The Little River news., 1920-06-02
Continued from page 3

cOulu only lay Ills mana on ner SHOUT der and beg her not to cry.
 "Itll be all right. Kate. Wait till Uncle Luck comes back. He'll make 'em sick for talking about him."
 His cousin nodded, choking down her sobs. "Of course. It-itll come out all right-as soon as he finds out what they're saying. Saddle two horses right away, Bob"
 Sure. We'll soon find where he is. I bet you"
 The setting sun found their journey less than half done. Kate was tor tured with anxiety. Deep within her something denied that her father could be gone out of world so good. And if he were alive, Curly FIandrau would find him-Cmly and Dick be- tween them. Luck Cullison had plenty of good friends who would not stand by and see him WrOnged.
 Any theory of his disappearance that accepted his guilt did not occur to her mind for an instant. The two had been very close to each other Luck had been in the habit of saying smilingly that she was his jor domo, his right bower. Some share of his laWleSs temperament she inherited, enough to feel sure that this particu- lar kind of wrongdoing was impossible for him. He was reckless, sometimes passionate but she did not need to re- assure herself that he was scrupulous- ly honest.
 This brought her back to the only other tenable hypothesis-fOul play. And from this she shrank with quak- ing heart. For surely if his enemies wished to harm him they would de- strOy him, and this was a conclusion against which she fought desperately.
 The plaza clock boomed ten strokes as they rode into Saguache. Macken- zie was waiting for them on the steps of the hotel.
 "Haye they-has anything been-"
 The owner of the Fiddleback shook his grlzzled head. Not yet. Didn't you meet Curly?"
 "NO."
 "He rode out to come in with you, but if he didn't meet you by ten he was 10 come back. You took the north road, I reckon?'
 Yes.'
 He put an arm around her shoul- ders and drew her into the hotel with cheerful talk.
 Come along, Bob. We're going to tuck away a good supper first off. While you're eating, I'll tell you all there is to be tola'"
 Kate opened her lips to say that she was not hungry and could not possibly eat bite, but she thought better of it. Bob had tasted nothing since noon, and of course he must be fed
 Curly came into the room, and the girl rose to meet him. He took her little hand in his tanned muscular one, and somehow from his grip she gath cred strength.
 I'm so glad you've come" she said simply. ,e
 Pm glad you're glad" he smiled cheerfuly.
 He knew she had been crying, that she was suffering cruelty, but he of fered her courage rather than maudlin sympathy Hope seemed to flow through her veins at the meeting of the eyes. Whatever a man could do for her would be done by Curly.
 They talked the situation oyer to- gether.
 'As it looks to me, we've got to find out two things-first, what has be- come of your father and, second, who did steal that money. l don't see it yet but there's some link between the two things. I mean between the rob bery and his disappearance"
 "How do you mean?" Kate asked.
 "We'll say the robbers were his ene- mies-some of the Soapy Stone outfit, maybe. They have got him out of the way to satisfy their grudge and to make people think he did it. Unfortu- nately there is evidence that makes it look as if he might have done it- what they call c0rrobOrating testi- mony."
 What does Sheriff Bolt think?"
 Curly waved the sheriff aside. "It don't matter what he thinks, Miss Kate. He says he thinks Luck was mixed up in the holdup. Maybe that's what he thinks, but we don't want to forget that Cass .Fendrick made him sheriff and your fat.er fought him to