The Breaking Point - Page 179/275

It was signed "J. C."

Bassett broke the silence that followed the reading.

"I made every effort to find him. I had to work alone, you understand,

and from the west side of the range, not to arouse suspicion. They were

after me, too, you know. His horse, I heard, worked its way back a few

days ago. It's a forsaken country, and if he lost his horse he was in it

on foot and without food. Of course there's a chance--"

His voice trailed off. In the stillness David sat, touching with tender

tremulous fingers what might be Dick's last message, and gazing at the

picture of Dick in his uniform. He knew what they all thought, that Dick

was dead and that he held his final words in his hands, but his militant

old spirit refused to accept that silent verdict. Dick might be dead

to them, but he was living. He looked around the room defiantly,

resentfully. Of all of them he was the only one to have faith, and he

was bound to a chair. He knew them. They would sit down supinely and

grieve, while time passed and Dick fought his battle alone.

No, by God, he would not be bound to a chair. He raised himself and

stood, swaying on his shaking legs.

"You've given up," he said scornfully. "You make a few days' search, and

then you quit. It's easy to say he's dead, and so you say he's dead. I'm

going out there myself, and I'll make a search--"

He collapsed into the chair again, and looked at them with shamed,

appealing eyes. Bassett was the first to break the silence, speaking in

a carefully emotionless tone.

"I haven't given up for a minute. I've given up the search, because he's

beyond finding just now. Either he's got away, or he is--well, beyond

help. We have to go on the hypothesis that he got away, and in that

case sooner or later you'll hear from him. He's bound to remember you in

time. The worst thing is this charge against him."

"He never killed Howard Lucas," David said, in a tone of conviction.

"Harrison, read Mr. Bassett my statement to you."

Bassett took the statement home with him that night, and studied it

carefully. It explained a great deal that had puzzled him before; Mrs.

Wasson's story and David's arrival at the mountain cabin. But most of

all it explained why the Thorwald woman had sent him after Dick. She

knew then, in spite of her protests to David, that Jud Clark had not

killed Lucas.