"I see, friend, you are not accustomed to traveling in this rough style. Your mule has doubtless gone back to his old quarters, wherever you got him. A mule never goes farther in a new direction than he can help."
"But I saw him start for this point. He was very thirsty, I know; and, besides, he came from the Colorado not over a month ago. His course would naturally be to the southward if he desired to return to his old quarters."
"Very likely," said the Colonel, quietly: "it may be the same mule I sold to a gentleman from Texas down there about that time."
"Yes—I bought him from a Texan. It must be the same," I answered, glad to find some clew, however remote, to the object of my search.
The Colonel smiled again, and expressed his regret that it was not the nature of that mule to go in the direction of the Colorado. The fare for mules in that region was rather dry; and the animal in question had a very keen appreciation of good fare. At all events, no such mule had been seen here—"unless, perhaps, you may have seen him," added the Colonel, turning to the thick-set man, and regarding him with a peculiar expression—the same basilisk eye that I had noticed before.
"I?" said Jack, laughing coarsely; "the last mule I saw was a small mustang horse that belongs to myself."
"Possibly you may have seen him?" suggested the Colonel, looking at the tall, gaunt man, Griff; and here I could not but notice the change in his expression. His brow unconsciously lowered, and there was something devilish in the cool malignity of his eye. Griff was silent. His frame seemed convulsed with some emotion of disgust or hatred. The Colonel, turning quickly to me, observed, with an affected suavity, "This man may possibly be able to tell you something about your mule."
At this the person referred to drew himself up into an erect position, and gave a look at the Colonel—a look of such mingled hatred, defiance, and contempt, that I expected to see the latter wilt before it or draw his revolver. But he did neither. And here I detected the secret of his power over the other two men—imperturbable self-possession. He merely elevated his brows superciliously as Griff sternly remarked,
"You know as much of the mule as I do! What do you ask me for? Be careful."
"Oh," said the Colonel, jocularly, "I thought you might have seen him while I was absent. You know I'm not in the habit of noticing these things."