CHAPTER XVIII
GORDON SPENDS A BUSY EVENING
Paget smoked placidly, but the heart within him was troubled. It lookedas if Selfridge had made up his mind to frame Gordon for a prisonsentence. The worst of it was that he need not invent any evidenceor take any chances. If Macdonald came through on the stand with anidentification of Elliot as one of his assailants, the young man wouldgo down the river to serve time. There was enough corroborativetestimony to convict St. Peter himself.
It all rested with Macdonald--and the big Scotch-Canadian was a veryuncertain quantity. His whole interests were at one in favor of gettingElliot out of the way. On the other hand--how far would he go to savethe Kamatlah claims and to remove this good-looking rival from his path?Peter could not think he would stoop to perjury against an innocent man.
"I'm just telling you what he said," Diane explained. "And it worriedme. His smile was cynical. I couldn't help thinking that if he wants toget even with Gordon--"
Mrs. Paget stopped. The maid had just brought into the room a visitor.Diane moved forward and shook hands with him. "How do you do, Mr.Strong? Take this big chair."
Hanford Strong accepted the chair and a cigar. Though a well-to-domine-owner, he wore as always the rough clothes of a prospector. He camepromptly to the object of his call.
"I don't know whether this is where I should have come or not. Are youfolks for young Elliot or are you for Selfridge?" he demanded.
"If you put it that way, we're for Elliot," smiled Peter.
"All right. Let me put it another way. You work for Mac. Are you on hisside or on Elliot's in this matter of the coal claims?"
Diane looked at Peter. He took his time to answer.
"We hope the coal claimants will win, but we've got sense enough to seethat Gordon is in here to report the facts. That's what he is paid for.He'll tell the truth as he sees it. If his superior officers decide onthose facts against Macdonald, I don't see that Elliot is to blame."
"That's how it looks to me," agreed Strong. "I'm for a wide-open Alaska,but that don't make it right to put this young fellow through for acrime he didn't do. Lots of folks think he did it. That's all right.I know he didn't. Fact is, I like him. He's square. So I've come to tellyou something."
He smoked for a minute silently before he continued.
"I've got no evidence in his favor, but I bumped into something a littlewhile ago that didn't look good to me. You know I room next him at thehotel. I heard a noise in his room, and I thought that was funny, seeingas he was locked up in jail. So I kinder listened and heard whispers andthe sound of some one moving about. There's a door between his room andmine that is kept locked. I looked through the keyhole, and in Elliot'sroom there was Wally Selfridge and another man. They were lookingthrough papers at the desk. Wally put a stack of them in his pocket andthey went out locking the door behind them."
"They had no business doing that," burst out Diane. "Wally Selfridgeisn't an officer of the law."
Strong nodded dryly to her. "Just what I thought. So I followed them.They went to Macdonald's offices. After awhile Wally came out and leftthe other man there. Then presently the lights went out. The man iscamped there for the night. Will you tell me why?"
"Why?" repeated Diane with her sharp eyes on the miner.
"Because Wally has some papers there he don't want to get away fromhim."
"Some of Gordon's papers, of course."
"You've said it."
"All his notes and evidence in the case of the coal claims probably,"contributed Peter.
"Maybe. Wally has stole them, but he hasn't nerve enough to burn themtill he gets orders from Mac. So he's holding them safe at the office,"guessed Strong.
"It's an outrage," Diane decided promptly.
"Surest thing you know. Wally has fixed it to frame him for prison andto play safe about his evidence on the coal claims."
"What are you going to do about it?" Diane asked her husband sharply.
Peter rose. "First I'm going to see Gordon and hear what he has to say.Come on, Strong. We may be gone quite a while, Diane. Don't wait up forme if you get through your stint of nursing."
Roused from sleep, Gopher Jones grumbled a good deal about letting themen see his prisoner. "You got all day, ain't you, without traipsingaround here nights. Don't you figure I'm entitled to any rest?"
But he let them into the ramshackle building that served as a jail, andafter three dollars had jingled in the palm of his hand he steppedoutside and left the men alone with his prisoner. The three put theirheads together and whispered.
"I'll meet you outside the house of Selfridge in half an hour, Strong,"was the last thing that Gordon said before Jones came back to order outthe visitors.
As soon as the place was dark again, Gordon set to work on the flimsyframework of his cell window. He knew already it was so decrepit that hecould escape any time he desired, but until now there had been no reasonwhy he should. Within a quarter of an hour he lifted the iron-grilledsash bodily from the frame and crawled through the window.
He found Paget and Strong waiting for him in the shadows of a pineoutside the yard of Selfridge.
"To begin with, you walk straight home and go to bed, Peter," the youngman announced. "You're not in this. You're not invited to our party. Idon't have to tell you why, do I?"
The engineer understood the reason. He was an employee of Macdonald, aman thoroughly trusted by him. Even though Gordon intended only to righta wrong, it was better that Paget should not be a party to it.Reluctantly Peter went home.
Gordon turned to Strong. "I owe you a lot already. There's no need foryou to run a risk of getting into trouble for me. If things break right,I can do what I have to do without help."
"And if they don't?" Strong waved an impatient hand. "Cut it out,Elliot. I've taken a fancy to go through with this. I never did likeSelfridge anyhow, and I ain't got a wife and I don't work for Mac. Whythe hell shouldn't I have some fun?"
Gordon shrugged his shoulders. "All right. Might as well play ball andget things moving, then."
The little miner knocked at the door. Wally himself opened. Elliot, fromthe shelter of the pine, saw the two men in talk. Selfridge shut thedoor and came to the edge of the porch. He gave a gasp and his handswent trembling into the air. The six-gun of the miner had been pressedhard against his fat paunch. Under curt orders he moved down the stepsand out of the yard to the tree.
At sight of Gordon the eyes of Wally stood out in amazement. Littlesweat beads burst out on his forehead, for he remembered how busy he hadbeen collecting evidence against this man.
"W-w-what do you want?" he asked.
"Got your keys with you?"
"Y-yes."
"Come with us."
Wally breathed more freely. For a moment he had thought this man hadcome to take summary vengeance on him.
They led him by alleys and back streets to the office of the MacdonaldYukon Trading Company. Under orders he knocked on the door and calledout who he was. Gordon crouched close to the log wall, Strong behindhim.
"Let me in, Olson," ordered Selfridge again.
The door opened, and a man stood on the threshold. Elliot was on top ofhim like a panther. The man went down as though his knees were oiledhinges. Before he could gather his slow wits, the barrel of a revolverwas shoved against his teeth.
"Take it easy, Olson," advised Gordon. "Get up--slowly. Now, step backinto the office. Keep your hands up."
Strong closed and locked the door behind them.
"I want my papers, Selfridge. Dig up your keys and get them for me,"Elliot commanded.
Wally did not need any keys. He knew the combination of the safe andopened it. From an inner drawer he drew a bunch of papers. Gordon lookedthem over carefully. Strong sat on a table and toyed with a revolverwhich he jammed playfully into the stomach of his fat prisoner.
"All here," announced the field agent.
The safe-robbers locked their prisoners in the office and disappearedint
o the night. They stopped at the house of the collector of customs, agenial young fellow with whom Elliot had played tennis a good deal, andleft the papers in his hands for safe-keeping. After which they returnedto the hotel and reached the second floor by way of the back stairs usedby the servants.
Here they parted, each going to his own room. Gordon slept like aschoolboy and woke only when the sun poured through the window upon hisbed in a broad ribbon of warm gold.
He got up, bathed, dressed, and went down into the hotel dining-room.The waiters looked at him in amazement. Presently the cook peered inat him from the kitchen and the clerk made an excuse to drop into theroom. Gordon ate as if nothing were the matter, apparently unaware ofthe excitement he was causing. He paid not the least attention to thenudging and the whispering. After he had finished breakfast, he lit acigar, leaned back in his chair, and smoked placidly.
Presently an eruption of men poured into the room. At the head of themwas Gopher Jones. Near the rear Wally Selfridge lingered modestly. Hewas not looking for hazardous adventure.
"Whad you doing here?" demanded Gopher, bristling up to Elliot.
The young man watched a smoke wreath float ceilingward before he turnedhis mild gaze on the chief of police.
"I'm smoking."
"Don't you know we just got in from hunting you--two posses of us beenout all night?" Gopher glared savagely at the smoker.
Gordon looked distressed. "That's too bad. There's a telephone in myroom, too. Why didn't you call up? I've been there all night."
"The deuce you have," exploded Jones. "And us combing the hills for you.Young man, you're mighty smart. But I want to tell you that you'll payfor this."
"Did you want me for anything in particular--or just to get up a pokergame?" asked Elliot suavely.
The leader of the posse gave himself to a job of scientific profanity.He was spurred on to outdo himself because he had heard a titter ortwo behind him. When he had finished, he formed a procession. He, withElliot hand-cuffed beside him, was at the head of it. It marched to thejail.