K

One casual remark of Mackenzie had given Kate a clew. Even before she had
explained it, Curly caught the point and began to dig for the truth. For
though he was almost a boy, the others leaned on him with the expectation
that in the absence of Maloney he would take the lead. Before they
separated for the night he made Mackenzie go over every detail he could
remember of the meeting between Cullison and Fendrick at the Round-Up
Club. This was the last time the two men had been seen together in public,
and he felt it important that he should know just what had taken place.

In the morning he and Kate had a talk with his uncle on the same subject.
Not content with this, he made the whole party adjourn to the club rooms
so that he might see exactly where Luck had sat and the different places
the sheepman had stood from the time he entered until the poker players
left.

Together Billie Mackenzie and Alec Flandrau dramatized the scene for the
young people. Mac personated the sheepman, came into the room, hung up his
hat, lounged over to the poker table, said his little piece as well as he
could remember it, and passed into the next room. Flandrau, Senior, taking
the role of Cullison, presently got up, lifted his hat from the rack, and
went to the door.

With excitement trembling in her voice, the girl asked an eager question.
"Were their hats side by side like that on adjoining pegs?"

Billie turned a puzzled face to his friend. "How about that, Alec?"

"That's how I remember it."

"Same here, my notion is."

"Both gray hats?" Curly cut in.

His uncle looked helplessly at the other man. "Can't be sure of that.
Luck's was gray all right."

"Cass wore a gray hat too, seems to me," Mackenzie contributed, scratching
his gray hair.

"Did Father hesitate at all about which one to take?"

"No-o. I don't reckon he did. He had turned to ask me if I was
coming--wasn't looking at the hats at all."

Curly looked at Kate and nodded. "I reckon we know how Cass got Mr.
Cullison's hat. It was left on the rack."

"How do you mean?" his uncle asked.

"Don't you see?" the girl explained, her eyes shining with excitement.
"Father took the wrong hat. You know how absent-minded he is sometimes."

Mackenzie slapped his knee. "I'll bet a stack of blues you've guessed
it."

"There's a way to make sure," Curly said.

"I don't get you."

"Fendrick couldn't wear Mr. Cullison's hat around without the risk of
someone rememberi