Adventure, December 1914 — page 106: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

104 aside. Clavin called upon his four compan- ions in turn. Their testimony, as bald as Hassing’s, was but corroboration of Has- sing’s. Next the contents of Sark’s sled was judicially examined and the stolen sacks of flour, bacon and beans duly identified by the owners. Finally Clavin called on the accused. ‘Stranger,’ he observed, ‘“‘you was aching up at the bend for a chance to clear yourself. Now’s your chance. Go to it!” Pe SARK stood up, a dark, gigantic SS figure against the flames. aie “TI can’t say as I’ve evidence to offer,’’ he testified. “I’ve only a white man’s word. But it’s God’s truth when I say I’m not the man you chased. Your man was a yellow-haired man with his parka hood off and a bloody welt on his forehead. He blew up behind me when I stopped to breathe my dogs around the bend. Drove bang into me, upset me and whacked me over the head with the butt of his whip. He queered me a minute and before I could get to him he was sifting down again with my outfit.” “And left you his own?” cross-examined Hassing, who by common consent assumed the pose of lawyer for the prosecution. “Golly, stranger, can’t you figure out some better tale than that? Wedidn’t meet Mr. Imaginary Man. And he’d sure come back to meet us, wouldn’t he, considering we wanted to see him so bad?” “He did, I tell you.” ‘“‘We didn’t meet him, I tell you.”’ “Then he left the trail before he got to ou.” “Couldn’t do it, stranger. Couldn’t leave the trail between the Cache and the bend. Ask any one in the crowd. It’s all straight rock-wall on one side, and there’s been a snow-slide hanging hair-triggered for thirty-six hours on the other. Nosane man would sneak out and hide under a slide. And if he had sneaked out, he’d have brought down the slide. I tell you no sane man would try it.” : “But this man wasn’t sane. He was scared insane, or mighty near it. And by the look on his face he’d have taken a chance on the mouth of Hell itself.” Thus Hassing and Sark continued argu- ing back and forth till the chairman broke in on them. ‘You got to produce this yellow-haired Adventure fellow you talk about, before he counts,” he told Sark. **How in thunder can I?’”’ demanded the latter. “If he didn’t run into you, he must have got away.” “Got away? Where? Pah! Don’t throw such a fairy tale at us. Got any more evidence?”’ “Yes. I want to tell you who I am and explain my movements. My name’s Sark— Eric Sark. I haven’t been many hours on this trail. You say whoever robbed the Cache tonight has been at it all along. You say this is the third night you’ve laid for him. Well, that puts me out of the run- ning. I struck Dyea this afternoon.” “Oh, you did, eh?” interposed Hassing. “Well, that’s something to go on. To prove whether you’re lying or not, all we got to do is to look at the passenger list of the steamer you come on. What boat was ite “No boat. I’m fresh from the peak of British Columbia. By dog-sled off the Tatshenshini River.”’ ‘‘Aw, shucks! ‘That’s as bad as the yel- low-haired story. If you ain’t appeared through regular channels, who’s to identify your Who’s to prove you came that way?” “T don’t know,” admitted Sark. ‘Then neither do we,” Hassing scoffed. ‘“‘Any more evidence?” inquired Clavin, impatiently. “Only that my dogs weren’t malemiuts. They were MacKenzie River huskies. And my name was on my packs.”’ ‘Well, if that’s all, I guess we’ll take the vote,” concluded Clavin. ‘Them as be- lieves Sark’s guilty line up on the far side of the fire. Them as believes him innocent stay on his side.”’ In a compact body the crowd shifted to the farther side. pine WHEN the movement ceased, a =# solitary man was left sitting upon his dog-sled on Sark’s side. “Mighty near unanimous!’ Clavin com- mented, glowering at the solitary man. “You voting for the prisoner, Tom Bassett?”’ Bassett heaved up his thick-set body and turned a sharp-featured face upon the chair- man. “T sure am, Clavin. And do you savvy why? Because Sark told such a thunder- ing poor tale! If it had been a lie, it would have been all frilled up fit to blind a judge Gomiicordook C©