"You seem to be upset about something, ma'am," said the sheriff gently. "Has anything went wrong?"
Hess answered for her. "What have you got on that last pack horse, sheriff?"
Jim Dove looked around and muttered an oath. "If that ain't plumb careless of me! I thought I had him all covered up. Rope must have slipped. That's Jake Betts, holdup and bad man, that's been callin' himself Dade around here. There's five hundred reward for him, and to collect the money I had to pack him in. I sure didn't allow to scare any women by lettin' an arm hang loose. And the little lady thought it was Dunne? Dunne's all safe and rugged. We thought he'd be here ahead of us."
Hess followed the sheriff to the stable and introduced himself, going directly to the point, as was his custom.
"Sheriff," he said, "I've just come, and naturally I don't know all that has happened, but there are two or three things I want you to know. In the first place, my niece, Miss Burnaby, is going to marry this man Dunne. And, in the second place, I'm now running this irrigation company and the railway that owns it, and so far as any prosecutions are concerned I won't have anything to do with them. Does that make any difference to you?"
"Some," said the sheriff. "It lets young McCrae out, I reckon."
"How about McHale?"
"That's a killin'. You got nothin' to do with that. Anyway, he's got a good defence."
"I'll sign his bail bond to any amount."
"I reckon there won't be no trouble about that," said the sheriff. "I know a man when I see him. McHale's all right. You won't find me makin' things hard for anybody around here, Mr. Hess."