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Show C.pjrljhl bj Irrlo B.ei.ll.r JTXV Service) soon after eight. The trusty old guide led them. As they neared the abandoned aban-doned lumber camp, Colonel Elake said to the guide: "I'll take the lead here." He walked slowly, looking Intently at the ground. In a wet spot near a deep puddle he stopped, saying: "Here are Shad's tracks and here are the tracks of the man who followed fol-lowed him coming and going. He wore hunting boots." The colonel took a rule from his pocket and measured the tracks, the judge noting the figures. "By Jove!" the latter exclaimed. "They are almost Identical with those of the rubber tracks of the murderer. I am convinced that this man could have worn Bumpy's rubbers." "Yes, we're in deeper water than we thought," the colonel remarked as he folded his rule. They followed the footprints to the very edge of Center pond. The canoe was gone. They could dimly see it on the far shore. "lie went out of the woods last night and was in a hurry," said the colonel. They turned back and made for the clearing. Half a mile or so back of St. Germain's cabin the tracks of the stranger were no longer visible. At some point, which they did not discover, dis-cover, he had left the trail. Shad and the two officials tramped over the lonely sand road to South Bolton. About two miles below St. Germain's they saw where a team and wagon had come off the plain into .the road and gone on toward the settlement some time before. At South Bolton they went to Hubbard's Hub-bard's store. Shad had told Colonel Blake of the attractive young lady he had once seen at Bumpy Brown's shack and who worked in that store. The young woman had gone to Ash-field Ash-field that morning. She would be returning re-turning the next day. "Who is this young woman and where Is her home?" Colonel Blake Inquired of the merchant. "She Is from Malone," the latter answered. an-swered. "Her name is Caroline De Long. Robert Royce introduced her to me in Ashfield one day about a year ago. He had known her and her people peo-ple In Malone. She said that she was not very well ; that she had heard that South Bolton was a healthy place near the edge of the big woods and that she would like to work in my store. I needed help, so I took her to work here in the store." "Have you been pleased with her?" "Well, yes pretty well on the whole. I've found her honest and good at figures." "I have heard that she is very handsome hand-some and that she dresses well," Colonel Col-onel Blake went on. "Yes, she's as proud as a peacock, i and my wife thinks that she dresses too well for a girl who has to work for a living and that she gads around too much." ' "Who does she gad around with?" "Well, mostly Robert Royce. I don't know as we can complain of that. Royce is a single man and I kind o' think he's fond of her." "Do you happen to know old Bumpy Brown, the tinker who lives down on the Racquette?" "Oh, everybody knows him ! They think that he's the man who done the shooting down to Doolittle's." "Does Miss De Long know him?" "Yes, and we've all been wondering about that. He was up here tinkering. He came to the store to see Carrie. They seemed to be well acquainted. He said that he knew her people. The last time he was here Carrie spent the evening with him on the hotel piazza. My wife thinks that he gives her money." "What does she say about his indictment?" indict-ment?" "She says he is a harmless old man who wouldn't hurt anybody." "You will remember that Bumpy bought a pair of rubbers here a few days before the murder. Who sold them to him?" "Miss De Long." "Who bought rubbers of the same size about that time?" "I've been thinking about that. You know, Robert Royce came in the day after the tinker was here. Another man was with Royce. I didn't know him. There were going into the woods. The stranger bought a raincoat. They went over to the hotel for their dinner. din-ner. Later Royce came back in a hurry. He wanted arctic overshoes. He had on a pair of cew rubbers. I knew that he had bought 'em over at the other store. He said that they pinched his feet. I took them off. The size mark was on the sole. It was the exact size and 6hape of the pair that I sold to Bumpy Brown. I thought of it when I heard about the rubber tracks of the murderer." "Will you describe the man you call the stranger?" "He was a tall man with a freckled face and red hair and very big ears." This ended the conversation with Hubbard. "I am more than ever convinced that we have been misled and that Bumpy is not in the case," said Colonel Blake as they sat down to dinner. "A little more evidence will make me agree with you," was the answer of the judge. "I happen to know that Royce has a motive. I drew the will of his mother, who, as you know, is Mrs. Doolittle. She leaves all her property considerable sum to her son Robert Royce." The colonel's face grew serious. "You will remember from his testimony testi-mony at Brown's examination that ha has no alibi. We had better say no more of this until the ground under our feet Is a little more solid. Remember, Re-member, Shad, you mustn't know too much. Keep still till we have found our way." Shad promised to hold his tongue but he could hardly conceal his elation over the clearing outlook for his friend the tinker. "There Is one circumstance that must give us pause," said the judge. "The murderer did not seem to be eager to kill Mrs. Doolittle. True, he shot at her, but, entering as he did, he had to begin shooting at once and create a panic. He couldn't hesitate then. A few seconds later he had his chance to kill Mrs. Doolittle. He stood close in front of her with the revolver revol-ver pointing at her face. He could . have killed her then but he didn't shoot. He struck her. She fell and fled out of his way." "Consider the psychological situation," situa-tion," the colonel began. "She was his mother. Apart from her he could plan her death but, face to face with the woman who had borne him, he weakened. He would have been glad to get out of the house without killing but he couldn't." "Well, we shall all be wiser In a week," the colonel remarked as they arose from the table. They hired a team at the livery stable and set out for Ashfield and the county seat. They stopped at Amity Dam to pick up Shad's clothing, then at the home of the judge In Ashfield. The colonel was urged to spend the night there. "No, thank you," he answered. "Shad and I have got some business to do in the village before we take the evening train to Canton." They left their baggage at the hotel and discharged the team. They went to Royce's shop on the island. Royce was not there. On the street a tradesman stopped them with interesting news. While fishing he had found a tan coat and overalls on the river shore below the bridge. The colonel went to his store and took possession of them. It was undoubtedly the suit worn by the murderer. mur-derer. "Do you know whom it belongs to?" the colonel asked. "No," was the answer. "They say Robert Royce wore a suit like that when he worked In his barn." They were out on the street when Colonel Blake said to his young friend : "Pard, we have two hours before train time. You know, of course, that clothes are an important part of life on this planet. Your grand new suit has been swum in. Its pristine purity has departed. The cruel rusticity of Amity Dam is on you. Come with me and I will complete your emancipation." emancipa-tion." They went to a clothing store. "Here, sir, is a young friend of mine," Colonel Blake said to the genial clerk. "I wish you to deprive him of this Amity Damned appearance. appear-ance. Let us hurl economy to the winds and go to work." (TO BE CONTINUED.) SYNOPSIS Ragged, and starving, a boy of about sixteen U found In the woods by a oamplng party, having fled from hln brutal father Bat Morryson. Keel, and In cHan clothes, the boy Shad (Sheridan) (Sher-idan) Is sent to Canton, with a letter to Colonel Blake. The colonel, his wife, and their young daughter Ruth, are Impressed by the boy's manner. He goes to work In Amity Dam, and becomes friendly with a youth of his age, "liony," and Bumpy Brown, tinker, tink-er, village character. Bat Morryson comes, determined to take his son back to his own dissolute life. He is overawed over-awed by Colonel Blake, the district attorney, and his father passes out of Shad's life. A girl, young and pretty, pret-ty, comes to Brown's shack, Inquiring for him. Shad applies himself diligently diligent-ly to his neglected education. Love for Ituth Blake takes a strong hold on his heart. In an attack made on the Perry family, Oscar Perry, the father, la fatally shot, and his daughter, Mrs. Doolittle, wife of Cyrus Doolittle, prominent citizen, seriously wounded. Circumstantial evidence points to Bumpy Brown as the assailant. He Is arrested. CHAPTER VI Continued 1 1 . "Yes, but he may have thought that Shad was 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. 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 In the rush and excitement ex-citement of the fleeing criminal and as soon as It could be safely done, some dark night, they were to be gathered up and destroyed or perhaps hidden somewhere near the shack of Bumpy Brown. You know, the thought has come to me more than once that the revolver and cartridges were planted on the old man." "These are Interesting speculations, but they do not impress me," said the Judge. "The big man our young friend saw may have got his bearings m v and gone to his camp or he may be coming here any minute and telling of his adventure near Center pond." In the moment of silence that followed fol-lowed the judge's words Shad spoke out: "He'll never come here. He is the murderer. He knows that I know It." Shad told them of that moment near the abandoned camp when the moonlight had shown him a masked face. "And did he not call out when he heard you running away?" "No, sir," Shad answered. "That is rather strange business," j aid the judge. "Why did he mask himself?" him-self?" "It was a cunning bit of prudence," the colonel answered. "Suppose he had come upon the boy lying wounded in the trail. The stranger could then have robbed him of his treasures without being identified. Or, again, after dark, a light might be flashed In his face any moment. That Indeed Is what happened. A sudden light out of the heavens fell upon him. Shad is not much wiser because of it. That beam of moonlight showed us only the blackness of the man's soul." "It Is a reasonable theory," the Judge agreed. The colonel was examining the two hats which Shad had brought in his basket. Suddenly he whistled and exclaimed: "Weill What does this mean? Look here, Judge." Inside the sweat band of the light-colored light-colored slouch hat some one had written writ-ten with pen and ink those words: "To R. R. : It's a long head that . never turns." "This Is undoubtedly the hat worn by the murderer," said the colonel. "All who saw him agree as to the kind of hat he wore, and it was found with the handkerchief. This writing Is that of a young woman accustomed to the use of a pen. She was a playful person per-son of some sort. Who is she and who is R. R.?" "Robert Royce, maybe," Shad promptly prompt-ly answered. "Sure enough ! There are the two R's." said the colonel. "He was a son of Mrs. Doolittle by her first husband. He Is tall. I remember that he swore at the examination that he closed his shop at five o'clock and went upstairs up-stairs to read. He came downstairs and let Cyrus Doolittle out of his front door soon after eight. He would have had three hours in which to go to Amity Dam, commit the crime and return re-turn to his shop." He carefully wrapped the articles which he had been examining, and added : "I shall take good care of these things and go out of the woods tomorrow." He took Shad's hand and spoke these words, which mark a turning point in the career of Sheridan Morryson : "Pard, I like you. I'm going to take you into my office if you don't mind, and try to make a lawyer of you. I juess we can get along together. I want you to go to bed now and get a good rest. You must be tired." He bolted the door and put braces In the windows. The two men and the boy went to their beds above stairs. Shad observed that the colonel put the package under his pillow. The boy hi-.'1, boon much elated by the colonel's words. morning was chilly and the c wore threaten! ntr. The party evx out with rif.i-s and loaded packs |