White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-07-21

"That's bulls eye shot, Sam. They
wouldn't. So we know Wills was
alone"
II reckon"
"Another point. Who shot wills?
Matt Stark didn't. Phil didn't. Miss
Julia didn't. You hadn't got here, so
you didn't"
Sam scratched his head. If this was
a riddle he did not know the answer.
Blamed If I know. Who didY
II don't claim to know-yet. But
I'll say one thing. It amt proved to
my satisfaction that the same man
didn't shoot both the old man an wills
Mccain"
"Now looky here, Dave. amt talk
in about the fellow who shot Mccain.
But take the old man. He gives it out
in cold type that he aims to kill Wills
Mccain on sight. All right. He hears
Wills is fixin' up this head gate an he
lights out hell-for-leather to get him.
We all figure there's liable to be trouble
between them an we get busy to head
it off. But we're too late When we
get here the old mans dead an Wills
Mccain Is standin' over him with a
rifle in his hands,"
"An open-an'-shut case, a fellow
would say first off," the little Texan
agreed with smile. But look at the
other side. McCann's life was full up
with shells. Not one gone. Are you
askin' me to believe that he was pack
in one extra shell in his pocket an
that he waited to put it in the maya
zine after he had shot Stark before
comm into the open? 1t don't look
hardly likely, does it? This Wills Nc
Cam. I size him up fighter but a
game one. If he killed Stark it was
in the open, an don't reckon the old
man was give chance for his white
alley. He was plugged when he wasn't
expecting it."
1--WE don't even know that. Maybe
they met right here an Wills beat him
to it."
mo. He was shot from that ditch
likely"
"Why from the ditch an not from
the brush?"
Stone showed his companion clump
of prickly pear standing on a sand
hillock. Through two Of the thick
leaves a neat small hole had been
bored
Here's where the bullet went after
it passed through Mats head"
"Great snakes I'll bet you're right"
The wranglers forehead wrinkled in
thought. "An' if it did the fellow must
a-been lying in the ditch over there or
mighty close to it."
They walked over to the irrigation
ditch.
water runnin' in it," commented
Stone. "D'you happen to notice
whether there was any in 1t when you
drove across with the buckboard?"
mary a drop. The ditch was dry
as that wash there"
"Funny. Who opened the lateral
headgate, do you reckon? An why?
Here's the point, Sam, an it sticks out
like sore thumb. The slit-eyed SON
of-a-gun that shot the old man left a
heap of tracks here in the soft sand at
the bottom Of the ditch an in the clay
lust above. He had to light shuck
real sudden when Phil an Miss Julia
drapped in on him unexpected. But he
was heap worried about them foot
prints. So he beats it back later an
turns the water into the ditch so no.
body can cut sign on him.
"You figure maybe the McCanns-"
did l mention the McCanns?" the
little Texan asked in soft drawl.
He went over the sandy soil and
studied it almost in microscopic de-
tail. He spent nearly an hour at this
before he remounted and rode away.
Jasper Stark appeared at the Circle
Cross toward evening. He staggered
into the house with the manner Of a
master.
Julia met him and drew him into
the big room that served as the family
gathering place.
"Oh JAS" she walled. isn't it aw-
ful?"
II just heard" he told her. "Been
roundin' up cattle all day to sell. Eel
low told me when got back to Mesa.
I came right out"
Her memories flashed back to what
her younger brother had said. "Phfl
thought he saw you near the Three
Cottonwood. Were you up that way?''
Observation-Disclosures