Brand Blotters - Page 81/180

"I expect we cayn't any of us stand the great white light on all our acts;

but if any one can, it's that little girl upstairs."

"What would you say if I told you that she's liable to go to Yuma if I

lift my hand?"

"I'd say I was from Missouri and needed showing."

"Put up that gun, come outside with me, and if I take a notion I'll show

you all right."

Jack laughed as his gun disappeared. "I'd be willing to bet high that

there are a good many citizens around here haided straighter for Yuma than

Miss Melissy."

Without answering, Norris led the way out and stopped only when his arm

rested on the fence of the corral.

"Nobody can hear us now," he said brusquely, and the ranger got a whiff of

his hot whisky breath. "You've put it up to me to make good. All right,

I'll do it. That little girl in there, as you call her, is the bad man who

held up the Fort Allison stage."

The officer laughed tolerantly as he lit a cigarette.

"I hear you say it, Norris."

"I didn't expect you to believe it right away, but it's a fact just the

same."

Flatray climbed to the fence and rested his feet on a rail. "Fire ahead.

I'm listenin'."

"The first men on the ground after that hold-up were me and Lee. We

covered the situation thorough and got hold of some points right away."

"That's right funny too. When I asked you if you'd been down there you

both denied it," commented the officer.

"We were protecting the girl. Mind you, we didn't know who had done it

then, but we had reasons to think the person had just come from this

ranch."

"What reasons?" briefly demanded Flatray.

"We don't need to go into them. We had them, anyhow. Then I lit on a

foot-print right on the edge of the ditch that no man ever made. We didn't

know what to make of it, but we wiped it out and followed the ditch, one

on each side. We'd figured that was the way he had gone. You see, though

water was running in the ditch now, it hadn't been half an hour before."

"You don't say!"

"There wasn't a sign of anybody leaving the ditch till we got to the

ranch; then we saw tracks going straight to the house."