Part 63 (1/2)

”How do you mean?”

”You want Dan Slike caught, don't you?”

”Of course I do.”

”Liar,” Billy said to himself. Aloud he remarked. ”You've come around, I see. You really believe now that Dan Slike killed Tom Walton and Judge Driver?”

”Certainly, he killed them,” avowed the district attorney. ”And when he's caught we'll hang him.”

”That's the proper spirit, Arthur. I have a theory that, since it seems certain that Dan Slike didn't go to Walton's after he escaped, he went north to the Medicine Mountains.”

”Why?”

”You followed his trail north to where the West Fork swings due west and there you lost it, didn't you?”

”Yes.”

”Well, then, it's certain Slike didn't follow the Fork down. That would bring him to the country east of here, and Tom Read County is no place for a murderer. Now, what he did was ride the rocky ground along the Fork till it swung north again, when he'd either swing north with it straight for the Medicine Mountains, or else ride a li'l west of north and hit the Medicines away to the westward of Jacksboro. And in the Medicines you might as well look for a needle in a bale of hay.

He'll lie low there for a spell, probably during spring and summer.

You may depend on it, that's what he's done.”

”I believe you're right,” agreed the district attorney, striving to inject a note of excitement in his whisper. ”I'll have a posse riding that way to-morrow.”

”Not a posse. Too many men in a posse. He'd be able to keep out of their way, Slike's no ordinary murderer, Rale. Remember that. He's a killer from Killersville, and he probable knows more about keeping out of sight than a grizzly bear. But one man would have a chance to get him. He wouldn't be expecting one man, do you see?”

”I don't see what you're driving at.”

”I mean I'll make a bargain with you, Rale. I'll trade you Slike for myself. You will prosecute these cases against me, if I'm caught. It lies with you whether I get a chance for my alley or not.”

”How?”

”You could fail to take advantage of points as they come up. You could. You're clever enough, Gawd knows. Now, in the O'Gorman deal I'd plead not guilty. I killed Tip in self-defense, see? Well, you could let me prove I did mighty easy. Same with the hold-up. I'll get me a clever lawyer who'd take advantage of some flaw in the indictment.

You would draw up that indictment. I don't believe we could risk flaws in both indictments, could we?”

The district attorney could hardly believe his wicked ears. It simply was not possible that Bill Wingo could be such a simpleton as to believe that. ”Flaws in both indictments would be a li'l too raw,”

said the district attorney, almost suffocating in the effort to dissemble his glee.

”Yes, well, all right. In the O'Gorman murder trial, you'll let me prove my case, and in the other you'll stick in a flaw. The Tuckleton case you can't do a thing with. There's not enough evidence, so you'll have to let it drop. What do you think of the proposition, Dan Slike for Bill Wingo? You can make a record with Dan Slike too. He hasn't a friend in the county. Another thing. That last bribe of yours I mentioned a while ago. I'll throw in what I know about that for good measure with Slike.”

”But why stand your trial at all?” fenced the district attorney. ”Why not try to escape?”

”You forget that not ten minutes ago you told me I couldn't possibly escape. You were wrong, naturally. But I don't want to escape. If I did, I'd have these things hanging over me the rest of my life. No matter where I went, I'd always be looking for a warrant waiting for me at every bend in the trail. No, the only sensible way out is to get this thing over with and settled as soon as possible. I don't want to leave Crocker County. I like it here.”

”Oh,” murmured the district attorney, believing that he knew the reason why Billy Wingo did not care to leave the county. It was a good and sufficient reason, and he expected to release it from jail that very night.

”But you'd have to get supplies from time to time,” he said leadingly.

”Your description is in every town by now.”

”I'll only go to Jacksboro when I have to buy anything,” explained Billy, ”and as it happens, I never was there but once and that was five years ago. If I let my beard and hair grow, who'd know me? It would take somebody from Golden Bar to recognize my voice, and I'll take care to keep out of the way of anybody from Golden Bar. Oh, it'll be safe enough. I'll make my camp somewhere on Coldstream Creek and work all through the Medicines from there. I'll get Dan and bring him back.