Page 147 (1/1)

A dozen Indians hung about the store, the squaws peering inquisitively in at the uncurtainedof the lean-to--where the bed held a long immovable burden with a ru stolidly to the futile gossip on the store porch

Pete Ha of his unprofitable servant should be rief, mentally classed the event with election day, in that he refused to sell any liquor until the sheriff and coroner arrived He also, after his first bewilderment had passed, conceived the idea that Saunders had committed suicide, and explained to everyone ould listen just why he believed it Saunders was sickly, for one thing For another, Saunders never see he could get his hands on--and though Pete did not say that Saunders chose to die when the stock of paper novels was exhausted, he left that impression upon his auditors

The sheriff and the coroner ca Donny, were there before noon, and the group of Indians remained all day wherever the store cast its shadow Squaws and bucks passed and repassed upon the footpath between Hartley and their ca event until they cae white men, whereupon they were stricken deaf and dumb, as is the way of our nation's wards

When the sheriff inspected the stable and its vicinity, looking for clews, not a blanket was in sight, though a dozen eyes watched every movement suspiciously When at the inquest that afternoon, he laid upon the table a battered old revolver of cheap work past its prime, and testified that he had found it ten feet from the stable-door, in a due line southeast from the hay-corral, and that one shot had been fired frolance furtively at the weapon and give no sign

The coroner showed the bullet which he had extracted froe which had been under the hammer in the revolver, and thereby proved to the satisfaction of everyone that the gun was intimately connected with the death of theover evidence, at the verdict of suicide

Good Indian drew a long breath, put on his hat, and went over to tell Miss Georgie The Hart boys lingered for a few minutes at the store, and then rode on to the ranch without him, and the Indians stole away over the hill to their camp The coroner and the sheriff accepted Pete's invitation into the back part of the store, refreshed theht the next train for Shoshone So closed the incident of Saunders' passing, so far as the laas concerned