Erle Gardner - The Case of the Rolling Bones

“That night Bill decide to kill me. I read it in his eyes. He figured that with me dead, he could take all of the gold and go get Emily. He’d sensed by that time that she cared more for me than she did for him.

“We had a revolver and a rifle. I stuck the rifle down my pants leg and smuggled it out of the cabin when I went out to get wood. I left it where it would be handy. I was watching Bill like a hawk.

“About eight o’clock that night, it happened. He’d been drinking pretty heavy, and, all of a sudden, he straightened up and threw the whiskey bottle to one side. I read murder in his eyes. I think he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t talk. He twisted his lips, and that was all. I was headed for the door by the time he’d raised the gun. Remember, I’d been waiting for just that play.

“Bill was fast. He shot twice, and missed both times. I ran around the cabin, and he after me. I had enough of a head start to keep the cabin between me and him. I grabbed the rifle, and shot.

“There I was, with a dead partner, out in the middle of the north country, a claim that was lousy with gold, and winter coming on. I knew it was a pocket. I knew it might play out tomorrow or next day or the next week, or, maybe, next season. But it was a pocket. If I left the claim to go and report to the authorities, and some prospector came along, he’d clean out the gold.

“I did the only thing that seemed logical at the time. I dragged Bill out a ways from the cabin, dug a hole, and buried him. It was exactly what he’d have done with me. I went back and stayed with that pocket. It petered out in about ten days. I had a fortune in gold. It took me five trips, lugging all I could carry, to get it down to the boat.

“Well, there I was. The river was due to start freezing almost any time. I had a big load of gold, and quite a few people knew my partner was Bill Hogarty. I couldn’t explain Bill’s absence without getting into a lot of trouble. I didn’t dare to lie about it, and I didn’t dare to tell the truth.

“I started back up the river. It was slow going. The river finally froze on me. I got Indians and dog sleds. I was traveling hard and fast, and I went under the name of Bill Hogarty. I told people we’d struck it rich, and that Leeds, my partner, was staying in to watch the claim, that I was going out to get supplies, and bank the gold. I stayed away from people we knew. I did but little talking, and I traveled fast.

“You see, the way I figured it, by traveling as Bill Hogarty, I could leave a record that Bill had left the country and got as far as Seattle. Then in Seattle, I’d take my own name, and talk with people I knew. Then if the law found the body, they wouldn’t identify it as Hogarty because the records would show Hogarty had gone out and reached Seattle, where he’d disappeared. They couldn’t identify it as Leeds because Leeds would be alive and well. It was the best I could do. I figured that, with any sort of luck, it would be a year or two before they found the body. I got out to Seattle, still going under the name of Hogarty. I found Emily. She’d felt the same way about me I’d felt about her. We were married.

“We lived here in Seattle that winter. We were both of us high-strung and temperamental. We had one hell of a fight in the spring. Emily walked out on me. I know now, she intended to come back, but Emily was as high-strung as a good trotting horse. I left Seattle and went back to my real identity of Alden Leeds.”

Leeds stopped talking for a moment, and held a match to his pipe. “Remember,” he went on, slowly, “things were different in those days. The country was young, and the men in it were young. Even the old men were younger than most of the young men are now.

“Nowadays, we’re suffering from hardening of the economic arteries. The country is old. Our outlook is old. People have quit trying. You could comb through this whole damn city today and not get a half a dozen men with the guts to take what the Yukon dished out in those days. I don’t mind getting old and dying. I hate to see the whole damned country dying along with me. There ain’t any youth to take our place. Just a bunch of whining little snivelers who want the government to support ’em.”

In the silence which followed, knuckles pounded on the door of the room.

Mason said, “What is it?”

A bellboy’s voice answered, “A telegram for Mr. Mason. He isn’t in his room. I thought he might be here. He told the clerk he’d call on Mr. Smith.”

“Shove it under the door,” Mason said, “and I’ll push a dollar bill back. I’m Mason.”

A moment later, a blue envelope slid under the door. Mason slid a dollar bill through the crack.

“Okay,” Mason said. “I’ll let you know if there’s an answer.”

He ripped open the telegram envelope and read a message sent by Della Street:

OUR OFFICE TELEPHONE LINE AND MY APARTMENT LINE HAVE BEEN TAPPED STOP YOUR CONVERSATION WITH MILTON STIVE OVERHEARD DISTRICT ATTORNEY SERVED SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM DEMANDING ALL PAPERS STOP MY CONVERSATION WITH YOU ABOUT GOING SEATTLE PLANE RESERVATIONS AND LOCATION OF ALDEN LEEDS ALSO APPARENTLY OVERHEARD

DELLA STREET

Mason folded the message, and pushed it down into his coat pocket. He turned back to face the two in the room.

“All right,” he said quietly, “we’re going to have company. You two do exactly as I say. Miss Milicant, here’s a key to a room in the hotel. You’re registered in that room as Mrs. George L. Manchester. Go to that room. Lock yourself in. Stay there until after the police think you’ve slipped through their fingers, and have quit watching the place. Then get out, keep under cover, and write me at my office where you are and what name you’re using.

“Leeds, I could help you escape. I don’t think it’s wise. When you’re arrested, waive extradition, but don’t be in a hurry to do it. Tell the police that you’re in love with Emily Milicant, that you hope she does you the honor of marrying you, that you had no idea the man you knew as John Milicant was going under the name of Louie Conway until yesterday afternoon. Admit that you called on him, claim that you don’t know what time it was; that you had a business matter to discuss; that you left him alive and well; that you won’t discuss anything else until after you’ve talked with Emily. Don’t tell the police what you were talking about, what the check was for, or how you found out Conway and Milicant were one and the same.

“Now then, after you left the sanitarium, you wrote out another twenty thousand dollar check also payable to Conway, but endorsed so as to make it payable to bearer. The description of the woman who cashed that check makes me think it was Emily Milicant. How about it?”

They exchanged glances. “It was I,” Emily admitted.

“What’s the idea?”

“Alden wanted to have plenty of cash to do what he wanted to do. He knew he couldn’t draw twenty thousand in cash without making it look as though he were running away. He figured that if he made that second check to Conway and had me cash it, he could get the twenty thousand, and no one would figure he was checking out. It sounded like a good idea at the time.”

“It looks like hell now,” Mason said. “Twenty grand is too much cash for a pleasure trip. It looks as though you were running away and didn’t intend to come back.”

“I know it,” she admitted.

Leeds said, “Look here, Mason, I can’t be arrested. I’ve got to get back to the Tanana country.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you see? To square up that old killing.”

“You mean John Milicant was blackmailing you over that?”

“Yes.”

“Just what did you expect to do?” Mason asked.