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Updated: August 23, 2024
"Remember we are already even with Kie Wicks," she whispered. Kit nodded her head. "Just the same I don't like to hear Indians talked about like that. It always makes me angry." After lunch, much to the joy of Kie Wicks, the girls decided to walk down into the canyon and see the Indians.
If he could handle it alone, so much the better. Kit and Bet arrived when the meal was half finished and pretended to be hurt at the teasing that they encountered. They decided to wait until the family was alone before saying anything about the capture of the tunnel. Kie might get ugly and actually harm the old man.
Someone else was anxious to accompany the old man on his trips. It was Kie Wicks. And while Professor Gillette enjoyed the daily visits of the girls and the occasional calls from Judge Breckenridge or Dad Patten, he found the storekeeper very trying. Kie arrived at the tent early and stayed late. "That man acts as if he were spying on me. I wonder what he's afraid of.
An hour later, the watchers by the hut rubbed their eyes and stared about them. A wild, weird cry rang through the canyon, and in the moonlight Kie Wicks and his bad men saw, far above them on the cliff, the figure of an Indian girl. "She wasn't walking, she was just floating in the air, it seemed, and as she moved, she moaned and shrieked. It was terrible! There was no doubt about it.
An hour later when the girls were entering the little desert town of Saugus, and just as they came to the first adobe houses, they saw a horseback rider coming toward them. As he rode nearer the man waved them a greeting. "It's Kie Wicks! And he's good-natured," grunted Kit suspiciously. "Wonder what he's doing over here today?
"I think you're right, Mr. Wicks," agreed Bet. Kit looked her disgust. To herself she was thinking, "I never would have believed that Bet could be such a tenderfoot. To let Kie Wicks pull the wool over her eyes like that! She certainly is an easy mark!" But Bet was not such an easy mark as Kit imagined.
So Bet kept her secret, and the girls did not suspect that Kie was actively unfriendly, they thought him a brusque, ignorant desert dweller whose friendship they could depend on, if needed. They had not yet learned that Kie Wicks could not be depended on for friendship or loyalty to anyone.
"Yes, we have the treasure and had the fun of the contest, but what did Kie Wicks get out of it?" demanded Bet. "Nothing at all!" chirruped Joy. "He's just out of luck. And he deserves it for kidnapping our professor." "Atta boy, Joy! Dad says to be generous to your enemies, but I'm afraid I haven't one little generous thought for Kie Wicks.
He wandered up the stream a short distance and was surprised to see a saddle horse standing dejectedly on the trail. The next moment Kie Wicks had hailed him genially from the cliff above. "Say pard," he called. "Last night when I was going home over the hill here, I found what looks like the ruins of an Indian village. Do you want to take a look at them?"
He was a suspicious man, always believing the worst of people, and when The Merriweather Girls showed an interest in Lost Canyon, old Indian relics, and even the pleasure of finding arrowheads, Kie Wicks was certain that they had heard of the treasure of Lost Canyon and were going to hunt for it. And Kie Wicks considered that to be his own special mission in life.
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