ig sulky brute. I've a notion I'd
know his voice again if I heard it, though."

"Think so?" In Harrison's voice was a jeer, derision in the
half-shuttered eyes that watched the other man vigilantly.

"His hair was about the same color as yours," added Steve in a
matter-of-fact voice.

The underhung jaw of the prizefighter shot out. "Meaning anything
particular?"

"Why, no," replied Steve in amiable surprise. "What could I mean?"

"How do I know what every buzzard-head's got in his cocoanut?"

Steve continued his story, giving fuller details. His casual glances
wandered about the room. They found no mask, no Mexican serape, no black
felt hat. Since he had not expected to see these in plain view he was
not disappointed. A belt with a scabbarded revolver lay on the table.
The extra wondered whether it was the same weapon that had been pressed
against the back of his neck a few hours earlier. The boots lying half
under the bed were white with the dust of travel, but this was nothing
unusual.

"You can have my advice gratis if you want it." Harrison addressed
himself pointedly to Threewit. "Send back to old man Yarnell's and
you'll find the cattle straying in about day after to-morrow."

"But, if rustlers took them--"

The big man laughed unpleasantly. "Forget it, Mr. Threewit. A fairy
tale to explain how-come your faithful cowboys to drap asleep and let
the bunch stray. I reckon a little too much redeye in camp is the c'rect
explanation."

Yeager smiled, saying nothing.

"And now I'm going to beat it for the hay again, Mr. Threewit. If you
recollect, I told you some one was going to blow up pretty soon.
Good-night."

As they walked back down the corridor Steve asked one question of the
director. "Did it strike you he was a leetle too sleepy at first and
just a leetle too quick to get that chip on his shoulder?"

"No, it didn't," snapped Threewit. Nobody likes to be dragged out of bed
at two A.M., to hear bad news, and the director was merely human. "It
makes me tired the way you two fellows shoot off about each other."

"He's a pretty slick proposition," Yeager went on, unmoved. "He hit the
high spots back to town so as to have his alibi ready--didn't leave any
evidence floating around loose in his room. He must have come up the
back way so as to slip in without being noticed by the night clerk. At
that he couldn't have reached here more than a few minutes before me."

"Quite a Sherlock Holmes, aren't you