The Double Barrelled Detective Story | Page 8

His cheerfulness was all gone, and he looked old and
pinched and ashy. And then--only think of the things he had to listen to!
Mamma, he heard his own unsuspecting friends describe him with
epithets and characterizations drawn from the very dictionaries and
phrase-books of Satan's own authorized editions down below. And
more than that, he had to agree with the verdicts and applaud them. His
applause tasted bitter in his mouth, though; he could not disguise that
from me; and it was observable that his appetite was gone; he only
nibbled; he couldn't eat. Finally a man said:
"It is quite likely that that relative is in the room and hearing what this
town thinks of that unspeakable scoundrel. I hope so."
Ah, dear, it was pitiful the way Fuller winced, and glanced around
scared! He couldn't endure any more, and got up and left.
During several days he gave out that he had bought a mine in Mexico,
and wanted to sell out and go down there as soon as he could, and give
the property his personal attention. He played his cards well; said he
would take $40,000--a quarter in cash, the rest in safe notes; but that as
he greatly needed money on account of his new purchase, he would
diminish his terms for cash in full, He sold out for $30,000. And then,
what do you think he did? He asked for greenbacks, and took them,
saying the man in Mexico was a New-Englander, with a head full of
crotchets, and preferred greenbacks to gold or drafts. People thought it
queer, since a draft on New York could produce greenbacks quite
conveniently. There was talk of this odd thing, but only for a day; that
is as long as any topic lasts in Denver.
I was watching, all the time. As soon as the sale was completed and the
money paid--which was on the 11th--I began to stick to Fuller's track
without dropping it for a moment. That night--no, 12th, for it was a
little past midnight--I tracked him to his room, which was four doors
from mine in the same hall; then I went back and put on my muddy

day- laborer disguise, darkened my complexion, and sat down in my
room in the gloom, with a gripsack handy, with a change in it, and my
door ajar. For I suspected that the bird would take wing now. In half an
hour an old woman passed by, carrying a grip: I caught the familiar
whiff, and followed with my grip, for it was Fuller. He left the hotel by
a side entrance, and at the corner he turned up an unfrequented street
and walked three blocks in a light rain and a heavy darkness, and got
into a two-horse hack, which of course was waiting for him by
appointment. I took a seat (uninvited) on the trunk platform behind, and
we drove briskly off. We drove ten miles, and the hack stopped at a
way-station and was discharged. Fuller got out and took a seat on a
barrow under the awning, as far as he could get from the light; I went
inside, and watched the ticket-office. Fuller bought no ticket; I bought
none. Presently the train came along, and he boarded a car; I entered
the same car at the other end, and came down the aisle and took the seat
behind him. When he paid the conductor and named his objective point,
I dropped back several seats, while the conductor was changing a bill,
and when he came to me I paid to the same place--about a hundred
miles westward.
From that time for a week on end he led me a dance. He traveled here
and there and yonder--always on a general westward trend--but he was
not a woman after the first day. He was a laborer, like myself, and wore
bushy false whiskers. His outfit was perfect, and he could do the
character without thinking about it, for he had served the trade for
wages. His nearest friend could not have recognized him. At last he
located himself here, the obscurest little mountain camp in Montana; he
has a shanty, and goes out prospecting daily; is gone all day, and avoids
society. I am living at a miner's boardinghouse, and it is an awful place:
the bunks, the food, the dirt--everything.
We have been here four weeks, and in that time I have seen him but
once; but every night I go over his track and post myself. As soon as he
engaged a shanty here I went to a town fifty miles away and
telegraphed that Denver hotel to keep my baggage till I should send for
it. I need nothing here but a change of army shirts, and I