Licking Valley courier., 1922-05-04

allow Should Know Who He ls2" He
Asked.
on the Martha COrvet years ago who
looked like him; or looked like what
this fellow may have looked like once.
can't be sure"
He turned to Constance. you're
going home, Connie? I'll see you over
there. I'll come back about this after
ward. Conrad"
Alan followed them to the door and
closed 1t after them. He spread the
blankets over Luke. Luke's coats,
which Alan had removed, lay upon
chair, and he looked them over for
marks of identification. A side pocket
produced an old bIfar; there was moth
ing else. Then Alan walked restless
ly about, awaiting Spearman. Spear
man, he believed, knew this man;
Spearman had not even ventured upon
modified denial until he was certain
that the man was dead; and then he
had answered so as not to commit
himself, pending learning from Con-
stance what Luke had told.
But Luke had said nothing about
Spearman. 1t had been Corvet, and
COrvet alone, Of whom Luke had
spoken; 1t was Corvet whom he had
accused; 1t was Corvet who had given
him money. Was 1t conceivable, then,
that there had been two such events In
Corvet's lifep That one of these
events concerned the Mlwaka and
Spearman and some One-some one
with bullet hole above the eye
who had "gOt" Corvet; and that the
other event had concerned Luke and
something else2 1t was not conceiva-
BILE, Alan was sure; II was all one
thing. If Corvet had to do with the
Miwaka, then Luke had had to do with
1t too. And Spearman? But If Spear
man had been involved In that guilty
thing, had not Luke known it7 Then
why had not Luke mentioned Spear
man2 Or had Spearman not been real
ly involved? Had 1t been, perhaps,
only evidence Of knowledge Of what
Corvet had done that Spearman had
tried to discover and destroyf &
Alan went to the door and opened
It. as he heard Spearman upon the
steps again. Spearman waited only
until the door had been reclosed be-
hind him.
"Well, Conrad what was the idea of
bringing Miss Sheriff. into this2'
81 didn't bring her in; I tried the
best could to keep her out"
"0ut of what-eXactlyW
"You know better than I do. You
know exactly what II Is, You know
that man, Spearman; you know what
he came here for. ] don't mean money
l mean you know why he came here
for money, and why he got 1t. tried
as well as could, to make him tell
me; but he wouldn't do 1t. There's
disgrace of some sort here, of course
, disgrace that involves my father and
l think, you too If you're not guilty
with my father, youIl help me now; Il
you are guilty, then, at least, your re
fusNl to help will let me know that"
81 don't know what you're talking
about. told you this man may have
been a wheelsman on the COrvet;
don't know more about him than that
| don't even know that certainly. o.
course, knew Ben Corvet was paying
blNckmail; I've known for years tha
he was giving up money to some one
| don't know who he paid It to; or fo
what"
The strain Of the Inst few hours wa
telling upon Alan; his skin flushed ho
and cold by turns, lie paced up ant
down while he controlled himself.
THAT'S not enough Spcarmnn," h,
said finally. "I-Ive felt you, some
how underneath all these things. Th
first time | saw you, you were In thi
house doing something you ought no
to have been doing; yuu fought M
/ then; you would have killed me U'he
than not get away. Two weeks nso
some one attacked me ON the street
for robbery they said; but | know l
wasn't robbery"
"You're not so crazy as to be trylni
! TO involve ne In that"
There came a sound to them iron
tie hall, sound Enthusiastically denoi
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