"The darn suckers!" he cried. "This"ll cost me thousands of dollars.
It"ll drive trade into the Gridiron fer weeks. If I"d been wise to that b.u.m being soused he"d have gone out, if he broke his lousy neck."
"I"m not dead sure he was soused," said Kars.
The cold tone of his voice again brought Pap"s eyes to his face.
"What d"you guess?" he demanded roughly.
"He wasn"t a miner, and he wasn"t soused. I guess he was a "gunman.""
"What d"you mean?"
"Just what I said. I"d been watching him a while from the box above us. I"ve seen enough to figger this thing"s for the p"lice. We"re going to put this thing through for what it"s worth, and my bank roll"s going to talk plenty."
Bill had risen from his knees. He was standing beyond the two bodies.
His shrewd eyes were steadily regarding Pap, who, in turn, was gazing squarely into the cold eyes of John Kars.
Just for a moment it looked as though he were about to fling back hot words at the unquestioned challenge in them. But the light suddenly died out of his eyes. His thin lips compressed, and he shrugged his shoulders.
"Guess that"s up to you," he said, and moved away towards the bar.
Kars gazed down at the dead form of Alec Mowbray. All the coldness had gone out of his eyes. It had been replaced with a world of pity, for which no words of his could have found expression. The spectacle was terrible, and the sight of it filled him with an emotion which no sight of death had ever before stirred. He was thinking of the widowed mother. He was thinking of the girl whose gray eyes had taught him so much. He was wondering how he must carry the news to these two living souls, and fling them once more to the depths of despair such as they had endured through the murder of a husband and father.
He was aroused from his grievous meditations by a sharp hammering on the main doors. It was the police. Kars turned at once.
"Open that door!" he said sharply to the waiter standing beside it.
The man hesitated and looked at Pap. Kars would not be denied.
"Open that door," he ordered again, and moved towards it.
The man obeyed on the instant.
It was two days before the investigation into the tragedy at the Elysian Fields released Dr. Bill. Being on the spot, and being one of the most skilful medical men in Leaping Horse, the Mounted Police had claimed him, a more than willing helper.
In two issues the Leaping Horse _Courier_ had dared greatly, castigating the morality of the city, and the Elysian Fields in particular, under "scare" headlines. For two days the public found no other topic of conversation, and the "shooting" looked like serving them indefinitely. They had been waiting for this thing to happen.
They had been given all they desired to the full. A hundred witnesses placed themselves at the disposal of the Mounted Police, and at least seventy-five per cent of them were more than willing to incriminate Pap Shaunbaum if opportunity served.
Nor was John Kars idle during that time. His attorneys saw a good deal of him, and, as a result, a campaign to track down the instigator of this shooting was inaugurated. And that instigator was, without a shadow of doubt,--Pap Shaunbaum.
Kars saw nothing of Bill during those two days of his preoccupation.
But the second morning provided him with food for serious reflection.
It was a brief note which reached him at noon. It was an urgent demand that he should take no definite action through his legal advisers, should take no action at all, in fact, until he, Bill, had seen him, and conveyed to him the results of the investigation. He would endeavor to see him that night.
Kars studied the position carefully. But he committed himself to no change of plans. He simply left the position as it stood for the moment, and reserved judgment.
It was late at night when Bill made his appearance. Kars was waiting in his apartment with what patience he could. He had spent a busy day on his own mining affairs, which usually had the effect of wearying him. For the last two or three years the commercial aspect of his mining interests came very nearly boring him. It was only the sheer necessity of the thing which drove him to the offices of the various corporations he controlled.
But the sight of his friend banished every other consideration from his mind. The shooting of Alec Mowbray dominated him, just as, for the present, it dominated the little world of Leaping Horse.
He thrust a deep chair forward in eager welcome, and looked on with grave, searching eyes while the doctor flung himself into it with a deep, unaffected sigh of weariness.
"Guess I haven"t had a minute, John," he said. "Those police fellers are drivers. Say, we always reckon they"re a bright crowd. You need to see "em at work to get a right notion. They"ve got most things beat before they start."
"This one?"
Kars settled himself in a chair opposite his visitor. His manner was that of a man prepared to listen rather than talk. He stretched his long legs comfortably.
"I said "most." No-o, not this one. That"s the trouble. That"s why I wrote you. The police are asking a question. And they"ve got to find an answer. Who fired the shots that shut out that boy"s lights?"
Kars" brows were raised. An incredulous look searched the other"s face.
"Why, that "gunman"--surely."
Bill shook his head. He had been probing a vest pocket. Now he produced a small object, and handed it across to the other with a keen demand.
"What"s that?" His eyes were twinkling alertly.
Kars took the object and examined it closely under the electric light.
After a prolonged scrutiny he handed it back.
"The bullet of a "thirty-two" automatic," he said.
"Sure. Dead right. The latest invention for toughs to hand out murder with. The police don"t figger there"s six of them in Leaping Horse."
"I brought one with me this trip. They"re quick an" handy. But--that?"
"That?" Bill held the bullet poised, gazing at it while he spoke. "I dug that out of that boy"s lung. There"s another of "em, I guess. The police have that. They dug theirs out of the woodwork right behind where young Alec was standing. It was that opened his head out. Those two shots handed him his dose. And the other feller--why, the other feller was _armed with a forty-five Colt_."
There was nothing dramatic in the manner of the statement. Bill spoke with all his usual calm. He was merely stating the facts which had been revealed at the investigation.
Kars" only outward sign was a stirring of his great body. The significance had penetrated deeply. He realized the necessity of his friend"s note.
Bill went on.
"If we"d only seen it all," he regretted. "If we"d seen the shots fired, we"d have been a deal wiser. I"m figgering if we hadn"t quit our seats we"d have been wise--much wiser. But we quit them, and it"s no use figgering that way. The police have been reconstructing.
They"re reconstructing right now. There"s a thing or two stands right out," he went on reflectively. "And they"re mostly illuminating.
First Alec was quicker with his gun than the other feller. He did that "gunman" up like a streak of lightning. He didn"t take a chance.
Where he learned his play I can"t think. There was a dash of his father in what he did. And he"d have got away with it if--it hadn"t been for the automatic from somewhere else. The "gunman" drew on him first. That"s clear. A dozen folk saw it. He"d boosted Alec and his dame in the dance, and stretched Maude on the floor. And he did it because he meant to. It was clumsy--which I guess was meant, too. I don"t reckon it looked like anything but a dance hall sc.r.a.p. That"s where we see Pap in it. The "gunman" got his dose in the pit of his bowels, and a hole in his heart, while his own shots went wide, and spoiled some of the gold paint in the decorations. The police tracked out both bullets that came from his gun. But the automatic?"
He drew a deep breath pregnant with regret.
"It came from a distant point," he went on, after a pause. "There"s folks reckon it came from one of the boxes opposite where we were sitting. How it didn"t get some of the crowd standing around keeps me guessing. The feller at the end of that gun was an--artist. He was a jewel at the game. And it wasn"t Pap. That"s as sure as death. Pap was standing yarning to a crowd at the bar when all the shots were fired. And the story"s on the word of folks who hate him to death. We can"t locate a soul who saw any other gun pulled. I"d say Pap"s got Satan licked a mile.
"Say, John," he went on, after another pause, "it makes this thing look like a sink without any bottom for the dollars you reckon to hand out chasing it up. The boy"s out. And Pap"s tracks--why, they just don"t exist. That"s all. It looks like we"ve got to stand for this play the same as we have to stand for most things Pap and his gang fancy doing.
I"m beat to death, and--sore. Looks like we"re sitting around like two sucking kids, and we can"t do a thing--not a thing."
"But there"s talk of two "gunmen."" Kars was sitting up. His att.i.tude displayed the urgency of his thought. "The folks all got it. I"ve had it all down the sidewalk."