They adopted the child, but it died
within the year of fever.

Meanwhile, he was horrified to learn that Dave Henderson, following
hard on his trail, had been found bending over the spot where the dead
soldier lay, had been arrested by a body of Rurales, tried hurriedly,
and convicted to life imprisonment. The evidence had been purely
circumstantial. The bullet found in the dead body of the trooper was one
that might have come from his rifle, the barrel of which was empty and
had been recently fired. For the rest, he was a hated Americano, and, as
a matter of course, guilty. His judges took pains to see that no message
from him reached his friends in the States before he was buried alive in
the prison. In that horrible hole an innocent man had been confined for
fifteen years, unless he had died during that time.

That, in substance, was the story told by the showman, and Bucky's
incisive questions were unable to shake any portion of it. As to
the missing locket, the man explained that it had been broken off by
accident and lost. When he discovered that only half the secret was
contained on the map section he had returned the paper to the locket and
let the child continue to carry it. Some years after the death of the
child, Frances, his wife had lost the locket with the map.

"And this chain and locket--when did you lose them?" demanded Bucky
sharply.

"It must have been about two months ago, down at Nogales, that I sold it
to a fellow. I was playing faro and losing. He gave me five dollars for
it."

And to that he stuck stoutly, nor could he be shaken from it. Both
O'Connor and the sheriff believed he was lying, for they were convinced
that he was the bandit with the red wig who had covered the engineer
while his companions robbed the train. But of this they had no proof.
Nor did Bucky even mention his suspicion to Hardman, for it was his
intention to turn him loose and have him watched. Thus, perhaps, he
would be caught corresponding or fraternizing with some of the other
outlaws. Collins left the room before the showman, and when the latter
came from the hotel he followed him into the night.

Meanwhile, Bucky went out and tapped another of his underground wires.
This ran directly to the Mexican consul at Tucson, to whom Bucky
had once done a favor of some importance, and from him to Sonora and
Chihuahua. It led to musty old official files, to records already
yellowed with age, to court reports and prison regi