gave you two blooded horses and a belt full of gold for a good-by
present?" scoffed Spath.

"_Have_ you any proof of what you say closer than Kentucky?" Rennie
ignored the lieutenant's aside. "I can account for your time on the Range,
or most of it. But you'll have to answer for this money and where you came
from originally. What about your surrender parole? I know you did have
papers for the horses--Callie saw them. Produce those...."

"I can't." Drew's hands balled into fists where they rested on his knees.

"Sure you can't--you never had any!" Spath returned.

"I had them. I don't have them now." What was the use of trying to tell
Rennie about his suspicions of Shannon? And if Johnny had destroyed the
papers as well he might have, Drew could never make them believe him,
anyway.

"Kirby, this is serious!" said Rennie. "You ride in from nowhere with two
fine horses wearing a brand you say is your own. You have more money than
any drifter ever carries. You claim to be a Texan, and yet now you say all
the proof of your identity is in Kentucky. And--you are not Anson Kirby's
cousin, are you?" That last question was shot out so suddenly that Drew
answered before he thought.

"No."

"I thought so." Hunt Rennie nodded. "Education is a polisher, but I don't
think three or four years' schooling would have made a Texas range rider
ask for sherry over whisky--except to experiment with an exotic beverage.
There were other things, too, which did not fit with the Kirby background
once Anson turned up. Just who are you?"

Drew shrugged. "That doesn't matter now--as the lieutenant and Captain
Bayliss have pointed out--if my only proof is in Kentucky and out of
reach."

"I suppose you have heard of telegraphs?" Rennie's sarcasm was cold.
"Communication with Kentucky is not so impossible as you appear to think.
You give me a name and address--or names and addresses--and I'll do the
rest. All you have to do is substantiate background and your army service,
proving no possible contact with Kitchell. Then the captain will be forced
to admit a mistake."

Give Hunt Rennie the name of Cousin Meredith Barrett, of Aunt Marianna's
husband, Major Forbes--the addresses of Red Springs or Oak Hill? Drew could
not while there was a chance that Anse might find the papers or make
Johnny Shannon admit taking them. The Kentuckian could _not_ tell Hunt
Rennie who he was here and now.

"I want to talk to Anse," he said out of his own thought