he was running when he took up the land.
The sheriff told his own conscience that "it was just plain suicide."
His conscience, being the better man, told him that it was "just plain
murder." The sheriff knew--and yet what could he do without evidence,
except visit the scene of the shooting, hold a post-mortem, and wait
until Young Pete was well enough to talk?

One thing puzzled Sheriff Sutton. Both rifles had been used. So the
boy had taken a hand in the fight? Several shots must have been fired,
for Annersley was not a man to suffer such an outrage in silence. And
the boy was known to be a good shot. Yet there had been no news of
anyone having been wounded among the raiders. Sutton was preparing to
ride to the Blue and investigate when a T-Bar-T man loped up and
dismounted. They talked a minute or two. Then the cowboy rode out of
town. The sheriff was no longer puzzled about the two rifles having
been used. The cowboy had told him that two of the T-Bar-T men had
been killed. That in each instance a thirty-thirty, soft-nosed slug
had done the business. Annersley's rifle was an old forty-eighty-two,
shooting a solid lead bullet.

When Sheriff Button arrived at the cabin he found the empty shells on
the floor, noted the holes in the window, and read the story of the
raid plainly. "Annersley shot to scare 'em off--but the kid shot to
kill," he argued. "And dam' if I blame him."

Later, when Young Pete was able to talk, he was questioned by the
sheriff. He told of the raid, of the burning of the outbuildings, and
how Annersley had been killed. When questioned as to his own share in
the proceedings, Pete refused to answer. When shown the two guns and
asked which was his, he invariably replied, "Both of 'em," nor could he
be made to answer otherwise. Finally Sheriff Sutton gave it up, partly
because of public opinion, which was in open sympathy with Young Pete,
and partly because he feared that in case arrests were made, and Pete
were called as a witness, the boy would tell in court more than he had
thus far divulged. The sheriff thought that Pete was able to identify
one or more of the men who had entered the cabin, if he cared to do so.
As it was, Young Pete was crafty. Already he distrusted the sheriff's
sincerity. Then, the fact that two of the T-Bar-T men had been killed
rather quieted the public mind, which expressed itself as pretty well
satisfied that old man Annersley's account was squared.