en down there you
both denied it," commented the officer.

"We were protecting the girl. Mind you, we didn't know who had done it
then, but we had reasons to think the person had just come from this
ranch."

"What reasons?" briefly demanded Flatray.

"We don't need to go into them. We had them, anyhow. Then I lit on a
foot-print right on the edge of the ditch that no man ever made. We didn't
know what to make of it, but we wiped it out and followed the ditch, one
on each side. We'd figured that was the way he had gone. You see, though
water was running in the ditch now, it hadn't been half an hour before."

"You don't say!"

"There wasn't a sign of anybody leaving the ditch till we got to the
ranch; then we saw tracks going straight to the house."

"So you got a bunch of sheep and drove them down there to muss things up
some."

Norris looked sharply at him. "You got there while we were driving them
back. Well, that's right. We had to help her out."

"You're helping her out now, ain't you?" Jack asked dryly.

"That's my business. I've got my own reasons, Mr. Deputy. All you got to
do is arrest her."

"Just as soon as you give me the evidence, seh."

"Haven't I given it to you? She was seen to drive away from the house in
her rig. She left footprints down there. She came back up the ditch and
then rode right up to the head-gates and turned on the water. Jim Little
saw her cutting across country from the head-gates hell-to-split."

"Far as I can make out, all the evidence you've given me ain't against
her, but against you. She was out drivin' when it happened, you say, and
you expect me to arrest her for it. It ain't against the law to go
driving, seh. And as for that ditch fairy tale, on your own say-so you
wiped out all chance to prove the story."

"Then you won't arrest her?"

"If you'll furnish the evidence, seh."

"I tell you we know she did it. Her father knows it."

"Is it worryin' his conscience? Did he ask you to lay an information
against her?" asked the officer sarcastically.

"That isn't the point."

"You're right. Here's the point." Not by the faintest motion of the body
had the officer's indolence been lifted, but the quiet ring of his voice
showed it was gone. "You and Lee were overheard planning that robbery the
day after you were seen hanging around the 'Monte Cristo.' You started out
to hold up the stage. It was held up. By your own story you were the first
men on the ground after t