itatingly on the
threshold of the Greek Letter Ranch-house. Lowell sneered openly.

"You haven't always been so tied up to your books that you couldn't get
out," he said. "I want to take you back to a little horseback ride which
you took just six weeks ago."

"I don't remember such a trip."

"You will remember it, as I particularize."

"Very well. You are beginning to interest me."

"You rode from here to the top of the hill on the Dollar Sign road. Do
you remember?"

"What odds if I say yes or no? Go on. I want to hear the rest of this
story."

"When you reached a clump of tall sage and grease wood, not far below
the crest of the hill, you entered it and remained hidden. You had a
considerable time to wait, but you were patient--very patient. You knew
the man you wanted to meet was somewhere on the road--coming toward you.
From the clump of bushes you commanded a view of the Dollar Sign road
for miles. As I say, it was long and tedious waiting. It had rained in
the night. The sun came out, strong and warm, and the atmosphere was
moist. Your horse, that old white horse which has been on the ranch so
many years, was impatiently fighting flies. Though you are not any
kinder to horseflesh than you are to human beings who come within your
blighting influence, you took the saddle off the animal. Perhaps the
horse had caught his foot in a stirrup as he kicked at a buzzing fly."

The keen, strong features into which Lowell gazed were mask-like in
their impassiveness.

"Soon you saw something approaching on the road over the prairie," went
on the agent. "It must be the automobile driven by the man you had come
to meet. You saddled quickly and rode out of the sagebrush. You met the
man in the automobile as he was climbing the hill. He stopped and you
talked with him. You had violent words, and then you shot him with a
sawed-off shotgun which you had carried for that purpose. You killed the
man, and then, to throw suspicion on others, conceived the idea of
staking him down to the prairie. It would look like an Indian trick.
Besides, you knew that there had been some trouble on the reservation
with Indians who were dancing and generally inclined to oppose
Government regulations. You had found a rope which had been dropped on
the road by the half-breed, Jim McFann. You took that rope from your
saddle and cut it in four pieces and tied the man's hands and wrists to
his own tent-stakes, which you found in his automobile.