The Washington herald., 1906-12-09

upon which a murder mystery acted as an
irritant-he could not rest until he had
solved it-and his paper always put him
on the great cases. such as those in which
a vast metropolis ike New York abounds.
Now ne vas restless and discontented; the
tour seemed to him the mere reporting OF
speeches and obvious incidents that eF-
erybody saw; there was nothing 70 uh-
ravel. nothing that called for me Keen
edge Of a fine intellect
GRANVILLE. with all its advantages as
Mace Of rest is sure to be like the other
mountain towns" he said, somewhat
sourlv-.the same houses, the same
streets. the same people. ] might almost
say the same mountains. There VIII De
nothing unusual, nothing out Of the way
Harley had taken the paper from Bar
tons hands and was reading il.
AT any rate. If GRANVILLE Is not un-
usual it is TO have an unusual time he
interrupted.
How SOP
1t is TO hear Jimmy Grayson speak
Monday. and il is going 10 hang man
Tuesday. See. the two events get equal
advance space. two columns each. on the
front page.
He handed the paper TO Hobart, who
looked at il a little while and then drop
ped II with an air Of increasing discon-
tent.
THAT may mean something TO the na-
tives he said. 1T may be an indication
TO them that their place is becoming i'm
portant-a metropolis in which things
happeu-but il is nothing 10 me. This
hanging case is stale and commonplace,
It is perfectly clear; a young fellow
named Boyd Is 20 be hanged for killing
his partner. another miner. no doubt
about his guilt, plenty Of witnesses
against him, his own denial weak and
halting-in fact, half confession; jury
out only FIVE minutes, whole thing as
bald and fiat as this plain through which
we are running
lie tapped with his finger on the dusty
window. and his expression was 50
gloomy that the others could not restrain
a laugh
Cheer UP. old man." said Barton
-Four more hours and we are in Gray
vile: just think Of that wonderful ho-
tel. with its more wonderful beds and its
yet more wonderful kitchen"
The hotel was all that they either ex-
pected or hoped and the dawn brought
beautiful Sunday. disclosing pretty lit
tie frontier city with its green irrigated
valley on one side and the brown noun
tains. like a protecting wall. on the other
Harley slept late, and after breakfast
came out on the verauda to enjoy the
luxury of a rocking chair, with the soft
October air around him and the majesty
Of the mountains before him he hoped
20 find Sylvia there. but neither she nor
any Of the ladies were present Instead,
there was a persistent, inGuiring spirit
abroad which would not let him rest, and
this spirit belonged to Hobart the ''mys-
terry" man.
Harley had not been enjoying the
swinging ease OF the rocking chair five
minutes before Hobart, the light Of IN
terest in his eyes, pOunced upon him.
Harley. old fellow" he exclaimed.
this Is the first place we've struck in
which Jimmy Grayson is not the over
whelming attraction
THE hanging, l suppose" said Harley,
careIessly.
"Of course. What else could there be?
It occurred TO me last night. when I was
reading the paper that 1 might scare
up a feature or two in the case, and I
was out Of my bed early this morning to
try 1t was a fOrlOrn hope. I'll admit,
but anything was better than nothing,
and I've had my reward. I've had my
reward. old fellow
He chuckled outright in his glee. Har-
ley smiled Hobart always interested and
amused him. The instructive way in
which be unfa.lingly rose to a case"
showed his natural genius for that sort
Of thing.
al
Hobart. excitedly but I've found out
this much already-there are people in
GRANVILLE who believe Boyd innocent. It
is true that ne and Wofford-the murder
ed man-had been qUarreling in Gray
vile. and Boyd was taken at the shanty
with the blood-stained knife in his hand:
but that doesn't settle it,
Harley could not restrain an incredu-
lous laugh.
1T seems to me those two circum
stances. emitting the other proof, are
pretty convincing he said.
Hobart flushed You just wait until
I finish." he said somewhat dehantIy.
Now Boyd. as / have learned. was a
good-hearted. generous young fellow. The
quarrel amounted to very little, and prob
ably had been patched up before they
reached their shack.
THAT is a view which the jury evident
ly could not take
"Juries are often wooden headed"
"Of course-in the eyes of superior peo-
pie"
Now don't you try TO be satirlcal-it's
not your speciality. / mean to finish the
tale. If you read the paper, you will
recall that the shanty where the murder
occurred was only a short distance from
the mountain road, and there We're three
witnesses-Bill Metzger. a dissOlute COW.
boy who was passing, and, who. attract
ed by Wofford's death-cry, ran TO the
cabin and found Boyd blOod-stained knife
in hand, bending over the murdered mar,
Ed Thorpe. q tramp miner. who heard
the same cry and who came up two OF
three minutes later. and. finally. Tim VIII
liams, a town idler, who was on the
mountainside. hunting. The other two
heard him fire his gun a few hundred
yards away, and called to him. When he
arrived, Boyd was still dazed and NUT
ter1ng to himself, as If overpowered bv
the horror of his crime.
IF that isn't conclusive, then nothing
IS said Harley, decisively.