“It looks black for you two lads, but I’m going to see that you get a fair show!”
There was a smile on his face as he spoke!
CHAPTER XIX.—TWO GUESTS FROM CHICAGO.
“Why does it look worse for us than for the two men who were in the house with us?” asked Clay. “They had as fair a chance to do the shooting as we did, and they are none too good to shoot a man in the back!”
“But Alex’s gun is the one that did the work,” King explained, still smiling, “and he came out of the house, an instant after the man fell, with it, still smoking, in his hand! You’ll have to account for the gun getting away from him, and then back into his hand the next instant!”
“I can do that, all right,” Case hastened to say, motioning to Alex to keep still. “When we went into the house we found Captain Joe tied up in a sleeping room off the sitting room, at the front of the house. There was a heavy bag tied over the dog’s head, to keep him still, I suppose, and Alex laid his gun on a chair by the door of the sleeping room while he took the bag off.”
“Was the chair in the sitting room or the bedroom?” asked King, critically.
“It was in the sitting room, and Alex put it there because he rushed for the dog the instant we saw him in that plight, laying his gun, which he carried in his hand, on the first convenient thing he came to. It was dark in the house, with the windows all nailed up, and I was carrying an electric flashlight.”
“Where was the gun the next time you saw it, Alex?” asked King, gravely.
“It was on the floor, just outside the sleeping room door. I didn’t see it after I laid it on the chair until the shots had been fired. When I picked it up it was smoking. Some one grabbed it and fired, then threw it on the floor. It was done to get us into trouble!”