shade of a clump of brush, with Lite to keep him
company while he smoked a meditative pipe or two and studied the puzzle
of Ramon's probable whereabouts.

"Can't trust a Navvy," he muttered in a discreet undertone to Lite.
"I've fit 'em b'fore now, 'n' I KNOW. 'N' you kin be dang sure they
ain't fergot the times I've fit 'em, neither! There's bucks millin'
around here that's jes' achin' fer a chanst at me, t' pay up fer some
I've killed off when I was shurf 'n' b'fore. So you keep 'n' eye peeled,
Lite, whilst I think out this yere dang move uh Ramon's. 'N' if you see
anybody sneakin' up on me, you GIT him. I cain't watch Navvyies 'n' mill
things over in m' haid at the same time."

Lite grinned and wriggled over so that his back was against a rock.
He laid his six-shooter Ostentatiously across his lap and got out
his tobacco and papers. "Go ahead and think, Applehead," he consented
placidly. "I'll guard your scalp-lock."

Speaking literally, Applehead had no scalplock to guard. But he did have
a shrewd understanding of the mole-like workings of the criminal mind;
and with his own mind free to work on the problem, he presently declared
that he would bet he could land Ramon Chavez in jail within a week, and
sent Lite after Luck.

"I've got it figgered out," he announced when Luck came over to his
retreat. "If Ramon crossed the railroad he was aimin' t' hit out across
the mesa to the mountains 'n' beyond. He wouldn't go south, 'cause he
could be traced among the Injun pueblos--they's a thousand eyes down,
that way b'fore he'd git t' wild country. He'd keep away from the valley
country--er I would, if I was him. I know dang well whar I'D hit fer if
I was makin' a gitaway 'n' didn't come off over here--'n' I shore would
keep outa Navvy country, now I'm tellin' yuh! No, sir, I'd take out
t'other way, through Hell Canon er Tijeras, 'n' I'd make fer the Jemes
country. That thar's plenty wild 'n' rough--'n' come t' think of it, the
Chavez boys owns quite a big grant, up in there som'ers, 'n' have got
men in their pay up thar, runnin' their cattle. Ramon could lay low fer
a dang long while up thar 'n' be safer'n what he would be out amongst
strangers.

"'N' another thing, I'd plan t' have some hosses stached out in one uh
them canons, 'n' I'd mebby use a autymobile t' git to 'em, 'n' send the
car back t' town--I could trust the feller that drove it--outa my sight.
'N', Luck, if you'll take my advice, you'll hit out t'wards th