Show The House Theo o of the to toi I i Three ree Gan GanBy Ganders i By Irving Baci Bacheller eller I Copyright by Irving Irvine i I I CHAPTER V Continued V-Continued 7 7 t. t We found them today Where are they Weve got emLet em era Let us have hn a look at nt them No sir We Ye aint goIn to show em to nn anybody body till we see the t district attorney Hes He's up at nt l KIldare KIl- KIl ll- ll dare pond huntin deer One of or us usE E Is up there tomorrow v to find him J They went out-of-doors out and hastened hastened has hns toward toward the brI bridge ge t When the boys arrived In Amity Dam they saw a light In the study i wIn windows of the doctor They ran ranI rang I his doorbell The doctor gave them thema a 0 hearty welcome They told him himI I of their s success We have ha made quite a step toward to ward the truth said the doctor Shad will go Into the woods to take these things to Colonel Blake tomorrow Yes Ys sir was Shads Shad's answer I that you leave those things In my care said the doctorI doctor I want to take talce them with me Shad answered I advise against It ft but you are arc entitled to have hayo your way It occurs occurs oc oc- curs to me that Hubbards Hubbard's store storo has become a point of ot some Interest you will remember Bumpy bought his rubbers I wonder If somebody had learned of the exact shape and ond size of ot the tho rubbers Bumpy had bought You know rubbers are rather accommodating They stretch Suggest to the tho district district dis dis- attorney that he JIO go to Hubbard's Hubbards Hubbards Hubbard's Hub Hub- bards bard's store and find out if It he can who bought rubbers of that size and shape on or before the tenth of November People do not forget Bumpy's calls They'll be sure to remember all about the rubbers they sold him The doctor walked with the boys to Miss Mss house and left them at nt the door Miss was the only lady Indy In the village who took boarders She had agreed to take Shad at four dollars a week If he would sleep with B Bony ny and promise to tobe tobe tobe be a 0 good boy bog She rather enjoyed the mothering and correcting and bullying of these two boys She was often threatening to send them away but would have hn wept If the they had left leCt her She had hod a curious interest In in- Interest terest In their talk and perversity They were weary and soon asleep Shad was WIS up at six He got his breakfast then put some clothing In fn In nys ny's small pack basket lie ITe wa ready eady to take tale the stage stae going south at seven se The The sun shone warm out of a clear sky It softened the surface of the frozen road and Improved ed the Ule wheeling They reached South Bolton the ilie end of the stage line at eleven S Shad went to Hubbards Hubbard's store At a desk sat a well-dressed well J I young lady She turned from her task as the boy entered Immediately Immediately Immedi Immedi- Shad recognized her She was the girl whom he be and Bony had hadi i If 1 r V V I 1 r o CA F i M i l f l Youre a Good Lookin D Boy Said the tho Girl Where Arc Are You Going seen seca at the door of Bumpy's shack one Sunday the Sunday the girl with the haughty naughty manner the handsome eyes and the tho glowing slowing red cheeks She was much stouter than she bad had been Good Goor morning 1 1 she said with no change In her countenance What can cnn I do for you rou 7 I believe belIe you know Bumpy Brown Shad began Well what If It I do she answered an nn answered coldly Shad told of ot his purpose She laughed In th tho unemotional fashIon fashion fash fash- Ion of Bumpy's parrot and asked Do you think that we can remember remember re re- re member the numbers of ot all the rubbers rubbers rub rub- bers we sell and the names of ot the themen themen themen men that t buy them That's sible any ny things were Impossible In iu iuSo InSo So lh lb Bolton Dolton It was a little hamlet hamlet ham ham- let In the p edge ge of ot the big woods There were no more than forty or fifty people living In Its huddle of small all bous Louses houses a. a PRECEDING EVENTS Exhausted ragged and starving a boy of about sixteen n Ii Is found la In the woods and befriended by a Ii camping party Ho He has fled from his brutal brut father Bat Dat Fed and In dean clean clothes clothe the boy who gives his name as QS Shad Sheridan Is la sent on his way to Canton with a Ie letter Her to Colonel Blake The colonel his wife wile and end their young daughter Ruth are Me impressed by the boys boy's manner mannu Ho secures a situation In the tho village of An Amity ty Dam and becomes friendly with a youth of ol his age Bony Dony and end Bumpy Brown tinker considered consid ered creel by tho straitlaced as a drunkard because of his Ilia periodic lapses from strict sobriety With Bony Dony Shod Shad Is la a Ii visitor to the picturesque shack shock which Brown Drown calls home known in the vicinity as the Fun Shop Bat comes cornu to Amity Dam to toko take his hisOn son On back ck to his bis own dissolute life but Is overawed by Colonel Blako Bunko who Is the district attorney and his father passes out of Shads Shad's life While WhIlo Shad Is visiting Bumpy Brown Drown a girl young and pretty comes In 1 Inquiring Inquiring In- In quiring for Brown Drown Shad applies himself diligently to his neglected education He visits the tho Blake Blakc and love lava for Ruth takes a Ii strong hold on his heat heart The community com com- community m- m is convulsed by an un attack mado made on the Perry family In which Oscar Perry Peny the father ether his hla daughter Mrs Do Doolittle wife of Cyrus Doolittle prominent prominent n nent nt citizen are arc shot and seriously wounded Circumstantial evidence points to Bumpy Brown as the asS assailant llant and he Is arrested Shad is convinced of his friends friend's Innocence and determines to prove It t. t Statements by Cyrus Doolittle and hi his tep stepson on Robert Royce strengthen tho the ease case B against Brown Shad loses his job lob and goes to live with Bony at et Miss The two boys find disguises the tho murderer had worn Colonel Blake takes an active Interest In the case Youre n a looking good boy said the girl Where are you going Into the woods above lose Mose St. St Germains Why dont don't you stop here a awhile awhile awhile while Were We're going to have lIu a dance and a party at our house bouse Im sorry but I have to see a n aman man who Is at nt Kildare pon pond today today to to- day he sal said Is Ills there a ll er livery stable In the place Yes Its It's Just across the street Ill run over o there a minute he said as he be left her Shad made a bargain with the livery cry man to drive him to Mose St. St Germains Germain's Immediately after dinner lie He returned to Hubbards Hubbard's store sat down there and ate a apart apart apart part of his luncheon The horse and buggy arrived and he set out with the livery ll man manon on a ten ten mile mlle ride up the sand plains to the house of Mose nose St. St Germain Ger Ger- main The famous guide was at home He had bad left Colonel Blake and Jud Judge e Swift In the woods woods The They were hunting Mose drew a diagram of ot the trail for Shad to take with him This isa Isn Is la laa a n reproduction of It save sa the names a 4 A L Camp n 0 Abandoned Lumber Lumber- Comp Camp 40 X r F M RocK RocKy c y O 2 enter Pond o Q canoe Diagram through h deep deap Woods to rj Kildare Pond He told the boy to go straight to Center pond where where he lie would find St SL Germain's Germains canoe Then he was vas waso vasto to o cross to a big rock In the far edge of the pond beyond which he would fin find Ond the trail to Kildare I He Mose would take the long trail around the pond Shad set out on the tho much traveled traveled trav trav- trail He found the waiting canoe and could see the rock of ot which Hose Mose had spoken about a quarter of or a mile away on the far shore His treasures treasur s wrapped In hIs ils sweater were now In the pack basket This he deposited In the bow A skillful he pushed through a border of pads lily and out Into the clear water He was well beyond the middle of the pond when a n shot from the shore behind him shattered the silence of the deep vale yale and filled It with ec echoes oes Shad jumped A bullet bullet bul bul- let had whizzed by his head bead and struck the tho water beyond him and on Its surface It had come from some point on the shore he ho had left a bit east of him A thought flashed through his brain He lIe flung his bis feet over the stern and dropp dropped Into the water and none too quickly Another ball 1011 had whizzed through the air all above e him In a rush of sound ReachIng Reach Reach- Ing lag up he seized selzer the gunwale and keeping the canoe between him and ancI the tho direction whence the shot had come swam with his free arm The shooting ceased The man whose rifle rille had been aimed at him was no doubt seeking a more favorable point of or attack Shad with the 51 skill of or a lad whose cradle one may almost say had been a canoe In water made swifter swIller progress than his enemy bad had thought pos pOSe sible He got beyond the rock and ashore seized his pack basket and crept Into the thicket dragging It beside him Now v cre co covered he arose nrose thrust his arms through the basket straps and ran He TIe was about a amile amile amile mile and a half hal from Center pond when ho he came to the abandoned lumber camp on Mose Iose St St. Germains Germain's chart It stood In a little clear clear- ing His clothes drained and warmed by his exercise were beginning beginning be he ginning to dry The first lest drops rOIS of ofa ofa ofa a cold rain ruin were falling Night was coming on lie could Just dimly see the outlines of the log structure He knew that Its roof root covered with tar paper would woul protect him It did In a moment the air seemed scorned to be filled with the downpour of ot cold water Shad stood by one ODe of the window embrasures looking out at the storm The rain turned to sleet and stopped suddenly The clouds passed The moon was peering through the treetops In the east Shad Sha had stepped steppe toward the door ready rendy to go on his way when besaw be he saw a man with a rifle rIlle on his shoulder shoulder der stealthily approaching the camp He Ile seemed a man of ot prodigious prodigious ious lous size size bigger bigger than any ope Shad knew The boys boy's heart beat fast The stranger crossed a wide path of moonlight that cut the shadows As be he did so Shad observed ed that his bis face was covered ered with a hand hand- kerchief The man was entering the doorway when Shad leaped through a window opening In the rear of the shack rm and ra ran A conviction con had bad come to the tIle boy that he was the man who had been shooting at him Else why did he lie cover er his face Shad Sha reached the trail and ran like a n scared deer He was soon at nt his destination a amile amile amile mile or so farther on He felt sure and with good reason that he had seen the murderer of Oscar Perry CHAPTER VI The Robbers and the Revolver WHEN LIEN Shad arrived ed Mose St St. Germain who had reached Kildare Kil- Kil dare pond before the storm began was serving supper to Colonel Blake and Judge Swift Im wet said Shad as he went and stood by the stove sto I had to todo todo todo do some swimming and there was wasa a lot of water In the bushes Come right upstairs Ive I've plenty of cl clothes thes for tor you said Colonel Blake Soon Shad was seated at nt the supper supper sup sup- p per r table In dry clothes and slip slippers pers Tell us what happened to you Jou and wl why y you are here said the Colonel Shad began beg n at the high point In his adventures ad Somebody shot shoot at nt me when I Iwas Iwas Iwas was out on Center pond The bullet bullet bul bul- let Jet almost took the end ot off my iny nose I was I slipped out Into the water Another bullet whizzed above me I got the slant of em when they hit the water I knew about where the shooting came from I made for the canoe and hid myself behind It and towed It ashore I ran ron up the trail troll like a scared buck I knew why that man was shoving sho lead at me He wanted wanted want want- ed to get me an nn the things in that pack basket before I could see you What have you got there the colonel asked Shad told of what he and Bony hn had learned of the man under the broad-brimmed broad hat hastening down the road rond to Ashfield of their searching for tor and finding the hidden hidden hid hid- den handkerchief and hats bats of the group of men at the Westminster hotel and of Bony's boastful words In their presence of Doctor Gorses Gorse's suggestions regarding the revolver re and the rubbers of ot the big man who followed him to the lumber camp Shad proudly unwrapped the packages In his basket and laid them before the astonished officers of ot the law Colonel Blake drew a aBenson's aa a Bensons Benson's o Mansions c. c ao 0 Where Broad d Brimmed hat was lias Cove r found t Stud hit and o of fit it u us s. s u ur r rJ d C Cr r 0 Dooh tl o HouS A ity Dam Damo o chart of the road rond and river from Ashfield to Amity Dam reproduced herewith and with Sha Shads Shad's s 's help located located lo lo- Browns Brown's cove e and the points where the hats and the handkerchief handkerchief chief were found Looking at the thc chart the ju Judge ge said The tiThe handkerchief nn and slouch hat were found where Brown might have hl hidden llen them In going to his boat bont We must keep Browns Brown's motive motive mo mo- tive Uve In mind Yes but I have hn not been quite satisfied with Browns Brown's motive said the district attorney The sheriffs sheriff's report and my own observation and tho the evidence of ot this boy Indicate that he be Is a harmless and lovable old chap of a rather admirable spirit t. t Shad told the story of the missing missIng miss miss- Ing ring He a added ded why I am here Well Wen boy your heart and your work are ore a credit to you said the colonel You have ha faced me aroun around Judge this Is no such easy problem as we thought We Wc have ha to look Jook for a deeper man than the tinker and a n deeper motive o than mere resentment It Is extremely Improbable that two bullets could have bave been aimed directly at the Ule boy by accident If It the man at nt the old lumber camp was a benighted hunter bunter hunt bunt er why has he not shown up here He came out of the trail from Center Center Cen Cen- ter pond It leads directly to food and shelter In 1 this camp The ju Judge ge asked Assume that he was tr trying ing to kill the b boy y why would he have followed him to the theold theold theold old lumber camp After circling the pond he would have hn known that he was too far behind the boy to catch him bIm Yes but he may have hn thought that Shad was ryas wounded and losing blood and going slowly or lying dead In the trail If he saw him topple out of the canoe It would have been his natural Inference that he had hit his mark marls I do not like this touch of mystery Some one seems to see In one or more of these three articles a source of danger for himself They were put away Inthe In Inthe Inthe the rush and excitement of ot the fleeing fleeIng fleeing flee flee- ing criminal and as soon as It could be safely done some dark night they were to be gathered up and destro destroyed ed or perhaps hidden somewhere somewhere some some- where near tho the shack of ot Bumpy Brown Drown You know the thought has come to me more than once that the revolver re and cartridges were planted plant plant- ed on an the old man man There are Interesting speculations speculations specula specula- but they do not Impress me said the Judge fudge The big man our young friend saw may have got his bs bearings and gone to his camp or orho he ho may be coming here nere any minute and telling of his adventure ad near Center pond In the moment of silence that fol fol- followed followed followed lowed the Judges |