t you weren't at home.

"Johnny Croft's horse was standing outside the house when we rode up.
I guess he must have just got there ahead of us. Carl got off and went
in ahead of me. Johnny was eating a snack when I went in. He said
something to Carl, and Carl flared up. I saw there wasn't anybody at
home, and I didn't want to get mixed up in the argument, so I turned
and went on out. And I hadn't more than got to my horse when I heard a
shot, and Carl came running out with his gun in his hand.

"Well, Johnny was dead, and there wasn't anything I could do about it.
Carl told me to beat it outa the country, just like I'd been planning;
he said it would be a whole lot better for him, seeing I wasn't an
eye-witness. He said Johnny started to draw his gun, and he shot in
self-defense; and he said I better go while the going was good, or I
might get pulled into it some way.

"Well, I thought it over for a minute, and I didn't see where it would
get me anything to stay. I couldn't help Carl any by staying, because
I wasn't in the house when it happened. So I hit the trail for town,
and never said anything to anybody." He looked at the two contritely.
"I never knew, till you folks came to Nogales looking for me, that
things panned out the way they did. I thought Carl was going to give
himself up, and would be cleared. I never once dreamed he was the
kinda mark that would let his own brother take the blame that way."

"I guess nobody did." Lite folded the letter and pushed it back into
the envelope. "I can look back now, though, and see how it come about.
He hung back till Aleck found the body and was arrested; and after that
he just simply didn't have the nerve to step out and say that he was
the one that did it. He tried hard to save Aleck, but he wouldn't--"

"The coward! The low, mean coward!" Jean stood up and looked from one
to the other, and spoke through her clinched teeth. "To let dad suffer
all this while! Lite, when did you say that train left for Salt Lake?
We can take the taxi back down town, and save time." She was at the
door when she turned toward the two again. "Hurry up! Don't you know
we've got to hurry? Dad's in prison all this while! And Uncle
Carl,--there's no telling where Uncle Carl is! That wire I sent him was
the worst thing I could have done!"

"Or the best," suggested Lite laconically, as he led the way down the
hall and out to the rain-drenched, waiting taxicab.

CHAPTE