“I suppose your posse will come back with the hold-ups in a few hours. Will it be worth while to wait for them?” she asked with amiable derision.
The ranger had been absorbed in thought, his chin in his hand, but he brought his gaze back from the distance to meet hers. What emotion lay behind those cold eyes she could not guess.
“You’re more hopeful than I am, Miss Lee.”
“What are you sending them out for, then?” 106
“Oh, well, the boys need to work off some of their energy, and there’s always a show they might happen onto the robbers.”
“Do you think some of the Roaring Fork gang did it?”
“Can’t say.”
“I suppose you are staying here in the hope that they will drop in and deliver themselves to you.”
He looked at her out of an expressionless face. “That’s about it, I reckon. But what I tell the public is that I’m staying so as to be within telephone connection. You see, Sheriff Burke is moving up to cut them off from the Catalinas, Jackson is riding out from Mammoth to haid them off that way, these anxious lads that have just pulled out from here are taking care of the Galiuros. I’m supposed to be sitting with my fingers on the keys as a sort of posse dispatcher.”
“Well, I hope you won’t catch them,” she told him bluntly.