The Gold Seekers by William Stuart Long Read Free Book Online Page A

gits here.” He took out his pocket watch and looked inquiringly at the faces of the members of his committee. “That’s liable to be awhile yet. So if there’s no more questions you want to ask young Luke here, we can adjourn for half an hour. Talkin’s thirsty work.”
    “I do have a question, Eph,” one of the younger men said. “It won’t take above a minute.” He turned to face Luke and said crisply, “We’ve been told that the wounds the murdered men suffered were most likely caused by shots fired at close range from a Colt forty-four. Did Captain Morgan carry a Coif forty-four, d’you know?”
    Luke met his gaze and nodded. “Yes, sir, he did.”
    “Then I’d say that wraps it up, Eph,” the questioner suggested. “Whatever Morgan’s daughter has to tell us. I move that we bring in a verdict on the evidence we’ve heard.”
    “What verdict have you in mind, Sam?” Crocker asked, his gavel poised.
    “Well, I don’t know just how it’d have to be worded to make it legal,” the man addressed as Sam conceded. “But what I have in mind is that this feller Jasper Morgan’s guilty of murder and—what’s it called?—larceny, and we ought to find accordingly. Then, when he comes back for his daughter, we’ll hang him.”
    There was a stunned silence; then several voices were raised in assent. Ephraim Crocker rapped with his gavel. “He’d have to be charged an’ put on trial, Sam,” he demurred. “We got no right to condemn him without lettin’ him plead. We ain’t no lynch mob.” He shrugged his bowed shoulders. “Let me think about it, eh? An’ I guess we ought to hear from the girl before we bring in a verdict. All right? Then the meetin’s adjourned till she gits here.”
    The girl was brought in an hour later, and although Tom had said that she was pretty, Luke was taken aback by the sight of her. She was more than pretty, he thought. She was beautiful—a slim, delicate-featured young woman, with fair hair, neatly braided about a shapely head, and skin that had tanned to an exquisite golden brown.
    She was very frightened, and her blue eyes were red-rimmed, the lids swollen, as if she had been weeping ceaselessly all the way to the camp. But she had courage. Faced by the circle of inquisitors, she squared her thin shoulders and held her head high, replying to Ephraim Crocker’s request that she submit to his committee’s questions in a spirit of cooperation.
    “I will tell you what I can, sir. It may not be much.”
    She bore little resemblance to her father, Luke thought, and she was younger than he had supposed—his own age or even less. Old Ephraim Crocker, clearly moved by her appearance and bearing, offered a guarded warning. “This meetin’ has been convened to inquire into the deaths of the three poor young fellers we found yesterday in a mine shaft in Windy Gully.”
    He started to go into details, but the girl said, “There was an explosion, wasn’t there? I heard that there had been an accident and men killed.”
    She seemed to be unaware of the fact that the three men had been her father’s partners, Luke realized, and as her innocent blue gaze stared intently at Ephraim Crocker, it was plain that she could have no notion of the suspicion with which her father was now regarded. And there was no way to break it to her gently, although, to his credit, the old man tried. He explained about the gunshot wounds, and the girl continued to regard him gravely. Only when he named the dead men and, pointing to Luke, told her that his brother was one of the victims, did her expression change.
    She said softly but with genuine feeling, “Oh, I am sorry, indeed I am, Mr. Murphy.”
    “Come to the point, Eph,” the man who had advocated a
    hanging put in impatiently, “or we’ll be here all day. Tell her that her pa is the prime suspect.”
    “Well, now, I guess that’s the truth, little missy,” Ephraim Crocker said awkwardly. “All the evidence we’ve heard points