It was indeed his pocketbook, but wide open and empty. Even the few cards and slips of paper it had contained were missing.
“This proves one thing,” he reasoned bitterly. “Jasniff picked that pocketbook up where we had the fight, and he came this way while he was emptying it, then he threw it away.”
Dave was also sure of another thing. The pocketbook and the two letters had been in the same pocket, and he felt certain that Nick Jasniff had also confiscated the two communications.
“Now the question is, if he came this way, did he get Sport?” Dave mused. “If he did, then it’s good-bye to the letters, the money and the horse.”
Placing the empty wallet in his pocket, Dave sat down and rested his lame ankle. He counted the loose change in his trousers’ pocket and found he had eighty-five cents. Then he limped on once more around another bend in the trail.
Here a sight filled him with satisfaction. At this point the rocks came to an end and there was a fairly good bit of pasture-land, and here stood Sport, feeding away as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
“Good old Sport!” cried Dave, going up to the animal and patting him affectionately. “I’m mighty glad you didn’t run any farther, and doubly glad Nick Jasniff didn’t get you. Now, old boy, we’ll be on our way and try to make up for lost time;” and in a moment more our hero was in the saddle and galloping off in the direction of Orella.
Dave surmised that Nick Jasniff had come in that direction looking for the horse, but without finding Sport. At the same time, the rascal had rifled the pocketbook and then thrown it in the bushes. Then, thinking the horse had gone a much greater distance, Jasniff had retraced his steps and continued on his way in the direction of the construction camp.
“But he can’t be bound for the camp, for Mr. Obray warned him to keep away,” thought our hero. “It must be that he is headed either for some of the mining camps or ranches, or the railroad station.”
Our hero felt that it would be next to useless for him to go to the Double Eight Ranch, where Nick Jasniff was employed, and accuse him of the theft. The fellow would probably deny everything—even the meeting on the road. And as there had been no witnesses to the transaction, there the case would have to rest.