Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 157: what you’re looking at

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

THE FREE TRADER. ‘““T am sure of that, Alan. But I must go. If [ can thik of anything more I'll come and tell you.” CHAPTER XXII. A NEW SUSPICION. LAN went home and sat alone in his living room until the housekeeper called him to supper. As she served the meal she talked of the day’s’ events. Alan was surprised to learn that the em- ployees knew so much of what had hap- pened, but he did not heed her palpable feelers for more information, and Kwe-ses was forced to give vent to her excitement through her own comments, ‘That missionary he work hard,” she said. Alan remembered how Bicknell had come to his aid on the roof of the warehouse and he nodded. ‘‘ He stay up there when he almost cook,” Kwe-ses continued. ‘And before that he help carry the fur to the Great North house. He carry more than any Indian. “ And me—me freeze two toes carrying water for the Great North. Wonder if Mears he pay me for those two toes now.” She rattled on until Alan was forced to hurry his meal and retreat to the living room. He wanted time to think, to rear- range the sequence of events in the light of the facts Helen had given to him. He real- ized that in her zeal she might have over- stated things, that she might have been * asleep longer than she had thought, that there might have been time enough for her father to get out of bed, set the fire and re- turn to his room. But. these, he recognized, were only minor objections. He remained convinced of the Great North man’s innocence; re- tained the same strong impression he had received from Helen in her last appeal to him. He became angry at Bicknell and Macleod, believed them stubborn and preju- diced. He knew Helen told the truth. Why couldn’t they believe her?” For more than an hour he paced the length of the living room countless times, trying to see his way out. He was con- 619 vinced, but as his resentment against Bick- nell and Macleod cooled he saw that he must have facts to prove his views, that he must, if he were to save Helen, be able not only to prove her father’s innocence, but point the way to the real slayer. In this effort he went back to his first theory that Henry Allardyce was the thief, and had set fire to the store to hide the loss of the fur and thereby give him the oppor- - tunity to get his booty out of the country undetected. He saw how Allardyce might have gotten possession of the key and re- turned fo. the trading shop late at night. Bicknell had not seen him, because the - clerk would not go near the missionary when such a project was on foot. Alan was able to. reconstruct the clerk’s - operations for the entire winter. But he could not get: past the skull with the back crushed in and the fact that the trading shop door was locked on the outside. Allardyce was eliminated. a stranger. coming to the post. Too many sharp eyes were. on the trails, on the ice, | and in the great swamps beyond the clear- | ing. Thus Alan’s process of elimination elimi- nated every one. There was no one left. Except— His. pacing stopped as if he had bumped into a wall. ‘* Bicknell!” he exclaimed aloud. ‘‘ There is no one else,” But the idea struck him as being so ridic- ulous, so preposterous, -he laughed. He resumed his pacing, more baffled than. ever. He was confident of Mears’s innocence, and yet to prove.it he knew he must find the real At last he threw him- self into a chair and stared at the flickering - glow of the coals in the open draft of the. big stove, only. to leap to his feet again at a> -new thought. “Why not assume Bicknell to be the murderer and thief, man,” he thought. ‘ There is no one else.” He started his pacing again, trying to (e(0) .OO mie Mears was - eliminated.. Alan himself was eliminated. . There remained only the employees, but he - gave them:scant thought. They lacked the - initiative, the brains and the courage. for such a thing:. There was no possibility of Despair again gripped him. | 4 cS Pe