Brand Blotters

"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

Cañon, 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 rôle was to appear as

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

trying to probe his thoughts.