第78章

"Y-es, Baumberger. He thought we better go over all the papers ourselves, so the other side couldn't spring anything on us unawares, and there was one paper that hadn't been made out right. So it had to be fixed, of course. Baumberger was real put out about it.""Oh, of course!" Miss Georgie went to the window to make sure of the gentleman's whereabouts. He was still sitting upon the store porch, and he was just in the act of lifting a tall, glass mug of beer to his gross mouth when she looked over at him. "Pig!" she gritted under her breath. "It's a pity he doesn't drink himself to death." She turned and faced Peaceful anxiously.

"You spoke a while ago as if you didn't trust him implicitly,"she said. "I firmly believe he hired those eight men to file on your land. I believe he also hired Saunders to watch Grant, for some reason--perhaps because Grant has shown his hostility from the first. Did you know Saunders--or someone--has been shooting at Grant from the top of the bluff for--well, ever since you left? The last shot clipped his hat-brim. Then Saunders was shot--or shot himself, according to the inquest--and there has been no more rifle practice with Grant for the target.""N-no, I hadn't heard about that." Peaceful pulled hard at his beard so that his lips were drawn slightly apart. "I don't mind telling yuh," he added slowly, "that I've got another lawyer working on the case--Black. He hates Baumberger, and he'd like to git something on him. I don't want Baumberger should know anything about it, though. He takes it for granted I swallow whole everything he says and does--but I don't. Not by a long shot. Black'll ferret out any crooked work.""He's a dandy if he catches Baumberger," Miss Georgie averred, gloomily. "I tried a little detective work on my own account. Ihadn't any right; it was about the cipher messages Saunders used to send and receive so often before your place was jumped. I was dead sure it was old Baumberger at the other end, and I--well, Istruck up a mild sort of flirtation with the operator at Shoshone." She smiled deprecatingly at Peaceful.

"I wanted to find out--and I did by writing a nice letter or two;we have to be pretty cute about what we send over the wires," she explained, "though we do talk back and forth quite a lot, too.

There was a news-agent and cigar man--you know that kind of joint, where they sell paper novels and magazines and tobacco and such--getting Saunders' messages. Jim Wakely is his name. He told the operator that he and Saunders were just practicing; they were going to be detectives, he said, and rigged up a cipher that they were learning together so they wouldn't need any codebook.

Pretty thin that--but you can't prove it wasn't the truth. Imanaged to find out that Baumberger buys cigars and papers of Jim Wakely sometimes; not always, though."Miss Georgie laughed ruefully, and patted her pompadour absent-mindedly.

"So all I got out of that," she finished, "was a correspondence Icould very well do without. I've been trying to quarrel with that operator ever since, but he's so darned easy-tempered!" She went and looked out of the window again uneasily.

"He's guzzling beer over there, and from the look of him he's had a good deal more than he needs already," she informed Peaceful.

"He'll burst if he keeps on. I suppose I shouldn't keep you any longer--he's looking this way pretty often, I notice; nothing but the beer-keg holds him, I imagine. And when he empties that--"She shrugged her shoulders, and sat down facing Hart.

"Maybe you could bribe Jim Wakely into giving something away,"she suggested. "I'd sure like to see Baumberger stub his toe in this deal! Or maybe you could get around one of those eight beauties you've got camping down on your ranch--but there isn't much chance of that; he probably took good care to pick clams for that job. And Saunders," she added slowly, "is eternally silent.

Well, I hope in mercy you'll be able to catch him napping, Mr.

Hart."

Peaceful rose stiffly,--and took up his hat from where he had laid it on the table.

"I ain't as hopeful as I was a week ago," he admitted mildly.

"Put if there's any justice left in the courts, I'll save the old ranch. My wife and I worked hard to make it what it is, and my boys call it home. We can't save it by anything but law.

Fightin' would only make a bad matter worse. I'm obliged to yuh, Miss Georgie, for taking such an interest--and I'll tell Black about Jim Wakely.""Don't build any hopes on Jim," she warned. "He probably doesn't know anything except that he sent and received messages he couldn't read any sense into.""Well--there's always a way out, if we can find it. Come down and see us some time. We still got a house to invite our friends to." He smiled drearily at her, gave a little, old-fashioned bow, and went over to join Baumberger--and to ask Pete Hamilton for the use of his team and buckboard.