The corporal then turned to one of the guests.
"You rode in. Where did you put your saddle?"
"On the ground with the rest."
"Can you produce it?"
"No," admitted the man; "I may as well allow that I can't, if the trooper has been round counting them."
The corporal looked at him steadily.
"Well," he said, "what we have to do first of all is to pick up Winthrop's trail. It's quite likely we'll have a word for Thorne and you later."
He spoke to his companion and they rode out across the prairie. When they disappeared, Thorne called to the fiddler to strike up another tune, and the dance went on again.