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Show Youth Rides West CHAPTER IX Continued 12 Charlie (stepped Inlo the Jail; the rider sent hla horse at a walk throng!) the belt of shadow Into the Unlit of Main street. At a run I rounded I lie corner after him. I caught up, slowed down just behind him, and followed. Still at a walk, he was weaving through the late tratilc. Before the Hlack Jack he stopped, threw the horse's reins over a plu of the hitching hitch-ing rail, walked a little unsteadily through the door. I waited unlll he whs pone, and made a swift Inspection Inspec-tion of his mount. I had not been mistaken a rangy American horse, buckskin In color, and with that distinguishing dis-tinguishing mark on his flank. T entered. en-tered. There stood the rider at one nd of the crowded bar, tilting Into himself a glass of whisky. I pushed Into the convivial knot next to him, watched him furtively. Ills hand, us he reached toward his waistcoat pocket to pay, missed twice; then came down hard as he rang his silver dollar on the bar. His gray eye, ns he turned It casually n moment In m direction, seemed filmed. He had 'been drinking," as we expressed It In that day not yet drunk, hut on the way. His face, seen now in full light, was less comely than at first glance. There lay a kind of blackness under the smooth, young blond skin. He was dressed like a miner or a prospector; pros-pector; but he wore his rough frieze coat, his corduroy trousers, his top-boots top-boots and his blue flannel shirt with a touch of Jauntiness; his trousers trou-sers seemed draped above his boot-tops boot-tops rather than tucked Into them. He gathered up his change, stabbed It Into his pocket, rolled upstairs to the gambling-room. When after a discreet Interval T followed him, he had Just staked a twenty-dollar gold piece at roulette. I Joined the group of spectators, who tood watching with fascinated interest inter-est the descending whirl of the wheel. Ue lost; the dealer's hand raked In his coin, lie was reaching again to his pocket, when from the spectators a man stepped up beside him as though to play; but instead laid a hand stealthily on his arm. Tins was a tall man; I caught a glimpse of a full. Mack beard. The smaller man turned angrily, then froze for a second sec-ond In position. Some signal, evidently, evident-ly, had passed from eye to eye ; a movement of the larger man's beard showed that he was speaking; though I could not catch even the sound of the words through the babble of night In the I'.lack Jack. The smaller man's hand went away from his pocket. lie pushed through the crowd to the stairs. I followed Mm closely as, with only a second of hesitation when he passed the liar, he walked on out of doors. Through the front windows of tiie barroom I watched to mark the' direction In which he rode. But lie did not advance toward his horse. A moment he stood a? though undecided undecid-ed ; then turned to the right and strode rapidly down Main street. Thrilled with the adventure of shadowing shad-owing a man, exulting with the thought of a scoop I was going to ecore for the Courier. I shot as unostentatiously un-ostentatiously as possible through the door of the Hlack Jack, followed. For a moment I lost him In the congested crowd before Myers' Variety theater. When I had crammed my way through that, I picked him up again at the head of Main street. There he turned to the right toward the Addition, the ronte which I followed every day to my meals. That was odd did he live In the Addition? Had the enactors of this stage robbery dwelt so nenr me and Constance all this time? I'ast Mrs. Rarnahy's he strode, and stopped dead. Here was a contingency contingen-cy I had not foreseen. If I went on, I should pass him and forfeit my usefulness use-fulness as a shadow. If I too stopped end he saw me standing he would nuspect. Hastily, I dodged Into the shade of the big tent. I waited for a few seconds, then ventured n cautious look round the corner. He was nowhere no-where In sight. Just above Mrs. Harnaby's the street threw o!T a slde-trnll slde-trnll running up the hill. Ioublles.-i, he had taken that. I sped on tiptoe to the other end of the tent. Tin-re he was again but he was not iking the trail. He had slopped before tin; Utile lent where lodged Mrs. Harmiby and Mrs. Iienne. "iloo-hool" lie was calling, gently. I dropped to the ground, less from caution than from a weakness In all my limb. The edging of light along tbe tent-rap tent-rap became a triangle. Some one had eme.-ced. It was t'onstaiiee Itcatie. I r'OuU not see her face In the moonlight, moon-light, hut did I not know the tripping move and trim figure of her, the pulse of the bare head? Surely, he had mistaken mis-taken the place! She would tell him hi. and go back. Hut she laid a hand on his arm. led him a little way from the trit ; they stood talking In wins-pern wins-pern whose vocalization did not reach nie ; talking wllh swift gestures. Now I could see her face In the moonlight, upturned toward Mm. . . . Again she lai'l her hand upon his firm . . . sin who had told me that slur would not receive men In the evening . . . she v ho had kissed me . . she- who had been on tie robbed stage. ... In let- i m of red lire that phrase of Mike's note danced before my eyes . . . "Somebody In town Informs." U'n'l tills Mr. Iio.'ii.e? . . . Shi- hail been furious overctirloiiH about affair" af-fair" In Ihe rump . . . and Kldrble mi', agent for the Hfage company . . . jutLlun worked iu the bunk , , . " By Will Imvin ' CopyrlirM bv Will Irwin M SU Sei vlo and I ... I had told her everything I knew. . . . She had advised me to leave her, to go away. . . . Ah, but she knew I wouldn't. . . . She had played with me. . . . Oh, but It was impossible. ... I would rush upon her and beg her to tell me It was Impossible Im-possible . . . no, unwittingly, I was an eavesdropper, a spy ... I had not even the consolation of a dignified position. po-sition. . . . Suddenly the group In the moonlight broke. She had darted back Inside the tent. The man stood still a moment as though hesitant ; then turned, disappeared dis-appeared round the boarding-tent, emerged a moment later Into the moonlight, retracing his course. I followed fol-lowed no longer. When he was gone out of sight, I lay there, my eyes on the dim blob of light which was the tent, the brilliant slash which was the opening of the (lap lay and dug my lingers Into the ground and panted. Suddenly the light In the tent went out. I rose and stumbled bliudly down the hill to Main street. CHAPTER X When I came back to a semblance of reason and sanity 1 was looking down, from n dump of Liverpool hill, on the streaks of blobbed light which marked Cottonwood camp. Since I saw my betrayal I had been wandering through camp, aimlessly and insanely. I had kindled in my heart and soul every invidious emotion. My conviction, convic-tion, formed so hastily as I watched that couple In the moonlight, had sot, frozen. There was no hope, no faintest faint-est doubt. Stern, dramatic plans of action had floated Into my Imagination to be blown away by others Just as violent and fanciful. I would go and accuse her to her face tell her what she was and what she had done to me. No, I could not do that. My pride had been seared enough already ; besides, be-sides, what would she care? I would leuve l lie camp tonight and never again see her or the spot where she had tormented me. used me. Hut even while I Imagined this, 1 knew that 1 could not abandon the game half played. I would follow him, her accomplice ac-complice and lover, to the ends of the earth; and when I found him I would kill him as a man should. I would kill myself. 1 had the weapon there on my hip. liven was there a terrible vision of Constance Ueane's tender throat gurgling to tk.bby quiet in my clem lied hands. ... It was lids sudden, sud-den, primeal lust for murder which, imparting an- unnatural energy to all my members, finally drove me on the run up Liverpool hill. Altitude and I lie limitations of the body had their way with me at last; my breath gave out; I dropped on the rough prisms of the dump, exhausted. Oddly, I kept one tiny Impulse of responsibility. re-sponsibility. 1 had no sooner settled Into my state of relative calm than I remembered the Cottonwood Courier, struggling on toward press-hour without with-out me. Marcus Handy ut least had done me no wrong. I owed him the courtesy of deoenl resignation. I rose, started down Liverpool hill In a leaden mood of profound but Inactive melancholy. melan-choly. Through the clear, carrying night ulr came the sound of a pistol-shot two shots a crackling fusillade. These sounds blew Into a blaze the embers of my violent mood. The sense of dynamic dy-namic power In the explosions, the Imagination of the bullets wllh their terrific, satisfying punch Into fle.-,h or Into wood, gave some devilish satisfaction satis-faction to my nerves. Then the world of practical realities again llowed In upon me. This was no Joy-fusillade of drunken miners or prospector. The tempo was that of a general light. Again I broke Into a run. As I passed the straggling row of cabins which fringed the road leading Into the fool or .Main street. I caught the noise of the crowds. It came hi an Irregular, roaring babble, quite unlike un-like the ordinary rhythms of night In Cotlonwood. And there was no music; something hail muled the orchestras and bands. I rounded the curve toward the Jail. Men were (Inching saddles and mounting ; a moment revealed re-vealed by the swerve of a horse, in u moment concealed, stood the llguie of Chris MoOrath, one .peremptory linger pointing a command. A nondescript citizen stood with his bunds In his pockets, regarding proceedings pro-ceedings from the concealing shade of a slouch hat. "Hank robbed I" In? answered casual ly to my Inquiry, and spat a stream Into the gutter. "Hut the shooting anybody killed'" I panted. "Three, I hears," be replied as casually. Hown the roadway of Main street I pushed my way toward the hank -there was no room on the sidewalks. All Cottonwood clerks, faro dealers, miners, tenderfoot, visitors, painted ladies - had rushed out of doors. In gesi Iciilal Ing knots stood the citizens of our town, talking II over. l-'nig-mentary, expletive sentences, wheltlng my curiosity, mapped out of Ihe babel "got clean away that's funny" "live killed" "gold shipment." (nit of Main street, three buildings from 'he bank, ran one of our si rargllng side slrcetH. It was Jammed. The focus of interest seemed to be (tie hack door of Die hank. With hasty explanations of my Identity, wllh much discourteous! wiggling acid J-eililliK, I Inn Led my way forward. By the entrance stood two guards, their .-in-callber sldeurms slung forward on their hips a3 though for Instant action. "I'm the Courier reporter," I panted. "How many were killed?" ".Nobody, as I saw," responded the guard. "But there was shooting!" I objected. ob-jected. "U n bad shooting," snipped the guard. "How much did they get?" The guard hesitated. "Ask the boss," he said finally. Then I was aware that the back window was opened a few inches, that a voice bad whistled and called my name. I leaned down to the space between sash and sill, and wns looking Into the lean face of Mr. Taylor. "Better go to your office, Gilson," he said. "Handy has been looking for you." "Old they kill anyone how much did they get?" I asked. "No one hurt but Handy will tell you what to say about all that!" replied re-plied Mr. Taylor enigmatically, and closed the window. As I threaded among the dark cabins, sheds, rude warehouses which made a maze of the alley behind the hank. I saw that the crowd was thinning thin-ning out. Just then, a band down the street gave Its preliminary roll, struck up a march tune; Cottonwood, the tires of excitement already dying out, had resumed its normal night life Hut not unite. I reflected ns I came up the side street toward the Courier. Considering that It offered no lures of pleasure, It was singularly crowded for that time of night. Men were standing In knots; only they did not A - or A y ( ! 7 The Tent Flap Became m Triangle-Some Triangle-Some One Had Emerged It Was Constance Deane. gesticulate, and If they spoke at all it was In low whispers. The excitement excite-ment had abated only on the surface, I felt. Iop below ran a sense of tension. ten-sion. ... I was hardly surprised when fro i the doorway of the Courier a stranger stepped forward, laid his hand on n scabbard swung forward from his hip, and said: "Vou can't -come In here I" "Hut I work here!" said I. "Walt a minute," he replb-d, unit disappeared. An Instant later the keenly lined silhouette of Marcus became be-came visible against the light. "It's all right come along!" he shot out In hi t executive voice. I entered. Marcus, his sleeves rolled up, bis store clothes protected by the Ink-spiiltered apron of his trade, his mallet in hand, stood at the stone. I had never seen his eye so bright. "Where the h I have you been?" he Inquired. I answered nothing. The search for an excuse brought up the blackness of the j as two hours which OYrilonu.nl loot I i, II I n rl I v itluut. paled; If I hail tried to speall. I Would hale choked. Marcus, Inclee I, gave 111.' no time to answer. "Well, rustle I" he growled. "Old you get anything on' that bank robber. rob-ber. i V" "Not much. Taylor told me to see ou " ".lust as well." replied Marcus "Vou take this story exactly lis I lay II out for vou." With news to write. 1 was no longer his partner; he hail bee the boss, executive and exuding. "I 'ou t touch II up too much. Make It straight and cold. All ready? Co! 'Ihe Hank of Cottonwood was robbed last nlghl" as morning newspaper men must, be was dating the even! one day behind. "Let yourself out a little In the Introduction. Call It an Insolent Inso-lent performance or something like that. Oh, yes, and say: 'due to the Inetllciency of the administration which has made this camp a paradise for crooks, road agents and sure thing men.' Or words to that elTed. Then the straight slufT. At ton forty-live, a fusillade of shots from the alley back of Main Hired announced Ihe daring cilme. A few minutes before that time four horsemen rode quietly up to Ihe enlrance of the alley behind the hank, and lefl their horses. One horse, II was Holloed by Ihe spoliators, was a buckskin" here Manns hwdlaicd In ills sieaoy now of lailL'Uai'e, fhtTi ,,,-,,( on looie slowly: "a buck!;!;!,, vvtlh a peculiar snot on bin flunk laid been noticed about the camp all evening. It Is perhaps more than a coincidence that a few minutes before the crime occurred a prominent citizen, passing down the Liverpool hill trail, saw a group of men treating the hind quarters quar-ters of a buckskin horse with something some-thing suspiciously resembling yellow whitewash" It was well that Marcus here p'used again In his narrative ; for the rush of blood through tense channel'; deafened and blinded me. Hut my et.vj and eyes cleared ; and Marcus was proceeding: "No, I guess you'd better leuve that out. Not a word of that or the color of any horse. "Owing to the danger of highway robbery ever present in this camp, the Hank of Cottonwood has been taking unusual precautions In moving Its outgoing out-going shipments of bullion and Its Incoming In-coming shipments: of coined gold and currency. The transfer to ami from the vaults of the bank took place usually usu-ally after dark. Last night a consignment consign-ment of" a pause again "what Is reported re-ported to be gold coin was due to arrive at about ten-thirty, an hour when most of the revelers In camp would be In the dance-hall and varieties, varie-ties, or wooing the elusive goddess of chance. The bank was all ready for the shipment. The police department had been notified." Another pause. "L'liforttiiintely, our efllclent guardians of life and property get In some sarcastic sar-castic shot like that were waiting at the wrong entrance to the alley, and did not participate In subsequent events. II. A. Taylor, president of the hank, and Horace Hutchlns, his teller, themselves acting as guards, waited at the back door. . : the appointed hour the shipment arrived In a democrat demo-crat wagon, drl en by John K. Cruder with what the blazes are his initials? oh, yes, I'ete ilannan as guard. .Drawing up the wagon anil dismounting, dismount-ing, they prepared to unload the money, which was Inclosed In two locked strong-boxes. Having reached the bank safely, the guardians of the treasure relaxed their vigilance put In something like that. Anyhow, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Ilitlchins, Instead of remaining on guard, started to help. At the moment when they had their hands full four men sprung from u doorway In a cabin which faces the hack door of the bank. Before either the guards or the bank olliclais could get to their guns each felt a muzzle poked Into his ribs. To resist would have been to Invite certain death. With muttered words of command, the mad-agents. hacked their victims against t. door, took away their guns. Then, while two of the ban. his kept them covered, (be others rapl.Ilv removed re-moved the treasure boxes t.. the entrance en-trance ,,f the alh-y, leaded the. n en to their hor-es. So w. II had t.'.e , rlml-na!s rlml-na!s apparently Informed t :..-r.i--I v - of the bank's habits that a s.p.-,-'at..r who ti..:ict 1 tiiis act wit. ..tit r,-- helid ng lis slaniti. atice said lhat t!.e saddles of their lltlitnais Were fitted Willi rope slings. 'Ihe overall. .i to,.!; but a minute. When this was done. the pair w dm had I n cover, leg the hank olllehiis backed away to the entrance en-trance of the alley, still covering (lo ir vbtlms. With a final warning that they would shoot the first man who emerged, they iu un- int.. their saddles and rode away In the dari.ness "l'lucklly disregarding the warnings of the bandits, the banker and bis assistants as-sistants hurried to recover their guns, which had been tossed Into tin- dark space between two cabins. Mr. Taylor Tay-lor was the first to succeed. lie ran to the entrance of the alley anil turned loose at the bandits as they disappeared In moonlight. They returned re-turned tbe tire at long range, fortunately fortu-nately with no effect. "The police were at once notified. The crime, as before stated, occurred at about ten-forty live. At eleven-thirty eleven-thirty the posse which Marshal Mc-O.rath Mc-O.rath Immediately started to form was still engaged In Interesting conversation con-versation at the Jail. Cinching n saddle Is an operation which takes time or something sarcastic, better 1 1 1 ii it that. Hub It Into them. And end like thlslal, e It down as I say It : "The iiflermalh of this affair will doubtless be known to nil before this Issue of the Courier reaches Its readers.' read-ers.' " I could endure It no longer. That side of me which had been burning all night In the dark flames of my own inner hell hurst to the surface. It manifested llself In violent physical action, as I struck the point of my pencil Into the table and cried: "Why are you keeping me In the dark? Why am I on the outside of ull this?" A dozen circumstances bad come together in my mind the mysterious myste-rious absences of Marcus, the bints of secret events underlying that bank rohberv, the operations of Mike the Bartender, the guurd at the door of the Courier, this last, cryptic sentence. L'uder It all flamed a deeper, fouler, more tormenting misery. Some one had Informed the bandits as to the very hour when the treasure would be delivered ut the bank. Some one bad Informed them as to the very character charac-ter of Its packing. Some one . . numbly I could feel the nails digging Into my clenched palms. And the face of Marcus Handy took on a curious expression. Almost, he looked ashamed. He dropped his eyes to the stone. "Sorry, I can't tell you now, kid," he said hesitantly. "Klght sorry ) can't. You've always played square with me. But wait until we've gone to press. Then I'll tell you, if you sure want to know. Now get to work. Shove over your takes to the printers print-ers as fast ns you write them." Had Marcus replied to my outburst with his accustomed energy and authority. au-thority. I do not know what I might have done. But this touch of sentiment senti-ment served to cool and steady me. My working side took hold again. Furiously Fu-riously I ripped through the story, the printers taking away the uncorrected cony as I wrote. However, I noticed 'dimly certain Irregularities in the night routine of our office. I heard parleys at the door; evidently the guard was still turning visitors away. One man, however, was permitted to ass Cohen the Jeweler. He held 1 whispered conference with Marcus over the stone, nodded, departed hastily. has-tily. Marcus was keeping the front page open for my story of the robbery. I had scarcely finished when be set the last take Into place. Inserted a Idler, locked the form. And now my hot. black Impatience surged again. "You said you'd toil me " I cried from my desk. "Wait till she's run off," replied Marcus. "Keep workin'. Start a col of;n of telegraph news. e'll need It. There may be d n little work done in this oflice tomorrow today " he rooted himself: for the hands o( our old station clock pointed to half past one. Again I forced niy-.-lf to work. Then the press began Its rickety rick-ety clang; and Jel.nt.le. the bit, as was Ids rou'Ine, laid the wet. unfolded un-folded sheet up. ,n lay desk. My i yp tb-w i. e. h atd -ally to my own st..ry: th.n was de.'.-.t.-d ly a ill"!-..us ill"!-..us tv ; ogr. i ;i deal feature, rtdque in he C. .I ! 'tivvo...! Courier. Spr'ti'vl.-l v,-r lie frot.t page, n "doer-mat" to eai h s.-parat f'.-tti. rtin a slrgi. legend, leg-end, rc: e.it again and again In assorted as-sorted Jcb tvpe: -SACK MKNTO DP it JI Ni ; S" Those words where had I beard them? Memory worked In n Minding Hash. It was the phrase Buck had sl'l ped to me so casually that day by the claim. A faint perception of the truth crept Info my mind, opening the way for horrible considerations. . . . Marcus stood over me. Ids face seeming seem-ing to struggle with conflicting emotions, emo-tions, among which the chief was embarrassment. em-barrassment. , "Nobody will be leaving tbe Courier for half an hour or so," he said. "I guess I'm holrayin' no essential secrets If I tell you some things." He hesitated, hesi-tated, and then, as though thrashing around the edges of the subject, he added : "My fault at first that you didn't know. I like to play n lone hand Then afterward" He hesitated. And I burst out again : "W hy have I been left on the outside?" out-side?" My voice must have rung disagreeably, dis-agreeably, for Marcus colored an Instant In-stant as though wllh contagion ,if anger, an-ger, that died out before he answered hesitantly : I "When we formed a certain or(-anl-ration there was one party ol-Jecled-" "Vou mean." 1 said, coming out brutally bru-tally with my conjectures, "when you forrhe.l the vigilance committee?" "How did you know?" t'r. 1 IllC WNTlNl'KtV) |