Rathburn wrote his name upon the register.
CHAPTER XVIII
IN THE NIGHT
Rathburn avoided the Red Feather resort during the morning. Instead of walking about the streets or sitting in the hotel lobby or his room, he cultivated the acquaintance of the barn man, and because he knew horses––all about horses––he soon had the man’s attention and respect.
Although Rathburn suspected that he already had a reputation in the town, he did not know that Carlisle was steadily adding to that reputation through the medium of veiled hints dropped here and there until a majority of the population was convinced that a desperate man was in their midst, and that Mannix had permitted him to go free for certain secret reasons.
Thus a web of mystery and suspicion was cleverly woven about Rathburn’s movements.
It was not until afternoon, however, that Rathburn began to realize on his intimacy with the barn man. Then they began to talk of trails, and for more than an hour the barn man, caught in the spell of Rathburn’s personality, divulged the secret of the trails leading to and from the Dixie Queen.
“The best trail, an’ the straightest, if you should ever want to go up there an’ look at the mine like you say,” said the barn man, “hits into the timber behind the first cabin to the left above town.”