The Flaming Jewel

by Robert W. Chambers

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Episode Seven

Clinch's Dump

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I

When Mike Clinch bade Hal Smith return to the Dump and take care of Eve,
Smith already had decided to go there.

Somewhere in Clinch's Dump was hidden the Flaming Jewel. Now was his time to search for it.

There were two other reasons why he should go back. One of them was that Leverett was loose. If anything had called Trooper Stormont away, Eve would be alone in the house. And nobody on earth could forecast what a coward like Leverett might attempt.

But there was another and more serious reason for returning to Clinch's. Clinch, blood-mad, was headed for Drowned Valley with his men, to stop both ends of that vast morass before Quintana and his gang could get out.

It was evident that neither Clinch nor any of his men — although their very lives depended upon familiarity with the wilderness — knew that a third exit from Drowned Valley existed.