Charlevoix county herald., 1909-06-19

seen TO 'em myself before We turned
In Just as I does every night"
THAT don't matter" retorted Mason
with warmth, I'VE can't take chances.
and We must find what made the
noise II We have to look all night.
Nothing could have fell IL it hadn't
been pushed over and it takes some
thing live to push things over.
haint liked the way that stranger has
been polking around here lately. I've
had my suspicious of him all the time,
and / came near as anything taking 9
pot shot at him that day | found him
hid out behind bowlder watching the
mouth of the mine through his spy
glass;"
why didn't you," queried Belden
in snCering tone. I'D done ii, IL
| had been the one to find him.
What's the matter with you is you
don't want to do a thing but copper
your share of the swag and play safe
all the time. Wish I'd "a found him.
He'd been wolf feed in less'n no time"
well, faint no use fussing about it
now" replied Mason. I'm glad l
didn't shoot him, for 1t would have
brought lot of detectives and gov
eminent men about here and would
have spoiled our game right off.
"Well, let's go back to bed" yawned
Belden, ignoring the taunt.
mot until we've found what made
that noise" answered Mason. You
wait here until l get the headlight
from the Office. This blamed lantern
amt worth shucks."
"All right" grumbled Belden, and
Mason went towards the door. swing.
ing the lantern as he walked.
had heard enough to justify me in
arresting the men and in going to any
length to accomplish it. Mason would
not be gone long, / we'll knew, SO
decided to capture Belden before his
partner returned.
stealthily crawled from under the
table, my stocking feet making no
noise upon the concrete floor, and
warily approached the unconscious
Belden. 1 could just make out his
bulk, where he stood in dark por-
ton of the building, and could hear
the rustling of his clothing. He
scratched a match and / held my
breath. Fortune favored me. He was
lighting a corn-cob pipe, his back fair
ly to me. Like a shadow / glided to-
ward him and with a quick, sure
stroke brought my heavy revolver
down upon the back of his neck with
a sickening, crunching impact.
He fell without a groan and lay like
one dead. Nevertheless, l took the
precaution to slip a pair of handouts
upon his wrists, and then l sprang
towards the door through which I
could see the light of Masons lantern
advancing. / was not a second too
soon. AS Mason crossed the threshold
I struck him a heavy blow upon the
head and he went down like an OK
in the shambles. l handcuffed him
and picked up his lantern.
Next, packed the unconscious men
into the room where they slept and
deposited them upon the bed, after
which l set about restoring them to
consciousness. This room opened into
the office where was situated the
vault. After some little time Mason
groaned and sat upright.
"Well, pardner," was his crestfallen
greeting, when he had looked me over
carefully, 81 guess you hold the trump.
cards. What do you mean to do
neXt?"
He showed no resentment and
seemed, at first, to think that 1 was
a bandit. l showed him my badge
which had an electrical effect upon
him.
In my brief acquaintance with him
I marked him as a man who would
confess everything and endeavor to
escape punishment by duplicating his
confederates, so l explained to him
as much of my suspicious as seemed
expedient and made several guesses.
This quite overpowered him, and after
it he was as plant as wax in my
hands. He confessed everything and
opened the big vault for me and
showed me the books of the company.
had expected to have some difficulty
with him and to have to do more
blufing than proved necessary. but
he did everything in his power to
help me.
He said that he, Belden, and Hud-
son had turned the trick without as
sistance. They had conceived the
gigantic fraud when the mine began
to fail, and had experienced little diff
ficulty in putting it into effect. On
the fine showing the mine had made at
first, they succeeded in getting $1,000
600 invested in it, after which they
had incorporated and begun to sell
stock. They took the money they re-
ceived for stock and converted it into
gold coin, which they shipped to the
mine. where it was melted down,
run into bars, shipped back to the
city. and sold as bullion, a part OF 1t
going to pay dividends.
had suspected this when l had the
ouantitative analysis of one of their