“But you was a sight smarter than we was. You wasn’t goin’ to run your neck in no noose by agreein’ to no such con-speeracy. No sir. We figured it all out today. You jest went over to the ranger cabin an’ done your duty, without sayin’ a word to nobody. You don’t s’pose we was goin’ to let you rot in jail after that, do ye?”
Otis raised his hand. “But I tell you I didn’t kill Joe Fyffe. I—”
A chorus of laughter greeted his words.
“That’s good—plumb good, Otis,” Simple cried. “All right. We understand. You didn’t do it. Oh, no, you didn’t. You’re sure plumb up on the law, Otis. Don’t catch you confessin’ to no such crime. That’s right, Otis. I reckon we understand. Don’t worry; we wont admit you done it, neither.
“But remember, Otis, you didn’t make no promises to the Sheriff this time. You can hit the trail an’ go as fur as you like, an’ we’ll guarantee nobody aint goin’ to stop you.”
Otis was exasperated at the stupidity of the cow-men, which would not permit them to believe him when he said he was innocent of the slaying of the ranger. But his heart went out to the loyal men who had flocked to his aid, endangering their own lives to rescue him from the jail. He swung into the saddle.
“Boys,” he called, one arm upraised as he strove to quell the eagerness of Pie-face, “boys, I sure appreciate what you’ve done for me. It was mighty white of you. You don’t believe me when I say I didn’t kill Joe Fyffe. You tell me to hit the trail and keep going.
“All right. I’ll do it. I tell you I’ll not come back—” he stopped to calm Pie-face with a stroke of the hand—“until I’ve found out who really did kill Joe Fyffe!”
CHAPTER IX
The sun was an hour above Two-Gwo-Tee pass when Otis dismounted in front of the Red Rock ranger station. He looped Pie-face’s bridle over a post of the barbed-wire fence and made for the cabin. The door was unlocked. He remembered that Sheriff Ogden, as they had departed from the cabin the morning before, had remarked that the coroner would fasten the door after removing the body.