“Where are those documents now?” Mason asked.
“I don’t know.”
Harold Leeds said sullenly, “He was Hogarty all right.”
“And Emily Milicant is his sister?” Mason asked.
“She’s no more his sister than I am,” Inez Colton said. “Up there in the Yukon, Leeds took possession of the cabin and all the grub. He beat up Hogarty and then drove him out of camp at the point of a gun, without blankets, without food, and, as he thought, without matches. Then Alden Leeds took all the gold, and mushed out to civilization. He was shrewd enough to take the name of Hogarty, making it seem that Leeds had been the one to disappear. That threw the authorities off the track. Hogarty almost died of cold and exposure. Leeds had hit him a terrific blow on the head in the fight which preceded his being driven out of camp. The fight was over Emily Milicant who had been Hogarty’s sweetheart. She was a Dawson dance hall girl.
“Hogarty decided not to complain to the authorities. He made up his mind he could let Leeds think him dead, that then, after Leeds had grown careless, he would track him down, and force an accounting.
“Leeds went to Seattle, met Emily Milicant, told her Hogarty was dead, and married her. He married her under the name of Hogarty. Then, in some way, Leeds found out Hogarty was on his trail, and ran away — vanished into thin air, leaving his wife behind him. The real Hogarty found the wife. There was an argument, of course, a period of hot words and accusations, then they made up. They lived together as man and wife for some time, then finally broke up, but remained good friends. She wanted to find Leeds. Hogarty wanted to find him and force an accounting. They finally discovered him. Leeds had again taken his real identity when he thought there was no further danger. That’s the way Hogarty told the story to Harold, the way Harold told it to me.”
Mason turned to Harold Leeds. “Is that,” he asked, “the truth?”
“That’s the truth,” Leeds said.
“What did you do?”