Stepsons of Light Part 30

"No, I didn't," whispered Johnny. "But you keep it dark. It's a dead secret."

The roaring crowd came in with laughter and shouts. As they found seats and the tumult quieted Johnny addressed the judge.

"Shall I take the stand now, Your Honor, or wait till after dinner?

It's late, I know--but you'd believe me better right now--"

"Wait a minute, Andy!"

A man rose in the crowd--a tall old man with a melancholy face--the same who had summoned Hobby Lull to the door.

"Why, h.e.l.lo, Pete! I didn't see you come!" said the judge.

"That's funny, too. I have been here half an hour. You're getting old, Andy--getting old!"

"Oh, you go to thunder! Say, can you straighten up this mess?"

"I can help, at least--or so I believe. I was with the search party."

"Well, who calls this witness--the defense or the prosecution?"

inquired the court.

"Oh, let me call myself--as the friend of the court, _amicus curiae_, just as they used to do in England--do yet, for all I know. I've not heard your evidence--though I saw some just now, outside. But I've got a few facts which you may be able to fit in somewhere. I don't know the defendant, and am not for or against the prosecutor or for anybody or anything except justice. So I'll take it kindly if you'd let me tell my story in my own way--as the friend of justice. I'll get over the ground quicker and tell it straighter. If anyone is not satisfied they can cross-examine me afterwards, just as if I had been called by one side or the other."

Judge Hinkle turned to Wade. "Any objections?"

"No," said Wade. "I guess justice is what we all want--results, as you said yourself."

He was a subdued man. His three witnesses stirred uneasily, with sidelong glances. Spinal Maginnis kept a corner of his eye on those witnesses.

"Suits me," said Johnny.

"I got to get me a drink," whispered Caney, and rose, tiptoeing. But Maginnis rose with him.

"Sit down, Mr. Caney," he said. "You look poorly. I'll fetch you some water."

Pete Harkey took the stand and was duly sworn. He crossed his legs and addressed the judge.

"Well, we went up in Redgate, Dan Fenderson and I and a bunch. We thought there was no use of more than one coming here to-day, because we all saw just the same things."

Hinkle nodded. "All right, Pete. Tell us about it."

"Well, now, Andy--Your Honor--if it's just the same to everybody, I'll skip the part about the tracks and finding Adam until cross-examination. It's just going over the same old ground again.

I've been talking to Hobby, and we found everything just about as you heard it from these boys." His eye s.h.i.+fted toward the witness bench.

"All except one little thing about the tracks, and that was done after the murder, and might have been happen-so. And I was wanting to hurry up and get back to Garfield to-night. We're going to bury Adam at sundown."

"All right, Pete. But we'll cross-examine you--if not to-day, then to-morrow. It pays to work tailings, sometimes."

"That's queer, too. I was just coming to that--in a way. Mining. Adam went up there to prospect for gold--placer gold. When the big rain came, the night he was killed, all tracks were washed out, of course.

We hadn't got far when dark came--and then the rain. But yesterday I went combing out the country to look for Adam's outfit of camp stuff, and also to see if perhaps he had found any claims before he was killed. And I found this."

He handed to the judge a small paper packet, folded and refolded, and wrapped round with a buckskin string. The judge opened it.

"Coa.r.s.e gold!" he said. "Like the Apache gold in the seventies! Pete, you've got a rich mine if there's much of this."

"It is rich dirt," said Pete. "I got that from less than a dozen pans.

But it is not my mine."

"How so?"

"I got home late last night. This morning I looked in all the pockets in the clothes Adam was wearing. Here is what I found in his vest." He handed to Hinkle a small tobacco sack, rolled to a tiny cylinder.

"The same kind of gold--big as rice!" said Hinkle. "So Adam Forbes found this?"

Caney's hand crept under his coat.

"Judge for yourself. I found three claims located. Three. But no name of Adam Forbes to any notice. One claim was called the 'Goblin Gold--'"

Charlie See rose up as if he were lifted by the hair of his head. "The other names, Pete! Not the locators. The claims--give me the names of the other two claims!"

"'Nine Bucks' was one--and the 'Please Hush.'"

Charlie turned and took one step, his tensed weight resting on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet, his left arm lashed out to point. All eyes turned to the witness bench--and two witnesses looked at one.

"_Caney!_" thundered Charlie See.

Leaping, Caney's arm came from his coat. See's hand was swifter, unseen. In flashes of fire and smoke, Caney, even as he leaped up, pitched forward on his face. His arm reached out on the floor, holding a smoking gun, and See's foot was on the gun.

A dozen men had pulled down Toad Hales and Jody Weir. Gwinne's gun was out.

"Stand back! The next man over the rails gets it!" Maginnis jumped beside him. The shouting crowd recoiled.

"Sit down! Sit down, everybody!" shouted the judge. He pounded on his desk. "Bojarquez! Ross! Foster! Come up here. I make you deputies. Get this crowd out or get order."

The deafening turmoil stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

"Gwinne, arrest those two men for the murder of Adam Forbes," ordered Hinkle.

"Well, gee-whiz, I'd say they was under arrest now. Here, gimme them."

He reached down and handcuffed Weir and Hales together. "How's Caney, Dines? Dead?"

Johnny knelt by the fallen man. "Dead as a door nail. Three shots. Did he get you anywhere, See?"

"No. He was just one-sixteenth of a second too late." Charlie See looked hard at the cylinder of his gun. He had fired only two shots.

"Pete, it's a wonder he didn't hit you. You was right in line."

"I wasn't there," said Pete dryly. "Not when the bullets got there.

Not good enough."

Gwinne and Maginnis took the two prisoners to jail, by the back door.