Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1935-05-31
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FIFTEENTH INSTALLMENT

III 49, LINZ ALA1t1I4N i
"And o, gentlemen of the Jury,
the Crown will prove that the de-
PENDANTS had a motive for the MUIR
der of this Siwash, and did in fact
kill him."
The Crown Prosecutor, Wade,
cast a heavy-lidded, mordant stare
at the jury and sat down. By con-
trast, Garnet, at an adjoining table
nearer the prisoners dock looked
like an urbane courtier.
The arrival of one of the first
upriver steamers, some weeks be-
fore, had provided the accused men
with their distinguished counsS
Garnet's mission in the North had
proved to be a political one. Learn
ing, when he landed, of the charge
against the two partners, he had
offered to undertake their defense.
Maitland looked older for the
two months of prison life that had
elapsed since his arrest. The sha-
dowed look in his eyes, however,
was not wholly due to the ordeal
ahead of him; it came from that
was past.
A weather. beaten man he had
never seen was being sworn in.
Garnet had resumed his seat. Fall
Ions bulky figure slouched at ease
toward the center of the row of
witnesses. Nearer, Maitland's eyes
rested on Pete, with the emotion
which the sight of a loved and
loyal friend brings to a man in
trouble. A wave of tenderness
brimmed his heart. Pete wore a
summary frock Of light blue; her
golden hair was longer than he re-
membered it, and arranged in a
more feminine fashion. 1t was his
first glimpse of her in girls attire,
and she was altogether lovely.
Police records of the finding of
the natives body that Spring in the
breaking ice of Lake Lebarge, had
established the fact of murder. The
Siwash had been killed by a "A
bullet which struck him in the
back. His corpse had been dis
posed of through an air hole in the
ice, and had lain in this conceal
ment through the winter. Its hav-
ing floated finally to the surface
was due to the rising warm cur-
rents from the lake bed.
Wade's first witness was a trader
from the old post at Ogilive on the
Yukon. The trader told a very
queer story, which went back into
earlier Yukon days, and rehearsed
the tale which the accused men had
already heard from Drew.
While some of this testimony
was open to objections, Garnet
passed the witness without cross
examining, and Wade called a sea
soned-looking officer of the
Mounted Police.
Wade here produced the furs
and mukluks Dalton had worn. He
compared them with those taken
from the body of the murdered In
dian to prove, by an identical
working of the bead ornaments,
that they had been fashioned by
the same native hand.
Garnet had passed this evidence
without question. Wade called
Corporal Cathcart to the stand.
Cathcart explained that the
tracks tangled in an odd way
through the timber that sheltered
the camp, and were difficult to
read. He told of finding a pool
of blackening snow crystals near
the head of the lake, covered but
showing through in a dark shadow.
He had then sought out the de-
PENDANTS and questioned them.
"They said they had met no
Siwash, and showed an unwilling
ness to say anything more. When
l asked them about the blood dust,
they explained it as the blood Of a
caribou they had shot, and pro-
duced a fresh hide to prove it.
Their carbine, a "a calibre gun,
had not been cleaned, and still
showed a powder mark"
The witness told of his visit to
the cabin in the wane of the biz
zard, while Speed was being sent to
Skagway. Before he reached the
door, a Siwash' dog had skunk out
of his way around the cabin wall,