Part 9 (1/2)
”And I fired in return,” the engineer stated. ”The fellow was across the street in the dark. You might look over there.”
Turning and pus.h.i.+ng his way through the packed door, the sheriff disappeared. The crowd melted away again. Presently as Weir glanced about he saw a new figure at the doorway, staring at him. He went towards the girl there outlined in the lamplight.
”Was that you I saw moving along just before the exchange of compliments, Miss Hosmer?” he asked.
”Yes. I was coming towards you on my way home.”
”It probably gave you a fright.”
”It did, indeed. I heard the shot and saw your hat knocked off. I just went cold in my tracks. At first I believed you killed.”
”I'm very much alive, as you see.”
”But it was dreadful! Who would fire at you from the dark? Some one tried to murder you!”
”It looks like it. Still here I am, ready to move your car out of the water next time it's stalled.”
She entered the room slowly.
”Who in San Mateo would do such a terrible thing, Mr. Martinez?” she addressed the lawyer. The pallor was still on her face and her eyes were large with horror.
”Ah, Miss Janet, if we but knew! We'd lay hands on him and send him to the penitentiary.”
Real emotion struggled in the lawyer's words. With the return of his senses he had just begun to realize by what a narrow margin the a.s.sa.s.sin's bullet had missed destroying his future client and prospects.
A growing murmur across the street attracted their attention. Then as they continued to chat of the event, the sheriff reappeared, directing half a dozen men who laid a burden in the light of Martinez' doorway.
”You got him,” he said to Weir, with ominous significance. ”One bullet through the head, one through his stomach. He's good and dead.”
Weir walked forward and inspected that outstretched figure. It was the man whose gaze had been so malevolently fastened upon him as he joined Martinez before Sorenson's office.
”Who is he?” he asked.
”A strange Mexican. Some of these men say he showed up this morning and hung around the saloons, not talking much. Haven't you ever seen him, before?” The question expressed a perplexed curiosity.
”Once. When Martinez and I were coming here to transact some business.
He was taking a good look at me then when he pa.s.sed us. That wasn't over half an hour ago. Never saw him before that.”
”He shot at you first?”
”I had just stepped out of this room. Could I see him hiding over there? Or know he was there?” Then he added, ”I was taken by surprise, but I marked the flash of his gun.”
The sheriff, Madden by name, looked at Weir appreciatively.
”You can use a gun yourself,” said he, briefly.
Martinez now repeated the fact of the dead man having fired the first shot, which Janet Hosmer confirmed.
”Well, is there anything more?” Weir questioned.