Vernon Parish Democrat., 1920-09-02

ing he gained partial glimpse CT the
interior. There were three men in the
! room, and WestcOtt drew a quick
breath of surprise as h OTecognized the
two faces fronting him-Bill Lacy at
the desk, pipe in his mouth, his feet
elevated on a convenient chair, and
BeatOn, leaning back against the wall,
apparently half asleep with his eyes
closed. The third man was facing
Lacy, but concealed by the stove; he
| seemed to be doing the talking, and
held paper in his hand resembling q
map. Suddenly he rose to his feet and
bent over the edge of the desk, and
Westcott knew him-Enright!
Desperately determined to learn
what was being said, the miner thrust
the heavy blade Of his jackknife be-
meath the ill-t1tting window sash and
succeeded in nOiselessly lifting it a
scant half inch. He bent lower, the
speakers voice clearly audible
through the narrow opening. "There
was a dead man back East, wasn't
thereP
What difference does that maker"
'None, particularly, except to nat
urally increase the worth of my serv-
ices. I'm not sQueamish about stiffs,
but like to know what 1 am doing.
What are you holding on to this other
fellow for?"
Enright walked nervously across
the room, chewing at his cigar, only to
come back and face his questioner.
"Well. suppose I might as well tell
| you" he said almost savagely. you're
in too deep already to wiggle out. We
made rather q mess Of it in New York,
and only a bit Of luck helped us
through. We had the plans ready for
three months, but nothing occurred to
give us a chance. Then all at once
Cavendish got his first telegram from
| Westcott and decided to pull out, not
telling anyone where he was going. He
employed me to draw thewill, and told
me he planned to leave the city for
some time. AS soon as could told
the others over the phone, and we got
busy"
Lacy stared incredulous.
"And there hasn't been no killin'T"
Enright shook his head.
"NOt by any Of u.s."
"Then how about that dead man in
New York-the one that was buried
for Cavendish? Oh, read about
that. BeatOn showed it to me in the
paper"
''That's the whole trouble" Enright
answered graYely. 81 do not know
who he was, or how he came there.
All I know is, he was not Frederick
Cavendish. But his being found there
dead in Cavendish's apartments, and
identified, puts us in an awful hole,
If the rest Of this affair should ever
become known. Do you seer The
charge would be murder, and how are
we going to hold the real Cavendish
alive, and not have it come out2"
"The other One-the-stiff-was
CavendishY
Certainly not; you know where
Cavendish is"
"I never saw Fred Cavendish;
wouldn't know him from Adams off
OK. I've got the fellow Beaton turned
over to me-"
"wen, he's the man; the dead one
isn't"
"How do you knowT"
Because Frederick Cavendlsh
bought and signed a round-trip ticket
to Los Angeles, and boarded the mid
night train My man reported that to
me, and Beaton just had time to catch
the same train before 1t pulled out.
Isn't that true, Ned?"
eyes it is, and never left him."
"But," insisted Lacy stubbornly,
"did you see the dead One2"
Eyes. kept away from the in
quest, but attended the funeral to get
a glance at his face. 1t seemed too
strange to be true. The fellow wasn't
! Cavendish; I'd swear to that, but he
did look enough like him to fool any
body who had no suspicious aroused
Dammit, it's spoOky, the very thought
Of it."
"But you saw a differenceT'
Because 1 looked for it; 1 never
would have otherwise. But anyway,
1 was already convinced that he was
not the man. am not sure what I
should have thought If had met him
alive upon the street."
Lacy appeared amused, crossing the
room. and expectOrating into the open
stove.
"You fellows make me laugh" he
said grimly. 81 am hardly idiot
enough to, be taken in by that sort
of old wives tale. However, if that
is your story, stick to it-but if you
were to ever tell 1t in court, it would
take jury about five minutes to bring
in their verdict. Let's get to busi-
ness. You want me to help out in
sort Of accident, l presume-a fall
over cliff, or the premature discharge
of blasting powder; these things are
quite common out here. And to pre-
vent any stir at this end, before you
fellows get hold of the stun, you want
me to call of my working gang and
let Westcott alone. Come, now, speak