“Why should he shoot Merriwell?”
“That is a question he might be forced to answer. Let’s go find him and bring him into the house.”
This was agreed upon, but when they went to look for the half-breed he was gone. He had seemed too drunk to move, but still he had disappeared.
That was suspicious. They looked for his pony, and that had disappeared also.
“He must have skipped immediately after we left him,” said Hodge; “and so he has had time to place himself beyond some of those knots of timber. That is proof enough that he was the skunk who did the shooting, but some other person put him up to it. Mark me, the real enemy of Frank Merriwell is not Billy Cornmeal.”
CHAPTER XXXVI—A CAST FOR LIFE—CONCLUSION
Frank begged them not to let what had happened interrupt the sport, and so it was soon in progress again.
The cowboys gave some exhibitions of the manner in which they roped steers and wild horses, and a Mexican “roper” did some fancy work with a lariat.
The Mexican delighted them with his skill, and not a few of his tricks were graceful and difficult, being very pleasing to the eye.
He could set a noose whirling in the air, let it fall over his head, still whirling, pass down to his feet, and then he would step out of it without letting it touch his person or the ground and lift it whirling into the air.