‘Go where?’ asked Lem coldly. ‘Run the legs off our horses, before we know which way to go? I reckon we’ll go back and take a squint at the dead man.’
He turned and held out his hand to Nan.
‘I’m pleased to meet yuh, ma’am,’ he said pleasantly.
Morgan growled under his breath and walked outside, followed by the rest of the men. Nan shook hands with Lem.
‘I—I heard you put down that window,’ she whispered softly, her voice filled with gratitude.
‘I hate a draught,’ he whispered seriously. ‘I catch cold awful danged easy. So-long.’
The crowd of men mounted and rode back along the dusty highway. Morgan and his men had nothing to say on the way back to the spot where they found Leach’s body. It was lying beside the road, and the sheriff needed little examination to find that he had been shot through the head.
‘You moved him, didn’t yuh?’ he asked Morgan.
‘Took him off the road,’ surlily. ‘He was layin’ on his face.’
‘Where’s his gun?’