"I believe he left his horse somewheres an' made that
fellow Lamy take him to the house thinking he could get something to
eat there, and that they wouldn't be so likely to be seen in the open
on foot. You got to remember that man's more or less clever."

This explanation satisfied Neal, and in the minds of the men who had
been in the resort when it was held up, there was no question as to
the identity of the robber. Even if they had suspected otherwise it is
doubtful if they would have acknowledged it because they considered it
less of an ignominy to be held up by the notorious Coyote than by a
bandit of lesser reputation.

Thus did the bonds of evidence tighten about Rathburn while he slept
through the late afternoon and the twilight.

When he awoke a faint yellow light dimly illuminated his surroundings.
He lay thinking for several minutes. He knew night had fallen and
surmised that he had slept a full eight hours. He could tell this
because he was fully awake and alert. He turned noiselessly on his
bench and saw that the light came from a lamp burning near the door to
the outer office.

Rathburn could hear the hum of voices, and by listening intently,
ascertained that two men were talking, one of whom was the sheriff. He
could not recognize the voice of the other speaker as a voice he had
ever heard before, and he could not hear what they were saying.

He listened dully to the voices until he heard a horse's hoofs in
front of the jail. He turned back with his face to the wall, and his
hat tipped over his eyes, as a man entered the jail office with a
stamp of boots and jingle of spurs.

"Hello, constable," he heard the sheriff say. "What luck?"

"Couldn't find the hoss," came a disgruntled voice. "Looked all
afternoon an' till it got dark for him."

"Confound it!" exclaimed Neal. "The horse must have been somewhere
aroun' close. He sure didn't walk down the valley."

"That's probably right," said the other. "I left a couple of your men
out there to keep up searching when daylight comes. That feller Lamy
showed us about where they left the hosses--his hoss an' The
Coyote's--but they wasn't there. He said there was a bunch of wild
hosses in the valley an' that they'd probably got away an' gone with
'em. We saw the wild hosses, but we couldn't get anywhere near
'em--couldn't get near enough to see if any of 'em was wearin' saddles
or not. We had some chase while it lasted, I'll recite."

"Did Lamy say how t