The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1922-09-29

The Big>Town Round Up
BY WILLIAM MACLEOD RANE
II cprKnyw mN


Forget it." Durand brushed the
plea away with a motion of the hand.
It's your cell pal I've come to take a
look at-the one who's goin' to the
chair"
With one 1.-THE movement Clay swung
down to the floor. He sauntered for
ward to the grating, his level gaze on
the ward boss.
shiny, this fellows rotten" he said
evenly and impersonally. Hes not
only a crook, but he's crooked crook.
He'd throw down his own brother If it
paid him."
Durands cruel lips laughed. "Your
pals a little worried this mornin'.
Shiny. He amt slept much. You see
the bulls got him right. It's the death
chair for him and no lifeboat in sight"
Clay leaned against the bars negli-
gently. He spoke with touch of lazy
scorn. .See those scars on his face,
Shiny-the one on the cheek bone and
the other above the eye. Ask him where
he got 'em and how?"
Jerry cursed. He broke into a storm
of threats, anger sweeping over him
In furious gusts. He had come TO
make sport of his victim and Lindsay
somehow took the upper hand at once.
He had this fellow where he wanted
him at last. Yet the mans soft voice
still carried the note of easy contempt.
If the Arizonan was afraid, he gave no
least sign of it.
you'll sing another tune before I'm
through with you," the prize-fighter
prophesied savagely.
The westerner turned away and
swung back to his upper berth. He
knew, what he had before suspected,
that Durand was going to frame him
if he could. That information gained,
the man no longer interested him.
Sullenly Jerry left. There was no
profit in jeering at Lindsay. He was
too entirely master of every situation
that confronted him.
Within the hour Clay was wakened
from sleep by another guard with word
that he was wanted at the office of the
warden. He found waiting him there
Beatrice and her father The girl
bloomed in that dingy room like cac-
tus in the desert.
She came toward him with hands ex-
tended, in her eyes gifts of friendship
and faith.
"Oh, Clay!" she cried.
"Much obliged, little pardner." Her
voice went to his heart like wafer to
the thirsty roots of prickly pears. A
warm glow beat through his veins. The
doubts that had weighed on him dur
ing the night were gone. Beatrice be-
Ifeved in him. All was well with the
world.
He shook hands with Whitford
Blamed good of you to come, sir"
"Why wouldn't we conner" demanded
the mining man bluntly. Were here
to do what we can for you"
Little wells of tears brimmed over
Beatrice's lids. 1--WE been so worried"
"Don't you. It'll be all right"
Strangely enough he felt now that it
would. Her coming had brought rip
ping sunshine into drab world.
81 won't now. I'm going to get evil
dence for you. Tell us all about it,
"Why, there isn't much to tell that
you haven't read in the papers prob
ably. He came a-shootin' and was hit
by chair"
"Was it you that hit him?"
"Wouldn't 1 be justified?' he asked
gently.
But did your
For a moment he hesitated, then
made up his mind swiftly. "Yes," he
told her gravely.
She WINGED. ''You couldn't help it.
How did you come to be thereY'
Il just dropped in"
"Alone?"
"Yes."
He had burned the bridges behind
him and was lying glibly. Why bring
Bromfield into it? She was going to
marry him in few days. If her fiance
was man enough to come forward and
tell the truth he would do so anyhow.
1t was up to him. Clay was not going
to betray him to Beatrice.
'aThe paper says there was some one
with you"
"Sho! Reporters sure enough have
lively imaginations.
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