Show C6 STUDENT LITE He unsaddled watered his mg horse tied him in an empty stall Two other saddles and fed him were there so the hoys must he at home 1 le thought it strange though that the dogs or horses had not awakened them and decided to “crawl in" without disturbing them As he neared the house a sight met his gaze which struck him dumb and immovable with terror ( )n the trail from the spring lay the face down A body of a man shining water pail lay overturned beside him As soon as Jack could move he went to the body and turned the face to the moonlight Then he almost screamed “My God it’s Charlie shot in the hack without a ghost of a show to fight ! Somebody’ll die for this if it takes me a thousand years” The body had evidently been there in the hot sun since the day before The bullet had entered almost the center of the hack clipping one corner of the leather diamond where the suspenders cross Blood had run from the nostrils and mouth until great clots of it and bloodv dust covered the face Just inside the cabin door when he went to hunt for a light he stumbled over the body of little Toot A Winchester lay beside him and scattered about on the floor were empty cartridges lie had had a chance to fight hut here too was evidence of the terribly accurate marksmanship of the murderers He had been shot squarely in the middle of the forehead The tragedv had occurred earlv in the morning for Toot was onlv partly dressed and Charlie had been on the way from the spring with a bucket of water with which to prepare breakfast That they had been shot from the barn was evident from the direction the bullets had taken in the house Jack found a lantern and went to the barn On the floor by the door he found three shells from a large bore Winchester Down by a window he found half a dozen for a smaller rifle Toot got his death from the window Charlie had been killed by the man in the door Long white splinters on the floor showed where Toot’s bullets had entered The instinct of kindness to animals gets strong in a man who associates much with them and Jack knowing that the two horses in the barn could not have had water for a long time led them out to the trough In this he was unknowingly doing himself a kindness for it relieved the great tension on his nerves Afterwards he calmlv took note of everv thiilg that might he a clue to aid in the search for the murderers Everything had been deliberately planned They had ridden down from the hill behind the barn before daylight tied their horses to a fence out of sight from the house entered the barn through a back door and waited for the boys to come out They had left without going nearer the dead men than the barn and had ridden back in the same direction from which they had come When he had finished his investigations he carried the bodies to the coolest room in |