f we ever find Cavendish,
we'll find the girl along with him; an' what's more, that spot ain't
liable ter be more'n fifty miles from Haskell."

"What makes you think that?"

"'Cause this is Lacy's bailiwick, an' thar ain't no man knows this
country better'n he does; he's rode it night and day for ten years, an'
most o' the hangers-on in this camp get money out o' him one way er
another--mostly another. Then, why should Enright an' his crowd come
yere, unless that was a fact? They must have come for something; that
lawyer ain't yere on no minin' deal; an' no more has Beaton been layin'
round town fer a month doin' nuthin' but drinkin' whisky. The whole
blame outfit is right here in Haskell, and they wouldn't be if this
wasn't headquarters. That's good common sense, ain't it?" He stopped
suddenly, patting his hand on the rock, and then lifting his head to
scan the line of shore. "They're there all right, Jim," he announced.
"I just got a glimpse o' two back in the brush yonder. What made yer
ask me 'bout Pasqual Mendez this mornin'? You don't hook the Mexican
up with this affair, do yer?"

"Sadie told me she heard Enright speak of him at breakfast; that was
all she heard, just the name."

"Sadie? Oh, the red-headed waitress at Timmons's, you mean? Big Tim's
girl?"

"Yes; she was the one who saw Miss Donovan forced into the wagon, and
driven off."

"And they took the old Shoshone trail; out past Hennessey's ranch?"

"So she described it. Does that mean anything?"

Brennan did not answer at once, sitting silent, his brows wrinkled,
staring through a crevasse of the rock up the stream. Finally he
grinned into the anxious face of the other.

"Danged if I know," he said drawlingly. "Maybe it does, and maybe
again it don't. I was sorter puttin' this an' that tergether. There's
a Mex who used to hang about here a couple of years ago they allers
said belonged to Mendez's gang. His name is Cateras, a young feller,
an' a hell ov a gambler. It just comes ter me that he was in the Red
Dog three er four nights ago playin' monte. I didn't see him myself,
but Joe Mapes said he was there, an' that makes it likely 'nough that
Mendez isn't so blame far away."

"And he and Lacy have interests in common?"

"That is the rumour. I never got hold ov any proof, but Lacy has
shipped a pile o' cattle out o' Villa Real, although why he should ever
drive his cows there across the desert instead o' shippin' them here