Evening star., 1947-11-09
A Short Story

A Short Story
TTARv PoLLARDs execution for August 18th On
August lst, at hgh timbered of Polards
ranch, named Ike Enge held in his hand scrap of
writing which, if pubicized in time would promptly estab
lsh that it was Poards neghbor, Mike Yost, who had
murdered Joe Medina.
1t was Engles purpose make the evidence public;
though Poas neck the higher they hanged Pollard
the better it would suit Enge Being unsoca scamp
threetme loser fugitive from fourth ofense Ike hated
the even than hated Pollard To make the
lose face also end with Enge So his scheme to
send evidence of Polards innocence to the aw-b make
arrived too late Then let the courts blush and squm
Enge could not wait with safety till after the 10Th and
then mail the evidence anonymously For this very night
he leaving for hdeout deep in Mexico If he his
message from there, posma would indicate the direction
of his fight.
with etsharp face Ike Enge emerged
from aspen park and approached mountain waterhole
with salt trough by it In the trough the typound
block of suphuated stock salt which Pollard ranch hand
had recently placed there 1t brckhard ndestructbe
by rain weather commercial product commonly found
by water-hole any modern western ranch
He stopped by the trough and turned the salt block upside
down. Then with auge he bored hole four inches Deep
and reamed it to make snug fit for empty "A calbre
rifle cartridge After making cigaretesize roll of the ev
dence he placed in the empty cartridge and poked the
ridge into the hole in the salt block Carefully he sted auger
filings back into the hole sealing it effectively Then he set
the block right-sde-up in the trough.
hundred-odd ranged in this mountain pasture,
which meant that in time the salt would be licked completely
away would melt like block of ice, except that while ice
would melt in single day. the reduction of this salt block
to its last cumb would take month weeks Ultimately
Pollard hand would with block and find brass
rifle shell loose in the trough Some time in September prob
ably But by then Harv Pollard would be hanged and buried
Two miles below in the valley Engle could the red
roofs of the Pollard ranch He could imagine the gloom there
Polards wife and waiting with dull. mpotent
dread hoping desperately against hope that miracle
would save Harv Pollard.
CRInNNG Engle rolled cigarette. Let the Pollard outfit
sweat Once he'd worked there and Pollard had fired and
prosecuted him for stealing saddle Six months in the county
jail was all he could thank Pollard for
Still grinning, he unteheed his horse and rode up the
he'd been hiding for the past week.
Supper took his last tin of raons Then waiting for the
dark he squaed by his fire and pracsed rolling dice They
trick dice and knew how them he didn't
need to work.
The thing get Mexico before the law found
him. And before Mike Yost found him. Actually Enge
afraid of Mike Yost than of the law For only Yost
knew that Enge knew who'd really killed the sheepman
Joe Medina.
They hanging Pollard for it, and the case looked
tight Medina had made twothousand-doar sheep sale
the day of his death He shot with Poard gun and the
Polard's polch Pollard