Billy Wingo looked up at the stars. His lips moved. But no sound issued. After a moment he said, in an oddly dead tone of voice, "How did Slike escape?"
"Far as anybody can tell, he made him a key somehow and unlocked the jail door and walked out. Anyway, Riley Tyler found the door open yesterday afternoon and Dan's cell empty. And the district attorney lost a horse and saddle."
"The district attorney, huh?"
"The district attorney."
"It was to some people's interests to have Dan Slike escape," Billy said musingly.
"You bet it was, and I'm gamblin' somebody let him out all right, but—well, I dunno. Anyway, Rale, he led the posse that trailed Slike, him and Felix Craft. Nobody could have been more energetic than those two."
"If they were so energetic and there was any kind of a trail, which there should have been, because it was a warm afternoon, it's queer they didn't run up on Slike at Hazel's."
"That's the funny part of it. The trail led in the opposite direction toward Jacksboro. The posse followed it clear to the West Fork of the Wagonjack, where they lost it on the rocky ground on the other side."
"Slike might have doubled back."
Guerilla Melody shook his head. "Not without gettin' caught—if he rode to the West Fork first. Besides, Hazel says he came to her house a li'l after sunset, and he escaped, near as we can figure out, between three and four. So you see he'd never have had time to make it to Walton's from the West Fork by sunset."