Brand Blotters

"Where's Jack?" Melissy asked.

"He'll be here presently. His arm was troubling him some, so he stopped to

see the doctor. Then he has to talk with his deputy."

"You're sure he isn't badly hurt?"

"No, only a scratch, he calls it."

"Did you happen on Dead Man's Cache by accident?" asked MacQueen with

well-assumed carelessness.

Bellamy had no intention of giving Rosario away to anybody. "You might

call it that," he said evenly. "You know, I had been near there once when

I was out hunting."

"Do you expect to catch MacQueen?" the outlaw asked, a faint hint of irony

in his amused voice.

"I can't tell. That's what I'm hoping, lieutenant."

"We hope for a heap of things we never get," returned the outlaw, in a

gentle voice, his eyes half shuttered behind drooping lids.

Melissy cut into the conversation hurriedly. "Lieutenant O'Connor is going

on the seven-five this evening, Mr. Bellamy. He has business that will

take him away for a while. It is time we were going. Won't you walk down

to the train with us?"

MacQueen swore softly under his breath, but there was nothing he could say

in protest. He knew he could not take the girl with him. Now he had been

cheated out of his good-byes by her woman's wit in dragging Bellamy to the

depot with them. He could not but admire the adroitness with which she had

utilized her friend to serve her end.

They walked to the station three abreast, the outlaw carrying as lightly

as he could the heavy suitcase that held his plunder. Melissy made small

talk while they waited for the train. She was very nervous, and she was

trying not to show it.

"Next time you come, lieutenant, we'll have a fine stone depot to show

you. Mr. West has promised to make Mesa the junction point, and we're sure

to have a boom," she said.

A young Mexican vaquero trailed softly behind them, the inevitable

cigarette between his lips. From under his broad, silver-laced sombrero he

looked keenly at each of the three as he passed.

A whistle sounded clearly in the distance.

The outlaw turned to the girl beside him. "I'm coming back some day soon.

Be sure of that, Mrs. MacQueen."

The audacity of the name used, designed as it was to stab her friend and

to remind Melissy how things stood, made the girl gasp. She looked quickly

at Bellamy and saw him crush the anger from his face.