“Are you looking for someone who has been breaking the law, Mr. Rizor?” the western girl asked, anxious to attract those penetrating grey eyes from Tom.
“Yes, that’s who we’re after,” the sheriff replied. “Two nights ago, the Number Six Limited was held up in Rattlesnake Canyon and the mail car was robbed. The track walker reported that he had seen two men and a lad of about eighteen, lurking around there an hour before the limited was due, and he thinks he could recognize any one of them if he could see them again.”
At that moment one of the men uttered an exclamation and pointed toward the south, where, faint and far through powerful glasses he saw two horsemen making for the Mexican border.
The sheriff took the glasses and looked through them intently for a long moment.
“See you again,” he called over his shoulder, as, with his men, he started in quick pursuit, and Virginia with a sinking heart, noticed that the steel grey eyes looked directly at Tom as though the words were meant especially for him.
When the sheriff and his men were gone, the three young people rode silently down the dry creek trail and up on the other side.
Tom was the first to speak.
“It was mighty good of you, Miss Virginia, to protect me the way you did,” he said, earnestly. “I am afraid however, that you believe me to be one of the three who held up the mail train, but indeed, it is not so. I was in Rattlesnake Canyon when the two men came along. I didn’t have a bite to eat and they shared with me. I told them that I was planning to walk the tracks until I reached Douglas, and that there I meant to obtain work if I could. The man, with whom you saw me later, assured me that he could give me remunerative employment if I would wait for them over at Second Peak. I did not at the time inquire the nature of the employment nor, did I know, until I heard the sheriff telling about it, that they had robbed the mail train. The next day I met the two men at the spot upon which we had agreed, and they told me what they wished me to do. I refused, saying that I did not care to do crooked work. I hope that you will believe me, for what I have told you is the truth.”
“I do indeed believe you,” Virginia exclaimed, “and if need be, we will tell your story to Mr. Rizor. Good! Here is dear old V. M. I’m glad to be home, aren’t you, Megsy? I feel as though we had been away a year. Tom, there is the bunkhouse yonder, I think Slim and Rusty Pete must be there for their ponies are in the corral. Tell them that you are our new cow-boy. They’ll like you and I’m sure that you will like them.”
When the girls had dismounted at the wide front veranda, and Tom had led their ponies back to the corral, they entered the house and Margaret sank down in a big, comfortable chair as she said with a sigh of contentment. “Well, now I am beginning to feel real once more. Honestly, Virg, I haven’t been a bit sure but that I might wake up and find either that I was a character in a Zane Grey story or that it was a dream and a nightmare at that.”