“We don’t need to go into them. We had them, anyhow. Then I lit on a foot-print right on the edge of the ditch that no man ever made. We didn’t know what to make of it, but we wiped it out and followed the ditch, one on each side. We’d figured that was the way he had gone. You see, though water was running in the ditch now, it hadn’t been half an hour before.”
“You don’t say!”
“There wasn’t a sign of anybody leaving the ditch till we got to the ranch; then we saw tracks going straight to the house.”
“So you got a bunch of sheep and drove them down there to muss things up some.”
Norris looked sharply at him. “You got there 160 while we were driving them back. Well, that’s right. We had to help her out.”
“You’re helping her out now, ain’t you?” Jack asked dryly.
“That’s my business. I’ve got my own reasons, Mr. Deputy. All you got to do is arrest her.”
“Just as soon as you give me the evidence, seh.”
“Haven’t I given it to you? She was seen to drive away from the house in her rig. She left footprints down there. She came back up the ditch and then rode right up to the head-gates and turned on the water. Jim Little saw her cutting across country from the head-gates hell-to-split.”
“Far as I can make out, all the evidence you’ve given me ain’t against her, but against you. She was out drivin’ when it happened, you say, and you expect me to arrest her for it. It ain’t against the law to go driving, seh. And as for that ditch fairy tale, on your own say-so you wiped out all chance to prove the story.”