“But he ain’t dead.”
“Who ain’t?”
“The other fellow. He wasn’t killed when Frank Arnold was.”
Governor Marden sat silent, his eyes questioning his visitor. Kate Hallard explained, briefly. The governor touched a bell, and his secretary appeared. The latter had been Marden’s clerk in his district attorney days.
“Seth,” the official said, in a voice that rang with suppressed excitement. “You remember the Lundy case, don’t you? Whatever became of Barker, who went up for it?”
The secretary considered.
“Why, yes,” he began, “he broke jail.” His auditors nodded.
“I remember about it,” he went on, “because of Jim Texas, and what came after. He got away to some place in the mountains, and then he was re-arrested. A deputy-sheriff went down on information from Ash Westcott—”
“What’s that?” Mrs. Hallard’s tone was explosive.
“Who d’you say?” she demanded.