Crooked Trails and Straight

  CHAPTER VII

  ANONYMOUS LETTERS

  Sheriff Bolt, though a politician, was an honest man. It troubled him thatCullison's friends believed him to be a partisan in a matter of this sort.For which reason he met more than half way Curly's overtures. YoungFlandrau was in the office of the sheriff a good deal, because he wantedto be kept informed of any new developments in the W. & S. robbery case.

  It was on one of those occasions that Bolt tossed across to him a letterhe had just opened.

  "I've been getting letters from the village cut-up or from some crank, Idon't know which. Here's a sample."

  The envelope, addressed evidently in a disguised hand, contained one sheetof paper. Upon this was lettered roughly,

  "Play the Jack of Hearts."

  Flandrau looked up with a suggestion of eagerness in his eyes.

  "What do you reckon it means?" he asked.

  "Search me. Like as not it don't mean a thing. The others had just as muchsense as that one."

  "Let's see the others."

  "I chucked them into the waste paper basket. One came by the morning mailyesterday and one by the afternoon. I'm no mind reader, and I've got notime to guess fool puzzles."

  Curly observed that the waste paper basket was full. Evidently it had notbeen emptied for two or three days.

  "Mind if I look for the others?" he asked.

  Bolt waved permission. "Go to it."

  The young man emptied the basket on the floor and went over its contentscarefully. He found three communications from the unknown writer. Each ofthem was printed by hand on a sheet of cheap lined paper torn from ascratch pad. He smoothed them out and put them side by side on the table.This was what he read:

  HEARTS ARE TRUMPS WHEN IN DOUBT PLAY TRUMPS PLAY TRUMPS _NOW_

  There was only the one line to each message, and all of them were plainlyin the same hand. He could make out only one thing, that someone wastrying to give the sheriff information in a guarded way.

  He was still puzzling over the thing when a boy came with a specialdelivery letter for the sheriff. Bolt glanced at it and handed the note toCurly.

  "Another _billy doo_ from my anxious friend."

  This time the sender had been in too much of a hurry to print the words.They were written in a stiff hand by some uneducated person.

  The Jack of Trumps, to-day

  "Mind if I keep these?" Curly asked.

  "Take 'em along."

  Flandrau walked out to the grandstand at the fair grounds and sat down byhimself there to think out what connection, if any, these singularwarnings might have with the vanishing of Cullison or the robbery of theW. & S. He wasted three precious hours without any result. Dusk wasfalling before he returned.

  "Guess I'll take them to my little partner and give her a whack at thepuzzle," he decided.

  Curly strolled back to town along El Molino street and down Main. He hadjust crossed the old Spanish plaza when his absorbed gaze fell on a signthat brought him up short. In front of a cigar store stretched across thesidewalk a painted picture of a jack of hearts. The same name was on thewindow.

  Fifty yards behind him was the Silver Dollar saloon, where Luck Cullisonhad last been seen on his way to the Del Mar one hundred and fifty yardsin front of him. Somewhere within that distance of two hundred yards theowner of the Circle C had vanished from the sight of men. The evidenceshowed he had not reached the hotel, for a cattle buyer had been waitingthere to talk with him. His testimony, as well as that of the hotel clerk,was positive.

  Could this little store, the Jack of Hearts, be the central point of themystery? In his search for information Curly had already been in it, hadbought a cigar, and had stopped to talk with Mrs. Wylie, the proprietor.She was a washed-out little woman who had once been pretty. Habitually shewore a depressed, hopeless look, the air of pathetic timidity that comesto some women who have found life too hard for them. It had been easy toalarm her. His first question had evidently set her heart a-flutter, butFlandrau had reassured her cheerfully. She had protested with absurdearnestness that she had seen nothing of Mr. Cullison. A single glance hadbeen enough to dismiss her from any possible suspicion.

  Now Curly stepped in a second time. The frightened gaze of Mrs. Wyliefastened upon him instantly. He observed that her hand moved instinctivelyto her heart. Beyond question she was in fear. A flash of light clarifiedhis mind. She was a conspirator, but an unwilling one. Possibly she mightbe the author of the anonymous warnings sent Bolt.

  The young _vaquero_ subscribed for a magazine and paid her the money.Tremblingly she filled out the receipt. He glanced at the slip and handedit back.

  "Just write below the signature 'of the Jack of Hearts,' so that I'llremember where I paid the money if the magazine doesn't come," hesuggested.

  She did so, and Curly put the receipt in his pocket carelessly. Hesauntered leisurely to the hotel, but as soon as he could get into atelephone booth his listlessness vanished. Maloney had returned to townand he telephoned him to get Mackenzie at once and watch the Jack ofHearts in front and rear. Before he left the booth Curly had compared thewriting of Mrs. Wylie with that on the sheet that had come by specialdelivery. The loop of the J's, the shape of the K's, the formation of thecapital H in both cases were alike. So too was the general lack ofcharacter common to both, the peculiar hesitating drag of the letters.Beyond question the same person had written both.

  Certainly Mrs. Wylie was not warning the sheriff against herself. Thenagainst whom? He must know her antecedents, and at once. There was no timefor him to mole them out himself. Calling up a local detective agency, heasked the manager to let him know within an hour or two all that could befound out about the woman without alarming her.

  "Wait a moment I think we have her on file. Hold the 'phone." Thedetective presently returned. "Yes. We can give you the facts. Will youcome to the office for them?"

  Fifteen minutes later Curly knew that Mrs. Wylie was the divorced wife ofLute Blackwell. She had come to Saguache from the mountains several yearsbefore. Soon after there had been an inconspicuous notice in the_Sentinel_ to the effect that Cora Blackwell was suing for divorce fromLute Blackwell, then a prisoner in the penitentiary at Yuma. Another newsitem followed a week later stating that the divorce had been grantedtogether with the right to use her maiden name. Unobtrusively she hadstarted her little store. Her former husband, paroled from thepenitentiary a few months before the rustling episode, had at intervalsmade of her shop a loafing place since that time.

  Curly returned to the Del Mar and sent his name up to Miss Cullison. WithKate and Bob there was also in the room Alec Flandrau.

  The girl came forward lightly to meet him with the lance-straight poisethat always seemed to him to express a brave spirit ardent and unafraid.

  "Have you heard something?" she asked quickly.

  "Yes. Tell me, when did your father last meet Lute Blackwell so far as youknow?"

  "I don't know. Not for years, I think. Why?"

  The owner of the Map of Texas answered the question of his nephew. "He methim the other day. Let's see. It was right after the big poker game. Wemet him downstairs here. Luck had to straighten out some notions he hadgot."

  "How?"

  Flandrau, Senior, told the story of what had occurred in the hotel lobby.

  "And you say he swore to get even?"

  "That's what he said. And he looked like he meant it too."

  "What is it? What have you found out?" Kate implored.

  The young man told about the letters and Mrs. Wylie.

  "We've got to get a move on us," he concluded. "For if Lute Blackwell didthis thing to your father it's mighty serious for him."

  Kate was white to the lips, but in no danger of breaking down. "Yes, ifthis man is in it he would not stop at less than murder. But I don'tbelieve it. I know Father is alive. Cass Fendrick is the man we want. I'msure of it."


  Curly had before seen women hard as nails, gaunt strong mountaineers astough as hickory withes. But he had never before seen that qualitydwelling in a slim girlish figure of long soft curves, never seen it in aface of dewy freshness that could melt to the tenderest pity. She was likeflint, and yet she could give herself with a passionate tenderness tothose she loved. He had seen animals guard their young with that samealert eager abandon. His conviction was that she would gladly die for herfather if it were necessary. As he looked at her with hard unchangingeyes, his blood quickened to a fierce joy in her it had known for no otherwoman.

  "First thing is to search the Jack of Hearts and see what's there. Are youwith me, Uncle Alec?"

  "I sure am, Curly;" and he reached for his hat.

  Bob too was on his feet. "I'm going. You needn't any of you say I ain't,for I am."

  Curly nodded. "If you'll do as you're told, Bob."

  "I will. Cross my heart."

  "May I come too?" Kate pleaded.

  She was a strongwilled impulsive young woman, and her deference to Curlyflattered him; but he shook his head none the less.

  "No. You may wait in the parlor downstairs and I'll send Bob to you withany news. There's just a chance this may be a man's job and we want to goto it unhampered." He turned at the door with his warm smile. "By the way,I've got some news I forgot. I know where your father got the money to payhis poker debts. Mr. Jordan of the Cattlemen's National made him apersonal loan. He figured it would not hurt the bank because the three menLuck paid it to would deposit it with the bank again."

  "By George, that's what we did, too, every last one of us," his uncleadmitted.

  "Every little helps," Kate said; and her little double nod thanked Curly.

  The young man stopped a moment after the others had gone. "I'm not goingto let Bob get into danger," he promised.

  "I knew you wouldn't," was her confident answer.

  At the corner of the plaza Curly gave Bob instructions.

  "You stay here and keep an eye on everyone that passes. Don't try to stopanybody. Just size them up."

  "Ain't I to go with you? I got a gun."

  "You're to do as I say. What kind of a soldier would you make if you can'tobey orders? I'm running this. If you don't like it trot along home."

  "Oh, I'll stay," agreed the crestfallen youth.

  Maloney met them in front of the Jack of Hearts.

  "Dick, you go with me inside. Uncle Alec, will you keep guard outside?"

  "No, bub, I won't. I knew Luck before you were walking bowlegged," the oldcattleman answered brusquely.

  Curly grinned. "All right. Don't blame me if you get shot up."

  Mrs. Wylie's startled eyes told tales when she saw the three men. Her facewas ashen.

  "I'm here to play trumps, Mrs. Wylie. What secret has the Jack of Heartsgot hidden from us?" young Flandrau demanded, his hard eyes fastened toher timorous ones.

  "I--I--I don't know what you mean."

  "No use. We're here for business. Dick, you stay with her. Don't let herleave or shout a warning."

  He passed into the back room, which was a kind of combination living room,kitchen and bedroom. A door led from the rear into a back yard litteredwith empty packing cases, garbage cans and waste paper. After taking alook around the yard he locked the back door noiselessly. There was noother apparent exit from the kitchen-bedroom except the one by which heand his uncle had entered from the shop. But he knew the place must have acellar, and his inspection of the yard had showed no entrance there. Hedrew back the Navajo rug that covered the floor and found one of theold-fashioned trap doors some cheap houses have. Into this was fitted aniron ring with which to lift it.

  From the darkness below came no sound, but Curly's imagination conceivedthe place as full of shining eyes glaring up at him. Any bad men downthere already had the drop on them. Therefore neither Curly nor his unclemade the mistake of drawing a weapon.

  "I'm coming down, boys," young Flandrau announced in a quiet confidentvoice. "The place is surrounded by our friends and it won't do you a wholelot of good to shoot me up. I'd advise you not to be too impulsive"

  He descended the steps, his face like a stone wall for all the emotion itrecorded. At his heels came the older man. Curly struck a match, found anelectric bulb above his head, and turned the button. Instantly thedarkness was driven from the cellar.

  The two Flandraus were quite alone in the room. For furniture there was atable, a cot which had been slept in and not made up, and a couple ofrough chairs. The place had no windows, no means of ventilation exceptthrough the trap door. Yet there were evidences to show that it hadrecently been inhabited. Half smoked cigars littered the floor. A pack ofcards lay in disorder on the table. The _Sentinel_ with date line of thatday lay tossed in a corner.

  The room told Curly this at least: There had been a prisoner here with aguard or guards. Judging by the newspaper they had been here within a fewhours. The time of sending the special delivery letter made this the moreprobable. He had missed the men he wanted by a very little time. If he hadhad the gumption to understand the hints given by the letters Cullisonmight now be eating supper with his family at the hotel.

  "Make anything out of it?" the older Flandrau asked.

  "He's been here, but they've taken him away. Will you cover thetelephoning? Have all the ranches notified that Luck is being taken intothe hills so they can picket the trails."

  "How do you know he is being taken there?"

  "I don't know. I guess. Blackwell is in it. He knows every nook of thehills. The party left here not two hours since, looks like."

  Curly put the newspaper in his pocket and led the Way back to the store.

  "The birds have flown, Dick, Made their getaway through the alley latethis afternoon, probably just after it got dark." He turned to the woman."Mrs. Wylie, murder is going to be done, I shouldn't wonder. And you'reliable to be held guilty of it unless you tell us all you know."

  She began to weep, helplessly, but with a sort of stubbornness too.Frightened she certainly was, but some greater fear held her silent as tothe secret. "I don't know anything about it," she repeated over and over.

  "Won't do. You've got to speak. A man's life hangs on it."

  But his resolution could not break hers, incomparably stronger than shethough he was. Her conscience had driven her to send veiled warnings tothe sheriff. But for very fear of her life she dared not commit herselfopenly.

  Maloney had an inspiration. He spoke in a low voice to Curly. "Let's takeher to the hotel. Miss Kate will know how to get it out of her better thanwe can."

  Mrs. Wylie went with them quietly enough. She was shaken with fears butstill resolute not to speak. They might send her to prison. She would tellthem nothing--nothing at all. For someone who had made terror the habit ofher life had put the fear of death into her soul.