“By all the rules of the game that fellow should have held me as a suspect,” he soliloquized. “Now he don’t know me from a hoss thief––or does he?”
He frowned and rode thoughtfully down the road in the direction from which the automobile had come.
CHAPTER XV
THE WELCOME
The afternoon wore on as Rathburn followed the road at an easy jog. He quickened his pace somewhat when he passed through aisles in thick timber, and, despite his careless attitude in the saddle, he kept a sharp lookout at all times. For Rathburn was carrying some gold and bills in a belt under his shirt––which had been examined and returned to him at the order of the deputy––and he had no intention of being waylaid. Moreover, the man’s natural bearing was one of constant alertness. He rode for more than two hours without seeing any one.
“Strange,” he observed aloud. “This road is used a lot, too. Maybe the morning’s ceremonies has scared all the travelers into the brush.”
But, as he turned the next bend in the road, he saw a small cabin in a little clearing to the right.
Spurred by a desire to obtain some much-needed information, he turned from the road into the clearing and rode up to the cabin. He doffed his broad-brimmed hat in haste as he saw a girl.