Part 51 (1/2)
”No,” said Dolan, sweeping with a glance the stacks of cases and crates that half filled the single floor of the warehouse. ”No, I don't think they's anything missing. Who'd steal truck like this here, anyway? It ain't valuable enough. Where's Jake, Kansas?”
”I left him here when I went after you,” replied the deputy. ”Guess this is him,” he added, as the front door opened.
It was the sheriff. He shut the door behind him and advanced toward the little group gathered about the stanchion. ”This is a great note, Jake,” said Dolan, eyeing the sheriff severely. ”Can't you make out to hang onto yore prisoners no more?”
”Hang onto h.e.l.l!” snapped back the sheriff. ”Short of sleeping in here with him, I done all that could be expected. I put Shorty Rumbold on as guard, and Shorty--”
”Where's Shorty?”
”Went to the Starlight for a drink. He'll be along in a minute.”
”Maybe he went to sleep,” suggested Dolan.
”Not Shorty,” denied the sheriff, with a decisive shake of his head.
”I've used Shorty before. He don't go to sleep on duty, Shorty don't.
Here he is now.”
Entered then Shorty Rumbold, a tall, lean-bodied man with a twinkling eye and a square chin.
”Shorty,” said Dolan, ”Jake says he put you on guard here last night.”
”Not here,” said Shorty, always painfully meticulous as to facts.
”Outside.”
”Where outside?”
”Just outside. I sat on the doorstep all night.”
”And didn't you go round to the back once even?”
”I didn't think they was any use. They's no door in the back, and the logs are forty inches through, some of 'em. I never thought of 'em gopherin' under this away.”
”I guess the sheriff didn't, either,” said Dolan, with a glance of strong disapproval at the sheriff. ”You didn't hear anything, huh?
Yo're sh.o.r.e of that?”
”Sh.o.r.e I am. If I'd heard anything I'd 'a' scouted round to see what made the noise.”
”Maybe you went to sleep.”
”Not me.” The twinkle in Shorty's eyes was replaced by a frosty stare.
”I don't sleep on duty, Judge.”
”That's what the sheriff said, Shorty. But, hownell they could dig that tunnel and not make _some_ noise I don't see.”
”I don't, either,” Shorty Rumbold admitted, frankly. ”But I didn't hear a single suspicious sound either inside or outside the jail the whole night.”
”Did you hear any noise a-tall?” asked Racey Dawson.