jarquez! Ross! Foster! Come up here. I make you deputies. Get
this crowd out or get order."

The deafening turmoil stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

"Gwinne, arrest those two men for the murder of Adam Forbes," ordered
Hinkle.

"Well, gee-whiz, I'd say they was under arrest now. Here, gimme them."
He reached down and handcuffed Weir and Hales together. "How's Caney,
Dines? Dead?"

Johnny knelt by the fallen man. "Dead as a door nail. Three shots. Did
he get you anywhere, See?"

"No. He was just one-sixteenth of a second too late." Charlie See
looked hard at the cylinder of his gun. He had fired only two shots.
"Pete, it's a wonder he didn't hit you. You was right in line."

"I wasn't there," said Pete dryly. "Not when the bullets got there.
Not good enough."

Gwinne and Maginnis took the two prisoners to jail, by the back door.

"Now for a clearing up," said Judge Hinkle. "You seem to have inside
information, Mr. See. Suppose you tell us about it?"

"No chance for a mistake, judge. I had a long talk with Adam the night
before, about a lost gold mine at Mescalero. And three of the phrases
that we used back and forth--it seems he picked them out to name his
find. 'Goblin Gold.' I used the word 'gobbling' gold--joking, you
know. And the story was about 'nine bucks'; and it wound up with an
old Mescalero saying 'Won't you please hush?' It wasn't possible that
those three names had reached the papers Pete found, except through
the dead man's mind. Adam called these three men to witness for him,
likely. Then they killed him for his mines. They destroyed his
location papers, but they kept the names. Easier than to make up new
ones. That'll hang 'em."

"Sounds good. But how are you going to prove it? Suppose they get a
good lawyer and stick to their story? They found a mine, and you got
in a shooting match with Caney. That don't prove anything."

"Well, I'll bet I can prove it," said Johnny Dines. "Ten to one, that
letter Forbes gave me to mail was his location papers. He seemed keen
about it."

"Did he say anything about location papers? Was the letter addressed
to the recorder?" demanded Pete.

"Look now!" said Johnny. "If this theory of See's is correct, and if
that really was location papers in the letter I mailed--why, that
letter won't get here till two o'clock this afternoon, whether it is
the location papers or what. And the postmaster and the recorder are
both here in this court room, judge. Gwinne