“How’d you account for the red canoe and things?” Goodrich asked.
“I didn’t,” the other replied. “There ain’t no law against anybody having a red Peterboro, nor a 303 Savage, nor a black and green Mackinaw. I just stood pat about them things—like you did about the gray mule and the black Stetson that time in the Monterey hills.”
Bill Goodrich stared in sheer amazement.
“Was that why you took it up so quick?”
“Sure,” the other man grinned. “I had a good look at you that night in the pines. I read the papers while I was making my get-away. I could easily see that you had stood pat on what happened that night. I thought you were just trying to get away with my outfit down there on the river until you told me what you were up against. It was easy for me to put myself in your place, seeing I’d been through the same mill myself. And—darn it all, Bill Goodrich, one good turn deserves another.”
What Bill Goodrich answered to that is neither here nor there. But it is a matter of record that he has never been brought to trial for that Cortez Island shooting.
Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in the June 20, 1920 issue of The Popular Magazine.