McKee recognized the Sheriff. "Hullo! when did you git back?" he asked.
"Jes' now. Is this your money?" said Slim, holding the roll in front of McKee's eyes.
"No; it's your'n. Part o' what I took from 'Ole Man' Terrill. The idee o' not recognizin' your own property!" McKee grinned at his joke on the Sheriff. "I held the old man up, and that's all there is to it."
"Who was with you?" asked Slim. "There was two."
McKee was silent.
"Bud Lane was the other man," hazarded Slim.
"No—" began Buck, but Slim interrupted him.
"He was with you that night. He came to the weddin' with you. It ain't no use in denyin' it. I've been thinkin' it all out. I was fooled by Jack's pacing hoss. You and Bud—"
Here McKee interrupted with a solemn denial. Whether from a desire to foil the Sheriff, whom he knew was Bud's rival in love, and so thought him the young man's enemy, or from the benevolent spirit induced by the recent contemplation of his virtues, McKee was impelled to give an account of the murder which very convincingly indicated Bud as a protesting catspaw, rather than a consenting accomplice.
At the end of the story he smiled grimly: