for breakfast next morning that
Davis began to get uneasy. He sent a bellboy to awaken Gordon, and
presently the lad came back with word that he could get no answer to his
knocks. Instantly Steve pushed back his chair and walked out of the room
to the desk in the lobby.

"Got a skeleton key to Mr. Gordon's room--317, I think it is?" he
demanded.

"Yes. We keep duplicate keys. You see, Mr. Davis, guests go away and
carry the keys----"

"Then I want it. Afraid something's wrong with my friend. He's always up
early and on hand for breakfast. He hasn't showed up this mo'ning. The
bell hop can't waken him. I tell you something's wrong."

"Oh, I reckon he'll turn up all right." The clerk turned to the key
rack. "Here's the key to Room 317. Mr. Gordon must have left it here.
Likely he's gone for a walk."

Davis shook his head obstinately. "Don't believe it. I'm going up to
see, anyhow."

Within five minutes he discovered that the bed in Room 317 had not been
slept in the previous night. He was thoroughly alarmed. Gordon had no
friends in the town likely to put him up for the night. Nor was he the
sort of rounder to dissipate his energies in all-night debauchery. Dick
had come to Santa Fe for a definite purpose. The old miner knew from
long experience that he would not be diverted from it for the sake of
the futile foolish diversions known by some as pleasure. Therefore the
mind of Davis jumped at once to the conclusion of foul play.

And if foul play, then the Valdes claimants to the Rio Chamo Valley were
the guilty parties. He blamed himself bitterly for having let Dick
venture out alone, for having taken no precautions whatever to guard him
against the Mexicans who had already once attempted his life.

"I'm a fine friend. Didn't even find out who he was going out to call
on. Fact is, I didn't figure he was in any danger so long as he was in
town here," he explained to the sheriff.

He learned nothing either at the police headquarters or at the newspaper
offices that threw light on the disappearance of Gordon. No murder had
been reported during the night. No unusual disturbance of any kind had
occurred, so far as could be learned.

Before noon he had the town plastered with posters in English and in
Spanish offering a reward of five hundred dollars for news leading to
the recovery of Richard Gordon or for evidence leading to the conviction
of his murderers in case he was dead. This brought two callers to the
hote