The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1937-07-15


Think what you please, both OF
you'll" she exploded. "If her word
means so much TO you-go ahead
only don't come to me with itl' A
queer laugh passed over her thin
drawn lips. THANK God for one
thing. ! won't have you paving
me any more-that's a consolation. -
"Kayl"
"Don't speak to mel" she shot
at him. you've got your own in
formation bureau beside you-talk
to herl"
and you know it's the right in
formation" Jeanne insisted.
you've cooked it up-every word
of it,"
"Then why do you admit it,"
The Northern girl advanced a step
toward the veranda. "Call out Mrs.
Carewe. She's tired of her job;
she won't be afraid to answer
questions. She'll tell you how many
times she's seen you go over to
Bruce Kenning 's-nights when she
couldn't sleep and watched you"
"Oh, the cooks word"
"A good womans world If she
had only come to me before Nc
Kenzie Joe left. Kenning never
would have gotten his hands on
that property
Kay Strengthened. White-featured,
her hands half extended as though
| they longed to claw the brown eyes
| of the woman who accused her,
| she stood moment transfixed with
anger.
but he's got it" she snapped
at last. ''And what are you going
| to do about it,"
She whirled. The door slammed.
Jack and Jeanne stood alone in the
deepening night.
I'm going to find Bruce Ken
ming" he said abruptly. This time
I'd better see him alone
She begged him to wait for morn
! ing, Jack countered with hastily
framed excuses. At last he was
alone, moving through the shadows
toward Mckenzie Joe's test shaft,
| progressing more by instinct than
by direction.
Mentality had concentrated upon
a sequence of events which now
were becoming horribly, truthfully
clear. Mckenzie Joe had been right
after all-from the very beginningl
Now the episode of the sniper
| gold was explained and the reason
| that he never again had found such
nuggets at Kay's claim. He knew
now that her placer workings had
been worthless and that they had
been sailed with metal from Ken
| ning's workings up the creek. II
| was her alibi, her excuse to thwart
any plea that Jack might make to
give up this quixotic idea, to marry
him now, and forget pride and fool.
ish inhibitions. To cover also the
matter of money, explain the pay
ment of workmen-Jack knew now
who had paid them, Bruce Ken
ming. To make Jack believe thai
| she was a trihe nearer him.. and
thus, fevered by her approach,
make him the more insensible to
trickery.
| But Mckenzie Joe had labeled the
first nugget sniper gold; which
could not possibly have come from
her claim. The mistake had mol
been made again; the gold with
which that gravel had been sailed
thereafter had been the sort of gold
that would come from gravel, moth
ing else.
| On went the reconstruction-the
well-planted fable about the English
syndicate, the plausibility and sense
of honesty established by the fail.
ure of the main line of test pits
the surprise of finding gold where
no one, even Bruce Kenning, hac
expected it, thus absolutely pre-
GLIDING the possibility of gold-bear.
ing sands in the territory where
Mckenzie Joe had put his faith.
1t was easy to reconstruct the
rest of the picture. They had played
on Joe's taciturnity and his dis
like for them. Kenning evidently
knew his breed: quick disgust, the
desire to pull out and 60 on, once
relations had become intolerable
: So Mckenzie Joe had gone. Ane
Bruce Kenning had continued, sur
reptitiously, to dig where Mckenzie
Joe had dug; mining and geological
experience had told him that Nc
Kenzie was right. Then, with tht
river bed discovered. quantity 0
screened gravel had been taken L
the worthless test pit on the bench
land and dumped there. No won
der the bottom of the pan, wheI
Jack had washed that sample, hat
been covered with gold. And nov
the real discovery was in the hand
of Bruce Kenning. Jack Hammond
had signed it over that afternoon
; He knew that already the transfe
!, had been recorded.
Suddenly Hammond crouched
alive to his surroundings. He wa
. within fifty yards of Mckenzie joe
workings. A faint sound, borne b,
the brisk wind, carried the raspini
! OF the old ladder as someone begal
an ascent of the shaft. A shadoWy