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Tangled Trails: A Western Detective Story, a novel by William MacLeod Raine |
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Chapter 12. "That's The Man" |
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_ CHAPTER XII. "THAT'S THE MAN"
"Cass Hull." "Business?" "Real estate, mostly farm lands." "Did you know James Cunningham, the deceased?" asked Johns. "Yes. Worked with him on the Dry Valley proposition, an irrigation project." "Ever have any trouble with him?" "No, sir--not to say trouble." Hull was already perspiring profusely. He dragged a red bandanna from his pocket and mopped the roll of fat that swelled over his collar. "I--we had a--an argument about a settlement--nothin' serious." "Did he throw you out of his room and down the stairs?" "No, sir, nothin' like that a-tall. We might 'a' scuffled some, kinda in fun like. Prob'ly it looked like we was fightin', but we wasn't. My heel caught on a tread o' the stairs an' I fell down." Hull made his explanation eagerly and anxiously, dabbing at his beefy face with the handkerchief. "When did you last see Mr. Cunningham alive?" "Well, sir, that was the last time, though I reckon we heard him pass our door." In answer to questions the witness explained that Cunningham had owed him, in his opinion, four thousand dollars more than he had paid. It was about this sum they had differed. "Were you at home on the evening of the twenty-third--that is, last night?" The witness flung out more signals of distress. "Yes, sir," he said at last in a voice dry as a whisper. "Will you tell what, if anything, occurred?" "Well, sir, a man knocked at our door. The woman she opened it, an' he asked which flat was Cunningham's. She told him, an' the man he started up the stairs." "Have you seen the man since?" "No, sir." "Didn't hear him come downstairs later?" "No, sir." "At what time did this man knock?" asked the lawyer from the district attorney's office. Kirby Lane did not move a muscle of his body, but excitement grew in him, as he waited, eyes narrowed, for the answer. "At 9.20." "How do you know the time so exactly?" "Well, sir, I was windin' the clock for the night." "Sure your clock was right?" "Yes, sir. I happened to check up on it when the court-house clock struck nine. Mebbe it was half a minute off, as you might say." "Describe the man." Hull did, with more or less accuracy. "Would you know him if you saw him again?" "Yes, sir, I sure would." The coroner flung a question at the witness as though it were a weapon, "Ever carry a gun, Mr. Hull?" The big man on the stand dabbed at his veined face with the bandanna. He answered, with an ingratiating whine. "I ain't no gunman, sir. Never was." "Ever ride the range?" "Well, yes, as you might say," the witness answered uneasily. "Carried a six-shooter for rattlesnakes, didn't you?" "I reckon, but I never went hellin' around with it." "Wore it to town with you when you went, I expect, as the other boys did." "Mebbeso." "What caliber was it?" "A .38, sawed-off." "Own it now?" The witness mopped his fat face. "No, sir." "Don't carry a gun in town?" "No, sir." "Ever own an automatic?" "No, sir. Wouldn't know how to fire one." "How long since you sold your .38?" "Five years or so." "Where did you carry it?" "In my hip pocket." "Which hip pocket?" Hull was puzzled at the question. "Why, this one--the right one, o' course. There wouldn't be any sense in carryin' it where I couldn't reach it." "That's so. Mr. Johns, you may take the witness again." The young lawyer asked questions about the Dry Valley irrigation project. He wanted to know why there was dissatisfaction among the farmers, and from a reluctant witness drew the information that the water supply was entirely inadequate for the needs of the land under cultivation. Mrs. Hull, called to the stand, testified that on the evening of the twenty-third a man had knocked at their door to ask in which apartment Mr. Cunningham lived. She had gone to the door, answered his question, and watched him pass upstairs. "What time was this?" "9.20." Again Kirby felt a tide of excitement running in his arteries. Why were this woman and her husband setting back the clock thirty-five minutes? Was it to divert suspicion from themselves? Was it to show that this stranger must have been in Cunningham's rooms for almost an hour, during which time the millionaire promoter had been murdered? "Describe the man." This tall, angular woman, whose sex the years had seemed to have dried out of her personality, made a much better witness than her husband. She was acid and incisive, but her very forbidding aspect hinted of the "good woman" who never made mistakes. She described the stranger who had knocked at her door with a good deal of circumstantial detail. "He was an outdoor man, a rancher, perhaps, or more likely a cattleman," she concluded. "You have not seen him since that time?" She opened her lips to say "No," but she did not say it. Her eyes had traveled past the lawyer and fixed themselves on Kirby Lane. He saw the recognition grow in them, the leap of triumph in her as the long, thin arm shot straight toward him. "That's the man!" A tremendous excitement buzzed in the courtroom. It was as though some one had exploded a mental bomb. Men and women craned forward to see the man who had been identified, the man who no doubt had murdered James Cunningham. The murmur of voices, the rustle of skirts, the shuffling of moving bodies filled the air. The coroner rapped for order. "Silence in the court-room," he said sharply. "Which man do you mean, Mrs. Hull?" asked the lawyer. "The big brown man sittin' at the end of the front bench, the one right behind you." Kirby rose. "Think prob'ly she means me," he suggested. An officer in uniform passed down the aisle and laid a hand on the cattleman's shoulder. "You're under arrest," he said. "For what, officer?" asked James Cunningham. "For the murder of your uncle, sir." In the tense silence that followed rose a little throat sound that was not quite a sob and not quite a wail. Kirby turned his head toward the back of the room. Wild Rose was standing in her place looking at him with dilated eyes filled with incredulity and horror. _ |
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