The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-12-09
CHAPTER XIII

A Confession and a Temperature
When Lands began to come to a
realization Of things as they are, he
found himself In bed.
At his stirring, somebody tiptoed
across the room to the bedside and he
saw Wally bending over him and
heard him say, THANK God. Owen,
old boy! We were beginning to think
you were never going to come back
to US! How are you feeling?"
"Like the morning after. What's the
matter with my head?"
"Oh. nothing much; just looked as
If it had been run through sausage
mill when we brought you out of the
mine. You must have had the time
of your young life with those two as
sassins."
II did," said the Berserker, to whom
recollection swas slowly returning.
Then, Fill 1t out for me. Wally. What
happened. and why did it happen? And
Is Betty all right?"
"She is. In the mine we found you
and Betty. and, little farther on,
your victims. You must have put up
a whale of a scrap with those two fell
l0ws-bOth of them with guns and you
with only your bare hands,"
"Not bare-quite; had a shovel to
begin with. But never mind the scrap.
Tell me what Candy and his gunner
were doing, or trying to do, and why
they had my black box"
Beginning at the Hillcrest visit
Markham ran rapidly over the events
of the kidnapping evening. the holdups
on the way to town. his leaving Betty
at the Stillings house and his return
to the hotel in time to witness the
arrival Of the real Fleming, Cantrell
and Martin from Louisville.
"The clerk had just told me that
you'd been called over to Starbuck's
Office; and knowing, or thinking I
knew, that Starbuck wasn't in town.
went over to, see for myself" and
then he briefed the story of the bogus
bookkeeper, and the resultant Wild
goose chase into the northern hills.
"But still you haven't told me the
why" Lands complained.
SIN coming to that. AS said,
was thrashing it out with Stillings in
the lobby of the hotel. and just as
Stillings said, Lord. wish Starbuck
were here Cousin Billy walked in on
us. Then l did what we should have
done at first; gave him the whole lay
out, beginning with the theft of the
black box. 'Canby's the man. he said /;
and in less than no time he had the
sheriff on the wire and posse sworn
in and we were on the way to the
Quavapai.
"As we were about to pass the Little
Alice, a man came running out to say
that somebody was digging into the
Alice vein from the south; that the
men in the Alice had just heard the
air drills as II they were only a few
feet away. That settled it. and with
In the next half hour everybody con-
nected with the Quavapai was under
arrest. and one of Canby's accom-.
plices had weakened and told us that
you and Betty were shut up In the old
workings At this. the posse split
half of 1t going into the old mine to
look for you two. and the other half
taking possession of the new work
ings."
"You found out the why thenY
''Yes. we found out what Candy had
done. There was no mineral IN the
Quayapai; there hadn't been from the
beginning. But Candy was stuck, him.
self, and he framed it to stick some.
body else. What he did was to drive
tunnel.all the way through the noun
tain to tap the real stuff in the Alice
When the robber tunnel got So neal
there was danger of the drilling and
blasting being heard in the Alice. he