Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-09-06
By EDISON MARSHALL

"Pll tell you all. I'm Strumburg
just as you said, and a fugitive from
justice, too. And / haven't any
thing against Southley. Even my
father couldn't have proved his
claim in a test, and he's dead. Let
me go, Ahmadl Don't raise your
talons against me-"
The wild flow of words died away,
and for an instant the form in the
shadow halted. Then it moved slow
ly forward again.
Il tell you III go away, and never
return again. We never had any
real proofs. Ahmad! Let me go!"
And at that instant i felt Alex
ander's breath against my ear. "You
heard, didn't you, Long," he whis-
pered.
"Yes-"
"Then the works done"
| felt a stir as his arm reached up
to an electric switch on the wall.
He pressed it. Unknown to me, the
wrecked lighting plant had been re.
paired. All the great chandeliers of
the library flashed on at once.
The first impression was blind
ness. But as my eyes became adj
justed to the sudden glare, | knew
at least part of the truth at last. The
form of the tiger had been most real
and convincing at the edge of the
dim and ineffective candlelight. But
it was no more terrible than the coun-
terfeit giraffes that the clowns par
ade in a circus ring, when the glare
from the chandeliers came down. Be-
fore US, stripped Of all delusion, All
mad Das rested on his hands and feet
on the floor. He held his body low,
his legs almost straight, to give the
effect of length. Over him, in a ra-
Their ingenius way, vas thrown a
great tawny tiger skin. The four
legs were fastened with some simple
device to his ankles and wrists, and
the great head, filled out with some
light substance, rested on his.
leaped and seized Alexander's
shoulders.
"Good Heavens!" l yelled in his
ear.
That's only part of it. That in
sane hoax couldn't have broken Hay
wards neck!"
But Alexander wriggled out of my
grasp.
"Of course it didn't break Hay
wards neck" he said. 1.-THE real
murderer Of Hayward slipped one ov-
err on us-impoverished some bust
ness that wasn't written in the play.
I've got the real murderer of Hay
ward, dead, down in the boat"
Alexander Pierce spent most of the
rest of the evening answering ques-
tions. There were more things to
find out than ever | thought / could
possibly learn.
First he took us down to the boat
beside the water, and lifted the tar
paulin that covered the thing in the
bottom. A dead animal lay therein
"a creature large as the largest
hound, yellow with spots of black.
1t was a powerful animal, long-claw-
ed and w~hite-fanged; and my breath
stopped at the sight of it.
"a tiger?" / demanded.
"Tiger nothing!" Alexander an
swered. "You ought to be enough of
a naturalist to know that a tiger has
stripes. This beast has spots. He
weighs two hundred pounds, and a
tiger twice as much. Besides, you
don't find tigers in Southern Flor
ida. It's plain to me, old Doc Long,
that you don't know the history Of
Florida very WELL"
Evidently | don't. / don't remem-
Der reading about such a creature
as this"
"Please speak respectfully of him.
I'd have much preferred to have let
him live, but we'll need him for
proof of that wild story we have to
tell the coroner's jury tomorrow af-
ternoon. If you remember, there
was a time when Southern Florida
was still the home of the jaguars-
the greatest of American felines."
| remembered that / had heard
something about it.
"Most of them were exterminated
a good many. years ago. You car
still find 'em in a few remote re-
gions in Southern Texas. / supposed
myself that they were all gone here
even in such a wild part of the
State as this. Long, you see here
what is probably the last of the Flor
ida jaguars-a creature as heavy as
a leopard, and one of the strongest
jawed and shouldered felines in the
world.
"And since you won't rest till /
tell you the rest of it, / might as
we'll say that this big cat was the