all he knew concerning James McDonald, and although the
leader as well as Joe tried to make him reveal more, he steadfastly
maintained that after Jim's arrest at Denver he had left that city in a
hurry and did not know anything further concerning his fate.

When Joe left the Salvation Army's headquarters it was he who had to
seek support to keep himself from falling, as the information he had
just received unnerved him so completely that he could barely walk, for
what Kansas Shorty had told not only proved that with Jim's
disappearance he had lost every member of his family, but that his
brother had also disgraced their good name.

Late that night while he rolled restlessly about upon his bed, tormented
by this last disappointment, and while he puzzled his feverish mind, a
strong resentment came over him that Jim should have permitted himself
to be so easily led astray by a good-for-nothing tramp, but when he
remembered the circumstances of his own experience with Slippery, the
yegg, brotherly love got the mastery over him and an idea flashed
through his mind, that if Jim had been arrested at Denver the court
records there should show the sentence the Judge had imposed, and that,
although it seemed merely a forlorn hope, there was a chance to pick up
the trail that would lead to something, and even if he failed to
accomplish anything, for the sake of his own satisfaction, that he had
done everything possible to clear up his brother's disappearance, he
decided to leave on the morning for Denver.

[Illustration: The Salvation Army]

CHAPTER XV.

"Forgive and Forget."

In the morning Joe put his plan into execution by applying for and
receiving a month's leave of absence, and taking the first train, he
arrived early on the second day at Denver. Here he hastened to the court
house and had the city clerk search in musty records and when he came
close to the date that Joe had calculated tallied with Kansas Shorty's
story, they found James McDonald's name, and the sentence the judge had
imposed which read: "Imprisonment in the Colorado State Reformatory at
Buena Vista until of age."

This second step towards unravelling his missing brother's fate pleased
Joe so well that before another hour had rolled around he was aboard a
train bound for Buena Vista to continue the search there. At day break
he arrived at this pretty mountain city and hired a livery rig and drove
to the reformatory, situated upon the outskir