BETWEEN THE LINES
Old Aaron had no intention of going to the Diamond-Bar when he drove
away from Brackett’s stable. If the Basque had followed him for a
block of two he would have known as much because Gallup turned his
team from the main road and pulled up before his own house.
Johnny was standing in front of the hotel at the time and he
promptly surmised the reason for Aaron’s use of his team. The boy
had about given up any hope of finding Madeiras. The appearance of
Gallup made him decide to act alone.
“Sure as you’re born,” he said to himself, “that old crook is goin’
to take Thunder Bird out in the brush and pump lead into him. I bet
I’ll have somethin’ to say about that.”
When Johnny crept around to the front of the house he saw that he
was not mistaken. The old chief, bound and gagged, sat
disconsolately in the rig. Aaron had gone back upstairs. The boy
could hear him closing a door.
“Here’s where I take it on the run,” Johnny told himself. A minute
later he was in the buckboard beside the Indian. Grabbing the reins
and giving the horses the gad took only a second.
When Gallup came out the team was gone. He cursed and ranted, but
Johnny and Thunder Bird were beyond the sound of his rage.
A mile out of town the boy brought the team to a halt. Thunder
Bird’s eyes expressed no surprise. When Johnny had untied him and
removed the gag from his mouth the chief made no attempt to speak.
“Men come soon, chief,” Johnny said, thoroughly provoked at the
other’s reticence. “You make talk pretty quick.”
Thunder Bird shook his head slowly. “No talk, me,” he mumbled.
“No?” Johnny exclaimed hotly. “Mebbe so you change um mind. All the
same I not come, Gallup kill you.”
A sound, almost a laugh, broke from Thunder Bird’s lips. “I
think—me—mebbe so you come. I see you on top train.”
Johnny disregarded the Indian’s words.
“Chief,” he said, “many, many years you not come to white man’s
town. Why you come tonight?”
“No tell him that?”
“Gallup old friend with you, eh? You come, he tie you up—why you let
him do that?”
Thunder Bird’s chin was resting upon his chest. “_Huy!_” he grunted.
“Too old, me—too old.”
Johnny was not getting anywhere. “Chief,” he drawled, unpleasantly,
“it was you that Traynor came to see.”
Thunder Bird turned his shrewd old eyes on the boy. “Mebbe,” he
answered.
It was admission enough.
“So,” Johnny continued, “you know who kill him, too, eh?”
The Indian did not answer at once. When he did, he surprised the
boy.
“Mebbe me.” A soft, mocking laugh followed.
Johnny stared at him. “No,” he said at last. “No—no! He come on
Reservation—he come away from Reservation. You no kill him. White
man kill him.” Johnny tapped his chest. “Me, I know how”—pointing to
the chief—“you know why. Traynor no fool. He watch. Man catch him
when he sleep. If you not tell me his name, chief, easy me, I find
out who brung you to town. Mebbe that man talk. Lots of men talk by
and by. You talk now, eh?”
Thunder Bird shook his head determinedly. “No talk, me. You
wait—two, t’ree day you find out.”
It was an artful answer. Johnny understood the cunning insinuation
it carried. A muttered “Humph!” escaped him. “You mean, chief, that
in two or three days somebody’ll find a man with a bullet hole clean
through him or with a knife stuck in his back, and he’ll be the man
that killed Traynor. I savvy your talk, but it don’t go. Dead men
don’t talk. No talk, no good.”
“Man talk, jail catch um.”
This observation gave Johnny renewed hope. “You talk now,” he said,
“law catch um man, no catch um you. No talk now, mebbe so law catch
um you by and by.”
Thunder Bird was unmoved. “No,” he murmured. “Law no catch um me.
Law no good for Indian—nothing no good for Indian. Piute make his
own medicine.”
“Sometime Piute medicine is bad. No good all time,” Johnny argued.
“I make good medicine for you, all the same you tell me.”
Thunder Bird would not unbend. Again and again Johnny tried to make
him speak. The boy’s patience gave out in the end. He knew that in
ten minutes the old Indian could clear up the mystery of Traynor’s
death if he would. But, no; his dignity as a chief had been
assailed, and Thunder Bird was going to avenge the wrong in his own
way. He couldn’t have said it any plainer. And the prospective
victim——Who else but old Aaron?
There could be no doubt of it. Johnny was satisfied that the chief
was pointing to Gallup as the murderer of Crosbie Traynor. But the
Indian had not made a single statement that could be used as
evidence to convict the coroner. His words were all innuendo. A man
had to make his own conclusions.
Johnny knew from experience that threats were idle with Thunder
Bird. He would talk when it pleased him to do so, and not before.
Jumping to the ground he said sharply:
“Chief, you take the team; you go Reservation. I watch Gallup. Best
you no come back. If you see Madeiras tell him I want him come
quick. You fan it now if you want to get back before daylight.”
Johnny trudged to town as the chief drove away. He felt defeated,
held off when success was almost within his grasp. Perhaps the wish
was father to the thought, but it was easy for him to believe that
Gallup had killed Traynor. He reconstructed the happenings of that
tragic night on which they had found the man’s body. He even
recalled some of Gallup’s conversation. Viewed, as the boy was doing
now, it was incriminating.
But what of Kent? The evidence had pointed to him from the start.
There were certain facts which were unalterable even now, but if
Traynor had been killed in the manner Johnny believed, Kent could
not have done it. Hobe had seen him playing cards with Doc Ritter at
the very time the crime must have been committed.
“And yet,” the boy thought, “Gallup’s got somethin’ on Kent.
Absolutely yes!—and he’s got him hard. Every guess I’ve got is weak
some place, even the one about the Indian. If the chief was
Traynor’s friend, and Traynor was tryin’ to square up an old debt,
why did Thunder Bird let the man come into the Rock? The Indian must
have known that Kent was shippin’ from here. And if he didn’t he
knew damn well that Gallup was here.
“Mebbe there was somebody else, too; but the chief would have
knowed. Ain’t likely he’d ’a’ sent a friend up against a stacked
deck. And now that old devil is out to git Gallup. Sure as he does
I’m licked, I’m a bust—a relic. On circumstantial evidence I could
send two or three men to jail, but on the real goods I couldn’t
indict a jackass.”
It was after midnight when Johnny got back to the hotel. Scanlon’s
game was still active. Johnny recognized his fellow players—the two
Faulkner brothers and Tris Bowles. The Faulkners had been freighting
supplies to the Agency.
“Say, Charlie,” Johnny asked the elder of the two, “you didn’t come
in from the Valley today, did yuh?”
“Yeah. Got in ’bout nine o’clock.”
“That so?” Johnny asked, better pleased with himself than he had
been for the last two hours. “Road’s pretty fair, I guess,” he ran
on. “See anybody?”
“No, not until we got just outside of town. That human grub worm,
Tobias Gale, passed us this side of the big hill.”
“Seein’ him wasn’t seein’ anybody.”
“Them’s my sentiments,” the younger Tris announced. “He’s got down
to doin’ Injuns out of their bit now. Had the old chief himself with
him today.”
Johnny Dice immediately lost all interest in the Messrs. Faulkner
and Bowles. Singling out Vinnie, he said to him:
“I got to wake up Tobias for a minute. We got some most important
business to transact. What room did you say he was in?”
“Now, Johnny,” Vin warned, “those man ees just come to leeve in
thees ’otel. He’s goot pay. You mak’ no hell now.”
“Say, you quit scoldin’ me, Vinnie,” Johnny laughed. “You don’t know
me; I’ve reformed. Why the sound of a gun would frighten me to
death.”
Vinnie grinned. Johnny Dice could have had the shirt from his back
if he had asked for it.
For all of his talk Johnny felt of his gun before he knocked on
Tobias’ door. He got no answer, and after waiting a decent interval
he tried the door. It was unlocked. Stepping into the room he struck
a match and held it aloft.
“I’m damned,” he exclaimed. “He’s gone! What can that bird be up to
this time of the night? He’s strictly a to-bed-with-the-chickens
sort of a person. Went out the back way, too, or Vin would ’a’ seen
him.”
Johnny was not long in deciding on what he would do. Going to the
bed he sat down and pulled off his boots.
“I’m goin’ to camp right here,” he said aloud. “When little Tobias
comes back we’re goin’ to make medicine.”