Cleveland County herald., 1921-01-13

no proof Tonight I expect to get my proof and brought you along to help me get it.''
 The Pearlhunter briefly explained what he had chanced to learn the eve hing before after escaping from the jail.
 Had you never noticed that he comes down this way every night?' he concluded.
 "Yes. but I understood it was to see a girl"
 The Pearlhunter winced. His jaw frightened. He was thinking of the talk that had probably been bandied back and forth over the bar of the Mud hen.
 He came to feed his horse. There's no girl down here his mouths it to mentien. He'll come tonight = any minute now. Quick Out on that flat rock"
 Without a word, the sheriff bounded over the two intervening stones to the fiat rock. The Pearlhunter waited just long enough to sound the woods The noise of the falls made it impossible With a searching look back up the bluff as far as his eyes would carry in the gloom, he joined the sheriff.
 Jump. l told you how"
 A prod of the six-shooter empha- sized the command. The sheriff jumped There was nothing else to do. He was still fioundering about on the inner margin of the pool be- hind the falls when the Pearlhunter landed lightly beside him, almost up on him. The passage was dark-dark as the inside of a pistol barrel. It was very reassuring fact. It meant that there was no candle burning far ther ahead in the cave. He was in time. Making sure of that very im- portant fact, he thrust the revolver into the holster pocket at his hip, grasped the sheriff by the collar and hurried up the passage.
 By the same subtle instinct that had served him the night before, he knew when he reached the point at which the passage widened into the cave There he loosed the sheriff's collar and struck a match. The sheriff caught his breath and stared. The horse, the candle in the cranny, the saddle and spurs, the feed-all just as It had been described to him.
 T never knew there was anything like this under Fallen Rock.''
 You're probably the third man that ever did know 1t. Pick your steps across those slivers of shale there and get into that pocket behind the hay. Hurry! We mustn't show much light. He's due any minute.".
 The one match served. So urgently did the Pearlhunter consider the need of haste that before it was gone they were crowded well back in the pocket behind the hay.
 "The instant you're convinced I'm not the Red Mask, nudge me, and I'll give your revolver back. And I needn't tell you that when the time comes 10 act, we've got to act quick"
 The two men had stood in the pock- ct for what must have been half an hour, and the throb of the Pearlhunt- er's wound was becoming almost un- bearable when the horse grew sud denly quiet The Pearlhunter sank low in the cover and pulled the sheriff down beside him. A match scraped sputtering flame hunted the candle in the cranny; the cave, the horse, the jaunty form of the man they await ed sprang out of the dark.
 He came straight to the horse; the one friend absolutely true to him in all his dangerous world the one friend who still regarded him as a gentleman. The horse reached out his nose to meet him rubbed his shoulder with his head. A moment the man gave to the caress, then hurried to the corn sack, laid three ears upon the rock, and turned to the hay.
 Now was the critical instant. If they escaped his glance now-l But he was totally unsuspecting. Without raising his eyes as far as the pocket. he grabbed up handful or two of the bri@htest straws and turned back to the horse.
 "Short rations tonight, Rocket; and I'll make your toilet while you eat"
 He took down from near where the saddle hung a curry comb and brush from another of the numerous cran- nies of the cave and proceeded, with skill and quickness, to groom tne horse. Tile task coAnp.eted he laid back the brush and curry comb, and, lifting the feet of the horse examined them one by one, nail by nail, afterward running his hands down the horses limbs and lingering over each joint, finally summing up the inspection by listening with no little care to the animals breathing. It was the work of a master. The in- spection over, he took the saddle down from the wall, threw it on the horse. drew the girths, hung the brldle on the horn, unstrapped his spurs from the back of the saddle and buckled them to his heels.
 T wish I knew,' he muttered, half