Nogales international., 1936-09-19


Speed and Maitland for the murder (of which
they are innocent) of a Siwash on Lake Lebarge.
NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY.
"And so, gentlemen of the Jury,
the Crown will prove that the de-
PENDANTS had,a 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 up
river steamers, some weeks before,
had provided the accused men with.
their distinguished counsel. Gar
nets 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 OF
fered 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 one that
was past.
A weather-beaten man he had
never seen was being sworn in.
Garnet had resumed his seat. Fal-
Ions bulky figure slouched at ease
toward the center of the row of wit
nesses. 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
summery froek of light blue; her
golden hair was longer than he re-
membered it, and arranged in a
more feminine fashion. 1t was ms
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 bull
let which struck him in the back.
His corpse had been disposed of
through all air hole in the ice, and
had lain in this concealment through
the winter. Its having foated FIN
ally to the surface was due to the
rising warm currents from the lake
bed
Wade's first witness was a trader
from the old post at Ogilvie 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 Mount
ed Police.
Wade here produced the furs and
mukluks Dalton had worn. He
compared them with those taker
from the body of the murdered In.
/ dian to prove, by an Identical work
ing of the bead ornaments, thai
they had been fashioned by the same
native hand.
Garnet had passed this evidence
without question. Wade called Cor
poral Cathcart to the stand.
Cathcart explained that the tracks
tangled in an odd way through the
timber that sheltered the camp, anc
were difficult to read He told o1
finding a pool of blackening snow
crystals near the head of the lake
covered but showing through in {
! dark shadow He had then sought
out the defendants and questioned
! them.
They said they had met nc
Siwash, and showed an unwilling
ness to say anything more. When
I asked them about the blood dust
they explained it as the blood of q
/ caribou they had shot, and pro
duced a fresh hide to prove it.
| Their carbine, 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, and
he caught only a storm-whitened
glimpse of it. The discovery that
the defendants had malmute dog
was, of course, startling, and a fact
of great impor ance. Maitland
when asked where it came from
claimed to have found it astray, not
! long after his partner shot the Carl
bon Oh LAX L.h7rgc.
''In the meantime, the Siwaeh' s
body was iQHad u the breaking ice