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Show THE GROSShCUT was a determination to tigtf for thai Innocence as long es it was humanly possible. But gossip told what he did not. There were those who temem-bered temem-bered the departure of Thorntof) Fair-child Fair-child from Ohadi. There were Others who recollected perfectly that in the center of the rig was a man, apparently appar-ently "Sissle" Larsen. And they asked questions. They cornered Harry, they shot their queries at him one after mother. But Harry was adamant. "I ain't got anything to eye! And there's an end to It I" Late that night, as they were engaged en-gaged at their usual occupation of relating re-lating the varied happenings of the day to Mother Howard, there came a knock at the door. Instinctively, Fair-child Fair-child bent toward her: "Your name's out of this as long as possible." She smiled In her mothering, knowing know-ing way. Then she opened the door, there to find a deputy from the sheriffs office. "They've impaneled a jury op at the courthouse," he announced. "The coroner wants Mr. Falrchlld and Mr. Harking to come up there and tell what they know about this here skeleton skele-ton they found." it tnis reminder of a tragedy of a quarter of a century agone. Their Hps refused to utter the words that strove to travel past them; they were two men dumb, dumb through a discovery dis-covery which they had forced themselves them-selves to face, through a fact which they hoped against, each more or less silently, yet felt sure must, sooner or Inter, come before them. And now it was here. And this was the reason that twenty twen-ty years before, Thornton Falrchlld, white, grim, bad sought the aid of Harry and of Mother Howard. Thij was the reason that a woman had played the part of a m n. to all appearances only one of three disappointed disap-pointed miners seeking a new field. And yet "I know what you're thinking." It was Harry's voice, strangely hoarse and weak. "I'm thinking the same thing. But It mustn't be. Dead men don't always mean they've died In a wye to cast reflections on the mnn that was with 'em. Do you get what I mean? You've said" and he looked hard Into the cramped, suffering face of Robert Falrchlld "that yoa were going to 'old your father Innocent. So 'm I. We don't know, Boy, what went on 'ere. And we've got to 'ope for the best." suae ot Colorado, to u )jui tuu uuij In arriving at yonr verdict" The Jury, half risen from the chairs some with their left hands held hleh above them, some with their right," swore in mumbling tones to do their duty, whatever that might be. The coroner surveyed the assemblage. "First witness," he called out: "Harry Harklns!" Harry went forward, clumsily seeking seek-ing the witness chnlr. He was questioned ques-tioned regnrdlng nothing more than the mere finding of the body, the Identification Iden-tification by means of the watch, and the notification of the coroner. Fair-child Fair-child was called, to suffer no more from the queries of the Investigator than Harry. There was a pause. It seemed that the inquest was over. A few people began to move toward thp door only to halt. The coroner's voice had sounded again: "Mrs. Laura Rodolne!" Prodded to her feet by the squint-eyed squint-eyed man beside her, she rose and, laughing in silly fashion, stumbled to the aisle, her straying hair, her ragtred clothing, her big shoes and shuffling gait all blending with the wild, eerie look of her eyes, the constant munching munch-ing of the almost toothless- mouth. Again she laughed. In a vacant, embarrassed em-barrassed manner, as she reached the stand and held up her hand for the administration of the oath. Falrchlld j leaned close to his poftner. i . forget Squint Rodnlne and his chalky-faced chalky-faced son; down here they could feel that they were working toward a goal and lay aside the handicap whh'h humans might put In their path. Pay after day of labor and the Indentation In-dentation upon the cave-In grew from a matter of feet to one of yards. A week. Two. Then,, as Harry swung his pick, he lurched forward and went to his knees. "I've gone through !" he unnounced In. happy surprise. "I've gone through. We're at the end of It I" Up went Falrchlld's carbide. Where the pick still hung in the rocky mass, a tiny hole showed, darker than Oie surrounding refuse. There was Joy In Harry's voice as he made a momentary momen-tary survey. "It's fairly dry be'lnd there," he announced. an-nounced. "Otherwise we'd have been scrambling around In water up to our necks. We're lucky there, any'ow," Again the attack and again the hole widened. At last Harry straightened. "We can go In now," came finally. "Are you willing to go with me?" "You mean?" But Harry stopped him. It was the expected. The two men went forth,' to find the street about the courthouse thronged, for already the news of the finding of the skeleton skele-ton had traveled far, even Into the "At least she knows enough for that." Harry nodded. "She knows a lot, that ole girl. They soy she writes down In a book everything every-thing she does every day. But what can she be 'ere to testify to?" The answer seemed to come In the questioning voice of the coroner. "Your name, please?" "Laura Rodalne. Least, that's the name I go by. My real maiden name Is Laura Masterson. and " "Rodalne will be sufficient. Your age?" "I think it's sixty-four. If I had my book I could tell. I" "Your book?" "Yes, I keep everything In a book. But It Isn't here. I couldn't bring It." Then, while Falrchlld stood motionless motion-less and silent, the big Cornishman forced himself forward, to stoop by the side of the heap of bones which once had represented a man, to touch gingerly the clothing, and then to bend nearer and hold his carbide close to some object which Falrchlld could not see. At last he rose and with old, white features, approached his partner. part-ner. "The appearances are against us," came quietly. "There's a 'ole In 'Is skull that a Jury'H say was made by n single Jack. It'll seem like some one 'ad killed Mm, nnd then caved in the mine with a box of powder. But 'e's gone, Boy your father I mean. 'E can't defend Mmself. We've got to take 'Js part." "Maybe" Falrchlld was grasping nt the final straw "maybe It's not the person we believe It to be at all. It might be somebody else who had come In here and set off a charge of powder by accident and" But the shaking of Harry's head stifled the momentary ray of hope. "No. I looked. There was a watch all covered with mold nnd mildewed. I pried It open. It's got Larsen's name Inside!" CHAPTER XII. Again there was a long moment of silence, while Harry stood pawing at his mustache and while Robert Falrchlld Falr-chlld sought to summon the strength to do the thing which was before him. All the soddcnness of the old days had come back to hlrn, ghosts which would not be driven away; memories of a time when he was the grubbing, though willing slave of a victim of fear of a man whose life had been wrecked through terror of the day when Intruders would break their way through the debris, and when the discovery dis-covery would be made. And It had remained for Robert Falrchlld, the son, to find the hidden secret, for him to come upon the thing which had caused the agony of nearly thirty years of suffering, for him to face the alternative of again placing that gruesome grue-some find Into hiding, or to square his shoulders before the world and taire the consequences. There was no time to lose In making his decision. Beside him stood Harry. "Let's don't talk about It till we 'ave to. Come on." Silently they crawled through the opening, the silt and fine rock rattling about them as they did so, to come upon fairly dry earth on the other side, and to start forward. Suddenly, as they walked along, Harry took the lead, holding his lantern far ahead of him, with one big hand behind It, as thongb for a reflector. Then, Just as suddenly, he turned. "Let's go out," came shortly. "Why?" "It's there I" In the light of the lantern, Hurry's face was white, his big lips livid. "Let's go " But Falrchlld stopped him. "Harry," he said, nnd there was determination de-termination In his voice, "If It's there we've got to face It. Don't you think that certain people would make nn Investigation If we should happen to quit the mine now?" "The Rodalnes!" "Exactly. And how much worse would It be for them to tell the news than for us I" "Nobody 'as to tell it" Harry was staring at his carbide flare "there's a wye." "But we con't take It, Harry. In my father's letter was the statement that he made only one mistake that of fear. I'm going to believe him and In spite of what I find here, I'm going to hold him Innocent, and I'm going to be fair and square and above-hoord above-hoord about It all. There's nothing on my conscience and I know that If my father had not mode the mistake of running away when he did, there would have been nothing on his," Harry shook his head. " 'R couldn't do much else, Boy. Rodnlne Ro-dnlne was stronger In some ways thwi than he is now. That was In different days. That was In times when Squint Itodalno could 'ave gotten a 'undred men together qulcker'n a cat's wink and lynched a man without Mm 'avlng a trial or anything. And If I'd been your father, I'd 'ave done the same as 'e did. I'd 'ave run, too 'e'd 'ave paid for It with 'Is life If 'e didn't, guilty or not guilty. And" he looked sharply toward the younger man "you say to go on?" "Go on," said Falrchlld, and he spoke the words between tightly clenched teeth. Harry turned his light i Btj Courtney Rijlet Cooper OopritsM ky Uttla, Browo Co. . . "MURDERED!" f STN0P6IS.-At Thornton Fair- ' child's death his son Robert learns there has been a dark period In , his father's life which for almost ! thirty years has rauand him suffer- Ing. The secret is hinted at in a ' document left by the 'older I'alr-'. I'alr-'. child, which also Informs Robert he Is now owner of a mining claim In Colorado, and advising him s to see Henry Heamlsh, a lawyer. Beamish tells Robert his claim, a silver mine. Is at Ohadi, thirty-eight thirty-eight miles from Denver. He also i; warns him asalriHt a certAln man, ? "Squint" Itodaine, his father's en- emy. Robert derides to go to Ohadl. On the road to Ohadl from Denver ', Falrchlld assists a girl apparently ' In a frenzy of haste, to change a tire on her auto. When she has ' left, the HherllT and a posse appear. In pursuit of a bandit Falrchlld, bewildored, mlnlt'artH them as to the direction the girl had taken. At . " Ohadl Kairclilld Is warmly greeted by "Mother" Howard, boarding- house keeper, for his father's sake. From Mother Howard Falrchlld learns something of the mystery connected with the disappearance . L of "SlBsle" Lariten, his father's co- t worker In the mine. He meets the girl he had asslxtpd, but she denies L ; her Identity. She Is Anita Rich mond, Judge Richmond's daughter. Visiting his claim, Falrchlld Is . shadowed by a man he recognizes from descriptions as "Siu!nt" Ro-V Ro-V dalne. Back In Ohadi, his father's old friend, Hurry Harklns, a Cornishman. Cor-nishman. summoned from Kngland by Reamlnh to help Faln-hild, , .i halls him with Joy. The pair find the mine flooded and have not aulll-clent aulll-clent funds to have It pumped dry. I, ltor In the day "Squint" Rodalne announces that he practically saw Harklns fall Into the flooded mine, and evidently Is drowned. Harklns being a general favorite, the entire population turns out to clear the - uoodod mine. When the work Is practically done, Harry appears. It had been a shrewd trick, and the mon take it as a good joke. Falrchlld learns that Judge Rich' ' niond Is dying, and that he and , Anita are In the power of the lio-J lio-J dailies. They begin, as partners, I to work the mine. In their hearts .' both fear larsen was killed by J Thornton Falrchlld and his body burled by a cave-ln whic h destroyed 1 the mine. At the "Old Times Ball" Fali-chlld dances with Anita, to the discomfiture of Maurice Rodalne, i eon of "Squint," supposed to be engaged to the girl. A bandit holds ( up the dance and shoots a merry-a. merry-a. maker. Maurice Rodalne claims he recoRnlied the bandit as Harklns. The latter Is arrested. Falrchlld ,i Interferes to save Anita from the bullying of the two Rodalnes, and la myslined at Anita's apparent Ingratitude. Fall-child puts up the claim as bond, and secures Harrv's . release from Jail. They are offered ( fM.OOO for the claim, by an unknown parly, but agree to disregard It. Clearing the mine, they come to where they fear to find larsen's ' remains. , I CHAPTER XI ' .. They started forward then, nioklng their way through the slime and silt of the drift flooring, slippery nnd wet from years of flooding. On on they topped. I'rogress had becomo Impossible. Be-.fore Be-.fore them, twisted and torn nnd piled shout In muddy confusion, the timbers tim-bers of the mine suddenly showed In perfect barrltade, supplanted from lehlnd by piles of muck nnd rocky refise which left no owning to the chamber of tle stone beyond. Harry's Har-ry's carbide went high In the air, and he slid forward, to stand a moment in thought before the obstacle. At place after place he surveyed It finally to turn with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's going to mean more'n a month of the 'ardent kind of work, Boy," came hi final announcement. " 'Ow It could 'ave caved In like that Is more than I know, I'm sure we timbered It good." There was only one thing to do-turn do-turn back. Fifteen minutes more and they were on the surface, making their plana; projects which emailed work from morning until night for many a day to come. Harry reached for a new nz and Indicated another. ' "We'll cut lies first," he announced. And thus began Hie weeks of effort, weeks In wlilch they worked with Crude appliances; weeks In which they dragged the heavy stull.4 and other timbers Into the tunnel nnd then low-t-red them down the tdiaft to the drift, two hundred feet i.ci.iw, only to follow them In their counterbalanced bucket nnd laboriously pile them along the Hides of the drift, there to await ue Ittfer on. Weeks In which they worked In mud and slime, ns they shoveled out the muck and wiih their gad hooks fore down loose portions of the hanging hang-ing wall to form a roadbed for their new tram. Crazy Laura. Utile mining camps which skirted the town. Everywhere were black crowds under the faint street lamps. The basement of the courthouse was Illuminated; Illu-minated; and there were clusters of curious persons about the stairways. Through the throngs started Harry and Falrchlld, only to be drawn aside by Farrell, the attorney. "I'm not going to take a part In this unless I have to," he told them. "It will look better for you If It Unt necesstry for me to make an appearance. appear-ance. How do you know but what Thornton Falrchlld was attacked by this man and forced to kill In self-defense? It's a penitentiary offense for a man to strike another, without sufficient suf-ficient Justification, beneath ground. And had SIssIe 1-arscn even so much as slapped Thornton Falrchlld. that man would have been perfectly Justified Justi-fied In killing htm to protect himself. (Julde yourselves accordingly and I will be there only as a spectator, unless un-less events should necessitate something some-thing else." They promised and went on. somewhat some-what calmer In mind, to edse their way to the steps and to enter the basement of the courthouse. The coroner and his Jury, composed of six miners picked up luipha.itrd along the street according to the custom of coroners In general were already present. So was every person who possibly could cram through the doors "The guess will be sufficient In this case. Tou've lived here a good many years, Mrs. Rodalne?" "Yes. Around thirty-five. Let's see yes. I'm sure It's thirty-five. My boy was born here he's about thirty and we came here five years before that." "I believe you told me tonight that you have a habit of wandering around the hills?" "Yes, I've done that I do It right along I've done It ever since ray husband hus-band and I split up that was Just a little while after the boy was born" "Sufficient. I merely wanted to establish es-tablish that fact. In wandering about, did you ever see anything, twenty-three twenty-three or four years ago or so, that would lead you to know something of the death of the man Into whose demise de-mise we are Inquiring?" "I know something. I know a lot. But I've never figured It was anybody's business but my own. So I huven't told It. But I remember" "What, Mrs. Rodalne?" "The day Slssie Larsen wos supposed sup-posed to leave town that was the day he got killed." "Do you remember the date?" "No I don't remember that." "Would It be In your book?" - "No no It wouldn't be In my book I looked." "But you remember?" "Just like as If It whs yesterday." "And what you saw did It give yoa any idea " "I know what I saw." "And did It lead to any conclusion?" "Yes." "What, may I ask?" "That somebody had been murdered mur-dered !" "Who und by whom?" Crazy Laura munched at her toothless tooth-less gums for a moment and looked again toward her husbund. Then, her watery, almost colorless eyes searching, search-ing, she began a survey of the big room, looking Intently from one figure to another. On and on finally to reach the spot where stood Robert Falrchlld und Harry, and there they stopped. A lean finger, knotted by rheumatism, darkened by sun and wind, stretched out. "Yes. I know who did It. and I know who got killed. It was 'Slssie' Larsen he was murdered. The man who did It was a fellow named Thornton Falrchlld who owned the mine If I ain't mistaken, he was the father of this young man " "I. object!" Farrell. the attorney, was on his feet and struggling forward. Jamming his horn-rlmmed glasses Into silent, morose. Before him Falrchlld Falr-chlld closed his eyes In an attempt to shut out the sight of It. But still It wos there, the crumpled heap of tattered tat-tered clothing and human remains, the awry, heavy shoes still shielding the fleshless bones of the feet. He turned blindly, his hands groping before be-fore him. "Harry," he called, "Harry 1 fiet me out of here I can't stand It!" Wordlessly the big man came to his side. Wordlessly they made the trip back to the hole In the cnve-ln and then followed the "trail of new-laid track to the shuft. t'p up the trip seemed endless as they Jerked and of the big room. To them all Falrchlld Falr-chlld paid little attention all but three. They were on a bock sent In the long courtroom Sjulnt Rodalne nnd his son. chalkier, yet blacker than ever, while between them sat un old woman with white hair which strag-cled strag-cled about her cheeks, n woman with deep-set eyes, whose hands wandered now and then vaguely before her; h wrinkled woman, fidgeting about on lier seat, watching with craned neck those who stuffed their way within the already crammed room, her eyes never still, her lips moving constantly, constant-ly, as though mumbling some never- pulled on the weighted rope, that their shaft bucket might travel to the surface. Then, at the mouth of the tunnel, Robert Falrchlld stood for a long time staring out over the soft hills nnd the radiance of the snowy range, far owny. It gave him a new Jtrer.th, a new dptrnn'pnHon Mis eyes brightened with resolution. Then he turned to the faithful Harry, waiting wait-ing In the background. "There's no use trying to evade anything, any-thing, Harry. We've got to face the music. Will you go with me to notify the coroner or would you rather stay here?" a pocket as he did so. "This bus ceased to he un Inquest; It has resolved re-solved Itself Into some sort of au Inquisition!" In-quisition!" "I fall to see why." The coroner had slepped down and wos facing him. "Why? Why you're Inquiring Into a death (hat happened more than twenty years ago and you're basing that Inquiry upon the word of a woman wom-an who is not legally able to give testimony tes-timony In any kind of a court or on any kind of a case! Have you any further evidence upon the lines that she Is goln,- to give?" "Not dire.tly." I "Then I demand that all the testimony testi-mony which this woman has given be stricken out and the Jury Instructed to disregard It." The oillcliil smiled. r "Please come to Denver at once. Hav most important j news for you." ' i (TO UK (.(j.NTl.M'fc.lTJ I coiling rote. Fuirehild stared ut her, then turned to Harry. "Who's that with the Rodalnes?" Harry looked furtively. "Crazy Laura his wife." "Hut" "And she ain't 'ere for anything good!" Harry's voice bore a tone of nervousness. "Sqiiir;t Rodalne don't even recognize 'er on the street -much less appear in company with 'er. Something's 'apiienlng !" "But what could she testify to?" "'Ow should I kno?" Harry sold It almost petulantly,, "I didn't even know she " "c7 oyez, eye.!" It was the bailiff, using a regular district-court introduction of the fact that an inquest in-quest wasnhout to he held, Th crowded crowd-ed room sighed nnd set tied. The coroner coro-ner stepped forward, "We are gathered here tonight to inquire into the iltiitli of u mnn siik-insed siik-insed to be L. A. l.uisen, rouiluoliiy called 'Slssie,' whose skeleton wn found today iti the Blue I'oppj untie. A s'vorn and true im-inhcrs of ihe i-orojier's Jury, I chnrue ;iud coniniiit.il you In the great name of the soxereitfii j "I'll go." Silently they trudged Into town and to the little undertaking shop which also served as the office of the coroner. coro-ner. They made their report, then accompanied ac-companied the officer, together with the sheriff, hack to the mine and into the drift. There once more they clambered through the hole In the cave-In and on toward the beginning of the st ope,. And there they pointed out their discovery. A wait for the remainder of that day a day that seemed nges lon, a day In which Robert Falrchlld found himself facing the editor of the Bugle, and telling his story, Harry beside him. But he told only what he had found, nothing of the past, nothing of the white-hnired man who had waited I by the window, cringing at the slight- est sound on the old, Vine-cind veranda, veran-da, nothing of the letter which lie had found In the dusty safe. Nothing was asked regarding that; nothing could be gained by tilling It. In the heart of Robert Falrchlld was the cunvlc tion that somehow, Koine way. hU father fa-ther was Innocent, and In his bruin i "Look There Over by the Foot-wall!" Foot-wall!" before him, and once more shielded It with his big hand. A step two, then : "Look there over by the foot-wall foot-wall 1" Falrchlld forced his eyes in the direction di-rection designated and stared Intently. Intent-ly. At first It appeared only like a succession of disjointed, broken stones, lying In straggly fashion along the foot wall of the drift where it widened Into the slope, or upward slant on the vein. Then, It cutne forth clearer, the thin outlines of something which clutched st the heart of Robert Fulrchild, which sickened him, which caused him to fight down a sudden, panicky desire to shield bis eyes and to run a heap of age-denuded hones, the scraps of a miner's costume still clinging to them, the heavy shoes protruding pro-truding In comically tragic fashion over bony feet; u huddled, cramped skeleton of a human being! i ",;; could only stund and stare at . it whs a slow, galling progress, but they kept at It. Orudunlly the trim iloe begun to take shape, pieced together to-gether from old portions of the track which still lay In the drift and supplemented supple-mented by others bought cheaply ut Hint graveyard of miner's hopes the Junk yard In ( Hindi. At last it wus finished; the work of moving the heavy timbers became easier now as they were shunted onto the small train truck from which the body bail been dismantled and trundled along the lulls to the cove-In. there to be piled In readiness for their use. And (Inal-l.v- A pick swung In the air. to give forth n chunky, smacking sound, ns It ttruck water-softened, spongy wood. I'he attack ugoinst thecevc lli had he-fun. he-fun. A foot at a time they tore nnoy the old. hroen, splintered limbers and the locky rijfu.se which lay plied behind be-hind each shivered beam; only to stop, wry away the muck, and then rebuild. Cold nnd damp. In the moist air of the tunnel they labored, but there was a Jqv 'n li all own here thev could i |