Johnny got to his feet. “The state police stopped in at the filling station.”
“I guess we never had a chance,” Sam said, wearily.
“What do you mean?”
“We go to jail, don’t we?”
“What for? The case is solved, isn’t it?”
“What case?”
“The murder of Hugh Kitchen — naturally. What else have the cops got against us?”
Sam blinked. “I don’t know — what have they?”
“Not a thing!” Then he winced. “Except that bill at the filling station.”
“All right, you men...” yelled a loud voice. “Come on in!”
Chapter Twenty
A uniformed state trooper appeared in the rear door of Jim Walker’s house. He was holding a very efficient-looking tommy gun. Johnny dropped Charles Ralston’s little pistol and started forward. Before he reached the house, however, people began pouring out... Laura Henderson, Helen Walker, Charles Ralston, Dan Tompkins, Mike Henderson and Danny Sage. And finally a very wobbly Joe Cotter. He was followed by a second trooper, with a machine gun.
“You’re all under arrest,” announced the first state trooper, as Johnny and Sam approached.
“What’s the charge?” Johnny asked briskly.
“We’ll figure them out later.” The trooper pointed the tommy gun at Johnny. “That Chewy with the California plates... it belongs to you?”
“Me and the finance company.”
“All right, then, that’s the first complaint. You owe a little bill...”
“To Johnson,” Johnny said promptly. “One hundred bucks. I paid him for grinding the valves. Here’s the money.” He brought out a roll of bills from his pocket. “This is a lot of money to pay for a couple of card tricks.”
“Card tricks!” exclaimed the trooper. “What do you mean?”
“He’s got a book — Fifty Simple Card Tricks.” As the trooper reddened, “You haven’t been playing gin rummy with him, have you?”
“No,” said the trooper. “Of course not, but wait’ll I see that old goat!”
Johnny chuckled.
The second trooper came forward. “That doesn’t explain all this shooting that’s been going on here.”
“No,” said Johnny, “that’s another matter. Murder...”
“Look here, officers,” Mike Henderson cut in, “this man is wanted for murder in California...”
“Not me,” retorted Johnny.
“His name’s Fletcher!” cried Henderson. “There was an alarm out for him...”
“Johnny Fletcher?” exclaimed the first state trooper.
“Yes! He killed a man named Hugh Kitchen...”
Two tommy guns were suddenly trained on Johnny. Johnny held up his right hand and pointed at Dan Tompkins. “Tompkins, what did you find under Jim Fargo’s grave?”
Dan Tompkins winced. “Whaddya mean?”
“I fell into the hole.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’ve got a book in my car,” said Johnny. “It’s called Tombstone Days and there’s quite a lot in it about how Jim Walker found the Silver Tombstone mine when he went to bury his friend, Jim Fargo...”
“Everybody knows that story,” said Tompkins. “But Walker didn’t bury Fargo where he intended to bury him. That’s over there...” He waved toward the slag mountain. “Where Walker dug his shaft.”
Johnny nodded. “I know — he struck a rich vein there. So he buried his friend back here.” He pointed to the tombstone over the grave. “And for quite awhile he had an armed guard watching over the grave. Why do you suppose he did that?”
Danny Sage said quietly: “There was a rumor that the tombstone was made of solid silver. But it wasn’t. I was talking to my great-uncle, Bill Sage, only last night. He says the tombstone’s lead.”
“I guess it is — but then why did he have a guard watching over it?”
“Because he was crazy!” burst out Mike Henderson.
Laura Henderson exclaimed, “Oh, give it up, Mike. He knows.”
“Yes,” said Johnny. “I know. I know that in digging the second grave for Jim Fargo, Jim Walker struck a second rich vein of ore... a vein that he didn’t intend to work at the time. Isn’t that right, Miss Walker?” Johnny turned suddenly to Helen Walker.
Helen’s face was creased in heavy thought. “I don’t know. Uncle Jim used to talk about there being more silver in the Silver Tombstone than he had ever taken out of it, but he was over seventy when he lost his money, and...” She looked at Charles Ralston. “...and he said that he was going to leave the mine to me so that I would be rich.”
“He lost his mind after he lost his money!” exclaimed Charles Ralston. “His will was...”
“Fight that out in court,” Johnny cut in.
“Let’s fight this out at headquarters,” said one of the state troopers.
Joe Cotter shuffled forward. His face was puffed and bruised. “Look, fellows,” he said to the troopers, “this is my bailiwick. The least you can do is let me get in my two cents’ worth. This bird,” pointing at Tompkins, “came to me a few weeks ago and wanted me to dicker for the Silver Tombstone mine. He took me down and showed me a vein of medium grade ore. I didn’t think he could make much out of it, but he was willing to pay me for my work. That’s how I got mixed in this business myself... Then the first thing you know, a lawyer named Hugh Kitchen is murdered over in San Bernardino, California...”
“My lawyer,” Charles Ralston offered.
Cotter nodded. “I never could figure out why your lawyer should be knocked off.”
“Maybe,” suggested Johnny, “it was because he discovered that something was wrong with Jim Walker’s will.”
He looked at Helen Walker. She was staring at him, her eyes wide, her nostrils flaring.
“That’s what I’ve been telling you all the time,” exclaimed Charles Ralston. “The old boy was out of his mind. They even had him committed to an institution for awhile.”
Johnny looked sharply at Helen Walker. “Is that true?”
Helen Walker made no reply. But she shifted her gaze from Johnny Fletcher to Mike Henderson. The young owner of the Hansonville Mining Corporation bit his lower lip with his teeth.
Then suddenly he laughed. “Well, I guess the jig’s up. I made my play and—”
He sprang for the nearest state trooper and got hold of the tommy gun with both hands. But the trooper was a game lad. He clung to the gun with all he had. Until Mike Henderson brought his knee up into the trooper’s groin. The trooper cried out and fell to the sand. Mike Henderson wrenched the tommy gun free... and then the second trooper let him have a burst from his own gun.
Charles Ralston was just helping Laura Henderson out of Mike’s station wagon, when Johnny and Sam drove up to the Hansonville mine in the Chevrolet. Johnny got out of the car and walked over to the others.
“Well, I guess the Silver Tombstone’s yours now, Ralston,” Johnny said. “Helen Walker’s going to be...” He stopped, looking at Laura Henderson
“You might as well finish it, Johnny,” said Laura Henderson. “Let’s get it all out, because after today I’m never going to talk about my brother again.”
“He was in borrasca, wasn’t he?” Johnny asked.
Laura nodded. “The mine hadn’t shown a profit in almost a year. He was always interested in the Silver Tombstone and talked a lot about it — to old men who had been here during the boom days. And he read everything he could about it. Then two weeks ago, he dug into Jim Fargo’s grave and discovered its secret. He wrote to Helen Walker and learned that Dan Tompkins was already dickering with her for the mine... and that she was in fact about to drive out here. He wired her to meet him in San Bernardino. I wasn’t in San Bernardino myself...”