"It was your intention to kill Fremont? You wanted him to try
to escape and have him shot down by another?"
"Yes, that was my plan. And Scoby and Felix if necessary.
I came here for that."
"Great Scott!" whispered Frank. "I reckon this chap got just
what was coming to him! Only he ought to be hanged!"
"Hush!" whispered Nestor. "Look!"
Big Bob opened his eyes wider, shot out one hairy hand, gave
a convulsive motion which shook his great frame so that the
floor of the frail hut trembled, and then the end came. Later,
when the body was given rude burial, the original will was found
in a pocket of the dead man's coat, together with letters from
his brother, Cole Tolford, asking him to go to New York, search
out Mother Scanlon, and protect his son.
"Congratulations are in order, Mr. Black Bear!" Shaw whispered,
as the papers were handed to Fremont, "but, somehow, I feel like
waiting until we get back to little old New York before showing
any enthusiasm. This has been a tragic trip."
The other members of the party seemed to feel the same way, for
the revelation of the dreadful plot and the death of Samuel Tolford,
known as Big Bob, had cast a gloom over the party which not even
the clearing up of the mystery could shake off.
CHAPTER XXV.
READY FOR THE CANAL ZONE.
"This is the end of the case," Frank Shaw said, covering the
face of the dead man with a handkerchief. "Fremont is free
to go back to New York, taking his mine with him! Nestor
was right when he declared that the solution of the Cameron
mystery lay on this side of the Rio Grande.
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