Watering Sheep

: MELISSY OF THE BAR DOUBLE G
: Brand Blotters

The deputy glanced quietly round, nodded here and there at sight of the

familiar face of an acquaintance, and spoke to the driver.



"Let's hear you say your little piece again, Jose."



The Mexican now had it by heart, and he pattered off the thing from

beginning to end without a pause. Melissy, behind the counter, leaned her

elbows on it and fastened her eyes on the boyish face of the officer. In

/> her heart she was troubled. How much did he know? What could he discover

from the evidence she had left? He had the reputation of being the best

trailer and the most fearless officer in Arizona. But surely she had

covered her tracks safely.



From Jose the ranger turned to Alan. "We'll hear your account of it now,

seh," he said gently.



While Alan talked, Jack's gaze drifted through the window to the flock of

sheep that were being driven up from the ditch by Lee and Norris. That

little pastoral scene had its significance for him. He had arrived at the

locality of the hold-up a few minutes after they had left, and his keen

intelligence had taken in some of the points they had observed. A rapid

circuit of the spot at the distance of thirty yards had shown him no

tracks leading from the place except those which ran up the lateral on

either side of it. It was possible that these belonged to the horses of

the robbers, but if so the fellows were singularly careless of detection.

Moreover, the booty must be accounted for. They had not carried it with

them, since no empty box remained to show that they had poured the gold

into sacks, and it would have been impossible to take the box as it was on

a horse. Nor had they buried it, unless at the bottom of the irrigating

ditch, for some signs of their work must have remained.



Balancing probabilities, it had seemed to Flatray that these might be the

tracks of ranchmen who had arrived after the hold-up and were following

the escaping bandits up the lateral. For unless these were the robber's,

there was no way of escape except either up or down the bottom of the

ditch. His search had eliminated the possibility of any other but the

road, and this was travelled too frequently to admit of even a chance of

escape by it without detection. Jack filed away one or two questions in

his brain for future reference. The most important of these was to

discover whether there had been any water in the ditch at the time of the

hold-up.



He had decided to follow the tracks leading up the ditch and found no

difficulty in doing so at a fast walk. Without any hesitation they

paralleled the edge of the lateral. Nor had the deputy travelled a quarter

of a mile before he made a discovery. The rider on the right hand side of

the stream had been chewing tobacco, and he had a habit of splashing his

mark on boulders he passed in the form of tobacco juice. Half a dozen

times before he reached the Lee ranch the ranger saw this signature of

identity writ large on smooth rocks shining in the sun. The last place he

saw it was at the point where the two riders deflected from the lateral

toward the ranch house, following tracks which led up from the bottom of

the ditch.



An instant later Flatray had dodged back into the chaparral, for somebody

was driving a flock of sheep down to the ditch. He made out that there

were two riders behind them, and that they had no dog. For the present his

curiosity was satisfied. He thought he knew why they were watering sheep

in this odd fashion. Swiftly he had made a circuit, drawn rein in front of

the store, and dropped in just in time to hear his name. Now, as with one

ear he listened to Alan's account of the hold-up, with his subconscious

mind he was with the sheep-herders who were driving the flock back into

the pasture.



"Looks like our friend the bad man was onto his job all right," was the

deputy's only comment when Alan had finished.



"I'll bet he's making his getaway into the hills mighty immediate,"

chuckled Baker. "He can't find a bank in the mountainside to deposit that

gold any too soon to suit him."



"Sho! I'll bet he ain't worried a mite. He's got his arrangements all

made, and likely they'll dovetail to suit him. He's put his brand on that

gold to stay," answered Farnum confidently.



Jack's mild blue eyes rested on him amiably. "Think so, Bob?"



"I ain't knockin' you any, Jack. You're all right. But that's how I figure

it out, and, by Gad! I'm hopin' it too," Farnum made answer recklessly.



Flatray laughed and strolled from the crowded room to the big piazza. A

man had just cantered up and flung himself from his saddle. The ranger,

looking at him, thought he had never seen another so strikingly handsome

an Apollo. Black eyes looked into his from a sun-tanned face perfectly

modelled. The pose of the head and figure would have delighted a

sculptor.



There was a vigor, an unspoken hostility, in the gaze of both men.



"Mo'nin", Mr. Deputy Sheriff, one said; and the other, "Same to you, Mr.

Norris."



"You're on the job quick," sneered the cattle detective.



"The quicker the sooner, I expect."



"And by night you'll have Mr. Hold-up roped and hog-tied?"



"Not so you could notice it. Are you a sheep-herder these days, Mr.

Norris?"



The gentle irony of this was not lost on its object, for in the West a

herder of sheep is the next remove from a dumb animal.



"No, I'm riding for the Quarter Circle K Bar outfit. This is the first

time I ever took the dust of a sheep in my life. I did it to oblige Mr.

Lee."



"Oh! To oblige Mr. Lee?"



"He wanted to water them, and his herder wasn't here."



"Must 'a' been wanting water mighty bad, I reckon," commented Jack

amiably.



"You bet! Lee feels better satisfied now he's watered them."



"I don't doubt it."



Norris changed the subject. "You must have burnt the wind getting here. I

didn't expect to see you for some hours."



"I happened to be down at Yeager's ranch, and one of the boys got me on

the line from Mesa."



"Picked up any clues yet?" asked the other carelessly, yet always with

that hint of a sneer; and innocently Flatray answered, "They seem to be

right seldom."



"Didn't know but you'd happened on the fellow's trail."



"I guess I'm as much at sea as you are," was the equivocal answer.



Lee came over from the stable, still wearing spurs and gauntlets.



"Howdy, Jack!" he nodded, not quite so much at his ease as usual. "Got

hyer on the jump, didn't you?"



"I kept movin'."



"This shorely beats hell, don't it?" Lee glanced around, selected a smooth

boulder, and fired his discharge of tobacco juice at it true to the inch.

"Reminds me of the old days. You boys ain't old enough to recall them, but

stage hold-ups were right numerous then."



Blandly the deputy looked from one to the other. "I don't suppose either

of you gentlemen happen to have been down and looked over the ground where

the hold-up was? The tracks were right cut up before I got there."



This center shot silenced Lee for an instant, but Norris was on the spot

with smiling ease.



"No, Mr. Lee and I have been hunting strays on the mesa. We didn't hear

about it till a few minutes ago. We're at your service, though, Mr.

Sheriff, to join any posses you want to send out."



"Much obliged. I'm going to send one out toward the Galiuros in a few

minutes now. I'll be right glad to have you take charge of it, Mr.

Norris."



The derisive humor in the newly appointed deputy's eyes did not quite

reach the surface.



"Sure. Whenever you want me."



"I'm going to send Alan McKinstra along to guide you. He knows that

country like a book. You want to head for the lower pass, swing up Diable

canyon, and work up in the headquarters of the Three Forks."



Within a quarter of an hour the posse was in motion. Flatray watched it

disappear in the dust of the road without a smile. He had sent them out

merely to distract the attention of the public and to get rid of as many

as possible of the crowd. For he was quite as well aware as the leader of

the posse that this search in the Galiuros was a wild-goose chase.

Somewhere within three hundred yards of the place he stood both the robber

and his booty were in all probability to be found.



Flatray was quite right in his surmise, since Melissy Lee, who had come

out to see the posse off, was standing at the end of the porch with her

dusky eyes fastened on him, the while he stood beside the house with one

foot resting negligently on the oilcloth cover of the wash-stand.



She had cast him out of her friendship because of his unworthiness, but

there was a tumult in her heart at sight of him. No matter how her

judgment condemned him as a villain, some instinct in her denied the

possibility of it. She was torn in conflict between her liking for him and

her conviction that he deserved only contempt. Somehow it hurt her too

that he accepted without protest her verdict, appeared so willing to be a

stranger to her.



Now that the actual physical danger of her adventure was past, Melissy was

aware too of a chill dread lurking at her heart. She was no longer buoyed

up by the swiftness of action which had called for her utmost nerve. There

was nothing she could do now but wait, and waiting was of all things the

one most foreign to her impulsive temperament. She acknowledged too some

fear of this quiet, soft-spoken frontiersman. All Arizona knew not only

the daredevil spirit that fired his gentleness, but the competence with

which he set about any task he assigned himself. She did not see how he

could unravel this mystery. She had left no clues behind her, she felt

sure of that, and yet was troubled lest he guessed at her secret behind

that mask of innocence he wore. He did not even remotely guess it as yet,

but he was far closer to the truth than he pretended. The girl knew she

should leave him and go about her work. Her role was to appear as

inconspicuous as possible, but she could not resist the fascination of

trying to probe his thoughts.



"I suppose your posse will come back with the hold-ups in a few hours.

Will it be worth while to wait for them?" she asked with amiable

derision.



The ranger had been absorbed in thought, his chin in his hand, but he

brought his gaze back from the distance to meet hers. What emotion lay

behind those cold eyes she could not guess.



"You're more hopeful than I am, Miss Lee."



"What are you sending them out for, then?"



"Oh, well, the boys need to work off some of their energy, and there's

always a show they might happen onto the robbers."



"Do you think some of the Roaring Fork gang did it?"



"Can't say."



"I suppose you are staying here in the hope that they will drop in and

deliver themselves to you."



He looked at her out of an expressionless face. "That's about it, I

reckon. But what I tell the public is that I'm staying so as to be within

telephone connection. You see, Sheriff Burke is moving up to cut them off

from the Catalinas, Jackson is riding out from Mammoth to haid them off

that way, these anxious lads that have just pulled out from here are

taking care of the Galiuros. I'm supposed to be sitting with my fingers on

the keys as a sort of posse dispatcher."



"Well, I hope you won't catch them," she told him bluntly.



"That seems to be a prevailing sentiment round here. You say it right

hearty too; couldn't be more certain of your feelings if it had been your

own father."



He said it carelessly, yet with his keen blue eyes fixed on her.

Nevertheless, he was totally unprepared for the effect of his words. The

color washed from her bronzed cheeks, and she stood staring at him with

big, fear-filled eyes.



"What--what do you mean?" she gasped. "How dare you say that?"



"I ain't said anything so terrible. You don't need to take it to heart

like that." He gave her a faint smile for an instant. "I'm not really

expecting to arrest Mr. Lee for holding up that stage."



The color beat back slowly into her face. She knew she had made a false

move in taking so seriously his remark.



"I don't think you ought to joke about a thing like that," she said

stiffly.



"All right. I'll not say it next time till I'm in earnest," he promised as

he walked away.



"I wonder if he really meant anything," the girl was thinking in terror,

and he, "she knows something; now, I would like to know what."



Melissy attended to her duties in the postoffice after the arrival of the

stage, and looked after the dining-room as usual, but she was all the time

uneasily aware that Jack Flatray had quietly disappeared. Where had he

gone? And why? She found no answer to that question, but the ranger

dropped in on his bronco in time for supper, imperturbable and

self-contained as ever.



"Think I'll stay all night if you have a room for me," he told her after

he had eaten.



"We have a room," she said. "What more have you heard about the stage

robbery?"



"Nothing, Miss Lee."



"Oh, I thought maybe you had," she murmured tremulously, for his blue

eyes were unwaveringly upon her and she could not know how much or how

little he might mean.



Later she saw him sitting on the fence, holding genial converse with Jim

Budd. The waiter was flashing a double row of white teeth in deep laughter

at something the deputy had told him. Evidently they were already friends.

When she looked again, a few minutes later, she knew Jack had reached the

point where he was pumping Jim and the latter was disseminating

misinformation. That the negro was stanch enough, she knew, but she was on

the anxious seat lest his sharp-witted inquisitor get what he wanted in

spite of him. After he had finished with Budd the ranger drifted around to

the kitchen in time to intercept Hop Ling casually as he came out after

finishing his evening's work. The girl was satisfied Flatray could not

have any suspicion of the truth. Nevertheless, she wished he would let the

help alone. He might accidentally stumble on something that would set him

on the right track.



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