Newspapers / The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, … / March 28, 1940, edition 1 / Page 5
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Thursday, March 28, 1940 DESTINY ' CHAPTER XIII By the time she had reached a side door and flung it open the sounds of activity were already coining from the bunk house. There was a man there on a horse—it looked like Brimstone— and other men were tumbling out of the door half dressed and gathering around him. She her self was running now with leaden weights dragging at her feet. It was Brimstone, glistening with the sweat of hard riding, but the man Just dismounting from him was Francisco Ramirez. Curly came running. He talk ed rapidly, giving her the blunt truth. "It's Lee. Francisco was goin' home late and he saw Brim stone in front of the cabin all saddled, but no sign of Lee. Fran cisco went up and found the cab in empty and blood on the sad dle." "Do you suspect anyone, Cur ly?" "We're lookin' first for Lawler and Clanty Gano. They both held grudges against Lee, and they'd better hunt up their alibis right now." Bradish and Stanley had hur ried out and were at her elbow. Stanley had a sickly look in the paling moonlight. The riding men streamed down the valley. Virginia turned to Stanley. "The ranch car is in the repair shop. We'll have to take yours. I'm going to drive it myself." In a few minutes Virginia had the grey car out and was slipping into the driver's seat. Curly start ed to protest against her going, but stopped as he looked into a stony little face. He took the seat beside her. Bradish, on a restless impulse, got in also, fol lowed by Stanley. From far away Slanty Gano saw the rolling crowd of dust speeding out from the Valley of the Sun and resolving itself into a racing car. Slanty had the eyes of a hawk. He saw that it was young Brad ish's car, but what was it doing there at this hour, and going at that rate of speed? And it was full. He turned back to deeper shelter, caught a sound and stiff ened. Horses! He dismounted, worm ed his way to a point of vantage and peered. Coming out of the mouth of Turkey Gulch were men. They were Circle V men and they rode with a purpose, scanning trail and hillside. Crouched low in his covert be tween the rolling dust cloud and the riding men, with a deed in his pocket bearing the smeared im print of a bloody thumb, Slanty knew that he was a fugitive. 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They would all have departed gladly, but to leave just now might create an unpleasant impression or even definitely arouse suspicion in this place where feeling was running so high. The Archers fussed around anxiously, Bradish was bluntly rude to his now useless agent, and Stanley was nervously on edge. There were several mat ters that were worrying him bad ly, and one of them was a thou sand dollar bill. If they should catch Gano and find that bill on him, Stanley Bradish was going to have a bad time trying to ex plain it. The second day dragged' out to ghastly length, but there was no trace of Lee, and no sign of Slanty Gano or Lawler. Men began to shake their heads. There were plenty of places around here where a man's body might lie hidden for-tr-scqnC3®f years. Only Virginia and one other re fused to believe that Lee was dead. The other came at dusk and touched her arm shyly with a little brown hand. "I not hate you any more. My heart it break for you, and for Lee. I help you fin' heem." "Thanks, Josefa." Virginia held the small hand closely. * * » In the black tunnel of the Bo nanza a gaunt shadow of a man lay. Years ago Don Luis' reck less mining had turned his own claim and Matt's into a maze of intersecting tunnels, and through these Lee staggered and crawled, now fainting, now stumbling to his feet again, but somehow keep ing a sense of direction in a head which one moment felt like a lump of lead and the next like a floating feather. He was hunting for a gleam of light or a breath of cool air, but neither came. Presently he lost all sense of time. He did not know that it was the noon of the second day which found him back at the place where Slanty had left hifn. Even as he worked, men were passing through Turkey Gulch, less than a hundred yards away. One of the deputies looked up at the yawning black hole. "No chance of anybody hiding in the old Bonanza, is there?" Curly shook his head. "I was up there yesterday with the sher iff. Ye can't get but a little ways in. Both tunnels is blocked by cave-ins." They rode on. Back in the rubble-choked tunnel the digging hands had stopped. Lee was sink ing down, down, into that dead ening coma of weakness and ex haustion. * * * Long hours of hiding had not improved Slanty Gano's temper, THE ELKIN TRIBUNE, ELKIN. NORTH CAROLINA and Lawler also was visibly sour ed. He was stretched out indo lently, half sitting, half sprawl ing, just inside of a narrow crev ice some forty feet above the floor of a secluded little box canyon. It was a perfect hideout. Prom where he lay on a pile of boughs, Slanty sent a jeering taunt at his fellow fugitive. "Ye talk big, but I notice ye keep on skulkin'. The Circle V boys has found out that ye set that fire." "It wouldn't have done nothin' but burn off some grazin' if the wind hadn't freshed up," retorted Lawler sullenly. "And I notice there's two of us skulkin'. It's you them boys are after. You've done for Lee Hollister. Didn't I hear what they said, passin' not twenty feet away from us—" "Maybe ye'll remember that yore name was mentioned as well as mine." Slanty arose delib erately and faced his partner with a hard stare. "Where was ye Wednesday night, Lawler? Got an alibi?" Slanty's voice was menacing, his head was thrust forward and his eyes bored into the stupidly staring ones of his slower witted companion. "Better get your own alibi," snarled Lawler, but his voice was uncertain. Sticking doggedly to his one idea of ingratiating him self with Milton Bradish by piling up discouraging losses on the present owner of the Circle V, he had spent the night cutting out a bunch of Virginia's cattle and wantonly slaughtering them in a remote coulee. There had been a splash of blood on his shirt when he had returned in the early morning, to flee at the sight of those riding men. He wore his coat buttoned now to cover the stain. Presently Slanty went to where Lawler lay and put a hand on his shoulder as if to shake him awake. The sleeping man did not stir. From a hiding place inside his shirt Slanty took out a fold ed paper and slipped it cautious ly into Lawler's inner pocket. Then he arose lightly and went to the crevice that served them as a doorway. Morning sunshine brightened the secretive little canyon. Down there two horses were picketed, well hidden from any casual eye, but only one of them was fit for travel. Lawler had ridden his horse lapie on Wednesday night and the foot was getting bad. But Slanty knew what Lawler did not. There were two other horses not far away in a hidden corral. Slanty had more than once found it expedient to change mounts quickly. When Lawler awoke, hours lat er, the sun was slantly westward and S1 an 1 7 apparently was asleep. Lawler came softly to his feet and edged toward the narrow exit. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he let himself down. Leading the fresh horse, Lawler picked his stealthy way out of the box canyon, hugging the rock wall. He recalled feeling something stiff in an inside pocket of his coat as he had swung himself over the edge of the cave floor. The paper that he drew out was puzzling. It was a neatly folded, legal looking document, with printing on the back and a single word standing out boldly: DEED. Other words caught his eye— "Matthew Blair"—"Lee Hollister." Beneath the word Hollister was the blurred imprint of a bloody thumb. Panic swept over Lawler. Fire and slaughtered cattle, and in his possession the b1 o o d-smeared property of a murdered man. What little head Lawler had, he lost. Cursing Slanty Gano and his horse, he mounted hastily and bolted for deeper shelter. As he rode he caught sight of a dozen men pounding along be hind him. He crouched low over his horse's neck, cursing. All he could do now was to ride. Then the grade dropped suddenly. There was a lurch and a stumble. The horse went dowij and lay there. Lawler was flung free and staggered to his feet. He ran like a panic-stricken animal. A few moments later the fore most of his pursuers flung them selves off their horses and looked down. Many feet below them a human fly clung to a rock wall. One man drew a gun. "Hold on! He won't get away. He's done for!" They watched him fall, turning, swooping, head down. They stepped back and looked at one another. One of the young deputies spoke. "It looks as if that settled it, boys. An innocent man don't take a chance like that. Where's that white thing he dropped?' 1 Someone found it in a clump of scrub. They crowded together THE LYRIC MOVIES I A „ Yo „ tol COMFORTABLE Form Natural, True to Life SOUND Entertainment TODAY (THURSDAY) ONLY— SATURDAY— The > m > Cartoon - Serial - Comedy • I^L*-30c C »- A \ "'"of4 \fplf . 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For that very reason the blank finality of Curly's news about Lawler seemed crufeller and hard er to comprehend. He saw that she wanted only to be alone, and he left her. She could hear him riding down to the mouth of Turkey Gulch, and then it was quiet again. She hur ried toward her horse. As she mounted, her little first aid kit bumped uselessly against her side. She had packed it so carefully—bandages, iodine, re storatives, matches for a fire, a tin of broth, fresh every day. In one pocket was a flashlight for dark places, in another a police man's whistle to call help to Lee. Futile little toys! She gave Black Lightning his head, riding blind ly; The ragged scar of the Bonan za came into view, and Virginia remembered Joey, searching pa tiently and futilely for evidence in the lonliness of the old tunnel. She snapped on the flash as soon as she had gone a little way in. The pencil of white light flick ered over rock walls and rubble strewn floor, but there was no sign of Joey. Just ahead there was a darkly looming bulk which must mark the spot where the big cave-in blocked all further ingress to the mine. The white beam danced along the face of the slide. Earth, stones, rubble. It switched down, up, jerked suddenly and came back, searching wildly. Protrud ing stiffly from the piled earth and stone, gaunt and torn, blood crusted and earth stained, mo tionless, was a human hand. Yesterday that hand had not been there! (Continued Next Week) HARRIS ELECTRIC COMPANY Phone 250 Elkin, N. C. Say, "1 saw it in The
The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, N.C.)
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March 28, 1940, edition 1
5
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