“In the barn. The bags were in the loft, covered over with hay. The saddle, Tyler dug up from under a pile of old gunny sacks. There’s a bed been made in the loft, and somebody ate lunch there not later’n yesterday. There’s soft bread crumbs layin’ around.”
“Then our theory that Billy Gee cached the money here is about right, isn’t it?” said Lex quietly.
“I’ll tell the world,” sniggered Coates. “And what’s more, he had a swell little accomplice to help him put it over.”
Tyler entered the room at this juncture. He was a ferretlike, wiry man, smileless and resolute of eye, with a close-cropped, iron-gray mustache and a permanent frown.
“There’s nothing to it, Mr. Sangerly. We’ve got enough evidence to pinch Huntington and his daughter on suspicion,” he said crisply. “It’s a cinch Billy Gee got all kinds of help here. We’ve established the fact he rode up here from across country and was dragged into the house by a woman who doctored him on the parlor couch. At the back of the barn, just outside the door, we find a coupla rolled-up blankets tied for slinging over the shoulder with this,” holding up two strips of calico for the other’s inspection; “and in the kitchen is the apron this cloth was torn from. Now my theory is that Huntington’s daughter——”
“I can’t see that it makes much difference, now that this bandit has been captured, whether he received aid or not,” interrupted Lex. “It’s not improbable that he was given help. When a man is wounded, people as a rule don’t stop to ask questions. But I don’t think it follows that Billy Gee would tell any one what was in his saddlebags. You seem to forget you’re dealing with a cold-blooded professional highwayman with a price on his head, not a sentimental novice. This chap isn’t a movie bad man. He’s the real thing, as we have good reason to know. If he cached that money on this ranch, he did it alone——”
“I was going to say, Mr. Sangerly,” broke in Tyler respectfully, in his turn, “that we can’t be too awful sure of this girl not being wise. Billy Gee’s record shows he’s a damn fool with his coin—gives it away like a drunken Indian, that’s what they say around camp.”
“After we have satisfied ourselves completely that the money cannot be found, it will be time enough to confront the girl, Tyler. It doesn’t seem quite fair to me to accuse people of a thing of this sort, to brand them accomplices of a criminal, when they have opened their home to us as hospitably as the Huntingtons have. Besides, Huntington is the man whom we have to thank for capturing Billy Gee when every one else failed. You might as well say that this rancher made a double clean-up—got away with the bandit’s swag and also collected the reward.”
“That’s just exactly what I’ve been thinking,” declared Coates stoutly; “and I agree with Tyler that the girl is in on the deal. There’s some pretty slick birds among these desert rats, Mr. Sangerly, let me tell you. It’s damned funny to me why they beat it out of the country, so all of a sudden. It’s the Bunker Hill, if you want my opinion on the matter.”
Lex gazed thoughtfully across the room, at the picture of Mrs. Liggs.