Jane went down the stairs and out to the patio, where she sat down on the well curb, wondering if she did care for Blaze Nolan any more. It was difficult for her to believe that Blaze ever cared for a dance-hall girl. He was intensely human, but she did not believe this of him. She believed that he had killed her brother. Ben was a wild, hard-drinking young man, altogether too prone to use a gun, and the killing had not surprised her, except that Blaze Nolan had done it. Ben had been riding for a fall for a long time.
Kendall Marsh had shown a decided interest in the trial, and as far as Jane had been able to learn, had favoured the prosecution. Alden Marsh had been the chief witness for the prosecution. Just why Marsh had done all in his power to convict Blaze she did not know, but she realised that Blaze’s knowledge of the Lost Trail would prove of extreme value to Marsh’s interests; so it was not difficult to see why Marsh had used his political influence to get Blaze out on parole.
Jane was still sitting on the old well curb when Harry rode in. He had the same fine features as his sister, but there was a hardness about his eyes and mouth which she did not have. He was of medium height and looked as wiry as a manzanita stalk. He dropped off his horse and let the animal bury its nose in the watering trough.
“I seen Blaze Nolan to-day,” he told her. “Came past the Circle M, and dropped in. Blaze was there alone, and I tried to pump him about what happened at Marsh’s place that night, but he was as tight as a clam.”
“Dad wants to see you, Harry,” she told him.
“What does he want?”
“He didn’t tell me what he wanted, Harry.”
“No? Huh! What are you moonin’ about out here? Look as though you’d lost yore last friend. I’m hungry. Was goin’ to stop at the restaurant in Medicine Tree, but I seen Alden Marsh and Butch Van Deen in there; so I came on home. Marsh is drinkin’ a lot lately, and he’s usually lookin’ for a fight. Some day I’ll give him what he’s lookin’ for.”
“Did Blaze have much to say, Harry?” she asked.
“Not much. Oh, he was pleasant enough, as far as that goes. He always was that way. But he was a fool to come back to this country, after what he knows you heard that night at Marsh’s place.”