Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/234

 "I'll explain that," Sheriff Smith interjected. "Three indictments are pending against you: abduction, theft and robbery; but at Nootwyck you'll get a chance to clear yourself."

"Who accuses me of abduction?" Mills asked defiantly.

"Andrew Genung of Nootwyck," was the calm reply.

"Now look here, Smith," said Mills. "This is a plot concocted in the brain of that rascally nephew of Andrew Genung. Genung is far too sensible a man to cause my arrest on some trumped-up charge with no proof that I committed the deed."

"Aint there no proof, Robert Bruce?" and Tim Watson stepped before him.

Mills's blood receded from the surface, leaving his countenance a ghastly green. Dumb with fear, balked at every turn, realizing that his last card in this desperate game had been played, he fell on his knees and begged for mercy.

Not a man present thought him worth a