"I emptied my automatic after him, but with no perceptible effect," continued the ranch manager. "At all events, Canada kept on running, and that was the last I saw of either of them."
"And the arm, Tom?" asked the widow, who never seemed able to worry unduly about stock losses.
"Finally I caught the star-faced beast and mounted, intending to go after the traitor and his rustling pals single-handed: but the blasted cayuse began a pitching streak that surpassed anything in my experience on this or any other range. I was thrown, and by the time I got hold of the brute's tie rope again pursuit was hopeless. Examining the saddle, I found a tickler beneath the cinch. That scoundrel, O'Hara, had carried through his preparations to the last detail. You can understand, can't you, Ethel how he accomplished it, in view of the fact that I had not the slightest suspicion regarding him?"
Fitzrapp's eyes were fixed anxiously upon his fair employer.
Mrs. Andress made no effort to hide her disappointment. No more did the major. About the latter's manner there was a calm that seemed ominous. Fitzrapp felt that he could have more easily endured one of the MacDonald flares of temper with which he had had experience. Hastily he flung out the one item of consolation which he had held in reserve for this moment.
"But I did succeed in landing evidence that will convict that Childress upstart as soon as we lay our hands on him," he declared in a tone far more positive and confident than that which he had used in recounting the recent costly raid.
"There is no evidence in what you have told us," said Ethel. "Is there something more?"
"Yes. O'Hara told the whole truth when he said that Childress had abandoned his ranch. He was one of the three who rode through the gap and across the ford to roundup our horses. Look over this find. Picked it up on our side of the ford as I was coming home. Undoubtedly it had just been dropped by one of the raiders, for there was rain the night before and the book, as you see, is perfectly dry, and, besides, none but the rustlers passed."
While speaking he tossed the widow a small memorandum book bound in red leather. The fly-leaf bore the name "John Childress."
"All of the entries are interesting," continued Fitzrapp, feeling that this exhibition of concrete evidence against the rustler would turn the scale of decision in his favor. "Some of them have particular bearing upon our case against him."