Silvertip (1942) Read Online Free

simple change of dress he had made another man walk in his own footsteps to meet a death that should have been his own.
    It was not just chance that had killed this victim. It was not the hand of Silvertip, either, though he had fired the shot. It was Bandini's craft that had performed the murder!
    Silvertip drew in a great, slow breath.
    The sheriff said again, slowly: "Silver, I know that it ain't like you to be shootin' gents in dark alleys. It ain't your style or your cut. But you've used guns, plenty. Where was you, all the evening?"
    "He was in there in the barroom," said the bartender. "When the gun went off, I heard the shot. I heard it, but I didn't think much about it. Silvertip hadn't hardly got through the door."
    Silvertip looked into the broad, red face of the bar- t ender and silently thanked him for that lie.
    "It's goin' to be one of them mysteries," said the sheriff sadly. "Does anybody know who he is?"
    No one knew. So the sheriff started a careful examin-ation of the pockets.
    They revealed very little. There was a small pearl-handled pocket-knife which made some of the men smile a little. There was a little .32-caliber revolver of a bulldog model that would fit neatly into almost any pocket. Ther e was a bill fold containing a hundred and forty-seven dol- l ars. There was a gold watch of a fine Swiss make, with a delicately worked gold chain that had been simply dropped into the pocket that held the watch.
    The sheriff pried open the back of the watch, examined it with care, and replaced it with the little heap of belongings.
    He turned his baffled eyes upon Silvertip. "Silver," he said, "you look kind of cut up. Wasn't he a friend of yours?"
    "No," said Silvertip. "He's just so young-that's all!" He added: "Have you looked at his horse?" They trooped out to the stable and found the horse. "It was a high-headed queen of a mare, a blood bay with four black silk stockings on her legs and eyes like liquid diamonds that turned and shone in the lantern light. On of her quarters was burned a cross with a wavering under it. That's the Cross and Snake brand of old Arturo Monterey, down in the Haverhill River country," said the sheriff. "I know that brand! Maybe down there I could pick up a clew to the name of this gent. Why, it's a fifty-mile ride."
    Silvertip touched the sheriff's shoulder.
    "I'll go," he said. "I've never been down there, but I know the way. I'll take the outfit of that poor fellow; I'll take his horse along, too."
    "Would the outfit and the horse arrive if you started with 'em?" asked the sheriff tersely.
    Then, under the steady eye and the faint smile of Silvertip, he flushed.
    "I didn't mean that. It just sort of come popping out," he explained. "Silver, no matter what some say about you, I'll trust you around the world and back. When will you start?"
    "Now," said Silvertip.
    "You mean in the morning?"
    "I mean-now!"
    The sheriff nodded slowly. "Something about this job has sort of burned you up, Silver, eh? Take the lot and start now, then, if you want to. Find old Arturo Monterey if you can. They say he's a hard case; I dunno in what way. But find out if he remembers selling a hoss like this to anybody, and the name of the hombre that got it. That's all. Then you'll come back here and let me know?"
    "I'll come back," said Silvertip.
    He was lifting his saddle off a peg as he spoke, and the sheriff, after pausing for a last glance at his messenger, went back to the restaurant and the dead body, the curious crowd following him. Only the red-faced bartender remained.
    "I would have been in the soup," Silvertip told him curtly. "Thanks for that lie."
    "You did the job, eh?" said the bartender, leaning against the manger on one hand and peering into the face of Silver.
    "I did the job."
    "Thinking it was Bandini?"
    "Yes."
    The bartender nodded his head slowly. "A kind of an idea come over me," he said. "A kind of an idea that there was a dirty trick in the brain of Bandini when he give that kid