“Sure he does. Here is the mark of one of his little love pats with a monkey wrench,” and Kit parted his hair to show the scar of the Granados assault. “I got that for interfering when he was trying to kill his employer’s herds with ground glass in their feed.”
“So? no wonder if he goes in a rage to see you riding as a lady’s caballero while he feels the weight of chains in a prison. This world is but a little place!”
“That is true,” said Padre Andreas, regarding Kit, for the story of the horses was told to me by Doña Jocasta here in Soledad!”
“How could that be?” demanded Rotil. “Is it not true you met the lady first at Mesa Blanca?”
“As you say,” said Kit, alert at the note of suspicion, “if the lady knows aught of Granados, it is a mystery to me, and is of interest.”
“Not so much a mystery,” said the priest. “Conrad boasted much when glasses were emptied with Perez on the Hermosillo rancho, and Doña Jocasta heard. He told the number of cavalry horses killed by his men, also the owner of that ranch of Granados who had to be silenced for the cause.”
“Thanks for those kind words, Padre,” said Kit. “If Doña Jocasta has a clear memory of that boasting, she may save a life for me.”
“So?” said Rotil speculatively. “We seem finding new trails at Soledad. Whose life?”
“The partner of a chum of mine,” stated Kit lightly, as he did some quick thinking concerning the complications likely to arise if he was regarded as a possible murderer hiding from the law. “My own hunch is that Conrad himself did it.”
“Have you any idea of a trap for him?”