The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-05-05
Continued from page thresl

again. they were all three after me.
CIanahan taking blind shots in the
dark with his cannon as he came.
Naturally. made straight for the
wagon gate, and forgot, until l was
right there, that 1t, and the wicket
through one of the leaves. were both
locked. As shook the wicket, a bullet
from Clanahan's gun spatted into the
woodwork and stuck a splinter into
my hand. and turned and sprinted
again. this time for the gates where
the coal cars were pushed In from the
railroad yard. These. too. were shut
the nearest gondola / realized that l
was trapped. Before could climb the
high fence anywhere. they'd get me.
They came up, all three of them.
putting and blowing, while l was hid
Ing under the gondola.
ITS probably that cowboy spotter
Of Norcross. but he can't get away"
Hatch was gritting-meaning Tarbell.
probably. "The gates are locked and
we can plug him If he tries to climb
the fence. There's a gun in the scale
house. You two look under these cars
while go and get it,"
1t was up to me to move again.
Hencke was striking matches and
holding them so that Clanahan could
look under. the cars. and could feel,
In anticipation, the shock of a bullet
from the big gun In the divekeeper's
fat fist as l crawled cautiously out
on the far side. Creeping along be-
hind the string of coal cars came
presently to the great gantry crane
used for unloading the fuel. 1t was
huge travelling machine. .straddling the
tracks and good part of the yard,
and the clam-shell grab-bucket was
down. resting on its two lips op- the
ground.
At first thought of climbing to the
framework of the crane and trying to
hide on the big bridge beam. Then
l saw that the two halves of the clam
shell bucket were slightly open, Just
wide enough to let me squeeze in.
If they were looking for a full-sized
man-Tarbell. for instance, who was
as husky as farHl-hand-they'd never
think of that crack in the bucket; and
In another second l had wrfggled
through the v-shaped opening ard was
sitting bumped up In one of the halves
of the clam-shell.
That was a mighty good guess.
When Hatch came back with his gun,
they combed that coal yard with
fne-tooth comb, using a lantern that
Hatch had gotten from somewhere and
missing no hole or corner where a
man might hide, save and excepting
only the one l had pre-empted.
As 1t happened, the search wound
up finally under the crane. with the
three standing so near that I could
have reached out of the crack between
the bucket halves and touched them.
"Der tuyfel has gone NIT himself
offer der fence, yes?" puffed Henckel.
And then: "vot for iss he shoot off
dem pistols. ennahowT
Clanahan confessed, suppose be-
cause he knew he would have to, sooner
or later.
ut was hold-up," he growled. 9TH
warrants gone out av my pocket"
Hatch's comment on this was fairly
blood-curdling in Its profanity.
"Then It's up to you to get him some
other way, you laundering son Of
theft" he ragged. II don't care what
you do, but If you don't make this
country too hot to hold him. It's GO
ing to get too hot to hold youi" And
what more he was going to say. 1
don't know. for at that moment be-
lated police patrol began pounding at
the gates on the town side and want
ing to know what all the shooting was
about.
1t was after they had all gone away,
leaving the big coal yard In silence
and darkness, that got mine, good
and hard. Sitting all punched up In
the grab-bucket and waiting for my
chance to climb out and make a get
away. the common sense reaction came
and saw what had done. With the
best intentions in the world, In trying
to kill of the chance offered to the
enemy by the Oregon warrant and
the trumped-up charge of murder.
had merely saved the boss an arrest
and possible legal tangle and had
put him In peril OF his life.
(To he contfnuedl