“You may be right, but if you are he is a mighty smooth one. I think you are probably mistaken. He has been stung by the patrolmen in this district so often that it is only natural that he should look with suspicion on every new one. Anyway, if you report it to him he will have to do something and your diary will show that you reported it.”
“Very well, I’ll call him up this evening.”
“Then you want to gum shoe around till you find where they got in. That is the first thing the super will want to know and he will expect you to be able to tell him.”
“I have never done any detective work,” Scott said, “but I’ll report to Dawson to-night and get busy in the morning. I certainly appreciate your help. I would have been up against it without you.”
“Mighty glad you came over. Sorry I made such a fool of myself this morning, but I assure you that it will not happen again. You don’t know how much I appreciate seeing an honest man in this district again. All the boys will be glad to hear the news and will help all they can. So long. ’Phone me how you come out.”
“Thanks. Come over again when you get a chance,” Scott called after him. “I have a hunch that I am going to be busy here.”
He turned Jed’s head toward home and rode thoughtfully through the gathering dusk. He told Baxter that he was not interested in how the sheep got in, but now that he knew how to get them out he found himself repeating over and over, “But how could they have gotten in?”
As soon as Jed was safely in the corral Scott called up Dawson, but Mrs. Dawson answered the ’phone and said her husband had not come home yet. Heth was not at the cabin. Scott decided that if Dawson was not at home by the time he had finished supper he would call up the supervisor. He was determined to get some action in the morning. He could not bear the thought of the sheep men thinking that they had hoodwinked him so easily.
While he was washing the supper dishes and still pondering how the sheep got in, the ’phone rang and he found the supervisor on the line. From the tone of his voice he was evidently in no very pleasant humor.
“Burton?” he questioned.