Arizona state miner., 1926-10-16
BY
Will Irwin
Copyright by Will Irwin
WNU Service

| tHe CROOK OF MS Ioft arm about
Charles neck. had with his right
, arm laid across Charles elbow a
hoOklike grip. Shorty leaped from
his saddle, hung like a squat bulldog
to the bits of the snorting double
loaded horse.
The gag-quick-" he cried. And
as my own horse SHE'D again into the
shrubbery, horsemen and footmen
crowded past me. I saw Charlie, with
the cowboy still hanging like a bar
nacle to his back, tumble into the road
way; saw a confused struggle in the
shadows by the ground Then Charlie
Meek was lifted to his feet. l dis
mounted now; drew near. His arms
were trussed behind him; his light
eyes stared with inexpressible terror
from a gray face; his jaws were num-
bling and SOLDERING over the wooden
gag, as though he were trying fran
t1cally to speak. Shorty poked a gun
into his ribs.
Shut up" he said, ''or you'll cash in
premature. We've learned all we
wanted to know about you. In case
you're mixed up in your mind about
these proceedings, let me inform you
that the 'one-two, one signal means
scatter out and hide and was fred
by somebody in the posse-meanin'
you-after the last stage robbery. And
'One-twO, One-two-three' means all
clear, git to the claim 1t was fired
similar q ho hnl6 ~ hn
wall Jackson payroll. We were d-n
certain you was the party that fired it.
Now we've got you, dead" The me-
chanical mouthing at the gag stopped;
Charles jaws seemed to drop and set;
he sagged down onto the shoulders Of
the men supporting him. "And you
tried to hitch the blame onto that
poor fool, Chris McGrath ~ concluded
Shorty. He turned to the posse, now
grouped about him on foot STEADY,
boys, and keep your guns quiet I'm
goin' to repeat that signal just to
make sure" He drew a second re-
volver; aiming at the bole of a tree,
he famed his hammer in five shots
with that same rhythm-"pop-pop
pop-poppOp!"
Now" said Shorty as the reverbera-
tions died out, leave your horses
here. Hitch those that won't stand
You, Matt"-this to the cowboy
you're guard to this prisoner. Bring
him and his horse along But keep
to the rear so you won't show. If he
tries any monkey-business, kill him.
Don't anybody try to git ahead of me
I've looked over the land" His eye
fell on me. you leave your horse.
And you keep entirely to the rear
You amt in this" Something of
Shorty's old suspicion seemed to
sharpen his black eyes as he added:
Orders is to shoot anybody who tries
to spoil this performance" The posse
shifted SiX-shOOters to workable posi-
tions, drew rifles from the scabbards
Of their saddles and hitched their
mounts to bushes.
Come on!" cracked Shorty's voice.
He turned round the thick bole of
pine, ducked between two bushes. The
posse followed in single file; I, as or
dered at the rear. Some twenty yards
of tiptoeing through the sparse under
brush, and we had taken an abrupt
turn TO the right on a well-defned trail.
Behind me l could hear the padding
of the led horse. Once Charles voice
mumbled through the gag, and the
cowboy muttered "Shut upr' could
imagine the swift motion toward his
gun.
The trail came out into an open dip.
Beyond rose a low, sharp ridge,
bristling with dwarf frs which topped
thick underbrush. And no one was
watching me. Even the cowboy guard
ing Charlie Meek had his eyes on the
focus of interest. Fully realizing that
was taking a chance with my life
and for the moment wholly Indifferent
i dipped into the underbrush at the
left of the clearing, worked as quietly
as | could through it, came out at last
into a trail, evidently an offshoot of
the one down which we had marched.
1t ran in the general direction which
| wanted to follow Suddenly, l was
aware that there was no longer a hill
side at my right, but the bright morn
ing air. l dropped at the foot of y
spruce which edged the trail, crouched
among its low-lying branches. In the
dim light l reflected, I must be invis-
ible. l looked about me-
Below lay a bowl of the mountain
side, traversed by the head waters of
Forty-Rod creek. At the bottom of
the bowl stood a prospect hole with
winch and bucket, beside small dump
Of yellow earth and red rock. Instinct
and the lay of the land told me that
this was the center of interest, the
focus of those invisible eyes along the
ridge.
lay and waited-five minutes per
haps, though it seemed hours.
The claim below lay deserted-or
was it? My perceptions sharpened by
all hateful emotions and now by sus-
pense, l felt about it a sense of life
of interior movement. Somehow it
seemed inhabited, packed, a-quiver
1, e. I