And
it might be a good idea for you to give your men a gentle hint to keep
their mouths closed about this affair--all of it. There's a slim chance
at the best of finding that gold, even if it's there, and it won't help
us nor the rest of the Force to run down the men who held us up, if
everybody on both sides of the line gets to talking about it."
"I'll tell them," I agreed. "I reckon you have the right idea. I think
it's a cinch that if we land the men that set us afoot and got away with
the money, we'll have the cold-blooded brutes that put Hans Rutter's
light out. But I don't _sabe_, Mac, why those old-timers should be mixed
into a deal of this kind. Their cattle and range on the Canadian had a
gold-mine beat to death for money-making; old men like them don't jump
two thousand miles from home without mighty strong reasons."
"They probably had, if we only knew," MacRae muttered. "I reckon we'd
better start; we can't do any good here."
Mac led the way. The four of us slipped through the brushy bottom as
silently as men unaccustomed to walking might go, for we had no
hankering, unarmed as we were, to bring those red-handed marauders after
us again, if they happened to be lurking in that canyon. Rutter's body
we had no choice but to leave undisturbed by the blackening fire.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45