Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1911)

38 TEE MOTION PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE. seized and examined it. It bore the initials "R. B." Taking this as a clue, he managed to stagger into camp, and to arouse the miners to find his assailant. One look at the "R. B." on the handkerchief was sufficient. "Robert Buckley— that's the man!" cried. Big Ben. "Who else around these diggins would be carryin' a rag like that !" Some of the men had seen the foreman start on his walk up the hill, and the case seemed strong against him. Proceeding thither in a body, they found Buckley and the schoolma'am sitting together on a fallen tree, so absorbed that they did not hear the approaching party. "Hands up, Buckley !" shouted Big Ben. "Why, what does this mean?" cried the teacher. "I'm sorry, ma'am," Big Ben repiled, "but the gentleman robbed our paymaster of our pay-money, and pretty nigh killed him for good measure." "Can this be true ?" she asked, anxiously, turning to the accused man. "No, certainly not — it's absurd!" he hotly insisted. "And I suppose you never saw this handkerchief? found on the spot," interposed Ben, with irony. "Yes, it's mine," admitted Buckley after he had examined it, "but I don't know how it got there." "That's enough," said Ben, grasping him by the arm. "Come on, we're going to show you some Western life." And the crowd started to drag him away. Molly spied a coil of rope in one man's hand. "Stop !" she cried. "I demand a fair trial ! Do you intend to disgrace Coyote County with a lynching?" After many protests they finally agreed to her demands, but purely out of courtesy to the schoolma'am, and not with the expectation that the result would be any different. The session in school next day was more serious than usual, in that the class constituted a jury and the teacher became a judge, for there was no court for miles. Without any legal formality, they simply sat down and talked over the case. Big Ben first told all he knew of the affair. The paymaster, with bandaged head, then told his story. Another related how Buckley had been seen starting in the direction of the accident, and brought out the fact that the foreman was the only person who knew that the paymaster was coming that day. Next, Ben cross-examined the prisoner as to where he was going when he set out on the hill road. "I was heading for the schoolhouse to see Miss Ryan," the foreman testified. Being asked if she had an engagement with the prisoner at that time, she reluctantly replied in the negative. "I intended it as a surprise," put in Buckley. "What reason would you give for a man in my position robbing the paymaster?" he added, turning to Big Ben. "You're kind of sweet on our schoolma'am, ain't you?" said Ben. "I asked her yesterday to be my wife," was the answer. "Well, wives is expensive luxuries," quoth Ben dryly. During Ben's opening address "The Heathen" had sneaked in; and, with the professional eye of the laundryman, had examined Exhibit A — the handkerchief. By this time he was showing such disapproval of the bully's reasoning that Big Ben performed his usual specialty by kicking the Chinaman out. Shaking his fist at his perpetual enemy Sam Wah left the schoolhouse and plunged into the woods, intending to make a short cut home. He had not gone far in the thick forest when he saw a man ahead of him, who turned out to be Pedro, the greaser. Sam Wah saw him examining some money, which he had taken from his shirt, and a great light penetrated his Mongol brain. Following Pedro until the greaser was hidden behind a rock, counting his money, the Chinaman drew a revolver and ordered, "Brown man, put up hands !" The