The Killer

. But how? I could hardly storm the fort single handed and carry off the damsel in distress. On the evidence I possessed I could not even get together a storming party. The cowboy

yting campaign. It never occurred to me to doubt that Hooper woul

t dusk, I said nothing of my real adven

ur and dining room. He gave me a room to myself with a bed and sheets; and he rode out t

Windy Bill, "and fed my horse. And next morning that old Mexica

dn't shoot him

the place was unhealthy to visit more'n once. And somehow I

that in the left wing: for another I wanted to determine the "lay of the land" on that blank side of the house. I found my surmise correct as to the transoms. As to the blank side of the house, that looked down on a wide, green, moist patch and the irrigating ditch with its stunted willows. Then painstakingly

fore in the boulder-strewn wash of Arro

to look at the Elder Springs, but my hoss ha

e been out all night and had no br

They sent me out by Coyote Wells with two other men

done good detective work of its kind, and had determined-by the direction of the bullet's flight as evidenced by the wound-that it had been fired from a point above. The only point above was the low "rim" that ran for miles down the Soda Springs Valley. It was of black lava and showed no tracks. The men, with a true sense of values, ha

ively a newcomer with us. Nobody knew anything much about him or his relations. Nobody questione

e would even look for tracks. But given that vigilance, the rest followed plainly enough. A skillful trailer would have found his way to where I had mounted; he would have followed my horse to Arroyo Seco where I had met with Jim Starr. There he would have visualized a rider on a horse without one shoe coming as far as the Arroyo, meeting me, and returning

e tragic circumstances warranted. We laid his body in the small office, pending Buck Johnson's return from town, and ate our belated meal in silence. Then we

n. We had been so absorbed that no one had heard him ride up. He leaned his forearm agains

ant to leave one in my office after dark, I wish you'd put a light with him, or tack up a sign, or even leav

nt of the fireplace. The glow of the leaping flames was full upon him. His strong face and bulky fi

led?" he inquir

eplied Je

brows came

" he

ey were known, but declined to listen to a

ncluded. "He wasn't even within hollering distance

weeks," proffered Jed, as fore

ated one of the other men. "

did he have?

sort of a fellow. He had been to town once or twice. Of course he might have made an enemy, bu

dy followed h

k interrupted. "This man Starr ever met

ever since his arrival. I could have thrown some light on the matt

out. His departure loosene

e's as bad as you say," I broke in. "Why don't some

valued my hide enough to refrain from pointing the fact. But that fact remained: they were off Old Man Hooper. Furthermore, by the time they had finished recounting in intimate detail some scores of anecdotes dealing with what happened when Old Man Hooper winked his wildcat eye, I began in spite of myself to share some of their sentiments. For no matter how flagrant the killing, nor how certain mora

d by an unknown hand on the window of the Emporium a newspaper account of that Jew drummer's taking off. The newspaper could offer no theory and merely recited the fact that the man suffered

couldn't get fur enough away to feel safe afterward. The fellow with a hankering for a good useful kind of suicide could get it right there.

sing at my work like a little dicky bird. I'm so plumb c

int of information befor

hter ever ride

they echoed

er she is," I suppl

x," said one, and "Did you see any sig

ot minded t

daughter, or niece, or s