“How long have you had this suspicion in your mind,” quizzed Dick, “and why didn’t you tell us before?”
“I think same as you an’ Sandy until last night,” came the startling revelation. “Them fellow, Lee an’ Pierre, go off like that make me worry. First I think all same you an’ Sandy. I say to me: ‘Toma, them fellow run away because this bad medicine land an’ because they ’fraid get killed Indian arrows.’
“But more I think like that the more not sure I get all the time. Lee an’ Pierre have ’em more sense mebbe. Not so crazy fool after all. Both them packers I know for long, long time. Lee pretty good fellow, but Pierre get drunk, gamble—not so good like Lee.”
“What in Sam Hill are you driving at?” interrupted Sandy impatiently. “I fail to see what they have to do with it. We were talking about Henderson—not about the packers.”
“You understand pretty quick,” said Toma, reaching in his pocket and bringing forth a crisp ten-dollar bill. “I find that in the grass next morning Lee an’ Pierre run away.”
“One of them lost it,” reasoned Sandy, “but I fail to see——”
“I find the money an’ pick it up,” Toma went on, ignoring Sandy’s remark. “Then I forget all about it, because I get me so excited they steal supplies an’ run away. But bye-’n’-bye, I start think about that money. I remember Pierre he say to me one day: ‘Toma,’ he say, ‘me, Lee like play poker some night but no got money.’ He ask me lend him money so him an’ Lee play poker.”
“He must have lied to you,” said Dick.
Toma shook his head.
“Me no think so. He no lie that time. Pierre an’ Lee get money from somewhere else.”