“But Uncle, don’t you think it queer that sheriff doesn’t show up, when he must know he’s wanted right here and now so much?” Adrian asked, presently.
“Well, I am beginning to think it kind of strange,” admitted the rancher, in a thoughtful way. “For a while I rather expected that he was delayed on account of some trouble he might be having, collecting the right sort of a posse; because I warned Frank not to let him take a single man that he suspected of feeling the least bit toward the Walkers. But by now it seems like he had ought to have got a bunch of gun-fighters together, and be along here, if he’s going to come at all.”
“Perhaps the new sheriff has a case of cold feet right in the start!” suggested Adrian.
“Yes, that’s what I’m afraid of,” added Donald; “because I’ve known such things to happen away down in Arizona. When this man hears how his very first call is a summons to come and hit up against the Walker tribe, he may find that he’s got some mighty important business at the other end of
the county; or that his wife is sick, and has wired for him to come right home.”
“No,” declared Mr. Comstock, “from all I’ve heard about this man he’s the right sort. We had the time of our lives electing him; and everybody’s been on tiptoe with excitement waiting to see how he panned out. This business right here is going to make or break Jo Davies; and it’s also bound to see the beginning of the end of either the Walker bunch, or cattle raising in this same county; because nobody is going to take all the chances, and then have their stock rustled.”
“Watch out there, Uncle; for I believe I saw some sort of a light flash up, and then disappear again,” Adrian said hurriedly, pointing as he spoke; for the fires were still burning, and they could see fairly well around the corrals.
“Yes, I saw the same several times,” admitted Mr. Comstock. “I reckoned that the rustlers might be passing certain signals along; because one time it came out yonder to the east, and again it flashed up due southwest. Those lights mean something; but of course we don’t know what, because we haven’t got the key.”
“What a long night this is going to be to us,” Adrian went on to remark, as he stood and watched to see if there was any answering flash out there on the prairie where everything was shrouded in darkness.
“Sometimes I even wish they’d hurry up and do what they’re planning,” pursued the old stockman, grimly. “I don’t like to be kept in suspense. If the worst comes along you know what you’re up against; but now we keep on waiting, and with every nerve strained as the minutes crawl along into hours; and as you say, son, seems like the night would last forever. If it’s going to be fight, why, let’s get it over with, and then take stock of damages; but I do sure hope Hatch will be in the thick of it, and get his.”