Brand Blotters - Page 75/180

Melissy hid the dread that was flooding her heart. "I'm sure I don't

know. You know everything else. I suppose you do that, too, if they really

did."

"They had their reasons, but we won't go into that now. First off when

they reach the house they take a bunch of sheep down to the ditch to water

them. Now, why?"

"Why, unless because they needed water?"

"We'll let that go into the discard too just now. Let's suppose your

father and Boone dumped the gold box down into the creek somewhere after

they had robbed the stage. Suppose they had a partner up at the

head-gates. When the signal is given down comes the water, and the box is

covered by it. Mebbe that night they take it away and bury it somewhere

else."

The girl began to breathe again. He knew a good deal, but he was still off

the track in the main points.

"And who is this partner up at the canal? Have you got him located too?"

"I might guess."

"Well?"--impatiently.

"A young lady hailing from this hacienda was out gathering flowers all

mo'ning. She was in her runabout. The tracks led straight from here to the

head-gates. I followed them through the sands. There's a little break in

one of the rubber tires. You'll find that break mark every eight feet or

so in the sand wash."

"I opened the head-gates, then, did I?"

"It looks that way, doesn't it?"

"At a signal from father?"

"I reckon."

"And that's all the evidence you've got against him and me?" she demanded,

still outwardly scornful, but very much afraid at heart.

"Oh, no, that ain't all, Miss Lee. Somebody locked the Chink in during

this play. He's still wondering why."

"He dreamed it. Very likely he had been rolling a pill."

"Did I dream this too?" From his coat pocket he drew the piece of black

shirting she had used as a mask. "I found it in the room where your father

put me up that first night I stayed here. It was your brother Dick's room,

and this came from the pocket of a shirt hanging in the closet. Now, who

do you reckon put it there?"

For the first time in her life she knew what it was to feel faint. She

tried to speak, but the words would not come from her parched throat. How

could he be so hard and cruel, this man who had once been her best friend?

How could he stand there so like a machine in his relentlessness?