age brush. Now came the scent of horses, the sound of a hoof stamped
impatiently on gravel.

"Trinfan?"

Topham! Here?

"_Si._"

At Hilario's hissed assent, a figure detached itself from the utter black
of the bushes and moved forward into a sliver of moonlight.

"You got him?"

"I'm here, if that's what you mean!" Drew answered for himself.

"And you'll be gone, soon," the gambler replied. "But there's one thing I
have to know, Kirby. Were you telling the truth to Rennie--do you believe
Johnny took your papers?"

What had that to do with the matter at hand? Drew wondered. But from the
urgency of the demand he knew it did mean a great deal to Topham.

"Yes, I'm sure. But I can't prove it--unless I find them with him. He may
have destroyed them already." Drew put into words the black foreboding
which had ridden him for days.

"Why? What do they mean to him?"

Evasions and lies had gotten him into this mess; now he would see what
stark truth would do.

"Because there were two letters--proof I'm Drew Rennie."

"Rennie?" Topham repeated. In the light Drew could not see his expression,
but his voice was that of a completely baffled man. "Rennie?"

"I'm Hunt Rennie's son." There, he had said it--and nothing startling
happened. Well, what had he expected--a clap of thunder, a bolt of
lightning, the sudden appearance of a cavalry patrol across the nearest
hilltop?

"So that's it!" Topham said slowly. "And Shannon suspected? But why the
mystery? And----"

Drew took the questions in turn. "Shannon was at the Jacks when I met
Anse. I thought he was unconscious, but he probably wasn't. Anse called me
by my right name. As for why--my father doesn't know I'm alive. He was told
I died at birth, along with my mother. They told _me_ he was killed in the
Mexican War before I was born. It was all because of an old family
feud--too long a story to tell now. I've only known for about a year I had
a father here in Arizona ... but to make a claim on him, after all these
years.... Maybe you don't understand why I didn't want to." He was telling
it badly, but he'd been a fool about this from the start.

"Understand ... yes, I think I can. There's a certain strain of
bull-headed independence common to Rennies--I've met it head-on several
times myself. And your choice was your own to make. But this ... yes, it
is just the move Shannon would make, given suspicion to push him into
action. And now it may be pushing him even far