had heard that some
grazer from your county, Abner, was on the way up to buy the cattle for
stockers. He wanted to get in ahead of your man, so he left home that
evening and got to Coopman's place about sundown. He took a short cut on
foot over the hill, and when he came out he saw a man on the opposite
ridge where the road runs, ride away. The man seemed to have been
sitting on his horse looking down into the little valley where Coopman's
house stands. Bowers went down to the house, but Coopman was not there.
The door was open, and Bowers says the house looked as though Coopman
had just gone out of it and might come back any moment. There was no one
about, because Coopman's wife had gone on a visit to her daughter, over
the mountains, and the old man was alone.

"Bowers thought Coopman was out showing the cattle to the man whom he
had just seen ride off, so he went out to the pasture field to look for
him. He could not find him and he could not find the cattle. He came
back to the house to wait until Coopman should come in. He sat down on
the porch. As he sat there he noticed that the porch had been scrubbed
and was still wet. He looked at it and saw that it had been scrubbed
only at one place before the door. This seemed to him a little peculiar,
and he wondered why Coopman had scrubbed his porch only in one place. He
got up and as he went toward the door he saw that the jamb of the door
was splintered at a point about half-way up. He examined this splintered
place and presently discovered that it was a bullet hole.

"This alarmed him, and he went out into the yard. There he saw a wagon
track leading away from the house toward the road. In the weeds he found
Coopman's watch. He picked it up and put it into his pocket. It was a
big silver watch, with Coopman's name on it, and attached to it was a
buckskin string. He followed the track to the gate, where it entered the
road. He discovered then that the cattle had also passed through this
gate. It was now night. Bowers went back, got Coopman's saddle horse out
of the stable, rode him home, and followed the track of the cattle this
morning, but he saw no trace of the drove until we met him."

"What did Shifflet and Twiggs say to this story?" inquired Abner.

"They did not hear it," answered Ward; "Bowers did not talk before them.
He rode aside with us when we met him."

"Did Shifflet and Twiggs know Bowers?" said Abner.

"I don't know," replied Ward; "their talk was