"He's gone," Scotty announced. "Had a horse staked out below the opposite side of the mesa. I saw him ride off. He was too far away for me to get a good look at him."
"Mighty strange," Rick said with a sigh of relief.
Scotty nodded. "Strange is right. You know what? He saw me standing there on the rim. He turned and looked at me, and he waved."
"Waved?" Rick asked.
"Yep. It was a real jaunty wave."
Rick shook his head in bewilderment. "My, that was friendly."
"I thought so," Scotty agreed. "Come on, boy. We've got to make tracks out of here. Time is running out."
Rick collected his shirt and jumped into the jeep. Scotty backed around and headed toward the base as fast as the road allowed. Not until they were down on relatively level ground did they try to converse.
"The rifleman must have read about David and Goliath," Rick said. "Why else would he run off?"
Scotty chuckled. "He was helpless. He was in deadly peril, as the storybooks say. Seriously, I think he was helpless."