BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1939, Page 10

BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

COPYRIGHT.

BY

WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE.

CHAPTER XXII. (Continued). “Let go, Tim!” he shouted, struggling to escape. Light filled the room again. Lewis had found the switch. Tim released Bucky and fastened on the visitor. Trie foreman was a man of great physical power. He dragged his victim up ana pinned him against the wall. “Let me go, you scoundrel!” a voice raged. “Clem Garside!” cried Murphy, astonished. From a holster beneath the banker’s armpit Bucky removed a revolver. “Let the gentleman go, Tim,” said Bucky reproachfully. “I’m surprised at you being so rough with a guest.” Garside glared at one and another. His eyes fastened on the lawyer. “What does this mean?” he demanded. Lewis was shocked. "I "don't know, Clem. It’s as much a surprise to me as to you.” He turned upon Bucky severely. “Will you tell me, young man, what you mean by this attack on Mr Garside?”

Bucky straightened his twisted necktie, a smile on his battered, bleeding mouth. “I’ll tell you all about it, gentlemen,” he said, his back to the door. “It will take a little time. What say we all sit down comfortably and talk it over.”

“Get away from that door or I’ll fling you out of the window!” Garside threatened angrily. “Such damn fool impudence! You’ll pay for this, every one of you.” “You carngo whenever you like, Garside,” said Bucky quietly, his cool gaze holaing fast to the banker. “But don't make a mistake. If you go now, the story will be in the papers tomorrow morning.” “What story?” stormed Garside. “That you and your ruffians assaulted me for no cause, intending to murder me?”

“I expect a reporter would discount that,” Cameron replied. “There wouldn’t have been any assault if you hadn’t turned the light out and reached for a gun. The story would be a lot more interesting than the fairy tale you are suggesting. Maybe you would like to hear it.”

“No!” the banker shouted. “Get out of my way!” “Certainly.” Bucky moved aside. “But don’t forget to read the paper. “You’ll find the story on the front page. Probably there will be a photograph of this room, where one of the Valley Bank robbers lived ten days and where you visited him twice secretly.” The words stopped Garside as effectively as a blow in the solar plexus. He stared at Bucky from a grey stunned face. “It's a lie,” he said dully. “There will probably be a photograph of your bank telephone number taken from the place where it is scribbled on the wall,” Bucky went on. “And the account of how you sneaked back to the room to erase the evidence —and got caught before you could do it"

“Lies! All lies!” Garside flung the words out more boldly. He was still groping for a defence, but the native hardihood of the man rallied to his aid.

Bucky showed his fine white teeth in a satiric smile. “Perhaps you can explain why ( you came to this room tonight,” he said.

“I can, but 1 won’t,” his enemy retorter harshly. “I’ll explain nothing to you. Nothing. You came of a rotten tribe, and you’re the worst of the lot. I’ve stood between you and- the men who wanted to kill you, but I'll do it no longer.” With a violent gesture he seemed to sweep Bucky aside. “Maybe you can teach them to shoot straighter than they have been doing,” Bucky said. His words reminded Garside of his transferred property. “I’ll take my gun,” he said bluntly.

. Cameron removed the cartridges from the chamber and handed the weapon to its owner. “You may need it." he replied with an acid grin, "if you are not going to stand between me and the men who want me killed/’ “I’ve stood enough from you. All I intend to put up with.’’ Cameron nodded, his eyes narrowed. “I think I won’t take the story to the newspapers yet, but keep it in my safety deposit box to be given to the Press in the event of my sudden death. In the box with it there will be a copy of a photograph of the telephone number on tne wall, one taken with a powerful lens and quite clear.’’ He added, with cheerful mockery, "I’m sure we have both enjoyed this little reunion, but I feel I ought not to detain you any longer." Garside strode out of the room. “How did you know Clem was coming here tonight, Bucky?” asked Lewis. “I don’t know it. Maybe I had better start at. the beginning. Mitchell discovered that McCarthy, alias McCall, who was probably one of the bank robbers, had lived here while in town prior to the hold-up of the Valley.” Bucky showed the lawyer the pencilled telephone number. “He also noticed this scawled on the wall and took a photograph of it, as I did later. Last nignt he told me he was going to have a talk with Clem today. I checked up, put a detective on the job. He is a man who has been doing quite a bit of work for me since my return to town after the First National robbery. Now Mitchell hates Garside. Do your own guessing as to the reason. Clem has done dirt to a lot of men in his time. I knew that if Mitchell got into a talk with friend Clem he couldn’t keep from telling him how he had the whip hand. At least I hoped he couldn’t. It turned out I was right. He told Garside what he knew and suspected. They had a quarrel. My man heard this from one of the bank employees. I put myself in Clem’s place. What would he do?" “Come to this room and destroy the evidence connecting the robbers with somebody inside the bank," suggested newis. “I figured he would, soon after it got dark. It he came, it would be because he was frightened. So I thought it a good idea to be here, with witnesses.” “Was it wise to let him know the evidence against him before you have nearly enough to convict?” the lawyer asked. “For instance, can you prove he visited McCarthy here?" “No. That is one of the weak joints in our thin case against him. If I had had plenty of evidence I wouldn't have told him anything until after his ar-

“I don’t suppose he'll annoy me,” Kathleen answered, but her mind was on something else. She had been trying to find an easy approach, but could not thinx of one. So she went directly to the point. “What’s this crazy story about Neil Cameron trying to murder you?” she demanded.

He turned, the safety razor poised. ■'What have you heard?” he asked sharply. “I’ve heard he enticed you by some false message into the lower part of town and set you on with his gang—.hat he shot at you several times.” “That’s not true —all of it,” he snapped. “Where did you hear it?” “From Delia. The grocery delivery joy told her. I knew it couldn’t be rue.”

"How did you know that?” he flung it her belligerently. “Because 1 know Neil Cameron. He nay be a foolhardy publicity hound, jut he isn’t a murderer.”

“You know practically everything, don’t you?” He resumed shaving. “How much of it is true?” she asked, excitement strumming in her veins. Before answering he finished scraping his chin. This gave him time to choose words carefully. "I received a note during the day through the mail that if I wanted to get a clue to the robbers of the Valley I was to call at a certain rooming house on Fort Street. Knowing it might be a decoy message, I took a gun with me. In the room to which I had been directed' 1 found Cameron and two of his men. When I turned to go they assaulted me. From what I can gather it appears, if they were telling the truth, that one of the Valley robbers stayed in this room while he was in town. The trap was to draw me down there in order to make it seem that I had known him, and perhaps even that 1 had visited him there prior to the robbery.” “But why?” she asked, frowning in bewilderment. “Why would you do that? It’s absurd.” "Of course it’s absurd. I suppose that young devil Cameron thought that since his uncle robbed his bank he could persuade the public that I had robbed mine.” “Oh no!" she cried. "He wouldn’t do that.” “I thought you knew the Camerons, how they’ve been trying to down me ever since 1 came into this country nearly forty years ago,” he told her harshly. “All because I wouldn't bow down and accept them as the big moguls of this district. He’s like the rest of his clan, a slick smooth talker. He’s got nerve. All the Camerons had. And that’s all. Don’t let him fool you.” (To be Continued.)

rest. My thought was to scare him into action. He will have to communicate with McCarthy or some of the robbers. MrCarthy is under constant observation. How will Garside try to reach him with a warning? By a wire or by phone? All calls and messages will be checked. By going personally to El Paso, where McCarthy is now staying? Risky, wouldn’t you say? By air mail? The government men are watching all letters that go to McCarthy. He can’t move without danger, and he has to move.”

“At least he thinks he has,” Lewis said thoughtfully. “Since he doesn’t know you were bluffing when you said you could prove he visited McCarthy. Yes, he has to get McCarthy and the others to disappear —if they were the bandits/' .Lewis added sharply, “We had better get out of here. Some one may have heard the row and reported it to the police.” “Or Clem’s gun-minded friends may arrange a reception for us,” hazarded Tim. “Next time they do you and Bucky may not be as lucky as you were the other night.” “He’ll probably concentrate on Tim and me, but 1 would watch my step if I were you, Judge.” The eyes of Cameron were agate-harrd. “He’s as guilty as the devil, and I don’t think he would stop at any thing. His story about tonight will likely be that he was decoyed here by a message that ■information would be given him as to the Valley robbery. You can't prove that isn’t true. So why should he worry about you?” None the less Bucky and Tim drove Lewis to his home and saw him safely behind a locked door, after which they went to the Toltec and called up Mitchell on the house telephone. Five minutes later the amateur and the professional detective were in the latter’s room.

“We really came to warn you,” Bucky explained presently. ' “Garside will think you and 1 laid a trap to draw him to the rooming house. He is going to have to move fast, and he is likely to strike at you as well as at me. Look out for yourself.” The lines of Mitchell’s mouth tightened. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of myself,” he added, with a flare of cold fury. “I’d like to see that whited sepulchre with a rope around his neck on the gallows.” Bucky made no comment. There jumped to his mind a vision of a girl, her golden head lifted gallantly, courage in all her untamed, vivid personality. Much as he hated Clem Garside, he could not desire to see the spirit of Kathleen forever crushed, her pride trampled down beyond any possible recovery. CHAPTER XXIII. From two sources next morning Bucky heard that he had lured Clem Garside into a trap' and tried to murder him. “I wouldn’t stand for it,” Tim advised. "I’d shoot the works to the newspapers.” Buck shook his head. “Not yet. I have a hunch things are going to move fast from now on.” Through one of the maids in the house a rumour of the story came to Kathleen just before dinner. She went straight to her father’s room and said, “May I come in?” Garside was shaving. He had to attend a dinner given by the Toltec Development Club. “You might fix the studs in that shirt for me,” he said. “By the way, I had a little talk with that fellow Dan West today. He had just been released from gaol on bond. You are probably right about him. He mentioned your name in a way I didn’t like. 1 told him to keep his eyes and tongue off you. The fellow took it badly. I had to lay the law dowfn He has a voilent temper and went off in a rage. I’m mentioning it because if he ever annoys you I want you to let me know and I’ll take care of him.”