Whispering SmithSpearman, Frank H. (Frank Hamilton)
General
Whispering Smith
Spearman, Frank H. (Frank Hamilton)
Detectives -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; Railroad police -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; Railroad stories; Western stories
He answered without hesitation. "You shall see. Now, I have many
things I can't talk about, you understand. But if I had to give you a
secret this instant that carried my life, I shouldn't fear to do
it--so much for trusting you. Only this, too, as to what I say: don't
ever quote me or let it appear that you any more than know me. Can you
manage that? Really? Very good; you will understand why in a minute.
The man that is stirring up all this trouble with your Cousin Lance
and in this whole country is your kind and good-natured neighbor, Mr.
Sinclair. I am prejudiced against him; let us admit that on the start,
and remember it in estimating what I say. But Sinclair is the man who
has turned your cousin's head, as well as made things in other ways
unpleasant for several of us. Sinclair--I tell you so you will
understand everything, more than your cousin, Mr. McCloud, or Marion
Sinclair understand--Sinclair is a train-wrecker and a murderer. That
makes you breathe hard, doesn't it? but it is so. Sinclair is fairly
educated and highly intelligent, capable in every way, daring to the
limit, and, in a way, fascinating; it is no wonder he has a following.
But his following is divided into two classes: the men that know all
the secrets, and the men that don't--men like Rebstock and Du Sang,
and men like your cousin and a hundred or so sports in Medicine Bend,
who see only the glamour of Sinclair's pace. Your cousin sympathizes
with Sinclair when he doesn't actually side with him. All this has
helped to turn Sinclair's head, and this is exactly the situation you
and McCloud and I and a lot of others are up against. They don't know
all this, but I know it, and now you know it. Let me tell you
something that comes close to home. You have a cowboy on the ranch
named Karg--he is called Flat Nose. Karg was a railroad man. He is a
cattle-thief, a train-robber, a murderer, and a spy. I should not tell
you this if you were not game to the last drop of your blood. But I
think I know you better than you know yourself, though you never saw
me until last night. Karg is Sinclair's spy at your ranch, and you
must never feel it or know it; but he is there to keep your cousin's
sympathy with Sinclair, and to lure your cousin his way. And Karg will
try to kill George McCloud every time he sets foot on this ranch,
remember that."
"Then Mr. McCloud ought not to be here. I don't want him to stay if he
is in danger!" exclaimed Dicksie.
"But I do want him to come here as if it mattered nothing, and I shall
try to take care of him. I have a man among your own men, a cowboy
named Wickwire, who will be watching Karg, and who is just as quick,
and Karg, not knowing he was watched, would be taken unawares. If
Wickwire goes elsewhere to work some one else will take his place
here. Karg is not on the ranch now; he is up North, hunting up some of
your steers that were run off last month by his own cronies. Now do
you think I am giving you confidence?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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