CHAPTER XI.
BLACK HARRY APPEARS.
There was a clatter of hoofs, and a doubly burdened horse swept intoview, bearing straight down upon the Braves, who were waiting as ifready to fight or take to flight.
The horse was foam-flecked, and it was plain he had been driven to thelimit of his endurance.
The person who handled the reins was a youthful chap, and, as he camenearer, Frank gasped with surprise.
"Cholly Grayson De Smythe, the dude! Is it possible?"
In his arms, held upon the horse, was a bundle, like a human form,wrapped in a blanket.
The outlaws looked for a posse of armed men to follow the boyishhorseman, but he was not followed, and he did not hesitate or turn backwhen he saw the party awaiting him.
Straight down upon them he rode, and Frank drew aside, shielding himselfbehind one of the men.
"It can't be possible!" muttered Frank. "It's ridiculous!"
Straight down upon the desperadoes rode the dude, seeming utterlyfearless.
"Halt, thar!" cried one of the men, leveling a rifle at the younghorseman. "Hold up, ur chaw lead!"
The youth gave a surge that flung the horse upon its haunches.
"Steady Bolivar!" his voice rang out. "Would you shoot me?"
"Who be you?"
"Don't you know me? Ha, ha, ha! Well, I do not wonder. I'll lookdifferent when I peel this mustache and wash off my make-up. I have her!See here, boys!"
The blanket was flung back, and the face of Lona Dawson, the banker'sdaughter, was revealed!
The girl was not unconscious, and she suddenly squirmed from the graspof her captor, slipped from the horse, and ran into the midst of theoutlaws, crying:
"Save me! Protect me!"
"Stop her, boys!" laughed the youth on the horse. "Don't let her getaway. I've had trouble enough, and taken risk enough to get her."
"Wa-al, who be you?" roared one of the band.
"Who am I? Look here; do you know this sign?"
He made a swift motion with his hand, and nearly every man cried:
"The chief's sign! But you are not the chief! He is here with us! Youare an impostor!"
"Am I? Look!"
He tore off a false wig, jerked away a false mustache, took a vial fromhis pocket, turned some of its contents in his hand, and seemed to sweepthe make-up from his face.
The result was a wonderful transformation, and the face revealed wasalmost exactly like that of Frank Merriwell.
The men stared in bewildered astonishment.
"It is the chief!" gurgled one of them.
"Of course I am," laughed the unmasked youth. "You wasted your time incarrying off that other fellow who looks like me. Why didn't you leavehim to be lynched? Then the fools would have thought they had put BlackHarry out of the way."
"The other fellow?" repeated more than one of the men. "Who is the otherfellow?"
"He is the fellow who looks like me," laughed Black Harry, for the newarrival was the boy chief of the marauders.
In the meantime, while this unmasking was taking place Frank had notbeen idle. He had longed to meet Black Harry face to face, but now herealized that his situation was perilous in the extreme. He must act atonce.
But the sight of the captive girl and her appeal for aid had bestirredall the chivalry of his nature. He longed to do something to save her.
Swiftly moving near her, he suddenly caught her up, swung her over hisshoulder, and, with her held thus, regardless of the shriek of terrorthat broke from her lips, he dashed straight for the open door of thehut.
Cries of amazement broke from the lips of the outlaws.
"There he goes!" shouted Black Harry. "That is the fellow who looks likeme, and he has the girl! After him!"
The men leaped in pursuit.
Into the hut bounded Frank, and the door went to with a slam. Theforemost man, who flung himself against it, found it had been fastened.
"Well, we have him fast," said Black Harry, easily. "He can't get awayin a thousand years. We'll dig him out at our convenience."
The men now gathered round their boy chief, eager to hear hisexplanation. It was difficult for them to realize that they had beendeceived--that the boy they rescued from the lynchers at Elreno jail wasnot their leader.
"I was not fool enough to go into Elreno without disguising myself,"said Harry. "I knew I should be recognized if I did. I fixed myself upin the outfit I just threw off, and, with this English tourist rig and asissy lisp, I succeeded in deceiving everybody.
"You may imagine how surprised I was when I saw this other fellow, whois nearly my perfect double. He took the train at Oklahoma City, and Isat directly behind him. I was there when the private detective, BurchelJones, who fancies he is so shrewd, arrested him.
"If they had lynched him, I could have disappeared, and it would havebeen thought that Black Harry had gone up the flume. But you fellowsthought that I was in the scrape, and you came round in time to savehim.
"I watched my opportunity to scoop the girl, and I have brought herhere, although I was hotly pursued for a time, and I did not know butI'd have to drop her and get away alone. I succeeded in fooling thepursuers, and I arrived here at last.
"My double and the girl for whom I have risked so much are in that hut.I propose to break down the door and go in."
A wild shout came from the men. They were furious to think they had beenso wonderfully deceived.
"Down with the door!"
"Drag him out!"
"Shoot him!"
With a hoarse roar of rage the Braves rushed toward the cabin, and flungthemselves against the door, which went down with a crash, letting theminto the hut.