The Ely miner., 1930-02-14

poisoned Martha. who strangled Miss
CannezianO and her father. Is right
here on this place. My work from
now on is to get the proof. Ii you
would help me. instead Of"
Sam interrupted. his whole body
straining forward with his eagerness.
'Tell us who he is, and where he is.
and We'll help you, right enough"
81 can't tell you. Not unless you
want to have still another murder on
the Desert Moon ranch. But you can
help me. First, by keeping the dis
covery of the poison q secret Sec
ond, by allowing every one else on the
place to suppose that l am still in a
state of entire bafflement concerning
the crime Third, and most i'm
portant, perhaps, by having patience
with me-"
"Ye'a," Sam said, ''and while we are
sitting around, having patience, this
bird will walk off to some green hill
far away. think the boys are do
this birds slicker. What's to keep
him from, say. dressing In my clothes
some night and riding merrily away
on Bobbie Burns or Wishbonef All
he'd have to do is to give the boys
a high-sign and they'd let him ride TO
HI, If they thought he was me. An
other thing-I amt trust all my
punchers. Some of them are greasers.
some half-breeds Money, and not
much of it, talks pretty loud to some
of those boys"
"At present, the person | suspect
has no intention of leaving the place"
"When you don't know anything
else, how can you knew that?"
81 didn't say that didn't know any
thing else"
"Do you know, and will you tell me.
why yOu can't put this fellow where
the dogs won't bite him, while you
are collecting the proof, evidence, and
so on that you think you need?"
"For one reason, because am not
a police detective. Sometimes 1t Is
necessary to use their methods of ar
resting each suspect and getting the
evidence afterward-third degrees, so
on. That method. by the way, ac-
counts for the number Of criminals
who are able to make complete es-
capes. II Is stupid, bungling method
-and a brutal one. detest 1t. ]
have used it oI.y twice In the seven
years that | have been in this work.
| used it then because 1t was neces-
sary. will not use It now, because
It Is not necessary. This case will
come to the grand jury complete, with
indsputable proofs. If had known
suspected l mean, before Mr.. Can
neziano was killed. what | now sus-
pect-" She stopped short, evidently
afraid of saying too much
"Ye'a," Sam argued "but what
can't get, is how you think you are
ever going to find the proof.
"Well-" she began. Because" she
finished, quite tartly, and walked oui
of the room.
"'Because, Sam mimicked, almost
before she was out of hearing dis
tance. "It was black day for me!
and for the Desert Moon, when | put
this thing up to because woman"
more than half agreed with him,
but [ was not going to let him know
it. "Did you notice." | questioned
chiefly to turn his mind from the
subject of because" women, "that she
kept saying that she thought the per-
son she suspected was on the placei
mean-she didn't say that he was
living in the house."
"Housel HI. or course she
didn't say house. Why should she say
house? Haven't we been over and
over IT? Aren't we fair frazzled out,
every last one of us. from climbing
up those front and back stairs. with
our minds, all day lorg and half the
night? Counting minutes, counting
seconds; going to the ba, n and back,
over and over. Nobody who lives I'm
this house could have done 1t. That
is settled. That is fact. Not unlesl
some one of us was able to be In two
Dlaccs at the same time between four
and five O'Clock that day."
Something clicked in my mind. !
DECLARE to goodness. 1 felt the click,
plain as a twinge Of tOothache. 4
scared me- put both my hands over
the place in the front of my head. !
felt as dazed, and as shaken, as IL |
had been sleep walking. and had
bumped into door, sn the dark. and
wakened TO find myself In strange
brightly lighted room.
(TO BE CONTINUED)