r and saw a lean, muscular,
young fellow of medium height, cool and alert, with the dust of the desert
on every sunbaked inch of him.

"I'm damned if it ain't Jack here already!" gasped Baker.

CHAPTER VII

WATERING SHEEP

The deputy glanced quietly round, nodded here and there at sight of the
familiar face of an acquaintance, and spoke to the driver.

"Let's hear you say your little piece again, Jose."

The Mexican now had it by heart, and he pattered off the thing from
beginning to end without a pause. Melissy, behind the counter, leaned her
elbows on it and fastened her eyes on the boyish face of the officer. In
her heart she was troubled. How much did he know? What could he discover
from the evidence she had left? He had the reputation of being the best
trailer and the most fearless officer in Arizona. But surely she had
covered her tracks safely.

From Jose the ranger turned to Alan. "We'll hear your account of it now,
seh," he said gently.

While Alan talked, Jack's gaze drifted through the window to the flock of
sheep that were being driven up from the ditch by Lee and Norris. That
little pastoral scene had its significance for him. He had arrived at the
locality of the hold-up a few minutes after they had left, and his keen
intelligence had taken in some of the points they had observed. A rapid
circuit of the spot at the distance of thirty yards had shown him no
tracks leading from the place except those which ran up the lateral on
either side of it. It was possible that these belonged to the horses of
the robbers, but if so the fellows were singularly careless of detection.
Moreover, the booty must be accounted for. They had not carried it with
them, since no empty box remained to show that they had poured the gold
into sacks, and it would have been impossible to take the box as it was on
a horse. Nor had they buried it, unless at the bottom of the irrigating
ditch, for some signs of their work must have remained.

Balancing probabilities, it had seemed to Flatray that these might be the
tracks of ranchmen who had arrived after the hold-up and were following
the escaping bandits up the lateral. For unless these were the robber's,
there was no way of escape except either up or down the bottom of the
ditch. His search had eliminated the possibility of any other but the
road, and this was travelled too frequently to admit of even a chance of
escape by it without detection. Jack filed away one or