“You hain’t heard nothin’. You wait. I’ve found out a-plenty since I started puttin’ my nose into other people’s business, as Gallup would say. I’m here to ask for a warrant.”
“So? For whom?”
“For the coroner of this county—for the murder of Crosbie Traynor, same having occurred on the night of October 4th in a room at the Palace Hotel. You listen to me and see if I’m crazy or not. I suppose you heard all the talk that was made the night we found the body? Well, I won’t waste no time on that, but—I found the dead man’s horse. I went through the saddlebags and I found a picture. Later, I got the dead man’s name. I just kept on putting two and two together until I began to git scared at what I was findin’ out. Git your pencil and make some notes.”
Kelsey did as Johnny asked, but he made small use of the pencil. His mind grasped the facts as Johnny unfolded them. From time to time he stopped the boy to insert a question. Whenever he did so, Johnny’s answers invariably enabled him to leap ahead to the next move in this game of life and death.
Sometimes Johnny raised questioning eyes as he wondered if he were making himself understood. Kelsey merely grunted in the affirmative. Once he whistled. Traynor’s letter to Molly caused that.
The boy knew his story grasped the man’s mind, for, shrewd as Kelsey was, he could not keep all emotion from his eyes.
Johnny went on, bit by bit, until he had not only divulged his information, but had convinced the attorney of the conclusions he had drawn.
“Can I be wrong, Jim?” Johnny asked when he had finished.
“I don’t think so. But you’ve got a house of cards. One absolutely provable fact is all you need to make your evidence steel proof. I’m willin’ to go ahead. I know Roddy, he ought to be recalled. Lord know’s you’ve got more than enough to arrest them on suspicion, but I wouldn’t do it that way. Charge Gallup with it. Facts come out in a trial that you never dream of. We’ll arrest the whole clique—Gallup, Gale, Kent, and even the Indian.”
“I don’t want Kent charged with murder,” Johnny stated. “Can’t we scare him into turning on Gallup? Aaron’s the boy at the bottom of this pile.”