Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 801 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

6 Kent Kirby, the High-Kicker from Killbuck. ‘¢ They'll have to be good ones to make me be- lieve s0 monstrous a thing as that!” His face was still red, and his shaky voice be- trayed the intensity of bis feelings. ‘Sit down there, then, an’ try to keep cool, You’ve got to keep cool while I tell it, even if you have to put a chunk of ice on yer head. ** You seen the print uv a bloody shoe on the stairs? A woman’s shoe?” “TT did!” ““ T kin show you that identical shoe!” He got up from the ground, went a few paces beyond, and returned with a pair of worn shoes which he had fished from the concealment of a tangle of high grass. Seal recognized the shoes at once as Marian’s, They were cut in a peculiar manner, and he could not mistake them, He remembered that he had seen her wear them on the occasion of his last visit. What shocked and surprised him was that there were undoubted blood-stains on the heels and soles, One of them, especially, was marked very much like the stain on the stairway. | The High-Kicker read the anguish in the young man’s eyes, and felt a secret sympathy for him. ‘*T foun’ these whur you’d not think uv look- in’ fer ’em,” he declared, not waiting to be ques- tioned, “I wus goin’ by the mouth o’ the old well jist t?other side o’ the hoss corral, an’ my optics happened to light ow this hyer shoe,” He tapped one of them significantly, and look- ed keenly at Seal. ‘* The place is all growed up with high weeds, you know, an’it wus only by accident, as you may say, that my eyes dropped onto this, I stepped over an’ picked it up; an’ when I see there wus blood on it, | begin lookin’ round fer its mate, That there mate wusin the well; an’ when I went down after it, I foun’ somethin’ else that wusa good deal p’inteder. Facto’ the biz is, it wus very sharply p’inted!” The grotesque grin had vanished from his faca, and he was speaking low and earnestly. Now he drew out and exhibited to Seal a keen- inted dagger, all stained and covered with lool! Worse than all, it was Marian Carlow’s dagger! Saal knew it to be hers; so that on that head there could be no discussion, **'You know whose the things is! Jim Carlow wus killed with this hyer sticker, an’ the party what killed him wore tinese hyershoes. You kin put two an’ two together an’ make four out uv it, jist as wellasI kino. He, she, er it—whoever er whatever it wus that wore these hyer shoes an’ used this hyer dagger—aimed to throw the things into the well wbhur they wusn’t likely to be foun’in a hurry, One o’ the shoes wusn’t pitched fur enough, an’ I chanced to seeit, I say the person what done all this wus Marian Carlow, Yousayit wusn’t. That’s the differ- ence!” | Young Shelton was trembling so violently he could scarcely stand upright. Kirby certainly had made out a strong case—one of the stron- gest possible; and yet Seal did not for a moment acknowledge that the murderess could have been Carlow’s daughter. He wouli not believe it. He felt—he knew—she was incapable of sucha horrible act, and he did not hesitate to say so, “Why should she have done such a thing?” ho aging 20 ‘*She could not have done it! hen this murder occurred, she was far down the valley trail, She was riding up the valley trail when she saw the fire. Why, man! almost at the time you think she was doing this terrible thing, she was engaged in rescu- ing me from the fire on the cliff, I suppose you forget about that?” **] don’t fergit nothin’,- You ask me a dozen questions, an’ then go on to prove yer case be- fore givin’ me a chance to answer ’em. ‘‘ Why did she kill the old man—her father? He wusn’'t her father! 1 foun’ that out three er four days ago, An’ I foun’ out, too, that ole Carlow’s been meaner’n pusley to her ever sense sbe’s been home, this time, She wus not reely his gal, as I said; but he’d willed ever’- thing to her, Yisterday they bad a big row, an’ be threatened to change the will an’ cut her off without a penny. I heard the row my- self, fer it’s been my bizness to keep my years wide open on this place. He started it, an’ it wus all his fault, ‘*My idee is, now, that she concluded she wouldn’t ‘low him a .chance to change that will! Fe mae a beggar uv her, as he threatened to oO! This was news to Shelton—news of the most astounding character, It recalled to his mind the bitter sentences he had heard her speak that #norniog concerning Carlow, ; ‘* But the fire! You forget the fire!” He was resolved not to believe, The old grotesque smile came back to the High-Kicker's face, **D’you know what I think ’bout that fire, Seal? Marian Carlow started that there fire!” ** Impossible |” ‘*Mary Ann Carlow started that fire!” with even moreemphasis, ‘*That’s her name, though she’s changed it to what she thinks is more stylish, sense she’s been goin’ to boardin’ school, I heard the ole man accuse her o’ that, when they were jowerin’ yieterday.” ‘** But she couldn't have started the fire?” ‘I’ve been puttin’? more than two an’ two togetuer, Seal! l’ve been a-figgerin’ on this case purty steady fer the past hour, Marian Carlow don’t suspect me—but jist thinks I’m a ordi- nary, no-good sort 0’ cowboy that ain’t wu’th heedin’, But you! She thinks you're a detec- tive. She ain’t a fool, neither; an’ she knows you are already dead in love with her. ‘*T> make things certain, though, an’ to fer- ever blind ye to the truth, she slipped down to the slope back o’ the cliff, after sbe’d knifed the ole man, an’ set fire to the pine needles. Then sue put herself in readiness to resky you when the proper time come,” ‘* And you believe all that rot?” Seal cried, hotly and seornfully. ‘* If you do, you're a hig: ger fool than [I ever thought you to be, She couldn’t have done the things you say—and she wouldn’t have done them if she could, She didn’t know I was on the cliff, The whole theory is weak and—and—devilish!” He was shaking with the fury of an aroused and intense anger. Kirby’s face colored a little under these sting- ing words, ‘** Tf she didn’t, will ye tell me who did, then?’ ** Pve told you once: Sylvia Sterling!” A. look of scorn crept into Kirby’s eyes, “ After you’d cut me loose, an’ while Marian wus up-stairs, Syivia Sterlin’ went out to put away the horse that she’d tied to the hitchin’- post. You'll say yourself that she ain’t no fool, Would she ’a’ done that, knowin’ that this hyer roll ’o money wus under her piller, whur it wus likely to be foun’ at any minute? Will you pintedly answer me that question?’ The query was a staggerer; and Shelton had no ready answer, He kad felt sure of Sylvin’s cuilt. If Syivia had not killed Jim Carlow for his money, wko had put that roll of bills under her pillow? His brain reeled, ** Will you auswer me that question?” **Your’re an old fvol, Kent Kirby, and I won’t answer you anything!” With this savage retort, he abruptly left the shelter of the cottonwoo’s and burried toward the ranch-house, neglecting to reclaim the roll of bills he had placed in the High-Kicker’s bands. CHAPTER VII. THE HIGH-KICKERS ADVANCEMENT, Cassius CLAY COLTON, the sheriff, or ‘* Cash” Colton, as he was universally called, came over from Piebald, that afternoon, accompanied by the coroner. Colton was uot a fierce brawler nora man of many woras, He went about his businessin a quiet manner, and with a certain cold sternness that had far more power to compel the recog- nition and silence of a turbulent mob than would apy amount of threatening and bluster- ing brag. As for the coroner, he was a young man— searcely morethan a boy—who, having just greduated from an E istern college, had ventured into the wilds of the ‘‘ woolly” West in haste for the practice that is so long coming in older regions, Kent Kirby and Seal Shelton welcomed the sheriff and coroner, and conducted them at once to the room in which lay Jim Carlow’s body. When a hasty examination had been made, and the four came out of the house to converse on the disagreeable subject, they beheld the round-up outfit returning across the prairie at a brisk canter, As the cowboys drew up in front of the house witha clatter of hoofs, Tom Conner, the fcre- man, leaped from his saddle and advanced to greet the quartet standing near the doorway. It took but a few words to put him in posses- sion of the principal facts, The story of Car- low’s murder had already been to'd him by the cowboy whe had overtaken the outfit. There was something ominous in the glance of Conner’s eye, and in the way he looked at the High-Kicker, after having surveyed the body, > . . a ™“~ * The coroner with the sheriff’s aid, speedily im- panneled a jury. Before any witnesses werecalled, Seal Sheltom took Kirby aside and entreated him to make no mention of the finding of the shoes and dagger, or of the suspicious he held against Marian Carlow, | “Tt will kill her, if you do!” he declared with tremulous emphasis. ‘* I know she is not guilty. I’m just as sure of that fact as that I’m standing here. To disclose what you told me, would be to cast on her undeserved suspicion and subject her to calumnious gossip. Therefore, I beg of you!’ Kirby was not pleased with this request, but he nevertheless agreed to comply—to remain sileat—on one condition: and that was, that Seal was to say nothing to implicate Sylvia. Seal could promise for bimself, but he was not authorized to make any agreement in be- half of Miss Carlow. What she might say or do could only be problematical. Seal Shelton did not think of it in that light, but in asking Kirby to remain silent he ha been very selfish in behalf of the woman he loved—very forgetful of the interests of bis friend and partner, The examination of witnesses by the coroner did not consume a great deal of time. The High-Kicker abstained from any mention of his discoveries—a thing not difficult, as no ques- tions were put along that line, Miss Carlow surprised him by also remaining silent concerning her suspicions against Sylvia. Sterling, Sylvia was the only one who had anything of interest to relate, and her story wholly con- cerned Kent Kirby. She told how she had found him standing over the body, and how she had reped and tied him, and then released. him at the request of Seal, ; The suppressed excitement of the cowboys broke into loud murmurs at this, and they looked darkly and threateningly at the High- Kicker. The alibt which Kirby set up to prove bis innocence was convincing enough to the sheriff and coroner, but it did not satisfy T’om Conner, the Rozue River foreman, Conner said nothing, however, until after the officers of the law had departed. The inquest developed nothing conclusively, a thing which did not at all please Conncr, who was thirsting for revenge on the man who slew his employer. Trouble began to brew before the ofiicers were out of sight. Conner, calling a number of his intimates and cronies into the bunk-room, then broke into fierce invective against the High-Kicker from Killbuck. ‘¢ Ho’s a fraud, pards! A fraud of the first water; and I’ve felt sure of it since I first saw him, He killed Jim Carlow;—as good a mam as ever rode a horse!” “Hang him!” cried one of the men; and there was a low mutter of approval, ‘‘You seen the girl, pards! Jim Carlow’s girl! The girl that we all love and respect! You seen how she iscryin’ her eyes out over this biz, Thething is breakin’ her heart. She already looks like a ghost. We'll have her to bury alongside of her dad inside of a month, or I miss my guess. Not only has this villain killed Jim Carlow, but he’s killin’ Carlow’s daughter. Shall we let such a man go?’ A yell of ‘ No! sprung flercely from the beard~ ad lips of the Rogue River cowboys. They had. forgotten their caution, ‘Git a lariat, then, and foller me! and TIE show you how to avenge this bloody work!” The yell penetrated to the upper room, in which Marian Carlow was sitting with Sylvia Sterling. Both girls were in tears, ‘¢ What’s the meaning of that?’ Marian ques- tioned, springing to her feet, She had recognized the thrill of devilish hate in the ontery and knewit portended ill to some one, Sylvia also sprung up, and advanced to the window, As they looked out, they saw Conner leave the bunk-room at the head of the cowboys. The latter were excitedly flourishing revolvers. One of them swung a coiled lariat, ‘‘ What does it mean?” Marian again asked, Kirby and Shelton likewise heard the ominous: outery, and startledly looked at each other for | an explanation, 6) low they’re comin’ fer one o’ us!” Kirby declared, catching a glimpse of the’ advancing men. ‘*l’ye been more’n half expectin’ some- thing o’ the kind fer this hyer half-hour, I reck- on, too, it’s me they’re after!” | 9O00KS