9. TROUBLE TAKES WING
The three other people in Landini’s small sitting-room looked at one another, but did not speak. For a time Ward continued to stare out the window. At length he turned, he was pale, but self-controlled and calm. Blood, the young Sheriff thought to himself, will tell. The cowards never started on that rush of ’49, and the weaklings died on the way, but Dudley Ward was descended from a man who had reached journey’s end. His voice was steady as he said: “Thank you so much for telling me.”
“I knew, of course, the child was dead,” Chan remarked, “when you told us Romano was Landini’s only heir. You have, perhaps, Miss Meecher, some documents regarding the boy’s death?”
She rose. “Yes. I have the telegram that was our first news of it, and the letter that followed from h
