“To Emerald, ma’am—that’s sixty miles from Diamond H. And I had to camp here to-night ’cause I was all wore out. I got drunk at Emerald, ma’am, and I’m plumb tuckered. But I oughta be in the mountains. Is it rainin’ or snowin’ up there?”
“It is. Above Mosquito.” Mary was dismounting stiffly. “And Doctor Shonto was due to pass Mosquito two days ago. I ought to be in bed, but I rode out to see what had happened to him. I couldn’t find anybody at your place when I got there at dusk, so I rode on down. Now I want to know what’s become of Doctor Shonto.”
“I can’t tell ye, ma’am—honest! But I see Omar Leach and Smith Morley clost to th’ foot o’ th’ trail when I was ridin’ outa these here mountains here on my way to Diamond H.”
“Leach and Morley? What were they doing? What did they want?”
“They were askin’ about you folks,” Henry told her. “I don’t know what they want.”
“I know what they want! They want money! Why aren’t they out of this country?”
“I can’t tell ye, ma’am. They ain’t been to Diamond H sence they went back there after they ditched you folks. They left Smith’s woman there, but before I got in she’d went out with Roger Furlong in his buckboard to the railroad. Smith and Omar they’d gone to Gus Tanburt’s, Roger said. They’re friends o’ Gus’s.”
“Who’s Gus Tanburt?”
Henry told her, adding: “That’s th’ only place they could go to, ma’am. Maybe they thought Gus would get ’em outa th’ Shinbone Country. But, then, I see ’em at th’ foot o’ th’ trail to Shirttail Bend, like I told ye. And, ma’am, they was somethin’ here in camp here that I noticed when me and Mrs. Lot rambled in this evenin’. Ground all tromped, like they’d been a mix-up.”
“And you’re positive that Doctor Shonto never got to Diamond H Ranch?”