Let's hear about it."

"It's your hunt."

"So it is. McCrae's met up with McHale. This here is their camp."

"How do you know?"

"You askin' because you don't know yourself, or because you want me to
tell you?"

"I think you're right, but I'd like to know how you get at it."

"Well, I ain't no Old Sleuth nor Sherlock Holmes," said the sheriff,
"but I've lived some years out of doors. I ain't workin' out no chain
of reasonin'; I'm just usin' my eyes and a bit of savvy. This is how
she works out:

"McHale and McCrae is both foot-loose, and both know this part of the
country. They leave about the same time, and chances is they make for
it. Then they meet. That's easy. Then we find the moccasin track. That
fits McCrae. Next we find a lean-to with a two-man bough bed. There's
the hollows where two men lay. That helps prove our first guess. It
shows that some one was with McCrae, and the only other man hidin' out
is McHale."

"But there are other bough beds. How do you know they weren't all made
by one outfit?"

"There's only one lean-to."

"Two men may have been more particular than the others."

"The boughs of them other beds were cut later than this lean-to one."

"But the boughs are all green."

"The ends where they were cut are different. There's more gum on these
than the others. That shows they were cut before. Then there's more
needles broken off and sifted through to the ground beneath this bed.
That shows it's been slept on more. Where would a man get his boughs?
The nearest trees, of course. Well, there's more gum where the limbs
were cut on the nearest trees than on them farther away. Then there's
been a bunch of horses staked out. Why didn't they bell 'em and let 'em
range? Either because they didn't have no bells, or didn't want to use
'em. McHale and McCrae would keep their hosses on a rope so's they
could make a quick get-away if they had to. They wouldn't take a chance
on their strayin'. Now the grass that's been eaten down by the hosses
is beginnin' to sprout again in some places, and not in others. Maybe
that's because the pickets were shifted, but it's more likely that some
hosses was here before the rest. That's about all. She works out all
right, don't she?"

"Down to the hock card," Casey admitted. "I saw some of the signs, but
not all. You filled in the gaps."

"It's a pity if I wouldn't savvy a few things about my own business,"
said the sheriff. "Some of it's guesswork, but the m