The sheriff was goggling from one to another, trying to get things straightened out to his own mind. Hashknife went to Marion.
“Tell us what you know about it, Marion,” he said.
“Oh, I don’t know very much, Hashknife. Three masked men came, and they—I heard the noise, when they fought with Jimmy, and came out to see what it was about. They had knocked him down, and I thought he was dead.
“They told me to not be afraid, and that everything would be all right. It seems that I wasn’t to be hurt. They put me on a horse, and we went to Broken Cañon, where two of the men turned back. They were masked all the time; so I wasn’t just sure who they were, because they changed their voices.
“One man took me down into the cañon, and I think he heard Jimmy coming. Anyway, he tied the horses and went back toward the bottom of the trail. I heard a lot of shooting, and I was sure somebody was trying to help me, but I never thought it was Jimmy, until he shot Dug Haley.
“We had a hard time getting him on a horse, because Jimmy was so weak he couldn’t help much. But we made it. We’ve got to get Jimmy to a doctor, because he’s all cut to pieces.”
Haley was sitting on the ground, goggling at every one. He had lost a lot of blood, but his mind was clear. Hashknife saw him eying the bodies of Le Moyne and Porter; so he stepped over to him.
“Haley,” he said kindly, “the game is up. You better come clean, because yo’re the last of the three men who stole that pay-roll. Al Porter did not go to Encinas the night of the robbery, and more than that, he and that girl of his busted up two months ago. Which one of yuh rode Buck Taylor’s gray horse that night, and had to kill it up there in that little cañon?”
“That was me.” Haley spoke hoarsely.
“Oh, ——, I might as well admit it. Le Moyne schemed it, and we helped him. But our luck broke bad. Le Moyne had to be at the depot when the train came in, and Porter had to be on the other side of Broken Cañon to pick up a freight early in the mornin’—or when one come along; so it was up to me to take the money to Santa Rita, where we was goin’ to hide it.