Brand Blotters - Page 44/180

"More likely he's twenty miles away. But whoever he is, he knows this

county. He made a slip and called José by his name."

Melissy's gaze was turned to the dust whirl that advanced up the road that

ran round the corral. "That doesn't prove anything, Alan. Everybody knows

José. He's lived all over Arizona--at Tucson and Tombstone and Douglas."

"That's right too," the lad admitted.

The riders in advance of the dust cloud resolved themselves into the

persons of her father and Norris. Her incautious admission was already

troubling her.

"But I'm sure you're right. No hold-up with any sense would stay around

here and wait to be caught. He's probably gone up into the Galiuros to

hide."

"Unless he's cached the gold and is trying to throw off suspicion."

The girl had moved forward to the end of the house with Alan to meet her

father. At that instant, by the ironic humor of chance, her glance fell

upon a certain improvised wash-stand covered with oilcloth. She shook her

head decisively. "No, he won't risk waiting to do that. He'll make sure of

his escape first."

"I reckon."

"Have you heard, Daddy?" Melissy called out eagerly. She knew she must

play the part expected of her, that of a young girl much interested in

this adventure which had occurred in the community.

He nodded grimly, swinging from the saddle. She observed with surprise

that his eye did not meet hers. This was not like him.

"What do you think?"

His gaze met that of Norris before he answered, and there was in it some

hint of a great fear. "Beats me, 'Lissy."

He had told the simple truth, but not the whole truth. The men had waited

at the entrance to the Box Cañon for nearly two hours without the arrival

of the stage. Deciding that something must have happened, they started

back, and presently met a Mexican who stopped to tell them the news. To

say that they were dazed is to put it mildly. To expect them to believe

that somebody else had heard of the secret shipment and had held up the

stage two miles from the place they had chosen, was to ask a credulity too

simple. Yet this was the fact that confronted them.

Arrived at the scene of the robbery both men had dismounted and had

examined the ground thoroughly. What they saw tended still more to

bewilder them. Neither of them was a tenderfoot, and the little table at

the summit of the long hill told a very tangled tale to those who had eyes

to read. Obvious tracks took them at once to the spot where the bandit had

stood in the bushes, but there was something about them that struck both

men as suspicious.