Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 50: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

40 the bald and smiling Van Dorn was waiting with his two companions. Dolan slammed book after book and file upon file to the desk in back of his clerk’s e. oe You keep ’em,” he advised. “If any- thing happens, hide ‘em. The whole county’s heard about this Finch trouble, and she’s up in arms. Visitors is expected. Carlton, you explain things to Van Dorn. I’m goin’ inside.” And he strode into his dance-hall. Every one lined up te the bar noisily at a loud invitation from Dolan, but within the half-darkened cage the bald-headed Government man attacked his papers as eagerly as a fisherman with the prize trout of the year. “But,” he admitted at length in per- plexity, “there’s one thing I can’t under- stand, and that’s this man Black, Here's @ batch-ef receipts where he’s given.all sorts of money to Finch. See—received of Jim Black, ten thousand dollars: Black. five thousand—forty thousand—eighteen thou- sand, Where did the man get all the money? Who was he agent for? Some of these receipts are three years old. Most of them are very recent. What does it mean?” “It’s all beyond me,” admitted Carlton. And then he straightened suddenly. Into his ears came a noise like distant thunder, made by the pounding hoofs of trotting horses and coming nearer con- stantly. He went to the door and looked out. Swinging up the street came a score of horsemen riding close together, with spurs and bits jingling, rifles slung over shoulders and pistol-butts protruding from many holsters. “The sheriff!” gasped Carlton. Van Dorn jumped and thrust his loot under a heap of tents and blankets. Carl- ton hastened into the dance-hall, where the boss stood in front of the bar and chatted with a coterie of friends as if nothing were happening. The cavalcade drew up -to the building. The loungers on the porch ambled in through the door, but not a comment was made by any one. The atmosphere seemed charged with something quict and chilly and deadly. In spite of the low murmur of conversation, there seemed to be a silence that shrieked through the big board dance-hall. And then the sheriff came in. He stamped through the doorway. at the like a company of militia taking charge of a rioters’ headquarters, pointing no weapons but lining up along the front wall and standing ready for anything. The other groups of silent men massed behind Dolan toward the rear of the room. The sheriff advanced directly toward the towering boss of Mirage. “I’ve come for an ‘accountin’,” he an- nounced, holding hands warily at his hips. “What sort o' madhouse you runnin’ up here? You're a deputy. Now speak!” It was very direct, and it put the boss on the defensive instanuly. He stood there, the largest man in the place and the center of all eyes, figuring on how to avoid being bullied and yet prevent a holocaust which might exterminate the whole roomful. It was a hair-trigger situation, and the boss held his temper. “As how?” he inguired. “How? With killin’s all around the place? Murder an’ arson everywhere? How about Snow? How about Hackett? How about Finch? Yeh, we heard about Finch this mornin’ on the road. That’s why wecame faster. How about it?” “Search me,” demurred Dolan. “I didn’t kill him. I wasn’t even there.” “Yeh? Well, why didn’t you arrest them that was there? Hey? You're a deputy sheriff, ain’t you? What kind o’ game you playin’, anyhow?” The boss had stood about eno He did not want to start hostilities between these masses of armed men, but his choleric temper was straining to the breaking-point. He tried hard to fight it down, and at last he succeeded. “Mike!” he bawled to his bartender. “‘Where’s my deputy’s star?” “Tt dunno. Mebbe she’s in the nail-box. No—no; I remember now; you used it to plug a leak in the drain-pipe durin’ that rain. She’s been out there——” “Go git it!” Somebody snickered. Some one else laughed outright. Even the most stern- faced deputies smiled. Theincident sapped — the tension from the atm though the sheriff still s wrath. Mike returned in a rear door. e instantly, like a figure of comicbooks.com ~ = i —— x — - ——_ = - |