“But there was a charge of murder against Mr. Miller,” replied the officer, “and he did not know, you boys so well then as he has learned to know you since that night. He couldn’t make up his mind to trust you.”
“We know what the charge is,” Alex said. “We found the newspaper which the robbers left in their camp.”
“Richard Miller was in Wells street the night Stiven was shot,” the Sergeant went on, “but he did not do the shooting. That was done by Blinn, Carr, and Snow, the three men you saw in the hills, the three men who held up the train.
“When the shots which killed Stiven were fired, Mr. Miller got out of the way, naturally. He saw the faces of the three men, and started to the Chicago avenue police station to inform the officers as to their identity. On the way there he heard a conversation between officers which informed him that he was suspected, and that the three men were to testify against him.
“All he could do, under the circumstances, was to hide, unless he wanted to be held without bail pending trial. He made it his business that night, with the aid of a Pinkerton man, to locate the three murderers, and from that day on he followed them, hoping that in some way they would finally betray the truth.
“He followed them to many cities, and finally, when they came to the Rocky mountains he sent for his son, Gran, to join him. Together they joined the robbers and sought information which would clear the father of the crime.
“The chance to prove his innocence never came to the father until the night these pictures were taken. They located the robbers on the ground where the robbery took place. When he left them that night, after Gran had gone to the Rambler, he knew that the train was to be held up, as a previous attempt had been made on the freight.
“He knew, too, that the pictures taken by Alex would prove sufficient to convict them, as their portraits are in the rogue’s gallery at Chicago. He tried to warn the conductor of the train that took the boat away that a hold-up was in the air, but the conductor wouldn’t listen, and caused him to be chased from the train—as he thought.
“However, Mr. Miller rode on the train, wounded by the bullet, to Donald, saw Gran there for a minute, and arranged to have the films taken so that he might have them developed. It was also arranged that he was to purchase a rowboat and follow the Rambler until the films were delivered to him. Then he was to go away and have them developed.
“Father and son had many meetings which you never knew about, and when, at last, the films were delivered to the father, he was afraid to go out with them, as the officers were looking for him on advices from Chicago. So he took Gran away with him, and, after the pictures had been made and Chicago communicated with, the boy returned over the mountains, though his father tried to get him to wait and meet you here.