The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-12
On the Trail of big Finger"

girl with rapidity that left her no mo-
ment for consideration.
She walked to the open door, and
pointed into the entry.
II found him lying there"
'sShow me Just where"
Just where I am pointing"
Two hours-then he should have
been seen from the road-stoD bit!
Will this door close Of itself? No. no.
its tendency is to swing open. He had
pitched forward into the entry? You
found him lying exactly here?"
Yes, as 1 twice have said"
'Then ne should have been seen from
the road. Two hours-is it often that
two hours pass in which no persons
go by this house?''
mo, sir. Very rarely"
did you find the door open or
closed?'
Il found it closed"
While speaking Boyd had stepped
lightly into the entry and examined the
front door. When partly open. its ten
dency was to swing wide open, toward
the inner wall. Still visible on the floor
were indications of the dark pool of
blood which had flowed, from the
wounded man, corroborating the state
ment of his daughter. Plainly. he had
fallen so far into the entry that his
body would not have interfered with
the swinging of the door. Naturally, it
should have swung open, and Boyd
quickly reasoned that the body would
have been seen from the road. IL left
two hours in the open entry. Some per-
son, then, possibly the assailant, must
have closed the door after the shoot
ing.
Dropping to his knee on the thresh-
,o1I
the right. Embedded here and there in
the wood were several bits of lead, part
of the charge of shot fired at Cook when
he entered. At first sight, they appear
ed to have come from the direction he
had stated, as if his assailant had fired
at him from around the opposite corner
of the house.
Suddenly, however. Boyd sprang to
his feet, and glanced sharply through
the hail and at a sitting-room to the
left. The hall ran directly through the
house to q back door. On the right of
it was the bedroom, in which the sea-
man was lying. The sitting-room how
ever, Joined the front hall, with no door
between the two, the stairs being di-
fectly opposite the front door and adj
joining the side wall of the sitting
room.
Constantly watching him from under
her low brows, the girl near by had seen
Boyd's eyes light sharply, and a look
of quickened curiosity appeared in her
own. Boyd at once observed it, and
said, shortly:
Go to your father, my girl I pres
emily will come and question him"
That he had impressed her favorably
was obvious, for she Obeyed him with
out a word. Then Boyd glanced again
through the narrow entry. High in one
of the panels of the back door, some
twenty feet away, he had discovered a
small bright spot, the more noticeable
because of the semi-darkness at that
end of the entry.
"A hole through the door," he NUT
tered. under his breath. "Such holes
seldom are made by accident. I'll in
spect it closer"
He stepped out of the front door, and
glanced toward the road. Both men
from the central office were standing
like sentinels some fifty yards away,
guarding against the approach of any
strangers. Boyd smiled family as he
stole around the house.
Good men, both of them, but too
superficial for work as delicate
as this" he murmured. "A hole in the
back door, Ell? That should have some
significance"
AS he rounded the corner of the house
he examined the ground where Cook
assailant was said to have been stand
ing when he fired the shot. Yet in the
dry sand and gravel there were no signs
of footprints. nor any indications that
a man had been lying in wait there.
At the rear of the house two wooden
steps led up to the back door. Stand