Sentence:  <WSD>Rumors</WSD> of the offer Tom Horn had made at the Stockgrowers' Association meeting had leaked out by then , and as a grand jury investigation of the murder got underway , the prosecuting attorney , a Colonel Baird , ordered that the tall stock detective be summoned for questioning . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth