“Right you are,” assented the girl. “What are those two figures at the top? They seem to be drawn on the margin, and are merely a suggestion of something, it strikes me, and have nothing to do with the main picture.”
The figures to which Dell referred were drawn close to the edge of the piece of bark, and were exactly alike. Evidently they represented one and the same man; but over one was drawn a pair of mule’s ears.
“By George!” exclaimed the scout. “Those figures represent a white man, with a mustache and a sash. Who but Lawless wears a sash? A belt is good enough for every one else in these parts.”
“It’s Lawless,” agreed Dell, “but why are there two of him? And what do those mule’s ears mean over one of the figures?”
“Give it up; that’s something for us to puzzle out later. That part of it is only what you might call a marginal note, anyway. The main picture shows Lawless again, with a figure that is plainly intended to represent a white woman. The woman is Mrs. Brisco, whom Lawless and his gang carried away.”
“Mrs. Brisco?” queried Dell. “I thought no one on the stage knew her name?”
“Some facts,” answered the scout vaguely, “were brought out by that note Billings brought to Gentleman Jim from Lawless.”
The scout did not intend, as yet, to reveal Gentleman Jim’s secret even to Dell. In his own good time, Gentleman Jim himself could tell the people of Sun Dance about his wife.
“Those six marks,” went on the scout, indicating the marks as he spoke, “represent six followers, showing the gang to be composed of seven members, all told.”
“I understood from Billings that there were eight, all told.”