Page:The Boy Land Boomer.djvu/243

Rh "The same Captain Mull, gentlemen "

"It is a—a lie!" screamed Louis Vorlange, but his looks belied him.

"It is the truth, gentlemen, he is the man who once sported under the name of Captain Mull. But that is not all."

"What else, Pawnee?"

"Some years ago a man by the name of Andrew Rickwell was murdered in the Last Chance hotel at Creede. At that time Creede was but a small place and Captain Mull ran the hotel. Who murdered Rickwell was not discovered. But he had occupied a room with another man, a mining agent from New York named Mortimer Arbuckle, the father of this lad here, and some thought Arbuckle had done the foul deed, and he had to run away to escape the fury of a mob. The horror of this occurrence unbalanced the man's mind and to this day he sometimes thinks he may be guilty. But he is innocent."

"He is guilty!" shrieked Louis Vorlange. "I saw him do the deed!"

"I see you acknowledge you were in Creede at that time," answered Pawnee Bill, and Vorlange staggered back over the bad break he had made. "As I said, Mortimer Arbuckle is innocent. There is the murderer, and here are the documents to prove it—and to prove