Adventure Magazine Cover — page 174: what you’re looking at

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

160 It came about through a woman, Mrs Ellis. Her husband was in prison and for some reason or other she wanted him out. I was staying quietly in her home, paying board and rent. I liked her because she asked no questions. She was a little, blond, gray-eyed woman and told me some things about herself—not with the idea of arousing sympathy, but because it is the nature of her sex to talk. Among other things, she loved this hus- band, Steve Ellis, who was in prison. She said that he was innocent—most wives do say that sort of thing about their convicted husbands. She said the trouble had orig- inated over a copper-mine claim and that Daniel Cornwall—one of many ‘copper kings” of the West—had railroaded Steve Ellis because he wouldn’t do some of the Cornwall dirty work. I asked questions in one direction and another and as I loafed a good deal over poker tables I had plenty of chance to hear all manner of reports. As nearly as I could tell, Daniel Cornwall was a scoundrel and Steve Ellis was dangerous man with numer- ous friends. I heard that Ellis had formerly been a gunman in Cornwall’s employ. I heard many things, and some of them were no doubt true. Mrs. Ellis maintained, however, that he was innocent. She said that Steve had told her that if she, or any of his friends, could get hold of a little black box in Cornwall’s private safe, Cornwall himself would pull wires and bribe officials to get him out. Mrs. Ellis said that Steve was a “good man in his way,’’ but it seemed that he was always in trouble through no fault of his own. “Why,” she said, ‘‘his own child scarcely knows him!” The child was in a boarding-school where Mrs Ellis, by dint of scrimping and gath- ering money from the Lord knows where, kept her under the illusion that a girl’s life would be easier and happier if secluded and educated. I had had nothing in particular to do and, having assured myself that Daniel Cornwall was a mean rich old devil, and looking the ground over carefully, I took certain pre- cautions by way of disguise and paid him a visit. As nearly as he could tell I looked like a rough miner. The ends of a mustache poked from beyond my mask. My clothes were of the sort a miner would be likely to . “ ~_ : ie, : - - << 7 ag ie on ee Bape, say aed ee i ae - — Sp ae ae) > F — + a a * ~~ pe - er “ Spe A gee La Me ee ee eee ee eee nn ge en Adventure wear when he thought he was passing for a city fellow. It was necessary, of course, to dispose of-a servant or two before I reached him. I made the visit late in the evening and I tied the servants comfortably in a corner and left them there to meditate. Daniel Cornwall was a bachelor, so his establishment was easily raided. I found him in bed. I got him out and made him open the safe. Not finding what I wanted, I induced him to put on his clothes and go with me to his office. I succeeded in con- vincing him that he would be shot if he tried to give an alarm and also that some- thing of the kind would happen if he looked around at me during the time’I had the mask off—for obviously I could not go parading through even nearly deserted streets at 11 P.M. with a mask on, I have found that rich men are easily bluffed by threats of violence. Anyway, we went to his office and he opened the safe there. He nearly dropped when he saw me remove the little black steel box. He offered - money—he offered almost everything imagi- — nable. I took the key away from him and opened _the box. I read enough of the papers to see what they were about. Walsh at that time was attorney general, or something of the kind. In a kind of disgust I threw the key toward an open window. It went out. I replaced the papers and slammed the lid down, not noticing that a corner of one of the papers had stuck out. “T’ll never get that box open,” he cried. “It’s a special lock “You won’t need to open it for some time,’ I told him. ‘This is what I came after, but there is a good chance that you may get it back.”’ He had thought that I was looking into the box in the hope of finding money or jewels, and he was tremendously wrought up when he saw that I intended to carry it off. I let him bite on a handkerchief stuffed into his mouth and tied his arms and legs to a chair. Then I went out and into acheap rooming- house where I had changed clothes earlier in the evening. It was one of those houses that did not have running water, but a pitcher and large bowl for washing purposes was in the room. I put the bowl near the window so as to carry out the odor of smoke Bs. ‘ com ti = < > ee a fe"