Forty-one Thieves / A Tale of California

ncil

These men had not met to pass resolutions, but to decide upon some line of action. So far not a trace of the murderers had been found, except for their discarded clothing. Sheriff Carter's blood-hounds had followed a hot scent to Deer Creek, several miles above Nevada City, and the posse who follow

Francisco; but this was an every-day occurrence, and the police had learned the f

e. Dr. Mason and Mat Bailey were present. The doctor came because of a sense o

ers been brought to justice. It is outrageous, scandalous. Decent men cannot afford to live in a community where people are more interested in making

to investigate for ourselves. Did you notice any suspicious ci

gold dust out of the country. But if they were accomplices they would hardly have spoken so carelessly. And why did they

ing the character of the man, was almost certain. And this was a good reason why bankers at Moore's Flat or Lake

d found his public importance rather embarrassing. Every trip past the robbers' hiding-place had brought an avalanche of questions from curious p

d seemed loath t

his hearing is among friends, not of

entlemen ought to know. Up to this time nobody has me

was aroused. After

s' valise, and asked, 'Whose is this?' One of the passengers spok

uilty man?" c

ed: "It wasn't a man

, and trying to work out in his own mind some logica

," said one. "What can a crowd of bachelo

ought we to expect? A woman's at t

hers," remarked the doctor sarcastically. "How has Miss Slocum been actin

a man, woman, or child in Nevada City who mourns Will Cummins more than she does. That's why I hate to mention her name. And that's why I haven't said anything up to this time. But s

perhaps. Somebody might question her kindly, and see what's back of this. And, gentlemen, as Bailey spends a good deal of his t

ief delights were the companionship of his stout horses and his even more intimate companionship with nature. To scare up a partridge, to scent the pines, to listen to the hermit thrush were meat and drink to him. That there was gold in these no

Cummins was well known. But his peculiarities might unfit him for the proposed mission. His Southern sense of chivalry unfitted him for detective work that might involve deceit and downright lying. He cared more for his honor than he did for money, and had been know

Dr. Mason

would free it of thugs and murderers as he frees every claim that he works of rattlesnakes. He is death on rattlers. Killed more than a hundred of them last summer.

for the apprehension of desperadoes were outstanding at that very hour; and the desperadoes were still at large. As a money-making proposition, mining with all its uncertainties was more attractive than professional detective work. Then again, these Californians could not trust a man actuated by motives higher than their own. Indeed, their chairman, Henry Francis himself,

nd the power of these fortune-hunters to accomplish. Captain Jack had no gold, but the skill, loyalty, and devotion of

st decide upon the amount to be offered as a reward for the apprehension of the murd

s a note against Will Cummins. You know I am settling the estate. Keeler will be over there, they say, and I wi

at?" asked

illiam

d to know Wi

up the ca?on,"

ed-bug Brown,"

is, "that's the name

ever since. Though he couldn't have had much of a picnic that first winter, when he camped

" said Francis. "He worked up the

th a stranger with a limp left arm had appeared at Moore's Flat; and Brown had proved to his own satisfaction that the same man with a limp arm had appeared at New Orleans just before the death of the eleventh juror in that city. The man with the limp arm was Ben Caffey. Such was Brown's story. People had not paid much attention to it, nor to the murdered man's lonely grave by

reward. Dr. Mason saw more possibilities, however slight, in the reward than in the proposed detective. And Henry Francis, though he had known Cum