hanging about relishing the situation, but without a symptom of
mirth. I was unsaddling methodically, paying no attention to anybody,
and apparently deaf to all that was being said. If the two old fools had
succeeded in eliciting a word from me they would have been entirely
happy; but I knew that fact, and shut my lips.

I hung my saddle on the rack and was just about to lead the old skate to
water when we all heard the sound of a horse galloping on the road.

"It's a light boss," said somebody after a moment, meaning a horse
without a burden.

We nodded and resumed our occupation. A stray horse coming in to water
was nothing strange or unusual. But an instant later, stirrups swinging,
reins flapping, up dashed my own horse, Tiger.

CHAPTER X

All this being beyond me, and then some, I proceeded methodically to
carry out my complicated plan; which was, it will be remembered, to eat
supper and then to go and see about it in person. I performed the first
part of this to my entire satisfaction but not to that of the rest. They
accused me of unbecoming secrecy; only they expressed it differently.
That did not worry me, and in due time I made my escape. At the corral I
picked out a good horse, one that I had brought from the Gila, that
would stay tied indefinitely without impatience. Then I lighted me a
cigarette and jogged up the road. I carried with me a little grub, my
six-gun, the famous black bag, and an entirely empty head.

The night was only moderately dark, for while there was no moon there
were plenty of those candle-like desert stars. The little twinkling
lights of the Box Springs dropped astern like lamps on a shore. By and
by I turned off the road and made a wide detour down the sacatone
bottoms, for I had still some sense; and roads were a little too
obvious. The reception committee that had taken charge of my little
friend might be expecting another visitor--me. This brought my approach
to the blank side of the ranch where were the willow trees and the
irrigating ditch. I rode up as close as I thought I ought to. Then I
tied my horse to a prominent lone Joshua-tree that would be easy to
find, unstrapped the black bag, and started off. The black bag, however,
bothered me; so after some thought I broke the lock with a stone and
investigated the contents, mainly by feel. There were a lot of clothes
and toilet articles and such junk, and a number of undetermined hard
things like round wooden boxes.