d to do it, he had to protect the Bonneys. And as soon as he'd taken
a hand, Hickock had to call off his gang. But he was smart. He grabbed
everything relating to the killing--the aircar and the twenty-mm
auto-rifle in particular--and he's keeping them under cover. Very few
people know about that, or about the fact that on physical evidence
alone, he has the killing pinned on the Bonneys so well that they'll
never get away with this story of being merely innocent witnesses."

"The rest, Mr. Silk, is up to us," Thrombley said. "I have Colonel
Hickock's assurance that he will give us every assistance, but we simply
must see to it that those creatures with the outlandish names are
convicted."

I didn't have a chance to say anything to that: at that moment, one of
the servants ushered Captain Nelson toward us.

"Good evening, Captain," I greeted the Ranger. "Join us, seeing that
you're on foreign soil and consequently not on duty."

He sat down with us and poured a drink.

"I thought you might be interested," he said. "We gave that waiter a
going-over. We wanted to know who put him up to it. He tried to sell us
the line that he was a New Texan patriot, trying to kill a tyrant, but
we finally got the truth out of him. He was paid a thousand pesos to do
the job, by a character they call Snake-Eyes Sam Bonney. A cousin of the
three who killed Mr. Cumshaw."

"Nephew of Kettle-Belly Sam," Parros interjected. "You pick him up?"

Nelson shook his head disgustedly. "He's out in the high grass
somewhere. We're still looking for him. Oh, yes, and I just heard that
the trial of Switchblade, and Jack-High and Turkey-Buzzard is scheduled
for three days from now. You'll be notified in due form tomorrow, but I
thought you might like to know in advance."

"I certainly do, and thank you, Captain.... We were just talking about
you when you arrived," I mentioned. "About the arrest, or rescue, or
whatever you call it, of that trio."

"Yeah. One of the jobs I'm not particularly proud of. Pity Hickock's
boys didn't get hold of them before I got there. It'd of saved everybody
a lot of trouble."

"Just what impression did you get at the time, Captain?" I asked. "You
think Kettle-Belly knew in advance what they were going to do?"

"Sure he did. They had the whole jail fortified. Not like a jail usually
is, to keep people from getting out; but like a fort, to keep people
from getting in. There were no prisoners inside. I found out that t