Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/273

Rh supplies, met him only half a dozen miles from camp. Jim said he'd laid up over night because of the snowstorm, but didn't come back to camp because he didn't want to see Neal after the promise he'd made. And there had been a big snow that night. Chapin and Findlay didn't get in till all hours because of it; Chapin about eleven, Findlay not till near two, dead beat out from tramping through the new snow; and Neal—he never got in at all.

"I stayed four days after that looking for Neal; but we couldn't find him. Then I left Chapin with the Indians to keep on searching, while I came down, more to see Jim, you understand, than to break the news to Leigh. Jim admitted he'd stayed near camp till the next morning but denied he'd even seen Neal, and denied it so strongly that he fooled me into giving him the benefit of the doubt until last night; and then Chapin wired me they had found Neal's body, and to meet them with a detective, as they have plain evidence against young Jim that he murdered my brother!"

The old man stopped suddenly, and his eyes shifted from Trant to the clock. "That's all," he concluded abruptly. "Not much psychology in that, is there? My car is waiting down stairs."

He pulled the fur cap down upon his ears, and Trant had time only to throw on his coat and catch his client in the hall, as Sheppard walked toward the elevators. The chauffeur, at sight of them, opened the limousine body of the car, and Sheppard got in with Trant, leaving the man this time to guide the car through the streets.