on't know a thing about Japs except that they're good
workers. But there's one thing about this business that puzzles me.
This murder doesn't look to me like a white man's job. An American bad
man kills an' is done with it. But whoever did this aimed to torture
an' then kill, looks like. If not, why did they tie him up first?"

James nodded, reflectively. "Maybe something in what you say.
Orientals strike me as being kind of unhuman, if you know what I mean.
Maybe they have the red Indian habit of torture in Japan."

"Never heard of it if they have, but I've got a kinda notion--picked it
up in my readin'--that Asiatics will go a long way to square a grudge.
If this Horikawa had anything against Uncle James he might have planned
this revenge an' taken the two thousand dollars to help his getaway."

"Yes, he might."

"Anyhow, I've made up my mind to one thing. You can 'most always get
the truth when you go after it good an' hard. I'm goin' to find out
who did this thing an' why."

James Cunningham looked into his cousin's face. A strong man himself,
he recognized strength in another. Into the blue-gray eyes of the man
from Twin Buttes had come a cold steely temper that transformed the
gay, boyish face. The oil broker knew Lane had no love for his uncle.
His resolution was probably based on a desire to clear his own name.

"I'm with you in that," he said quietly, and his own dark eyes were
hard as jade. "We'll work this out together if you say so, Kirby."

The younger man nodded. "Suits me fine." His face softened. "You
mentioned three leads. Most men would have said four. On the face of
it, of the evidence at hand, the guilty man is sittin' right here
talkin' with you. You know that the dead man an' I had a bitter
feelin' against each other. You know there was a new cause of trouble
between us, an' that I told you I was goin' to get justice out of him
one way or another. I'm the only man known to have been in his rooms
last night. Accordin' to the Hulls I must 'a' been there when he was
killed. Then, as a final proof of my guilt, I slide out by the fire
escape to get away without bein' seen. I'll say the one big lead
points straight to Kirby Lane."

"Yes, but there's such a thing as character," James answered. "It's
written in your face that you couldn't have done it. That's why the
jury said a person unknown."

"Yes, but the jury didn't know what you knew, that I had a fresh cause
of qua