Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-08

door: sit down. What's your name ?"
The man feeling around slowly,
deposited his angular bulk with care
upon the little chair. My name
in the tenseness of the dark the
words seemed to carry added mys-
tery-"is Pardaloe."
you've got a brother-Joe Par
daloe?" suggested De Spain to trap
him.
NO. I've got no brother. l am
just plain Jim Pardaloe."
Say what you have got to say,
jim"
The only job | could get in the
gap was with old Duke Morgan
I've been working for him. off and
on. and spending the rest of my time
were three men in the barn burning.
Dave Sassoon put up the job"
Where is Dave Sassoon now?"
Dead"
Both men were silent for mo-
ment.
Yesterday mornings fight?"
asked De Spain reluctantly.
Yes. sir"
How did he happen to catch us
on El Captain"
He saw fire on Music mountain
and watched the lower end of the
gap all night Sassoon was wide
awake man."
We'll, I'm sorry, Pardaloe," con-
tinued De Spain after a moment.
Nobody could call it my fault. 1t
was either he or I-or the life of a
woman who never harmed a hair of
his head, and a woman I'm bound
to protect. He was running when he
was hit. If he had got to cover again
there was nothing to stop him from
picking both of us off,"
He was hit in the head"
De Spain was silent.
1T was soft-nose bullet" con-
tinued Paradaloe.
Again there was a pause. "I'll tell
you about that, too, Pardaloe," De
Spain went on collectedly. II lost
my rifle before that man opened fire
on us. Nan happened to have her
rifle with her-if she hadn't, he'd
have dropped one or both of us off
FL Captain. We were pinned against
the wall like a couple of targets. If
there were soft-pose bullets in her
rifle it's because she uses them on
game-bobcats and mountain lions.
l never thought of it till this minute.
That is it,
what l came up to tell you has
to do with Dave Sassoon. From what
happened to-day in the gap
thought you ought to know it now.
Gale and Duke quarreled yesterday
over the way things turned out; they
were pretty bitter. This afternoon
Gale took it up again with his uncle,
and it ended in Dukes driving him
clean out of the gap"
Where has he gomez"
Nobody knows yet. Ed Wickwire
told me once that your father was
shot from ambush a good many years
ago. 1t was north of Medicine Bend
on a ranch near the Peace river; that
you never found out who killed him.
and that one reason why you came
up into this country was to keep an
eye out for clue"
What about it?" asked De Spain
his tone hardening.
Il was riding home one night
about a month ago from Calabasas
with Sassoon. He'd been drinking. l
let him do the talking. He began
cussing you out, and talked pretty
hard about what you'd done, and
what he'd done, and what he was go
ing to do" Nothing, it seemed
would hurry the story. Finally, Sas-
soon says: That hound don't know
yet who got his dad. 1t was Duke
Morgan; that's who got him. l was
with Duke when he turned the trick
We rode down to De Spain's ranch
one night to look up a rustler.' That,
concluded Pardaloe, was all Sassoon
would say"
He stopped. He seemed to wait
There was no word or answer, none
of comment from the man sitting
near him. But, for one, at least, who
heard the passionless, monotonous
recital of murder of the long ago,
there followed a silence as relentless
as fate, silence shrouded in the mys-
terry of the darkness and striking des-