Read Ebook: The lost charm by Norton Roy

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Ebook has 113 lines and 11861 words, and 3 pages

"We've heard all that and believe you," David said at last. "But what we want to learn--who are your enemies?"

"But I haven't any, that I know of," Ray insisted. "I came West from Iowa and worked in two or three mines and watched and picked up all I could because I want to be a miner. Then I went to Wallula and was one of the first to stake a claim on Torren's Gulch, and since then have been too busy trying to find gold on it to fool around the camp, or make enemies. I've kept my mouth shut, and women don't come in my catalogue because"--he stopped, flushed, looked embarrassed and then boyishly added--"because the reason I came West was to try to make money enough to marry a girl I grew up with back there in Iowa. And now--my God! What will she think when she hears of this!"

He rested his head in his arms on the table by which he sat and for a moment gave way to despair.

"There! There! Don't take it to heart, son," Goliath rumbled, laying his huge hand on the prisoner's bent shoulders. "That girl is too good to hold anything against you if you're proved innocent, and my pardner and me are goin' to do that, or go the limit tryin' to do it."

But David sat apparently unmoved and with his eyes fixed absently on the window beyond.

"Come, come!" he said finally. "Pull yourself together and answer some more questions. Do you know a man named Shaughnessy, or one named Pinder, or one named MacPharlane?"

Ray looked up and appeared perplexed by this line of interrogation as he answered, "Why, yes. I know all three of them. They're all of them good friends of mine. Mr. Shaughnessy wanted to buy my claim but I wouldn't sell it at any price he would give. The best he would offer was a thousand dollars. Then Mr. Pinder came and told me confidentially that his ground, which is above mine, was no good and that he was going to sell to Shaughnessy for five hundred and advised me to sell out. After that Mr. MacPharlane came and I didn't like him quite so well. He told me confidentially that Shaughnessy was a bad man to cross, and said that I ought to make friends with such a man rather than try to go against him in anything he was after, and intimated that Shaughnessy would make trouble for me if I didn't sell. But of course I didn't believe that and told him so in mighty plain language. He sort of lost his temper and let it out that the reason Shaughnessy wanted my claim was that he's got those on both sides of my ground and, as I understand it, wants to get a solid unbroken string of claims which he's going to sell to some capitalists back East, or make a stock company out of and sell stock; or something like that. But of course one can't believe anything one hears from a fellow like that MacPharlane. I was too wise for that; and, besides, Shaughnessy doesn't own them all because Pinder has a lot of ground--which proves that what MacPharlane said was a lie."

David sat with a dry smile on his face as he listened to this, and Goliath merely scowled in open-mouthed astonishment.

"Yes, and that's not all of it, either," Ray asserted. "Mr. Shaughnessy sent me a letter that I got only yesterday in which he says that he is sorry to hear that I made such an awful blunder--because of course he thinks like every one else does that I'm guilty--but that, notwithstanding my arrest, and knowing that probably I'll need money to defend myself, he is still willing to pay me a thousand dollars for my claim. You can't call that unfriendly, can you?"

"Oh, no! Not at all!" David said with considerable sarcasm and then, winking over Ray's head at his partner, got to his feet and said, "Well, Goliath and I must be going now; but all I ask you to do is this, leave things to us and don't under any circumstances sell that claim unless we tell you to. You'd better give me that letter Shaughnessy wrote--for safe-keeping. I'll see him in a day or two and may want to talk the matter over with him. I reckon you can trust us, can't you?"

"I've heard so much about you two that I'd trust you with my life," Ray blurted as he produced the letter and handed it to David, who carefully pocketed it.

They gave him a few more words of encouragement, told him that if it came to money for defense they would find it for him, and after he had been returned to his cell by a deputy went outside to the waiting sheriff.

"Sheriff," said David, "we promised to tell you anything we could find out about this Ray case. Well, we're going to do it; but to save repeating it, we'd like to have you go with us to the prosecuting attorney's office so he can hear what we have to say at the same time. Is that good enough?"

"Sure. I'll go right over to Hillyer's office with you now," the sheriff said. "He'll be glad to see you two fellows any way, because he's a right smart admirer of yours and a good friend, isn't he?"

"Hope so," Goliath growled with a grin as he recalled a past episode in their career where the prosecuting attorney had turned a blind eye on their manipulation of a Sky Gap election which worked for an improvement in law and order. And he proved so when David sat and painstakingly detailed all that he had discovered and expounded his theory.

"Shaughnessy's got hold of some boobs back East who want to buy a mining property. The fact that there has been a little gold found on Torren's Gulch makes that the ideal ground to sell to any but the old-timers at the mining game who know the one color of gold in a pan doesn't make a paying mine, and that there are gulches which are as spotted as a fawn. Everything goes well until Shaughnessy tried to buy out this tenderfoot Ray, and because Ray's inexperienced and wants money enough to marry his best girl, he won't sell for a thousand dollars and Shaughnessy doesn't want to pay any more than he has to. He's got to have the ground to put the deal through. When he can't get it decently he turns around and goes after it crookedly, which is the way he knows best, anyhow.

For a long time the district attorney pondered and then said, "Yes, considering the past record of that gang, and the clean record of Ray, it does; but--I'm afraid that what you've learned, and what we know, doesn't constitute proof enough to either convict Shaughnessy and an unknown man or to clear Ray. And the worst of it is I don't at this moment see how we can get more evidence against Shaughnessy or actually learn who his confederate, the actual robber, was. They're so clever that they have absolutely covered their tracks. What do you suggest, David?"

"Why, just this. That you give me a week or ten days to do a little nosing around in my own way. Then, if I can get what you call 'evidence enough,' it's easy going. If I don't, why in any case you can state that, owing to disclosures which it's not necessary to divulge, and with the consent or concurrence, or whatever you call it, of the court, you are convinced of Ray's innocence and--turn him loose. You could do that, couldn't you?"

For a time the prosecuting attorney considered, and finally shrugged his shoulders as he said, "Yes, I could; but it might defeat me for my next election. However, that makes no difference. I wouldn't convict an innocent man if I could help it, even if I never again held a public office."

"Hillyer, you're a white man," David exclaimed as he stretched his hand toward the attorney, and Goliath stood up and rumbled as if the long silence was unusual with him and he now found it necessary to make a noise.

"Ten days then, you're to give, and I'm satisfied," David said as they turned and left the office.

"I don't see how you expect to get any more evidence than you've got already, Davy," the big man remarked after they were on their way to where their mules were stabled, preparatory to the start on the return journey.

"I don't expect to get much," David remarked with a grin that exposed his white teeth. Goliath looked at him steadily for a moment and then remarked: "Davy, you're up to some dodge. I know it by the way you look."

"Goliath, old boss, I am," was all that the smaller man vouchsafed by way of explanation for the time being, and later actions proved that he had confessed the truth.

They drove away together; but on the following morning at a certain point where the trail split they separated, and Goliath, after a "So long! Good luck," turned off on the home trail and David took to the road, philosophically, for the long tramp to Wallula.

David's actions in Wallula were peculiar. He seemed intent on making numerous visits and always they were to men whom he knew he could trust and to none of them did he impart reasons for his sole request which invariably was, "I want to find out if Pinder and MacPharlane were in town on the night before that stage was robbed or on the day when the robbery took place, and I don't want any one to know that I'm trying to get the information."

The third man he confided in listened and made a calculation on his fingers.

"Nine days ago," he remarked thoughtfully. "That would bring it on a Sunday night--week ago last Sunday. Um-m-mh! I think maybe--just maybe, I say--I can find out something from a chap I know. You see the Almoran Mine laid off three days just then on account of a broken main pump and the men were paid off. Most of 'em came to camp for a bust. One of 'em, Bill Wainwright, the foreman, is a poker fiend and he got pretty heavily trimmed in a game that lasted from nine o'clock Sunday night till ten o'clock Monday morning, and that game was in Big Pete's saloon where most of the Shaughnessy gang hangs out. Get me?"

David wriggled with excitement.

"I get you so hard that if you'll go and get a horse and ride over to the Almoran and find out what Wainwright knows, or doesn't know about Pinder, MacPharlane, or Shaughnessy between the hours of nine o'clock Sunday night and ten o'clock Monday morning, I'll pay the expenses, and you'll be doing me a mighty big favor," he ripped out with unusual vigor.

An hour later his friend had gone for a five-mile ride, and David, to all appearances was merely dawdling around the streets as if enjoying a spell of laziness and idleness But inwardly he was impatiently counting the hours that must reasonably elapse before he could expect word from his volunteer investigator. He had ample time to be impatient, because it was not until after dusk that his friend returned and betrayed his presence by a light in his cabin window, toward which David hastened within a few minutes after it became visible.

"Well?" he demanded as he closed the door behind him.

"No, use. Don't bother about them," David interrupted. "And don't say anything to anybody about my ever having been nosing around. I've learned all I have to know for the present. And--I've got to go now. Going back to our mine first thing in the morning. Play even with you some time for this. I'll say you've done me a good turn all right and I don't forget."

He was out of the door almost before he had finished his sentence and within half an hour, having an early start in view, was in his bed. Furthermore so early was that next morning's start that it was not yet noon when he was driven up to the cabin which was his destination and was greeting Rosita Mills and complaining of hunger.

"And you may as well lay in plans, Rosy," he said to Mrs. Mills, "to take care of the man from the livery stable down in Wallula, because he's going to stay here the rest of the day and part of to-morrow with us. And after that--I got to talk to the others and think it over a little before I can say exactly what will happen."

But what did happen was that on the following afternoon, timing themselves so that they would arrive in camp late at night, David and Hank drove away with the man from Wallula and Mrs. Mills knew that on the next day Goliath was to make the same journey with the partners' mules and buckboard. Also that if she feared to be left alone she could accompany him and visit the camp for which she had no very pleasant recollections.

The "Real-Estate-and-Specialty-in-Mining-Properties" office of Thomas Shaughnessy stood at almost the end of the business portion of the main street, modestly, inconspicuously, as befitted a place of such importance that sooner or later all must visit it. It was later--much later--at nearly three o'clock in the morning when David visited it, while Hank kept a watchful eye up Main Street for the solitary night watchman who seldom strolled that far because frequent visits were not necessary, and--Wallula paid his wages because Shaughnessy had so dictated. David, being a very amateur burglar, had a bunch of door keys big enough to open the doors of a city, all of which he had purchased at the county seat. Patiently he tried about twenty keys before he found one that opened the rear door of Shaughnessy's office after which, carefully using an electric torch, he pulled down the shades over the front window and with an air of relief went into Shaughnessy's rear office and made straight for the letter files.

He paid not the slightest attention to the small safe in the corner, but did pay much to the letter files. For a time he began to fear that what he sought could not be found and then, with a chuckle of satisfaction, came to a compartment, made the correspondence therein into a roll, and pocketed it before returning the letter file to the exact position in which he had originally found it. Cautiously he put the shades up again, cautiously passed out of the rear door and with the same caution locked it. Five minutes later he and Hank were slipping through the back streets to the cabin of a friend which had been put at their disposal during its owner's absence, and there, safe, secure, unalarmed, they gloated over their theft.

Shaughnessy on the following day was unaware that he was under constant espionage; that the espionage became more rigid as dusk fell; that it continued while he ate his lonely meal in a restaurant and made a tour of various resorts where it was his custom to be seen for a short time; and, most of all, that there were certain individuals who were gleeful and declared that luck had played their way when he returned to his office alone at nine o'clock of the autumn evening. He was seated at his desk in his private office when the door opened almost noiselessly and he looked up to see two visitors. The first, a short, red-headed man, grinned sardonically as he said, "Hello, Tom. Glad to find you alone. Didn't expect us, I reckon."

"No, of course not, and don't know that I care to see either of you, as far as that goes," the boss growled, leaning back in his chair and wondering what misfortune was about to disclose itself. Always unexpected meetings with these two partners had been attended with misfortune. Misfortune seemed to have become a habit where they were involved.

"No use in getting nasty or fussed up about it, Tom," the smaller man declared with the utmost amiability. "We never look you up because we like you. You know that."

"Well, what have you come for this time?" Shaughnessy demanded after a moment's hesitation in which he recovered himself and appeared as cool as if he had neither fears nor apprehensions.

"Why, we've come to help you out, just for a change," David replied as he deliberately seated himself in a chair on the opposite side of Shaughnessy's desk and motioned Goliath to close and guard the door. "We've come to sell you Number Two above discovery on Torren's Gulch and--Shaughnessy, we've talked it over and we think you're going to pay for it just"--he stopped, leaned forward and with a hard tapping finger to punctuate his sentence said--"seventy-five-hun-dred dollars!"

For an instant any connection between those figures and the amount lost in the stage robbery and so peculiarly recovered did not seem to penetrate Shaughnessy's mind, and then, veteran gambler and expert dissembler as he was, his face turned slowly red, then white. His eyes lowered themselves under the motionless, fixed, and boring scrutiny of the steel-gray eyes that stared at him unblinkingly, menacingly, mockingly.

"What's--what has--why seventy-five hundred dollars, and--and how do you happen to cut in on this deal anyhow? You don't own that mine!" he exclaimed.

"We're asking seventy-five hundred because we know you've got that much in cash down in the hands of the prosecuting attorney of this county marked 'Exhibit A' in the Ray case. Second, we're asking it because we know that in a deal with the Curlew Mining Investment Company of No. 162 Dearborne Street, Chicago, you are putting this Number Two claim into the block of claims as your own and making the statement that it cost you seventy-five hundred dollars, even though you don't own it and hadn't a chance of buying it until to-night. We know that the company has been organized on a false basis to sell its stock just because you don't and never did own this property, and that you and MacPharlane got so desperate that in order to put the deal across and get Ray out of the way you even put up a fake stage robbery to land Ray in jail, where he'd fall for your game."

He leaned back triumphantly even as Shaughnessy lost his head, grew purple, sputtered as if he were about to be overcome by a stroke of apoplexy and roared with a brawling oath, "That's a lie. You can't prove any bunk like that and you know it!"

"Prove it? Can't prove it?" David retorted with an air of amused irony. "Why, I can hand stuff enough over to the prosecuting attorney of this county to have you in jail by noon to-morrow, and what's more--by Heaven!--if you don't close with us to-night my partners and I will see that you and MacPharlane are landed there to-morrow if we have to kill you and haul your carcases in to show that we have you!"

He had half arisen to his feet, crouched forward and now ended his threat with the emphatic bang of his fist on Shaughnessy's desk.

There was a moment's silence in which the fat boss of Wallula gasped, drew back and then stared around furtively as he heard the sound of steps walking crisply and hollowly over the board walk outside.

"Hoping MacPharlane or Pinder will come and make an interruption, are you?" David asked, reading his mind. "Well, hope so too. We've got a man posted at the outer door who'll welcome either or both of them--with a gun. We don't allow for any chances in our game. We play to win, and you're a fool if you don't see that it's so and come across. You take my advice and sit down until I tell you what we're going to prove in the matter of that stage robbery if we have to hand you and our proof over to the county attorney."

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