The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-14

=
sions that require more or less discre-
ton in the handling. I am paid well
Twenty-Five dollars is the price of this
job
so you have had the honor of in
forming me before" clustered the other
with an attempt TO hide some serious
emotion. WHY, man. what do you
fear? Don't YOU see I'm hurt? You
could knock me down with feather if
you touched my game arm"
Twenty-Five, dollars" repeated
Sweetwater.
The captain grew angrier. Dash it,
arn't you going to have them? What's
the word?"
But Sweetwater wasn't going to be
caught by chaff.s
&C. o. d., he insisted firmly, standing
his ground, though certain that the
blow would not fail. But no, the cap
tain laughed. and tugging away with
his one free hand at his pocket he
brought out a pocketbook. from which
three bills. There" said he, laying
them on the table, but keeping one long
vigorous finger. on them. Now, the
/ word
Sweetwater laid his own hand on the
/ bills.
Frederick. said he.
'AhI" said the other thoughtfullv
stride up and down the room. Hes a
stiff one What he says, he will do.
/ Two thousand dollars, and soon, too, l
warrant. Well, I'm in a devil of a fix
at last" He had again forgotten the
presence of Sweetwater.
Suddenly he turned or rather stopped.
His eye was on the messenger, but he
did not even see him. "One Frederick
must offset the other he cried. It's
the only loophole out, and he threw
himself into a chair from which he
( Immediately sprang up again with a
yell. He had hurt his wounded arm.
Pandemonium reigned then for a
minute, then his eye fell again on
Sweetwater, who, under the fascination
of the spectacle offered him. had only
just succeeded in finding the knob of
the door This time there was recogni-
ton in his look.
"Waiti' he cried Il may have use
for you, too. Confidential messengers
are hard to come by. and one that
Campbell would employ. Sit down
therei I'll talk with you when I'm
ready
Sweetwater was not slow in obeying
this command. Business was booming
with him Besides, the name of Fred
erick acted like charm upon him.
There seemed to be so many Freder-
icks. and one of them lay in such q
curious way near his heart
Meanwhile the captain reseated him
self. but more carefully. He had
plan or method of procedure to think
out or so II seemed. for he sat long
time in rigid immobility,; with only
the scowl of perplexity or ill-temper OH
his brow to show the nature of his
thoughts. Then he drew a sheet of
paper toward him, and began to write
a letter He was so absorbed over this
nd he mi mi Of
ing but one hand to work with, that
Sweetwater determined upon a haz-
ardous stroke. The little book which
the captain had consulted, and which
had undoubtedly furnished him with a
key to those two homogeneous words,
lay on the floor nor far from him,
having been flung from its owners
hand during the moments of passion
and suffering l have above mentioned.
To reach this book with his foot, to
draw it toward him, and, finally, TO
get hold of il with his hand was not
difficult for one who aspired to be de-
tective, and had already done some
good work in that direction. But it was
harder to turn the leaves and find the
words he sought without attracting the
attention of his fierce companion. He,
however. succeeded in doing this at
last, the long list of words he found on
every page being arranged ;::rphabeti-
cally. 1t was a private code for tele-
graphic or cable messages, and he soon
found that happening" meant: Our
little game discovered; play straight till
1 give you the wink. And that AT
ghanistan' stood for hush money. As
the latter was followed by the figures |
have mentioned, the purport of the
message needed no explanation but the
word Frederick" did. So he searched
for that, only to find that it was not in
ha
to draw. This name was perfectly well
known between them, and was that of
the person, no doubt, who laid claim to
the s., 600
Satisfied at holding this clue to the
riddle, he dropped the book again at his
side and skilfuliy kicked it far out into
the room Captain Wattles had seen
nothing. He was a man who took in
only one thing at a time.
Laboriously the penning of that letter
went on. 1t took so long that Sweet
water dozed, or pretended to, and when
it was at last done the clock over the
mantlepiece had struck 3.
'Halloo there, now!' suddenly shout
ed the captain, turning on the messen-
ger, Are you ready for another jour
ney?"
THAT depends" smiled Sweetwater
rising Sleepily and advancing. Haven't |
got over the last one yet, and would
rather sleep than start out again
20, you want pay? Well, you'll get
that fast enough if you succeed in your
mission. This letter"-he shook it with |
an impatient hand-"should be worth
$500 to me. If you bring me back an
answer promising that money or its |
equivalent within twenty-four hours. |
will give you clean hundred of it. |
Good enough pay. l take it. for five |
hours journey. Better than sleep, Ell ? |
Besides, you can sleep on the cars
Sweetwater agreed with him in all |
these assertions. Putting on his cap, he |
reached for the letter. He didn't like |
being made an instrument for black |
mail, but he was curious to see TO |
whom he was about to be sent But |
the captain had grown suddenly wary. |
This is not a lette rto be dropped in /
the mail box said he. You brought |
me line here whose prompt delivery |
has prevented me from making a fool |
with this one. 1t is to be carried to its |
destination by yourself, given to the |
person whose name you will find writ
ten on it, and the answer borught back |
before you sleep, mind you, unless you
snatch a wink or so on the cars. That
it is night need not disturb you 1t will |
be daylight before you arrive at the |
place to which this is addressed. and if
you cannot get into the house at so ear
" an hour. whistle three times like this
-listen-and some one of the windows
vii presently fly up. You have had no
trouble in getting at me; you'll have no
toruble in getting at him. When you re-
turn, hunt me up, just as you did to-
night. Only you need not trouble your
self to look for me at Haberstows. s." he
y n IN,