If the man to be
caught existed, he could certainly be found, was the principle on
which our officer acted.
He readily obtained permission to attempt the capture of the
escaped prisoner, Bute; but the murderer had disappeared, leaving
no clew. Brandt learned that the slums of large cities and several
mining camps had been searched in vain, also that the trains
running east had been carefully watched. We need not try to follow
his processes of thought, nor seek to learn how he soon came to
the conclusion that his man was at some distant mining station
working under an assumed name. By a kind of instinct his mind kept
reverting to one of these stations with increasing frequency. It
was not so remote in respect to mere distance; but it was
isolated, off the lines of travel, with a gap of seventy miles
between it and what might be termed civilization, and was
suspected of being a sort of refuge for hard characters and
fugitives from justice. Bute, when last seen, was making for the
mountains in the direction of this mine. Invested with ample
authority to bring in the outlaw dead or alive, Brandt followed
this vague clew.
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