb
and his guilty associates jumped to their feet. ”
“Why—why, Dick!” exclaimed Sercomb, staring.
“Yes, you cannibal!” shouted Ferral; “it’s Dick, hut no
thanks to you and your gang of pirates that I’m here,
alive and kicking. Now, Mings, confound you, you and
Packard have got.a chance to. tell me whether my dear
cousin put you up to that job over toward the cliffs.”
“We'’ye got a chance to run you off the place, that’s
what we’ve got,” answered Mings. SR ad
“Heave ahead!” cried Ferral, squaring himself. “Td,
like a chance at you, just one.” : -
Mings glared at him, but remained sullenly silent. Fer-
ral turned to Sercomb. / Lo
“T’m here to sink a lead to the bottom of this, my gay
buck,” said. he, “and before I turn my back on La. Vita
Place Tl know the truth. What have you done with
Uncle Jack? A scoundrel who’d treat me as you have
wouldn’t hesitate to deal foully;with——” . 7
“There; there, Dick,” interrupted Sercomb, fluttering
his hand, “that will do you. “You're judging me by your--
self.” oa, ce! :
“I’m judging you by your actions,” stormed: Ferral.
“It’s been tack-and-tack with you ever since I knew you,
and you never yet shifted your helm. without having
something to gain for Sercomb. You cozzened: around
Uncle Jack, toadying to him for his money; when he,
disappears, you bear away for here, rip things fore and
‘aft looking fora will, and, when you fail to find one,
fix a document up to suit yourself. You're as crooked as
a physte’s hind leg, and you couldn’t sail a. straight course
to save your immortal soul. Now, here’s where I stand,
Ralph Sercomb: Either you'll tell me the whole of. it-
about Uncle Jack, or I-go to Lamy and come back:here: ,
with an officer.” If I do that, Tk-round-up. every ‘man
Jack of you, and give you the hottest time you ever had
in your lives; but tell me the truth about Uncle Jack,
and I'll leave here and stay away.” po
“Uncle Jack is dead,” declared Sercomb. “How many
times do you want me to tell you that?”
“That’s’ still your play, is it?’ scoffed Ferral, “Then,
between you and me and the capstan, my buck, you lie by
the watch!” a
A hoarse ery escaped Sercomb. His hand swept under
his coat, and when it appeared a bit of steel glimmered
in his. fist. '
“Put up your gun,” ordered Ferral, “You took one
shot at me with it last night, and if you try it again I'll,
turn a trick you'll remember,”
\