The Dolores star., 1922-11-10

| state %, Colorado, 20 do your fun duty
| in arriving at your verdict.
The jury. half risen from the chairs.
! some with their left hands held high
above them. some with their right,
/ swore In mumbllng tones 20 do their
| duty. whatever that might be. The
coroner surveyed the assemblase.
First witness" he called out
Harry HarkIns!''
Harry went forward. clumslly seek.
ing the witness chair. He was qnes-
| toned regarding nothing more than
| the mere finding of the body, the iden'
| tification by means of the watch, ana
the notification of the coroner. Fair
child was called, to suffer no more
| from the queries OF the investigator
than Harry. There was pause. IT
seemed that the inquest was over A
| few people began to move toward the
! door-only to halt. The coroners
voice had sounded again:
Mrs. Laura Rodaine"
Prodded to her feet by the squint-
eyed man beside her. she rose and,
laughing in silly fashion, stumbled to
the aisle, her straying hair, her ragged
clothing. her big shoes and shuffllng
gait all blending with the Wild. eerie
look of her eyes. the constant MUNICH
ing OF the almost toothless mouth.
Again she laughed. in a vacant. EN-
barrassed manner, as she reached the
stand and held up her hand for the
administration of the oath. Fairchild
leaned close to his partner.
AT least she knows enough sor
that"
Harry nodded.
"She knows lot, that ole girl. They
say she writes down in book every
thing she does every day. But what
can she be ere to testify tOT'
The answer seemed to come In the
questioning voice of the coroner.
"Your name, please?"
Laura Rodaine. Least, that's the
name l 20 by. My real maiden name
is Laura Mastcrson. and"
"Rodaine will be sufficient. Your
age?"
81 think it's sixty-four. If I had my
book could tell. /"
"Your hook?"
"Ies, ] keep everything IN n book.
But 1t isn't here. couldn't bring it,
''The guess win be sufficient In this
case. You've lived here good many
years, Mrs. Rodaine?"
YES. Around thrty-ive. Let's see
yes, I'm sure it's thirty-five. My boy
was born here-he's about thirty and
we came here five years before that"
81 believe you told me tonight that
you have habit of wandering around
the hills?'
"Yes, I've done that do It right
alOng-I've done it ever since my hus-
band and I split up-that was just
little while after the boy was born"
Sufficient. merely wanted to es-
tablish that fact. In wandering about.
did you ever see anything, twenty
three or four years ago or so. that
would lead you to know something OF
the death of the man into whose de-
mise we are inquiring?"
81 know something ! know lot.
But I've never figured 1t was anybody's
business but my own. So haven't told
it. But l remember"
"What, Mrs. Rodaine?"
THE day Sissie Larsen was sup
posed to leave town-that was the day
he got killed"
DO you remember the date2"
"No-I don't remember that"
would II be in your book?'
"No-no-it wouldn't be in my book.
l looked"
But you remember?"
"Just like as II 1t was yesterday"
"And what you saw-did it give you
any idea"
II know what I saw"
"And did it lead to any conclusion? ?"
"Yes."
what, may l ask2'
THAT somebody had been mur-
dered!"
"Who-and by whom"
Crazy Laura munched at her tooth
less gums for moment and looked
again toward her husband. Then, her
watery, almost colorless eyes search
Ing, she began survey of the big
room. looking intently from one figure
to another. On and on-fina!ly to
reach the spot where stood Robert
Fairchild and Harry, and there they
stopped. A lean finger. knotted by
rheumatism, darkened by sun and
wind, stretched out.
"4es, know who did it, and | know
who got killed. 1t was 'Sissie' Larsen
he was murdered. The man who
did 1t was fellow named Thornton
fairchild who owned the mine-if I
amt mistaken, he was the father of
this young man"
II object!" Farrell, the attorney.
was on his feet and struggling forward,
1amming his horn-rimmed glasses into
pocket as he did $50. "This has
ceased to be an inquest; it has re-
solved itself into some sort of an in
| QUESTION