A cord with a sailor slip
knot was lowered over the extended bit of leather, drawn taut with a
jerk and the belt was slowly lifted out. A folded blanket had been
placed on the floor to receive it. As Ned expected, the leather
crumbled and broke like glass as the belt fell on the soft blanket.
"If you want change for a twenty-dollar gold piece just tap one of
those with a stick." said Ned, laughing and pointing to the gold
pieces scattered among the broken fragments of the belt.
"Not I," exclaimed Alan, "not after what happened to the tin
dipper."
Leaving Alan to watch over the unconscious Jellup and the frozen
gold, Ned dressed himself, and in spite of the rain hastened out in
the just perceptible dawn to carry out a plan he and Alan had agreed
upon. An hour later, with the assistance of Mayor Bradley, the
marshal, now somewhat easier, was placed in a bed in his own home.
Unless the silent Mexican told it no soul in all Clarkeville other
than Mayor Bradley and the air ship boys knew why Jellup was absent
from his haunts and his post of duty that day.
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