“No harder than you did,” replied Jim. “That fellow you clipped in the jaw was dead to the world before he hit the ground.”
“After all, those fellows were merely tools,” mused Joe thoughtfully. “Did you hear the leader say that he had his orders? Who gave him those orders? If only the girls hadn’t been there, I’d have trussed the rascals up, waited until they had got their senses back, and then put them through the third degree until I’d found out the name of their employer. But I wouldn’t for the world have the girls know what those scoundrels were up to. They’d never have a happy moment. They’d worry themselves to death. We’ve got to keep this thing absolutely to ourselves.”
“All the same, I can guess who the fellow was that employed them,” said Jim.
“I think I can come pretty near it, too,” affirmed Joe. “In the first place, it was a man who had money. Those fellows wouldn’t have taken the job unless they had been well paid. Then, too, it was somebody who hated me like poison. There are two men who fulfil both of those conditions, and their names are——”
“Fleming and Braxton,” Jim finished for him.
“Exactly,” agreed Joe. “And knowing what I do of the two, I have a hunch that it was Braxton.”
[CHAPTER XVII]
FALLING BEHIND
“Braxton’s the more likely one of the two to use violence—or have it used,” said Jim. “Not but what either one of them would be mean enough to do it. But Braxton has got more nerve than Fleming. Then, too, I happen to know that Fleming has run pretty well through his money, while Braxton is a millionaire. He was pretty hard hit by the failure of the All-Star League to go through last year, but he’s got plenty left. He could give those rascals a thousand, or five thousand if necessary, and never feel it.”