“Prob’ly. Put a rug over the trap-door, and they’ll never see it.”
It did not take them long to dump Geronimo into the cellar, where Sleepy made him a good bed and put in a bucket of water. The dog accepted his new quarters without any protest, and Nanah grinned when she put an old rug over the trap-door, and moved over a table to rest on it.
The three men were in the bunk-house when the sheriff showed up, about thirty minutes later. He looked around the patio, expecting to see the dog, and dismounted. Hashknife shook hands with him. Jimmy did not put in an appearance.
“You heard what happened in town, didn’t yuh?” asked the sheriff. Hashknife agreed that he had.
“It ended all right,” remarked the sheriff. “Except that the main exhibit of the Taylor case followed Legg out of town.”
“What exhibit was that?”
“The dog. Legg came here, didn’t he?”
“Oh, yeah. But I don’t know anythin’ about the dog. Jimmy said the trouble started over a dog, and Miss Taylor said the dog followed Jimmy out of Blue Wells, but it prob’ly went back.”
“Yea-a-a-ah? Went back—where?”
“Why, to Blue Wells.”