w minutes after he left the ranchhouse Calumet was in the clearing
in the timber grove, standing over the body of a man who lay face
upward beside a freshly-dug hole at the edge of a mesquite clump. He
was still standing there when a few minutes later Toban came clattering
up on his horse. The sheriff dismounted and stood beside him.

Calumet gave Toban one look and then spoke shortly:

"Taggart," he said.

"Lord!" said Toban, in an awed voice; "what in blazes did you do to
him? I didn't hear no shootin'! Is he dead?"

Both kneeled over the prone figure and Calumet pointed to the haft of a
knife that was buried deep in the body near the heart.

"Telza's," said Calumet, as he examined the handle. "I dropped it here
the other night; the night Sharp was killed."

"Correct," said Toban; "I saw you drop it." He smiled at the quick,
inquiring glance Calumet gave him.

"I was comin' through here after tendin' to some business an' I saw
Telza knife Sharp. I piled onto Telza an' beat him up a little.
Lordy, how that little copper-skinned devil did fight! But I squelched
him. I heard some one comin', thought it was one of Taggarts, an'
dragged Telza behind that scrub brush over there. I saw you come, but
I wasn't figgerin' on makin' any explanations for my bein' around the
Lazy Y at that time of the night, an' besides I saw the Taggarts
sneakin' up on you. While they was gassin' to you I had one knee on
Telza's windpipe an' my rifle pointin' in the general direction of the
Taggarts, figgerin' that if they tried to start anything I'd beat them
to it. But as it turned out it wasn't necessary. I sure appreciated
your tender-heartedness toward them poor dumb brutes of the Taggarts.

"After you set the Taggarts to walkin' home, I took Telza to Lazette
an' locked him up for murderin' Sharp."

"I reckon, then," said Calumet, a puzzled frown wrinkling his forehead
as he looked from Taggart to the freshly dug hole; "that somebody else
killed Taggart. It was someone who knew where the idol was, too--he'd
been diggin' for it."

"I reckon you've got me," said Toban. "Sharp an' Telza an' you an'
Betty is the only one's that ever saw the diagram. I saw you pick it
up from where Telza dropped it when I was maulin' him. I know you
didn't do any diggin' for the idol; I know Betty wouldn't; an' Sharp's
dead, an' Telza's in jail--"

There was a clatter of hoofs from the direction of the ranchhouse.
Both men turned to c