CHAPTER XI
A CONVERSATION
Not five minutes after Melissy had left the deputy sheriff, another ridergalloped up the road. Jack, returning from his room, where he had left thebox of gold locked up, waited on the porch to see who this might be.
The horseman proved to be the man Norris, or Boone, and in a thoroughlybad temper, as Jack soon found out.
"Have you see anything of 'Lissie Lee?" he demanded immediately.
"Miss Lee has just left me. She has gone to her room," answered Flatrayquietly.
"Well, I want to see her," said the other hoarsely.
"I reckon you better postpone it to to-morrow. She's some played out andneeds sleep."
"Well, I'm going to see her now."
Jack turned, still all gentleness, and called to Jim Budd, who was in thestore.
"Oh, Jim! Run upstairs and knock on Miss Melissy's door and tell her Mr.Norris is down here. Ask if she will see him to-night."
"You're making a heap of formality out of this, Mr. Buttinsky," sneeredthe cowpuncher.
Jack made no answer, unless it were one to whistle gently and look outinto the night as if he were alone.
"No, seh. She doan' wan' tuh see him to-night," announced Jim upon hisreturn.
"That seems to settle it, Mr. Norris," said Jack pleasantly.
"Not by a hell of a sight. I've got something to say to her, and I'm goingto say it."
"To-morrow," amended the officer.
"I said to-night."
"But your say doesn't go here against hers. I reckon you'll wait."
"Not so's you could notice it." The cowpuncher took a step forward towardthe stairway, but Flatray was there before him.
"Get out of the way, you. I don't stand for any butting-in," the cowboyblustered.
"Don't be a goat, Norris. She's tired, and she says she don't want to seeyou. That's enough, ain't it?"
Norris leaped back with an oath to draw his gun, but Jack had the quickestdraw in Arizona. The puncher found himself looking into the business endof a revolver.
"Better change your mind, seh," suggested the officer amiably. "I take ityou've been drinking and you're some excited. If you were in condition to_savez_ the situation, you'd understand that the young lady doesn't careto see you now. Do you need a church to fall on you before you can take ahint?"
"I reckon if you knew all about her, you wouldn't be so anxious to standup for her," Norris said darkly.
"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 Ilift 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 showyou all right."
Jack laughed as his gun disappeared. "I'd be willing to bet high thatthere are a good many citizens around here haided straighter for Yuma thanMiss Melissy."
Without answering, Norris led the way out and stopped only when his armrested on the fence of the corral.
"Nobody can hear us now," he said brusquely, and the ranger got a whiff ofhis 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 whoheld 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 thesame."
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. Wecovered 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 youboth denied it," commented the officer.
"We were protecting the girl. Mind you, we didn't know who had done itthen, but we had reasons to think the person had just come from thisranch."
"What reasons?" briefly demanded Flatray.
"We don't need to go into them. We had them, anyhow. Then I lit on afoot-print right on the edge of the ditch that no man ever made. We didn'tknow what to make of it, but we wiped it out and followed the ditch, oneon each side. We'd figured that was the way he had gone. You see, thoughwater 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 theranch; then we saw tracks going straight to the house."
"So you got a bunch of sheep and drove them down there to muss things upsome."
Norris looked sharply at him. "You got there while we were driving themback. Well, that's right. We had to help her out."
"You're helping her out now, ain't you?" Jack asked dryly.
"That's my business. I've got my own reasons, Mr. Deputy. All you got todo is arrest her."
"Just as soon as you give me the evidence, seh."
"Haven't I given it to you? She was seen to drive away from the house inher rig. She left footprints down there. She came back up the ditch andthen rode right up to the head-gates and turned on the water. Jim Littlesaw her cutting across country from the head-gates hell-to-split."
"Far as I can make out, all the evidence you've given me ain't againsther, but against you. She was out drivin' when it happened, you say, andyou expect me to arrest her for it. It ain't against the law to godriving, seh. And as for that ditch fairy tale, on your own say-so youwiped out all chance to prove the story."
"Then you won't arrest her?"
"If you'll furnish the evidence, seh."
"I tell you we know she did it. Her father knows it."
"Is it worryin' his conscience? Did he ask you to lay an informationagainst her?" asked the officer sarcastically.
"That isn't the point."
"You're right. Here's the point." Not by the faintest motion of the bodyhad the officer's indolence been lifted, but the quiet ring of his voiceshowed it was gone. "You and Lee were overheard planning that robbery theday after you were seen hanging around the 'Monte Cristo.' You started outto hold up the stage. It was held up. By your own story you were the firstmen on the ground after the robbery. I tracked you straight from therehere along the ditch. I found a black mask in Lee's coat. A dozen peoplesaw you on that fool sheep-drive of yours. And to sum up, I found thestolen gold right here where you must have hidden it."
"You found the gold? Where?"
"That ain't the point either, seh. The point is that I've got you where Iwant you, Mr. Norris, alias Mr. Boone. You're wound up in a net you cayn'tget away from. You're wanted back East, and you're wanted here. I'm ontoyour little game, sir. Think I don't know you've been trying tomanufacture evidence against me as a rustler? Think I ain't wise to yourwhole record? You're arrested for robbing the Fort Allison stage."
Norris, standing close in front of him, shot his right hand out andknocked the officer backward from the fence. Before the latter could geton his feet again the cowpuncher was scudding through the night. Hereached his horse, flung himself on, and galloped away. Harmlessly abullet or two zipped after him as he disappeared.
The deputy climbed over the fence again and laughed softly to himself."You did that right well, Jack. He'll always think he did that by hislone, never will know you was a partner in that escape. It's a fact,though, I could have railroaded him through on the evidence, but notwithout including the old man. No, there wasn't any way for it but thatgrandstand escape of Mr. Boone's."
Still smiling, he dusted himself, put up his revolver, and returned to thehouse.