“Joe said he would come and tell me if he found other trails,” he told himself. “The outlaw can’t have gone round us. Where can he be? If we’ve missed him—well, anyway, he can’t escape us. They’ll take him when he enters Valdez.”
And yet, as he thought it through, he was not so sure of it. The man was utterly unknown. Not one person who was in any way interested in his capture had ever seen him. Hundreds of strange men drifted in and out of the seaport city of Valdez every day. How then was anyone to put his hand on any one of them and say, “This is the man”?
He was interrupted in these disconcerting reflections by a sound in his receiver. It was a whisper—the whisper.
“Hello - hello - Curlie,” it said. “Hello - are - you - there? Do - you - hear - me? I - have - something - important—dreadfully - important - to say. He—the - man - you - want—has - turned - back. Went - forty - miles - to-day. Now he - is camped. So - you - see - you - did - not - get - him - did - you - Curlie? I - am - sorry - Curlie - extremely - sorry - for - he - goes - fast—very - very - fast. You - cannot - catch - him - can - you - Curlie? So - good-bye.”
As the sound ceased, Curlie leaped to his feet. His fists were clenched. Through his tight set teeth he hissed: “I can catch him! I can! I can! And I will.”
Hastily gathering up his equipment and his rifle he hurried away at once to break the news to his companions.
Strange to say, in all this time it had never occurred to him to doubt the truth of the Whisperer’s message nor to question her sincerity in wishing him well or in desiring to assist him. And yet she had been playing a very artful game of hide-and-go-seek in the air with him for many weeks and in all that time, except perhaps that time in the hotel window (told about in “Curlie Carson Listens In”), he had not caught one single glimpse of her. He had heard her whisper, that was all. Can one judge a person’s character by the quality of his whisper? Well, that’s the question.
CHAPTER IX
WHO IS THIS WHISPERER?
“What does it mean?” puzzled Joe, as Curlie reported the Whisperer’s message. “Did he listen in last night when I was calling for help? And was he frightened by that?”
“Might have,” said Curlie, “but anyway you couldn’t help that. You were in a mess and had to be helped out.”