`An' Durran's christian names are George Washington, ain't they? An' he looks a truthful man. Come awake, feller, an' ask yoreself if Injuns are likely to leave a couple o' rifles, an' all the ammunition an' stores in the hut when they'd all the time there is to take 'em away?'
Larry looked thoughtful. `It certainly don't seem to fit in,' he admitted.
`An' here's somethin' else that don't fit in,' Green went on, fishing out the object he had picked up near the body. What the blazes is that?' queried Larry.
`She's a pocket machine for making smokes--I seen 'em when I was East a while ago. Here is how she works.'
He got out his makings and in a few moments produced a cigarette, while Larry looked on in undisguised amazement. `Didn't belong to Bud, I reckon?' Green asked.
`No, Bud rolled his own pills,' Larry said, and then, `Ain't it the lady's pet now? If we can spot the dude that lost it...
`We got the feller that Ginger's wantin' bad to meet,' interrupted his friend. `But we got to find that trail first. Know anythin' about this Sandy Parlour?'
`Yeah. I've crossed her once. She ain't as big as some, but there's too much of her to search. Our best bet is to keep along the edge to the right, an' watch for a trail comin' out.'
'An' the quicker we start, the sooner we get there,' said Green. `C'mon.'
Hugging the border of the desert as closely as possible, they rode along. The elder man's thoughts were milling round the slaying of the cowboy. Had he been shot, it might have figured as a likely enough incident of the raid, but the knife-wound told a different story. Green believed that the boy had recognised one of the marauders, and incautiously betrayed the fact. Durran's tale was he had seen Bud fall from his horse at the first discharge, and concluding that he was done for, had shifted for himself, with the one idea of carrying the news to the ranch as soon as possible. Green could find nothing to disprove this, and yet he did not believe it.
Chapter VI
IN the big living-room of the Y Z ranch Old Simon and his daughter heard the foreman's account of the day's happenings. The girl's eyes filled with tears when the finding of Bud was related, for the boy was the youngest and one of the gayest in the outfit. The ranch-owner mumbled oaths in his beard and listened with a darkening face.
`What do yu make of it, Blaynes?' he asked, in perplexity.
`It's just what I've allus told yu,' replied the other, trying to keep a note of triumph out of his voice. `Durran said as how they were 'whoops'--every mother's son of 'em.'
'Funny they didn't loot the cabin,' mused the old man. `It ain't like Injuns to miss a bet like that.'
`Huh ! Reckon they didn't think of it. They was doin' pretty well to get away with the herd,' Rattler rejoined.
`Biggest loss we've had. 'Bout eighty head, yu say?'
The foreman nodded. `All that,' he said.
`An' yu left Green an' Barton to search a piece further?'
`Yes, nothin' else for it; no use all of us a-foolin' around. I'd say it was a good chance for the new feller to do somethin', if he ain't a-doin' it already.'
Old Simon looked up sharply. `Speak plain,' he said. `What's yore idea?'
`Well, o' course, I ain't sayin' it's so,' Blaynes replied slowly; `but look it over. We don't know nothin' about this feller. Yu take him on an' give him a free rein, an' 'stead of the rustlin' stoppin', it gets wuss.'
`Yu mean he's workin' with 'em?'
The foreman shrugged his shoulder and shot a glance at the girl.
`I don't say so,' he temporised. `I'm on'y suggestin' what might be.'
`In that case he must be working with the Apaches,' said Noreen quietly. `I shouldn't have thought he was a mean enough white to do that.'
Blaynes instantly saw the trap into which his eagerness to discredit Green had led him.
`It shore don't seem likely, I admit,' he said. `But yu can't never tell. An' yu got to agree he ain't done much, so far.'
`Let us hope he finds the trail again,' the girl said. `Surely a big bunch of cattle like that cannot be spirited away without leaving a trace.'
`That darned sandstorm come just at the right time for 'em,' grumbled the foreman. `I've told the boys to be ready to start the minit we hear from Green.'
He went out, and for some time there was silence. Then the girl said impulsively :
`I don't believe it.'
`Don't believe what, honey?' asked her father.
`That Green is working with the Indians,' she replied. `He doesn't look that sort of man.'
`This is a tough country, an' looks don't tell yu much,' commented Simon; `but I don't hardly think it's so myself. Any-ways, it is shore up to him to get busy an' prove himself.'
The day was far advanced when a shout from Green brought Barton, who had been riding a piece away, to his side, on the brink of a small draw which formed an outlet from the desert. On the sandy floor, protected from the wind by a highish bank, were the hoof prints of cattle and horses.
`Whoopee!' cried Larry. `This must be where they come off the Parlour.'
'Pears so,' Green agreed, and walked his horse down to examine the trail more closely. `What do yu make o' that?'
Larry looked where his companion pointed, and gave vent to a low whistle. `One of 'em has got off, an' he's wearin' boots--our kind o' boots,' he said.
In fact, the prints showed plainly that the footwear in question were of the narrow-soled variety affected by the cowboy, not out of vanity, but because they are of practical use to him in his work; roping on foot would be well-nigh impossible without them.
`There's a white man with 'em,' Larry decided.
`On'y one?' queried Green, a glint of humour wrinkling the
corners of his eyes. `Huh ! they ain't as clever as I figured. If I wanted to play at Injuns, boots is the first thing I would throw into the discard.'
Larry's eyes opened. `Yu think it's a bunch o' whites masqueradin' as Injuns?' he asked.
`Shore,' was the confident reply. `An' Bud was unlucky; he found out, an' they had to close his mouth.'
`I'll be damned if you ain't right!' ejaculated Larry, after a moment's thought.
Yu'll be damned anyway,' his friend retorted. `Get a move on, an' we'll see where this trail takes us while the light holds.' They were able to make good time, for the trail was plain and easy to follow, twisting and turning where obstacles had to be overcome. Before they had gone many miles, however, they were forced to camp for the night. This they did under a rocky bluff which enabled them to make a fire without much risk of the light being visible. They had food with them, and this despatched, they rolled up in their blankets and slept like dead men. Sunrise saw them astir again, and breakfast over, they caught and saddled their mounts.
`Yu'd better strike for the Y Z an' fetch the boys,' Green said. `Wish I'd brought Blue; he'd have made better time under yu than that bone-rack yu call a hoss.' For Green was riding the pony on which he had made his first appearance at Hatchett's Folly.
`Think so, do you?' replied Barton, who sensed the grin underlying the words. `I ain't aimin' to straddle no volcano in eruption; yu shore oughtta call him Vesuvius, that brute. This little hoss is good enough for me.'
`Shore, I know that,' came the quick reply; `but--'
`Yah! Go an' find a rustler, yu long-laigged misfit,' yelled Larry, as he rode away. `An' don't hog all the glory by capturing the whole bunch before we get in the game.'
`I'll save a little one for yu,' Green told him. `An' say, remember yu don't know nothin'; just be yore natural self.'
With a most disrespectful gesture, the boy rode off, and the older man smiled as he murmured, `He's a good kid all right, but he shore has a lot to learn.'
He followed the tracks for an hour, and then found that they joined a bigger and evidently older trail which had a familiar appearance. He had covered only a mile or two when his suspicions were verified, for he stood again at the entrance to the blind canyon which he had stumbled upon before, with the wide shallow stream and the
