Old Bob spoke quickly:
“What was he in for, Jim?”
And Thad asked in the same breath:
“A killin’, was it?”
The officer gave his attention again to his hosts.
From where he sat the Indian, through the open kitchen door, saw Marta running toward the neighboring cabin.
The sheriff was answering the old prospectors:
“He was sent up for wrecking a big investment company in Los Angeles. You remember—the papers were full of the affair at the time.”
Hugh Edwards did not know that his neighbors were entertaining visitors. He was at work in the creek bed when the sheriff arrived and when he went up to his cabin for his noontime lunch the Pardners and their guests were on the far side of the house, so that he could not see them. He had returned to his work and was energetically wielding his pick when he heard Marta’s hurried step on the bank above. The girl came running and sliding down the steep path.
At sight of Marta’s face, Edwards dropped his pick and ran to her.