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Show BEAR RIVER VALLEY LEADER , THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 1932 PAGE FOUR The Black Box of Silence By Francis Lyndo Illustration bj O. Irwin Myeri (Catrrlfkl 7 WUlUa Crr4 CatseMa.) THE STORY CHAPTER I.- - Having demonstrated the power of an extraordinary allencer,d, hat perfect-athe "Black Box," which he Owen La nil , young-- inventor. In the little town of Carthage, confides to hie chum, Wally Markham, that he fears the device, If exploited, might be used for evil purposes. That night the lack box Is stolen from a safe In Landls' laboratory. I CHAPTER II. Landls tells Markham the only person, beside himself, know-In- g the combination of the safe. Is the Inventor Betty Lawson, with whom le In love. Markham takes a plaster a woman's cast of footprint, found beneath the window of the laboratory. CHAPTER HI.T-Bett-y, daughter of a college professor. Is well known to believe and Landls Both he Markham. her to be above suspicion, but to assure himself he takes an opportunity to fit the cast to one of Betty's shoes. They are Identical. Betty tells him Herbert who Is po. Canby, a stranger In town, Ing as a "promoter." had driven ber home from the theater the previous night, and that she had dosed In the car. Markham does not tell Landls of his discovery. That the girl should have deliberately stolen the Invention from Landls safe Is unthinkable, but the evidence of the plaster cast seems to prove she was present at the time of the robbery. CHAPTER IV. Markham, vaguely suspicious of Canby's honesty, searches his hotel room. In his absence. He finds hidden there two loaded automatic revolvers and a complete set of burglar's teols. Canby. returning, brings the revolvers and burglar's kit to the hotel clerk, claiming to have just found them In his room. That night the safe la the bank of the small town of Perth-dal- e was blown open and looted, the noise of the explosion being unheard. Satisfied that his "black box7' Is In the hands of crooks and Is being put to the uses he feared, Landls, with Markham, drives at once to Perthdale. CHAPTER V. At Perthdale they And Three confirmation of their fears. In a Fleetwlng, and strangers,toriding be business men of Loals-vUlclaiming are the only possible suspects. Markham and Landls decide to follow them, although advices from Louisville seem to guarantee the standing of the three. At St. Joseph Markham sees Canby's ear, a Nordyke. He learns Canby Is driving west, with Betty Lawson and her father aa his uests in the car. The Fleetwlng, arkham's car, and the Nordyke, form a procession on the Pikes Peak highe, way. CHAPTER VI. While he and Landls are sleeping, Markham's car Is stolen and wrecked. He buys another, and they go on. On the road to the mining town of Copab they get news of At a the Fleetwlng, ahead of tbera. hotel in Cepah they meet Betty. She le surprised at their presence In the West, and explains the reason for her Markham and her father's Journey. verhears a conversation between Can-b- y men Louisville the three which and convinces him he Is on the right track. CHAPTER VII. Markham and Landls follow the three men In the Fleetwlng. They find the commissary of the Cinnabar mine has been held up and robbed and two men killed. Again there was no sound of the explosion. At Brewster they learn of the arrival Markham of Canby and his party. meets a dletant relative. William Star-bucmine owner. lie gives them some Information which piles up the evidence as to Canby'a crookedness. k, CHAPTER VIII. At Brewster they meet Canby. He tells them he le In the West on business connected with his mine, the "Old Quavapal." Betty and her father are with him as guests, the professor being Interested in paleontology. Landls and Markham are assaulted on the street by knife wield-erbut beat off their assailants. Henceforth, Markham decides, the two of them will go "heeled," their enemies vldently having become desperate, e, CHAPTER IX. Landls, despondent of his belief that Betty Is In love with Canby. Is encouraged by Markham. Leaving the car to Investigate a burned auto, off the road, they are shot at, but unharmed. The hooters declare they took the two to be bears, which they were hunting. Evidence, later, convinces Markham and Landls that the shooting was attempted murder. Because with Bet. CHAPTER ty, from a dinner with friends of Star-bucMarkham beats off two men who attempted to kidnap him. At the hotel he finds Landls has gone out. Three men from Louisville are registered, of the same names as the three whom he and Landls have been following, and they certainly are not the same men. k, CHAPTER XL Landls, Seeking Markham Is decoyed into taking a lona trip from Brewster, and gets back to And both Betty and Landls are missing. CHAPTER XIL Landls. lured from the hotel. Is kidnaped and confined lr, aa old mine drift. Wandering, ha finds Betty, also a prisoner. He telfa her part f his experiences, but learns little from her. Seeing what appears to be a light far away, he leaves Betty, to Investigate, and finds a gang of miners at work, bis silencer muffing the noise, la anger he destroys the mechanism of tae machine. The gang, dismayed, rua from the drift, two men remaining. From their talk, Landls fears they may And Betty, and from a hiding place attacks them with a shovel. In the fight he subdues both men. but is badly hurt and makes his way back te euy oniy 10 iau into her arms un onsclous. CHAPTER XIII. In a hospital Lan dls learns from Markham the details of Canby'a plotting. One of hla accom had told of the seising of Betty pliesuanais ana me piece or tneir im ana rlsonro.nt Their reecue followed. "salted" the Quavapal to sell It to a Louisville group the three men whose name hie confederates had use birt, badly needing money and learning accidentally of Landls' silencer, he had stolen It and had his gang use It In their bank and other robberies, and also to conceal his operations In the Quavapal. From Betty herself Landls learna how Canby, the night of the dlaaDDaeranca or the a iencer. had hvn notlsed her and had her open the safe. That nart Of tna mystery cleared un all that remains Is the wonder, as Bettr sees It. why Indls had ever had aar deubt ef her love for him. She riaees mm o( a is error. "LITTLE ALICE MIXING COMPANY MAXWELL & STARBCCK." "By George!" Markbam exclaimed, at be read tbe alga. "I never knew u fore Just where that mine wag." "What about lti" Landls asked. "Why nothing much, except that I own a few shares of stock In It; one of tbe items In the little legacy my mother left me. She was distantly related to Starbuck; or rather to Mrs. Starbuck's fam'ly. I've never taken tbe trouble to look up the location of tbe mine. I dimly remember the Starbucks. Tbey stopped over In Carthage with us on tbelr wedding trip when I was a kid. If they live in llrewnter, we'll look them op." A few miles farther they found themselves looking down on a little city bestriding Tlmanyonl river. A little later they stopped in front of a modern hotel Turning the roadster over to the uniformed "hostler" they went in to register. "Night driving?" queried the clerk. "Yea; from Copab," Markham answered. "Then you won't want to wait for the regular breakfast before you turn In. We can give you quick service in the grill. Or, if you like, I'll have It sent up to your suite." "That will be better. Have you had anybody else In from the east this morning? "Yes; a party of three come in a couple of hours ago. A Doctor Law-so- n and his daughter, and Mr. Canby." "Nobody else?" Markham pressed. "No. Were you expecting to met friends here?" "These three gentlemen from Louisville," said Markhnm, producing his memorandum of the three names. The clerk read the names and smiled. "You've got your schedules mixed, some way, he suggested. "We have reservations made for these genYou've tlemen for the twenty-eighth- . beat them to It by a week or more." "So?" said Markham. "That's a bit odd. They've been Just ahead of us all the way across from Indiana, and they drove out of Copah last night a very short time before we did." "Well," said the clerk, "they'll have to take what they can get, If they turn up now. Their date Is the twenty-eightYou say they left Copah ahead of you? Then you must have passed them somewhere on the road." "Maybe we did," Markham offered; and with that they followed the boy to the elevator, somewhat mystified. They were up in time to make the dining room for a late luncheon. At a table opposite sat an elderly man of a type which is fast disappearing, even in the farther West; the pioneer who had made good, and Is at last able to take his ease in a civilization for which he was once one of the pathfinders. Never hampered hy the formalities, Markham passed his card across the table and got precisely the reactlot. the elderly man's appearance presaged. "That's neighborly. Olad to know you, Mr. Markham. My name Is Star-buckand he reached across the table and shook hands. "Thanks." said Wally, with his grin. Then. "Not, by any chance, Mr. William Starbuck. a partner in tbe Little Alice mine?" man smiled. The "There's only one of me, I guess." "Um. You've Just shaken hands with a faraway cousin by marriage. Mr. Starbuck; also, with a very small fractional owner In your mine. My mother was a Falrbalrn on her mother's side; and once I think It was on your wedding trip you stopped off for a short time with us In Carthage. But, excuse me; you shook hands with me wont you repeat the operation with my friend, Owen Landls?" "Sure! And he's as welcome to the Tlmanyonl as you are, Walter," "Gosh!" said Markham. "You don't mean to say you remember my name 1" "Sure I do; now that you've told me who you are. I recollect you as a little chap, but, of course, I wouldn't have known you from Adam now. What are you and Mr. Landls doing?" "No plans whatever; Just driving about to see how far we can go on so many gallons of gas." The mine owner nodded. "I see. You may not believe it, to look at me now, but I was young once, myself and I sure had a restless foot. I'm sorry Mrs. Starbuck and the girls are on a trip east. If they were here, we'd have you both out of this dump, pronto; not that it Isn't a pretty fair sort of posada, at that" "I'll say It Is," said Markham. "Wouldn't you, Owen?" Landls agreed. "The Carthage Banner would run double-leade- d editorials about it for a week. If we had a hotel as good as this at home." "Speaking of Carthage reminds me." Starbuck put In. "There are three other people from your town In the hotel; got In this morning. Maybe you know 'em or know about 'em?" "We know two of them rather better than well. Professor liiwson used to make a mamma's pet of Owen, here, at the same time that be was doing his level best to flunk me In Physics Four." Starbuck smiled. "1 took an eyeshot at the professor and at the daughter. I take It you'll both ngref with me If I say that Miss Lawson Is pretty enough to start a stopped clock?" "Ask Owen," said Markham with a grin; and Starbuck switched to the third member of the party. "This Canby person, who writes himself down as from Carthage: do you know him, too?" Markham answered for both. "Reasonably well; though we haven't known him very long. He Is a comparatively newcomer In our town," ." good-nature- bronr-ed-face- fat-face- d d Starbuck's smile was grim. "Using the word you just now tacked onto your friends, the i.awsons, we know him a heap better than well, out here." "Is It tellable?" Markham asked. lie was here all last "Oh, sure. summer booming a bauxite mining ami reduction scheme; sold a good chunk of stock." "And afterward?" Wally prompted. 'There wasn't uny afterward, not so you could notice it. The boomed mine was well you might say It wasn't exactly a straight fake, because there was, and is, a small deposit of the mineral In it, but nut enough to make It a commercial proposition." "All of which Is mighty Interesting to listen to," Markham commented. "The more so, because Just now he Is trying to float a scheme In our town. I'm wondering what brings him out here, right In the thick of his Carthage promotion." "1 might be able to tip you off as to that," said the mine owner. "Canby -- factory-and-additlo- n by's limousine. Landls asked if he could fix tbe time of the limousine's arrivaL 'Why, yes," was tbe reply, "it was Just about five o'clock." "More mystery," said Landls, as they left the place. "You remember what the hotel clerk said this morning when we got in which was a little after five o'clock?" "Don't know as I do. I was pretty tired and sleepy." "You asked him If he had anybody else from the east and be said, 'Yes,' a party of three came in a couple of hours ago. Then he told us who the three people were." "I see now what you are getting at. That leaves two hours unaccounted for between the time Canby reached Brewster and the time he put his car Question: can we tip in the garage. find out what he did In those two hours?" "That's it If we can, I have a no tion that we shall find out what has become of the Fleetwlng bunch." Returning to the hotel, they were fully agreed that the only remaining chance of tracing the missing three was through Canby. since his connection with them had been conclusively proved, Markham went up to shave, while Landls went to the desk to have his card sent up to the Lawsons. "The professor and his daughter checked out this forenoon," was the Information given him. "They have friends here the Stllllngs and Mr. Stllllngs came after them." "Did Mr. Canby go with them?" "Oh, no, he's still with us." As Landls was turning away he came face to face with Starbuck. "I was hoping I might run across one or both of you," said the mine "Whereabouts Is owner, hospitably. Tremonton Business Guide And. Directory mnf nuuthatQvbrficps i nffprin? the readers of the Hid VUaii whrt, uu i v vwv attached to it. - lney nhlitration. Has Tin V O I IV. U lit Tl O home give free the news of the products that can be had in your town. MAKE THE ADVERTISEMENTS IN THIS PAPER YOUR SHOPPING GUIDE tua X K, ejw - "- v VsV'eWWMMMMr,raMr Utah Oil Station NO. 267 GOOD NEWS After July 1st we can reline your brakes with Raybestos Brake Lining The Best In Optometric Service In Northern Utah The Best That Money Can Buy Diderickson & Goldsberry Kennett H. Malan LAWYER OFFICES Over Bank, Tremonton 1208 1st Nat'l Bank, Ogden PHONE 133 - - TREMONTON Rocky Mountain Packing Corporation Packers of Twin Peak Peas When You .Think HARDWARE Walter?" a Barrel of Easy "Canby Money Out of Us Here and Then Got His Own Feet Wet." Made ; made a barrel of easy money out of us here aud then got his own feet wet. About half a mile above the Little Alice there Is a mine that is older than anything else In this neck Some think it dute o' the woods. back to the time when all this region was a part of the Spanish possessions; anyway, It was here and worked out and abandoned long before any of the American prospectors came In. When Lake Topaz began to be a summer resort the old Quafapal, as It's called, became a sort of show place for tourists, like the Mammoth cave. About two years ago a bunch of tinhorn freezeouts from Tonopah came over here and reloaded the Quavapal ; claimed they'd explored It and found new mineral In It. We never have known the real Inside, but It's the general belief that they were salting the mine and fixing to stick somebody with it. Anyhow that's how It turned out. They sold the Quavapal to Canby; took his money and faded away." "The biter bit, eh?" said Markham with a laugh. "Does he still own it?" "Owns It and operates It. He has kept a small gang In It ever since he bought It; sending good money after bud, you'd say, because there has never yet been a pound of ore shipped from It. Just lately he has doubled his force; Imported a lot of Mexicans from down Santa Fe way. Just what's at the bottom of all this, nobody knows. The place Is guarded as If It were a diamond mine. Some think that Cnnhy has actually struck It rich In the Quavapal, and is storing the stuff somewhere Inside against a big shipment Others say he Is getting ready to stick somebody else. You can take your choice." Starbuck glanced at his watch and pushed his chair back. "Sorry, but I've got to chop It off," he said. "I'm due at the bank for a meeting. You'll be stopping over for a while, won't you?" "Yes; so far as we know now," Markham sntd. "That's the talk! I want to know you both better." Then to Markham, "Just take me In as one of the family and make such use of me as you can. As the Spaniards say, 'You are In your own house while you are with me 1' " CHAPTER VIII A Lost Trail "Some man that!" said Landls pralsefully, after Starbuck had gone. "What do you think of the glimpse he gave us of Canby's record?" "What I think will be embodied In a wire tip to dad. Don't you want to wire your folks Just to let them know you are still on earth?" "I will, now that we seem to have landed somewhere." After they had sent their respective messages, they set out on a tour of Inquiry, hoping to get some trace of the Fleetwlng Eight and Its passengers, taking the entire afternoon for It. It was an afternoon wasted. The throe men, soon Inst as they were leaving Copah, hnd vanished as com pletely as If the earth nnd pened ind swallowed !hem. And not only the men, but the car, as well. In the round of Inquiry only one circumstance developed which might have some bearing upon the mystery. This was in the public garage where Canby was keeping his Nordyke. When they questioned the proprietor about the Fleetwlng, he said he had put up only one car that had come from the east that morning, namely, Can- - "He has gone up to shave; he said he was too sleepy to do It when we came In this morning. Shall we hunt up a couple of chairs and wait for him?" When they found chairs, Starbuck said, "I've Just been reading In the evening paper of another showdown by the bandits at the Cinnabar mine, over on the other side of the range. Maybe you heard of It as you came along? Or did you come In by the Led Horse Pass road?" "No; we came the other way by the mine. We got there pretty soon after the fact." "Did you see Broughton?" "Yes. We'd met him earlier. He was down at the railroad station with a truck and an armed guard, waiting for his payroll money, when we stopped to ask our way." "The paper says there's a mystfy: that there was a gun fight in which the two commissary guards were killed, and that nobody In the camp heard the firing or the explosion that wrecked the safe and the building. Is that so?" "It Is what Mr. BrougLton told us." s "I can't sabe that," was comment. "I know the mine layout; been there any number of Tlie commissary site isn't times. much over a hundred yards from Brought on's bhngalow. Don't seem believable that nobody heard the racket." Lanrtis was surprised Into saying, "It would have been not only unbelievable, but impossible, a few weeks ago, Mr. Starbuck." "Why what do you mean by that?" Landls realized that he had said either too much or too little, nnd for the moment he saw no waj out but by a relation of the black-bofacts. And it was only the incredibility of the facts, as they must appear If given to a comparative stranger, that made him say, "Within a short time Wally and I have known of three other bank robberies which have been pulled off In exactly the same way; by dynamiting that nobody heard. The general belief seems to be that some new and absolutely noiseless explosive has been discovered." "Pretty hard to make an old mining man swallow anything like that, Starbuck smiled. "Where were these bank robberies?" "One In Indiana, one in Illinois, and the third in Missouri." "Lately." "Within the past week." "Any clew to the robbers?" Before Landls could reply, Markbam stepped out of a descending elevator, much to the Inventor's relief. Keen as was his admiration for Star-buche was not quite ready to tell him or anybody that he himself, and Wally Markham, held the only clew that might lead to the Identification of the robbers. "I was hoping we might eat with you, Cousin William," said Markham. Then, "Been digging Into Owen a bit to find out what he Is made of?" "We've been talking about Mils ruction over at Stan Broughton's mine. Mr. Landls tells me you Just missed being In the thick of It" "We did. Shall we go In to din Star-buck'- x ner?" As was most natural, the table talk centered upon the crime of the night before, and the mystery which seemed to be the chief feature of It But there was no mention made of the three men who had so unaccountably disappeared somewhere on the "Sat THINK WILSON BUY YOUR BREAD HERE "Everything To Build Anything Phone 11 We make the best bread that is for sale in town, and OU1 you'll like our cakes and cookies too Try them the next time you buy cakes or cookies. Tremonton Steam BAKERY MAKE GOOD OR WE DO Fronk Chevrolet Co. Phone 21 Tremonton, Utah Republican Primary Meeting All Citizens of Tremonton City and Tremonton Precinct Take Notice. On Friday Evening, Sept. 30, at 8 p.m. in L. D. S. Recreation Hall behind th Chapel, Republicans of This City and the Adjacent Precinct Will Assemble in Mass Meeting to RENEW the REPUBLICAN Local Organization, to SELECT 25 DELEGATES with as MANY ALTERNATES for the COUNTY REPUBLICAN CONHeld, WEDNESDAY VENTION to be Oct. 5, at 10 a.m. in the ARMORY in BRIGHAM CITY, Utah. The County Convention is to Select One Senator, Two Representatives for the State Legislature; Two County Commission ers and a County Attorney. y David Holmgren, Chairman : Richard A. Calderwood, sec. B0 ORDER YOUR TULIP BULBS NOW LEA'S SERVICE ASSOCIATED GASOLINE & OILS UTAH TREMONTON LEA DUNN. Prop. 4 o east-war- d road. It was after coffee had been served that Landls saw a man rise from his sent at a table on the other side of .he room and oorae across in their direction, though he did not recognize the man as Canby until the promoter was beside them, and saying, "Well, well! See who's here! Betty was telling me last night that you two were In Copah. but she didn't say anything about your coming on to Brewster." Then, "How do, Mr. Starbuck." The three who were finishing their dinner reacted to the Intrusion, each TO BE CONTINUED FLOUR PRIDE OF UTAH" "UTAH FAVORITE" All Poultry Mashes TREMONTON-GARLAN- D MILLING CO. |