Evening star., 1950-09-16

THE STORY THUS FAR: Sheriff Bill
Catlin and Hank Lucas, dude wrangler
tim tim. Frank Adrian. The only clue is a pic.
ture postcard Adrian sent to his wife Cor
liss, showing him in front of a mountain
Dewitt. a city. detective, to the cabin. In
1t they find bloodstains and letter IN
which Adrian expressed fear OF his part
Chandler Benton, photographer. was q
cabin A body buried near the cabin i
| identified by Corliss as that OF her hus.
band Dewitt demands the, arrest Of
Marion as an accomplice in the murder,
and the apprehepsOn ,Sf Of gT hr
brother.
CHAPTER SIX.
The sheriff turned to Marion
Benton. "Your brother done
quite lot of camping and pack
lting?"
"A lot"
Lived in the hills a good part
of his life?"
yes"
The sheriff turned back to De-
witt: Now, then, Hank tells me, "
he said, that when you found
the cabin there was shovel on
the inside of the cabin by the
stove. some blood spots on one of
the walls, but no other blood
spots anywhere. There were
dishes in the little cupboard
dishes that had been washed and
put away. There wasn't any fire.
wood or kindling inside the
cabin"
/ Dewitt nodded, then said some
what impatiently. I've gone all
over that before"
That's right. But a couple OF
things you've sort of overlooked
Take that Photographic postcard
for instance"
They're pretty short shadows,
Catlin said. 1.-The picture must
have been taken right at noon
but. even so. shadows don't gel
that short UP here in Idaho ex-
cept right during the summer
months. Now, Tom Morton, the
photographer who printed that
picture. put it on paper that he
says must have been used up by
the last part of July. The shadows
say 1t was July. The post card
says 1t was October. How YOU
going to reconcile the shadows
and"
Dewitt laughed. "I'm not even
going to try. Frank Adrian didn't
disappear until September"
Bill Catlin nodded and went on,
calmly. And this here picture
was taken with a folding camera
that has little light leak in the
bellows. Now. I know I'm lust
sort of boring you, but there's
one more thing you'd ought to
consider. Remember when that
pack horse showed up, his back
had been rubbed raw and then
healed over?"
Dewitt said, ''For heavens sake
are you crazy? I don't care about
the pack horse"
We'll, now" the sheriff went on
you'd ought to know the noun
tains, If you're going to work in
EN-. When you're packing lust
one horse. and when you're lead
ing him on foot, a man that knew
anything about packing wouldn't
get sore back on his pack horse
Nov, another thing. The
murderer tried to leave the cabin
SO that anybody that happened
to stumble onto it wouldn't think
there was anything wrong. Every
thing would seem to be all nice
and shipshape. just the way the
trappers would have left 1t at the
close OF the winter season.
But up here in this country we
have a custom that's an unwritten
law. When a man leaves a cabin,
he always leaves dry stovewood
and kindling in by the stove. Now
don't want to bore you by telling
you all these local customs, but
this one in particular is pretty
rigidly enforced. Now do you
get it?"
Get what?" Dewitt asked.
There were two men in that
cabin. One of them was a tender
foot, city dude. The other was
woodsman. One of them killed
the other and pulled out. Who
ever 1t was that slicked the cabin
up and washed the dishes and
made it look as though everything
was the way two trappers had
left 1t, certainly wasn't the mur-
oered man: it was the guy who
did the killing"
Naturally" Dewitt said.
"And," Bill Catlin pointed out
'in this case. the man who did
that was the tenderfoot."
The idea hit Dewitt suddenly
and hard. "But look here" he
said. His wife identified the
body. There was a ring On"
"Sure. sure. she identified the