“Mebbe I did. He said he was goin’. Yuh see, I didn’t want to arrest him. There wasn’t any sure thing that the money wasn’t in Wheeler’s pockets. I just asked Joe to wait, and when he insisted on goin’ I didn’t know just what to do. If I’d had any sense, I’d have poked a gun in his ribs and made him wait. Live and learn, I reckon.”
“I suppose they’ll get him.”
“Mebbe. Joe knows this country and he must ’a’ been set for a getaway. Yuh can’t tell which way he’ll go. Headed out south, but he’s just as liable to be ridin’ north now. He’s no fool. And two men might not be able to find him. We can’t expect much help from the punchers.”
“No, it seems that you can’t, Len. Being a sheriff in Tumbling River has its drawbacks.”
Len left McLaren and went to the depot, where he sent wires to Kelo and Ransome, notifying the marshals of each place to watch for Joe Rich. And then he went back to his office to nurse his aching arm and swear at himself for half-drawing a six-shooter on a man like Joe Rich.
CHAPTER IV: RANGE FUNERAL
Bad news travels swiftly in the range country, and the following morning there was quite a gathering of the clan at the Flying H. People came to extend their sympathy to Peggy Wheeler and to the rest of the Wheeler family. Even the Reverend Henry Lake and his slow-moving old buggy horse showed up at the ranch, the minister dressed in his ancient best.
Aunt Emma Wheeler, Aunt Annie Bellew, Grandma Owens and Mrs. Buck West gathered together and talked in whispers of the white-faced girl upstairs who did not want to talk with anybody, while the men stood around at the rear of the house in the shade of the big cottonwood and drank up the rest of Uncle Hozie’s wedding liquor.
Honey Bee was there, longing for a chance to talk with Laura Hatton. A little later on Len Kelsey, his arm in a sling, rode out. The Heavenly Triplets were sober, but that did not prevent them from making a few caustic remarks about the sheriff when they saw him coming.
“You let him alone,” ordered Uncle Hozie. “My ⸺, ain’t there trouble enough, without you startin’ a debate with the law? Lonnie, you haul in yore horns; sabe?”