“Why, certainly I’ll tell him,” replied Peggy.
“Do you know him?”
Cates smiled and shook his head.
“Only by reputation. I happened to mention his name to the sheriff and found that he was here at your ranch. He will find me at the Pinnacle Hotel.”
They rode back to the gate, where Ralston told Kelsey he was going out to the Circle M.
“I’ve got a pair of boots out there,” explained Ralston. “And if I don’t get ’em pretty soon, somebody’ll be wearin’ ’em.”
Ralston spurred away, while Kelsey and Cates rode back to Pinnacle City.
In the meantime Hashknife, Sleepy and Honey were riding through the hills south of the HJ. Hashknife rode a tall roan horse and Jim Wheeler’s saddle and Sleepy bestrode a Roman-nosed buckskin and a saddle which had been purchased for Peggy.
Honey led them out on a high pinnacle where they could look over a great part of the Tumbling River range. To the southwest, about a mile away, was the Circle M ranch, half-hidden in a clump of green trees. To the northwest was the Lazy B, three miles away, which Honey was able to locate definitely by a gash in the hills. They could follow the windings of Tumbling River for miles in each direction. To the east of them was the railroad, winding around through the hills.
They could see the ribbon of smoke from a passing train heading for Kelo. Far down on the wagon road they could see a lone rider heading for the Circle M. It was Jack Ralston, going after his boots, though they didn’t know it.