White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1926-04-02

that want to, come and take look at
them"
There were none who did not want
to- Excited, noisy, quarrelsome, or
silently intent, according to their ma
lures, the men passed around on
either side of the cabin to the rear
of it. Here the slope continued for
hundred yards to the dege of Rag
amuffin Gulch. The surface of the
ground was bare and frost had bit
ten into it for a fraction of an inch,
but beneath it was soft as putty
The crowd grew silent as it looked
on the visible evidence of deaths ap-
proach-a line of frozen footsteps ex-
tending from the gulch to the rear
door of the cabin and back again.
plumb careless Of the man,
wasn't it?" said the sheriff. Maybe
he didn't know the ground was
freezin' = it wouldn't have been If
there'd been low fog, as usual. And
If it wasn't freezin' 1t would have
been too wet to hold the tracks, be-
! cause of the water drainin' down from
the snow in the woods above the road.
It'll be comm down in two hours from
now like a sluice.
Spencer, I'm goin' to ask you to
take measurements of 'em while they
last Get the pattern of the hobnails,
and everything. But of course well
try to get Arnett here before they
melt. :. l s'pose you all see just
why the murdered must we made
those tracks,"
1t was plain enough to most OF
them; and those who didn't under
stand soon gathered the logic of the
matter from the others. That is, al
but the stranger, whose quiet pres
ence was beginning to be noticed by
quite few. Most of the time he
had been watching Helme with half
humorous, half interrogating gray
eyes, in the depth Of which was al
ways curious glinting, like the re
Election from FURNISHED steel.
Gust why?" he asked. His tom
was of the mildest, yet even so Their
was cutting, compelling edge in hi
voice.
Helme bent on him slightly tol
Grant look
Its like this, stranger. Evel
when it's clear, the ground don't be
gin to freeze these nights till nearl.
midnight These tracks must W
been made after midnight, after tn
seepage had been stopped iron
above. Now, nobody's maxim socia
calls in Cougar at that hour, and eff
pecially they're not creepin' up fror
the gulch and back again unless the
are afraid of bein' SEEN"
II see," said the stranger. Than
you"
He turned from the sheriff
. studying the men about him inc
: fensively and yet searchingly. 7
one who did not know that electio
was only two days off, and that A
nett's conviction of murder woul
certainly disorganize the reform ell
ment and extend the regime {
Helme and Helme's supporters il
Il definitely, the lineup in the crow
4 would have seemed strange. Usual
4 the ruffian element in camp liA
II Cougar was rather bent on helping
A murderer escape than on hangin
him. The stranger seemed to be me
itating on the curious reversal of tn
rule, when Helme spoke up briskly.
Now to get Arnett. No." as
dozen or more volunteered, "two'n |
enough. Clark, I'll take you, and 20
+, Jack" The latter was one of Helme
! deputies.
A minute later they had starts
! away from the cabin westward -alo1
| the road, toward where thin curl
| smoke against white ridge about
| mile away marked the location of A
! netts cabin.
! Behind them the crowd, increase
! all the time by accessions from tt
}. upper diggings, grew more dangero1