The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-07-11

tue COOT Vi TIE liiii, vi COIlpdllN Will
Musgrave: Maythorne gave Crole a
sort of informing smile as we came up
to them.
''Mr. Musgrave has just made a dis
covery," he said. "His gun is miss
ing"
mot three months since ! gave
twenty pounds for it," Musgrave NUT
tered. 'Very near brand new it was
Couldn't have believed 1t could ha'
been taken from there, neither"
sand where was it taken from?"
asked Crole.
sit was taken from the private sit
ting room that Mr.. Holt there, and the
dead gentleman had" replied the land
lord, with a glance at me. Hung on
the wall, on two hooks it was, just
inside the door-you may ha' noticed
it, Mr.. Holt?"
"Yes, / noticed a gun there, GER
tainly," l replied. Butt hadn't no.
ticed that it had gone"
'Nor me-only / haven't been into
that room this last two or three days."
said Musgrave. 1T was the missis
that found IL out-She came to me
about it just now. OF course, some o.
them drover chaps poked their noses
in there, and. seeing nobody about
helped themselves to it!-easy enough
that would be-"
"Was the gun loaded?" asked May
thorne. 81 suppose not?"
swell, ii was" admitted MuSgrave.
II kept ii loaded-you never know
what you may want iD a lonely place
like this"
Dangerous, though, to keep loaded
gun about, don't you think?" said
Maythorne, good humoredly. "By the
bye, what sort of cartridges were
there in your gum"
"Kynoch'S, number twelves," replied
Musgraye, promptly. always use
those"
THAT might help you in tracing the
gum" remarked MaythOrne. You
should tell the police that" He
turned from the landlord towards the
moor, motioning Crole and myself to
follow him. I'm going TO have a
look at this Reiver's den," he said.
Better come with me. odd, isn't it,
that MusgraYe's gun, loaded with num-
Der twelves, should disappear on the
very night ON which MaZaroff is shot
dead? Didn't you tell US, Mr.. Holt,
that the doctor showed you some shot
which he called number twelves?"
"He did," / assented.
81 suppose this doctor-what's his
name - Eccleshare? = knows number
;welves from number tens?" he sug-
gested.
Hes shooting man, himself" !
replied. staying at High Cap lodge
with a shooting party"
"Ah, then he'd know what he was
talking about" he remarked, and
turned from me to Crole. 'Well-and
Mrs. Elphinstone?"
Crole told him all about our doings
at Marrasdale tower as we walked
across the moor. He listened and said
little. But i noticed that his eyes
grew brighter and his whole air more
alert when we came TO Reiver's den
a black, gloomy, eerie; just the place
for murderouS deeds. There was a
local policeman on guard there; he
showed us the place where Mazaroff's
body had lain and been discovered.
This was amongst a mass of gorse and
bramble at the foot of an almost per-
pendicular rock, some thirty to forty
feet in height.
MY mate, what found him." the
policeman said, in confidential wills
per, she says as how when he first
come across him, he thought as the
gentleman had fallen over them
crags in the darkness. But of course
he hadn't-and cause why? If he'd
ma fallen from there, he'd ha' broken
his neck and every bone in his body;
big, heavy man like that he was. And
there wasn't no bones broken. My i'm
preston, gentlemen, is as how he was
murdered first, and carried here after
ward. Look how these here shrubs is
trampled down.
Maythorne was closely examining
the surroundings: | noticed that he,
too, was apparently struck by the evil
dent trampling of the gOrse and bram-
Bile. Once or twice he stopped, as if
TO look closer at his objects-once
saw him pick something from the
ground and thrust it into his waist
coat pocket. Presently he came back
to where Crole and | stood with the
policeman.
IF a gun were fired in this ravine,
those rocls would give back a fine re-
VERDE ation," he observed. Then he
looked at the policeman. "You didn't
hear anyth'~g that night?" he asked
with a smile.
Il heard nothing" agreed the police
man. Don't know nobody as did,
neither. There's a cottage by here
just back O. that ciump o. beech-the
folks there, they didn't hear nothing.
Not-nothing whatsoever"
"Oh, there's a cottage there, is
there?" said MaythOrne. And who
lives in it,"
sold shepherd and his missis-Jim
Cowie, his name is" replied the police
man. 81 was talking TO him about this
affair just now-they heard nothing"
Maythorne turned away, toward the
clump of beech. We followed him,
along a narrow track that ran at the
foot of the rocks under the lower
branches of the trees, and went up a
f1apopd nath TO the cottage door.
Maythorne knocked; woman's voice
babe us enter.
Inside, at a round table drawn up
in front of turf fire, an old man and
an old woman sat. At sight of us, the
old woman rose, politely, but the old
man stuck to his seat, cycling us with
no friendly glance. He got in the