Nogales international., 1936-09-12

didn't come ITOIu LLldC UACNlAOA'
You've got our distance and bear
ings twisted. If you have a hope
of setting us on a false trail, you
can drop it. The games up for
both of you. Should you refuse to.
return our guns and have heard the
warrant. you'll be hunted down to
a finish"
Speed picked up the police re-
volvers, emptied them and threw
them into the chasm. "It's differ
ence of opinion that makes gamb-
lin" he said. "Get me two lengths
of rawhide, Bud"
The request brought Maitland out
of a trance. Don't do it, Speed,
he said quickly. "Let the Law.
straighten this out. Investigations
will clear us of what they suspect." -
you've got decisions about the
Law, Bud. l can't argue with you.
1 amt got no words but lowdown
gamblers lingo, and it don't just fit
with what I'm tryin' to show. But
I've got hunch, and I'm askln' you
now, if ever you trusted pardner's
word, to take mine when l say you
amt fixed to deal with the Law.
Later maybe-not now."
Maitland was moved by the ap-
peal, but not by its logic. His eyes
were wet when he spoke. We've
reached that junction, Speed, you
once talked of. God knows I'll never
have a truer partner. You know
that if this charge were made
against you alone, and there was no
other way out than the one you say,
I'd travel any road to help you. But
to escape by using force against the
police isn't just crime that would
outlaw US for life; it's a needless
crime. Wed be giving them the
real case against us that they haven't
got. That isn't all. We couldn't
take Pete over that route, and I
can't leave her to face this alone"
Pete would have spoken, but
Speeds brooding look at her
checked the words. "How do you
figure it?"
II don't know" said Pete, unhap-
PLY. II feel that Buds right
though when he says you'd give the
Law a case"
you're an ornery young pair of
cubs" Speed muttered. .. Reckon
you can't help it, comm from where
you do. Now it's the same junction,
turned backwards, and I can be just
as damned ornery."
He pressed back the gun ham,
mers, tensely watched by the police
officer who had followed his argu-
ment with fateful interest. Speeds
eyes, however, strayed to a long
pendent spruce cone on tree near
the ledge. Without aiming, he fired.
The cone fell, clipped from the
branch, and before it reached the
snow, four quick bullets had broken
it to fragments. The remaining
shells blazed at these pieces as they
spun down the slope.
The outlaw waited, listening, till
the last echo died out of the canyon.
Slowly then, he looked at the guns,
and rubbed a spot from one of the
clean blue barrels. They were still
smoking when he handed them to
"Well, go ahead and read your
warrent about our supposed shootin'
of this man." said Speed, indicating
Dalton's body.
"We have a warrant for your ar
rest" said the mounty, "but not for
killing that man. Since you've sur
rendered, I want you to understand
that we don't railroad men, or even
arrest them, on merely presumptive
charges. We had brush with this
fugitive" nodding toward Dalton,
down the creek. It's more than
possible he was wounded by one of
our guns. The. inquest will show.
Nv warrant is to arrest you and
YOUR partner for the murder of a
Siwash on Lake Lebarge, on or
about the twentieth of last Novem-
Der. The natives body was disposed
of through a hole in the ice, and has
been recovered since the thaw."
Speeds eyes sought those of his
partner and Pete, who looked dumb
founded.
your own warrant?" he de-
manded.
mine would be sufficient. This
one happens to be signed by Cath
cart of the Mounted Police"
"Well, I'm son of al! Speed
mumbled to the hollow chasm with
a note of doom.
At the same moment, clatter in
the jackpine gulch swung their at
tention to that quarter. In these
echoing surprises they had COM
p1etely forgotten Rusty. Now
Sinking wolfish head nosed round
the cliff and covered back at sight
of the fallen body. From behind the
cliff, the strident, excited, harshly
familiar voice of Corporal Cathcart
twarged like an untuned banjo:
Get this malamute, Burke. It's the
"wolf" that gave us the blood trail
The Siwash's lead dogr
1t did not take the Mounties long
to get things In shape for the trip
down to headquarters. Pete was
delegated to serve breakfast while
the officers disposed of Dalton's
body in a crude grave near the
mountain hideout. At last they
started, Speed, closely guarded, gave
them no cause for concern. He was
meeting the law unafraid.
Continued Next Week