Average Jones

de a sheet of paper upon which was pasted a newsp

ale forehead indeterminately. "But five t

ng. True. Nevertheless I can't see the missing

would be imposs

ing? I think, if you choose, that he wouldn

t, Sir." Simpson rais

D DOLLARS-The

without quest

formation whi

derick Hoff, tw

his home in

unicate with D

le

Hoff is good

'Catarrh-Killer.' The point is, from what I can discover, Mr. R

that you wished, in the telegra

porter, who sent it, forward his bill. And if the old inventor who'

said Simpson

us wrecks. He had subsequently endured two breach-of-promise suits, had broken the state automobile record for number of speed violation arrests, had been buncoed, badgered, paneled, blackmailed and short-carded out of sums varying between one hundred and ten thousand dollars; and now, in the year of grace, 19-, was the horror of the pulpit and the delight of the press of the city which he called his home. For the rest, he was a lar

s of "Dr. Hoff's Catarrh-Killer," proved sadly insufficient to his needs. He mentioned this fact to his father, s

aid he, "I'll go a

g man's disappearance. To all intents and appearances, Roderick Hoff had dropped off the earth on or about April twelfth. By April fifteenth New York, Pittsburg, Chicago, Washington and other clearing-houses for the distribution of the

to follow the trail of a spurious young sport from bar-room to brothel and fro

he door. His blond forehead

couldn't see him, but he wouldn't take no. Say

ross old man, silk-hatted and bediamonded, whose side-whiskers bristled

on dollars, an' a ten-dollar-a-week office toad tries to hold m

dislike for the cruelest of all forms of swindling medical quackery. And this swollen, smug-faced

ke your cas

Did you read

ouching confidence in the power of advertising. Otherwise it doe

t voice quavered and broke, but rose again to a snarl. "And, b

looked out from the deep-set, somnolent, gray eyes; a personality resolute, forceful and quietly alert. It was apparently belied by the hesitant dra

r-is-the

w. It ain't

o you know

and spread before Average Jones a white s

e and got there just after I left. My secretary brought

ping-paper upon which was this m

ined the wrapper. It was postmarked Cincinnati. He next smoothed out the creased silk a

p for moistening stamps. Applying this to one of the spots on the shirt, he rubbed the wetted portion vigorously on a sheet of pa

shot out suddenl

murdered; murdered, I tell you,

a dreamy smile toward a

served, "to indicate that your son i

k. "What's this you're givin' me? Can't you read? L

ice is full of more or less excitable clients," said

is it,

rownish streak showed where he had applied the moistened cloth. "It's the rawest kind of a blind. Why, the idiot who sent the

nothing like that," he pleaded. "Come with me to Cincinn

re they want you to think he is. But it doesn't look like a case of ransom

e was

r, maybe?" sugg

ber for a week. An' h

tudyin

ani

ibit any interest in f

ough one term in college,"

know about

erfessor in

one yo

was sore because I found

Average Jones me

ish professor again?"

of it, I didn't se

for Toledo on t

ack clawed nervously at his professional whit

rol and that you're to take

hat with a gulp. "You'r

tor's ideas as to the average American father's vast and profound ignorance of the life, habits, manners and customs of that common but variable species, the Offspring. Bey

iness office of the Daily Saw, in which he inserted t

or in Spanish.

ferred. Apply

off, 360 Fair

mpt concealment or evasion with a newspaper man from whom he wanted information. The city editor obligingly furnished further details regarding "

ber. He won't go into the old boy's business, because he hates it. Says it's all rot and lies. He's dead right, of cou

t's

f hung out there a lot. Charley even had a room fixed up

ew-er-extra clothes there?" asked Averag

dare say. He used to end his

ame from," murmured the Ad-Visor. "Much oblig

k hat. They called him "Colonel." A swell dresser. The other man drank gin, and a lot of it. His name was Fred. He was very tanned. One day there had been a hot discussion over a sheet of paper that lay on the table in front of the three men in the back room. "Rickey" had called a messenger boy and sent him out f

olonel paid?" as

"He said, 'Well, it's a go, then. Here's luck

seen any of them

y a

he investigator found the head ther

omething," he cried. "

hat out?" asked Avera

truck the last few days and I found the duplicate sale-checks that come in the packages. There's st

htfully. "Ship's compass is good enough for

of cl

ind of

ki riding-pants, neglyje

tion of Europe t

ulted a list. "C

s like des

id bar

ain cl

ate of pot

ry," comment

water-

leaned forwa

. Cost twen

ree people. Taken with the compass, it

an' told me Roddy had sent for him and ast him a lot of questions about

wing a sea trip, then. W

in', pills, surgeon's plaste

ee the dr

per. Then he looked at Doc

anything peculiar

know as

itric acid, f

What

dle. That acid, together with the rest of the outfit, means a gold-hunt as plain as if it were spelled out. And th

h Nat

and find out ho

e 'phone. "Five hundred do

asked the other

hecks certified aggregat

ted States, or just across the border. Well, we've done a good day's work, and I've got a hard evening's thinking

he range of available information on any topic. Under the "favored applications clause," a person whose knowledge of any particular subject was unique and authoritative, whether the topic were Esperanto or fistiana, wen

LUB, NEW

ed States, or near border, surrounded by hot, snake-infested desert and mountainous country, reputed

JON

was disa

ent from town. Will

MIC

s' advertisement. He was the same who had served young Hoff. As the Ad-Visor surmised, his former employment had been merely the translation of a letter. The letter was in base Spanish, he said. He didn't remember much of it, but there was something

ce over the man's lack of definite memory, now

id Average Jones coolly.

f I have to go over eve

on. For a guess, B. C. is Baja Californi

he Cosmic Club, and within a few hours received a reply from that emin

d Sierra Gigantica ranges. Country very wild and arid. Can be reached by water from Yuma, or pa

LL

ossed this over

est direct. He was the imbecile who stopped in Cincinnati and mailed you the bloody shirt to throw you of

ickness," admitted Doctor Hoff; "but I don't

ung man disappeared. So he cooks up this trip to keep his prey out of touch with the newspapers for the few days when the news of the d

Roddy on such an old game. He's easy,

iting to hear from the geographical expert I've put in some fairly hard work, going over your

f a thin clipping, mark

ish lette

except to

this office

felt

ter reading it over twice, "

coat while he was drunk. Then they inserted their little ad, waited until he had time to find the letter, and casually called th

f blustered, half whined the old

the nigh

ere

l I get a reply to two telegrams. I'll

us soul in revolt at the prospect of immediate outlay. "When I hir

e. I'm doing this on spec. And I don't propose to invest anything in a d

her with contorted face. "I'll get the

lars reward? I think I'd better

ed the other. "I'm good for five mil

y I want your valued signature. You see, to be quite frank, I hav

ontract and mail it after you to-morrow,

work out as I figure them, that will do. And," he added, dropping into his significant drawl and loo

time a telegram came which settled the matter of immediate destination. It apprised Average Jone

, flat-botto

type prefe

this

bought a tic

ge Jones blinked in the harsh sunlight at a small, compa

re was something competent and reliable in his bearing which satisfied the shrewd young read

tra

re two d

e of

arrow-beamed boat, slo

thing of

onel Richford. Had a fake copper out

think they'r

who had been apprised of the main points of the situation. "That would likely be the Pinto range, t

s. "You see, his money is in certified checks which they'd have to get cashed. If some

there. Still, somebody might trail him. And I guess old Richford is too

Pintos, then. Ho

he other succinctly. "Our row

d Jones heartily

l catch up some, for their boat is heavier and their sail is no good with the wind in this direction. If we don't catc

very muscle in the young Easterner's back had turned to live nerve-fiber, and the flesh had begun to strip from the palms of his hands. Even so, the hardy captain had done most of the work. Aided by the current, they turned the shoulder of the Cocopa

e was, by instinct, a student of that continuous logic which constitutes the science of the chase, whether the prize of pursuit be a mountain sheep's horns or the sch

t him off in the mountains, out of sight of the lake, so he'll have no landmark to go by. Then they scare him into signing co-partnership papers, and make him turn over those certified checks to them. With the papers to show fo

u spoke of Richford's being able to get rid of

boy while he was asleep. A tenderfoot woul

ere no

But I doubt if they find any water the

queried th

y find the tenaja empty they'll, have barely enough in the canteens they pack to get them to the nex

e next wat

ms. That's a day a

ndred oar-strokes Ave

ind any water in the Tenaja

would be up

o other water

known to one other man besides me, and he's an Indian. It's less than an hour from the tenaja that R

, Captain. You're in comman

bottom of a long, shallow arm of the lake. Captain Funcke

in command?

sol

quite and fall asleep. I'm going

t grip on his shoulder aroused him. But the overhead sun, whose direct rays

ail heads for the Pintos. They're traveling heavy. I

led to his feet. "I

full of water. He himself packed a much larger load, including two canteens and a powerful fie

nd mummified in the dreadful heat; a lifeless Inferno wherein moved neither beast, bird nor insect. He remembers, dimly, lying as he fell, when the indefatigable captain called a halt, and being wakened in the chill breeze of evening, to see a wall of mountains blocking the advance. Food brought him to his normal self again, and in the crisp air of night he set his face to the task of climbing. Severe as this was upon his unacc

trail, Captain Fun

Confound the cross-tracks!.. Here one of them

mesa.... That's it! They made their sneak while Hoff was asleep, probably covering trail behind them, and struck out for the inside desert rou

t it," suggested Avera

philosophically. "If he had any savvy at all he'd follow the old

nion stop frequently to examine the sand fo

teps we're following,

ent this way all right. B

you tel

ng friends have taken what little water there was and left young Hoff to die of

boulder, between narrowing walls of gray-white rock. Just as Avera

he whi

into a rock-basin of wild and curious beauty. To this day Average Jones remembers the luminous grace and splendor of a Matilija poppy, which, rooted between two boulders, swayed gently in the white moonlight above a figure of dread. The figure, naked from the wai

nt down

it was not in the Ad-Visor's character to quit an enterprise before it was wholly completed. So long as the two bandits were on their

ey back," he said to Capta

against his thigh, reached around beneath his coat and produce

ip agreement and turned over the checks. It was under duress and threats, it's true, but who's to prove that, they being two to one, and this being Mexi

e to the Tenaja Poquita," pointed out

to Hoff, they deserted him while he was taking a nap, about four o'clock in the afternoon. I

he way th

e sand from a wrinkle in his scarified and soiled trousers as carefully

it takes us almost to the secret tenaja I spoke of. We can fill

sk for a record pair of horns-even if they were on

relaxed into a

" he asked, jerking his

out this Tenaja Poquita we're headed for.

gallons it's doing w

he selected from it a collapsible pail. Captain Funcke glanced at it with curiosity, but

we reach the supply," he said. "

heir three canteens, but also the empty one which they had found in the c

I'll need all these receptacles for

one of them and the pail from Jones and skillfully

fs, however, had occurred that rare phenomenon, a benevolent avalanche, piling up a safe and feasible embankment around the angle of an impracticable precipice, and thus saving an hour of the most ticklish going of the journey. Thanks to this dispensation, the two men reached the Tenaja P

e shot without warning. However, the water would be evaporated in a few

d. What little moisture remained in the sticky mud at the bottom they blotted up with more sand. They then rolled

e said, "is now o

was bloated and shaken with liquor. Both panted with the hard, dry, open-lipped breath of the first stage of thirst-exhaustion. The colonel, who was in the lead, checked and started upon discovering astride of a rock a pleasant visaged young man of a familiar American

d dead. Then with an outburst of flaming lang

ng a furious and appall

s to his three canteens. There was a

er?" he

plied the

said Fred. "Her

dded Average

buy water in

eerfully. "You're a corporation; a soulless co

" cried the c

two barrels of a shotgun, which, materializing over a rock, were pointing accurately and disco

he other wayfarer, who carried a rifle, "you want to reme

's weapon. Then he deprived Fred of his rifle amid a s

business comforta

quick if I don't git a moi

nes handed it over. "Drink slowly," he advised. "You've got

rd's head went

s eyes fiery with suspicion. "Are you go

in danger of that death aro

el gasped, and leaned

As a practical mining man you will appreciate the absolute necessity of water in your operations. The nearest available supply is some ten hours distant. Before you could reach it I fear that-er-your company would-er-ha

talked, begged argued, threatened, and even wept. By the end of that time his tongue

aked. "Here's your chec

al form, please,"

ten thousand dollars in checks. These checks were endorsed over to A. V. R. E. Jones, whereupon he turned over the pail of water and the largest canteen to the parch

young Hoff down here a couple of months and m

re," replied

ge Jones. "I'd like to

Company farewell, the two water-dealers clambered up

Ad-Visor. The young man was thinner, browner and harder of fiber than the

th a boisterous and false good nature. "You look like' a fightin

hich he says so himself. Tha

ain't proof; not the kind of proof a man pays out reward money on," he added

him, if anything will. I t

wo crooks that goldbricked

rea, or anywhere else, for all I know-or

e back here with your job not half done, with the guilty fellers loose an' r

-anything of the sort," s

puckered at the corners. He was puzz

d, groping in his m

ldn't be so foolish as to expect anything in the way of fair and honorable dealing when I contract to do up a mining

at you say, young man,

ve, wouldn't you like to hear about the fiv

ff blinke

say?" he fin

housand-er

got

the

dje g

h your son's chec

pidly and moistened his lip

it?" he asked in

solved, in which Mr. Roderick Hoff was vice-president and silent partner," re