DENTON CROUCH 27

as denton rode up to the boarding house in the gathering dusk pearl and jody came out mto meet him. from up in town they could see a wagon pulled by a couple of mules comming toward them. pearl took on the look of pure fear and hid behind denton. as the wagon pulled up to the boarding house they could see that will the shewrrif was in the drivers s eat. . after speaking to every one he explained he was takeing this rig down to the railroad yard for the night. he then said said when he and his deputy returned from picking up the wagon they found alvie dead. behind him denton felt pearl let go with a sigh. " the judge will have to rule on the disposition of this mess. we dont even know for sure whats in here. tomorrow we will have to unload the wagon and inventory everything i wish you would come along denton."will explained. denton nodded, " after breakfast then boss." the next morning denton and will walked down to the wagon yard next to the railroad corrals. the two mules had a corral in the rail road corrals and were makeing the most of a bale of hay. as they approached the wagon denton took a short step and held back " you sure theres not something dead in that ewagon?" will didnt even slow down but said " ime not sure of nothing. come on. the two men climbed up on the wagon and started throwing the top layer off into a pile on the ground. as they got down into the wagon bed they found more barrels of commodities." the damn skin flint was carrying all this around and starveing that poor girl." will said. they would open a barrel take note of the contents and will would write it into his tally book. as they reached the back of the wagon they found several burlap sacks opening one denton shook his head " rocks, why would you carry a bunch of sacks of rocks?" will stepped closer and looked at the black rocks. he held one up" ill tell you why , its silver. just needs to be crushed and smelted. not a lot of money but i bet its a goodly amount. alvie either has a claim or he has high graded this from some one else." " well i bet its high graded, because he was to lazy to do any real work." denton said. when they were done they threw the blankets backk over the load but left the hides on the ground. denton explained the hide with the f w must have been taken before he bought the ranch. at the boarding house will asked pearl if they had ever spent any time at a mine . he explained about the sacks of ore. the girl shook her head" those were in the wagon when he bought me. he wouldnt let any one near them called it his treasure." will wrote it all down then pearl said " did you find the money? he kept it buried in the flour barrel. he didnt know i knew but i saw him put money there. " will cut a glance at denton" we better go back." without another word the two men turnned and started back.