"Too bad," Wilkins commented rather absently. Then, perhaps feeling that
he had not shown proper interest, "Tell you what I'll do. I've got some
business on hand now, but it'll be cleared up one way or another pretty
soon. I'll bring my car around and take him to the station. These hacks
are the limit to ride in."
The disaster to his plans thus threatened steadied the reporter, and he
managed to keep his face impassive.
"Thanks," he said. "I'll let you know if he's able to travel. Is
this--is this business you're on confidential?"
"Well, it is and it isn't. I've talked some to you, and as you're
leaving anyhow--it's the Jud Clark case again."
"Sort of hysteria, I suppose. He'll be seen all over the country for the
next six months."
"Yes. But I never saw a hysterical Indian. Well, a little while ago an
Indian woman named Lizzie Lazarus blew into my office. She's a smart
woman. Her husband was a breed, dairy hand on the Clark ranch for years.
Lizzie was the first Indian woman in these parts to go to school, and
besides being smart, she's got Indian sight. You know these Indians.
When they aren't blind with trachoma they can see further and better
than a telescope."
Bassett made an effort.
"What's that got to do with Jud Clark?" he asked.
"Well, she blew in. You know there was a reward out for him, and I guess
it still stands. I'll have to look it up, for if Maggie Donaldson wasn't
crazy some one will turn him up some day, probably. Well, Lizzie blew
in, and she said she'd seen Jud Clark. Saw him standing at a second
story window of this hotel. Can you beat that?"
"Not for pure invention. Hardly."
"That's what I said at first. But I don't know. In some ways it would
be like him. He wouldn't mind coming back and giving us the laugh, if
he thought he could get away with it. He didn't know fear. Only time he
ever showed funk was when he beat it after the shooting, and then he was
full of hootch, and on the edge of D.T.'s."
"A man doesn't play jokes with the hangman's rope," Bassett commented,
dryly. He looked at his watch and rose. "It's a good story, but I
wouldn't wear out any trouser-seats sitting here watching for him. If
he's living he's taken pretty good care for ten years not to put his
head in the noose; and I'd remember this, too. Wherever he is, if he is
anywhere, he's probably so changed his appearance that Telescope Lizzie
wouldn't know him. Or you either."