“I’ll join you, young fellow, and I’ll join you at our mine. Do you know, I don’t altogether trust you? I want to see those two sets of location papers with my two eyes before we start. So you’ll have lots of time. Don’t you make no mistakes. And when we go, we go together. Then if we happen to find Adam Forbes by the fire where he caught young Dines stealin’ a maverick of his—”
“How’ll you manage that? Forbes is halfway to the head of the cañon by now.”
“That’s your way to the left, gentlemen. Take your time, now. I’m in no hurry and you needn’t be, and our horses are all tired from their run. And you want to be most mighty sure you keep on going. For the next half hour nobody’s going to know what I’m doing but me and God—and we won’t tell.”
Caney turned off to the right. Fifteen minutes later he met Adam Forbes in a tangle of red hills by the head of Redgate.
“Hi, Adam! We got ’em!” he hailed jubilantly. “Caught ’em with the goods. Two men and five saddles. Both Mexicans.”
“They must have given you one hell of a chase, judging from your horse.”
“They did. We spied ’em jest over the divide at the head of Deadman. There wasn’t any chance to head ’em off. We woulda tagged along out of sight, but they saw us first. They dropped their lead horses and pulled out—but we got close enough to begin foggin’ lead at ’em in a straight piece of cañon, and they laid ’em down.”
“Know ’em?”
“Neither one. Old Mexico men, I judge by the talk of ’em. Hales and Jody took ’em on down Deadman—them and the lead horses—while I come back for you.”