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肩書を与える: Fool's Goal Author: B.M. Bower * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 1403371h.html Language: English Date first 地位，任命するd: Dec 2014 Most 最近の update: 損なう 2017 This eBook was produced by Colin Choat and Roy Glashan. 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意／服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み／提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解（をとる）d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html To 接触する 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au
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"Fool's Goal," Little, Triangle 調書をとる／予約するs 版, 1947
Many 有望な young men go West to make their fortune, but Dale Emery 逆転するd this long-設立するd custom. Dale took his fortune with him!
Daring, adventurous, 豊富な, and a true gambler at heart, Dale had had enough of sitting in offices, watching money pile up from cattle 取引，協定s in the West. Dale 手配中の，お尋ね者 to take his fortune west with him, and get to know the country that kept his bank balance big. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to feel and see and become a part of the sprawling, fabulous country.
No one could 納得させる Dale that dollars were dangerous—that a man with money could be a 激烈な 脅し to the ambitions of men without it. It is only when Dale is chloroformed and robbed in a little Cheyenne hotel that he begins to realize the formidable 敵s he may make in trying to do everything his way—that his may be a Fool's Goal.
Then danger 脅すs lovely dark-haired Cynthy, daughter of the one man Dale really 信用s in this strange, new land. Dale is 軍隊d to fight with the relentless, 厳しい and merciless 武器s his lawless 対抗者s have chosen, and the 結果 is one that even he could not 予知する.
Fool's Goal is another—and one of the best—rugged 現実主義の stories of a rugged, 現実主義の life and land, told by the author of 黒人／ボイコット 雷鳴.
THE hoarse bellow of noon whistles 粉々にするd the cloistered 静かな of the 副／悪徳行為-大統領，／社長's office in a 確かな bank 負かす／撃墜する 近づく the stockyards. Mr. Kittridge （疑いを）晴らすd his throat and 解除するd his 注目する，もくろむ-glasses from his thin nose, the other 手渡す going out to finger 確かな papers lying before him on the desk.
"If you want to put your money into land and cattle," he said, "that is your own 事件／事情／状勢. I can doubtless arrange the 事柄 through some of our Western 特派員s. I suppose there isn't a bank out there that hasn't been 強いるd to take in such a 所有物／資産／財産 as you 明らかに want, on foreclosures. I 港／避難所't a 疑問 that, given the locality you 願望（する）, we can find you what you want."
"But that isn't the way I want it, Mr. Kittridge. I didn't want any 削減（する）-and-乾燥した，日照りのd 協定 through the banks. I want to knock around through the West and get my （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） first-手渡す, through actual personal 接触する with the 条件s I shall have to 会合，会う. I want to be in a position to snap up any 取引 I might happen to run across, so I'll take cash—"
"And 危険 your life doing it," snapped Mr. Kittridge, stung out of his 静める. "You certainly must realize what will happen if you carry a large sum of money around with you."
"Don't you think I'm able to take care of it?"
"I certainly do not, Mr. Emery. I do not think any man is 安全な with a large sum of money on his person. It is 絶対 unnecessary to take the 危険. Any bank will 今後 a 草案 on us, in the event of your making an 投資 of any 肉親，親類d. We shall be glad to wire 支払い（額） if you 願望（する）. 通貨 is dangerous, not only to you but to the man who is paid in cash. 殺人 and 強盗 follow on the heels of cash money, as you must know, Mr. Emery. Your father, I am sure, never dreamed of such a move as this, or he would have made some 準備／条項 against it."
"Yes, I guess he would, all 権利. Dad thought he dealt in cattle, but he didn't, really. He dealt in dollars. He sat in an office and juggled train-負担s of steers on paper. Everything was done on paper. Why, he never had twenty-five dollars in his pocket at one time in his life, so far as I know. Checks—checks—bank balances—井戸／弁護士席, I'm going to carry on from a little different angle, Mr. Kittridge.
"I want to see and feel and know the West. All my life I've watched trains of cattle 荷を降ろすd here at the yards; now I'm going to see where they all come from. I know やめる a few 西部の人／西洋人s too; men that have come in with the cattle. They're different from any one here, but I don't know why they should be—barring 確かな colloquialisms born of their 貿易（する）. It was all 権利 for Dad to sit in an office and count cattle by car-負担s, but I've got to watch 'em grow. And money will talk, when I'm ready to have it speak. It isn't such a wild notion, when you consider the 肉親，親類d of men I'll be 取引，協定ing with. A few thousands in cash will look a heap bigger than a check for the same 量. I—why, I'd take gold coin if I could carry it!"
"There's really no 推論する／理由 for such a course, and I cannot advise—"
"井戸／弁護士席, I didn't 推定する／予想する you to 認可する or to advise it," Dale replied easily. "I realize that there's no 推論する／理由 on earth for what I'm doing except that I want to do it. I couldn't 推定する／予想する a 銀行業者 to see my point of 見解（をとる）. You've got your 夜盗，押し込み強盗-proof 丸天井s and you always see money kept inside those 丸天井s or behind your steelgrilled windows. You like to 押し進める it through, a few dollars at a time, and if a man asks for a lot you wonder why. You folks are like Dad; you juggle millions on paper, most of the time, and the cash you want to see locked 安全に away. You think dollars are dangerous—" He laughed suddenly and silently, his 注目する，もくろむs 開始 wide and then half の近くにing upon the light of mirth within. "井戸／弁護士席, I've decided that I'm a gambler at heart," he chuckled. "I've 熟考する／考慮するd psychology in 調書をとる／予約するs till I'm pretty 井戸／弁護士席 fed up on it. I'm going to take a course of what you might call field work. I'm in the mood to 賭事 a little with life; with danger, if you want to put it that way."
Again he laughed that silent laugh with the sudden flash of his 注目する，もくろむs, and Mr. Kittridge, who had seen the trick in Dale's father and knew what it meant, gave up all idea of argument; and to 証明する it he の近くにd his lips in a thin, straight line.
"So many 有望な young men go West to find their fortune," Dale 追加するd. "It will be 利益／興味ing to 逆転する the 過程 and take 地雷 with me."
He had no 期待 of 存在 taken literally, but Mr. Kittridge adjusted his glasses again upon his high, thin nose and 選ぶd up a paper.
"Your real 広い地所 can hardly be carried off in your pocket, so we will leave that aside, having already 性質の／したい気がして of the 事柄 for the 現在の. You have to your credit with us fifty-five thousand, seven hundred dollars. In what denomination do you wish to have the money, Mr. Emery?"
Dale 星／主役にするd for a moment, then laughed and got up.
"Oh, as large as you conveniently can," he said carelessly. "I'll call in to-morrow, if you like, Mr. Kittridge. Oh, by the way, give me two or three hundred in small 法案s, will you? Expense money, you know. See you to-morrow. Good-by."
Outside the bank he stopped and stood in the 避難所 of the 深い doorway out of the 勝利，勝つd while he lighted a cigarette, and his shoulders 解除するd themselves impatiently.
"Darn fool! Or maybe not, either. Maybe he thought he could 脅す me out with that bluff. 発射 the whole pile at me, and what will I do with all that money?" Dale shrugged again. He had meant to take five thousand, or maybe ten at most. But Kittridge had taken him at his word. "Mad, maybe, because the bank isn't going to get its usual 百分率 if I do 取引，協定 for a ranch. Yes, Kittridge certainly was sore. Threw the whole thing at me when he 設立する he couldn't run the show!"
His cigarette going to his satisfaction, Dale stepped out into the throng and walked briskly northward. Kittridge had challenged his 神経 and his 知能, and he probably 推定する／予想するd Dale to 支援する water and 受託する a 調書をとる／予約する or two of 旅行者's checks and go ambling from town to town like any tourist. 井戸／弁護士席, Dale didn't ーするつもりである to do anything of the sort, though he felt pretty much a fool now that he was away from the presence of the man who had unconsciously egged him into so fantastic a 決定／判定勝ち（する）. Kittridge was so 非難するd 保守的な; that was probably what had started it all. For Dale had been trained to 保守主義 all his life and he was sick of it. 商売／仕事 条約s had been the breath of life to his dad, but they certainly were not going to be saddled upon the son. Dale had walked a 封鎖する when of a sudden he laughed.
"All 権利, we'll let it ride that way," he said to himself. "I guess I can 扱う it—but it sure is a queer way to start out—handicapped with money, instead of with the 欠如（する） of it. I wonder, now, just how—"
His thoughts broke there when he whistled a yellow cab to the 抑制（する）. The 演説（する）／住所 he gave was somewhere 近づく the middle of the 宙返り飛行, and as the cab 速度(を上げる）d up, he settled 支援する to smoke and think. It was going to be something of a problem, as he realized now that he 直面するd it squarely. He hardly knew whether to resent Kittridge's unimaginative 解釈／通訳 of his little 宣言 of independence or whether to laugh at the joke on himself. His mood 補欠／交替の／交替するd between the two but it is 利益／興味ing to 公式文書，認める that not once did he consider going 支援する and telling Kittridge that he had not meant to be やめる so 過激な in his ranch 追跡（する）ing. Instead of that, he 解任するd the cab in 前線 of Brentano's and started a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する of purposeful shopping. He did not ーするつもりである to take a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 of luggage with him, but he did mean to take plenty of time in selecting 正確に／まさに what he 手配中の，お尋ね者.
DALE 解除するd 激しい eyelids and 星／主役にするd stupidly around the room, blinking a good 取引，協定 over the 影響 to orientate himself. His lips felt stiff and sore, though for the life of him he could not think why they should. He raised a 手渡す to 調査／捜査する and felt dully amazed that his whole arm should feel 激しい, his fingers ぎこちない. A vile taste was in his mouth—something he せねばならない 認める, though his inert brain could not at once しっかり掴む the elusive 質 of familiarity. Sluggishly he pondered, his 注目する，もくろむs の近くにing again while he did so, his tongue moving questioningly along his smarting lips.
"Chloroform!" Though he did not make a sound, his brain formed the word with the abrupt clarity of speech. He struggled to an 肘, hung there groggily with his 注目する，もくろむs shut, then swung his 明らかにする feet out upon the Brussels carpet of the hotel room he 占領するd. For a 十分な minute he sat 低迷d upon the 味方する of the bed, 星／主役にするing owlishly, 長，率いる between 圧力（をかける）d palms, 肘s propped insecurely upon his 膝s. Chloroform! He could taste it now to his very toes, and the flavor nauseated him almost past endurance. Once more his fingers passed gently across his lips and a fuller understanding seeped in upon him. He had not lived all his life in a city to be puzzled now by his 条件, nor did he need to ちらりと見ること around the room to 確認する his 疑惑.
He got up presently and tottered to the dresser, leaning against it while he 検査／視察するd his mouth. Lips seared and swollen with the stuff used upon him, 注目する，もくろむs bloodshot and hair tousled, he 現在のd so unlovely a sight that he turned away in disgust, languidly flapping a 手渡す 支援する at his reflection. On the bed again, with the covers pulled over him to shut out the 冷気／寒がらせる of a crisp Wyoming morning, he 戦う／戦いd with the 影響 of the an誑thetic and in time overcame it 十分に to do a little coherent thinking.
Of course he had been robbed. He wondered how the thieves had managed to get in, then decided that they had entered by way of the window. He remembered that he had lowered the upper sash a foot or so for ventilation and had left the lower sash の近くにd, and now the flapping curtains 布告するd the fact that the lower sash had been 押し進めるd up as far as it would go and the upper sash was の近くにd. Perfectly simple, and very fortunate for him; that 微風 blowing in had probably done much to call him 支援する from the final sleep. They had used enough chloroform to kill an elephant, it seemed to him. His system was clogged with it. He could smell it on every breath he exhaled; the sweetish taste of it was in his mouth.
"Made a good 職業 of it," his brain said distinctly, and somehow the 宣告，判決 除去するd the 義務 of 即座の 活動／戦闘. He pulled the covers higher over his shoulder, の近くにd his 注目する，もくろむs and let himself slide 支援する into oblivion.
When he woke again, the 微風 was still and the room was warm. From the way the sun was 向こうずねing 十分な across the foot of his bed he knew it must be nearly noon, and though the 甘い, furry taste of chloroform was still in his mouth, it was not so pronounced and his 団体／死体 did not feel やめる so 激しい. But his 長，率いる ached and his lips still felt puffed and sore, and altogether he was in no happy でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる of mind as he sat up in bed, glowering at the room.
Everything he 所有するd had been ransacked. His 着せる／賦与するs lay just where they had been dropped from the 手渡すs of the thieves. Though it was only a guess, Dale had no 疑問 there had been more than two men in his room; he did not believe one man alone would have 取り組むd the 職業. His wallet he had 押し進めるd 負かす／撃墜する between the sheets when he got in last night, and now he turned the sheet 支援する over the foot of the bed for a 完全にする search. From the look of the room he at first thought they must have 行方不明になるd the wallet, but they had been more 徹底的な than he would have believed possible. The wallet was gone.
He leaned and 選ぶd up the coat he had worn the day before—a gray 影をつくる／尾行する-plaid with a thread of lavender. It lay on the 議長，司会を務める beside the bed, though he had hung it in the closet with the 残り／休憩（する） of his 控訴s which he had unpacked, thinking he would probably spend some days in Cheyenne. The lining of the coat had been slit 負かす／撃墜する each under-arm seam, and the interlining on the shoulders and under the 武器 had been pulled loose. Dale frowned when he saw that, and got out of bed to make a more systematic examination of his other 衣料品s.
Every coat he had was 削減（する） in 正確に／まさに the same fashion, and so were his vests, which he seldom wore. Even the one dinner coat he had brought with him had been searched. His 控訴 事例／患者 and big Gladstone 捕らえる、獲得する showed slitted linings, his steamer trunk had been likewise 診察するd. His few 調書をとる／予約するs sprawled open on the 床に打ち倒す, where they had been flung in spite.
Dale 選ぶd them up one by one, straightened the creased leaves with careful fingers and laid them on the dresser. Shelley, three 容積／容量s of Shakespeare, Browning and two 調書をとる／予約するs of Kipling's poems. The assortment was not what one would 推定する／予想する a young fellow like Dale Emery to be carrying, and a somewhat unusual feature of the little collection was that they were uniformly bound in red morocco with his 指名する stamped in gold in the lower righthand corner; a booklover's indulgence, one knew at a ちらりと見ること. As Dale 回復するd them one by one, his 直面する brightened a little. His 調書をとる／予約するs, at least, had escaped the general mutilation.
With Browning held absently in his 手渡す, he sat 負かす／撃墜する on the bed to consider the 状況／情勢. They couldn't have been 追跡（する）ing his wallet in the lining of his luggage, even 認めるing that they had not looked in the bed until after they had searched the room. They had taken his watch and his tie pin, a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 opal of exceptional beauty, but it was undoubtedly his money they were after, and not only the money he carried in the wallet, though it had 含む／封じ込めるd a couple of hundred or so; enough to 正当化する the chloroform, perhaps, but not enough to account for the painstaking search they had made.
No, they had 手配中の，お尋ね者 more. They 手配中の，お尋ね者 all of it—all he had drawn from the bank. But how had they known about that? His bank in Chicago surely would not peddle the news, and he 疑問d whether any one save Kittridge and the assistant cashier who had given him the money would know about it. On second thought he decided that the 支払う／賃金ing out of so much cash would probably show on the 調書をとる／予約するs, but if any one in that 保守的な 会・原則 had 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 略奪する him he wouldn't have waited all this while, surely. Dale hadn't left Chicago for some days after he got the money, and for two days he had kept it at home in one of his 支配するs, just as if it weren't money at all but a 一括 of little value. It had worried him so little that he had decided that since no one knew he had it, there was no 推論する／理由 whatever for 存在 afraid of it. Now he was 直面するd with the fact that some one had known.
Before leaving home he had 性質の／したい気がして of the money in the safest way he could think of. Looking at the 衣料品-strewn room he thought of the exact manner of its concealment and grinned. No, it was 確かな that while they must have known he was carrying it, they did not know how he had hidden it. No one, not even Kittridge, would ever guess that. On the way out to Cheyenne he had talked with one or two of the 乗客s casually, as men do while smoking, but he had not discussed his own 事件／事情／状勢s, or given his 指名する, or told any one his 商売／仕事. He was very 確かな of that. Most of the time he had read, or looked out at the reeling landscape and dreamed of the cattle ranch he would one day own.
It was the Pullman conductor who had recommended this hotel, the Rocky Mountain, when he had arrived in Cheyenne yesterday. He had wandered around the town a bit, had eaten a good dinner and had sat in the ロビー until bedtime talking with a tall, lean, handsome old fellow with a soft 発言する／表明する and a pleasant manner and the inimitable vernacular which 布告するd him 範囲-bred. They had talked of the 早期に days in Wyoming, and of the men who had 繁栄するd for a time in the West and died as they had lived. They had discussed cattle and 範囲 条件s, and the old fellow had seemed a gold 地雷 of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）. Dale had regretted that he was not a story writer so that he could use some of the stuff.
Had he について言及するd to this man—Quincy Burnett was his 指名する—that he had come 用意が出来ている to 投資する in a cattle ranch? Dale tried to remember just what he had said; surely not that he had a large sum of money with him. He was not that big a fool. He had asked about the chance of getting 持つ／拘留する of a good place, and Burnett had told him it せねばならない be 平易な, and had explained in 広大な／多数の／重要な 詳細（に述べる） just why. Cattle raising wasn't what it used to be, he had said. Although cattle were "up", most of the ranchers were poor and saddled with 負債. Some had gone broke and had to やめる, because they had not been able to 天候 the 黒人／ボイコット time when cattle had suddenly "dropped." Dale knew something of that too, from 審理，公聴会 his father talk prices.
No, he did not believe Burnett had anything to do with the 強盗. If he had, then Dale did not know anything at all about human nature. Yet Burnett was the only man with whom he had talked in Cheyenne.
His thoughts swung 支援する to Kittridge and the bank that 扱うd his 相続物件. He didn't believe they had anything to do with it either, and yet they were the only ones who had known about the money. No bystander could have seen him receive it, for he had gone into the cashier's office and the assistant cashier had brought the money in a neat 一括, had counted it there on the desk and had received Dale's check for the 量. Why, for all the people outside knew, he might have been in there borrowing or 支払う／賃金ing 支援する a 貸付金. He had carried a 簡潔な／要約する 事例／患者; so far as 外見s went he might even have been an スパイ／執行官 for something.
Kittridge—had old Kittridge 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 脅す him out? Had he でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd a practical joke just to show him what a fool he was? Dale felt his sore lips and shook his 長，率いる. He couldn't imagine Kittridge doing anything of the 肉親，親類d; he was too old-fashioned, too 保守的な. It was a mystery, and he couldn't solve it sitting there in his pajamas thinking about it.
He got up and called the office on the phone, and said that he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to see the 経営者／支配人 at once. Then he sat 負かす／撃墜する on the 辛勝する／優位 of the bed again and held his 長，率いる while he waited. When the 経営者／支配人 tapped on the door, Dale let him in and went 支援する to bed.
The 経営者／支配人, a neat little man with a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, boyish 直面する and blond hair parted just off 中心 and 徹底的に捜すd 支援する in two little waves, ちらりと見ることd surprisedly around the room and approached the bed warily, one 手渡す clasping the other.
"井戸／弁護士席, you see what happened, don't you?" Dale 需要・要求するd, with 穏やかな reproach. "I've been robbed. They pickled me in chloroform and gutted the room."
"I'd better get the police," said the 経営者／支配人, 注目する，もくろむing the disorder. "Did you lose anything of value, Mr. Emery?"
"Oh, no!" Dale snorted. "Didn't I tell you they cleaned me out? Something over two hundred dollars in my wallet, to say nothing of—what else they took."
"Papers?" the 経営者／支配人 was 星／主役にするing at the 控訴 事例／患者 and empty trunk.
"Yes—something like that. I feel like the devil. Can you get a doctor that'll 直す／買収する，八百長をする me up and keep his mouth shut? I don't want this peddled all over the place. And take my 着せる／賦与するs to a tailor and have them 直す／買収する，八百長をするd, will you? Never mind the police—"
"We'll have to mind," the 経営者／支配人 told him. "I can't let 押し込み強盗 happen in my house and do nothing about it. We'll keep it as 静かな as possible, of course, but we must take some 活動／戦闘." He went to the house phone, called for a number, and talked crisply with some one whom he 演説（する）／住所d as 長，指導者.
"Varney himself is coming over, Mr. Emery," he said, when the one-味方するd conversation was ended. "He was just leaving for lunch when I caught him. He asked if we needed a doctor and I told him we did, so he'll …に出席する to that. It's lucky we can have the 長，指導者 himself, since you want to keep it 静かな." He stood in the middle of the room, looking around at the 混乱, his lips pursed. "The 長，指導者 will want to see this just as it is," he said. "When he's through, I'll have things put in order for you. It's fortunate you are alive, Mr. Emery."
At that moment Dale rather 疑問d the 声明, but he didn't care enough about it to 論争 with the 経営者／支配人, who went on talking and surmising until the 長，指導者 of police （機の）カム in, a doctor at his heels. They seemed 有能な men, both of them, and Dale was glad enough to place himself in their 手渡すs, for the time 存在, at least. He did not need the doctor to tell him what a の近くに call he had had, nor the 長，指導者 of police to 宣言する that the thieves must have been terribly 意図 on getting something they believed Dale had in his 所有／入手. The wallet alone would not account for the intensity of their search, Varney said over and over. They were after something else, and he was inclined to agree with the hotel 経営者／支配人 that the robbers must have known of some 価値のある papers which they were 決定するd to get 持つ／拘留する of.
"Oh, yes, the 行為 to the old homestead!" growled Dale, and turned his 支援する upon the room and the mystery.
"If I knew what they were after, I'd know what to look for," Varney 固執するd, standing over the bed.
"How do I know what they 手配中の，お尋ね者? I didn't ask them; didn't get a chance." Dale の近くにd his 注目する，もくろむs. "I feel rotten," he 不平（をいう）d. "For the Lord's sake, let me alone!"
Varney grunted something under his breath and with another 包括的な ちらりと見ること around the room went off to take what 対策 he could to apprehend the thieves.
WITH a muttered phrase which epitomized his opinion of all reporters, Dale threw 負かす／撃墜する the newspapers he had been reading and reached for a 一括 of cigarettes, since the 夜盗，押し込み強盗s had taken his monogrammed silver 事例／患者 along with the 残り／休憩（する） of their 収穫. Some one 近づく by chuckled, and Dale's scowling ちらりと見ること turned belligerently that way, coming to 残り／休憩（する） upon a tall, good-natured young fellow with a wide, smiling mouth and hair of that rich auburn which is just a shade too dark to be called red. Dale's resentfully 尋問 look was met by 注目する，もくろむs blue and disarmingly straightforward.
"堅い luck, all 権利," the fellow said, still smiling. "Bad enough to be robbed, without 存在 spread-eagled all over the 前線 page." He was standing beside a slot machine where for a nickel one guessed card combinations, and now he turned toward it, chose his cards, slipped his nickel into the slot and got a 一括 of gum for reward. He was peeling off the wrapper to 抽出する a stick when Dale decided to be human.
"What I can't understand is how they could reel off a string of numbers like they have here and （人命などを）奪う，主張する they're the numbers of banknotes I lost," he complained. "I never gave the police any numbers."
"You didn't see last night's papers, I guess. No, that's 権利—you hadn't got over the chloroform, they said. Varney wired 支援する to Chicago—you 登録（する）d from there, didn't you? 井戸／弁護士席, the bank where you got your cash wired out the numbers of the 法案s. My brother 作品 in a bank here," he exclaimed. "But it was in the paper too. I read it before I asked Jim."
"The bank in Chicago wired the numbers?" Dale bit his lip. "Sure a snappy piece of work," he commented dryly.
"The sooner the numbers are out, the better chance there is to get 持つ／拘留する of the crooks," the other pointed out. "Publicity is the one thing they can't stand. It sews them up in a 解雇（する）. All the banks and 蓄える／店s are on the 警戒／見張り now for 法案s with those numbers. The crooks oughta know that by this time, though. They'll lay low."
While Dale morosely watched him, the young man fed another nickel to the slot machine, this time without avail. Chewing two sticks of the gum he had won the first try, he sauntered over to the big window with its 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of padded leather 議長，司会を務めるs, chose one, and was just settling himself into it when his attention was attracted to a man walking past the window.
"Hey, 法案!" he called 熱望して, （電話線からの）盗聴 on the plate glass with his fingers. "What's the grand 急ぐ?" The man outside stopped and turned, grinning.
"Why, hello, Hugh!" he called exuberantly. The two met in the doorway, shook 手渡すs and stood there for a minute before they walked away, still talking.
Dale looked after them with a twinge of envy. They knew each other, they had things of 相互の 利益／興味 to talk about, they could walk into places together and 迎える／歓迎する other friends. For the first time since leaving home he was conscious of feeling lonesome. He couldn't talk to any one with that freedom which only long 知識 can give, and yet he felt the need of discussing this mystery of his with some one he knew he could 信用.
For instance, the banks must know the exact 量 of money he had drawn from his account in Chicago and 推定では brought to Cheyenne with him. This young fellow must also know, since his brother worked in one of the banks here. And while the paper had contented itself with vague phrases calculated to whet any man's curiosity, "Chicago Man Loses Fortune" was the headline they had used, what followed did not 最小限に減らす the caption. The banks certainly must know the denomination of every 法案. Dale had 孤立した only fifty thousand, two hundred dollars from his account in Kittridge's bank, at the last minute deciding to leave a balance there, and the 長，指導者 of police undoubtedly knew how much the thieves must have taken. There was no telling how far the startling news had seeped into the town, but gossip probably was already 指名するing 人物／姿／数字s.
But how did any one know before the 強盗? The question struck はっきりと across Dale's thoughts, to return again and again. Even if Kittridge did have the numbers wired out here, that didn't （疑いを）晴らす the thing up. Somebody knew before that. Varney must have guessed that the thieves knew 正確に／まさに what to look for, and so would every one who stopped to think a minute. Even the tailor who mended Dale's 着せる／賦与するs must see the significance of the slit linings in all the coats.
Dale smoked meditatively, 星／主役にするing at the passers-by who （機の）カム and went in the thin, intermittent stream of small 事件／事情／状勢s; big-hatted men with the peculiar, 屈服する-legged walk that betrays the 範囲 man used to riding and to stiff leather chaps; preoccupied 商売／仕事 men, women hurrying by with the 意図 look of shoppers; loitering time-殺し屋s 星／主役にするing into windows; clucking wagons and トラックで運ぶs. 時折の horsemen jogged past the hotel, and his 注目する，もくろむs followed these with 利益／興味, longing to be riding with them. Then his attention was コースを変えるd from the street as snatches of conversation floated in to him from the pool room just off the ロビー as some one passed through and left the door open.
"Damn' chump—packin' a wad like that in the first place." (Kittridge would certainly agree with that fellow!)
"These rich young squirts—" and the click of balls as the （衆議院の）議長 interrupted himself.
Some one laughed. "A fool and his money!" he chortled.
"井戸／弁護士席, a fool's gold'll buy as much as if he had good sense," another made trite comment.
"But not for him it won't," retorted the 発言する／表明する that had laughed. "Cleaned him to the bone. Serves him damn 権利 too. Anybody that'll pack fifty thousand dollars around with him had ought to be robbed."
So the story was 完全にする and gossip had the exact sum! Dale dropped his half-smoked cigarette into the nearest ash tray and walked out into the street, ちらりと見ることd this way and that until he discovered the place he was looking for, crossed to the other 味方する and walked into a bank. At the 公式文書，認めるs and 交流 window a man （機の）カム 今後 to serve him, his ready smile bringing to his 直面する a likeness to the tawny-haired young fellow Dale had seen at the hotel. Dale smiled 支援する and felt almost 熟知させるd.
"And get it here by wire, will you, please?" he said, as he 押し進めるd a 草案 under the grating. "You doubtless know why."
The man looked at the modest 量 on the 直面する of the 草案 and smiled again at Dale.
"I can cash this for you now, if you like, Mr. Emery. We've been in communication with your bank 関心ing you—in fact, we're their Cheyenne 特派員. If you'll wait just a minute I'll give you the money."
"You know, this is mighty decent of you." Dale 紅潮／摘発するd a little as he took the money. "Folks must think I'm the prize fool—"
"Or braver than most of us," the other 補足（する）d with a pleasant little nod, ちらりと見ることing over Dale's shoulder as those behind 取調べ／厳しく尋問するd windows are wont to do when the next in line is waiting. "Please call on us if we can serve you in any way."
Dale thanked him and turned away, feeling a little glow of 感謝 for the friendly 申し込む／申し出. While other （弁護士の）依頼人s of the bank ちらりと見ることd at him as if they knew who he was and were 自然に curious, he stopped by a desk long enough to えり抜く a ten-dollar 法案 for 即座の use and to tuck the other ninety dollars into an inside pocket before he went out to look for a 蓄える／店 where they sold 法案 倍のs. He ちらりと見ることd 支援する at the 取調べ／厳しく尋問するd window and saw that J. D. Mowerby was the 指名する of the 強いるing young man who had served him. J. for James, of course—the young fellow with the gum had called his brother Jim. Jim and Hugh Mowerby; already he was beginning to learn something about the people here.
At the leather-goods 蓄える／店 the clerk scanned the ten-dollar 法案 and 手配中の，お尋ね者 to talk of the 強盗, but Dale was unresponsive. How had the thieves learned of the fortune in cash he was carrying to Cheyenne? He would give a good 取引，協定 to know that, for therein lay the 手がかり（を与える） to their 身元, if only he could find it. And find that 手がかり（を与える） he must, somehow. It was 絶対 決定的な that he should know. But he felt that he dared not tell even Varney, nor Kittridge himself, just why. His one chance, it seemed to him, lay in keeping his own counsel and in waiting until the thieves betrayed themselves; which they would do, he felt sure. They must, in the light of what he knew. He would only have to 企て，努力，提案 his time.
Burnett was in the ロビー when he returned, and his thin, handsome 直面する was unsmiling and 十分な of 関心 as he spoke to Dale.
"I just saw Varney 負かす／撃墜する the street a piece," he began, without much 序幕. "He says they 港／避難所't got a line on them fellows yet. Course, I don't s'提起する／ポーズをとる you got a sight of 'em, did you? Got at you while you was asleep, as I heard it. Wonder is, they didn't kill you with that stuff. Varney told me they'd soaked a bath towel and there was enough on it when he got there to put most anybody to sleep. Sit 負かす／撃墜する, Mr. Emery. I want to talk to you about this. Maybe you think it ain't my put-in, but I've been a peace officer myself a good many years, though I ain't working at it now. 辞職するd last summer to let in Burke, the 郡保安官. You talked with him yet? He's a good man; better than Varney, によれば my notion."
"No, I 港／避難所't talked with any one, much. Not 公式に, I mean." Dale sat 負かす／撃墜する beside Burnett, glad of the old man's friendliness. "I felt rotten yesterday, and to-day—井戸／弁護士席, the town thinks I'm crazy or a fool, to have all that money. It's a wonder they let me run loose!"
"井戸／弁護士席, it was yours," Burnett 観察するd dryly. "Varney made sure of that, soon as he 設立する out how much it really was. He's kinda peeved that you didn't tell him yourself, Mr. Emery. No, you had a 権利 to carry it, I guess, but it sure was taking a big 危険." He stopped and canted one graying eyebrow 上向きs as he looked at Dale, his 注目する，もくろむs a keen, 冷淡な blue that seemed to read a man's most secret thoughts. "Who all knew you had that 量 of money on you?" he asked suddenly.
"Nobody out here," Dale said, returning the old man's 星／主役にする. "My 銀行業者s, of course."
"And who else?" Burnett's gaze never 転換d a hair's breadth. He seemed to be 計器ing Dale with some mental 測定 of his own. "Somebody knew."
"One man," Dale 認める, 紅潮／摘発するing. "A friend—a fraternity brother. I'd 信用 him with my soul."
"いつかs we 信用 friends to our 悲しみ," said Burnett, sighing without 存在 conscious of the fact. "You 信用 him, but do you know he didn't tell?"
"井戸／弁護士席—yes, I know."
"You've got some proof he didn't?"
"Yes," said Dale after a perceptible hesitation, "I have proof."
"Humph." Burnett turned away his 注目する，もくろむs then and pulled a cigar from his pocket, absently biting off the end while his fingers 調査するd a pocket for a match. He got the cigar lighted and smoked in silence for another minute.
"Because they searched so many places?" he queried then. "That might of been a blind, to throw you off the 跡をつける."
Dale shook his 長，率いる, his lids 開始 and then half の近くにing over a gleam in his 注目する，もくろむs which Burnett was not slow to catch.
"It's 罰金 to 信用 your friends," he said in his soft drawl, "but I was in the 郡保安官's office a good many years, Mr. Emery. Fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money to tempt any man with. Is this friend rich?"
"Richer than I am, though he doesn't spend as much, maybe. He's in 商売／仕事 and making money 権利 along. Fifty thousand isn't so much to him. Besides—I know he didn't tell."
Burnett took the cigar from his mouth, ちらりと見ることd around the empty ロビー and looked again suddenly and 熱心に at Dale.
"You mean—they didn't get it?"
He watched Dale, saw his 注目する，もくろむs flicker in spite of himself, and chuckled.
"That's your high trump," he said softly. "Did you tell anybody?"
"I 港／避難所't told you," Dale 反対するd gruffly. "If you want to jump at a 結論 that's your 警戒／見張り."
"Oh, yes, you have told me," Burnett retorted, still in an undertone. "I don't know as any one else would have got it, but I did. That's your high trump and you want to hang on to it. Don't let anybody else find that out and you've got a chance to land 'em. But—" his 直面する sobered and he laid an impressive finger on Dale's 膝, "—they know, and they know you know. They'll try again, Mr. Emery, unless—" he stopped to consider—"unless you can 納得させる 'em you didn't bring that money with you, after all." He drew 深く，強烈に upon the cigar. "But they'll try again, first chance they get."
"That," said Dale grimly, "is what I'm hoping they'll do."
THE tawny-haired young man strolled in, with a nod to Burnett and a half-smiling look of 承認 for Dale. Burnett crooked an 権威のある finger and he （機の）カム over, his 手渡すs in his trousers pockets, the faint suggestion of a swagger in the 始める，決める of his wide shoulders. A bigger man than his brother in the bank, Dale thought; bigger and younger, with the look of an open-空気／公表する life that sat 井戸／弁護士席 upon him.
"Hugh, I want you to 会合，会う Mr. Emery, the fellow that was chloroformed and robbed," Burnett said, as he and Dale rose. "This is Hugh Mowerby—lives out 近づく my place," he 追加するd.
"Met him 非公式に this afternoon, Quin," Hugh said, as he held out his 手渡す. "Glad to know you, Mr. Emery. Hope this little experience won't sour you on Wyoming."
"Not at all. It could have happened in Chicago just as easily as here."
"Would have, probably, if you'd stuck around long enough. Somebody 追跡するd you out, most likely. Don't you think so, Quin?"
"That's about it, I guess," drawled Burnett. "Somebody was probably hangin' around the bank when he got it and 追跡するd him out here."
"井戸／弁護士席, I better put in a word for the Stockgrowers' 信用 and 貯金, I reckon, and tell Mr. Emery he oughta put his money in Jim's bank."
"If you'd told me sooner, it might have helped," Dale agreed, smiling a little. "I was over there, Mr. Mowerby, and I think I met your brother."
"Yeah? 井戸／弁護士席, Jim's a good old scout. He's the cashier and what he says goes around there." He lighted a cigarette with negligent precision. "Going to stick around awhile? I s'提起する／ポーズをとる you'll have to, while the 郡保安官's office gets busy on the 強盗."
"I'll have to anyway. I'd like to land a 職業 if I can," Dale told him. Then his ちらりと見ること went to Burnett, who was lazily smoking and 星／主役にするing out into the street. "I don't think I'll be buying a ranch 権利 away, Mr. Burnett," he said meaningly. "Circumstances over which I had no 支配（する）／統制する have changed my 計画（する）s. If you know of any one who wants to 雇う a green 手渡す, I'd 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる the tip. I can ride," he 追加するd, "and the 残り／休憩（する） I can learn if I have the chance."
Burnett turned his 罰金, aristocratic 長，率いる and looked at Dale for a moment, then flicked the ash off his cigar.
"I don't know but what I could give you a 職業 myself, if you can't do better," he said 静かに. "It'd have to be in the hayfield, though, and that's hard work if you ain't used to it."
"Maybe we could give you a 職業 up at our place," Hugh volunteered. "One of our riders is in town sick and there's nothing sure about his going 支援する. I could let you know to-morrow, maybe."
Dale thanked them without committing himself to either 申し込む／申し出 and presently left them. He was still feeling the 影響s of his experience, he told them, and he thought he'd 嘘（をつく） 負かす／撃墜する for awhile.
As he turned from the desk with his 重要な, he saw two women enter the ロビー and go straight over to Burnett, and from the glimpse he had of the 会合 he guessed that they were Burnett's wife and daughter. The old man had spoken of his "women folks" 存在 in town with him, Dale remembered. The woman looked the motherly sort, so typical of country women. The other was young and smartly dressed and had nice hair, but since her 支援する was toward him he was 否定するd a look at her 直面する. He did see, however, that Hugh Mowerby was gazing 負かす／撃墜する upon her with glowing 注目する，もくろむs, so Dale guessed she must be pretty. Not that it 事柄d a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 to him. He had 燃やすd やめる a heap of sentimental keepsakes and letters before he left home and his 態度 toward women was boyishly 冷笑的な. They were all alike, in his opinion; all ready to make a fool of a man. Still, it was 利益／興味ing to know that Quin Burnett had a daughter who could wear her 着せる／賦与するs like a city girl and could make a man 星／主役にする at her the way Hugh Mowerby was 星／主役にするing. He caught himself almost regretting that he had left Burnett so soon.
"Fool," he told himself はっきりと, when he became aware of the direction his thoughts were taking, "you've burnt your fingers often enough to have some sense. Anyway, you've got something else to think about now."
Up in his room he began sorting over his 所持品, making a more 包括的な examination of the 損失 his nocturnal 訪問者s had done. His 着せる／賦与するs had been returned from the tailor neatly mended, but he could still trace the 削除するs of the knife and 公式文書，認める the precision with which it had been used. Not one unnecessary 削減（する） had been made, so far as he could see; 非，不，無 save those which would let 調査するing fingers search the interlining. His two big 控訴 事例／患者s had come in for their 株 of 疑惑, but the small, soleleather trunk was 削除するd with small systematic incisions which left no possible 疑問 that the vandals had known 正確に／まさに what they were looking for and 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd him of using extra care in the hiding.
Yet they had 行方不明になるd the thing they were after! As he walked to the window and stood looking out, Dale's 簡潔な／要約する thrill of 勝利 合併するd into a frown of concentrated thought. The way into the room had been comparatively simple, for the roof of a lower building lay like a 幅の広い 壇・綱領・公約, almost on a level with the window-sill and no more than five or six feet away. A short plank brought up to the roof—and that could be done by way of a ladder—could 橋（渡しをする） the space with no trouble at all. によれば the newspaper account of the 強盗, the building next door was used mostly for offices of the cheaper sort, vacated at night so that one might walk on the roof without the slightest danger of 存在 heard from below. The rooms on either 味方する of Dale's had been empty night before last, the 経営者／支配人 had said, explaining that this was the dull season and he had given Dale that particular room because of its more commodious bath and the 新規加入 of a にわか雨. Dale could not 疑問 the 経営者／支配人's hospitable 意向, 特に after he had 検査／視察するd the 隣接地の rooms that morning and had seen for himself just what the 経営者／支配人 had meant; yet had he been placed in a room for the 表明する 目的 of 存在 robbed, this probably would have been chosen for its convenience. Dale pondered that 段階 of the 事件／事情／状勢 and finally 解任するd it as 事故, though he was 確かな that the thieves were familiar with the hotel. Indeed, Varney had gone into that yesterday and had 設立するd the fact that Dale himself was the only stranger 登録（する）d at the Rocky Mountain that night. There were several guests, but they were all old patrons. Quin Burnett and his family were の中で them, but not Hugh Mowerby, who was probably staying with his brother. Dale thought he must hang around the hotel ロビー on account of Burnett's daughter.
But all that didn't 事柄 so much. The thing he had to 予知する and 供給する against now was the thieves' next move, and it was that which held him 星／主役にするing out of the window at the lengthening 影をつくる／尾行するs of the chimneys on all the housetops where the westering sun shone 十分な. What would they do about it? They knew that he was on his guard now and that he, of course, knew they had failed to find the money—that in the wallet, though no small sum, not really counting in this game. They knew he was 単に pretending that he had been robbed of the fifty thousand—and he now saw what a 失敗 he had made. Why hadn't he said at once that he had left the money in Chicago? There was no possible 推論する／理由 for letting the police and the public assume that it had been stolen, no 推論する／理由 except that he had it with him in Cheyenne. They might, of course, think he had put it in the hotel 安全な, but even then he would have been likely to について言及する the fact to Varney. And every one knew that Varney believed it was gone. The numbers of the 公式文書，認めるs had been published, and Burnett said Varney was 感情を害する／違反するd because Dale had kept the 十分な extent of his loss a secret.
Burnett! How had Burnett been so keen as to guess that Dale still had the money? Or was it 単に a guess? Dale shook his 長，率いる unconsciously as the dark thought appeared. That 罰金 old man with the aristocratic profile and whimsical, soft drawl a どろぼう? With a wife and daughter like that? Again Dale shook his 長，率いる in mute 否定. No, Burnett couldn't be anything but what he seemed, a big-hearted, 幅の広い-minded 範囲 man, ex-郡保安官, rancher, 井戸／弁護士席-to-do and shrewd—
"But he was mighty darned quick at reading my mind, just the same," Dale muttered, 反抗的な toward the thought, even when it took form. "And he's the only one so far that's 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd such a thing. Only the men who （機の）カム in here looking for that money would know they didn't get it. And how the ジュース did they know I had it? I'd 信用 Kittridge and his bunch—oh, Lord! Dad would have disowned me if he'd ever caught me thinking of such a thing. 激しく揺する of Ages, that bank, and that means Kittridge, of course. No, Burnett's a stranger to me, after all; but if he was in with them he'd be the last man to let on. Or would he? If a man like him goes crooked, there's no way of 人物／姿／数字ing what he'd do! He'd （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 the devil himself for cunning. He'd 人物／姿／数字 that I'd never dream he'd have the 神経 to tell me I had the money if he was the どろぼう—oh, Heck!"
He turned impatiently away from the window and kicked one of his 控訴 事例／患者s under the bed. He 選ぶd the 最高の，を越す 調書をとる／予約する off the neat pile on his dresser, opened it, read a line and flung it 支援する. He was in no mood for poetry just then. He turned once more to the window.
"How the devil did they know I had it?" he doggedly attacked the question again. "Stan wouldn't tell—I'd 火刑／賭ける my life on that. Stan's kept things under his hair that it would be a darned sight more 誘惑 to 流出／こぼす. He doesn't give a hoot for money, anyway. All he cares about is his printing 工場／植物 and 調書をとる／予約するs. And nobody could have heard me tell Stan—they couldn't. If any one had," he 追加するd grimly, "I'd never have got as far as Cheyenne with it. Same at the bank. Chicago yeggs don't wait this long. I'd have been nailed before I left town.
"If it's Burnett—but how did he find out about it? He'd have to be a mind reader for 確かな . But if it's Burnett—井戸／弁護士席, I guess I'll take that 職業, even if it is in the hayfield."
It is a fact that the girl he had seen in the ロビー talking to Burnett had nothing whatever to do with Dale's 決定／判定勝ち（する）, for no thought of her entered his mind when he made it.
"HERE'S where we take to horses," Burnett 発表するd, as the car he was 運動ing topped the 首脳会議 of a six-mile grade and with steaming radiator began the 降下／家系 into a thinly wooded valley. "That ranch you see 負かす／撃墜する there is the 地位，任命する office and 行う／開催する／段階 駅／配置する, and beyond that there ain't a road a car could travel. Ain't a better 範囲 country layin' outdoors, though." From under the wide brim of his gray hat Burnett darted a ちらりと見ること away from the 法外な and winding road and across to the rugged country beyond. If a 影をつくる／尾行する crossed his 直面する while he turned it that way, it was gone again almost before Dale was 確かな he had seen it.
"Do we pack in?" It was a perfectly natural question, in Dale's opinion, but the girl behind him giggled. Dale swung his 長，率いる around and looked at her.
"Think of Mother going in with a pack outfit!" she explained her laughter.
"How do you s'提起する／ポーズをとる I traveled before the dug road was made?" Mrs. Burnett 問い合わせd tartly. "It ain't been but twelve years since we packed in, and I dunno but what I made the trip 支援する and 前へ／外へ about as often as I do now. And I 重さを計るd just as much, or more," she 追加するd 意味ありげに. "I'd just as soon ride horseback as to have the daylights 揺さぶるd out of me in that rocky creek 底（に届く）. Quin, are you going to try and go on to-day?"
"井戸／弁護士席, we might. What d' you think? Might get started 権利 after dinner if you ain't too tired. We'd make it by dark." With the 緊張するd attention of one not much used to the wheel, Burnett was 充てるing himself to the 運動ing.
"Oh, what's the grand 急ぐ?" Donna Burnett 抗議するd, after the manner of 青年. "There's going to be a dance to-night, Hugh told me. He （機の）カム out this morning."
"Yeah, I know he did." Her father, having reached an easier stretch of road, cast a meaning ちらりと見ること 支援する in her general direction. "Got the road 示すd up like twin snakes had wiggled along in the ruts. Break his neck some day, the way he slews around corners. I could tell his tire 示すs in Egypt!"
Donna laughed with that irrepressible giggle of hers which Dale had been in danger of 誤解.
"You wait till 飛行機で行くing gets a little more practical and he'll やめる the earth 完全に," she prophesied glibly. "He's beginning to talk airplanes. Can't we stay for the dance, Dad? Please!"
"I oughta be gettin' 支援する," Burnett temporized weakly. "I don't—"
"井戸／弁護士席, you don't what?" his daughter impatiently 誘発するd him, when he seemed ありそうもない to finish the 宣告，判決.
"I don't like leavin' Neal too much in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金," Burnett finished. "He's pretty faithful, but—"
"井戸／弁護士席, half a day longer won't 廃虚 the ranch, Dad. Dalton's will be peeved if we don't stay. And you want to, don't you, Mother?"
"I don't know as it makes any difference much to me," Mrs. Burnett replied with lukewarm 利益／興味. "I 港／避難所't got any string of fellows tagging after me for dances; and there won't be much sleep in the house with all the ゆすり them Mowerby fellows can kick up. But you and your father settle it between you; it don't make much difference to me. I'm willin' to do what the 残り／休憩（する） of you do."
"All 権利, then we'll stay for the dance. Mr. Emery wants to 見解（をとる） us roughnecks on our native ヒース／荒れ地, anyway. But if you still have as much as six bits in your pocket, Mr. Emery, you'd better dig a 穴を開ける and bury it, because we stop at nothing when we get started."
"Shame on you!" her mother reproved her, with superficial sharpness. "You never called yourself a roughneck till you'd been off to Denver to school. I don't know what girls are coming to."
"This one is coming to dinner, I hope. Aren't you 餓死するd, Mr. Emery?"
Dale nodded, smiled faintly, his thoughts upon the country spread 概略で before him. No better 範囲 to be 設立する anywhere, Burnett had said. He was an old cattleman, and it seemed good enough for him, even though he must know the West pretty 完全に. Good 範囲, mountains, plenty of water—
"Any trout streams up in these hills?" he asked 突然の, oblivious of the fact that he was swinging away from the 支配する Donna had chosen. "There せねばならない be good fishing, I should think."
"Fishing? I should say there is! Every 非難するd gulch has got a creek running through it, and every creek is 十分な of trout. 追跡（する）ing too; lots of game." Burnett slowed the car for a 法外な pitch, and the look of care which had been settling on his 直面する lightened. The keen 注目する，もくろむs he turned upon Dale were （疑いを）晴らす and untroubled. "郡 won't stand the expense of putting a road through—they've got a good one west of here that runs up to Douglas—and that keeps the country about as it was thirty years ago. Dalton's, up ahead here, is as far as you can get with a car, and I'm kinda glad of it. Makes it kinda mean gettin' 支援する and 前へ／外へ when you're in a hurry, but it saves the fishin' and huntin' and there ain't any real-広い地所 sharks edgin' in with some 計画／陰謀 for sellin' off land in acre lots. No, sir, you don't catch me agitatin' for a 主要道路 削減（する） through our country. It's 平易な enough to 追跡する our cattle out, and we're used to it."
"You didn't live here when you were 郡保安官, though?"
"No, I wasn't here much of the time then; too unhandy gettin' 支援する an' 前へ／外へ. I moved the folks in to town while I was in office and sent the girls to school."
The 影をつくる／尾行する had fallen again upon his 罰金 old 直面する. Did he 悔いる having 辞職するd? Dale wondered, but it was not a question he cared to ask.
"Sounds like a cowman's 楽園," he 観察するd instead. "It must be pretty nearly perfect if you're 満足させるd with it."
"Ain't a better cow country on God's earth," Burnett once more 主張するd and turned his attention again to 運動ing.
Dale was content to gaze at the valley whose northern 縁 they were descending. The silvery trunks of the 地震ing aspens fascinated him; the swift-moving 略章 of 向こうずねing river showing here and there の中で the trees made his fingers itch for his 棒 and 飛行機で行くs. The vivid green of the meadows, the wandering groups of grazing horses and cattle in the higher pastures, the roofs of the ranch buildings beyond such 政治家 corrals as he had read about, gave him the 半端物 sensation of stepping into a Western movie and seeing it come suddenly to life, himself a part of it. It was what he had always longed for, what he had 内密に dreamed about, while his father plodded on with his 冷淡な 計算／見積りs in the office, thinking of cattle only as so much beef on the hoof with a market value of so many cents a 続けざまに猛撃する live 負わせる. That viewpoint had always roused a dull 憤慨 in Dale. To him, cattle were not just so many 続けざまに猛撃するs of beef. He had never gone 近づく the stockyards if he could help it because he could not 耐える the sight of those penned animals waiting for the 虐殺（する）, or listen to their never-ending 詠唱する of 悲惨, by day and by night lowing for the 勝利，勝つd-swept 範囲s they had left. As far 支援する as he could remember Dale had hated the yards and the 悲劇 pent within them; the 星／主役にするing 注目する，もくろむs, the ceaseless bellowing of the herds.
This was different, though if he thought far enough he must see the stockyards of Chicago as the ultimate goal, the end of the road those frisky calves over there were inexorably traveling. But the road itself was a pleasant one, Dale thought; 特に this particular stretch of it. Even cattle couldn't hope to live forever, and out here one could forget the other 味方する of the picture.
They passed a small, でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる schoolhouse 始める，決める in a grove of aspens, and presently the place called Dalton's （機の）カム into 見解（をとる）. A ranch in the beginning, it had too evidently outgrown that simple 明言する／公表する and was now difficult to define in a word. Dalton's was not a village, for it still 保持するd the 外見 of a ranch; but it had a good-sized garage for the accommodation of 訪問者s and what ranchers lived さらに先に 支援する in the hills; its stables would have served the needs of the 普通の／平均（する） 範囲 town thirty years ago. Its corrals were more 非常に／多数の than any ordinary ranch would ever need, and all the sidehills were 盗品故買者d pasture land. The house itself had been 追加するd to so often that its 初めの structure was やめる lost in ells and wings and that simplest form of 新規加入 which is quaintly called a lean-to. Two dust-grimed cars with 勝利，勝つd-whipped 最高の，を越すs and dented fenders stood before the gateway as they drove up, and several saddle horses stood wild-注目する，もくろむd at the hitch rail, their nostrils belled as they 支援するd snorting to the end of their tie ropes when the Burnett car went by. Dale craned that way, grinning happily. It was seldom indeed that he had seen horses that were afraid of automobiles and the sight of their quivering 団体／死体s thrilled him pleasurably with a 安心させるing sense of having 現実に reached the land of high adventure.
Hugh Mowerby （機の）カム sauntering out to 会合，会う them and to help with the 変化させるd assortment of 一括s and bundles that had been （人が）群がるd into the roomy car. Standing 支援する from the dusty fender, he attacked the knotted rope which 攻撃するd the 控訴 事例／患者s and Dale's small leather trunk to the running board. As he 解除するd them off, his 注目する，もくろむs definitely abandoned their quick sidelong ちらりと見ることs toward Donna and fastened themselves upon the trunk, with its one 扱う made like a 控訴 事例／患者 for 平易な carrying.
"売春婦-物陰／風下 smoke!" he ejaculated, 星／主役にするing 負かす／撃墜する at the knife 削減（する）s in the leather. "This the 貿易（する）-示す your 夜盗，押し込み強盗s left, Mr. Emery? They sure went 権利 after it, by the looks." His gaze turned suddenly and searchingly upon Dale, who was waiting to carry the trunk in. "Say, you must have had that money hid like a 有罪の 良心!" he 観察するd. "Or did they do it just to be ornery?"
"I forgot to ask them what the big idea was," Dale 避けるd, wishing now that he had left the telltale trunk in town.
"You didn't have all that dough tucked under this leather cover, did you?" Hugh 追求するd curiously. "It sure would've been a dandy place to hide it—"
"They probably thought that and tried the trunk first." Then with an unaccountable impulse he grinned at Hugh, his 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd to 狭くする slits. "The safest place in the world to hide a thing is in plain sight of every one," he said dryly, and 解除するd the trunk, its 負わせる sagging his shoulder かなり.
"Say!" Hugh leaned to whisper the thought that seemed to have struck him at the moment. "Does that mean they didn't get it?"
Careful as he was, Burnett overheard him and wheeled, boring Hugh's 直面する with his keen blue 注目する，もくろむs. Dale ちらりと見ることd from one to the other and laughed a little as he turned away.
"Would I be 雇うing out to pitch hay if they hadn't cleaned me?" he parried lightly, his ちらりと見ること again going to Hugh.
"井戸／弁護士席, you might, at that," Hugh retorted equably, に引き続いて Dale with the two 控訴 事例／患者s, Donna beside him with her 武器 十分な of 一括s. "He says he hid it in plain sight, Donna. Where d'you suppose that would be?"
"Oh, how do you 推定する／予想する me to know? I didn't take his money—I'm sure of that. Who all are here, Hugh? Do you suppose the boys will be 負かす／撃墜する from Dugout?"
"If they knew you'd be here they'd come, all 権利. Say," he 追加するd, lowering his 発言する／表明する as his pace slackened, "what d' you think of this Emery guy? You 落ちる for him yet?"
"I don't know where you get the idea of that 'yet'," she snubbed him, then relented. "I don't think he counts for much. Think of any one 存在 such a fool as to carry all that money around in his pocket! Did you ever hear of such an idiotic thing in your life? If he had it," she 修正するd, with true sophomoric cynicism. "I don't believe it, myself. I think he was just trying to show off, and somebody took him 本気で. Served him 権利, too."
"There might be something in that," Hugh agreed, looking at Dale's receding 支援する.
"He 行為／法令／行動するs as if he owned the earth and was thinking about having it remodelled," Donna made spiteful comment. "Oh, there's Bird and 刑事! I wonder if Cynthy's coming 負かす／撃墜する?"
"Ned 手配中の，お尋ね者 to bring her," Hugh said. "He asked me for the buggy team, but Cynthy seemed to be kinda on the 盗品故買者 when I left. Your dad didn't want her to come with Ned, so Neal told me. He seems to have it in for our outfit lately. But Cynthy （人命などを）奪う，主張するd she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to have things all 悪賢いd up for you when you got there. I don't know how it'll pan out."
"Cynthy's a darling," Donna attested 温かく. "I wish she'd come—who cares how the old house looks? Oh, you don't know how good it seems to be 支援する home again, Hugh!"
Though Dale, walking rather 急速な／放蕩な, had been keeping 井戸／弁護士席 in 前進する of the two, their talk had reached his ears and 始める，決める his pride tingling with 憤慨. It seemed to him that Donna Burnett thought altogether too 井戸／弁護士席 of herself and her opinions, and he was glad that he had overheard what she said of him. Insincerity was one fault which Dale would not easily 許す, and though Donna was a very pretty girl, when they stood together on the porch his 注目する，もくろむs no longer dwelt upon her 直面する with 楽しみ. So far as he was 関心d, Donna Burnett had suddenly receded into the background of the picture, and in his 怒り／怒る he 約束d himself that she would remain there.
UNDER cover of the rhythmic shuffle of dancing feet pulsing through the haunting melody of a waltz song he had last heard in the ballroom of the Drake Hotel, Dale left the house and walked 負かす／撃墜する the path. A wave of lonesomeness that had been 刻々と rising within him 脅すd to （海，煙などが）飲み込む his spirits when suddenly that particular waltz began, and though he called himself a fool he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get away from sight and sound of the revelers. He had not come to Wyoming, he told himself savagely, to dance with country flappers on a 床に打ち倒す as rough as Dalton's dining room, to the puerile music of a cheap violin and a piano that needed tuning.
What he 手配中の，お尋ね者 was to get up into the hills that rose darkly under the starlight, every wooded canyon hinting at mystery and adventure, every valley a 楽園 of grass and water for the cattle he hoped to own. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to start out at 夜明け with 棒 and creel and whip the shadowy pools where the speckled trout had not learned too 広大な／多数の／重要な a wariness and yet were able to put up a real fight. That trout streams played little part in the life of a ranch 手渡す in haying time did not at first occur to him and when it did he 小衝突d the thought aside as of little importance. Probably he would not 現実に go to work pitching hay; indeed, he 疑問d much whether Burnett 推定する／予想するd it of him. It had been a mere 偽装する of words calculated to その上の 強化する the general belief that he had been robbed of all he 所有するd, and now that he was out away from town, there was no valid 推論する／理由 why he should go on with it. Burnett knew he still had the money, and it was Burnett in whom he was 特に 利益／興味d. These other ranchers didn't 事柄 so much. They wouldn't be coming around during working hours, anyway, to see whether he was laboring with his 手渡すs; and he could easily arrange with Burnett for his board and room while he stayed.
A 確かな 緊張する of persistence in Teasdale Emery, 上級の, had been transmitted to the son. It cropped out now in his 静める 決意 to go ahead with his 計画（する） of buying a ranch and cattle. Since his money was still his own, the sooner he 投資するd it the sooner he would 除去する that particular 誘惑 from his fellow men. Burnett could help him find the 肉親，親類d of place he had in mind, and in the 合間 he hoped to solve the mystery of that 強盗. While he realized that if Burnett were a どろぼう and a hypocrite he might try to get 持つ／拘留する of the money through some crooked 商売／仕事 取引，協定, Dale thought he could guard against that—since he was not so ignorant of 商売／仕事 as Kittridge had seemed to think. But unless Burnett had something to 伸び（る） by 勧めるing him to buy some worthless 所有物／資産／財産, Dale believed his advice would be 価値（がある） taking. And he didn't see how he could go far wrong in buying grazing land in this part of the country. The price, of course, he could 調査／捜査する. There must be plenty of honest men in the country.
He was standing outside the gate where a pine tree made a convenient を締める for his 支援する, his 直面する 上昇傾向d to the hills, watching a strange, pale glow in the clouds just over a 山の尾根. Above his 長，率いる the 乳の Way showed a diamond-studded pathway across the sky, and in his nostrils was the clean breath of meadows mingled with the pungent odor of the pine boughs high over his 長，率いる. The lights of the house on the knoll, the ebb and flow of the music, the 時折の bursts of laughter blended pleasingly into the picture, now that he could enjoy it from a distance. A typical 範囲 party, he supposed, though they seemed to have all the late dances at the tips of their toes and to comport themselves very much as his own （人が）群がる would have done in this same setting. Perhaps it was the modern 公式文書，認める that had jarred upon him here in these wooded hills. He would have preferred them いっそう少なく sophisticated, more the picturesque characters of fiction. And as if his thought had conjured them from the night, two riders （機の）カム slowly up and stopped 近づく by, big 範囲 hats 攻撃するd a little over their brows, cigarettes glowing as they gazed up at the house.
"He oughta be here, all 権利," one said after a space of silence and 明らかな waiting. "He was coming out to-day, I'm sure of that."
"You'd think," said the other, "he'd kinda be on the watch for us. He knew we 目的（とする）d to come."
"We might find out if his car's here," the first 示唆するd, after another wait. "You go see while I keep an 注目する，もくろむ out for him here."
The second man turned and 棒 away a few steps, then leaned and peered toward the automobiles parked さらに先に along the 盗品故買者.
"He's here, all 権利. There's his car over there. I'd know it anywhere."
"井戸／弁護士席, what you want to do?" the first asked impatiently. "I ain't going to 始める，決める here all night. I'm hungry as a wolf. I'm going up to the house."
"Better not," the other advised. "Quin—"
"Say, who's that under that tree?" the first called はっきりと, though his トン was guarded. "得る，とらえる a couple 星／主役にするs and come on out, brother. I've got it 権利 on ya."
"No need to get excited, you fellows," Dale 保証するd them, moving out into the 薄暗い light of the moon which was just showing a yellow rind over the 山の尾根 where the clouds had been brightening. "If this is 反目，不和 stuff, you can count me out. I'm a stranger here."
"Stranger? Where from and why? What you （武器などの）隠匿場所d under that tree for?"
ばく然と the gun in his 手渡す shone in the moonlight, and Dale laughed to himself at the 施設 with which the scene had changed for him.
"What you doing 負かす／撃墜する here? Waiting for somebody?" A 厳しい 公式文書，認める of 疑惑 in the low 発言する／表明する 警告するd Dale that this was no rough joking.
"No, I was just watching the moon come up over the mountain. It's a sight one doesn't often get in the city."
"Oh! You that Chicago guy that was robbed the other day?" A perceptible change manifested itself in the other's トン and manner.
"Yes, I'm the guy," Dale 自白するd, grinning a little.
"Oh!" The fellow put away his gun. "井戸／弁護士席, you'll have to excuse me. I kinda thought you was somebody else. Who all's up at the house?"
"Lord, I don't know! I'm a stranger here. I was introduced to several, but I don't remember many 指名するs. 刑事 somebody—"
"刑事 Tallant."
"Bird Ellis—that 指名する stayed with me—"
"Bird, yes. Bird's all 権利; good boy."
"井戸／弁護士席, then I met the Daltons, 自然に, and of course there's Hugh Mowerby and Quin Burnett and family, and a girl or two I danced with. One tall blond and another little plump one."
"You don't happen to know if Neal Somers is there?"
"No, I don't. I heard the 指名する, but—"
"Say, would you mind going up there and slippin' the word to—"
"No, I wouldn't do that," his companion interposed. "I'll go up myself. Won't take but a minute."
"You'll have a fight on your 手渡すs if you ain't careful."
"Oh, I guess not. 持つ／拘留する my horse a minute, will you?" Before Dale could 反対する the man slipped from the saddle, thrust the reins into Dale's 手渡す and went off up the path, walking quickly but making very little noise.
"So you'd rather watch the moon come up than stay in the house and dance," Dale's companion 観察するd with idle amusement. "If you wasn't packing so much money when you landed I'd say you're an artist. But they're always broke, によれば all accounts."
"Somebody was certainly anxious that I should qualify, then. I'm not an artist, though. Good horse." Dale's 解放する／自由な 手渡す was busy, 一打／打撃ing the sweaty cheek of the friendly animal. "You've done some riding to-night; this fellow's pretty warm."
"Rough country 支援する in there where we （機の）カム from. Had to see a fellow we 推定する／予想するd would be here, but the trouble with a dance is that it brings them that may have it in for you. A fellow's gotta be kinda 用心深い about bustin' in on a （人が）群がる up here. He don't know what kinda 陰謀，しくまれたわな he's liable to run into." He ちらりと見ることd around, then reined his horse nearer to the 広大な／多数の／重要な pine. "Might lead that cayuse over here in the shade," he 示唆するd mildly. "No telling who all's here. I don't want any trouble, myself."
"Some sort of 反目，不和 going on?" Dale obediently walked into the 影をつくる／尾行する, the horse に引き続いて docilely at his heels.
"井戸／弁護士席, I dunno as I'd call it a 反目，不和. I and Jack got into a kinda jam with an アイロンをかける Mountain bunch at a dance last winter. We polished 'em off pretty 悪賢い, but they ain't content to let it 残り／休憩（する） there. They sent us word to come heeled next time and we're tryin' to sidestep any more trouble. I ain't been to a dance since, nor Jack either. You say Quin's here?"
"Yes, and I （機の）カム out with him. You know him pretty 井戸／弁護士席?"
The other waited while he lighted a cigarette.
"Oh, yeah—I know him, all 権利," he said then, dryly.
"He's not in on the 反目，不和, is he?" Dale tried to read the other's 直面する, but there under the pine the gloom was too 広大な／多数の／重要な.
"Quin? No, he ain't got a thing to do with it—so far as any one knows."
"That may mean almost anything. You don't like him, do you?"
"Me?" The rider 影響する／感情d a トン of surprise. "I never said a thing to make you think that."
"I sensed it in your トン," Dale said, moving closer. "I asked because—井戸／弁護士席, I've had occasion to 熟考する／考慮する him pretty closely, and as a stranger here I'm rather at a disadvantage. I'd like to know something more about him. He seems pretty 目だつ. He was a 郡保安官 for some years, I hear. What made him give it up? Do you know?"
"W-ell, I know some of the talk that's been going the 一連の会議、交渉／完成するs. Nothing I'd want to 断言する to."
"That means unfriendly talk, of course." Dale waited and got no answer to that. "It's 平易な to 告発する／非難する a man of 存在 crooked," he said 試験的に, "特に if he 持つ／拘留するs some office."
"And if there's crooked work goin' on," the other agreed.
"Was Burnett mixed up in it?" Dale 固執するd in the 直面する of the stranger's very evident 不本意 to talk.
"Quin? Not on your life! They don't make 'em any smarter than Quin," he 追加するd unguardedly. "He's got lots of friends too. Just lots of 'em."
"But you think he's crooked." Dale boldly 宣言するd.
"W-ell, I ain't 説 a word against him."
"No," Dale grinned, "you've been careful not to."
Up at the house the dancing continued, the laughter breaking out now and then and 溺死するing the music. From the sounds the rider called Jack had not precipitated any 騒動 so far, but his partner was growing restive, his 注目する，もくろむs 絶えず turning that way. Yet he seemed willing enough to talk, willing to be friendly. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know all about the 強盗, and Dale 述べるd it 簡潔に as a fair return for the 不十分な （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） he had gleaned.
"W-ell, if I had fifty thousand dollars," the cowboy drawled when the story was finished, "I sure wouldn't pack it around with me like that. What's the 事柄 with banks? Don't folks use 'em any more in Chicago?"
"いつかs. I just thought I'd be away out in the country and maybe the money would be handier if I saw the 肉親，親類d of place I 手配中の，お尋ね者. Often these old duffers who live off by themselves would rather have the cash, I imagine."
突然の the blurred 人物／姿／数字 drooped in the saddle, 激しく揺するing with 抑えるd laughter. Dale patted the horse, talking to it softly and waited, wondering what was so funny about it.
"Oh, boy!" gasped the rider. "You sure got an imagination on you. Say, do you s'提起する／ポーズをとる there's a man in the world that wouldn't like to have fifty thousand dollars in cash? Gosh! They needn't be half baked and live out in the hills to get that craving. You talk like it was fifty cents. Don't they realize the 価値（がある） of money at all in Chicago?"
"Maybe not, the way you mean. Fifty thousand is a lot of money, of course; I know that," Dale retorted stiffly. "But it isn't so much when you're 投資するing it in land and cattle."
"W-ell, no. But you can buy miles of land with that much money."
"I could have, you mean," Dale 訂正するd him coldly. "You forget I was robbed."
"Yeah, that's 権利. Darn shame, ain't it? I might of rigged up some kinda を取り引きする you, myself." He spat 厳粛に on the 燃やすing end of his cigarette stub and flipped it away. "I've got a few 長，率いる of cattle—" He ちらりと見ることd toward the house as footsteps sounded on the path.
"It's all 権利. I saw him," the man called Jack cheerfully 発表するd, springing lightly over the rail 盗品故買者 beside them and taking the reins from Dale. "Thanks. Come on, 法案."
"So long," said the man Dale had talked with, and the two 棒 off 負かす／撃墜する the valley; slowly at first, then at a gallop when they had passed the buildings. The swift clupet-clupet of their horses' hoofs （機の）カム 支援する out of the soft moonlight long after they had passed from sight.
Now that the moon was up and he could see the road, Dale walked along a 追跡する which led up past the meadows and toward the hills, the 出来事/事件 of the two riders erasing the mood that had driven him out from the house and enticing him to more adventurous dreams. Who were Jack and 法案, and what was the quarrel that 妨げるd them from mingling with the ダンサーs? Whom had Jack gone to the house to see? Not Quin Burnett, he guessed, for the man called 法案 betrayed a 確かな 不信 of the old man. Was it Hugh? He had come out from town to-day—but so had others, he supposed. The number of cars parked と一緒に the yard 盗品故買者 証明するd that. Couldn't 運動 to the house because it was perched on that little hill. Think of the countless unnecessary steps taken on that path up from the gate! If he had been building Dalton's house he'd have 始める，決める it just 支援する of that magnificent pine tree; not up on the 頂点（に達する） of that bald knoll. Maybe they built the place in Indian time, though, and 手配中の，お尋ね者 a （疑いを）晴らす 見解（をとる） in all directions. They certainly had it, all 権利.
The squawk of an automobile horn 解任するd him to the fact that it was long after midnight and he was sleepy. The party was breaking up, by the sounds. He'd be able to get a little sleep, maybe, and to-morrow he would be up in the land of trout and antelope and deer—a cowman's 楽園, （許可，名誉などを）与えるing to Burnett.
The thought thrilled him. His imagination clung to it, tried to 見通し that country where no automobile had ever nosed around the turns or panted up the "dug road" spoken of by Mrs. Burnett in her 事柄-of-fact way. He turned and strolled 支援する to the house, 横断するd a porch or two and 設立する his room at the end of one of the newer wings, and went in, striking a match as he entered the door.
Almost すぐに he saw that his 控訴 事例／患者s had been moved from the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where he had placed them. There was no mistaking, for he had been careful to remember their exact position as he left the room. その上に, when he 調査／捜査するd, he saw that all his baggage had been carefully searched and placed 支援する just as carefully the way he had left it.
This time there had been no mutilation, no 騒動 of his 所持品, and had he not been rather painstaking in the 協定 of his things he might never have 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd. But since the 事件／事情／状勢 in the hotel he had laid a little 罠（にかける） in the trunk. It was in the morocco-bound 調書をとる／予約するs that he 設立する the betrayal. In the binding they were 正確に／まさに alike, save for the 手渡す-道具d 肩書を与えるs on the 支援する, but in packing the trunk he invariably placed the 調書をとる／予約するs in a 列／漕ぐ／騒動 in the tray; first the three 容積／容量s of Shakespeare, beginning with Hamlet; then Browning, Shelley and the Kipling 詩（を作る）. Now Kipling topped the 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） and Shelley （機の）カム between Shakespeare and Browning. It was very simple but it had proven 効果的な.
So even here at Dalton's he was not to escape their 調査するing search! And somehow the glamor of the moonlit hills 消えるd and a 悪意のある 公式文書，認める of greed crept into his consciousness of the 静かな night.
QUIN BURNETT, negligently leaning 支援する against the corral 盗品故買者 with one boot heel 麻薬中毒の over the lowest rail, straightened himself and 発射 a keen ちらりと見ること from under his 黒人／ボイコット eyebrows at Dale.
"Why didn't you tell me last night?" he 需要・要求するd はっきりと.
"井戸／弁護士席, for one thing, I didn't have much of a chance, Mr. Burnett. You'd gone to bed, I think, when I discovered it, and there was nothing to be 伸び（る）d by spreading the news. It had been done so very carefully I thought it best not to let it be known I was wise to the 試みる／企てる."
"Then they didn't get it?" One could almost see Burnett's 神経s relax.
Dale looked at him, hesitated and shook his 長，率いる.
"No," he said with 審議する／熟考する 静める, "they didn't get it."
"You've got it with you yet—fifty thousand dollars in cash?"
"Yes, I've got it with me." He 熟考する／考慮するd Burnett's 直面する and its lines that seemed to 深くする while he watched.
"Some one at Dalton's," Quin said under his breath, and paused as if he were taking a mental 調査する of the （人が）群がる there last night. "Wasn't a man there I don't know—" He broke off 突然の. "You had the money on you, then, if they went through your things and didn't get it. Mr. Emery, do you realize your life ain't 安全な, carrying a fortune like that around with you?"
"I think it's 安全な enough, Mr. Burnett, with me taking care of it."
"It wasn't so awful 安全な that night in the hotel," Burnett retorted. "Doc Merrill told me himself it was just bull-長，率いるd luck that you ever woke up at all." He kicked impatiently at a gray 激しく揺する handy to his toe. "Why don't you put it in the bank?" he 需要・要求するd pettishly. "There ain't any sense in packin' it around with you, 特に now you know somebody's after it. If I was in office, young man, I'd say you was 有罪の of 犯罪の carelessness, havin' all that money in your 所有／入手."
"井戸／弁護士席, I started out with it, and I'm going through with it," Dale argued. "If they keep on snooping around, they're bound to give themselves away in time. And whatever the 危険 is, I'm taking it myself—"
"You don't have to carry a fortune in cash. It's plumb foolishness, and worse. And there's another 味方する to it. You're temptin' men to 罪，犯罪; men that maybe would go straight if they didn't have that money shook under their noses almost, just darin' 'em to get it. I don't think you rich fellows realize what fifty thousand dollars means to a poor man that's probably up to his eyebrows in 負債 and wonderin' how he's goin' to wiggle out. Things have been goin' pretty 堅い on the 範囲, these last few years. Men that used to have plenty are just hangin' on by the 肌 of their teeth. Half that money, or a ４半期/4分の1, would put 'em on their feet again. There's men in this country that ain't thieves at heart, that would maybe 弱める if they saw the chance—"
"Not so much of a chance, if you stop to think," Dale interrupted. "The numbers of those 法案s have been published, remember. If a man did get 持つ／拘留する of them, he couldn't use them without getting caught. That せねばならない encourage honesty, don't you think?"
"It didn't discourage somebody from goin' through your 支配するs, did it?" The cloud settled again on Burnett's 直面する. "In town there, I could understand a 押し込み強盗 bein' pulled off," he muttered. "But 負かす／撃墜する at Dalton's—I wonder if somebody 追跡するd us out from town?"
"If he did, he knew just what room I had, and that's going some in that dizzy 住所／本籍 of Dalton's."
Burnett looked at him strangely and left the 盗品故買者, walking slowly toward the house, Dale beside him.
"You better 攻撃する，衝突する for Cheyenne and get that money into the bank," he said with more vehemence than one would have believed his 平易な drawl was 有能な of 表明するing. "It ain't likely they'll come on to the ranch here after you—not while I'm around—but you ain't 安全な off it, and I'm tellin' you straight I can't answer for what might happen."
"You might steer me to somebody with a good ranch and some cattle that I could buy," Dale 示唆するd. "I could get rid of the money then, just as I planned to do when I took it from the bank."
"There's no place up here that I could advise you to buy," Burnett 宣言するd, not looking at Dale while he spoke.
"I thought you said it was the best 範囲 country—"
"The country's all 権利," Burnett あわてて 保証するd him. "I ain't talking about that. But I may 同様に tell you, Mr. Emery, I wouldn't want to see any stranger come in here and settle. It's all rough country up 支援する of here—a—井戸／弁護士席, it's a cow 楽園 all 権利, but it's 無法者 楽園 too. Used to be a 正規の／正選手 （犯人の）隠れ家 for the worst thieves and cutthroats in the country. They're pretty 井戸／弁護士席 cleaned out, of course, and it ain't like it used to be; but there's some left 支援する up around Haystack Butte and on Dugout Creek. No use buying cattle when you'd only lose 'em, and if you can't run cattle there's no sense in buying a ranch. 負かす／撃墜する around Laramie there's good country. You could find a place 負かす／撃墜する there."
Dale 熟考する／考慮するd that remarkable 声明 for a minute. "You knew all that, didn't you, when you encouraged me to come up here with you from Cheyenne?"
"I 申し込む／申し出d you a 職業 in the hayfield because you said you 手配中の，お尋ね者 to go to work. You didn't say a word about comin' up here to look at land. You'll say I knew you had that cash, and I did; at least I knew it wasn't stole from you. I—" the old man stopped there, hesitating, plainly ill at 緩和する and wondering how much he dared to say "—I had some idea of bein' able to do something about helpin' you to get 持つ／拘留する of the fellows that robbed you."
"I'd 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる some help, Mr. Burnett. But is there any 推論する／理由 now why you can't? And, by the way, two fellows 棒 up to the gate last night to see some man at the dance. Some one who had just come out from town, I heard them say. They were darn anxious not to be seen—Jack and 法案, they called themselves. Have you any idea who they were and what they 手配中の，お尋ね者?"
"Jack and 法案?" Burnett stopped short in the path, then went on slowly. "Some one that had just come out—why didn't you tell me before?" He turned 荒涼とした 注目する，もくろむs on Dale. "You better get 権利 支援する to town and put that money in the bank where it belongs," he 勧めるd 突然の. "You're packin' dynamite, young man; packin' dynamite."
"Supper's ready, Father." It was the other daughter who had stayed home from the dance to have the house 向こうずねing for her sister, who appeared suddenly on the vine-shaded porch. She sent a swift, reproachful ちらりと見ること at Dale and slid her わずかな／ほっそりした, tanned 武器 around her father's neck as he 解除するd his foot to the 底（に届く） step. "You're tired, aren't you? I can always tell, because you never let anything worry you except when you're tired and hungry." Her 発言する／表明する dropped to a 控えめの undertone. "I heard you, John Quincy Burnett, and it just makes me glad I went fishing to-day. A trout 料金d を待つs you, my dear 職業, and you won't be half so alarmed over Mr. Emery's 当惑 of riches when you're through with your supper. Town always does something to you I don't like," she finished 厳粛に, pinching each cheek as she let him go.
"やめる it, Cynthy!" But his 直面する brightened and as they went in together, his arm lay caressingly upon her shoulders.
So this was what she was like, Dale thought, as he followed them. He had seen her only long enough to be introduced when he arrived, Donna 独占するing her attention すぐに afterward. He had formed but a 煙霧のかかった impression of a tall, わずかな／ほっそりした girl with long hair that seemed to have a natural wave in it, and the thin, high-bred features of her father. Not a 特に pretty girl, 静かな and unobtrusive in her manner, just as one would 推定する／予想する a mother's helper to be. Where Donna laughed and chattered, Cynthy listened and smiled. But now he began to 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う her of a quaint humor and a keen mind that could busy itself with things other than her own little personal 事件／事情／状勢s. And she liked fishing 井戸／弁護士席 enough to go out and catch enough for a trout 料金d! Probably she knew how to fry them too; Dale hoped so, and in that pleasing 予期 he forgot to 推測する その上の 関心ing the girl herself.
But Cynthy calmly 事業／計画（する）d herself into his consciousness later that evening, when he had strolled 負かす／撃墜する to the creek to smoke and see for himself what the chances were for a bit of 飛行機で行く casting at sunrise. She must have seen him leave the house and 示すd the direction he took, for she （機の）カム walking through the high grass of the aspen grove that 国境d the stream and she made no pretense of surprise when she （機の）カム up beside him as he stood 熟視する／熟考するing a likely looking pool.
"I took four of those largest ones we had for supper from this pool," she said. "If you want to fish, I'll find you a 棒 to-morrow, unless you brought one with you."
"I've got a dandy," he told her. "Wyoming trout streams are famous, you know, and I （機の）カム 用意が出来ている. What 飛行機で行くs are best, out here? Or don't you use 飛行機で行くs?"
"Always, except 早期に in the morning, and いつかs in late summer I use grasshoppers. Of course the coachman is always good, and there're times when they like a miller or a bluebottle. But our fish are really not a bit finicky; they'll rise to anything, almost. You can come out at sunrise, whip the stream for a mile and go in with a 十分な creel almost any morning. Father keeps our streams 井戸／弁護士席 在庫／株d," she 追加するd. "A friend of ours has a hatchery 負かす／撃墜する 近づく Laramie and we can get all we want." She made a perceptible pause there, but went on before Dale spoke.
"I （機の）カム out to talk about Father. He tries to hide it, but he's terribly worried about something. Is it that money of yours?"
Dale half turned, looking 負かす／撃墜する at her astonished until he remembered that Donna had probably told her all about his experience at the hotel. But surely Donna didn't know the whole truth.
"That money of 地雷 doesn't worry me," he said coolly, "and why should it worry him?"
"That, of course, is 避けるing my question, and I wish you wouldn't. I know it sounds frightfully 天然のまま to talk about your money, and I realize that it 簡単に isn't done in your （人が）群がる. But Father is more upset than I've seen him for a long time, and I heard him tell you to go in and put your money in a bank. He's やめる 権利. Why don't you do it?" She drew her straight dark brows together in a little frown. "For that 事柄," she 追加するd, "I can't understand why, if you had so much cash, you failed to 利益（をあげる） by your experience and deposit it in the bank before you left town. You see," she 追加するd, with a little grimace, "your money is becoming the topic of the day."
"Every one seems to take it for 認めるd that I didn't put it in the bank," he said almost pettishly. "One would think—"
"But did you?"
He 注目する，もくろむd her calculatingly through his halfclosed lids and she 星／主役にするd 支援する at him calmly, unembarrassed by his open scrutiny.
"Would it be a public calamity if I hadn't?"
"井戸／弁護士席, yes, I think it would. I'm sure that's the 態度 Father takes, and he's seldom wrong. Father was 郡保安官 for a good many years—ten, to be exact—and he always has said that half the 罪，犯罪s could be 妨げるd if people would use even ordinary ありふれた sense in not putting 誘惑 in the way of people who are weak. So if you really have a lot of money—I mean, if you really are carrying it with you in cash—half the 非難する will be yours if somebody steals it. And it seems so unnecessary; so foolish."
"Yes, I 認める you it's all of that—or it was in the beginning. I needn't have taken it from the bank in the first place, of course. A hard-爆撃する old 銀行業者 razzed me into it, really. And I never dreamed—I can't see for the life of me how the news got out. It was 安全な enough so long as no one knew I had it, and I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get old Kittridge's goat. Somebody 流出／こぼすd the beans, though—and that's the big mystery to me. Only three men besides myself knew anything about it, and I'm dead 確かな 非，不，無 of them would let it slip. But it did slip, somehow, and that's where the 陰謀（を企てる） thickens. They've tried twice now—"
"Twice? Donna only told me about the time they chloroformed you."
"井戸／弁護士席, this is a secret, 行方不明になる Burnett. I told your father, but no one else knows about it except, of course, the 有罪の party. Some one went through my stuff last night at Dalton's some time between supper and when I went to bed."
"Dalton's?" She caught her breath. "What did Father say?"
"Not much. It 肉親，親類d of knocked him for a goal. That's when you overheard him telling me I was carrying dynamite."
Cynthy sat 支援する against a sloping 激しく揺する, を締めるing her slippered feet and 星／主役にするing up at him, wholly unconscious of the picture she made in her light dress, a dark glossy braid 落ちるing over her shoulder.
"He's perfectly 権利," she said. "You are." She shivered. "Oh, can't you see what you're doing?"
"Yes," he answered with a sudden hardening of the muscles on his jaw. "I'm standing pat, by 雷鳴!"
"You're playing the fool, that's what you're doing. You せねばならない be 刑務所，拘置所d yourself if anything happens. You're just daring some one to commit a 罪，犯罪!"
"That," he said with his strange, shut-注目する，もくろむd, 反抗的な smile, "is rather an 初めの point of 見解（をとる）, isn't it?"
"Maybe it is," she assented, smiling a little but shaking her 長，率いる すぐに afterward. "There in town I can see that you were 正当化するd in thinking your money and yourself perfectly 安全な, even though you had done a terribly 無謀な thing. You had every 推論する／理由 to believe that nobody knew. But when you bumped into the fact that some one did know, the thing you should have done was to take the money straight to the bank. Any bank. I'm not plugging for the Stockgrowers' 信用, just because the cashier's my brother-in-法律; any bank would be 安全な."
"Mowerby, you mean? I didn't know he was any relation to you folks." Because he 辞退するd to 受託する her point of 見解（をとる） Dale's mind 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon the unimportant 詳細（に述べる）.
"Jim married my sister Rose. We've always known the Mowerby boys. Their ranch is just seven miles above here, at the 長，率いる of Dugout Creek. But that," she returned to the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, "has nothing to do with the way you dangle fifty thousand dollars in 前線 of people and dare them to steal it. It's enough to—to get you 殺人d!" she cried in a 殺到する of feeling.
"Oh, come! Let's not get ourselves all excited over it," he 抗議するd, laughing 負かす／撃墜する at her. "The money's 安全な enough; I'm willing to 保証（人） that. Tell me about fishing and let me show you my 調書をとる／予約する of 飛行機で行くs. Made most of 'em myself, and I brought enough stuff to keep me in 飛行機で行くs for the next ten years. I'll teach you how to make them if you don't know. You せねばならない be an artist at it, with those わずかな／ほっそりした little fingers."
Cynthy sighed, gave a sudden ironical laugh and got up from the 激しく揺する.
"These わずかな／ほっそりした little fingers do better work in the dishpan," she said すぐに. "井戸／弁護士席, come on, then. You're the most stubborn man I ever saw, Mr. Emery. You're what is popularly called bull-長，率いるd. I've said my say, and on your own 長，率いる be it if you find yourself in a jam over that darned money of yours."
"Okay, 行方不明になる Burnett. Shall we let it ride that way?" The smiling look he gave her brought a faint 紅潮／摘発する to her cheeks.
"井戸／弁護士席, all 権利, but you'll see," she said somewhat ambiguously. "Oh, there comes Hugh and the boys! Now we can have some music. Hugh's got the most wonderful, rich tenor—we have pretty 罰金 concerts when Donna's home to play. Do you sing, Mr. Emery?"
"Oh, I wail a few heart-breaking yowls under 確かな 条件s," he grinned. "Looks like the 飛行機で行くs will have to wait."
FOUR riders, with Hugh Mowerby in the lead, were whooping into the yard. Donna had run out to 迎える／歓迎する them and Hugh spurred toward her and flipped his 宙返り飛行 over her shoulders just as Dale and Cynthy reached the end of the porch.
"I always told you I'd get my 宙返り飛行 on you some day," Hugh shouted triumphantly, while the others laughed uproariously.
"And I told you I'd slip any 宙返り飛行 you could throw," Donna retorted, as she threw off the rope. "Pile your 宙返り飛行 on the Chicago 無所属の政治家, why don't you?"
"No use. He's broke a'ready," laughed Hugh, giving Dale a wink as he dismounted. "H'lo, Cynth, got any pie at your house?"
"If I have it won't last long. You boys light 負かす／撃墜する on baking day like grasshoppers in a wheat field. You met these fellows at Dalton's, didn't you, Mr. Emery? No, you didn't 会合，会う Ned, I know," she 訂正するd herself. "He didn't go to the dance. This is Ned Brown, Mr. Emery."
"And make it Dale, everybody," Dale 勧めるd, as he shook 手渡すs with a slight young fellow with worried brown 注目する，もくろむs and a pursed, babyish mouth. "I don't want you folks to go on mistering me; I'm not used to it."
"That's the stuff! I knew you must be 正規の／正選手 folks, but we've been calling you Chicago behind your 支援する." Hugh clapped a big 手渡す 負かす／撃墜する on Dale's shoulder. "Don't mind, do you?"
"Afraid I'm not 堅い enough to live up to it. When did you fellows come into the hills? We didn't see anything of you on the road."
"No, I don't reckon you did. The moon was up and we （機の）カム on home last night after the dance. Hello, Quin!"
Quin Burnett, standing just within the porch, nodded unsmilingly to the four. Presently he went off to the stables and the group 転換d to the house and the old upright piano. Mrs. Burnett lighted an old-fashioned hanging lamp over the 中心 （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, brought another with a flowered white shade and 始める，決める it on the piano, 警告するd them not to knock it off and 始める，決める the house afire, and went out to sit in a rocker on the porch and listen to the music with a 激しい shawl wrapped around her to keep out the evening 冷気／寒がらせる.
For the first time since he had left Chicago Dale began to feel at home in his strange surroundings. There was no aloofness here to-night, no 強制 nor any 影をつくる／尾行する of 疑惑 or dislike, as there had been at Dalton's. Up here on 耐える Creek he felt a wholly different atmosphere; at least, he did when he stopped to think about it at all, which was not often and never for longer than a minute or two at a time.
明らかに this was meant as an informal welcome to Donna who had been away in Denver all winter. The boys 主張するd that she must tell them all about school, after which they told all that had happened up on Dugout; then there were new and senseless songs to try out. When they 設立する that Dale knew them all and could give very fair cabaret 解釈／通訳s while he sang, they swept him joyously into the middle of things. The boys boldly 演説（する）／住所d him as "Chicago", but Donna and Cynthy 試験的に began to call him Dale and to scold him impartially with the others.
Quin Burnett （機の）カム to the door and looked in upon them with a sober, meditative 星／主役にする, and Neal Somers （機の）カム up from the bunkhouse and joined his raucous 発言する／表明する to the general clamor. Judy, the fat old squaw who officiated in the kitchen, waddled in and sat 概して smiling in a corner, （電話線からの）盗聴 her moccasined feet to the music when the singers paused for 欠如（する） of breath and Donna 動揺させるd off a jazz tune.
結局 the squaw and Cynthy brought in three big custard pies, 厚い and quivery, and Dale gleefully learned how to balance a generous triangle on his palm and 減らす its size 速く with large ecstatic bites as the other fellows did. When Hugh loudly 宣言するd that pie tasted a lot better when you could eat it from your 手渡す, Dale 真面目に agreed with him.
"Come up and stay with us awhile, Chicago," Hugh 招待するd, when the moon was rising at last, and the four were 開始するing their horses in 前線 of the porch. "That is, if Quin can get along without you for awhile. The fishin's 罰金 and the deer season will be open in a couple of weeks, and I can show you the best 追跡（する）ing on earth up on Dugout."
"Dugout—that's 無法者 country up in there, isn't it?" Dale was gently 一打／打撃ing the neck of Hugh's horse, which seemed 性質の／したい気がして to nose him in friendly fashion.
"無法者? 井戸／弁護士席, yes, it was kinda that way a few years 支援する, but she's tamed 負かす／撃墜する かなりの now. Away 負かす／撃墜する toward the mouth of Dugout it's pretty rough country, and over beyond in a place they call Hungry Hollow. Wild bunch used to slip over the line from Nebraska and hang out in there. We used to lose 在庫／株 now and then, and we lose a little now too, but it's tame enough; nothin' to be afraid of."
"I'll try and find 神経 enough to ride up there then," Dale said with some sarcasm. "What's that old 説 about not getting 血 out of a turnip? I'll wear a 調印する to the 影響 that Cheyenne got the first whack at me. I せねばならない be 公正に／かなり 安全な, don't you think?"
"Sure せねばならない," Hugh grinned. "Try us a whirl, anyway." He gathered up the reins to go. "'By, girls. Put Chicago on a gentle horse and bring him up いつか. We せねばならない take him up and show him Yellow 頂点（に達する） at sundown. We might make a day of it, if Jim and Rose come out the Fourth. Picnic—that sort of thing."
The girls 宣言するd that it was a 広大な／多数の／重要な idea, but Dale fancied that their enthusiasm was neither 広大な／多数の／重要な nor 継続している, and that they were 単に 存在 nice to their guests who ぐずぐず残るd for no 推論する／理由 at all except that they hated to end a pleasant evening. Dale wished they would go and be done with it. The keen, （疑いを）晴らす 空気／公表する was making him intolerably sleepy, and he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to wake at sunrise and get out with his 棒 and whip those pools for the trout Cynthy solemnly 保証するd him would jump （疑いを）晴らす out of the water to strike at his 飛行機で行く. He liked these boys, but he wished they would go on home so he could get some sleep.
But even that interminable interval of 延期するing their 出発 ended and the four from Dugout Creek went loping away in the moonlight, singing as they 棒,
"There's a rose that grows in No Man's La-and—"
with Hugh Mowerby's （疑いを）晴らす tenor 持つ／拘留するing the last 公式文書，認める in wistful cadence.
Tired as he was, Dale thrilled to the plaintive 発言する／表明するs blending together in muted harmony as the words blurred and grew fainter in the distance. The hills and the 静かな moon swimming across the purple 星／主役にする-ぱらぱら雨d sky to the rugged bank of clouds, the 手段d hoofbeats of galloping horses and men's 発言する／表明するs singing in the night—through all that happened afterwards Dale never forgot that moment.
"Oh, boy, but I'm sleepy!" Donna 不平（をいう）d, 粉々にするing the 魔法 of the night with that prosaic 声明.
"I don't think there'll be any fishing excursions at sunrise," Cynthy 発言／述べるd, stifling a yawn as she ちらりと見ることd at Dale, 星／主役にするing up at the moon.
"You get that Minnehaha person up in time to clean 'em when I get in and you'll have trout to fry for breakfast," Dale retorted. "I'd be out now if I thought it'd be any use. It's a 罪，犯罪 to sleep through a night like this."
"井戸／弁護士席, I'm what Dad calls a habitual 犯罪の," Donna 宣言するd pertly. "All winter long I had to get up at six-thirty or 行方不明になる my breakfast. Good-night—see you at lunch, maybe."
It was a stupid finish to a perfect evening, Dale thought, as he unpacked his trunk and got out his fishing paraphernalia; his pet 棒, his 調書をとる／予約する of 飛行機で行くs and leaders, the expensive (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 reel and new silk line, his boots and corduroy breeches. Even at that ungodly hour he could not resist a moment spent in rapt contemplation of his 飛行機で行くs, of which he was inordinately proud.
He thought so little of Cynthy's arguments and 緊急の 警告 that he went straight to sleep and dreamed of whipping the riffles of swift mountain streams, and he was engaged in a soul-stirring tussle with a two-pounder when the shrill cachinnation of a coyote 負かす／撃墜する in the aspen grove by the creek woke him just before 夜明け. It was still so dark in his room that he could barely see to dress and gather up his 取り組む and collapsible creel.
The coyote was still yapping in the grove when he stole from the house and he caught a (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing glimpse of its gray, ghostly form slinking away from him as he made straight for the creek. The moon was just slipping out of sight behind the hills and since the water lay 黒人／ボイコット in the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the grove he went on upstream, つまずくing occasionally over 少しのd-grown 激しく揺するs and 押し進めるing his way through thickets of wild cherry and plum, 停止（させる）ing now and then to listen to the abrupt 衝突／不一致ing of bushes as some animal 急ぐd away startled by his approach; cattle, his ありふれた sense told him, but the spirit of adventure within him 主張するd that it might be a 耐える.
When the light grew strong enough to show him the hurrying ripples and the brown mirror of pools, he sat 負かす／撃墜する upon a fallen aspen tree and leisurely chose the sturdiest tip for his 棒 (having fresh in his mind the remembrance of that hard-fought 戦う／戦い of his dream) and 実験（する）d 共同のs and leader. He had no idea how far he had come. Certainly there was nothing recognizable in his surroundings, and no sound of ranch life, not even the faint crowing of the roosters, （機の）カム to him where he sat in a little rocky glade （犯罪の）一味d 一連の会議、交渉／完成する with brushy 山の尾根s. Others must have been here many a time, but he の近くにd his mind to that certainty and enjoyed to the 十分な the fancy that he had discovered the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. Up beyond a rocky point the stream was murmuring loudly の中で 激しく揺するs and he 注意するd the call. There might be a big one up there, he thought. He could go to the 早いs and fish 石油精製 to the ranch, and still be in time for that trout breakfast he had 約束d Cynthy.
The distance was greater than he had guessed it, and the murmur developed into a 安定した 殺到する of sound when finally he stopped and selected a 飛行機で行く for the first cast. He was just below a miniature waterfall perfect in its setting of 抱擁する 玉石s and dripping ferns, and for a space he stood gazing, forgetting to cast. He wondered why Cynthy had not spoken of this beauty 位置／汚点／見つけ出す; but then he remembered that she had known it all her life and probably took it for 認めるd, knowing he would discover it 結局. But one thing he knew in that moment: If this particular section of Wyoming could show him many more streams such as this, here was where he would find himself a ranch, 無法者s or no 無法者s. Anyway, he didn't believe Quin Burnett's 声明—or at least he took it with the famous 穀物 of salt. Hugh certainly knew as much about it as Burnett, and he didn't make such a wild yarn of it.
At that point he drew 支援する his 棒, ちらりと見ることd to see that it would （疑いを）晴らす all obstructions and snapped it into 活動／戦闘. The reel clicked faintly to the cast and the 飛行機で行く flicked the white-tipped waves just on the 辛勝する／優位 of the boiling 激しく揺する cauldron where the water （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する in a clean, beautiful 落ちる of thirty feet or more.
即時に a slatey streak left the water and the reel sang as a big trout struck and scooted straight up into the turbulence under the 落ちる. A thrill of exultation 発射 through Dale's 神経s. The fight was on.
Ten minutes of 専門家 playing him, 心配するing every 急ぐ, 極度の慎重さを要する fingers catching the significance of each premonitory slackening of the line, 団体／死体 緊張したd in the intoxication of the 戦う／戦い. 吸収するd, 完全に lost to everything save the 上陸 of the gamiest trout he had ever had on his line, time and his surroundings were obliterated alike from Dale's consciousness. The world had 突然の 狭くするd to the 激しく揺する-bound waterfall and the seething pool beneath it; life was compressed into the 上陸 of that one fourteen-インチ trout 安全に upon the bank.
The smothering 倍のs of a 激しい 一面に覆う／毛布 flung over his 長，率いる and shoulders from behind had the 麻ひさせるing 影響 of a sudden extinguishment of thought. He did not even think to cry out or to struggle, as 棒 and reel were snatched from his 手渡すs and he was tripped and brought violently to the ground.
Some one sat upon him, 新たな展開ing the 一面に覆う／毛布 tightly around his middle so that he could not 解放する／自由な his 手渡すs. While he kicked aimlessly in futile panic, some one else began pulling off his fishing boots. And through it all no one spoke a word. The silence was deadly, 脅迫的な, as baffling to the 犠牲者 as the stifling 倍のs of the tightly wrapped 一面に覆う／毛布.
LIKE a wildcat in a 捕らえる、獲得する Dale struggled and fought, but that first minute of dazed inaction placed him at a disadvantage, for it gave his 加害者s time to draw the 一面に覆う／毛布 tight. 手渡すs were tugging and twitching and pulling at his 着せる／賦与するs, but though he 設立する 発言する／表明する enough to 断言する and 脅す he got no word of reply. He was fighting blindly against 手渡すs, 膝s and steel-muscled 武器. The 一面に覆う／毛布 was 転換d until it seemed meant to throttle him, so tightly was it pulled around his neck. Then it was drawn 負かす／撃墜する again around his 団体／死体, his 武器 軍隊d inside, and the 一面に覆う／毛布 ends snugly tied.
After that, one sat on him again while he heard some one moving 慎重に の中で the 激しく揺するs. In the 中央 of his 激怒（する） and helplessness it occurred to him that it would be impossible to 跡をつける anybody away from the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, that thought coming when he heard the sound of stealthy, receding footsteps. The burly individual seated upon Dale's middle waited for a time—how long Dale could not tell, though it seemed at least an hour—and then, 絶対 without any 警告 save an investigative jerking at the 一面に覆う／毛布 knots, heaved himself up and fled.
Simple as had been the method used to 持つ／拘留する him 捕虜, it took Dale five minutes to get at the knots, untie them and 解放する／自由な himself of the 一面に覆う／毛布. By that time the running footsteps had 中止するd and the place was as serene as he had 設立する it half an hour before, the only sound the churning roar of the 落ちるs.
Dale got up, stepped off the rough cobbles to a smooth 激しく揺する more comfortable for his 明らかにする feet and 星／主役にするd around him. The trout he had been meticulously tiring out must have been yanked 岸に in one heave as the 棒 was snatched from him, for it lay feebly thrashing its tail in a crevice between two 激しく揺するs. But the 棒 was nowhere to be seen. His 着せる／賦与するs were gone, even to his hat, which he remembered had been pulled from his 長，率いる by a 手渡す reaching up under the 一面に覆う／毛布 while he struggled. He stood there on the flat 激しく揺する naked, the rising sun 向こうずねing into his wrathful 注目する，もくろむs, a brown army 一面に覆う／毛布 宙返り／暴落するd at his feet.
After a minute of 星／主役にするing around him, he 選ぶd up the 一面に覆う／毛布, shook it vigorously, wrapped it around him and leaving the trout where it lay, started 支援する 石油精製. There was nothing else to do. However much he might want to start hotly off in 追跡 of his mysterious 加害者s, he could not （問題を）取り上げる the 追跡する without 着せる／賦与するs or a 武器 of any 肉親，親類d. So he went nipping carefully over the 激しく揺するs where before he had walked heedless of rose briars, sticks and sharp 石／投石するs that now 妨げるd his 進歩 and 傷つける him cruelly. Coming up, he had rejoiced in the wildness; now he wished there was a 追跡する, and the broader and smoother it was, the better he would have liked it.
He hoped to reach the ranch before any one was up, but he could not travel very 急速な／放蕩な and so, slipping like a どろぼう into his room, he 直面するd Cynthy who had finished making his bed and was 取り組むing the 職業 of 選ぶing up his 所持品 which he had scattered over the 床に打ち倒す and on 議長，司会を務めるs when he got out his fishing 取り組む at midnight. She started, turned and 星／主役にするd with astonishment when he appeared suddenly in the doorway clutching the 一面に覆う／毛布 around him, little trickles of 血 事情に応じて変わる 負かす／撃墜する the scratches on his calves.
"For heavens' sake!" Cynthy gasped, maidenly 当惑 潜水するd in her amazement. "What have you been doing to yourself? You didn't 落ちる into the creek, did you?"
Walking on the 味方する of his feet, Dale went mincing over to the nearest 議長，司会を務める and sat 負かす／撃墜する, pulling the 一面に覆う／毛布 over his 膝s.
"If you've got a pin or a needle handy, I'd like to take a million thorns out of my feet," he said stiffly.
"Here's a needle—but what have you been doing to yourself, Mr. Emery? I thought you'd gone fishing." Cynthy's 注目する，もくろむs were wide and 尋問, but her mouth looked ready to break into laughter.
Dale frowned. He had not meant to say anything at all about the attack. He had 手配中の，お尋ね者 to wait and see who first betrayed himself by seeming conscious of his misadventure. But here was Cynthy with that terribly keen and direct mind of hers 需要・要求するing the truth.
"I did go fishing," he said grimly. "I told you I was going—you and Donna. Did you tell any one what I ーするつもりであるd to do this morning?"
The irrepressible smile was swept away from her lips.
"Did I tell any one? What do you mean?"
"I mean, did you tell any one I was going to get up 早期に this morning and go fishing?" The absurdity of his 外見 could not 少なくなる the gravity of his manner and Cynthy 明らかに realized it. She sat 負かす／撃墜する 突然の on the bed 直面するing him.
"Why, no, I didn't tell any one—no one except Donna, and you were talking to her yourself about it, last night. Why? What happened?"
"Somebody was laying for me, up at those 落ちるs," he told her without preface. "They must have read my mind, or else they followed me. I was busy 上陸 my first fish when they—piled in." His 直面する reddened at the 現実化 of just how ridiculous it was going to sound.
"They? But who?" Cynthy caught her breath, setting her teeth はっきりと into her lower lip. "Were they—did you know them?"
"They were mighty careful I shouldn't," he said 厳しく. "They threw this 一面に覆う／毛布 over my 長，率いる and kept me bundled in it while they—took my 着せる／賦与するs. Even my fishing 取り組む."
"Oh!" Cynthy will not be whiter in her 棺 than she looked then. "What—did—they say?" The words （機の）カム in gulps, 軍隊d out by sheer will 力／強力にする.
"Not a thing. Never opened their mouths." He 注目する，もくろむd her strangely. "It was that damned money, of course. They went through my stuff at Dalton's and decided I must carry it with me, I suppose. They weren't overlooking any bets this time. They even took my socks."
"And you—they didn't—"
"No," he said, deliberately 残虐な, "I'm afraid I must disappoint you again. They didn't get it. Do you hear? They didn't get one damn cent!" He watched her recoil a little from his トン, and relented. "You'd have said it served me 権利. But they lost out; unless the 着せる／賦与するs fit," he 追加するd sardonically.
Cynthy was sitting there white-直面するd, 星／主役にするing straight before her. She did not seem to have heard his last rather fatuous 発言／述べる.
"I'll have to 手渡す it to them for mind readers," he went on, 注目する，もくろむing her curiously. "You say you didn't tell any one—"
Her ちらりと見ること 転換d to his 直面する, dwelt there as if her thoughts were trying to 焦点（を合わせる） themselves upon what he was 説.
"I? No—no, I'm sure I didn't tell any one. You planned it 負かす／撃墜する at the creek, and the boys 棒 up just as we were coming 支援する." She seemed to be thinking aloud, to be piecing together what had taken place. "They were singing and carrying on all the while they were here, don't you remember? No one spoke of fishing—did they?"
"No, that's 権利," Dale assented. "The 支配する wasn't について言及するd. Not until—"
"Until the boys had gone and we were talking about getting up in the morning. We were alone —Donna and you and myself—" She stopped short, looking quickly away from him. "Yes," she repeated 刻々と, "we three were alone. I remember distinctly."
Dale did not say anything, for he too remembered distinctly. He remembered that Quin Burnett had crossed the room while they were talking by the piano, going into the bedroom where his wife was already asleep, as her audible breathing attested.
"They were mighty careful not to 傷つける me," he said, for no particular 推論する／理由 except that he did not like her silence. When she did not answer that, he tried again. "I 推定する／予想する the crooks have been 権利 on my 追跡する ever since I left Cheyenne; at Dalton's they tried it, and when they didn't get what they were after, they followed me on up here. Of course, if they were hiding somewhere, watching the house—say, what's the 事柄 with some one 存在 hidden in the grove last evening and 審理，公聴会 what we said? Then they'd 簡単に watch to see which way I went this morning, and 追跡する me. That must be the 解答 of the mystery. Don't you think so?"
Cynthy gave a long sigh and stood up. "Yes, I think that must be the way it happened," she said, looking him straight in the 注目する，もくろむs. "I hear Judy stirring the pancake 乱打する, and that means breakfast in ten minutes. I—maybe we'd better not say anything to any one yet, until we—"
"Sure, we'll have to talk it over first," Dale told her readily; almost too readily for her peace of mind, if Cynthy were 十分に 警報 to read 調印するs just then. "Don't wait breakfast for me if I'm not there—just let them think I'm not up."
She looked at him and nodded, her 注目する，もくろむs troubled as she went out on to the porch and into the kitchen through the 支援する way; and Dale, profanely 調査するing the bruised 単独のs of his feet for briars, heard her talking to the squaw. Quin Burnett （機の）カム up from the stables, Neal Somers に引き続いて, and Dale heard them washing their 手渡すs in the big white enamel 水盤／入り江 on the kitchen porch. He paused in his first-援助（する） 外科 and listened, frowning thoughtfully at the blank 塀で囲む behind the bed. Had there been more than two men? He had thought so, but still it might be—
He 押し進めるd the thought from him, but it returned 断固としてやる. There was no getting away from it, Quin Burnett had walked through the living room while he had been 誇るing that he would have a mess of trout for breakfast. He had seemed preoccupied and 明らかに had not given them any attention, but that did not mean Quin could not have heard. Had there been more than two men? It had all happened so quickly, and with his 長，率いる in the 一面に覆う／毛布 and fighting to 解放する／自由な himself he could not tell.
Quin looked up at him with some surprise when Dale 現在のd himself at the breakfast （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する a few minutes later. Neal Somers, 注ぐing syrup generously over his second helping of hotcakes, also sent him a quick ちらりと見ること that might have meant much or little—one would have to see into his mind to know for 確かな .
"Thought I heard you say something about goin' fishin' this morning," Quin 観察するd, in his soft drawl. "What's the 事柄? Didn't wake up in time?"
"I told him he wouldn't," Cynthy put in quickly. "We were up too late last night, I guess. Did we keep you awake, Mother?"
"No, dunno as you did. What time did the boys leave? I thought they was going to make a night of it, the way they hung on."
"You can have pretty fair luck fishin' any time of day up here," Quin returned to the 支配する. "There's a place about a mile above here where there's やめる a hefty 落ちるs, for a little creek. いつかs you can 運ぶ／漁獲高 'em outa there as 急速な／放蕩な as you can bait your hook."
"You see, Father doesn't believe in 飛行機で行く casting," Cynthy smiled bravely across at Dale. "I bet he even uses a bent pin half the time; and I know he digs worms for bait."
"井戸／弁護士席, and I bring in the fish too, you notice. Better have the girls take you up to the 落ちるs, Dale. If it don't turn off too hot, you oughta be able to have pretty good sport up there."
Dale's 注目する，もくろむs turned to Cynthy, caught her startled look, and ちらりと見ることd away with an 半端物 sensation of 犯罪. It did not seem fair to surprise the betrayal in her 直面する.
"Does that mean I'm 解雇する／砲火／射撃d from the hay meadow?" he asked lightly. "I've been wondering about my exact status here. After what you said yesterday, I wasn't sure whether you 手配中の，お尋ね者 me or not."
"You can work if you want to," Quin said indifferently. "If you don't, you're welcome to stay anyhow—if the women folks don't kick."
"I'm sure he's welcome to stay, far as I'm 関心d," Mrs. Burnett 追加するd her apathetic welcome. "Cynthy does most of the cookin'; and I guess one more or いっそう少なく don't 事柄. We always have folks comin' and goin'."
"The hay 乗組員 lives 負かす／撃墜する in the old house," Quin went on in a desultory トン, though it was not his habit to be garrulous. "Handier to the hay field and makes it easier on the women folks. Looks like we're goin' to have やめる a 刈る of hay this year; more'n we had last summer or the year before that."
Dale was not 利益／興味d in hay 刈るs just then. What he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know was Quin Burnett's 推論する／理由 for について言及するing fishing up at the 落ちるs, and why Cynthy had given him that 脅すd look. Did she know or 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う more than she would 認める? It certainly looked like it.
He tried to 熟考する／考慮する Burnett, to form some 限定された 結論 about the old man. He thought he could （悪事，秘密などを）発見する a hidden 強制, an 認識／意識性 of some 近づく trouble which he would not 収容する／認める, and he was 肯定的な that Burnett was 粘着するing to the 支配する of 天候 and grass growth 単に for the 目的 of 避けるing a silence or, what would be worse, some 発言／述べる that might precipitate a discussion best left alone. For the 残り／休憩（する）, Dale still admired Burnett. He was a handsome old man with the 長，率いる and brow of a thinker, the 肉親，親類d, （疑いを）晴らす 注目する，もくろむs of a soul 甘い and loyal to its traditions and a mouth and jaw which showed lines of strength, even of a 確かな grim inflexibility.
That same strength 明らかにする／漏らすd itself in a softer degree in Cynthy, and the same 知識人 look lay across her forehead. Didn't it mean anything in either? Was it just a trick of bony structure and facial muscles, after all? Dale wondered, ちらりと見ることing as often as he dared from one to the other. Cynthy was upset; 脅すd, if one 手配中の，お尋ね者 to put it bluntly. And just as surely as she unconsciously 明らかにする／漏らすd her 恐れる, her father betrayed the fact that he was worried.
Even Neal Somers seemed ill at 緩和する and watchful, keeping his 注目する，もくろむs for the most part turned toward his plate, with little sly ちらりと見ることs from under his eyebrows. He looked oftener at Quin than at any one else, Dale thought, as if he were curious about something. The only person at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する who seemed 完全に 満足させるd was Mrs. Burnett, who radiated a smug contentment with her own home after her experience with hotels and restaurants. 特に did she dilate upon the 厚い yellow cream, the eggs and the butter, and the fact that her own feather bed was like heaven after them hotel mattresses. She'd just as soon sleep on the soft 味方する of a board as in a hotel bed, she confided to her family. Mrs. Burnett, Dale decided with an inward smile, was one person who could 安全に be 除去するd from his 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うs.
"WELL," said Cynthy, stopping beside the creek and ちらりと見ることing rather helplessly around her, "what have you decided to do about it? Shall we look along here for some 調印する of them, or just what do you want to do?" She pulled a 十分な-blown wild rose from its 茎・取り除く beside her and began absently nibbling the petals. "What you せねばならない do," she 追加するd, "is have Father take you 支援する to town with that money, and put it in the bank."
"And be waylaid and robbed on the way in?"
"Oh, there wouldn't be much danger of that with Father along. I don't think you'd be bothered at all. And besides, if you started off on horseback as if you were just going to ride around and look at the country, you'd probably be able to get to Dalton's where the car is before any one knew you were going. Father knows all the short 削減（する） 追跡するs and it really isn't so very far. Not more than nine miles."
"If I was watched last night," said Dale stubbornly, "I'll be watched to-day. They know they didn't get what they're after and they'll keep on my 追跡する; I'm sure of that."
"And you seem to think it's 広大な／多数の／重要な sport!" she cried exasperatedly. "You 行為／法令／行動する as if it's just a game!"
"Hide and 捜し出す," he nodded, just to tease her. Make her mad enough and she'd say just what she thought, maybe. "It isn't 正確に／まさに what I planned for the summer, I 収容する／認める, but it's a 広大な／多数の／重要な pastime; sport, as you say."
"It's a fool's sport," she exclaimed, her 注目する，もくろむs flashing. "If it weren't for the trouble you're bringing to—to others, I'd never 解除する a finger to save you or your silly money. You must be crazy, or more stupid even than you 行為／法令／行動する, if you can't see what you're doing."
"Stupid, I 推定する／予想する," he assented equably. "井戸／弁護士席, here's about where we were standing when we held that historic conversation about the proper time and method of catching trout from your delightful stream. If you'll stand here, Cynthy, and repeat from memory what you said last night, in about the same トン of 発言する／表明する you used then, I'll walk off as far as I can hear you distinctly. Then I'll 示す the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す and come 支援する and let you go off and listen to me. 認めるing then that the crooks have 審理，公聴会 as keen as ours, that will give us our field—"
"You're 簡単に trying to make a fool of me!" Cynthy （刑事）被告 him, her 発言する／表明する low and 緊張した, her 団体／死体 quivering a little with the emotion she was 持つ／拘留するing rigidly under 支配（する）／統制する.
"Oh, no! We agreed, didn't we, that some one must have been listening to us last night? It's either that, or—" he waited until her lips parted for speech "—either that or mind-reading, and we don't either of us take that 本気で. At least I don't, even 認めるing my inherent stupidity."
"I didn't say you are stupid, I said you 行為／法令／行動する stupid."
"井戸／弁護士席, I won't quibble over words. What else can I believe, if no one 秘かに調査するd on us last night? You wouldn't ask me to believe it was just a coincidence, their 存在 at the 落ちるs within ten minutes after I arrived? Some one certainly knew I ーするつもりであるd to get out at daybreak and followed me. And how would they know, if they didn't hear me say something about it?"
Cynthy did not answer that. She was 星／主役にするing at the water, her lips 圧力（をかける）d together, her 注目する，もくろむs blinking a little as if she were afraid she might cry.
"井戸／弁護士席, I'm going up to the 落ちるs," Dale said with a 確かな ruthless 公式文書，認める of the man-hunter in his 発言する／表明する. "This thing has gone pretty far, you know. They got away with all the 着せる／賦与するs I had on and a 棒 and reel that 始める，決める me 支援する a hundred bucks and more. Why they 手配中の，お尋ね者 my 調書をとる／予約する of 飛行機で行くs I don't know, but I'm certainly going to make it my 商売／仕事 now to run this thing 負かす／撃墜する. I may be a fool already, but they aren't going to razz me all over the country and make a monkey of me without some come-支援する."
"Why do you want to go 支援する up there?" she demurred, her straight brows pulled together, as she ちらりと見ることd up in his 直面する. "Of course they're gone long ago."
"They might leave some 調印する, though. I used to be a pretty nifty boy scout and I think I can still 追跡する pretty 井戸／弁護士席." He looked at her irresolutely. "Maybe you'd better stay here. I might want to 引き上げ（る） around やめる a bit."
Her answer to that was a firmer 圧力 of her lips as she stepped to one 味方する and started off upstream, walking with a quick, purposeful stride which left no 疑問 of her 目的地. Dale grinned to himself as he followed her, fully 推定する／予想するing to take the lead as soon as he caught up. But Cynthy kept 井戸／弁護士席 in 前進する of him and never once looked 支援する or answered when he spoke. As a hiker she 始める，決める a pace it winded him to follow, but she probably had the 高度 to help her in that and moreover she had all her life been accustomed to walking over rough ground. But at the rocky bend of the stream she stopped and waited until he （機の）カム up.
"Was it here?" she asked coldly. "This is where we usually try for the big fish; an experienced fisherman would of course 認める it as splendid water for trout."
"And a stranger would want to know what all the noise is about, up around the point. I went on to the 落ちるs," he told her, and led the way, turning once or twice to help her over the 玉石s until he saw that she perversely 辞退するd to see his proffered 手渡す, when he went on by himself. So it happened that when Cynthy 押し進めるd the bushes aside at the last turn below the 落ちるs, he was standing 星／主役にするing 負かす／撃墜する upon a heap of 着せる／賦与するing laid on the flat 激しく揺する where he had stood naked not more than two hours before.
"井戸／弁護士席, what do you know about this?" He turned when he heard her coming and waved a 手渡す eloquently at the pile.
"Oh, they brought your 着せる／賦与するs 支援する!" she exclaimed, 星／主役にするing rather blankly at the heap.
"Look at those boots, would you? And my trout 棒, that they've 廃虚d to make sure I didn't have any money rolled up inside. What's the big idea of bringing 支援する the pieces? There isn't a thing here I can use again—except maybe the reel," he 追加するd hopefully, 選ぶing it up from the 最高の，を越す of the heap. "Why do you suppose they piled the stuff here?"
"So you wouldn't go 追跡（する）ing around too much," Cynthy said 敏速に. "It's a hint not to, I suppose. Of course, you know they had been here, and if they put the stuff here, you wouldn't try to 追跡する them."
"Oh, wouldn't I?" Dale snorted.
"Of course, you can do as you please, but I don't see what good it will do. They're probably miles away by this time."
"I wonder!" Dale muttered, still poking and 調査するing. "Say, there's one thing they didn't bring 支援する, Cynthy. I had a small 法案 倍の with some money in it, and I see that's 行方不明の."
"I suppose," said Cynthy, "that's what you went 支援する for after you started this morning? You might better have left it in your room." She had sat 負かす／撃墜する on a 玉石 and was gazing absently at the trout Dale had left between the 激しく揺するs. Now she looked at him curiously. "Were you afraid to leave money in a room at our house?"
"I don't やめる get you, Cynthy. I didn't go 支援する after my money. It was just a 軍隊 of habit, I guess, that made me slip the pocketbook into my pocket when I changed. My knife is here, and my cigarettes—I took everything out of my other pockets and put them in these. A fellow does those things automatically. And the 法案 倍の is gone. See? I buttoned the flap 負かす／撃墜する over it, I remember, last night when I got out these breeches."
"But you went 支援する for something," Cynthy 主張するd, 注目する，もくろむing him strangely. "I heard you step up on the porch and open the door and go in. I'm sure I did, though I was half asleep. I sort of wondered what it was you forgot. And then I heard you go tiptoeing out, and I knew it was too 早期に to call Judy, so I dozed a little while before I got up."
"You must have heard me when I started out. I didn't go 支援する for anything. I （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it straight 負かす／撃墜する to the creek and on up here. And they jumped me 権利 here, while I was playing that trout. I'd just begun to reel him in when the 一面に覆う／毛布 went over my 長，率いる—"
"But you did go 支援する. I heard you when you went out first—that woke me. Donna and I have the next room, and there's only a board partition between. I just thought, '井戸／弁護士席, he did wake up 早期に, after all,' and was almost asleep again when I heard you step up on the porch and come in."
"Not me," Dale 否定するd again, shaking his 長，率いる. "Must have been somebody else."
"But who in the world would?" Then she ちらりと見ることd at the 着せる／賦与するs and turned a shade paler. Their mute 証言 answered her.
"One thing," said Dale, rolling the ripped and 削減（する） 衣料品s up in a bundle, "whoever went into my room couldn't have been on this 職業 up here, because he wouldn't have had time to do both. I walked 権利 along up here, and I know it was only a few minutes—that fish jumped （疑いを）晴らす of the water to get the 飛行機で行く, and it was my first cast. And he was just beginning to tire—"
"I know—oh, please go 支援する to Cheyenne before something happens!"
"No, I （機の）カム up here to look at land and cattle and I'm not going to be bluffed out by any cheap 田舎の crooks. That's all they are. Town yeggs wouldn't pull this 肉親，親類d of stuff. If they went after a bunch of money, they'd get it and no fooling."
"And so will these men," Cynthy 宣言するd unguardedly. "Do you think they'll ever stop now until they 後継する? If you've got that money with you, they'll get it. Oh, you're such a fool! You have the contempt for country people that all city folks have. You think no one out here has any brains or any 神経 or any 決意. I 港／避難所't a 疑問 you even call us yokels—or you would, if you happened to think of the word. But I want to 警告する you that you shouldn't underestimate the 知能—"
"Oh, so you 収容する／認める that this is 地元の talent, do you?" Dale was looking at her under halfclosed lids. "I thought you agreed with me that they had followed me out from town—from Chicago, for that 事柄. You said you did. But we're getting 負かす／撃墜する to 厚かましさ／高級将校連 tacks now, it seems."
"No, we're not, unless you're ready to go and put your money in the bank. It all simmers 負かす／撃墜する to that. And I never said it was 地元の talent. You said you wouldn't be bluffed out by cheap 田舎の crooks, and I say you're a fool if you think people out here 港／避難所't just as much 知能 as your city crooks. If it is some one—" She flung out a 手渡す in angry 解雇／（訴訟の）却下. "There's no use in talking to you," she finished exasperatedly. "I just don't want you to make 犯罪のs of people by having that money where they can get it."
"No 恐れる—they were made long before I got here."
"How do you know? They may be just—awfully hard up. They may think you've got more money than you know what to do with, and you wouldn't 行方不明になる forty or fifty thousand."
"Now, that's a thought, Cynthy. Tell me who is hard up in this country, and I'll—"
"Nobody!" she cried hotly. "I said—for all you know, they might be. It might not be 常習的な 犯罪のs, but just somebody who is weak and tempted."
"I can't agree with you there." Dale shook his 長，率いる. "They may be tempted, but they're not weak. I'm 公正に／かなり husky myself, and I didn't have a Chinaman's chance with them."
"No, and you won't have, either," she retorted. "You're so smug and smart about it, Mr. Emery, I hope now they do get it; every—damned cent!" And with that, Cynthy turned and started home, walking 速く and never once looking 支援する.
FOR a minute Dale stood 星／主役にするing after her, his jaw sagged with the suddenness of her 出発. Then he grinned a little at the very conscious recklessness of her 断言する word, and since fishing was out of the question, he sat 負かす／撃墜する on the 激しく揺する she had vacated to consider the whole 事件／事情／状勢 as impartially as was possible to the one most 深く，強烈に 関心d.
The exact 原因（となる） of her 怒り／怒る was not far to 捜し出す, though just at first he wondered whether it was his teasing that had upset her. But he did not think it was that, for Cynthy had seemed a pretty good sport except where this money was 関心d. On that one 支配する she lost all sense of humor and became anxious, 十分な of 憤慨s and reproaches. Was it only on general 原則s that she was so insistent upon his getting rid of the money? Dale did not think so. He thought she must know pretty 井戸／弁護士席 who was after it; either that, or she must 恐れる that some one she knew might become 伴う／関わるd in the 事件／事情／状勢. Was it that noble-looking old man, her father?
It still did not seem possible to Dale, and yet he knew that modern psychologists have discarded the belief that character may be read by the 直面する. He had been taught that many of the greatest 犯罪のs are guileless in 外見, and that the stoutest liars look you square in the 注目する，もくろむ, and that every man is a 可能性のある lawbreaker. He decided that 外見s should not 影響（力） him 今後, and that if the 証拠 continued to point to Quin Burnett, there the 疑惑 should 残り／休憩（する） in spite of noble looks or 磁石の personality. He even 延長するd that to Hugh Mowerby, though he had no 原因（となる） to 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う Hugh, other than the fact that Hugh had been in Cheyenne and at Dalton's when the two 試みる／企てるs to 略奪する him were made.
Now that Cynthy was gone he 検査／視察するd his 着せる／賦与するing more carefully. The 飛行機で行く 調書をとる／予約する had been returned but several of his best 飛行機で行くs were 行方不明の. They might have dropped out, or they might have been stolen—and he 認める to himself that they had probably dropped out, since the 調書をとる／予約する itself had been torn apart to make sure nothing was 隠すd in the leather lining. Even the 直面するing and waistband of his corduroy breeches had been ripped open and 検査／視察するd. Not a 二塁打 thickness of cloth anywhere had been left unexamined. And as Dale 熟視する／熟考するd the havoc they had wrought, his 怒り／怒る grew and took 有形の form. No 事柄 who they were, they couldn't get away with it. As he had told Cynthy, the thing had gone too far for him to overlook it and be content that they had failed. Whoever they were, they had pretty reliable （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） to go on, and they weren't 性質の／したい気がして to give up very easily, but in the long run they must be 軍隊d to 結論する that for some 推論する／理由 he had not brought the money with him.
Still, he had 率直に 宣言するd to both Quin Burnett and Cynthy that he did have it—and if another 成果／努力 was made to find it he would be 軍隊d to one 結論. Strangers would certainly be pretty 井戸／弁護士席 discouraged after this last desperate 試みる／企てる.
He got up and tried half-heartedly to 追跡する the crooks and find where they had stopped to go through his 着せる／賦与するs. It couldn't be far, he felt sure, or they would not have taken the trouble to make that ironical gesture of returning his things. But the piled 激しく揺するs and outcroppings of flat ledges 延長するd all through that 近隣 and the soreness of his feet made the rough going difficult. He soon gave up the search and taking his bundle under his arm, he returned morosely to the ranch, turning over in his mind several different 計画（する）s calculated to 暴露する the 犯人s and sourly discarding each one in turn, because his ありふれた sense told him it was impractical. Until he had more 限定された 証拠 he would only be stabbing in the dark or making a fool of himself by 告発する／非難するing the wrong party.
Cynthy and her father were coming slowly up from the meadow when Dale （機の）カム limping out of the grove to that corner of the 支援する porch where the door of his room opened. In the living room Donna was listlessly playing the piano and since Dale was in no mood to help her while away a dull forenoon, he was thankful for that outside door to his room. He did not want to see Cynthy either, for that 事柄; but he kept watching her, hoping she would not look up and discover him. She was walking と一緒に the big bay horse her father was riding, and the two were talking 真面目に together, Cynthy 持つ／拘留するing to a stirrup to keep pace with him and looking up into Quin's 直面する as she walked. But just as Dale 解除するd his foot to the porch step Quin looked at him—for all Dale knew, those shrewd blue 注目する，もくろむs had 秘かに調査するd him in the grove—and reined his horse that way. There was no 避けるing an 遭遇（する） now, if Quin 手配中の，お尋ね者 to talk to him, but Dale had his bundle of 着せる／賦与するs for an excuse and he went in, rather hoping the two would take the hint.
To that end he ぐずぐず残るd within the room, looking at his scattered 所持品 and wondering just how 完全にする had been the search which Cynthy had led him to believe must have taken place that morning. At first ちらりと見ること he could not tell whether anything had been moved. He had unpacked rather hurriedly, his mind on his fishing. Cynthy had started to tidy the room, but she had not gone very far with it, his 調書をとる／予約するs seeming to have caught and held her attention. Now that he thought of it, he remembered that she had been browsing through one of the 容積／容量s when he walked in upon her and the start she gave 証明するd how 吸収するd she had been. It must have been Shelley, for that 調書をとる／予約する lay by itself on the dresser, beside the neat little 列／漕ぐ／騒動 she had made of the others; but she had not 完全にするd the 協定, he saw, for only four 調書をとる／予約するs were there—five with the Shelley she had been looking at.
Dale wheeled and scrutinized the room, his underlip between his teeth. He had taken the 調書をとる／予約するs out of the trunk tray to get at a soft-collared shirt that lay beneath them. He had stacked the 調書をとる／予約するs on the 床に打ち倒す at the end of the dresser; the entire seven, he was 確かな . Those rich red morocco bindings did not tend to encourage carelessness or a scattering of the 容積／容量s; they made too sumptuous a 部隊 when placed together, too 有望な a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す of color の中で his things. One would as soon 投げ上げる／ボディチェックする 罰金 磁器 vases here and there as those beautifully bound, 手渡す-道具d 調書をとる／予約するs.
Dale's 手渡す went to them now, his fingers 事情に応じて変わる caressingly over the satiny leather while he counted. Five. There せねばならない be seven. Five; he counted again like a child not やめる sure of its 正確. A 深い line appeared between his eyebrows as he scanned the 肩書を与えるs of the remaining 調書をとる／予約するs. Browning was gone, and one 容積／容量 of Shakespeare. But with his 指名する stamped in gold on the cover he could not やめる believe, even then, that the thieves would take two 調書をとる／予約するs—unless, of course, they had some vague idea that they might have the money in them.
"Cynthy tells me somebody 取り組むd you again up the creek for that money of yours." Quin Burnett, standing with one 手渡す を締めるd against the 事例／患者ing, spoke 突然の from the doorway.
"I asked her not to," Dale said, ちらりと見ることing up. "But I don't know as it 事柄s much one way or the other."
"They didn't get it, from what Cynthy says you told her." Quin （機の）カム in, his presence seeming to fill the small room as if several persons had entered, though Dale was only ばく然と conscious of it at the time. What he did realize at the moment was a sudden impulse to tell Quin all about it—things he had not yet hinted to a soul. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 Quin to talk just as 率直に to him and to tell him why it was that he always looked so worried when the money was について言及するd. But the 行方不明の 調書をとる／予約するs obtruded themselves upon his consciousness now and thrust the other thought aside for the moment.
"Is Cynthy out there?" he asked with seeming irrelevance. "I saw her with you a minute ago."
"Yes, what is it?" Cynthy herself （機の）カム in and stood by her father, looking at Dale with that impersonal 利益／興味 which is so baffling and so utterly 冷気／寒がらせるing.
"I wondered if you had taken a couple of my 調書をとる／予約するs. I had seven of these bindings, and I just noticed there are only five here. I saw you looking at them—"
"I 選ぶd them up from the 床に打ち倒す where you had thrown them, certainly." Invisible icicles dripped from Cynthy's words. "I love 調書をとる／予約するs too 井戸／弁護士席 to see them thrown 負かす／撃墜する like old shoes. But as for stealing them—"
"Oh, good Lord!" groaned Dale, his 直面する ゆらめくing crimson.
"—As for stealing them," Cynthy repeated implacably, "I can only 保証する you that I am innocent of any—"
"Nobody said you stole anything, Cynthy," her father reproved her with gentle firmness. "That ain't a word that's ever been used to one of my 血, or is ever going to be, I hope. Emery thinks maybe you might've borrowed a couple. Ain't that 権利, Dale?"
"Why, sure, that's all I meant," Dale hurriedly attested, swallowing dryly. "And Cynthy's perfectly welcome—it's because she heard some one in here after I left this morning—"
The door from the living room opened diffidently and Mrs. Burnett's 紅潮／摘発するd and somewhat swarthy 直面する peered in.
"What's the 事柄? Somebody sick or 傷つける, or something? I heard all of you talkin' in here, and I didn't know—"
"No, come in, Mrs. Burnett. I was just showing the folks some of my things." Where Quin and Cynthy were struck rather speechless, Dale's trained self-所有／入手 covered what would さもなければ have been an ぎこちない moment.
"Oh, golly, what gallumptious 調書をとる／予約するs!" Donna, looking over her mother's shoulder, ducked in and pounced upon the lot. "Honest-to-God morocco, and his 指名する in solid gold! I'll bet his girl friends gave their boy friend a にわか雨—what are they? Oh—poetry! No wonder they're pure and untarnished. I never thought they were all that highbrow in Chicago; how come?"
"A bookish friend gave them to me," Dale grinned. "He thought I might need something to be a companion to me in my 孤立するd life out here in the wilds of Wyoming. He made the 選択, Donna—I 無罪を主張する."
"Mother," Cynthy asked with 甘い incisiveness, "did you take two of Mr. Emery's beautiful red 調書をとる／予約するs?"
"Me?" Mrs. Burnett started. "My land, what would I want of two 調書をとる／予約するs? I wouldn't have time to read one, let alone two."
"Of course not," Dale agreed soothingly. "I must have mislaid them. They're keepsakes, or I wouldn't have について言及するd—"
"What were they? Poetry too?" Donna was still fingering the red morocco.
"Browning and Shakespeare. It doesn't 事柄; I'll run across them somewhere."
"You sure will, big boy. Nobody's going to run off with that 肉親，親類d of brain food around this ranch—except Cynth. She's the family highbrow. Little Donna's on vacation and you couldn't 軍隊 a line of that stuff into my brain on a bet. They look good enough to eat, but I don't want 'em." And with a derisive wave of her pretty 手渡す Donna went 支援する to her piano playing.
"井戸／弁護士席, I ain't got 'em, and Judy don't know b from a bull's foot. Maybe Cynthy carried 'em off to read—she's always got her nose glued to a 調書をとる／予約する, and poetry wouldn't stop her; I've seen her 始める，決める and read '楽園 Lost' just like it was a story. Where is that old 調書をとる／予約する of '楽園 Lost,' Cynthy? Mr. Emery might like to read it." As if no more remained to be said, Mrs. Burnett turned and walked ひどく away to the kitchen.
"I didn't!" cried Cynthy under her breath, going red and white by turns. "There were just five 調書をとる／予約するs on the 床に打ち倒す when I （機の）カム in to do the room. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get all the work done I could before breakfast, and I knew you were off fishing for I heard you—twice."
"No, you heard the fellow that helped himself to two 調書をとる／予約するs," Dale said, in a gentler トン than Cynthy had any 権利 to 推定する／予想する after the way she had snubbed him. "He may have 手配中の，お尋ね者 to make sure I didn't have a few thousands tucked between the leaves."
"I thought of that," Cynthy 観察するd spitefully. "That's why I was so 確かな there were only five. I 診察するd them all to make sure they weren't trick 容積／容量s, some of them."
Quin walked over and 選ぶd up a 調書をとる／予約する, felt the covers, flipped the leaves slowly, looked at the 支援する and laid it 負かす／撃墜する, shaking his 長，率いる thoughtfully.
"If somebody come in here and stole two of your 調書をとる／予約するs, he done it to rile you up," he said. "手配中の，お尋ね者 to 脅す you, maybe, into tippin' your 手渡す." He let his ちらりと見ること travel slowly around the room, turned his 注目する，もくろむs toward the door into the living room, got out his 麻薬を吸う and began slowly to fill it with タバコ from a 新たな展開d leather pouch.
"I guess 早期に mornin's about the only time anybody could of come in here without bein' seen by some of us," he mused. "The girls and their mother wouldn't be up, nor the squaw either, much before six or a little after. I got up and went off 負かす／撃墜する to the lower meadow before breakfast this mornin', and Neal was 負かす／撃墜する doin' the chores. He was just through feedin' the pigs when I come 支援する and put my horse in the stable. We come on up to the house together. I could ask Neal if he saw anybody prowlin' around, but I don't s'提起する／ポーズをとる it would do any good. He'd 'a' said something about it if he had."
"I did think Cynthy dreamed she heard some one," Dale said, "but those 行方不明の 調書をとる／予約するs 証明する she was 権利; some one was in here ransacking my stuff again. It certainly does （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 the ジュース!"
Quin 注目する，もくろむd him meditatively while he lighted his 麻薬を吸う.
"井戸／弁護士席, I guess you're about ready to give in, now, and go put that money in the bank," he drawled between puffs. "They'll likely have the hide off'n you next!"
"It doesn't seem to worry him a bit that he's just daring people to 略奪する him," Cynthy said indignantly.
"No," Dale agreed ironically, "I can't seem to get that point of 見解（をとる）, can I? You've taken the trouble to point it out to me several times too, but all I can see is that I'm trying to go my way peaceably, minding my own 商売／仕事—which, by the way, would put the money into 循環／発行部数 in a perfectly 合法的 way. If I buy a ranch as I hope to do, there will be work for cowboys and ranch 手渡すs, and from what your father has told me, the country should be glad to have a going 関心 come in here. It would not be on a very large 規模, perhaps, and yet the 肉親，親類d of outfit I want wouldn't be a flivver, either."
"That's all 権利," Quin 厳粛に commented. "We're glad to see folks come in that can put some money into the country. It's the way you brought it that's raisin' hob." He looked out toward the hills with every tired line in his 直面する はっきりと accentuated in the 有望な light of midforenoon. "Half the 罪，犯罪s in the world could be 妨げるd if folks would just use ありふれた horse sense," he 追加するd 厳しく.
Dale 紅潮／摘発するd a little at that, but he did not seem to find anything to say, though Cynthy looked at him, half 推定する／予想するing him to make some retort.
"井戸／弁護士席, it's your money and you'll do as you please about it," Quin said, as he turned to go. "You'll bring trouble on yourself worse than losin' the 着せる／賦与するs off your 支援する, but I can't 軍隊 you to take care of your money. I've said all I'm goin' to, and if you're robbed it's your own 警戒／見張り and you'll have nobody to 非難する but yourself. Only," he 追加するd, looking over his shoulder at Dale, "I'm hopin' it won't happen in my house or on my ranch!"
"I'll see that it doesn't, Mr. Burnett, and thank you for the hint," Dale said stiffly. "I think I understand your position and I can't 非難する you in the least. But you must 収容する／認める, too, that no man with any 神経 or backbone at all is going to be bluffed or いじめ（る）d or 脅すd."
Quin paused in the doorway, sucking hard at his 麻薬を吸う.
"Now, don't get huffy. I don't mean you ain't welcome here, just as long as you want to stay. But it does go against the 穀物 to think that a man's 所有物／資産／財産 ain't 安全な in my house in 幅の広い daylight, and if you've got to lose your money before you're 満足させるd they can get it, I hope it won't be here you get your lesson." Before Dale thought of any proper reply to that, Quin 機動力のある his horse and 棒 away.
"Now you've got Father all stirred up," Cynthy reproached, standing by the door as if she too were about to leave him to solve his own mystery as best he could.
"井戸／弁護士席, I'm sorry, and if I can borrow a horse I'll ride up and 受託する Hugh's 招待. And I wish you'd take 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of these 調書をとる／予約するs, Cynthy, until I'm ready to settle 負かす／撃墜する somewhere. I really do think a lot of them, and if they're going to be stolen—"
"I'm sure I don't know why I should take the 責任／義務," Cynthy 反対するd, though her 注目する，もくろむs 軟化するd a little.
"I didn't ask you to be 責任がある a thing. I just want to make some sort of peace 申し込む／申し出ing, and since I can't give them to you 完全な, at least let me leave them with you. Part of them, anyway," he 説得するd, smiling across at her with a look not 平易な to resist. "I'm going away, and I want something to remind you how much I 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる all your advice. If you're very friendly and 許すing, I might take it later on; you can't tell."
Though he laughed when he said that, and though Cynthy 辞退するd to join in the laughter, she had three of the 調書をとる／予約するs in her 手渡すs when she went to her own room and Dale was left looking very much pleased about something.
THE amused smile ぐずぐず残るd while Dale repacked his 所持品. It was there when Donna called him in to help her put just the 権利 snap and stutter into the 最新の syncopated jazz song which she was learning, and he obeyed the 召喚するs willingly enough, though he had fully ーするつもりであるd to leave the ranch at once in spite of Burnett's tacit 陳謝. But as he （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 the time for Donna, he 設立する himself slipping 支援する into a spirit of friendliness toward the Burnett family. He listened to the quick footsteps of Cynthy as she busied herself in the big kitchen with the plodding squaw, 明らかに 解任するing from her mind all problems not 直接／まっすぐに 関係のある to baking day. Donna, やめる happy in having a playfellow, pulled one song after another from the stack of music she had piled on a 議長，司会を務める, and Dale dutifully sang his way through them all. It was the rose that is said to grow in No Man's Land which 解任するd him at last to the little world around him.
"I'm going up to Hugh's," he murmured between the first and second 詩（を作る）s. "How far is it, Donna? Think I could find the way alone?"
Donna struck a few sour 公式文書，認めるs, as she called them, and leaned to look out on the porch where her mother sat with a pile of mending beside her.
"S-sh—if you do, I want to go along," she whispered. "Don't let Mother know, or Dad either. They'd make a 列／漕ぐ／騒動 about nice young ladies running after young men. They're 絶対 archaic in some things, and they don't seem to realize I'm grown up. But—"
"What young man are you running after? Me?"
"No, stupid; I wouldn't think of 推定するing. It's Hugh. And the fond parents do not 認可する—"
"What are you whispering about in there, Donna? If it's something you ain't willing your mother should hear, it better not be said at all," her mother called はっきりと from the porch.
"And what about Cynthy? Do I have to shout everything I say about her?" Donna's 発言する／表明する was sweetly tolerant.
"I don't know what you'd want to say about Hyacinth that you'd need to whisper," her mother retorted. "I did think college would learn you as good manners as you got at home, but seems as if you take pride in doing things you've been told not to. You know better than to whisper; or you せねばならない, anyway."
"All 権利, then; I think Cynth せねばならない （頭が）ひょいと動く her hair and not go around looking like somebody's grandmother."
"Is that anything to whisper to a young man? Land knows you said it to Cynthy times enough last winter—I don't see as there's anything secret about it."
Donna shook her 長，率いる in mute 受託 of her mother's nagging, and went on playing the 序幕 loudly enough to cover her whispered 警告:
"We'll get Cynth and just go for a ride—and—'There's a rose that grows—in No Man's La-and—'"
But they did not get Cynthy and go for a ride that afternoon. While they were at dinner the sky darkened 速く, there （機の）カム the hoarse rumbling of 雷鳴 製図／抽選 nearer every moment, and before they had left the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する the rain was coming 負かす／撃墜する in slant sheets of water. Quin and Neal Somers had あわてて left the house at the first mutter and gone hurrying 負かす／撃墜する to の近くに the stable and to make sure that the hay 乗組員 were doing all in their 力／強力にする to 保護する the hay from the coming 嵐／襲撃する. They returned wet as muskrats just out of a millpond, water running in streams from their wide hat brims.
"Good thing we got that big stack topped this forenoon," Quin said, pulling off his wet coat and hanging it over a 議長，司会を務める 支援する in the kitchen to 乾燥した，日照りの. "I was kinda 怪しげな of the 天候 all morning, and put all the men to work gettin' the hay in. Good thing we got 支援する yesterday, though, or that big stack would be all open to the 天候."
Neal gave him a sidelong, affronted look.
"Oh, I don't know; I started them stackin' hay yesterday morning, just as quick as the dew 乾燥した，日照りのd off," he said sullenly. "I don't see as the work was draggin' much with you gone, Quin."
"No, I don't say it was draggin'," Quin answered him placatingly. "But I spurred 'em up a little, just the same. I could feel this coming."
Neal did not say anything to that, but he scowled as he left the room and he did not の近くに the door as gently as he might have done. Dale ちらりと見ることd at Burnett, wondering what he would do about it, but he was thoughtfully filling his 麻薬を吸う and seemed unaware of the insolence of his 雇うd man. Or did he ignore it deliberately? It was not the 態度 an ex-郡保安官 would be 推定する／予想するd to take and it did not 調和させる with the strong lines in his 直面する.
But Dale had 解決するd to abandon his 熟考する／考慮する of 直面するs as an 索引 to character and turned his mind to other things. Burnett lighted his 麻薬を吸う and went in to change his wet 着せる／賦与するs, and since he did not return, one might assume that he was taking a nap. Mrs. Burnett went 支援する to her mending. Cynthy disappeared, 推定では going to her room, and Donna got a magazine and curled up on the couch by the window, where a murky light streamed through the 嵐／襲撃する. There seemed nothing for Dale to do save make the best of a dull afternoon. He couldn't even flirt with Donna while her mother was ensconsced in a 激しく揺するing 議長，司会を務める not three feet from the piano, and the 嵐／襲撃する had settled to a 安定した downpour which 約束d to last the 残り／休憩（する） of the day. There would be no riding that day, or fishing either. It was not likely that any one in the Burnett family played 橋（渡しをする）, unless perhaps Donna had a smattering knowledge of the game.
For awhile Dale stood in the 避難所 of the porch and watched the 勝利，勝つd-攻撃するd grove swaying in the gusts of 勝利，勝つd, but in that high 高度 the rain had brought a 限定された 冷気／寒がらせる with it, and he soon 退却／保養地d to his room and his mutilated 飛行機で行く 調書をとる／予約する, and filled an hour or so with 取って代わるing his 行方不明の 飛行機で行くs. He wished Cynthy was there so that he could teach her the 罰金 art of making trout 飛行機で行くs, but although he tapped on the partition he got no 返答, and after awhile he tired of the work, rolled himself in a 一面に覆う／毛布 and took a nap, while the rain drummed on the low roof and swished against the window.
It might have been midnight instead of afternoon, so 静かな was the Burnett 世帯. Even the squaw Judy must have taken herself off to her ４半期/4分の1s, wherever they were, for long before Dale went to sleep there was no sound in the kitchen, and it was partly the 有罪の判決 that every one was enjoying a siesta that brought drowsiness to his own eyelids. You may say what you like of the languorous heat of the South, but there is nothing like a 雨の afternoon in the ranch land to send an entire 世帯 into 一時的な 昏睡.
At suppertime it was still raining a 安定した 霧雨, though the 勝利，勝つd had dropped with the 病弱なing daylight. Quin and Neal had bestirred themselves an hour or two earlier and had …に出席するd to the stable chores, Neal clumping in with stiffly crackling slicker and muddy boots, carrying a lard bucket 十分な of eggs warm from the nest, two soft little feathers 粘着するing wetly to the topmost one where the rain had splashed it. Though it was barely six o'clock, the clouds hung low and 厚い, and gray twilight filled the room. Mrs. Burnett lighted the big Rochester lamp with the flowered white shade and 始める，決める it in the 中心 of the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, 中途の between the 抱擁する platter of home-cured ham and fried eggs and the oblong dish of mashed potatoes, a plate of hot 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器s 側面に位置するing it on one 味方する and the butter and delicately brown milk gravy on the other. There was no pretense of serving in courses at a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する where Mrs. Burnett 統括するd; one could not 推定する／予想する it of a woman who still slept on a feather bed.
But the homely meal brought a sense of 慰安 to Dale. He loved the mellow lamplight which cast a 軟化するing glow on the 直面するs he was beginning to know in their changing 表現s called 前へ／外へ by the commonplace emotions of everyday living. Even Neal Somers seemed いっそう少なく moody to-night, and Quin 割れ目d a 乾燥した，日照りの joke or two in his soft drawling 発言する／表明する, his 注目する，もくろむs twinkling humorously in a consciously sober 直面する. Donna was 率直に bored but as 率直に hungry, and Cynthy and her mother 審議d やめる 率直に the imprudence of dipping into a jar of fresh strawberry 保存するs in 栄誉（を受ける） of the 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器s, 産する／生じるing finally to Donna, who begged for them because she had eaten 搭乗-school fare all winter and hadn't so much as smelled a 保存する. So Judy was sent for them and told to look at the second pan of 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器s and to put another stick of 支持を得ようと努めるd in the stove.
It was into this 平和的な 国内の scene that Dale's mystery 突然に 事業／計画（する）d itself, 手渡す in 手渡す as it were, with the new strawberry 保存するs.
They heard Judy come into the kitchen from the pantry, and waited while she slammed the oven shut and thrust a stick of 支持を得ようと努めるd into the stove. They heard her grunt, and with freshly buttered 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器s they 注目する，もくろむd the door through which she presently waddled, straight 黒人／ボイコット bangs hanging 負かす／撃墜する to her little 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs 始める，決める in a moist, good-natured, moon-形態／調整d 直面する. In one 手渡す she held a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する bowl of imitation 削減（する） glass filled with fragrant 保存するs. In the other she clutched something not so readily distinguished. Setting the 保存するs 負かす／撃墜する with a gentle 強くたたく between Cynthy and her mother, she waddled 厳粛に around the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and laid an oblong brown 反対する before Quin.
"Ketch-um 支持を得ようと努めるd box," she grunted laconically. "Mebby-so you lose-um you pockey. Ketch-um you coat by 支持を得ようと努めるd box. Yass. Damfino."
"Hunh?" Unmeasured, blank surprise filled Quin's 直面する, his 注目する，もくろむs, his 発言する／表明する. "設立する it in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box? It ain't 地雷, Judy. I never saw it before."
"Ketch-um 支持を得ようと努めるd box. Damfino," Judy repeated stolidly.
"It's 地雷," said Dale, half rising from his 議長，司会を務める, and sat 負かす／撃墜する again, wishing blindly that he had bitten his tongue upon the words.
"Yours?" Quin turned the wallet over, looked at it, looked at Dale. "How'd it get in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box?"
"I don't know," said Dale, very 静かに. "It's the wallet I bought in Cheyenne after my other was taken. I had it this morning, up the creek."
"What's in it?" Quin's 発言する／表明する was neither 厳しい nor unbelieving, but rather 公式の／役人; the customary 身元確認，身分証明 of lost or stolen 所有物／資産／財産 evidently was a habit of 決まりきった仕事 with him.
"Money—I can't say 正確に／まさに how much, but around forty dollars, I think. And my 初期のs printed in 署名／調印する inside the flap. T. E.—T for Teasdale. Cynthy knows I 行方不明になるd it this morning when we went 支援する up there after I was—attacked."
"Attacked? On our ranch? Who ever heard of such a thing!" gasped Mrs. Burnett, but a sharp ちらりと見ること from her husband silenced その上の speech.
Quin was 開始 the wallet, taking out the money and counting it as he laid the 法案s と一緒に his plate. Forty-seven dollars all told, he made it, the others mechanically checking the 人物／姿／数字s as they watched him. He pulled his spectacle 事例／患者 from his vest pocket, put on his glasses, 攻撃するd the empty 法案 倍の to the lamplight and read the 初期のs, his lips forming the letters, T. E. He looked at Dale はっきりと over his glasses, 手渡すd the wallet over to him, 選ぶd up the money and 延長するd that also, took off his glasses and put them away carefully, deliberately, his mind evidently engrossed in 格闘するing with this amazing 発見. And while he kept silence, he 支配するd the little group 完全に, 持つ／拘留するing them frozen to immobility while they watched him.
Quin leaned 支援する in his 議長，司会を務める, his 直面する suddenly tired beyond belief. He 選ぶd up his knife, looked at it absently and laid it 負かす／撃墜する. Then he looked straight at Dale.
"井戸／弁護士席, this looks to me like a show-負かす／撃墜する," he 明言する／公表するd slowly, as if he were 明確に表すing his thoughts while he spoke. "They said they'd get me. I knew they'd 人物／姿／数字 out some 計画／陰謀, but I never 疑惑d they was using you to do it. A stranger like you—no, I wasn't lookin' for that 肉親，親類d of 陰謀，しくまれたわな. That 強盗 in the hotel looked awful real. Fooled Varney, all 権利, and Burke too. And you look as honest and aboveboard as any young fellow I ever saw in my life." He 注目する，もくろむd Dale with a terrible intensity of which he was wholly unconscious.
"These 陰謀，しくまれたわなs," he said 静かに, "they 一般に have got a kick-支援する to 'em. They look all 権利 when they're planned, but there's always something that don't pan out as it's 推定する／予想するd. Puttin' that pocketbook in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box, now—that looks like awful strong 証拠 against me, don't it? But it ain't. About the only thing you've done, young fellow, is give yourself dead away!"
"I don't やめる get you, Mr. Burnett," Dale said constrainedly, too utterly taken aback to be able to think very 明確に. "Are you 説 that I put that wallet in your kitchen 支持を得ようと努めるd box?"
"Who else? I don't see any other way it could have got there. You had it this morning—you say yourself you took it fishin' with you. You come 支援する all het up and sayin' somebody jumped you up at the 落ちるs and took all your 着せる／賦与するs away from you. You took Cynthy up there and showed her your 着せる／賦与するs piled on a 激しく揺する, but you made it a point to tell her your pocketbook was missin'. Then you come 支援する and （人命などを）奪う，主張する somebody 'd been in your room while you was up there gettin' stripped. You say two of your 調書をとる／予約するs are missin' to 証明する your stuff had been gone through. You made the （人命などを）奪う，主張する, too, that somebody went through your 支配するs and trunk at Dalton's. And now, here your pocketbook turns up in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box 権利 支援する of where I'd hung up my coat.
"If all that was true, it'd look as if I'd 追跡するd you up the creek and peeled your 着せる／賦与するs off you to search 'em. It looks as if I kept the money and was simple-minded enough to pack it around in my pocket, and take a chance on leavin' it there all afternoon, with my coat hangin' on a 議長，司会を務める in the kitchen where anybody on the ranch could go snoopin' through it. You could say, too, I s'提起する／ポーズをとる, that I heard you talkin' about goin' fishin', last night when I went to bed. I did hear you say something about gettin' trout enough for breakfast. You might even say I took Neal, here, and a 一面に覆う／毛布, and 追跡するd you—"
"井戸／弁護士席, don't drag me into it!" Neal cried 熱心に, galvanized to speech by the について言及する of his 指名する.
"I ain't draggin' you into it. I'm sayin' beforehand what could be said if a person 手配中の，お尋ね者 to build up his story so it would wash without shrinkin' before a 陪審／陪審員団."
"There's just one thing the 事柄 with it, Mr. Burnett," Dale said, in a 発言する／表明する of repressed feeling, "and that is, it isn't true. My stuff was searched at Dalton's; I was smothered in a 一面に覆う／毛布 and stripped, this morning at the 落ちるs. This wallet was taken and kept—and I've nothing to do with its 存在 in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box. That 縮むs the story かなり 権利 at the start, it seems to me."
Quin leaned 今後, his 注目する，もくろむs boring into Dale's.
"And do you say I put it there?" Like a keen-辛勝する／優位d knife his question 削減（する） straight to the heart of Dale's meaning.
For a 十分な half-minute the two sat 星／主役にするing, each 調査（する）ing the other's thoughts.
"No," Dale said at last. "I don't think you're that big a fool. Even if you're a crook, you're too smart to make that 肉親，親類d of a break."
"Pretty talk, this is, I must say!" Mrs. Burnett cried tearfully. "Quarrelin' 権利 at the supper （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, callin' each other crooks and thieves!"
"I just hate all this fighting!" exclaimed Donna, jumping up in a frenzy of 抗議する. "I hate that darned money that's making all the trouble! I wish I'd never come home at all!" She 急ぐd out of the room and flung herself sobbing on the couch.
"I'm sorry," said Dale, stiffly polite, his 注目する，もくろむs turning toward his sniffling hostess. "It's unpardonable, of course, to intrude my 私的な 事件／事情／状勢s on strangers this way, and I can only 保証する you that this was wholly 予期しない and unintentional on my part. I'll go, of course, as soon as possible."
"井戸／弁護士席, nobody asked you to go yet. Eat your supper, both of you, and stop jangling over that pocketbook," Mrs. Burnett admonished in a mollified トン, wiping her 注目する，もくろむs on a corner of the tablecloth. "Time enough to get to the 底（に届く） of it—Bella Donna, come 支援する and finish your supper!" And Mrs. Burnett passed Dale the bowl of 保存するs to その上の 固く結び付ける the 一時休戦 she had herself 宣言するd.
BUT Dale had lost his appetite for strawberry 保存するs and hot 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器s. Cynthy, across the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する from him, was sitting in a frozen 静める, her 注目する，もくろむs glowing darkly out of her white 直面する. Involuntarily he flinched when his fingers 小衝突d against the wallet he had laid beside his plate. What a damnable 状況／情勢! What had precipitated it? Was it the bald 事故 it seemed—that 甚だしい／１２ダース, stupid, old squaw lugging the thing in just when they were all supremely contented and wholly unsuspecting? Judy couldn't have known what it would do to that group around the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, but if she had planned it, she could scarcely have chosen a more fiendishly inopportune moment, it seemed to Dale.
Somehow they sat the meal through. Somehow he choked 負かす／撃墜する a few mouthfuls of food, drank his coffee, passed the butter to Quin, who 辞退するd it with a preoccupied shake of the 長，率いる やめる unlike his usual courteous manner. Cynthy did not even pretend to eat, and presently she excused herself and left the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, her father giving her a 尋問 look and relapsing again into his abstraction.
Superficially the 簡潔な／要約する 衝突／不一致 had smoothed itself out and a quarrel had been 回避するd, but Dale felt that a chasm of 不信 had opened between the Burnett family and himself. How 深い it was only time could tell, and what lay hidden at the 底（に届く） of it he 辞退するd just then to guess.
One thing was 確かな ; he could not and would not remain under Quin Burnett's roof after the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金s Quin had brought against him. The very unexpectedness of 存在 （刑事）被告 as party to a 陰謀，しくまれたわな stunned him. He had to get away where he could think over this new angle of the 事件／事情／状勢 and decide just what was best to do about it.
The rain had dwindled to a desultory ぱらぱら雨 and in the west the clouds had parted to let through a pale yellow gleam from the sun before it slid 負かす／撃墜する behind the Laramie Mountains. It would not be dark for an hour or more, probably, and a man could walk a long way in an hour if he bestirred himself. With his lips compressed and his 注目する，もくろむs smoldering with angry humiliation, Dale got into 引き上げ（る）ing boots and his overcoat, stuffed a few needful things into the capacious pockets, and with his fishing 取り組む and creel he left the house and struck off briskly along the road which Hugh Mowerby and his companions had followed the night before.
It was not until he had reached the 最高の，を越す of a hill half a mile away and stopped to breathe and to look 支援する upon the rambling old house sprawling in the valley below, that he remembered he had been 有罪の of a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な 違反 of etiquette in leaving without a word of thanks or 評価 to Mrs. Burnett for her 歓待. But he would not go 支援する now, he thought; besides, Mrs. Burnett was probably やめる unaware of her 権利s as a hostess and would be only too relieved to have him out of the house after the scene at the supper （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. Cynthy would curl her lip at his bad manners, but she too would no 疑問 be glad he was gone.
始める，決める 支援する against the aspen grove with the river 急ぐing 負かす／撃墜する from the rugged canyon above, the house even in that melancholy light seemed brooding in a 深遠な tranquillity which only the ripened years could give. The little golden squares of sun-lighted windows spoke of peace and 慰安 within, as if the place 避難所d only love and 井戸／弁護士席 存在 and no 悪意のある thing could find lodgment there. Dale's 注目する，もくろむs grew wistful while he gazed. Even in the twenty-four hours he had spent there he had begun to feel at home, in spite of the fact that 不信 of the owner was hovering always の近くに to his foreconsciousness.
As he stood there two 直面するs rose distinctly before him: Quin's, as he leaned 支援する in his 議長，司会を務める at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, his 直面する old and tired; and Cynthy's, as she 星／主役にするd straight before her, lips 圧力（をかける）d tightly together, 注目する，もくろむs 深い 井戸／弁護士席s of troubled thought. What were they thinking, those two? Whatever it was, Dale felt that Cynthy 株d her father's thoughts, and that Donna and her mother were shut 完全に away from that secret understanding. 平和的な as it looked 負かす／撃墜する there, the Burnett family stood to-night divided against itself; Donna and her mother fretting against the 騒動 they did not understand, Cynthy and her father standing shoulder to shoulder, 直面するing some grim thing from which they 保護物，者d the other two. But whether that thing was 犯罪 or not Dale was not やめる 用意が出来ている to say.
He turned away from the valley and walked on up the 狭くする road, 深い-rutted by the rain, little veined channels showing in the yellow 国／地域 where the water had raced 負かす／撃墜する in tiny rivulets during the 嵐／襲撃する. Ahead of him the 狭くする valley seemed to draw in to a 塀で囲むd canyon, toward which the road went winding through 激しく揺するs and bushes, Meadow Horse Creek, as Cynthy had called the stream with the 落ちるs, 宙返り／暴落するing noisily along over 激しく揺するs spray-washed and 向こうずねing. Burnett's ranch seemed to 嘘（をつく） up along the 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd grassy hills on either 味方する.
Cattle fed upon the slopes and a few horses galloped up to a 盗品故買者 近づく the road to 星／主役にする wide-注目する，もくろむd, 長，率いるs up-flung and nostrils belled to catch the scent of him. As Dale walked toward them, 手渡す outstretched ingratiatingly, they shook their 長，率いるs, wheeled and galloped away, 一連の会議、交渉／完成するing 突然の upon their muddy 跡をつけるs to stop and 星／主役にする again at a safer distance. Half-grown colts, these were, their hips branded with a straight 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 above a 7, 際立った and 平易な to read even for a man 未使用の to 範囲 symbols.
Their 平易な-muscled stride, their satiny new coats of hair held Dale's gaze as had the house 支援する there in the valley, and for a little while he forgot that 不明瞭 would be upon him before he could hope to reach his 目的地, even if he hurried. But even when the thought （機の）カム to him he ぐずぐず残るd, leaning with one 手渡す against a 地位，任命する while he watched, fascinated, the pert, springy movements of the colts and their almost human inquisitiveness. This was a bit of what had brought him West; the wide reaches of wilderness, the freedom from man's ugly activities, 範囲 在庫／株 that would stand shy as deer to gaze before they fled his presence. The last level rays of the sun 向こうずねing suddenly through an 開始 turned their glossy coats to glistening bronze which dulled even as Dale stood watching. The sun was gone at last and the colts, snorting and kicking out their heels, went racing 支援する across the level, 負かす／撃墜する into a gully out of sight, to appear on a さらに先に 法外な slope, still galloping wildly.
Dale wondered what had started them off like that. He was going on when suddenly the sound of galloping horses behind him made him turn to look. Here （機の）カム Cynthy in khaki breeches and boots and old red sweater, riding 速く toward him, a saddled horse loping at the end of a lead-rope, empty stirrups swinging as he （機の）カム. Dale's heart gave a jump or two as he stood and waited for her to come up.
"Father wants you to take this horse," she said bluntly, pulling her sorrel pony to a stand. "There's no sense in your starting off 進行中で this way—it's seven miles up to Mowerby's and it will be pitch dark before you could get a third of the distance. I brought a 安全な horse," she 追加するd maliciously. "It's the one Judy always rides."
"Oh, thanks," drawled Dale, member of the Allerton polo team and a hard man on the field.
"I really don't deserve it after leaving as I did, without notice or 陳謝 to your mother."
"Oh, Mother doesn't mind. It's Father I'm thinking about." Her lip quivered, a 証拠不十分 she 試みる／企てるd to hide from Dale by turning her 直面する away. "This thing has 攻撃する，衝突する him pretty hard. He was coming himself with Nig, but I made him let me. I—I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to talk to you about Father." She ちらりと見ることd at him impatiently, where he stood thoughtfully rubbing the old 黒人／ボイコット horse's nose. "井戸／弁護士席, what's the 事柄? Get on, why don't you? I'll ride up to the forks with you and make sure you take the 権利 road, and you can go on alone from there. Hugh can send Nig 支援する any time. Here, let me 持つ／拘留する your fishing 棒 for you while you get on," she 申し込む／申し出d curtly, as he still hesitated.
"Oh, thanks, but I think I can manage all 権利. I was thinking I'd just send you 支援する and make the 引き上げ（る）, anyway. But I suppose that would entail an argument."
"Yes, it would. Father wouldn't like it, and he's had enough to 耐える without my 追加するing a feather's 負わせる to his worry. He'd just come on himself to make sure you didn't get lost in the hills."
"I don't know why that should worry him," Dale said, giving her an ironical smile as he swung up into the saddle. "Thinking what he does of me, the quicker I'm lost, the better he should like it."
"That's all you know about Father," she retorted. "What I want to say is, Father's 確かな in his own mind that you are—井戸／弁護士席, to put it plainly, lying about that fifty thousand. He can't understand why, unless you've been sent here to dangle the bait before—before those who would try to get it. He doesn't really think you're trying to make him out a crook, except that you're trying the same thing with every one. He thinks you sent word out yourself that you were coming with all that money on you—he says no sane man would really do a thing like that." She looked at Dale appraisingly, caught his blank 星／主役にする 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon her and looked away again with an impatient sigh. "What are you after, anyway, Mr. Emery?" she 需要・要求するd 突然の.
"A ranch with a trout stream running by the house, and a few cattle and some good horses," Dale told her guilelessly and, as it happened, truthfully. "I think now I'd like to raise horses instead of cattle. Those youngsters that went 涙／ほころびing off across the gulch when you 棒 up look to me to have the makings of corking good polo ponies, some of them. I'd like to try my 手渡す at 産む／飼育するing for polo ponies, anyway. It would be much more 利益／興味ing than raising beef cattle."
"Polo!" Cynthy ejaculated, 注目する，もくろむing him distrustfully, as he jogged と一緒に her on Judy's 安全な horse, Nig. 井戸／弁護士席, he had the look of a rider—that much she had to 収容する／認める; and a 紅潮／摘発する crept into her 直面する that had looked white and drawn.
"I don't know why not polo. With the 権利 在庫／株 one should get the best ponies in the world here. They'd be sure-footed, they'd have good 勝利，勝つd and 活動／戦闘—racing over these hills from the time they're foaled—by 雷鳴, I know now that it's a place to raise polo ponies I'm after!"
Cynthy drooped in the saddle, her 注目する，もくろむs on the road just in 前線 of her horse.
"I wish you'd look for it somewhere else, then," she said dejectedly.
"But why? I 港／避難所't done anything, have I? If people 主張する on shaking me 負かす／撃墜する every morning before breakfast in the hope of copping fifty thousand dollars—"
"Tell me one thing," Cynthy said 猛烈に. "Did you put that wallet in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box?"
Dale 星／主役にするd at her.
"Do you need my word on that?" he 反対するd はっきりと. "Use your 推論する／理由, girl. Why should I do a cheap, melodramatic trick like that?"
"That," said Cynthy dully, "is what I'd give a good 取引，協定 to know. At least, I'd give a good 取引，協定 to know how it got there. Of course, on the 直面する of it, Father might have dropped it out of his pocket, but that to me is 絶対 impossible; it would be to any one who knew him—how rigidly honest he is in everything. Why, he 辞職するd from the 郡保安官's office because—"
"Yes? Because why?" Dale 勧めるd when she 停止（させる）d there.
"Because he wouldn't shut his 注目する，もくろむs to 確かな things that were going on, and he couldn't 施行する the 法律 in all 事例／患者s. He—井戸／弁護士席, he just was too good and human and honest to 持つ／拘留する the office when he saw what he was up against. And he made enemies," she went on 激しく. "People talked a good 取引，協定, and there was a 広大な／多数の／重要な 抗議する raised when he did it. Some things couldn't very 井戸／弁護士席 be covered up—you know how it is in politics. His 辞職 was a 非難する in the 直面する to some rather powerful people in the country, and there （機の）カム 近づく 存在 a 正規の／正選手 shake-up.
"That's why his first thought was that you'd been sent to でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる him. You couldn't wonder at it, if you knew all the circumstances. You are very unaccountable, Mr. Emery, you must see that."
"Unaccountable in what way?" Though Dale knew about what she meant, of course.
And Cynthy 認めるd that fact and 辞退するd to be drawn その上の on the 支配する.
"Unless one knew the truth about you," she went on relentlessly, "one couldn't find a place to start on the mystery. It may be all fiction, putting it nicely. Father's 権利; you could easily have lied about what happened at Dalton's, and you could have 偽のd that attack on you this morning. You could have—"
"How about that 一面に覆う／毛布?"
"That 一面に覆う／毛布 you （機の）カム home in? They're ありふれた enough. We have four or five brown army 一面に覆う／毛布s like that. You could have taken it off your bed."
"You made my bed—did you 行方不明になる a 一面に覆う／毛布?"
"No," said Cynthy, catching her breath at the thought, but 会合 his 注目する，もくろむs honestly for all that. "No, your 一面に覆う／毛布s were all on the bed and they weren't much 乱すd. That lets you out there." She pulled her brows together. "But that wallet—it didn't put itself in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box. Somebody did it."
"How about the squaw?"
Cynthy shook her 長，率いる in violent 否定 of that suggestion.
"Judy's lived with us ever since I can remember. Father fed her and old Indian Tom, her husband, when the Indians were just about 餓死するing one terrible winter. She's been with us ever since. She's just as honest as I am. I'd bank on Judy anywhere, any time."
"井戸／弁護士席, then, how about Neal Somers?"
"He's our cousin," Cynthy 割引d that. "Mother's 甥, to be exact. He's lived with us a long time. He's cranky いつかs and stubborn, but he wouldn't do a thing like that. What would be his 反対する? And how would he get 持つ／拘留する of the wallet in the first place?"
"It could hardly have been a stranger," Dale pointed out, but Cynthy shook her 長，率いる at that.
"It doesn't seem probable, but neither does any of it, for that 事柄; your having so much money, for instance. To tell you the truth, I think that's the most improbable feature of the whole 商売／仕事. But what worries me most," she sighed, "is the 影響 it's having on Father. It's harder on him, I do believe, than the 列／漕ぐ／騒動 he had when he 辞職するd as 郡保安官. I know I 港／避難所't seen him so upset over anything since."
"I don't know why it should have worried him, except of course this last stunt of my wallet turning up in Judy's 支持を得ようと努めるd box. Up until to-night I was the only one 関心d, Now, of course—"
"Do you think he had anything to do with that? I want the straight truth, Mr. Emery. I've got to have it."
There was no putting Cynthy off now. The 事柄 had reached a point where for his own clarity of thought he needed to talk it over with some one, and while Cynthy was not the person he would have chosen, because of her sympathies and her 忠義 to her father, here she was 需要・要求するing to know his innermost thoughts.
"Honestly, Cynthy, I don't know what to think. Your father is the last person on earth one would 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う of 存在—of doing such a thing." With her 注目する，もくろむs upon him, Dale could not bring himself to utter the word どろぼう. "But I've wondered a lot. You see, I knew that only the ones who went after my money in the hotel knew that they had failed to find it. The police and newspapers and the general public assumed that the money had been taken. But your father 権利 away caught の上に the fact that they hadn't got what they went after. At the time I just thought he was pretty keen, but afterwards I wondered if it might be more than guesswork. Then at Dalton's—井戸／弁護士席, it was still possible that for some 推論する／理由—my 保護, perhaps—he was the one who had gone through my stuff while I was out of the room. Hugh, of course, knew what room I had, but that's the only possible 関係 he could have with it, and he was dancing every dance. I'm sure he wasn't even thinking about it. Then here—your father did hear my 計画（する） to go fishing, Cynthy. He said so himself. And his coat was hanging 権利 there—"
"So you think," said Cynthy in a 緊張した, pinched 肉親，親類d of 発言する／表明する, "my father's a どろぼう and a liar!"
"No," said Dale, "I don't, and that's the funny part of it. I've tried to—up until to-night I did half believe it, in spite of his personality and that atmosphere of—of goodness that surrounds him. But that wallet to-night was too strong 証拠, if you get what I mean. If your father was a crook, he'd have a fox skinned for cunning, and this was too coarse. Just as I told him there at the supper （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, he wouldn't be that big a fool. It looks to me very much like a 工場／植物; a 陰謀，しくまれたわな, as he said—only I'm not the one that did it.
"It was でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd on both of us, I believe. And what I really think is that some one こそこそ動くd into the house this afternoon, when everybody was curled up taking naps, saw your dad's coat hanging there, and 工場／植物d the 法案 倍の where it would do the most 害（を与える）. I believe they had something of that sort in mind when they returned my 着せる／賦与するs and kept the wallet."
Cynthy drew a long, quivering breath like a child that has sobbed itself to sleep.
"What started me thinking that," Dale went on, unconsciously 持つ／拘留するing his 事例／患者d fishing 棒 as if it were a polo stick at 残り／休憩（する）, "is when your dad said he knew 'they' were trying to get him, and he was 推定する／予想するing some sort of 陰謀，しくまれたわな. You know, it may be that he's 権利, at that. They might be trying to get my money and pin the 証拠 on him. And if that's the 事例／患者, it's about as dirty a 取引，協定 as I ever heard of, and I grew up in a city that's popularly supposed to be the home of dirty 取引，協定s!"
Cynthy 棒 along for a while in 深い thought, her 長，率いる 屈服するd. Beside her Dale waited, ちらりと見ることing at her now and then expectantly, both heedless of their loitering pace and oblivious of the 集会 dusk that was already blurring the distant 頂点（に達する）s.
"All you've said takes it for 認めるd that you've got that money," she said at last. "Father and I both think that's just a bluff." She looked at him half 残念に before she went 堅固に on with what she had to say. "I've got to be as frank as you have seemed to be with me, Mr. Emery. We don't believe you'd be such a fool as to carry fifty thousand dollars in actual cash around with you. It's like Father dropping that wallet in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box. It's just too 絶対 brainless a thing to do. We give you credit for more 知能 than that."
"You'd have to 手渡す it to me, though," Dale snorted, "if you 設立する out that I had done it and got away with it, in spite of all the 強盗団の一味 in Wyoming 存在 on my neck."
"井戸／弁護士席, you just couldn't do it, that's all."
"Oh, couldn't I? When I've reached the goal I've 始める，決める for myself, maybe you'll think 異なって."
"And it's a 広大な／多数の／重要な goal, I must say, for a man like you! Even a kid would have more sense than to try such a thing. But I must say," she 追加するd grudgingly, "you've managed to make some people believe it, all 権利. That is, if things really happened up at the 落ちるs as you （人命などを）奪う，主張するd they did, and if you didn't put that wallet in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box."
"Oh, damn the wallet in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box!" gritted Dale under his breath.
"All 権利, but that doesn't alter the fact that Judy 設立する it there. She did. No human 存在 could live and have いっそう少なく imagination than she's got."
"Or brains," Dale 補足（する）d savagely.
"Yes, or brains. She's like a faithful old dog, except that she has the 力／強力にする of speech and can be taught to do 家事. She wouldn't know enough to 嘘（をつく）, even if she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to. She speaks what she knows and lets it go at that. When she said she 設立する the wallet in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box and she didn't know how it got there, you can bank on it that's the exact truth."
"Which brings us 権利 支援する where we started. Your father or me. We're talking in circles, Cynthy."
"I know it, but I'm looking for the end. Either that, or get 権利 負かす／撃墜する to the point of fact that answers the whole thing." She flung out a 手渡す suddenly, almost touching him with her fingers. "Why, look here! If it's true, and you've got that money, why won't you put it in the bank?" She leaned and peered intently into his 直面する. "Why?" she 繰り返し言うd はっきりと.
"Oh, that fool's goal I've 始める，決める for myself, I suppose," he retorted sullenly.
"I don't believe you've got it, that's why," she answered for herself. "No man on earth would run the 危険 you （人命などを）奪う，主張する to be running. Or be as stubborn as you," she qualified dubiously. "But I 簡単に can't believe it. They'd have got it, if it was in your 所有／入手 and you're not just 偽のing your さまざまな 持つ／拘留する-ups."
"井戸／弁護士席, they didn't," snapped Dale. "Laugh that off, will you? I don't care who the devil's after it, they've got to guess again, that's all."
"Oh, you—Dale Emery, you're intolerable!" gritted Cynthy. "There's your road—follow it till you get somewhere. I'm through." And with that she wheeled and left him, as she had done once before that day, 完全に baffled and in a 非常に高い 激怒（する）.
IN the big, low room which Hugh Mowerby called his den, Dale sprawled at 緩和する after a breakfast faultlessly served by one 物陰／風下 Chow, a grinning, weazened old Chinese cook. While he smoked, Dale's ちらりと見ること roved curiously around the 塀で囲むs, which were hung with beautifully 機動力のある トロフィーs, a 抱擁する bull buffalo 長，率いる 占領するing the space over a wide mantel made of a 分裂（する） spruce スピードを出す／記録につける. The Indian rugs that covered the 床に打ち倒す had been chosen with a careful 注目する，もくろむ to harmony, beauty of design and handiwork, as Dale knew very 井戸／弁護士席 from having spent much time and money on a collection of his own. Pottery, baskets, frontier guns and the 武器s of さまざまな savage tribes made the room a small museum of 原始の life, the more delightful to Dale because it was so wholly 予期しない. Through an open doorway he glimpsed a grand piano in the living room beyond, and against the さらに先に 塀で囲む a big 閣僚 phonograph in rosewood.
Hugh, having given 確かな directions to a rider outside, strolled in, his big hat on the 支援する of his 長，率いる, his boots leaving 跡をつけるs on the stark reds and whites of the 広大な／多数の／重要な rug he crossed to reach a 確かな big leather 議長，司会を務める where he lazily deposited his long でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる. A 商売／仕事 man would have known that the two were about to go into 会議／協議会, though Hugh would not think of calling it that.
"井戸／弁護士席," he began, leisurely blowing out a match and 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするing it negligently into the ashes of last night's 解雇する／砲火／射撃, "we may 同様に get 負かす／撃墜する to 事例／患者s, Dale, and start the day off 権利. And to have a 示す to shoot at, we'll start in the middle. You're here, and I'm glad of it; hope you'll stay a long, long time, and I don't care why. If it's a 職業 you want, I can 直す／買収する，八百長をする you all 権利, I guess. Tom, my brother, usually does the 雇うing, but he's gone. It don't 事柄—it's all 権利 either way. 権利 now it'll be mostly riding—you say you can ride?"
"I don't know about 運動ing cattle, but I can ride a horse, yes. For four years I've played 今後 in our polo team—"
"You have?" Hugh heaved himself upright in his 議長，司会を務める. "You know polo, do you? Could you coach a team—good riders but green 手渡すs?"
"Why, yes, I think so. I've 代用品，人d as captain a few times—yes, I'd like nothing better. Have you got the horses for it? The horses are half of it, in polo, you know. Light, active, quick—with a 冒険的な spirit that makes them get 権利 in and play the game as hard as their riders. I have a string of my own ponies at the Allerton and as soon as I get a place for them, I mean to bring them out. But if you got a few that can be trained—"
"My gosh, yes! We—say, on the square, Dale, do you really have to work for 給料? I don't see how that fits in with a string of polo ponies in Chicago, damned if I do!"
"As a 事柄 of fact, it doesn't. I'll have to own up, I guess. I was just 立ち往生させるing there in town, Hugh, for 推論する／理由s of my own. I'm not broke yet, by a long 発射. Dad left a 商売／仕事 封鎖する or two 負かす／撃墜する 近づく the stockyards that'll 料金d me for awhile, I guess. I'm his only 相続人, you see. What I really want to do is stick around awhile and look over the country, fish and maybe 追跡（する）, as you 示唆するd the other night, and 結局 buy that ranch I （機の）カム west to find. I want to 産む／飼育する polo ponies and train them for the market. I did think it was cattle I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to raise for beef, but I've changed my mind about that. There's a market for polo horses, and I know the game inside and out, all except the raising of them, and one can always 雇う good horse 子孫を作る人s. Polo's about the only thing I'm really keen on, but it's always been a drag on the bank roll, so I looked on it as a darned 高級な. It is, in the city. Out here it would be a 商売／仕事 proposition and I believe I could make it 支払う／賃金 too.
"So if it's polo you want, I'll send 支援する to a friend of 地雷 for mallets and balls, and we can start working out some of your best ponies and coaching a couple of teams. I'm anxious to see how these Wyoming horses show up for 勝利，勝つd and 活動／戦闘."
"How long would it take to get the sticks here? And say, how about having your horses shipped out? Or maybe," Hugh 修正するd reluctantly, "that'd better wait till you're sure what you want to do. But if you 手配中の，お尋ね者 to send for them, I'd sure be glad to have 'em on the ranch—"
"井戸／弁護士席, the horses would take a little time; but I could wire for the mallets," Dale 申し込む／申し出d, "soon as any one goes to town—"
"Hello! I can （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 that," Hugh cried exuberantly, excited as a boy. "I'll send a man 負かす／撃墜する to Dalton's 権利 this morning and he can phone a wire in from there. You 令状 the wire and I'll foot the 法案, whatever it is. There's some blanks over there on the desk. Tell your friend to send a lot—the boys will probably 破産した／（警察が）手入れする plenty while they're learning. I've got a place I believe will make a dandy field when it's smoothed off a little. Soon as you get your 電報電信 ready, we'll go out and find somebody to take it in, and then I'll show you the field I've got in mind. And we can 選ぶ out a few horses too, while we're about it."
Dale had felt that his misadventure at Burnett's had defrauded him of his rightful sport and had meant to go fishing that day in spite of everything, but now he forgot all about it. The idea which the sight of those half-dozen two-year-olds in Burnett's pasture had brought to life now （機の）カム to 十分な 願望（する） as he 棒 out with Hugh to choose a polo field and the horses best fitted to the game. The 電報電信 was sent by a lean young cowboy magnificently 機動力のある on a big, 深い-chested bay, and （頭が）ひょいと動く Drew, another cow-puncher, 始める，決める off with a team and light spring wagon for Burnett's to return the horse Nig, bring Dale's luggage and carry a 公式文書，認める of thanks and 別れの（言葉，会） to Mrs. Burnett—a small social 義務 which nagged at Dale until it was 適切に 発射する／解雇するd.
Like two schoolboys he and Hugh talked and planned polo that day with a concentrated zeal which left no room for anything else in their minds. It was not until （頭が）ひょいと動く returned that Dale was 解任するd to the 推論する／理由 for his leaving Burnett's so 突然の, and it was a quizzical 発言／述べる of （頭が）ひょいと動く's that did it.
"Say, Chicago, I hear you had a run-in with the old man 負かす／撃墜する there," he said, with that 平易な familiarity which the の近くに 接触するs of ranch life 産む／飼育する on the 範囲. "Quin's sure on the つつく／ペック. When I asked for your war 捕らえる、獲得する he give a snort like a buck elk on the プロの／賛成のd, and walked off and never made me no answer at all. Old lady kinda give me the bad 注目する，もくろむ too, when I 手渡すd her the 公式文書，認める, and never had a word to say."
"My gosh, she must have a 麻ひさせるd jaw then," Hugh made skeptical comment. "What'd you do to 'er, Dale?"
"Nothing at all. We had a slight 誤解," Dale said 慎重に, frowning at the way the thing was coming at him again.
"I'll say you did!" （頭が）ひょいと動く grinned. "Neal told me the 船体 thing, and just how the play come up about the pocketbook in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box. He says the old man （人命などを）奪う，主張するs it's all a bluff that you was held up 負かす／撃墜する there, and you never had no money in the first place. I dunno how he thinks you 推定する／予想するd to 伸び（る） anything by it, though. Neal didn't go into that part of it."
"Say, this sounds pretty darned mysterious to me," Hugh expostulated, looking curiously from one to the other. "That money you was robbed of ain't 位置を示すd, is it? What's it all about, anyway?"
"（頭が）ひょいと動く can tell you as much as I can, probably," Dale put him off with the best grace possible. "It's nothing I could help, but the Burnetts put a wrong construction on what happened, is all, so I felt I couldn't stay any longer and I （機の）カム up here. If you don't mind getting the story second-手渡す, Hugh, I think I'll just go in and unpack before dinner."
"Why, sure! Go ahead. I can see why you'd be pretty 井戸／弁護士席 fed up on that fifty thousand, but you can't 非難する us poor guys for likin' to dwell on the 支配する. It's some なぐさみ to be able to talk about that much money, anyway, even if we never do 推定する／予想する to see more'n six bits at a time." Hugh lowered an eyelid at （頭が）ひょいと動く and laughed as Dale walked off.
But at dinner, having heard all （頭が）ひょいと動く could tell him, Hugh was in no laughing mood, though he waited until the meal was over and they were 支援する in the den before he said anything. Dale 手配中の，お尋ね者 to talk polo ponies again, but Hugh, stretching himself in his big leather 議長，司会を務める with a mahogany smoking stand at his 肘 and a 罰金 old briar 麻薬を吸う going, 解任するd that 支配する with a wave of his 手渡す.
"Look here, Dale, it may not be my put in, and I don't want to talk about it just to be talkin'; but if （頭が）ひょいと動く got it straight, what happened 負かす／撃墜する to the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 Seven is pretty gosh-darn serious. I don't believe it oughta be ignored the way you're doing."
"I don't see any use in getting all excited over it, either. Do you?" Dale 転換d uncomfortably in his 議長，司会を務める.
"井戸／弁護士席, that's as may be. If it's true they jumped you and—"
"Yes, it's true enough, far as that goes, but Quin seemed to be rather skeptical about the whole thing."
"Yeah; 井戸／弁護士席, he might （人命などを）奪う，主張する to be—Quin's a whole lot deeper than a person'd think to hear him talk. But the thing that strikes me is this: Why is somebody still after you? I thought you was kiddin' 負かす／撃墜する at Dalton's when you kinda hinted you wasn't robbed so bad, after all. Is it straight that those 強盗団の一味 in Cheyenne didn't get what they （機の）カム after?" Hugh looked at his 麻薬を吸う, （人が）群がるd the タバコ 負かす／撃墜する and drew a 深い mouthful of smoke. "If they've 追跡するd you off up into this country, it shows they mean 商売／仕事, but if it was me I sure wouldn't overlook the fact; if they're 権利 after you again they won't stop at anything to get what they want."
"Still, I don't see what I can do, more than I'm doing. I'm minding my own 商売／仕事—let them mind theirs."
For a minute Hugh 星／主役にするd then threw 支援する his 長，率いる and laughed loud and long.
"You tell 'em that, why don't you, next time they jump you for that fortune you packed out here—or was supposed to pack out here? You might be able to talk 'em plumb outa the notion." He chuckled and Dale reluctantly joined in his laughter.
"I didn't mean it やめる that way," he explained later, his 直面する growing serious. "But the whole 商売／仕事 is getting under my 肌, Hugh. I never dreamed money could be such a damned nuisance, but I won't 支援する up on the thing now I've started. Cynthy calls that stubbornness, but that's because she doesn't やめる get my point of 見解（をとる）. Quin can't seem to, either. He （機の）カム out きっぱりと and told me he believed I was working for the （人が）群がる that's trying to get him."
"What （人が）群がる's that?" Hugh asked curiously. "First I ever heard of it."
"Cynthy says he made enemies—something to do with his 辞職するing from the 郡保安官's office. I suppose that's the （人が）群がる he meant."
Hugh shook his 長，率いる, （電話線からの）盗聴 thoughtfully with his fingers on the foot he had crossed upon his left 脚.
"Cynthy might think that, all 権利; I suppose she does or she wouldn't say it. A man's always got to give some 推論する／理由 to his women folks that's going to 満足させる 'em."
"Then he didn't make any enemies?" Dale frowned at that thought. "In that 事例／患者, no one would be out to get him, and he would have no excuse for 説 what he said to me. That leads me against another blank 塀で囲む, Hugh."
"I never said Quin didn't have enemies," Hugh said soberly. "He has. But I don't see how they'd make anything by putting up a 職業 on him like that pocketbook. Anyway, the ones that hate Quin the worst ain't the kinda men that'd do a thing like that. They ain't crooks, 非，不，無 of 'em; not as far as I know. They wouldn't be any more liable to steal a pocketbook and put it in his 支持を得ようと努めるd box than I would. It's mostly the stockmen that's got it in for him."
"But why? What about that freemasonry of the 範囲 you hear so much about? I thought 範囲 men all hung together."
"Yeah? 井戸／弁護士席, they're human, and they're like other folks where their pockets are 攻撃する，衝突する. There's been a lot of rustlin' going on here, same as other places. Not so much the 無法者 stuff you say Quin told you about, but calf rustlin' and things like that. Quin was 郡保安官 and the cattlemen 自然に 推定する／予想するd him to clean it up, and he 味方する-stepped. Always goin' to get out and drag in the ones that were doing it and never did. Finally they got to crowdin' up on Quin and demandin' 保護, and it （機の）カム to a point where Quin couldn't 立ち往生させる 'em off any longer and he 辞職するd. So the story went around that Quin was standin' in with the cow thieves, and that was why he wouldn't make any 逮捕（する）s.
"We never took any 在庫／株 in that, of course. Why, we boys used to 公正に／かなり live at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 Seven when we were just kids, and Jim married Rose, the oldest girl. I'd marry Donna too, in a 宗教上の minute, if I got the chance, but Quin's kinda soured on the whole bunch of us lately—since he got in bad. We were losing calves 権利 along, same as the 残り／休憩（する）, and I guess maybe he thought we took 味方するs against him or something. But that's all wrong. We kept our mouths shut; you're the first one I've talked to about it."
"But you don't think there was anything to it, do you?"
Hugh didn't answer at once. His silence was becoming 重要な when he said reluctantly.
"井戸／弁護士席, all I know is, the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 Seven don't seem to be losing many calves." Hugh got up restlessly, walked to the fireplace and kicked an ember into place, then stood 星／主役にするing 負かす／撃墜する into the 炎上s—物陰／風下 Chow having started a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 to take the 冷気／寒がらせる of Wyoming's evenings off the big room. His 直面する, as Dale watched it, took on a somber 表現 he had never before seen there. Finally Hugh shrugged away some unwelcome thought and turned 支援する to his 議長，司会を務める.
"I'm sorry I said that, Dale," he recanted 厳粛に. "I can't say it ain't the truth, for it is. But what I mean is that I don't want to give you the impression I think Quin's a—crook. I don't; I'm only tellin' you what folks say. But what I believe 本人自身で is that he knows—or has got a pretty good idea—who's doin' the dirty work, and won't turn 'em in. Whether they're lettin' the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 Seven alone for that 推論する／理由 I couldn't say. It's a bad 商売／仕事 and I'd rather not talk about it, to tell you the truth. But if you're goin' to 位置を示す here—anyway, since you're all up in the 空気／公表する over that money and all, it looks to me like you oughta know how the land lays. I wouldn't want you to do or say anything to 傷つける Quin—he's Donna's father and Rose's. She's a darn good girl. But Cynthy—"
"You don't think so 井戸／弁護士席 of Cynthy?" Dale asked in what he hoped was a casual トン.
"井戸／弁護士席, Cynthy'd stick up for the old man, come hell or high water. I ain't sayin' a word against Cynth Burnett, but just the same, there's no 限界 to what she'd do for Quin, so you got to take that into consideration when you're dealin' with him. You've got to 耐える in mind you'll have Cynthy to を取り引きする too."
"I noticed that," Dale said dryly. "So you think perhaps that talk about her father 存在 too good and honest for the 職業—"
Though Hugh did not reply in words his laugh was mirthlessly eloquent.
"But if he's 保護するing a bunch of crooks just out of friendship (and what you've told me seems to make that 公正に／かなり plain), why would they want to get him in bad with that wallet? Or do you think he did have it in his pocket?"
Hugh meditated upon that point, smoking 刻々と as a man will do, when he is thinking 深く，強烈に.
"井戸／弁護士席, if we knew that, Dale, we wouldn't need to bother about the 残り／休憩（する）. We'd have the mystery pretty 井戸／弁護士席 solved, don't you think?"
"Yes, you're 権利, of course. But I can't feel that Quin knew anything about the wallet till the squaw laid it 負かす／撃墜する in 前線 of him. I was watching his 直面する, you see. His reaction to it wasn't 犯罪 or even 恐れる. He was just blank, at first, until I told him it was 地雷. Then it began to get to him—not before."
"Yeah, I don't believe myself he knew about that. I'd say offhand that Quin hates like the devil to have 'em doggin' you up for that money. But I'll bet just the same he knows more'n he wishes he did about who the ギャング（団） is, and he's afraid they'll overstep and he can't save 'em. That's the way I'd 麻薬 it out."
"I think you're 権利, at that," Dale agreed unwillingly. "It's a 汚い 状況／情勢 and I wish I'd never brought the damn stuff with me. Only for the thought of letting a bunch like that get away with it, I'd rather lose the money and be done with it, if it's going to make trouble for the Burnetts."
Hugh's skeptical grin answered that altruistic 声明, and the twinkle in his 注目する，もくろむs seemed to hint that he 解釈する／通訳するd it as 適用するing more 特に to Cynthy. So Dale withdrew behind his mask of evasiveness and 辞退するd to go deeper into the problem that was assuming greater 割合s and a graver significance than he had dreamed. Polo talk, he felt, was safer and more 満足な.
POLO talk it was that 支配するd Dale's dreams that night. He thought he was at a tournament somewhere, playing 今後 in the last half of a hard-fought game. He was riding one of those bronze bay colts he had seen in Burnett's pasture, coming 負かす／撃墜する the field in a mad dash at Cynthy in her old red sweater, riding Nig. Her horse 板材d along and did not swerve aside as Dale drove at the ball, and the two went 負かす／撃墜する together, one of the horses 落ちるing 十分な on Dale's chest, a terrific, smothering 負わせる against which he fought unavailingly. He was heaving and 緊張するing to 解放する／自由な himself when some one (he thought at the time it was Cynthy) prodded him in the neck with the end of a mallet 長，率いる and 命令（する）d him to 嘘（をつく） still. Dale reached up to pull the thing away and felt his 手渡す jerked 概略で 支援する—but not before his finger tips had touched the バーレル／樽 of a six-shooter.
"Lay still or I'll blow your damn を回避する!" growled the 発言する／表明する again, and Dale 突然の realized that this was not polo and that the 発言する／表明する was not Cynthy's but a man's. He suddenly 中止するd his struggles and lay very still, except that he did move his 長，率いる sidewise in an 成果／努力 to draw a breath of 空気／公表する. He seemed to have a pillow on his 直面する, with some one sitting on the pillow. The 影響 was intolerably stuffy and uncomfortable.
But presently the 負わせる 転換d わずかに. A 厚い, 激しい 倍の of cloth was clapped over his 注目する，もくろむs and tied, and a wad of some other cloth was 軍隊d between his teeth and his mouth bound shut. By that time he was so greedy for 空気／公表する that he was 主として 関心d with filling his 肺s, and when his breathing became normal again, he awoke to the unpleasant fact that he was tied 手渡す and foot, gagged and blindfolded.
As at the 落ちるs the other morning, his 加害者s had been swift and sure in their movements, as if they had had long practise at that 肉親，親類d of work. It did not occur to him that they had acquired that 技術 in 扱うing calves beside a branding 解雇する／砲火／射撃, though any 西部の人／西洋人 would have known it; he could only marvel at the 緩和する with which they had done the work.
He heard them moving about the room and knew of course what they were after. In a few minutes he heard them leave through the window, with a telltale 捨てるing there as they 解除するd something through. Then sounds outside as they 慎重に left the house, and soon the subdued movements of horses.
Dale was wide awake now, all dreams of polo swept from his 警報 brain. But there was nothing he could do, nothing save 嘘（をつく） there like a wrapped 一括 and wait for morning. There was no hope of making Hugh hear, for his room was across the big den and his door was probably の近くにd, as was Dale's. 物陰／風下 Chow did not sleep in the house at all but in a little one-room cabin over beyond the built-on kitchen. The bunk house was some little distance away, as is usually the 事例／患者 on ranches of that type, where the cowboys like to come and go and to make as much noise as they please without 乱すing any one in the big house. Unless they heard the men ride away and got up to see, there was little 見込み that they would know anything at all about it. But at that hour of the night even the most wakeful would probably be sound asleep.
The hours dragged blackly along toward daylight. An フクロウ up somewhere on the 味方する hill kept asking "Who? Who? Who?" with a monotonous 主張 that nearly drove Dale frantic after the first ten minutes. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to turn over and couldn't, for they had cunningly fastened him to the bedstead lest he throw himself out on the 床に打ち倒す and bring Hugh to 調査／捜査する the noise. He could only 嘘（をつく） there and think, and in that there was no 慰安, for he had thought in circles so long that his brain was 疲れた／うんざりした of the mystery. After a long while he dozed a little, to waken in that same bound and 包帯d 不明瞭.
Then, away 負かす／撃墜する at the corrals somewhere, two roosters began crowing a duet, baritone and tenor. A cow began bawling mournfully at a distance. Day was begun. 物陰／風下 Chow arrived in the kitchen and started a 解雇する／砲火／射撃, Dale 裁判官d, from the 動揺させる of stove lids. After an interminable time of cramped muscles and aching jaws some one rapped on his door—whether Hugh or 物陰／風下 Chow, Dale could not say; he could only 嘘（をつく） there and wait, his inarticulate grunts evidently too faint to be heard through the の近くにd door.
Another long season of waiting; Hugh was probably eating breakfast, thinking Dale sound asleep, held by that drowsiness which attacks those brought suddenly into a higher 高度 than that to which their 団体／死体s are accustomed. True, he had asked Hugh to drag him out at breakfast time, because they had planned a little 予選 schooling of three or four horses he had chosen for his polo string, using a 共同の of fishing 棒 to accustom them to the swing and 運動 of polo sticks. With their eager 計画（する）s to put in 活動／戦闘, Hugh would not let him 嘘（をつく） long abed, he was sure.
Nor did he. Another half hour and there （機の）カム a loud rapping and Hugh's 発言する／表明する anathematizing him good-naturedly for his laziness. A moment or two of listening followed, and the door was 押し進めるd open.
"売春婦-物陰／風下 smoke!" Hugh's 発言する／表明する, sharpened with surprise and びっくり仰天, broke the momentary silence. Dale heard him coming in a 急ぐ, felt the 包帯 緩和する and lay blinking up into the 関心d 直面する bent over him.
"You 傷つける, Dale?" Hugh was untying the rope as he spoke.
"Unh-unh." Dale gave the 消極的な, American grunt, rubbing his 緊張するd jaw muscles with a 解放する／自由なd 手渡す. "Got me when I was asleep," he mumbled. "Damn it, Hugh, I've stood all I'm going to from that bunch of crooks!"
"They sure are 執拗な cusses," Hugh 観察するd, flipping the last knot loose and coiling the rope with mechanical precision. "I never thought they'd have the 神経 to 取り組む you here—they sure want money worse than I do, to take such a chance. What'd they do? Go through your stuff again?"
Dale got up and walked stiffly to the big closet, opened the door and looked in. He turned and 調査するd the room, took long steps to the dresser and yanked a drawer or two open while Hugh watched him.
"They made a good 職業 of it this time," he said きっぱりと. "Cleaned out everything and took it with them." His 手渡すs were poking investigatively into the corners of the drawers as he spoke. "Didn't leave so much as a collar button," he finished 激しく. I'll have to borrow some 着せる／賦与するs from you, Hugh, or stay in bed."
"Why, sure; anything you want." Hugh was walking around the room, scrutinizing everything in the evident hope of finding some 手がかり（を与える）. He stopped at the window and leaned with both 手渡すs on the sill, 星／主役にするing out.
"They used this window; pretty 悪賢い bunch," he said, pulling his 長，率いる 支援する into the room. "I wondered why it was I never heard anything last night, but on this 味方する of the house there wouldn't be much chance. Wonder how they knew your room. You got any idea, Dale?"
"Saw me when I went to bed, I suppose. I didn't pull 負かす／撃墜する the blinds—never thought of it, out in the country like this, with nothing but a hill outside. Hugh, I'm getting darned tired of 存在 mauled around by those birds! What the devil do they 推定する／予想する to find in my socks and collars and handkerchiefs? I'm going to get after them myself, now. There's a 限界 to what I'll stand, and they've passed it."
"But look here, Dale, if you really had that money, they must have got it. They'll leave you alone now."
"I don't care whether they do or not," snapped Dale. "And they're not likely to, for they only got that wallet and what was in it. They didn't get the big roll—that's one 慰安." He helped himself to a cigarette from the few scattered on the dresser, lighted it and sat 負かす／撃墜する on the bed, shivering a little in his thin silk pajamas while he ちらりと見ることd sardonically around the room. "Stung!" he grinned sourly. "It helps some to know just how 不正に they got stung."
"Yeah, only it's a cinch they aren't through with you. They'll sting you yet, unless you can 納得させる 'em somehow that you 港／避難所't got any fifty thousand dollars—with you, I mean."
"But I have, and that's the joke," Dale 宣言するd looking at Hugh with that sudden 広げるing of his 注目する，もくろむs which 狭くするd to a squint as he smiled. "I'm the only one that can laugh at it so far, but that doesn't spoil it much. I've got that money 権利 where I can put my 手渡すs on it whenever I want to."
"The ジュース you have! 井戸／弁護士席, you better not let me know where it is," Hugh advised him, with mock earnestness, "or you might get to thinking I'd 追跡（する） 'em up and put 'em wise."
"No, I'm not telling anybody," Dale replied. "If I keep my own mouth shut, I needn't worry about the other fellow's talking. It's my joke, and when the thing's all over and I've used the money for the 目的 I ーするつもりである, I'll tell you all about it. But you can see yourself—"
"Yeah, but you're overlookin' the fact that the ギャング（団） you've got on your 追跡する have gone too far to やめる."
"井戸／弁護士席, so have I gone too far to やめる," he retorted. "They can't get away with this, you know—stealing all my 着せる／賦与するs except these pajamas I've got on. Polo will have to wait, I'm afraid, till I put these birds where they belong. You know the country, Hugh. Will you help me 一連の会議、交渉／完成する them up and get my stuff 支援する?"
"I'll tell the world I will! Nothing I'd like better, old man. Come on and get yourself rigged out. How tall are you? Five ten, or eleven? I'm six feet one-and-a-half. Maybe I can find something of Jim's here. He's about your size."
"I'm six feet," Dale told him, standing his 十分な 高さ. "Able to 扱う any ordinary man if it comes to a show-負かす／撃墜する, and that's what riles me so, I guess. They've never given me a chance!"
"井戸／弁護士席, I can't 非難する 'em for that," grinned Hugh. "What do you think—had we better get the boys on the 職業 and make it a 正規の／正選手 posse? I 推定する／予想する they're all at work by this time, but I can catch 'em at noon if you say so."
"I never went 追跡するing 強盗団の一味," Dale 自白するd, "but it seems to me we can do better by ourselves. I don't believe there's more than two or three on the 職業. Couldn't we just make a 静かな search until we 設立する them, and then bring in the boys to help 逮捕（する） the ギャング（団）? That's the method they use in the city, you know; 影をつくる／尾行する your men and get them 位置を示すd, then make a （警察の）手入れ，急襲 when they least 推定する／予想する it. You must know about where they'd take my stuff. Let's go there."
Hugh, leaning into a closet and pulling out 着せる／賦与するing rather promiscuously, laughed tolerantly at that.
"That shows how much you don't know about this country. I've got a hunch they'd ride on 負かす／撃墜する Dugout, or maybe over into Hungry Hollow—but that don't help us out much. We might ride that country for a month and never see hide nor hair of 'em, even if they're in there. And then there's the country all in around Haystack Butte; that's another robbers' roost kinda country. And Yellow 頂点（に達する）—all in 支援する of there they could 穴を開ける up.
"Here's a pair of breeches Jim left, and that dresser over there has got his shirts and things. Help yourself, and if that ain't enough dig into 地雷. I'll go have 物陰／風下 Chow 直す／買収する，八百長をする you some breakfast, and then we'll get out and see what we can dig up in the 形態／調整 of 手がかり（を与える）s. We might be able to find 跡をつけるs that'd tell us something."
They did find 跡をつけるs under the window of Dale's room. The ground was loose and sandy there, and it had been trodden so 十分な of footmarks there might have been almost any number of men entering the house and 出発／死ing that way. Riding boots had been worn, but there were no distinguishing traces in any of the prints, which were blurred and worthless for 測定s or any other 認可するd method of 身元確認，身分証明. It seemed to Dale that only a 探偵，刑事 of fiction could have made anything of the mess, and that their only hope of finding any 手がかり（を与える） lay in looking さらに先に afield.
But of one thing they 納得させるd themselves before the day was over. Trunk, 控訴 事例／患者s and all had been carried bodily away from the ranch, and this time there was no 試みる／企てる to return the things by leaving them in a neat pile on a 激しく揺する where they were sure to be 設立する.
"All we've got to show for it is the rope they tied you up with," Hugh complained that night over their after-dinner smokes. "They used my towels for the gag and to blindfold you, so there's no chance there. Just the rope—and a rope's a rope; you can't make anything else of it. It ain't even a good one, Dale. Looks to me like somebody's old picket rope, the way it's frayed and all."
"That's for you to say; I don't know anything about ropes. I wonder if the boys might かもしれない have seen or heard anything last night. Maybe we should have asked them, Hugh. Of course, I want this kept as 静かな as possible, but still we mustn't shut off any possible sources of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）."
"We didn't. I told the boys I thought I heard some one riding past the house last night, and kinda wondered who it was. There's no place to go above here, you know, except into the wildest 肉親，親類d of country. The road stops at our upper pasture, as you saw for yourself. 井戸／弁護士席, 非，不，無 of the boys heard a thing. I didn't think it was likely they would, because nobody would be fool enough to ride 負かす／撃墜する past the bunk house. They'd take that upper 追跡する where we 棒. But I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be sure we didn't overlook any bets."
"Just the same," Dale said doggedly, "it's strange we could find no fresh 跡をつけるs leaving the place here. I don't understand that at all."
"No, and they didn't mean for you to understand. My theory is that maybe they （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する off the hill 進行中で, and packed the stuff 支援する that way. To-morrow, maybe we'd better ride around the other 味方する of the hill and see if we can find where they left their horses. It'll be about ten miles—that's the way this country is, up here. They could leave their horses 支援する over the hill and walk across, maybe half or three-４半期/4分の1s of a mile. But it would take all of an hour's hard riding to make it on horseback."
"Still, it doesn't look so terribly 法外な," Dale argued. "We 棒 worse hills to-day, it seems to me."
"It's ledgy, all up above here, and there are patches of shale you couldn't get a horse over. And what looks to you here like stony ground is broken-up 激しく揺する that a horse would slip and break his 脚 on. It just ain't ridable, that's all."
"I wouldn't think in that 事例／患者 it would be walkable, either," Dale retorted. "特に in the dark."
Hugh shook his 長，率いる at that. "Anything's walkable," he 宣言するd sententiously, "if you think there's fifty thousand dollars at the end of the walk!"
All at once Dale leaned 支援する in his 議長，司会を務める and gave a loud ha-ha.
"Think of them sweating up that hill in the dark, carrying all that luggage, just for what I had in my pocket!" he grinned in explanation afterwards.
"Yeah, that is funny, all 権利, but I wouldn't laugh, if I were you," Hugh said soberly. "I 推定する／予想する they're about in the mood now to kill you for that!"
"If 殺人，大当り would get them the money," Dale 譲歩するd, still chuckling. "But even such morons as they appear to be must see the futility of anything so extreme."
TO begin with, the horse Hugh 手配中の，お尋ね者 Dale to ride was not with the others next morning, and since Hugh was rather 始める，決める in his ways once he had decided upon a 確かな thing, he told Dale to stay at the house and wait for him while he went after the horse. Dale 抗議するd on the ground that any good saddle horse would do just 同様に, but Hugh 辞退するd to see it in that light.
"No, you've got to ride Meeker, and that's all there is to it," he said. "He's the best hill horse on the ranch, and we might get into rough country. You couldn't lose Meeker—if we got separated or anything, he'd bring you 支援する in daylight or dark. It won't take long, and the time we'll lose in starting we can （不足などを）補う by having the 権利 horses under us. I'll be 支援する in a little bit."
So off he went, galloping 負かす／撃墜する the twisty, hard-beaten cow path along the creek, and Dale was left inwardly ガス／煙ing but outwardly 静める enough and 産する／生じるing good-naturedly to Hugh's whim, as he mentally dubbed it. As a 事柄 of fact, to wear borrowed 着せる／賦与するs 困らすd Dale more than he would have dreamed it could, and the 強盗 of all his personal 所持品 ぼんやり現れるd as large in his 憤慨 as losing the fifty thousand would have done; though he 認めるd the inconsistency of that 態度 十分に to hide it 同様に as he could from Hugh.
But the 延期する seemed 価値（がある） while to him, after all, for here （機の）カム Cynthy on a spirited 黒人／ボイコット not in the least like the long-長，率いるd, loose-lipped Nig, and the first thought that darted through Dale's perturbed mind was a thankfulness that he had not 行方不明になるd her. Cynthy's 直面する, too, showed unmistakable 救済 when she saw him standing on the porch and she reined that way. But when she brought her horse to a stand her manner was 曖昧な in the extreme. She 迎える／歓迎するd him with a casual hello and asked for Hugh.
"He's 負かす／撃墜する in the pasture somewhere, after a horse for me," Dale told her, instinctively approaching the magnificent animal she bestrode. "Golly, he's a beauty, Cynthy! Where did you have him 隠すd while I was 負かす／撃墜する there? I don't suppose he'd be for sale, would he?"
"I should say not! He's Father's own special idol, and I only ride him when I have a chance to こそこそ動く away."
Dale was rubbing the sleek neck under the silky mane and he 公式文書，認めるd that, 冷静な／正味の as was the morning, his 手渡す （機の）カム away wet. But then, he thought 速く, that might be because the horse was a bit soft from 欠如（する） of 演習 and was sweating easily; or had Cynthy ridden in haste for some 推論する／理由?
"Where are you and Hugh going?" Cynthy asked 突然の, with a curious sharpness in her 発言する／表明する.
"強盗 追跡（する）ing," he told her, with self-conscious cheerfulness. "This time they forgot to return my 着せる／賦与するs. I'm wearing brother Jim's for the 現在の, and they don't fit any too 井戸／弁護士席."
"Oh!" Cynthy sat frowning 負かす／撃墜する at him. "You discovered then, that even up here you weren't 免疫の!" She sent a swift 包括的な ちらりと見ること around the yard. "Just how and when did it happen, Dale?"
Something in her トン, her sudden, 予期しない return to the familiarity of using his given 指名する, brought a warmth and a heady excitement to Dale's spirits. He forgot to wonder what had brought her up to the Mowerby ranch so 早期に in the morning, forgot the bitterness of their argument over his troublesome 事件／事情／状勢s. He told her in 詳細（に述べる） just what had happened and showed her the trampled 位置／汚点／見つけ出す under his window and the rope with which he had been tied.
They had just returned to where her horse stood pawing impatiently and circling the tree where Cynthy had tied him, when Hugh appeared at the corral 主要な a tall buckskin. He saw them and （機の）カム on at a sharp gallop.
"Hello, Cynth! What you out so 早期に for? Anything wrong 負かす／撃墜する at your place?"
"Hello, Hugh! No, not a thing. Father and Donna went to town again, and I thought I'd bring up a 公式文書，認める Donna wrote you—and take that fishing trip with Dale I 約束d him. I （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it up here 早期に, so I'd catch you fellows at home—and it looks as if I wasn't any too soon, either."
Hugh sent a quick ちらりと見ること toward Dale, who was 星／主役にするing at Cynthy. Until that minute she had not said a word about going fishing, nor about anything else, really. She had seemed 緊張した, worried, apprehensive about something, but beyond curt questions 関心ing the 強盗 she had said very little.
"Didn't he tell you where we're going?" Hugh asked curiously, taking the 公式文書，認める which Cynthy held out to him.
"Oh, yes, 強盗 追跡（する）ing! But that can wait, can't it? Or at any 率 we can 連合させる 商売／仕事 with 楽しみ, and fish while we 追跡（する） 強盗団の一味. I've got a lunch, but if you're going to butt in on the party, Hugh, you'd better have 物陰／風下 put up some more 挟むs."
Hugh was looking from the 公式文書，認める to Cynthy and scowling a little, evidently in some 疑問 over a question that needed to be settled.
"That's up to Dale," he said, trying to put her off. "They're his 強盗団の一味, not 地雷. But the fishin's pretty punk where we're going, Cynth. Up around the big hill here; it's 乾燥した，日照りの as a bone and you know it."
"Oh, 井戸／弁護士席, have it your way," Cynthy 産する／生じるd sweetly. "If Dale wants to 追跡（する） 強盗団の一味 to-day, all 権利, we'll 追跡（する） 強盗団の一味. We can fish any other day, I suppose."
"But don't you think it would be pretty rough work for a girl?" Dale 投機・賭けるd, trying 猛烈に to guess what she 手配中の，お尋ね者 him to say.
"Not for this girl, as you'll learn for yourself if you stay long enough. Are you coming along, Hugh?"
"Why, sure, if it's the 強盗団の一味 you're going after. You folks would get plumb lost without me. Did Dale tell you how they cleaned out his room night before last?"
"He started to, yes. You can fill in the horrible 詳細（に述べる）s as we go along. Better get some more lunch from 物陰／風下 Chow, and let's go. Never yet have I 追跡（する）d 強盗団の一味, and I've lived here 権利 in the middle of their secret haunts for twenty-one years. As Donna says, I'm 簡単に gasping for the sight of one on his native ヒース／荒れ地."
This was a Cynthy utterly strange to Dale and he even caught Hugh 注目する，もくろむing her questioningly when he thought she was not looking.
"This might not pan out so funny after all, Cynth," Hugh 警告するd her. "There's liable to be some 狙撃, if we run across the bunch that took Dale's stuff."
"井戸／弁護士席, 井戸／弁護士席!" Cynthy made ironical comment. "You're 殺人，大当り time 権利 now, Hugh—and that's about as savage as you'll be, I 推定する／予想する. Go saddle Meeker, and I'll see about the 挟むs myself. About all we'll find is a 跡をつける, maybe—but I 推定する／予想する I can get a thrill out of a 強盗 跡をつける; I've never seen one yet to know it."
There was no stopping Cynthy or any other girl in that mood. While Hugh saddled Meeker she interviewed 物陰／風下 Chow to her satisfaction and she seemed 意図 on making a picnic of the trip. She swept them along almost as if they had not made any 計画（する）s at all for the day and were 簡単に going because she 手配中の，お尋ね者 them to and because she had never 追跡するd 強盗団の一味 and thought it would be a new and fascinating game. But Hugh, who had 設立する time to read Donna's 公式文書，認める, 答える／応じるd rather absently to her teasing chatter.
"Say, what took your dad 支援する to town all of a sudden?" he 需要・要求するd at last. "Donna wrote as if it was a hurry-up call of some 肉親，親類d. What was it, anyway?"
"Oh, Rose sent up word that she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to come home, and asked Father to come after her. And Donna went along just to be doing something, I guess. Mother didn't want her to go, but Donna can't be annoyed with parents' wishes, these days. She's got a lot out of college so far, I must say. I think I'll try a 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 or two and see what it will do for me."
But Hugh, 主要な the way up along the base of the bold hill they meant to 調査／捜査する, was not to be コースを変えるd in that fashion.
"What did she mean by 'Hell to 支払う／賃金 in town and I'm going with Dad?'" he 固執するd, turning in the saddle to give Cynthy a 尋問 星／主役にする. "What's the trouble, Cynth?"
"Oh, you are so archaic, Hugh! 港／避難所't you learned the college girl's vocabulary yet? Everything's 'hell to 支払う／賃金,' によれば Donna this summer. Mother's half frantic over the language her baby girl uses." And Cynthy laughed after the manner of one who 解任するs 確かな amusing 出来事/事件s not 一般に known.
"I never noticed her talking so much different," Hugh said uneasily. "Anything wrong with Rose?"
"Not that I know of," Cynthy answered him lightly. "They were coming up the Fourth, anyway, you know—"
"And that's two weeks off. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to bring Rose up here and she had forty 推論する／理由s for not coming then. Is—" he bit his lip "—is it Jim?"
"Is what Jim?" Cynthy's 黒人／ボイコット horse took a dancing step or two sideways and it took a half minute to 静かな him again and bring him 支援する to a more sedate pace behind Hugh. "Don't be fussy," she mocked him then. "You always are, where Jim is 関心d, I notice. And that's funny too, when one thinks of how he always used to いじめ（る） you and boss you around here at the ranch. Do you remember the time you （機の）カム boiling 負かす／撃墜する to our place and 手配中の，お尋ね者 Father to come up here and 逮捕（する） Jim for taking your saddle horse and （人命などを）奪う，主張するing it was his?" She laughed, her ちらりと見ること going to Dale who had ridden up と一緒に. "They used to fight all the time," she 宣言するd. "It took us half our time to patch up their quarrels, it seems to me. But now it's just the other way 一連の会議、交渉／完成する. I don't believe there's a week goes by that Hugh doesn't find some excuse for going to town—just to see Jim, I 堅固に believe. Only," she 追加するd, "he wouldn't 収容する／認める it, of course."
"What's got into you to-day, Cynth?" Hugh retorted gruffly. "You trying to start something with me?"
"You're in one of your moods, I guess. I 港／避難所't done anything to you; have I, Dale?"
But Dale 限定するd his answer to a shake of the 長，率いる. Until he knew what Cynthy had in her mind, he felt that silence was probably the best 援助 he could give her. She had something, he was sure. She had not come up to go fishing with him, and she was not 泡ing over with good spirits, as a stranger would have assumed. True, she 泡d, but it was a 審議する／熟考する manner assumed for some 目的 of her own. Dale had 熟考する／考慮するd Cynthy's 直面する too often not to feel worried now in a vague 不明確な／無期限の way. Hugh, too, was betraying a 確かな disquiet induced either by Cynthy's presence and 決意 to go with them or by Donna's 公式文書，認める; かもしれない by both, Dale thought, as he watched him. And since the two seemed on the brink of quarreling over nothing, he touched Meeker with his 刺激（する）s and 棒 up と一緒に Hugh, 軍隊ing Cynthy to follow along behind; a rudeness which he sought to 容赦する with a little shake of the 長，率いる and a smile meant to 伝える understanding and sympathy together.
The way grew rougher and soon they were riding in 選び出す／独身 とじ込み／提出する with Hugh 主要な the way, all 外見 of a 追跡する 消えるing as they entered a rough canyon, where they must 選ぶ their way carefully between scattered 玉石s and through 厄介な thickets. Even Hugh showed an unfamiliarity with 確かな rocky gulches, more than once 存在 compelled to turn 支援する and 捜し出す another way.
"I called it ten miles around this hill, didn't I, Dale?" he grinned once, when they had stopped in the shade of an overhanging cliff to 残り／休憩（する） for a minute. "I thought I could 削減（する） off a little and save time, seein' we were held up at the start." He sent an oblique ちらりと見ること at Cynthy, who wrinkled her nose at him for answer. "But I wish now we'd taken 負かす／撃墜する along the creek and swung in behind old Baldtop about where Grey Bull 長，率いるs into Dugout. We'd 'a' made time doing it, though it's さらに先に that way.
"井戸／弁護士席, let's go. We can 辛勝する／優位 around these gullies and 削減（する） through over that 山の尾根 up there and get の上に Grey Bull and follow along it. There's a kinda 追跡する, soon as we get over there."
Cynthy's merry-making mood had dropped from her in the last 緊急発進するing half mile. She looked up at the bald hill above them, then straight at Hugh.
"But what's the idea of coming up here at all?" she 需要・要求するd, in her direct way of 運動ing straight for her 反対する. "Why do you think Dale's 強盗団の一味 went this way? Have you got any 肉親，親類d of a 手がかり（を与える）, or are you just riding at 無作為の?"
"Both, maybe," Hugh replied. "We're followin' what your dad would call a 過程 of 排除／予選. We 証明するd to our own satisfaction they didn't go any other way, so we decided they （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する off the hill 進行中で. We're goin' to see if we can't 選ぶ up the 追跡する the other 味方する of the hill, and if we can, we'll follow it from where they left their horses."
"Oh, I see," said Cynthy, in the トン of one who doesn't see at all. "All around コマドリ Hood's barn. But if you 手配中の，お尋ね者 to do all that, why didn't you take the 追跡する over to the 長，率いる of Grey Bull and come 負かす／撃墜する that way? You know perfectly 井戸／弁護士席—"
"Sure, I know a lot of things, Cynth; how you like to boss the 職業, for one thing. I went this way because there's a chance we might 選ぶ up their 追跡する quicker along Grey Bull. They wouldn't go up the creek; you must know that much. It ain't fishing we're after, Cynth, it's 強盗団の一味."
"I suppose," said Cynthy with much sarcasm, "the fish can't swim 負かす／撃墜する stream. I've caught thousands in upper Grey Bull; what's the 事柄 with it lower 負かす／撃墜する?"
"Not a darn thing except 激しく揺する 塀で囲むs forty or fifty feet high," Hugh told her blandly. "I 推定する／予想する there's trout enough if you could get to them; but you can't, so that settles the fishing question."
明らかに it settled Cynthy also, for she said no more and followed Hugh's lead without question or comment when he 始める，決める out again, doggedly making the best of the bad going ahead of them. 結局 they reached a barren saddle of 激しく揺する which gave a magnificent 見解（をとる） of the rugged country to the north and south, but showed little hope of an 平易な way 負かす／撃墜する. They pulled their panting horses to a willing stand and gazed around in almost 狼狽d silence.
"井戸／弁護士席, I'll be darned!" Hugh said, after a minute. "I guess I swung too far to the left; took the wrong gulch somewhere. Now we'll have to walk and lead our horses 負かす／撃墜する."
"井戸／弁護士席," said Cynthy, "I did think you knew where you were going, Hugh. Born and raised in this country—"
"Yeah, throw it into me, Cynth! I've known your dad gettin' lost up in here, and he's been in the country longer than I have. And I ain't lost, far as that goes. I know about where we are; all I got to do now is 追跡（する） the easiest way 負かす／撃墜する to where we can 選ぶ up the Grey Bull 追跡する. See that creek 負かす／撃墜する there? That's Grey Bull."
"I wish I were in it," Cynthy gloomily 観察するd. "I'm 死なせる／死ぬing for a drink. Come on, then. Lead on, Hugh—we'll follow."
"Now here," said Hugh, a 疲れた／うんざりした half-hour later, "is what I was aimin' for all along. See that green 位置／汚点／見つけ出す 負かす／撃墜する there? That's where the 追跡する strikes off up the creek, and there's a good spring and grass and shade. You two go on 負かす／撃墜する there and 残り／休憩（する） yourselves, and I'll scout around up above here and see if I can 選ぶ up any 調印する."
"And what about the 強盗団の一味?" Cynthy 問い合わせd. "If we see them—"
"You won't. 跡をつけるs is all we 推定する／予想する to see over here." And Hugh 棒 off along the slope, 目的（とする）ing for a point where they could see the 追跡する faintly 示すd where it crossed a little 山の尾根.
The two watched him out of sight in one of those numberless little gullies before they started on toward the vivid green 位置／汚点／見つけ出す he had pointed out to them. It was not far and even Dale had reached the point where the prospect of a shady 位置／汚点／見つけ出す beside a spring assumed a 広大な importance. Since they left the ranch he had been waiting for a chance to ask Cynthy what was the 事柄, and why she had thrust herself into the 事件／事情／状勢 so determinedly, but now that they were alone together, he 関心d himself only with reaching the spring as soon as possible.
"Isn't this heavenly?" Cynthy exclaimed, when they dismounted beside a small, （疑いを）晴らす pool half covered with watercress. "I can 許す Hugh a lot for 主要な us to this 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. We'll eat our lunch here, even though it's 早期に. Aren't you 餓死するd?"
She got no answer and turned to see why. Dale was 星／主役にするing incredulously into the muzzle of a six-shooter held by a man with hat pulled low over his eyebrows and his neckerchief drawn across his nose for a mask. While she looked, another man stepped out of the bushes behind Dale and dropped a 宙返り飛行d rope over his 長，率いる and shoulders, pulling it tight with a quick yank and winding it expertly 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する him.
Cynthy gave a cry of 抗議する and reached for the revolver tucked inside her belt; and as she did so, her 武器 were gripped from behind, though she fought furiously, kicking at booted 向こうずねs and trying her best to bite her captor. A fourth man caught her 手渡すs and tied them with cruel 有効性 and she was pulled to a 近づく-by tree and tied there with her 武器 behind her.
Dale too had kicked out at the man with the gun, trying to defend himself from the 猛攻撃. But as twice before, the surprise had been 完全にする. They had him trussed and tied to a tree a short distance from Cynthy, and all he could do was gaze miserably at her 苦境 and rack his brains for some way of 警告 Hugh before he too 棒 into the 罠（にかける）.
THE man with the gun 明らかに guessed his 意向, for he pulled his blue bandanna from his pocket and gagged Dale with that swift and careless precision which betrays perfect familiarity with the work. Then he turned to those who had caught Cynthy.
"Tie a gag over her mouth so she can't holler," he 命令（する）d curtly, "and then get out up the 追跡する after the other feller. Here, Jack, you 開始する guard, and I'll go along and see that these two bone-長，率いるs don't 落ちる 負かす／撃墜する on their 職業."
A vague sense of something familiar in the 発言する／表明する grew in Dale's mind to a certainty. His memory flashed a picture of the moonlit mountains across the valley from Dalton's and the rider by the gate, 動議ing him into the 影をつくる／尾行するs that they might not be seen from the house. 法案 and Jack, without a 疑問; 強盗団の一味 just as he had at first surmised, when he saw them ride up that night. He looked across at Cynthy and saw her gaze に引き続いて the movements of the two, and as she ちらりと見ることd toward Dale and saw him looking at her, she 攻撃するd her 長，率いる toward the 出発／死ing 法案 and nodded.
Cynthy also 認めるd him, then. Dale ちらりと見ることd at Jack, who was regarding the two with 利益／興味. Evidently Jack had caught and understood the wordless 交換 of meaning, for he pulled his mask from his 直面する and proceeded calmly to roll a cigarette.
"I told 法案 you'd know us both," he 発言／述べるd to Cynthy, as he lighted a match. "We never 推定する／予想するd you'd buy into this, but it ain't goin' to alter our 計画（する）s 非，不，無. We decided that when we seen you through the glasses, ridin' 負かす／撃墜する the hill. You're into it, and you'll have to take your 薬／医学 and like it." He pulled his neckerchief around, with the point draped over his shoulder so that it would not flap in his 直面する and he could smoke in peace. "I guess it ain't as heavenly as you thought it was goin' to be, when you got off your horse," he 追加するd with a grin and a wink at Dale.
But Dale only glared in 返答. It was maddening to be able to do nothing else, and the handkerchief bound tightly over his mouth smelled abominably of タバコ. Moreover, Cynthy was thirsty and to be tied there beside that limpid pool of water, with the spring 泡ing out from a rocky bank within six feet of where she stood must 追加する much to her parched longing for a drink. For himself it didn't 事柄 so much; the agony lay in knowing Cynthy's 苦しめる.
She didn't seem 脅すd, though. Her 注目する，もくろむs snapped with 怒り／怒る when she looked at Jack now reclining at his 緩和する on the bank of the pool, his gun within 平易な reach of his 手渡す—though they were 絶対 helpless and 害のない—and the smoke of his cigarette whipping away from his 直面する, which showed a 確かな nervousness, belying his トン of lazy amusement.
"We had to shut your mouths for yuh, so you wouldn't holler and put Hugh Mowerby wise to our bein' here," he rambled on, very much as if the silence and their baleful gaze 乱すd him somehow. "Soon as they git here, 法案'll likely take off them gags. In fact, I know he will; he'll want you to tell us where you got that money hid." His ちらりと見ること 残り／休憩（する）d speculatively upon Dale.
"We ain't goin' to 傷つける yuh 非，不，無—either of yuh," he went on droningly. "Not unless you git mean about tellin' us what we want to know, and I guess you got more sense'n to do a thing like that. It ain't as if you needed that money yourself; you don't or you wouldn't take the chances with it you do. You prob'ly got more'n you know what to do with, and it ain't no more'n 権利 you should give it up to them that can use it. Just packin' it around playin' the fool with it is no way to do; no way at all. It's just givin' us a dare to come and git it—and we don't take no such a dare as that. So it's your own fault if you're tied up. Yours too, Cynthy, for comin' along where you'd no 商売／仕事."
Cynthy stamped her foot at him and shook her 長，率いる in violent 否定, and for answer to that Jack grinned as he 選ぶd up a pebble the size of a コマドリ's egg and nipped it in her direction. He might have been any cowboy friend teasing her, just to see what she would do, and for a minute Dale had a wild 疑惑 that this was some (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する hoax 存在 played on him as a tenderfoot in the country. It could be; he had heard and read of such practical jokes.
But when he looked at Cynthy his spirits fell once more into foreboding. She must be horribly afraid, though she was too game to show it, and there could be no joking about the way she was tied to that tree. The savage tightness of the rope 証明するd their real 目的. They meant to have the money—and with that thought Dale's teeth clamped together beneath the 包帯 across his mouth.
Just then 法案 returned, marching Hugh before him at the point of his gun, one of the other men 主要な Hugh's horse. These still wore their masks and their 注目する，もくろむs 向こうずねing out of that 狭くする space between hat brim and cloth looked 冷淡な as the unblinking 星／主役にするs of snakes. 法案 looked at the three, chose a tree 直面するing them for Hugh and tied him there 概略で.
Hugh's hat was off and his 直面する was pale under his tan, his 赤みを帯びた-brown hair straggling 負かす／撃墜する into his haggard 注目する，もくろむs. Dale could even see him trembling and the sight somehow 強化するd his own courage. If Hugh's 神経 was already 砂漠ing him, all the more 推論する／理由 why Dale should show plenty of courage. They wouldn't 傷つける Hugh or Cynthy, he felt 確かな of that. It was that fifty thousand dollars they were after and he was the only one who knew where it was. They'd いじめ（る） him, probably, and try to 脅す him into giving it up—but if he 産する／生じるd without a struggle every one—Cynthy 特に—would call him a coward. It was the presence of Cynthy that を締めるd him for the coming 衝突 of wills.
法案 went over and took the gag off Cynthy, who had been 注目する，もくろむing him fixedly.
"Aren't you hot in that mask, 法案 Bradley?" she asked. "It's so silly—unless you're keeping your 直面する covered because you're ashamed of yourself. In that 事例／患者, I'd go on wearing it."
"Don't get smart," 法案 警告するd her, yanking 負かす／撃墜する the handkerchief mask as he walked over to Dale. "You're the guy I want to hear talk," he said 概略で, 除去するing the smelly gag.
"All 権利," Dale answered him with 軍隊d civility, "I'll talk after you give 行方不明になる Burnett a drink of water. I suppose I can't 推定する／予想する that you'll untie her just yet."
"You sure can't," 法案 replied 前向きに／確かに. "Not till after we've had our little talk, anyway. Jack, you can give her a drink. We don't wanta be any tougher than we have to be."
"That's 罰金," Dale 発言／述べるd with bland 是認.
"Dale, I never dreamed they were （軍の）野営地，陣営d here when I sent you two 負かす／撃墜する to wait for me," Hugh 抗議するd 真面目に. "I wouldn't have had this happen for anything in the world."
"I know you wouldn't, old man. It's just one of life's little ironies, I guess. を締める up, Hugh."
"That's 平易な to say," Hugh muttered. "But when I see what I let you in for—" he broke off, biting his lips to 持つ／拘留する himself 安定した.
Over across the little pool Cynthy raised her mouth from the tomato can of water Jack was 持つ／拘留するing for her to drink from, and looked at Hugh.
"Why take that 見解（をとる） of it? He's let himself in for it," she said, with an I-told-you-so ちらりと見ること toward Dale. "We're made the goats just because we happened to be along. He got himself into this mess—let him get out the best way he can." She sent a quick look around the little group and bent her 直面する again to the can.
"That's the stuff—put the 非難する where it belongs, on him," 法案 認可するd. "And just for that, you can have your 手渡すs 解放する／自由な to 持つ／拘留する a 挟む. I heard yuh say something awhile ago about bein' hungry."
"Thanks, 法案. The lunch is in that 一括 tied to my saddle horn. Do you think we'll be held very long? If we are, I wish you'd put me over at that other tree where the 激しく揺する is. It's tiresome standing up all the while." Cynthy's little smile was irresistible and 法案 産する／生じるd, わびるing with ungrammatical 誠実 because he could not leave her altogether 解放する／自由な.
"I really don't mind very much, so long as I'm comfortable," she told him cheerfully, smiling up into 法案's 直面する as he laid the 一括 of food in her （競技場の）トラック一周. "Now go ahead and ask Mr. Emery where he keeps his money, and let's get it over with. I'm dying to know."
The relieved look on Dale's 直面する when he saw her made comfortable darkened to 怒り／怒る and 疑惑. It began to look very much like a put-up 職業 between 法案 and Cynthy. Was that why she had hurried up to Hugh's place so 早期に in the morning? If they hadn't been ready to start out, she might have 提案するd the trip herself. Certainly she did not seem in the least perturbed now—and if Cynthy really did know about it beforehand, that would account for Jack's teasing mood while he waited for Hugh to be brought in. Dale looked at Hugh and unconsciously his 注目する，もくろむs 軟化するd. Hugh was still pale and worried, little beads of perspiration standing out on his forehead, which looked white as a girl's where his hat had 保護するd it from the sun. This 持つ／拘留する-up might have been planned, but if so Hugh most assuredly was not in on the joke.
"Yeah, so am I dyin' to know where that fifty thousand bucks is （武器などの）隠匿場所d," Jack spoke 熱望して. The two strangers kept on their masks and 差し控えるd from taking any part in the conversation; Dale guessed that they meant to remain as inconspicuous as possible, in the hope that they could not be identified afterwards, if things went wrong.
"That's what we all want to know, I guess," said 法案. "You look like you've got some sense; tell us where we'll find the money and we'll turn yuh loose—if you don't 嘘（をつく） about it."
They waited. Dale did not reply. He was too 激しく disappointed in Cynthy to make any retort, and as for giving them any satisfaction 関心ing the money, he felt that he would rather be 発射.
"井戸／弁護士席, ain't yuh going to tell us where it is?" 法案 asked trenchantly.
"No, I'm not," said Dale 静かに.
"Say, I guess you don't realize just what you're up against," 法案 観察するd. "I'd a lot rather you told now than after awhile."
"Oh, go on and tell us, Dale; you've kept us guessing long enough!" Cynthy 勧めるd, still trying to be light and inconsequential, as if it were just a game they were playing, but with a betraying 公式文書，認める of hysteria in her 発言する／表明する.
"Sorry to disappoint you, 行方不明になる Burnett, but I'm afraid you'll just have to keep on guessing," Dale answered her coldly. "You folks are going the wrong way about it."
"Yeah, I kinda think you're 権利," 法案 retorted with ominous meaning. "Bring the rope off that saddle, Jack."
"Dale, you'd better tell 'em where it is," Hugh said, running the tip of his tongue across his 乾燥した，日照りの lips. "No use crowdin' your luck. They won't stop at anything."
"Are you standing in with them—like Cynthy?" Dale （機の）カム 支援する at him 厳しく.
"Say, don't be a damn' fool!" Hugh exclaimed resentfully.
法案 had taken the rope from his companion and was pulling out the 宙返り飛行 with a きびきびした, 事務的な manner more 脅迫的な than 脅しs. Now he walked up and placed the 宙返り飛行 over Dale's 長，率いる, looking up to 捜し出す a convenient 四肢. There happened to be one growing out from the tree, and he stood 支援する and threw the coil over with a neat cast, catching the rope as it swung 負かす／撃墜する over the 支店. を引き渡す 手渡す he took in the slack until the 宙返り飛行 pulled snugly around Dale's throat.
"Now I give yuh one more chance to come clean," 法案 said, in a hard 発言する／表明する. "Don't be so damn' stingy with your money. Tell us where you hid that fifty thousand dollars." As he spoke, he untied the rope which bound Dale to the tree so that he stood with only his 手渡すs tied behind him and the rope around his neck. "Come on, jar loose from that （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）."
"Why are you so sure I've got that much money?"
"Why would you go on riskin' your hide, claimin' you've got it if you ain't?" 法案 turned and beckoned the two silent ones to lend a 手渡す on the rope, and they trotted up willingly enough, the corners of their masks flapping in the 微風.
法案 waited another minute, his 注目する，もくろむs searching Dale's stubborn, contemptuous 直面する; and then stepped backward, the rope taut in his two gloved 手渡すs, the other two pulling as he pulled. There was a sickening, 緊張するing wrench at Dale's throat as the rope drew tighter and tighter and his 負わせる left his feet. He shut his 注目する，もくろむs then to keep out the look of horror growing in Cynthy's 直面する, and dangled with his toes just 小衝突ing the grass as the 勝利，勝つd swung him gently to and fro.
With a 急ぐ he felt the 血 settling in his 直面する, felt the 緊張するing 圧力 behind his eyeballs. His 長，率いる seemed to swell and he grew わずかに giddy. Then, when it seemed as though his 肺s would burst in their yearning for 空気／公表する, his feet （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する solidly upon the ground and 法案's fingers were 緩和するing the rope. Dale tried not to gasp or to give any 調印する of 苦しめる, but he felt himself swaying, felt some one 安定したing him.
"Where is it?" 法案's 発言する／表明する 削減（する） 厳しく through the drumming in his ears.
Dale 星／主役にするd unyieldingly into a pair of 注目する，もくろむs 絶対 merciless in the 直す／買収する，八百長をするd 決意 that looked out of them.
"You goin' to tell?"
"No!"
"Aw, tell 'em, Dale!" Hugh implored. "What's fifty thousand dollars, anyway?"
"No!" Dale's stubborn 激怒（する） had passed the point where he could 産する／生じる. "No! You'll never get it—not if you kill me!"
"We'll kill yuh, all 権利, if you don't tell," 法案 約束d him grimly, and began to walk backward again with the rope.
AGAIN the horrible 緊張する, the agonizing moment when his feet left the ground. Again he shut his 注目する，もくろむs and lips and hung on to his reeling senses. Again the starting eyeballs, the horrible suffocation—and Cynthy's 発言する／表明する 叫び声をあげるing at them to stop.
When his feet struck the ground after this 拷問, his 膝s buckled and he would have fallen on his 直面する if the rope had not checked him with a lurch that seemed almost to dislocate his neck. He must have 行方不明になるd a minute or two there, for the next he realized distinctly was Cynthy's sobbing remonstrance and Hugh's 発言する／表明する cutting in with 悪口を言う／悪態ing.
"Let him go!" Hugh was shouting hoarsely. "You'll kill him, you damn' fools! You want to hang for 殺人? Let him go, I tell yuh!"
"Aw, shut up!" 法案 savagely 命令（する）d. "You'll be speakin' outa turn if you ain't careful. Didn't I say he'd tell? 井戸／弁護士席, he'll do it before I'm through."
"You—you fiends!" shrieked Cynthy, over and over again in frantic 抗議する. "Take this rope off me! Let me go to him! Oh, you've killed him! Let me go!"
Dale opened his bloodshot 注目する，もくろむs and 星／主役にするd up into the 直面するs of all four of the ギャング（団） bending over him.
"You goin' to tell where that money is?" 法案 asked remorselessly.
"No!" Dale gasped thickly. "Damn you—a thousand times—no!"
"Let him go, you fellows!" Hugh's 発言する／表明する was 厳しい with emotion, his 直面する looked drawn and old when Dale, helped to a sitting posture with his 支援する against the tree, looked over that way. "Can't you see he means it? Turn him loose. Either he ain't got the money—"
"Shut up!" 法案 wheeled upon him 怒って. "I'm runnin' this show. You keep your nose outa this, or we'll put you over the jumps yourself."
"Like hell you will! Turn him loose, I tell yuh! He's got you stopped, 法案. If he won't tell now, nothing'll make him."
"Say, where'd you get all that? Maybe if we string you up a time or two, he'll change his mind!"
"You try that once!" Hugh shouted defiantly. "You just try it, that's all!"
法案, wrought up to a high pitch of savagery by his 失敗, was walking toward him. Now his 握りこぶし 粉砕するd 十分な into Hugh's 直面する, and a spurt of 血 from Hugh's nose followed the blow.
"Oh, you coward!" cried Cynthy, 緊張するing at the rope. "What a coward you are, 法案 Bradley!" 法案 wheeled and 前進するd upon her, scowling blackly.
"You shut up or you'll get it next," he cried 怒って. "I'm goin' to get the truth out of that guy there if I have to kill the bunch of yuh by インチs!"
"Go after the girl, then," one of the masked men muttered. "That'll make him talk!"
"Damn you, leave her alone!" croaked Dale, 星／主役にするing groggily at Cynthy. "I 港／避難所't got the money, if you want to know."
"Now I know you're lyin'," 法案 retorted slightingly. "Come over here, Jack." He crooked his finger and Jack obeyed. The two walked off and conferred together up the 追跡する, where the bushes 審査するd them from 見解（をとる）.
Hugh, shaking the 血 from his 直面する, was making a desperate 成果／努力 to 解放する／自由な one 手渡す while the masked 強盗団の一味 watched him with stolid 利益／興味, when 法案 returned and walked up to Dale.
"You're goin' to tell where that money is," he 明言する／公表するd 堅固に. "You've got 神経, I'll 手渡す yuh that much—but I bet you ain't got so much 神経 where Cynthy Burnett is 関心d. You tell 権利 now, or I'm goin' to start in on her. And don't think I won't!" he finished with baleful intensity.
"Don't you do it, Dale," cried Cynthy. "He's only bluffing you now—and the more he 脅すs, the いっそう少なく he means it. 法案 worked for us once—why, he wouldn't dare touch me! He knows Father'd kill him if he did. Don't you tell them a thing!"
While Dale 星／主役にするd at her dubiously, 法案 walked 支援する to where she sat.
"You're comin' with me up the 追跡する a ways," he said, with a ruthless 肉親，親類d of 静める. "If you think I won't do anything to you, you're crazy, that's all."
"It's you that are crazy," she retorted, 辞退するing to take him 本気で. "Dale, he's bluffing; don't 支払う／賃金 any attention to what he says. He wouldn't 傷つける me—"
"Say, don't you fool yourself!" 法案 snorted, as he tied her 手渡すs behind her again. "I'd 傷つける anybody for fifty thousand dollars!" And he began to half lead and half carry her up the 追跡する to where Jack waited mysteriously, Cynthy fighting and kicking and 脅すing as they disappeared.
"For God's sake, tell 'em, why don't you? You rich fellows—money's your God! You'd see 'em 拷問 a woman to death before you'd let loose of a dollar!" Hugh burst out and 悪口を言う／悪態d Dale ひどく.
"They won't 傷つける her—she knows they won't 傷つける her," Dale 宣言するd, muttering the words to himself. "They can't get away with this—I can't let them get away with it. She told me not to. They'll give up when they find they can't bluff me—I'd be a fool to give in now."
"Tell 'em! Tell 'em where it is!" Hugh 繰り返し言うd over and over, between 誓いs. "Why didn't you tell in the first place? They'll get it anyway."
"No!" barked Dale. "She knows they're bluff—" The word froze on his lips as a piercing shriek from Cynthy 粉々にするd the ominous silence in the thicket where they had taken her.
"Dale! Help! Oh, Dale, Dale!" she sobbed; and again the shrieking, inarticulate 叫び声をあげる, 長引かせるd, terrible.
"Stop it!" yelled Dale, writhing in his 社債s. "I'll tell—I'll tell—stop it!"
法案 appeared 速く, alone. He stood before Dale, looking 負かす／撃墜する at him with a wry smile.
"I thought that'd jar yuh some," he said laconically. "Where is it?"
"Bring her 支援する here and I'll tell. You damnable fiend!" snarled Dale between clenched teeth.
"You tell, and I'll bring her 支援する," 法案 calmly 逆転するd the 条件. "I guess you know now that when I say a thing I mean it. Where's that money?"
"圧力（をかける）d in the binding of my 調書をとる／予約するs," said Dale, panting a little after the 緊張する. "Now, go bring her 支援する here!"
"You 嘘（をつく）," 法案 （刑事）被告 him grimly. "We 削減（する） them red 調書をとる／予約するs to pieces, and there wasn't a damn thing in the covers but pasteboard. Where's that money? And I ain't goin' to ask yuh again," he 追加するd bodefully.
"You got the wrong 調書をとる／予約するs," Dale explained, for the first time seeing nothing to smile over in the thought. "The money's in the three 調書をとる／予約するs I let Cynthy keep for me."
"I'll be damned!" breathed 法案, 星／主役にするing oddly. "So that's it." Then a thought struck him. "Cynthy know that?" he snapped.
"No, nobody knew it. That's why—I felt 安全な." He looked up tensely into 法案's 直面する. "Now, damn you, bring her 支援する!" he cried insistently.
法案 stood thoughtfully rubbing his chin while he 星／主役にするd 負かす／撃墜する at Dale.
"Yeah, I guess that's 権利," he decided. "That's the only place it could be. I didn't know there was any more 調書をとる／予約するs," he 追加するd apologetically, as if he must explain his 失敗. "Sure, I'll bring her 支援する. Hey, Jack!" he shouted. "Bring her 支援する—he come through, all 権利!"
WITH a terrible 苦悩, Dale watched for her return. In the 指名する of heaven, what had they done to her? What had they dared? Was she 負傷させるd? If she was, he せねばならない be 発射 for bringing this upon her. The money didn't mean anything at all to him now, nor his pride in keeping it in spite of their cunning and their brutality. 手段d against Cynthy's safety and 福利事業, it was いっそう少なく than nothing. He did not know how white and shaken he looked, nor did he feel the 涙／ほころびs on his cheeks when Cynthy （機の）カム with a swift little 急ぐ and knelt beside him.
"Oh, I didn't mean to, Dale! I didn't mean to 叫び声をあげる!" she cried, catching him by the shoulders and pulling him の近くに. "I thought they wouldn't do anything—but they dragged a—snake across my neck! And they had me blindfolded, Dale! They said it was a—a rattlesnake—oh, Dale dear, I—I can't 耐える snakes 近づく me! And 法案 knew it—"
"Yeah, only it wasn't a snake, it was a rope," 法案 grinned.
"You brute! You said it was a snake! Oh Dale, did you tell really? I—I—" Cynthy, the self-所有するd, was sobbing like a little child, her 直面する hidden against Dale's shoulder.
"Don't cry, dear," Dale muttered brokenly, his lips against her hot cheek. "I was a fool from the start—but if you can 許す me—"
"Oh, it's my fault! I せねばならない have told you—or if Father had—" She was whispering, 粘着するing to him, forgetting for the moment that others were 近づく. "They tricked me, Dale. I did think it was a snake!"
It was then 法案 took her by the arm and pulled her to her feet.
"Say, 削減（する） out the love-makin'! We ain't through with you yet," he said gruffly. "He says you've got three 調書をとる／予約するs of his, and the money's in them. Where are they at?"
"調書をとる／予約するs?" Cynthy 小衝突d the 涙／ほころびs from her 注目する，もくろむs and 星／主役にするd bewilderedly at 法案. "How can it be in the 調書をとる／予約するs? I've been reading them, and there isn't a 調印する of any money!"
"In the covers, he says. Where are they at? I'm goin' to leave you folks here with Jack, while I ride 負かす／撃墜する and get 'em. What room are they in, Cynthy?"
"They're not in any room," Cynthy said sullenly.
"Say, you better let me go after them 調書をとる／予約するs," Jack 削減（する） in meaningly, but 法案 chose to ignore that 発言／述べる.
"Whadda yuh mean, not in any room?" He was glaring suspiciously at Cynthy. "Where are they, then? You better not get foxy about it, or next time there won't be any foolin' about the snake. Why ain't they in any room?"
"Stop pinching my arm, 法案 Bradley! They just aren't in any room, that's why. Oh, I wish Father were here!"
"Why ain't they in any room? Hurry up—the longer you 立ち往生させる around, the longer you and your sweetie here will be tied up. Why ain't they in any room?" 法案's 直面する was bent の近くに to Cynthy's and his 注目する，もくろむs were ferociously impelling.
"Because they're not in the house."
"Where are they, then?" 法案 公正に／かなり barked the question. "In the stable?"
"No!"
"Where, then?"
"Outdoors."
法案 took a 深い breath and his whole でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる was seen to shiver with the savage intensity of his 願望（する） to get at the money.
"Aw, git it out of her!" Jack Smith 勧めるd impatiently. "You can, all 権利, if you go 権利 after her. Make her tell!"
"You shut up," 法案 ordered 概略で. "I'm runnin' this. You say them 調書をとる／予約するs are outdoors. どの辺に outdoors?"
"They're not on the ranch at all," said Cynthy, turning her ちらりと見ること beseechingly toward Dale.
"Tell him, Cynthy," he said gently. "Let them get the money and go." He glared at 法案. "You can have the money, you 殺人ing crooks, but don't think it's going to end there. Tell him, Cynthy, and let's get it over with. What did you do with the 調書をとる／予約するs?"
"I started to bring them to you," Cynthy said, her 発言する／表明する trembling a little. "I—I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to talk to you, and—I used the 調書をとる／予約するs for an excuse to ride up and see you. I was going to pretend you'd forgotten them when you moved your things up to Hugh's—"
"Where are they?" bellowed 法案. "At Hugh's place? Hurry up! I'm through foolin' with you, I can tell yuh 権利 now!"
"I had to talk to you, Dale," Cynthy went 支援する to the beginning. "There was something I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to tell you, and I thought maybe you'd forgotten the 調書をとる／予約するs. I can see now," she 追加するd, her 発言する／表明する and manner 安定したing as she perversely continued her explanation, "I can see why you did give them to me to keep for you. It wasn't just to show you 信用d me—it was because the money was in them and you thought it would be safer—"
"Where—are—them 調書をとる／予約するs?" 法案 roared. "Nobody gives a damn what you think an' what he thinks; git to the point, why don't you?"
"I'm coming to the point," said Cynthy. "The money has kept this long, and you've lived without it; you'll live another minute, I'm sure. So," she turned again to Dale, "I thought I'd take the 調書をとる／予約するs, and my fishing 取り組む so mother wouldn't Worry—"
"Say," said 法案 in a 発言する／表明する of 抑えるd fury, "if you don't tell me 権利 now where them 調書をとる／予約するs is, I'm goin' to hang this feller of yourn till he's so damn' dead the buzzards won't eat 'im!"
"And if you do you may 同様に hang me too, because I never will tell you a thing if you don't behave yourself and leave us both alone!" Cynthy 現実に stamped her foot at him.
"Still, I'd tell him if I were you," Dale 勧めるd. "I'd give fifty thousand dollars 権利 now to get the cramp out of my 武器."
"I—I hate to, Dale! I hate to give him the satisfaction. I see now how you felt about giving in."
"I know, but—"
"Say, choke it out of 'er, why don't you?" Jack 需要・要求するd, with growing impatience. "You goin' to let her make a monkey of you, 法案?"
"She'll tell," 法案 said menacingly, "when she sees her dude sweetheart swingin' from that 四肢 ag'in. She'll tell, 急速な／放蕩な enough!"
"You wouldn't dare!" cried Cynthy. And then, when she saw 法案 pull the noose toward him, "Oh, don't! They're in my saddle pocket!"
"Ah-h!" 法案 gave an inarticulate snarl of 勝利 and let go the rope. "Hey, you come 支援する here!" he shouted after Jack, who was running to the 黒人／ボイコット horse stamping at the 飛行機で行くs, while he nibbled daintily at the leaves of the bushes 近づく him. "I'll get them 調書をとる／予約するs myself."
"Aw, what's the 事柄 with you?" Jack growled, coming 支援する with a 一括 neatly wrapped in newspaper. "Think I'm goin' to run off with it?"
法案 snatched the 一括, broke the string with a 迅速な jerk of his finger beneath it and pulled off the paper. There were the red morocco 調書をとる／予約するs just as Cynthy had said, gleaming richly in the wavering flecks of sunlight 精査するing through the 支店s of the tree. But their beauty was lost upon those four, who converged to a の近くに circle around them; on the one 味方する Hugh, his 直面する pale and streaked with 血, 星／主役にするing fixedly from where he stood bound; Dale looking on impassively from the other. Cynthy, once the attention was コースを変えるd from herself to the 一括, 退却／保養地d to the tree and crouched beside him, watching tearfully.
"Oh, it's a 罪，犯罪 to 廃虚 those lovely 調書をとる／予約するs," she cried protestingly, as 法案 got out his jackknife and opened its はっきりした blade.
"It's a 罪，犯罪 they'll 支払う／賃金 for," Dale said grimly. "Anyway, Stan and I were 権利—they never would have 設立する out in a thousand years. They had to be told—"
"削減（する） around the 辛勝する／優位s!" Jack Smith 警告するd nervously. "You want to haggle 'em to pieces? How many 法案s is there?" he asked Dale curiously, but Dale 辞退するd to answer save with a curl of the lip. 法案 paid no attention. He was carefully slicing the leather binding at the 支援する, and now he began peeling it off its padding, which seemed to be nothing but pasteboard like the others.
"You'd do better if you worked from the inside of the cover," Dale told him, and without a word or a look 法案 opened the 調書をとる／予約する and 始める，決める to work again.
"What the hell!" he snorted suddenly, pulling up the corner of a banknote. "That's only a dollar 法案!" He looked suspiciously at Dale.
"A dollar? I don't see how it got there—must be one of Stan's jokes. You'll find ten 法案s in the three 調書をとる／予約するs, 法案—fifty thousand dollars in all—and I wish you much joy of it!" he 追加するd viciously.
"Oh, it's a shame for them to get all that money!" 嘆く／悼むd Cynthy.
But no one 注意するd her, not even Dale; for 法案 was pulling other banknotes from the 調書をとる／予約する, and as he looked at the denomination of each one, he swore and threw it crumpled in the grass, where the masked 強盗団の一味 clawed for it あわてて.
Without a word 法案 pitched the mutilated 調書をとる／予約する far into the bushes and snatched another from Jack's nerveless 手渡すs. 速く he riddled that one, scanning each green slip of 通貨 hurriedly. The third and last 産する／生じるing something more—a half sheet of paper neatly typed and 調印するd.
"What's that?" Dale cried はっきりと, as 法案 広げるd it. "Isn't the money there? What's the paper? I never put in any paper, nor Stan either. What's the 事柄?"
法案 choked upon the words he felt （人が）群がるing for utterance. He struck Jack Smith 残酷に out of his path and strode up, shaking his 握りこぶし and the paper at Dale, sitting helpless there at the foot of the tree.
"Sold!" he ejaculated in a strangled トン, when he stood 非常に高い over his 囚人. "Read that! If I thought you knew it was there, I'd blow your damn' brains out!"
"What is it?" Dale kept repeating dazedly. "How can I read it if you won't 持つ／拘留する it still? Get it and read it, Cynthy."
So Cynthy took the paper from 法案 and read it あわてて through in silence; gave a hysterical laugh, checked herself and smoothed the paper like a schoolgirl 準備するing to read her own composition before the class. But she made the mistake of looking up first into 法案's purpling countenance and giggled again.
"Oh, it's the funniest—井戸／弁護士席, here, I'll read it, Dale:
Chicago, June 2nd.
This is to certify that I hereby 辞退する to 援助（する）, 扇動する or encourage a fool. Dale, you big 次第に損なう, you surely overlooked the fact that 調書をとる／予約するs are printed to be borrowed, lost or stolen. I have therefore taken the liberty of 除去するing your five-thousand-dollar 法案s and 代用品，人ing one-dollar 法案s. The fifty thousand I have placed in my bank. In 事例／患者 this paper is 設立する by a どろぼう, I will 追加する that I shall 降伏する the money only upon proper 身元確認，身分証明 made through 正規の／正選手 banking channels. If Dale finds it, I hope he will realize I am 事実上の／代理 in his best 利益／興味s.
John Stanley.
"So you see," said Cynthy, as she 倍のd the paper again and 押し進めるd it into Dale's pocket, "there isn't any fifty thousand dollars, and you've had your trouble for your 苦痛s. What you'd better do, 法案 Bradley, is turn these boys loose and （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it."
"And you'll just come along, you're so damn' smart," glowered 法案, and had her once more in his しっかり掴む before she could get to her feet. "You've had a damn' sight too much to say around here, anyway."
"Come along where?" gasped Cynthy.
"Don't be a fool," cried Dale. "You fellows are in bad enough, 権利 now. Keep your 手渡すs off her."
"Aw, to hell with you!" 法案 retorted. "Get their horses and come on, boys." For the second time he led Cynthy off 負かす／撃墜する the 追跡する, Jack and the two masked and nameless ones running to untie the three horses of their 犠牲者s.
"Hey! You leave my horses alone!" Hugh frantically 命令（する）d, 緊張するing at the ropes. "You can't pull a stunt like that—"
"Think we're goin' off without a little something to show for our trouble?" 法案 sneered over his shoulder. "Come on, boys, bring 'em along. The walkin's good," he called maliciously, as he disappeared in the bushes.
"Are they going to take their spite out on Cynthy?" Dale groaned, anguish once more 掴むing his very soul.
"Oh, Cynthy's all 権利—they'll take her 負かす／撃墜する the 追跡する a ways and turn her loose. Damn 'em, they've stole two of the best saddle horses I've got! If they think they can get away with that, they're crazy! I'll—" Hugh drifted off into maledictions.
Into the 中央 of this walked Cynthy, white and 疲れた／うんざりした, 涙／ほころびs 事情に応じて変わる slowly 負かす／撃墜する her cheeks. She went straight to Dale and began working on the knotted rope, and as she pulled and tugged, she cried drearily.
"Cynthy—sweetheart!" Dale softly 抗議するd, keeping his 発言する／表明する low lest Hugh should overhear the unaccustomed endearment. "What did they do? Are you—傷つける?"
"They took—強硬派!" wailed Cynthy. "It's my fault—I had no 商売／仕事 riding him when Father's gone. They've stolen him and 法案's riding him away—and Dale, 法案 Bradley is mean to his horses! That's one 推論する／理由 why Father 解雇する／砲火／射撃d him." She ちらりと見ることd toward Hugh and bent her 長，率いる to whisper in Dale's ear. "There's something else I 設立する out, but I can't tell you now. I don't want Hugh to know—"
"Say, are you going to spend the day there?" Hugh 需要・要求するd 概略で. "We've got to get 支援する to the ranch and start the boys out after that ギャング（団）! You can talk on the 追跡する, you two."
"Hugh," asked Cynthy, while she was untying him—Dale not yet having the 十分な use of his numbed 手渡すs—"did you 認める either of those two fellows who kept their masks on?"
"Me? No. I don't give a damn who they are; I'm going to get them for this and get them good. Strangers—無法者s from up Hungry Hollow way, most likely. That's where 法案 Bradley has been hanging out, I hear."
"Didn't it strike you as queer that perfect strangers would be so careful not to give us anything to identify them by? 法案 and Jack didn't seem to care."
"Say, the mental 過程s of a bunch of horse thieves don't 利益／興味 me a darn bit," Hugh 不平（をいう）d. "It's what they do that counts. I'll get those horses of 地雷 支援する, if I have to follow them to the Canadian line!"
"So will Father," Cynthy sighed. "To think that with all the horses on the ranch, I had to take 強硬派 on this particular day! It will just about 床に打ち倒す Father when he hears of it."
They drank 深く，強烈に from the spring and then made their way out of the little grove and up the faint 追跡する that went winding around the foot of the bold hill, beyond which lay the Mowerby ranch. As they topped a slope where a grassy 山の尾根 slanted 負かす／撃墜する from the crest of the hill, Hugh stopped and 星／主役にするd gloomily up that way.
"She's a 堅い old hill to take on an empty stomach," he grinned sourly, "but the sooner we 取り組む it, the sooner we'll get home." And he started to climb, Dale and Cynthy に引き続いて 手渡す in 手渡す a few paces behind him.
IT was not so far up the hill, though it was さらに先に than Hugh had 概算の, and it was very 法外な. More than once it occurred to Dale that 法案 Bradley and his ギャング（団） must have been in an 過度に 用心深い mood, if they left their horses away over on this 味方する of the hill and walked across. 裁判官ing from 法案's boldness and his general disposition to go 権利 after the thing he 手配中の，お尋ね者, Dale did not really believe in this 引き上げ（る） over the hill. They must have ridden to the ranch and left their horses 負かす／撃墜する somewhere along the creek. Now that he was a bit more familiar with the topography of the country, he could understand how easily Hugh might have failed to come across their 跡をつけるs.
And yet, they must have had some 商売／仕事 over on this 味方する of the hill, or they would not have been hidden in the grove 負かす／撃墜する there, all ready to pounce. That was a strange coincidence, to say the least. Was it possible that 法案 or Jack had been listening outside the den window last night when he and Hugh had planned to search this 味方する of the hill? He remembered an open window 近づく the fireplace, and that Hugh had opened it because 物陰／風下 Chow had built too generous a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the den that evening, and the room had got too warm for 慰安. It was やめる possible that 法案 had been anxious to know what they thought of the 強盗 and what they meant to do, and since he had once worked for Quin Burnett he certainly would have visited the Mowerby ranch often enough to be perfectly familiar with the house and Hugh's habits.
That thought led him to the mystery of the wallet in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box at Burnett's. 法案 must have done that. Dale looked at Cynthy, half ーするつもりであるing to ask her what she thought of the theory. But Cynthy was 吸収するd in her own worries and seemed unwilling to talk, so he gave up the idea of discussion and 始める，決める himself to the 仕事 of making the climb as 平易な for her as possible. Talking it over with Hugh was out of the question; Hugh was (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進むing determinedly up the hill, his mind plainly filled with the one 目的 of reaching home as soon as possible, so that he could get on the 追跡する of 法案 Bradley and his ギャング（団）.
Hugh reached the 首脳会議 of the hill five minutes ahead of Dale and Cynthy, and with a hurried ちらりと見ること behind him and a cursory wave of the 手渡す, he disappeared over the crest.
"Hugh's mad," said Cynthy dully, when they stood finally upon the 最高の，を越す. "法案 was an awful fool to take our horses, Dale. Of course, he was terribly upset over not getting what he was after, but he must have known he'd 簡単に be putting Hugh and Father on his 追跡する. He knows Hugh is a poor loser—or he せねばならない know it. And Father's the sweetest thing on earth until you get him 完全に roused, and then there's nothing will stop him."
"Still, if they went off up in that country over there, I should think they might feel 公正に／かなり 安全な. Lord knows it's rough enough. Just look at all those canyons and 頂点（に達する）s and pinnacles and things. Hugh said they might be up around Haystack Butte—is that it, away off there?"
"That big one standing by itself, yes. That's about where Grey Bull runs into Dugout—up this 味方する of Haystack. And you see that rough country over there to the left, the one where the red cliffs are? Hungry Hollow country is off in there. Yellow 頂点（に達する） is this 味方する—you can't 行方不明になる that; it 指名するs itself in your mind. And away on up beyond is 穴を開ける-in-the-塀で囲む; there's no end to （犯人の）隠れ家 country; if they want to stay in Wyoming they can, for months and months. Yes, they can feel reasonably 安全な, or they could, if Father doesn't get after them. He knows the country 同様に as they do, and he has an uncanny way of guessing what the other fellow will do. That's what made him such a splendid 郡保安官."
Dale's mind wandered from the 支配する, 決定的な though it was. He had ちらりと見ることd at Cynthy's 直面する with her dark hair 緩和するd about it and the somber look in her 注目する，もくろむs, and all at once nothing else seemed to 事柄 in the least. His 武器 slid around her so suddenly that Cynthy gave a little gasp of surprise.
"You know, Cynthy, I'm terribly in love with you," he said, his 長，率いる 屈服するd so that his cheek 残り／休憩（する）d against hers and felt the warmth rising there. "I have been all along. But when you 叫び声をあげるd 負かす／撃墜する there, I thought I'd go crazy. It was a thousand times worse than the hanging stunt they pulled on me, and that was bad enough."
"That was when I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to die," Cynthy whispered, breathing quickly at the memory. "Don't let's talk about it, Dale."
"What I want to say is, will you marry me, Cynthy? After awhile, when I find the place where we could live always and just ride around and fish and train polo ponies—would you like that, dear?"
"Polo, fishing, riding or getting married?" asked Cynthy, laughing tremulously as she 緩和するd his clasp and drew away from him.
"Getting married. The 残り／休憩（する） wouldn't 事柄 so much. I could be happy anywhere, doing anything you liked. Will you marry me, Cynthy?"
"I—井戸／弁護士席, maybe—perhaps," stammered Cynthy, struggling to 回復する her usual crisp, 冷静な／正味の manner. "We've had so much mystery and excitement, and we've argued so much, I really don't know 正確に／まさに how I do feel about you."
"But I thought you said you 手配中の，お尋ね者 to die—"
"But that may have been my 自然に tender heart," Cynthy hurriedly recanted. "I might have felt the same way over Hugh. If they had tried it on him, I'd have a better chance to 熟考する／考慮する my reactions. I know I was perfectly insane with the horror—" she caught herself 支援する from too vivid a memory of it "—but even if it had been Hugh—"
"You didn't run and 得る，とらえる Hugh and cry on his shoulder when you thought they'd dragged a snake across your neck," Dale reminded her pitilessly. "What about that reaction?"
Cynthy stood with her 手渡すs clasped in 前線 of her and meditated upon that idea.
"That does sort of look as if I—still, I don't know, Dale. You see, I've known Hugh Mowerby since we were both kids, and he used to be the meanest little tike! He was always chasing us girls with dead snakes; me more than Donna, because I'd yell louder. No, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't 推定する／予想する much sympathy from Hugh. So—"
"You know perfectly darned 井戸／弁護士席 you love me and you're going to marry me," Dale 突然の 終結させるd the discussion in the way best known to lovers. "Now the money question's settled, I don't think we'll have much to argue about; do you?"
"井戸／弁護士席, I've never yet been at any 広大な／多数の／重要な disadvantage for want of a 支配する," Cynthy demurely pointed out, "so I can't say I don't think we'd ever argue again. It seems to me we're bound to."
"But you're going to marry me, aren't you?"
"That," said Cynthy more 本気で, "I can't decide all in a minute, Dale. I'm not that modern. I'd have to know you better; I'd want to know what Father thought about it. Just now he hasn't the highest opinion in the world of you, I'm sorry to say. He thinks you're pretty nearly subnormal mentally, or you wouldn't have brought all that money out here with you. Of course you didn't, really, but you thought you had and the 影響 was just the same. Whether Father will let his sense of humor 勝つ／広く一帯に広がる when he hears the whole story, remains to be seen. Wait till this trouble settles 負かす／撃墜する and Father has a chance to get really 熟知させるd with you. Then, if he 改訂するs his opinion of you—"
"I beg your 容赦," Dale interrupted her. "I 港／避難所't asked your Father to marry me, Cynthy. What he thinks about me can't make the slightest bit of difference to me."
"Maybe not, but it makes a difference to his daughter Hyacinth, let me tell you. Father knows men and he can read character, and I've always said that I'd 信用 Father's judgment when it （機の）カム to choosing my husband—"
"And I suppose such a trivial thing as love would not be considered at all in the 処理／取引," Dale interrupted her, his ardor 冷静な／正味のing a bit.
"Oh," said Cynthy lightly, as she started 負かす／撃墜する the hill, "it might carry some 負わせる in the argument. But Father's opinion of the young man would probably tip the balance of judgment one way or the other. A girl's got no sense when she comes to loving."
"And if she's in love, she doesn't care a whoop for anybody's opinion but her own!"
"Oh, yes, she does," Cynthy 否定するd, looking 支援する at him with wide, solemn 注目する，もくろむs. "Take you, for instance. I believe I'm in love with you, but there's no sense in it, really. I love the way your 発言する／表明する sounds when you're just ready to laugh, and I love that—that—井戸／弁護士席, something or other in your singing; I don't know what it is, but it just gets me! I love your darned stubbornness, and I think you are really very good looking, Dale, and your manners are perfect. And above all (I really shouldn't tell you this, but I'm 存在 honest with you), that trick you have of 開始 your 注目する，もくろむs and then shutting them 権利 負かす／撃墜する to a little 狭くする 割れ目 between your eyelids when you laugh—いつかs my heart just flops when you do that. But even so—"
"Cynthy! You little devil, dear—"
"Yes, that トン too—it all helps to steal a poor girl's brains away from her," Cynthy went on with a 静める ruthlessness that might have been at least one third sincere.
"But as for marrying that combination of attractions, not knowing what's 支援する of them all—why, little Cynthy should wait and count ten, believe me! All I really know about you," she 宣言するd, with a gurgle of laughter in her 発言する／表明する, "is that you thought you had fifty thousand dollars hidden where no one could find it, and you let yourself and your friends be いじめ（る）d and browbeaten a lot before you'd tell where you thought it was—and everybody got beautifully stung."
"And is that all?"
"井戸／弁護士席, of course the fact that you seem willing to marry a poor little 下落する chicken that's never been to college or even bobbed her hair—that's an 指示，表示する物 of a 確かな 質 of 差別するing judgment; but even so—"
"井戸／弁護士席?"
"Even so, I still think little Cynthy should count ten."
"井戸／弁護士席, hurry up and count it, then. One, two, three,—go on and count!" Dale, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing the numbers upon the 空気／公表する, caught her 手渡す and held it 強制的に.
"Count ten," Cynthy finished, "and then ask her good, 肉親，親類d and wise Father whether her love is a wise, matrimonial 肉親，親類d of love or just—"
"Yes?"
"Just plain crazy." Cynthy laughed, 攻撃するing 支援する her 長，率いる to look into Dale's 直面する, and felt her laughter stopped with his lips.
IT did not seem possible that they had loitered more than a few minutes up there on the 勝利，勝つd-swept 丘の頂上, and Dale would have told you that they （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する as quickly as it was 安全な to descend those 背信の slopes of loose がれき and shale. There was one exciting interval, it is true, when a snake wriggled out and away from the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where Cynthy was just going to put her foot, and she 辞退するd to take another step until Dale had 追跡（する）d the reptile 負かす／撃墜する and 派遣（する）d it with two or three 井戸／弁護士席-目的（とする）d 激しく揺するs. Then there was one other short stop, while they sat 残り／休憩（する）ing on a flat ledge which jutted out invitingly from the hill, and Cynthy pointed out the patch of vivid green which she 宣言するd was the aspen grove behind her house. They spent five minutes—certainly no more, they would have 保証するd you—discussing and comparing their thoughts and emotions during that 緊張した hour when 法案 Bradley had them in his 力／強力にする, and they laughed a little over the look on 法案's 直面する when he had finally 納得させるd himself that there was no fortune within his しっかり掴む. And that reminded Dale to ask Cynthy what it was she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to tell him when Hugh could not overhear. But Cynthy had changed her mind about telling. She 手配中の，お尋ね者 to talk to her father about it first, she said, and the argument which followed that 声明 left so decided a coolness between them that Cynthy walked alone the 残り／休憩（する） of the way, 緊急発進するing over the 激しく揺するs with a 故意の 無視（する） of sprained ankles and purposely keeping as far away from Dale as the 大勝する they must follow would 許す, though that way was rougher and the broken shale ground bits of leather off the 単独のs of her laced boots, while a nail, 緩和するd in the leather, thrust up through her 在庫／株ing and nagged at her tired foot.
Cynthy's spirits drooped. 支援する up there on the 首脳会議 life had been glorious, Dale's eager lips 圧力（をかける）d against her own. Even 負かす／撃墜する in the grove by the water cress pool, in the very 中央 of her anguished terror life had held the thrill of danger. Her thoughts flew once to the slow, toilsome climb to the 最高の，を越す, 手渡す in 手渡す with Dale and knowing what words waited just behind his lips, wanting to be spoken.
And then she remembered with a pang how 法案 Bradley had stolen 強硬派, and 涙／ほころびs stung her eyelids and slid slowly 負かす／撃墜する her cheeks. She would have to tell Father, and she was afraid to 傷つける him with the 自白 of her disobedience. For although Quin had never forbidden her in so many words, she knew that she was not supposed to ride 強硬派. And there was that other thing she must tell Father—but she was afraid to tell that too. It seemed to Cynthy that even with the money mystery 性質の／したい気がして of, their troubles had only begun. And not the smallest part of that 差し迫った trouble was this new, mysterious, わずかに terrifying emotion called love, which had suddenly swept that lean, handsome man and herself together. Cynthy's 直面する brooded as she 選ぶd her way wearily 負かす／撃墜する to the world that would always seem a little different after this day.
They were 近づくing the base of the hill now and the corrals and stables were すぐに below them. Dale's thoughts were not the thoughts of Cynthy, though いつかs they ran の近くに と一緒に, like two streams 捜し出すing the same valley to 注ぐ themselves into the river beyond. 法案 Bradley and Jack, brazen in their outlawry, going after their plunder as ruthlessly as any ギャング（個々） in the city of his birth—and not getting it, just because Stan had played one of his 予期しない, ironical little jokes.
He might have known Stan would be up to something if he were left alone with those 調書をとる／予約するs in the 圧力（をかける）s. Had Stan been the one to send word out ahead that Dale had all that money in his 所有／入手? Hardly. There was always the 知恵 of hard ありふれた sense in Stan's jokes, and to divulge that secret would be too probable a 企て，努力，提案 for 殺人. No, while it was like Stan to take out the money and leave the letter inside, he certainly would not betray the secret to any one. Dale was sure of that. So the mystery of how 法案 knew about the money still remained as 深い as at first and there seemed no way of solving it, unless 法案 were 逮捕（する）d and made to tell the whole story.
That brought Dale to Hugh and his 激怒（する） because his horses were stolen. Hugh had not borne up very 井戸／弁護士席 under the ordeal of 存在 tied to a tree, and Dale was ばく然と disappointed in that 即座の and obvious 弱めるing. To be sure, it was not Hugh's 事件／事情／状勢 at first—not until they led his horses away—but still one would 推定する／予想する him to show a little more grit. Almost from the start he had begged Dale to 産する／生じる. Sensible, maybe—but not just the stand one would 推定する／予想する Hugh to take. Why, Cynthy had shown more backbone than that. （疑いを）晴らす 神経, she was—the little devil!
Dale turned and looked 支援する at her, grinning 試験的に, hoping that she had gotten over her fit of temper. But when she saw him waiting she deliberately turned aside to come 負かす／撃墜する on the さらに先に 味方する of an outcropping of 激しく揺する, and she did not answer Dale when he called to her. The 反目，不和 was still on, it seemed, though for the life of him Dale could not remember what it was he had said that had 怒り／怒るd her so; something about her father 支配するing her every thought; or if he had not said it, that at least was what he had thought and would go on thinking, until Cynthy 約束d to marry him. When he 直面するd the fact squarely it rather astonished Dale to realize how tremendously 決定的な it was that Cynthy should 約束 that, and the most astonishing thing about it was the suddenness of his 圧倒的な 願望（する） for her. Or perhaps it had been growing in his heart ever since their first 会合 and had only flowered in the heat of their danger together.
That thought swept every other from his mind and he turned and went striding toward her, his dust-streaked 直面する 厳しい but his 注目する，もくろむs alight and smiling.
"Look here, Cynthy, I take it 支援する, whatever it was I said. I can't stand having you angry, and whatever your father says is all 権利 with me—unless he tells you I'm not the man for you. If he does, don't you believe it. It'll only 証明する he doesn't know how to 選ぶ husbands for his girls, that's all. You're what brought me to Wyoming, and all the fathers in the country couldn't keep us apart."
"First it was cattle, then it was polo ponies, and now it's—"
"You. You first and maybe the 残り／休憩（する） afterwards, if it's what you want. Sweetheart, I wish you'd say—"
"Oh, there's Hugh, just getting on his horse!" she interrupted him. "He certainly is in a hurry to get on 法案's 追跡する—and why do you suppose he's striking out alone? They'll kill him if he runs across them."
Dale turned and looked 負かす／撃墜する. Riding out from beyond the stable was Hugh, beyond all 疑問. It did not seem possible that he would have had time to get ready for the 追跡. There were 確かな 準備s, surely, that he would have to make. For one thing, he had not eaten since breakfast, and no 事柄 how wrought up he might be over the loss, he certainly would not think of going without his dinner.
"He must be just going 負かす／撃墜する into the pasture after horses," Dale answered her. "He'd take the boys along after 法案's ギャング（団）—some of them, anyway. And I'm going too. Come on, dear, we'll have to hurry or I'll be left out of the 追跡（する）."
"You'll be left out anyway, Dale Emery, unless you want to go with Father," Cynthy told him with a 確かな proprietary 空気／公表する that even in those circumstances thrilled Dale, though it also impressed him as 存在 the precursor of another argument. But there wasn't time for that, with Hugh already in the saddle, and he 掴むd her 手渡す and started to run 負かす／撃墜する a grassy slope, shouting at Hugh.
But Hugh, looking up, only waved his 手渡す and 始める，決める off up the 狭くする valley at a sharp gallop. And he went alone, that was 確かな .
"He's going straight up Dugout," Cynthy said, as the two slowed again on rougher ground. "He must be crazy. Why didn't he wait for the boys? It isn't as if he thought he had some chance of 追いつくing them, for he hasn't. It's a 事例／患者 where a pack outfit is almost an 絶対の necessity if he means to keep after them till he gets his horses."
"井戸／弁護士席, he's cheated himself out of a darn good sleuth when he 棒 off without me," Dale 明言する／公表するd disapprovingly; and, anxious as she was, Cynthy had to laugh.
"It will be a 奇蹟 if he gets his horses alone, but I hope he's that lucky. If he could get 強硬派 before Father comes home and 行方不明になるs him, I'd 許す every mean thing Hugh ever did to me—but I don't see how he can. It's impossible, that's all."
"Then why would he 試みる／企てる it?" Dale helped her through a wire 盗品故買者 and led the way to the nearest corral and so to the path that ran along beside it. "Hugh's no fool. He must know what he's doing, Cynthy."
But Cynthy shook her 長，率いる dissentingly and stopped to 星／主役にする up the 追跡する, where a thin 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道する of dust 示すd Hugh's swift 出発.
"You know, Dale, I've lived here nearly all my life and I know what I'm talking about. I've heard stories of things that happened in that rough country above here as far 支援する as I can remember, and I've been in it too, with the boys; at least, as far up as the 辛勝する／優位 of Hungry Hollow—I never 現実に went into that, because it's so rough and wild that 非，不，無 of us cared to 取り組む it when we didn't have to. And there were 無法者s hanging out in there somewhere too, who might take a 発射 at us. I tell you, Dale, 追跡（する）ing a needle in a haystack is no bigger 職業 than to ride from here and 推定する／予想する to find those fellows who left Grey Bull spring two hours or so ago.
"Why, 推論する／理由 it out for yourself, Dale! I showed you from the 最高の，を越す of the hill what the country is like; all canyons and little hidden valleys and 山の尾根s and thickets; how is Hugh to know which way they'd go?"
"Unless," 投機・賭けるd Dale, "he counts on 跡をつけるing them."
"井戸／弁護士席, even if he does, they have two hours' start and they can dodge him for weeks if they want to. And it would be just as 平易な to waylay him. I still say he's crazy to go off up there alone. Meeker and Donald are good horses, of course, but they're not so priceless that Hugh is 正当化するd in 危険ing his life for them. He's got plenty more just as good as they are. It isn't like Father's 黒人／ボイコット 強硬派." Her lip trembled there. "強硬派's one horse in a thousand and Father's been 申し込む／申し出d enormous prices for him many a time."
Dale did not say anything to that, except to tell her not to worry. It was Cynthy's 重荷（を負わせる） of trouble and he did not know just how Quin was going to 反応する to the loss of his horse. He'd probably 非難する Cynthy for it in his heart, but whether he would 追加する to her 悔恨 the bitterness of his reproaches no one could guess.
"物陰／風下 Chow must have dinner ready," Cynthy 観察するd dispiritedly, as they approached the house. "We'll eat, and then I'll see if I can rustle something to ride home. Father might かもしれない be 支援する to-day. They went in day before yesterday, and they weren't going to stay. I don't know how I'm ever going to tell him," she said, and heaved a 深い sigh.
"Let me be the one, dear. I'll take the 非難する; it 適切に belongs to me, anyway. If I hadn't played the fool with that money it wouldn't have happened, so I'm willing to be the goat. It wasn't your fault they jumped us over there; it was 地雷. I'll point that out to your dad. He'll see it—he's bound to."
"井戸／弁護士席, you can't 推定する／予想する to make yourself popular with Father that way," Cynthy 観察するd, and sighed again as they went up the porch steps together.
DEPRESSION 掴むd the two, and that in spite of the very good dinner which the smiling 物陰／風下 Chow 始める，決める before them. Cynthy tried to 抽出する some （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） from him while they ate, but though 物陰／風下 Chow spoke very intelligible English, nothing he said was of the slightest importance. He might have been serving Jim Mowerby in town for all he 明らかに knew of the ranch or the people on it. Dale gathered that 物陰／風下's 単独の 義務 and 利益／興味 lay in taking care of the big house and in cooking his master's meals when that young man chanced to be there to eat them. He didn't know where Hugh had gone or when he would come 支援する, he said, and Dale decided that 物陰／風下 was telling the truth. Hugh had eaten his dinner, at any 率, before he left.
Where the other boys were, when they had left or when they would return were no 関心 of 物陰／風下 Chow's. When Dale asked him point-blank how often he went 負かす／撃墜する to the corrals, 物陰／風下 replied that he went to the chicken house if he needed eggs before some one brought them to the house; other times he didn't go. He had not been 負かす／撃墜する there for many days, he 宣言するd, and Dale believed him.
So, there 存在 neither cowboys on the ranch nor any （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） to be had from the cook, they 残り／休憩（する）d for a little while on the porch and then went 負かす／撃墜する to see what they could find to ride. Corrals and stables were empty, however, and Cynthy 宣言するd that it would be as much work to go 負かす／撃墜する 進行中で to the pasture to catch a couple of horses as it would be to walk home. There was nothing much they could do but wait until some of the boys 棒 in—a 延期する which Dale at least did not find irksome.
Bird Ellis and 刑事 Tallant were the first to arrive. They were 運動ing a small bunch of cows and calves which they had gleaned from the canyons around Yellow 頂点（に達する） and they fully 推定する／予想するd that the other boys would be home ahead of them, they said, as they turned the cattle into a corral and 棒 over to where Dale and Cynthy waited for them. They seemed surprised when they discovered that Hugh was not at home, but they looked more astonished still when they heard what had happened. But when Dale 示唆するd that they get fresh horses and go after Hugh, they shook their 長，率いるs.
"We wouldn't get no thanks for buttin' in where we ain't asked," Bird 反対するd. "Hugh knows his own 商売／仕事, and if he wants to 取り組む 法案 Bradley alone, that's his 警戒／見張り. Did he leave word we was to come along up there soon as we got 支援する?"
"井戸／弁護士席, no," Dale 認める, "he didn't. But how about all the men in the country turning out and 追跡（する）ing 負かす／撃墜する a horse どろぼう? I thought that was the 正規の／正選手 custom, out here. I thought you boys would buckle on your six-shooters and form a posse the minute you heard the news. Don't you fellows live up to any of your Western traditions?"
Bird grinned and cast a sidelong look at 刑事, and 刑事 gave a short laugh.
"Sure. The best tradition we've got is mindin' our own 商売／仕事 and lettin' the other feller do the same," he answered. "Hugh'd 解雇する／砲火／射撃 us in a 宗教上の minute, if we went trailin' him up, tryin' to make out he was liable to need help."
"Darn 権利," Bird supported that 声明. "Hugh's awful 平易な-goin' and all that, but you bet we don't butt in on his 事件／事情／状勢s. If he thinks he can get them two saddle horses 支援する without help, I sure ain't going to argue with him. 法案 Bradley, you say? 井戸／弁護士席, he wouldn't have the 神経 to keep 'em, even if he did take 'em. He'll turn 'em 支援する, all 権利."
"But he stole 強硬派 too," Cynthy told him again. "You seem to think 法案 was just kidding, but he wasn't. He tied us all to trees, and he struck Hugh in the 直面する with his 握りこぶし. Hugh's cheek is all swollen and his 注目する，もくろむ is 黒人／ボイコット—and just as sure as he gets within 狙撃 distance of 法案 Bradley, there's going to be trouble, you 示す my words."
The two cowboys ちらりと見ることd at each other undecidedly but Bird afterward shook his 長，率いる.
"One thing Hugh's （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 into our skulls is that we're to mind our own 商売／仕事," he repeated, in a トン of real 疑惑. "On the square, Chicago, I don't know what to do about it. It sure does look as if Hugh was rammin' his 長，率いる into a hornets' nest, but gosh darn it, he must know what he's doin'—"
"Hugh," said Cynthy 前向きに／確かに, "was too sore to know anything. Maybe you don't know what a temper he's got, but I do. He's 平易な-going, yes; but once he does start, there's nothing will stop him. 法案 攻撃する，衝突する him in the 直面する, remember, and then stole two of his horses. Hugh told us he'd follow 法案 Bradley to the Canada line but what he'd get them 支援する, and he's just mad enough to do it too."
"井戸／弁護士席, that's all 権利," argued Bird, "but that's all the more 推論する／理由 why he won't thank anybody for buttin' in on his fight. I guess I know Hugh a little better'n you do, Cynthy."
"And you'd let him go up there alone and get killed?"
"Aw, Hugh can take care of himself," 刑事 抗議するd uneasily. "It's the other fellow you oughta be worryin' about."
"But there were four of them," Dale put in. "That fellow they call Jack Smith is a tougher guy than 法案, in my opinion. 法案 took the lead, but it was Jack that egged him on most of the time."
"Yeah, Jack's a bad egg, all 権利—hard-boiled as they make 'em. Who was the other two?" Bird asked curiously. "Anybody Hugh knows?"
"I don't think so. Pretty hard to 認める if he did know them. They were both medium 高さ and build, and they had their 直面するs 完全に covered with 黒人／ボイコット neckerchiefs and 穴を開けるs 削減（する） for their 注目する，もくろむs, and their hats pulled away 負かす／撃墜する low. They never spoke once, and seemed to keep in the background and do as they were told. Jack and 法案 pulled off their masks and made themselves comfortable. They didn't care, 明らかに, who knew them for 強盗団の一味."
"Had a few drinks, maybe. They're pretty braggy, all 権利, when they're about half lit up. 井戸／弁護士席," Bird 結論するd in a somewhat 疑わしい トン, "I don't hardly know what to do. Hugh's so damn' touchy."
"It ain't like anybody else with a horse-stealin' 事例／患者 to 扱う," 刑事 追加するd his explanation. "Anybody else, we'd buckle on the 金物類／武器類 and get 権利 out after 'em. But 法案 and Hugh—井戸／弁護士席 I dunno. They used to be pretty good friends, before 法案 went to the wild bunch and got to stickin' up folks and stealin' cattle an' so on. Don't seem to me like 法案'd run off any of Hugh's stuff—"
"Oh, come on, Dale!" Cynthy cried impatiently. "We'll go home and see if Father's got 支援する yet. I'll bet he won't stutter around over whether he'd better get after Hugh or not. Got anything we can ride, 刑事?"
刑事 stalked over to a 確かな shed and looked in, coming 支援する with a shake of his 長，率いる. "Hugh's got the only extra saddle we had," he 発表するd. "I'll go ketch up the buggy team and you can 運動 home, Cynthy. That be all 権利? They're gentle."
"Oh, all 権利," Cynthy assented, turning away from them. "They've got that new saddle of 地雷 too," she suddenly remembered, looking ready to cry. "Father had it made to order for me last Christmas. And my fishing 取り組む and 棒—oh, I can't 非難する Hugh much for going off alone after them. I would too, if I had a horse I could ride. I feel just that way!"
"井戸／弁護士席, they have everything of 地雷 that I own in Wyoming, when you come to counting losses," said Dale. "I must say they're 徹底的な. 法案 never seems to overlook anything, once he turns his 注目する，もくろむs your way."
"I sure wish we knew what Hugh wants us to do about it," Bird anxiously 観察するd. "肉親，親類d of a queer 状況／情勢, as I see it. Hugh and 法案 knowin' each other like they do, that makes it a kinda personal 事柄, don't yuh see—"
"Oh, forget it, then!" snapped Cynthy. "I know 法案 too. I've known him for years and years. But that doesn't 事柄 a darned bit these days. He's a どろぼう and an 無法者 just the same, isn't he? You fellows make me tired!" Cynthy went off and sat 負かす／撃墜する on a wagon tongue to wait and 辞退するd to discuss the 事柄 any その上の. A mood which seemed to relieve Bird Ellis of かなりの 当惑.
"Darn the luck, Chicago, me and 刑事 must look like we're yellow all the way through," he confided to Dale, while he unsaddled his sweaty horse and turned him into the corral. "It must seem funny to you that we don't 霧 権利 along up country after Hugh—"
"No, I think I can get your viewpoint now. It's Hugh you aren't sure of. I can see how you feel."
"Hugh's queer in some ways," Bird went on, sending a half-resentful ちらりと見ること toward Cynthy, who had turned her 支援する upon them that they might not see her 涙／ほころびs. "You just can't go against Hugh's wishes or orders—not if you want to stay on the 支払う／賃金 roll. He's 平易な in some ways, all 権利, but you can't cross him. I 設立する that out long ago. And 法案 Bradley's always left Hugh's stuff alone. I can't somehow think he'd—how'd it happen, Chicago? The whole thing sounds cuckoo to me. I can't make it out, somehow."
They sat 負かす／撃墜する on a pile of corral rails in the shade of the stable and Dale told the whole story. There seemed to be no 推論する／理由 now for keeping anything secret, and as he talked he remembered that Hugh had said he would get the boys out on the 追跡する of the horses.
"But he didn't say a word to 物陰／風下 Chow, and he didn't wait to see you boys, so he must have changed his mind. We weren't far behind him coming 負かす／撃墜する the hill, but he was riding away just as we were coming 負かす／撃墜する to the 盗品故買者 over there."
"Hugh's quick," Bird 証言するd. "When he makes up his mind to a thing he's got to do it 権利 now, regardless. Makes it kinda bad いつかs, him droppin' everything on the ranch to go foolin' around about something else. You seen how he was about that polo stuff—and it was a poor time to stop and play around too. We're short-手渡すd and tryin' to get the calves all branded, and Hugh'd be money in pocket if he'd get out and help a little once in awhile, instead of runnin' off on a polo craze 権利 now. Course, it's his ranch, and it ain't my 商売／仕事 to run it, but I'm just tellin' you how Hugh is. He's gone off now on some new idea of his own, and it's a ten-to-one 発射 he don't want nobody buttin' in.
"Thinks he knows just where to 長，率いる 'em off, maybe, and （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it up there to try out his theory. That'd be Hugh, all over. All I can see to do is 始める，決める tight till he comes 支援する and gives his orders. 公式に, as yuh might say, we don't know nothin' yet."
"井戸／弁護士席, I don't suppose you could do much, either. You'd have to know where Hugh went and where 法案 went. Here comes 刑事—I'm anxious to get Cynthy home. She's had a hard day, and losing that horse of her father's has broken her all up. She really isn't herself at all, I can see that. Try and slip the word to 刑事 not to discuss the 事件／事情／状勢 with her any more, will you?"
"Sure," said Bird, getting up to open the corral and let in the 運動ing team trotting up from the pasture gate. "I wish yuh luck, Chicago!"
And Dale, 星／主役にするing after him, wondered who had given Bird a hint of anything special between Cynthy and himself.
QUIN BURNETT, 低迷d wearily 今後 in the jouncing seat of his 天候-beaten spring wagon and letting the horses take their own gait on the last half mile of their 旅行, suddenly realized that some one was coming and swung the team expertly out of the road to make room for passing. But the sleek Mowerby sorrels did not pass; instead they were pulled to a stop and Cynthy leaned out and called to him. That the young fellow from Chicago was 運動ing struck Quin with a swift 狼狽; it looked so like an elopement surprised in its beginning.
"We heard you coming, Father, just as we were going to turn in to our gate, so we （機の）カム on to 会合，会う you—where are Donna and Rose?"
"Rose made up her mind she wasn't comin' out, and Donna stayed in with her a few days. What's the 事柄? Where you goin', you two?"
It was his first 承認 of Dale's presence, and his トン was a challenge. Cynthy met it with swift speech.
"Nowhere, Father. We were coming home and we heard the team and drove on to 会合，会う you. You know how Mother is when anything goes wrong—and Father, we've had an awful time to-day! First it was 法案 Bradley and Jack Smith—they tied us up and hanged Dale twice, to find out where the money was, and he wouldn't tell till they 脅すd me about a snake and made me 叫び声をあげる and he thought they were 殺人，大当り me, so he told, and the money wasn't in 調書をとる／予約するs at all—or at least only ten dollars and a letter—and 法案 was so mad he stole all our horses, and we had to walk 支援する to Hugh's.
"And he 黒人／ボイコットd Hugh's 注目する，もくろむ because Hugh tried to make him leave us alone; and Father, 法案's got our horses and saddles! Hugh's gone after him alone, and he'll be killed if they get a chance at him, so we （機の）カム on to get you. They've got all of Dale's things, his 着せる／賦与するs and everything—"
"That," said Quin dryly, "sounds like a 事例／患者 where the 明言する／公表する 民兵'll have to be called out to 一連の会議、交渉／完成する up Emery's socks and collars. As for the horses, you say Hugh's after them. They didn't get any horse of ours, did they?"
Cynthy gulped and reached one 手渡す behind her for support, felt it 刑務所，拘置所d in Dale's 会社／堅い しっかり掴む and took courage.
"Ha—I was riding H-強硬派, Father."
"強硬派! You mean to tell me 法案 Bradley's got 強硬派?"
Cynthy nodded, her 発言する／表明する having somehow failed her just then.
"She's worried herself sick over it, Mr. Burnett," Dale strove to 軟化する the blow for Cynthy. "She only 棒 the horse because he needed 演習, and 自然に no one could 心配する such a thing as 法案 Bradley and his ギャング（団）—"
"What ギャング（団）? I thought you said 法案 and Jack were alone in this. Seems to me you and Hugh could have managed—"
"Father, you don't understand! Dale couldn't—we were getting a drink over at Grey Bull Spring, and they held us up before we knew there was a soul around. And it wasn't just 法案 and Jack, there were two more. And Hugh wasn't there; not till they had us tied solid with our 支援するs against trees so we couldn't move, and then they went and got Hugh and tied him up. How could the boys do anything when they were tied?"
"What took you folks over on Grey Bull? And what was you doin' up there at Hugh's, anyway, Cynthy?"
"Cynthy （機の）カム up to return my 調書をとる／予約するs that I had lent her, and as I said, she 棒 強硬派, thinking to give him a little 演習 while you were gone—"
"Yeah, you said that once. 強硬派 must've needed the 演習 pretty bad, runnin' in the pasture as he was. What I want now ain't excuses, young man; it's facts."
Bit by bit he got them, and as the story 広げるd, his 直面する grew stony hard. Dale felt that his deepest thoughts were 存在 診察するd under a microscope, whenever Quin's sharp ちらりと見ること was turned upon him, and mentally he squirmed a good 取引，協定 during the ordeal. But he told it all, lightening the 非難する all he could for Cynthy.
"And you don't know the other two, you say?" Quin's 注目する，もくろむs 残り／休憩（する）d upon her searchingly.
"I—Father, I didn't say anything to Hugh or Dale, but just as they were riding off—they had led me 負かす／撃墜する the 追跡する so I wouldn't be able to untie the boys too soon—I 認めるd one of them. You may not believe me, Father, but it was Neal. I'm sure of it. I knew him by the way he sat in the saddle. He wore different 着せる／賦与するs and his chaps were strange to me and his 刺激（する）s, but I know it was Neal. When he 棒 away 負かす／撃墜する the 追跡する, I was sure of it."
"Is Neal gone?"
"He must be, don't you see? I left very 早期に, before Judy had breakfast ready, but Neal was up and doing the chores. Still, he could have beaten us to Grey Bull if he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to; it must have been ten o'clock or after when we got there."
"What horse was he riding over there on Grey Bull?"
"A strange horse, Father. I didn't see the brand, but I knew it wasn't any horse I'd ever seen before."
"It ain't likely it was Neal. Seems to me you'd of 認めるd him when all the dirty work was goin' on. Dale せねばならない—"
"I didn't, though. This is the first intimation I've had that Neal was in on it. Whoa, boys!" Dale spoke to the impatient sorrels, 静かなing them deftly. "Those other two fellows were pretty 井戸／弁護士席 disguised, Mr. Burnett."
"Cynthy should've known Neal anyway."
"But Father, with different 着せる／賦与するs and hat and his 直面する 完全に covered, how could I, when he didn't speak a word? But the minute he got on his horse I knew him. You know how it is yourself, Father."
"It's hard to think Neal's such a Judas as that," Quin said somberly.
"Still, it would account for that wallet 存在 in the 支持を得ようと努めるd box, wouldn't it?" Dale 投機・賭けるd reluctantly. "And the 空き巣ねらい in my room when I'd gone up the creek."
"He couldn't be in your room and up at the 落ちるs at the same time, though," Quin reminded him.
"But he could have heard me 計画（する） to go fishing, and let 法案 and Jack know, so they followed me; and he could have seen them afterwards and got the wallet from them," Dale 推論する／理由d 速く. "I don't like the idea either, Mr. Burnett, but it's the only 手がかり（を与える） that seems to tie up all the loose ends.
"Don't you see? 法案 and Jack were at Dalton's when my baggage was searched there, and Jack was up at the house long enough to do it, while 法案 talked with me at the gate. I made no secret of who I was, and they—why, say! They knew about my 存在 robbed in town, for they asked me if I wasn't that Chicago guy, and so on. They kidded me about it, now that I think of it, and they asked me if Neal Somers was up at the house."
"They did?" All the droop was out of Quin's shoulders now. He was leaning toward Dale, his thin 直面する somehow changed and glowing with 利益／興味, though it had lost 非，不，無 of its hard keenness around the 注目する，もくろむs. "Why didn't you tell me all this before?"
"井戸／弁護士席, I didn't connect it with the 強盗. They sounded all 権利 and plausible enough, with the account they gave of themselves, and Neal wasn't the only one they asked about. If I remember 正確に they also asked about you, Mr. Burnett. I had no 推論する／理由 then to 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う them of having anything to do with the trouble in town." He could not tell Quin to his 直面する that he had half 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd him of having some 手渡す in the 事件／事情／状勢.
The old man sat pondering the 事柄 for a minute or two. Afterwards he sighed and straightened his shoulders, as though he had reached some 決定／判定勝ち（する） in his mind.
"Neal wasn't in town, but 法案 Bradley might've been, and Jack too, for all I know," he said. "I've had other theories about that—" his ちらりと見ること went quickly to Cynthy and away again "—but up to a 確かな point this does look more 論理（学）の.
"You're 権利 about what happened at the ranch. Neal could've heard you talkin' there with the girls that night, for he was standin' outside the house smokin', when I went in after the boys left. He could've passed the word along to 法案, and he could've met 'em off somewhere in the pasture after they took your 着せる／賦与するs, and got the wallet from 'em to make it look as if—I know that wallet was 工場／植物d for my 利益," he said, with some bitterness, "but I never thought about Neal doin' it. I thought it looked more like some trick of yours. I guess I'll have to 収容する／認める I was wrong there. I was thrown 完全に off the 跡をつける.
"I guess," he said sadly, "it was my fault for not lookin' closer to home for the crook. Neal's lived with us a long time; he was with us when 法案 worked for me, come to think of it. A couple of years ago I caught 法案 doin' some crooked work and sent him up for a year, thinkin' that would maybe bring him to his senses. I never dreamed Neal was throwin' in with 法案 after he served his time and got 支援する into the country, though. Neal was always 静かな and never seemed to have any wildness in 'im. I guess that fooled me. And bein' a 肉親，親類d of a 親族—"
"It will 傷つける Mother," Cynthy 観察するd sadly. "Neal has always been a pet of hers, in a way."
"井戸／弁護士席, your mother'll have to 直面する it, as far as I can see. I wouldn't say anything about it though, till we're sure. You might be mistaken, Cynthy. I hope so."
"So do I, but I know I'm not," Cynthy told him in a 悩ますd トン. "I know how Neal sits on a horse, just 同様に as I know you in the saddle; and I could tell you a mile off in the dark. It isn't a 事柄 of 着せる／賦与するs when a man starts off on horseback, Father. It's something you can scarcely put a 指名する to, but it's there; individuality, I suppose."
"法案 would take 強硬派 if he got the chance," mused Quin, 逆戻りするing to his loss. "He'd steal 'im to get even with me, if for nothin' else. What time was it when they left you?"
"Nearly noon," Dale answered, "after eleven, anyway. We reached Hugh's place about one o'clock. It's twenty minutes to five now." He looked at his watch. "Nearly six hours' start, Mr. Burnett."
"Yes—井戸／弁護士席, that don't 事柄 so much. They'd make for Hungry Hollow first thing, I suppose. I don't see how I can get out after 'em to-night, 権利 on 最高の，を越す of that 運動 out from town. Gettin' old, I guess. I'll be all 権利 after a night's 残り／休憩（する） and I'll start out at daybreak. If I had 強硬派 to ride, I'd 精密検査する 'em 平易な." He looked at Cynthy with a grim smile.
"Don't say anything to anybody, either of you," he 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d them soberly, yet with a queer, half-whimsical gleam in his 注目する，もくろむs, "but I'm a peace officer again. I had Burke 任命する me 副 郡保安官 yesterday, and I've got a 明言する／公表する （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限 as 副 U. S. 保安官 その上. I kinda 推定する／予想するd things might come to a 長，率いる up here so I'd need the 当局 to 行為／法令／行動する as I saw fit. But," he 追加するd, "I never 推定する／予想するd to start house-cleanin' on my own ranch!"
He 選ぶd up the slackened reins and the tired horses 解除するd their 長，率いるs expectantly, waiting the signal to start.
"Not a word to your mother, Cynthy, about Neal, whether he's home or not. I 推定する／予想する it'll have to come out about 強硬派 bein' stole, so you can tell about what happened on Grey Bull if she starts askin' questions. But leave Neal's 指名する out of it, both of you." He spoke to the horses and they went 負かす／撃墜する the 味方する road to the ranch, trotting briskly as if there had been no interruption to their 旅行.
"Your father's a pretty remarkable old fellow, Cynthy," Dale paid 尊敬の印, as he swung the sorrel team around in the road and started after Quin. "Keen, what I mean."
"He's good," Cynthy 宣言するd, with a tremble in her 発言する／表明する. "To think he never had a word of reproach for me about losing 強硬派! That makes me feel like a worm!"
"罰金!" grinned Dale, just to hearten her. "Count me in as the 早期に bird, will you?"
They were smiling over that when they drove into the yard where Quin stood beside the spring wagon, explaining to his wife just why it was he （機の）カム home alone. As they passed by on their way to the stable, Cynthy gave a gasp and gripped Dale by the arm.
Neal Somers walked unconcernedly out of the bunk house and began to unhitch Quin's team.
"WHAT'LL you do if it comes to gun play?" Quin 需要・要求するd with a quizzical glint in his 注目する，もくろむs. "This is a little different from a movie, young man. When 法案 and his bunch come at you, they'll most likely come a-shootin', and you can't switch the scene 支援する to something 平和的な for a change."
"井戸／弁護士席," grinned Dale, "if you'll 容赦 my making a grandstand play, I'll show you. See that white 激しく揺する in the bank over there? All 権利—" And he whipped out the very 事務的な looking gun Quin had lent him and 工場／植物d four 発射s respectably の近くに to the 示す. "Guns, horses, fishing and 追跡（する）ing—they've always been something of an obsession with me," he explained half apologetically. "I'm out of practice now, of course, and this gun is strange to me; I really せねばならない have done better than that."
Quin's lips were seen to pucker in at the corners.
"Oh, all 権利—if you don't get buck fever at the last minute," he drawled. "Course, we might not run into 'em at all." Then, with a quick searching ちらりと見ること at Dale, "Neal say anything to you about it? I seen you two talkin' together."
"Nothing to 示す he had any special knowledge of the 事件／事情／状勢. He 発言／述べるd that he heard I'd been robbed again, and I told him yes, they'd managed to get the money this time. He didn't give any 調印する of knowing more than he should. If Cynthy wasn't so 肯定的な, I'd say Neal knows nothing about it, except what was told him."
"Neal's pretty 削減（する）," Quin 宣言するd. "He'd have to be to cover up his 跡をつけるs the way he's done."
"Then you're sure he's the one?"
Quin 棒 along in silence for a few minutes.
"井戸／弁護士席," he said finally, "Cynthy's hard to fool. I've trained her to be pretty sure of herself before she goes on 記録，記録的な／記録する about anything. There ain't much guesswork in anything she says. Still, she could make a mistake same as other folks. I'll know more about it when I get 持つ／拘留する of 法案."
Into Dale's mind flashed the memory of how "Little Cynthy should count ten," and he smiled to himself. What if he should tell Quin about that, just as an illustration of how 井戸／弁護士席 she remembered her training? It was a whimsical thought that passed すぐに and left him again wholly engrossed with their errand.
Quin had at first 宣言するd that he would go alone, leaving Neal in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of the ranch and not 混乱に陥れる／中断させるing the smooth 決まりきった仕事 of the eight men in the hayfield—five of them cowboys who followed more picturesque 追跡s during 一連の会議、交渉／完成する-up time. These, Quin 納得させるd himself last night, had not left their work and could not かもしれない have any 関係 with 法案 Bradley. 明らかに they had heard nothing of the 事件／事情／状勢 over on Grey Bull, and Quin had not told them. It was literally a 事例／患者 where "By their 作品 he should know them," for two fair-sized stacks had gone up in his absence and that meant the 連続する 成果／努力s of the 十分な 乗組員. There was no 伸び（る）-説 the 証拠 of those two haystacks.
That left only Dale, who had used all his 力／強力にするs of 説得／派閥 before Quin would 同意 to his going. Dale 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd that the old man had 産する／生じるd 主として because he was Cynthy's father and 手配中の，お尋ね者 to see what 肉親，親類d of stuff this would-be son-in-法律 was made of. Dale was 個人として 解決するd to show him, and it was in a bloodthirsty mood that he started out with Quin at daybreak.
He reloaded the gun and slid it 支援する into its holster, conscious that Quin was watching him out of the tail of his 注目する，もくろむ.
"What do you think of Hugh going off alone yesterday the way he did?" he asked casually, by way of making conversation. "Pretty chancy, wasn't it?"
Quin grunted and struck off into a 追跡する new to Dale; one that veered はっきりと to the 権利 of the road to the Mowerby ranch.
"Depends on what he did when he got 追跡する of 'em," he said, when they were (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進むing up a rather 法外な slope. "Tell better if I knew what his 計画（する） was. What was the idea of goin' off over the hill anyway, huntin' 強盗団の一味?"
Dale told him Hugh's theory, wishing that he were not riding behind where it was impossible to watch Quin's 直面する.
"井戸／弁護士席, I'm goin' over there and 選ぶ up the 追跡する at the spring," was Quin's only comment. "If Neal went over to Grey Bull to 会合，会う 法案 for some 推論する／理由, this is the 追跡する he'd take. And," he 追加するd, "I see somebody's been over the 追跡する just lately. Might've been Neal." He leaned in the saddle, watching the ground as he 棒 今後. "How'd they know you folks was goin' over there yesterday? Who'd you tell?"
"Why, nobody that I know of. But some one could have listened under the den window the night before when we talked about it."
"Uh-huh," Quin grunted assentingly, and fell into a musing silence which Dale felt no inclination to break.
The way they took was perfectly plain even to Dale's slight knowledge of the country. They crossed a creek he guessed must be the upper end of Dugout, which flowed through Hugh's ranch; then up over a low, grassy 刺激（する） of the hill that さらに先に along rose so 突然の to the 高さ over which they had toiled on foot; they entered thin, rustling groves on the eastern slope, where the 追跡する meandered in a gentle downward incline to the river. Quin's gaze was bent always to the 追跡する, where shod hoofprints led the way 負かす／撃墜する to the stream glistening under the morning sunlight. He seemed 厳粛に preoccupied, scarcely conscious of Dale's presence. The only break in the 平易な, shuffling trot of the big bay he bestrode with the consummate grace of a born horseman was when he pulled up to light his 麻薬を吸う, which he afterwards smoked absently while he 棒. They （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する to the bank of Grey Bull Creek and Dale, looking at his watch, saw that they had been いっそう少なく than an hour in the saddle. Quin was not hurrying, yet the 安定した pace ate into the distance.
Suddenly they reached another small grove and with a start Dale 認めるd the watercress pool and the tree where he had been tied, the 四肢 from which 法案 Bradley had let him dangle until his senses reeled. The 激しく揺する where Cynthy had sat—the 挟むs lay 群れているing with ants where they had rolled from her （競技場の）トラック一周. The tree where they had tied Hugh—the leaves of a bush の近くに by were browned with Hugh's 血 when 法案 had struck him that vicious blow.
怒り／怒る 機動力のある in Dale's heart while he sat there on his horse and pointed these places out to Quin Burnett. Cynthy was not with him now to distract his mind from the 乱暴／暴力を加える, and with Quin beside him the 遭遇（する） 明らかにする／漏らすd itself to him as something heinous, utterly 残虐な.
"No, Mr. Burnett, you needn't be afraid I'll have buck fever when we 会合，会う 法案 Bradley," he said 突然の, as they turned to ride on, and for the first time Quin met his look with a 荒涼とした smile.
Below the spring they followed Cynthy's 足跡s going and coming for a hundred yards or more, the 跡をつけるs leaving the spring blotted out now and then by the boot 跡をつけるs of the men or the prints of the horses' hoofs. They saw where the men had 機動力のある and she had turned 支援する, and from there on they 棒 with a sterner attention to the 追跡する and the story it mutely 記録，記録的な／記録するd of those who had gone that way: horse 跡をつけるs in the 国／地域, scuffed pebbles where the 追跡する crossed gravel patches, all the little betraying 調印するs which plainsmen read as they ride. 法案 and his companions had disdained to leave the 平易な 追跡する or to make any 試みる／企てる to cover up their 跡をつけるs. Evidently they 棒 in 十分な 期待 of 失敗させる／負かすing 追跡 さらに先に up in the hills.
Old Baldtop, as Hugh had called the hill they had crossed yesterday, stretched its 明らかにする length northward for another three or four miles and then sloped steeply 負かす／撃墜する to the junction of Grey Bull and Dugout creeks. Around its base another 薄暗い, rocky 追跡する, evidently 主要な from the Mowerby ranch, 新たな展開d its way の中で the scattered 玉石s of the flat and joined the one they were に引き続いて. Quin 停止（させる）d Dale there and 棒 支援する alone along the new 追跡する, returning in ten minutes or so to continue along the 味方する of Dugout Creek, now swollen to the dignity of a かなりの stream after receiving the waters of Grey Bull within its rocky banks.
"Did you see any 調印する of Hugh?" Dale 問い合わせd, when he saw that Quin had no 意向 of volunteering any （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）.
"Looks as if he might have come up this way. Somebody did," Quin answered him absent-mindedly, and Dale let it go at that.
Quin led the way now at a more 早い pace, for the way was level across the flat and 公正に／かなり straight. さらに先に on, however, it climbed up over a point around which Dugout Creek fought its way with a 広大な／多数の／重要な 騒動 の中で the 広大な／多数の／重要な 激しく揺するs that had fallen off the 法外な banks on either 味方する, and descending the precipitous さらに先に 味方する of the 山の尾根, they 設立する themselves in a canyon high-塀で囲むd and turning はっきりと this way and that, 激しく揺するs and 激しい 小衝突 growth clogging its 床に打ち倒す until 進歩 became slow and somewhat 不安定な. The 追跡する too had disappeared at the foot of the 山の尾根 and they must 選ぶ their own way as best they could.
"From here on it's mostly guesswork," Quin volunteered, pausing to 検査／視察する a rocky gulch that broke the frowning 塀で囲む on the 権利. "They could keep on up this canyon for another couple of miles, but there's a dozen places where they could 支店 off into other 領土. If they 長，率いるd for Hungry Hollow, they probably swung off up here about half a mile. If they didn't—"
He stopped short, looking quickly up the canyon. The horses too were 星／主役にするing that way, 長，率いるs up and ears tipped 今後.
"Get 支援する behind them 激しく揺するs," Quin 命令（する）d in a low トン, 動議ing to a 後援d ledge that jutted out はっきりと from the canyon 塀で囲む. "Somebody's comin'—the whole bunch, by the sound." He hesitated, 注目する，もくろむing Dale with that piercing gaze which Dale had 設立する so embarrassing last night.
"If it's 法案 and his ギャング（団）, we'll stop 'em 権利 there, where they'll have to come through between them two 玉石s. Get 支援する where you've got a （疑いを）晴らす sight of that gap, but don't make a move till I give the word. If it's them and I 停止（させる） 'em there, I'll 推定する／予想する you to cover 'em with your gun. But don't shoot unless I give the word."
He waved his 手渡す imperiously toward the ledge and Dale wheeled his horse and took up his 駅／配置する there, gun out and ready to shoot. It was in his mind to ask whether the horse was gun shy, but Quin had already 支援するd into the bushes opposite him and just short of the gap, and to call across to him now would be a folly inexcusable, even in a greenhorn. And on second thoughts he decided that Quin would scarcely have given him a horse to ride unless he was pretty 確かな it would stand for some 狙撃 off its 支援する.
From where he waited he could just see Quin's 長，率いる and shoulders in profile, silhouetted against a tree stub blackened with 解雇する／砲火／射撃—probably the 犠牲者 of a bolt of 雷 some time in the past. Quin's 直面する had taken on the 冷淡な, impassive look of an Indian as he 星／主役にするd fixedly at the place where the horsemen must appear.
THERE was no mistaking the faint creak of saddle leather, the 動揺させる of bridle chains, the click of アイロンをかける-shod hoofs upon the 激しく揺する. From the sounds, several horses were coming at a trot, and Dale wondered why they were hurrying in this direction, when safety lay up の中で the wild fastnesses of the さらに先に hills. Then for a moment the hoofbeats were silent.
Dale was just wondering what had happened to stop them when without 警告 強硬派 appeared, his brilliant gaze darting this way and that, his nostrils ゆらめくd to 匂いをかぐ suspiciously the tainted 微風 before he threw up his 長，率いる and sent a loud, 問い合わせing whinny 殺到するing up to the beetling canyon 塀で囲むs that gave 支援する the echo eerily again and again. He trotted 今後, Meeker and Donald at his heels; and behind them, gun out and ready to 解雇する／砲火／射撃, （機の）カム Hugh.
"Hello!" Quin's call was both 迎える／歓迎するing and 警告 not to shoot.
"Hello!" Hugh pulled up, plainly 用意が出来ている to wheel and dodge 支援する behind the 障壁. "That you, Quin?" He was peering toward the sound of Quin's 発言する／表明する.
"Anybody with yuh, Hugh?"
"Not a soul. Why?" Hugh had 回復するd from his first surprise and was letting his horse 前進する under a tight rein, with little mincing steps.
Quin 棒 out from behind the clump of 小衝突, his gun still in his 手渡す, 明らかに forgotten for the moment.
"Thought you might have some 囚人s," he said dryly. "I see you got the horses, all 権利. Have any trouble?"
"Not to 量 to anything. Oh, hello, Dale! Had me 待ち伏せ／迎撃するd 権利, didn't yuh?"
"You sounded like the whole ギャング（団） coming at us," laughed Dale. "Congratulations, old man! How'd you put it over?"
"平易な enough," Hugh grinned, ちらりと見ることing from Dale's 直面する to Quin. "I got on their 追跡する 権利 away and followed them on up toward Haystack. They （軍の）野営地，陣営d in a box canyon—I don't know as you ever run across it, Quin; I know I never did before—and I laid low till I got a chance at 'em.
"They were kinda jumpy all night, and I didn't 取り組む it till this morning. They had the horses ready to go while Jack was cookin' breakfast. I held 'em up when they were ready to start —made 'em tie up the reins on these three and start 'em 負かす／撃墜する this way." He paused, ちらりと見ることing at Quin as if he half 推定する／予想するd some comment from him.
"I didn't feel lucky enough to 取り組む bringin' in the bunch," he 追加するd apologetically, when Quin did not speak. "If one made a break, I knew they'd get me, because I was kinda 不安定な from not eatin' or sleepin', and they were fresh. Anyway, it was the horses I was after. So I held 'em there till the horses had got a pretty good start and then I （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it."
"How many was there, Hugh?"
"Why—four. Too many for me to 扱う and be sure I got the horses home 安全な too. Didn't Dale tell you how many there was?"
"Didn't know but what they might have 分裂（する） up," Quin explained. "井戸／弁護士席, you did a good day's work, Hugh. Saved me a lot of trouble. 強硬派! Come here, boy!"
強硬派, nibbling daintily at a twig of tender leaves, threw up his 長，率いる and looked at his master, then turned and walked up to him, nodding playful how-de-do. Quin 緩和するd Cynthy's saddle, 解除するd it off and 取って代わるd it with his own. Dale, dismounting to help, put Cynthy's saddle on the horse Quin had been riding. The sight of her fishing 棒 解任するd a 計画（する） long deferred.
"Say, Hugh, if you'll lend me your 取り組む, I'll go fishing this afternoon," he said, partly to relieve a 確かな 緊張 in the atmosphere—原因（となる）d, he 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd, by Hugh's touchiness over not bringing in 法案 Bradley. "Of course, you didn't get up to 法案's 永久の hang-out, so you didn't get a line on my stuff that they carried off."
"No, of course not." Hugh frowned as if he read a reproach in that also. "They probably took that off up into Hungry Hollow somewhere." Then he 追加するd, "Sure, I'll lend you a 棒 and all the 飛行機で行くs you want. Let's get going. I'm half 餓死するd."
* * * * *
"And here's my 飛行機で行く 調書をとる／予約する; help yourself. You'll come 支援する here for supper, won't yuh? If you want a real trout 料金d just turn your fish over to 物陰／風下 Chow and let him 直す／買収する，八百長をする 'em his own way. You'll say you never ate trout before in your life." In the big den Hugh, having finished a generous 昼食, laid a 事例／患者d 棒 on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and 追加するd reel and 飛行機で行く 調書をとる／予約する while he spoke.
"Maybe you never tasted one of Cynthy's trout suppers!" Dale retorted. "I thought I'd walk over to 耐える Creek and fish upstream to the ranch, and let her give us another trout 料金d. Of course, I don't 推定する／予想する you feel much like fishing after the trip you've had, but I thought I'd come 支援する this evening, and we could maybe thrash out some 計画（する） for getting 支援する my stuff," Dale told him hopefully. "I could maybe have Quin help, but I hate to ask him, Hugh."
"Why? Didn't he 落ちる for the idea of havin' you in the family?" Hugh's haggard 直面する lightened with a grin made singularly unprepossessing by his swollen cheek and discolored eyelid.
"I don't know. I 港／避難所't asked him how he feels on that 支配する, but I do know he isn't 燃やすing up with zeal to help me out of the 直す／買収する，八百長をする I got myself in. He thinks I'm an awful fool for trying to carry fifty thousand dollars around with me. I 推定する／予想する he thinks it served me 権利 to lose my stuff, and now he's got his horse, you couldn't 推定する／予想する him to be very keen on chasing 法案 Bradley up just to get my 着せる／賦与するs. He said it was a 事例／患者 for the 明言する／公表する 民兵 to come and help 一連の会議、交渉／完成する up my socks. I couldn't very 井戸／弁護士席 ask him to do anything about it after that!"
"井戸／弁護士席, I've got to go to town this afternoon. I'd have gone before, only I had to go after the horses. 商売／仕事 at the bank. Why don't you let 法案 Bradley keep your stuff? It's darn risky 商売／仕事, ridin' into Hungry Hollow—and for a bundle of 着せる／賦与するs, it don't seem hardly 価値（がある） while, does it? Make out a 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of the things you want; I'll get 'em for you."
"井戸／弁護士席, thanks, old man, I'll do that. But just the same, I don't mean to let 法案 Bradley get away with it. My idea was that we could maybe ride up and find their （犯人の）隠れ家 and こそこそ動く in while they're gone. It isn't likely they'd all stick 権利 there day and night, is it? They didn't make any 運ぶ／漁獲高 this time and they're pretty apt to be on the prowl, I should think. And it doesn't seem to me they'll do their prowling 負かす／撃墜する this way, either, for awhile."
Hugh took a restless turn up and 負かす／撃墜する the room, pausing at the fireplace to 星／主役にする thoughtfully up at the collection of old-fashioned guns over the mantel.
"井戸／弁護士席, we might try it after I get 支援する," he said indifferently. "本人自身で, I'm about fed up on hazin' around after 法案 and his bunch. I come damn' 近づく killin' him, up there. I didn't say anything to Quin—wouldn't be no use. But I didn't get them horses 支援する as 平易な as it sounded. If I ever see that son-of-a-gun again, I'll kill 'im, sure as hell! I—" he bit his lip, shrugged his shoulders and started for his room. "井戸／弁護士席, when I get 支援する, we'll talk it over," he 解任するd the 支配する. "Want any more 着せる／賦与するs, Dale? Better take some shirts and things, anyway. Here, I'll get 'em for you. I s'提起する／ポーズをとる you'll be stayin' 負かす／撃墜する at Quin's again now—here's a 支配する you can pack the stuff in. And don't go off without writin' 負かす／撃墜する that 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）. I'll bring out all I can pack up from Dalton's on horseback; or if you want more than that, 運動 負かす／撃墜する after it. That polo stuff oughta be here too, in a day or two."
He paused in his 迅速な 選択 of 着せる／賦与するing from Jim's dresser and looked at Dale over his shoulder.
"If you want the low-負かす／撃墜する on what I think about 法案 Bradley, you might just 同様に kiss them 着せる／賦与するs of yours good-by," he said. "I'm willin' to do what I can に向かって gettin' 'em 支援する, but it's a darn わずかな／ほっそりした chance, far as I can see."
"Maybe it is, Hugh. I'll own up it isn't the 着せる／賦与するs altogether. I'd like to get my 手渡すs on the gentleman himself."
"Aw, go catch a fish and forget it!" exclaimed Hugh impatiently, turning again to getting Dale a 一時的な wardrobe before he turned to his own 事件／事情／状勢s. "Want me to take Quin's horse and saddle 支援する? I can pack this stuff along too. If you fish to the ranch—"
"Why, that's so—thanks, Hugh. And tell Cynthy I'll have fish enough for the （人が）群がる when I get there, will you? Any idea when you'll be 支援する?"
"Can't say. Day after to-morrow, maybe. Donna's in town—I might elope, you can't tell." But Hugh's 直面する was somber when he said it, as if it would not take much to turn that jest to earnest.
Dale packed the 支配する, 感謝する for Hugh's thoughtfulness, wrote a shopping 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） and a check for more than enough to cover the cost, and saw Hugh on his way, 主要な the extra horse, the 支配する riding securely roped in the saddle. It was not the 肉親，親類d of finish he had 推定する／予想するd when he started out with Quin that morning, but after all, he thought, it was much better so. There was nothing much of the savage in Dale's nature, unless a dogged 決意 to carry through whatever he undertook to do may be counted a savage trait. He still meant to do that, but since Hugh was called away and his 探検隊／遠征隊 must wait, for the time 存在 he was very 井戸／弁護士席 content.
He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be away from Cynthy to-day, for one thing, and give her a chance to talk things over with her father. Until she did that, Dale felt that his love-making was pretty much at a stand-still—and no young man relishes that 明言する／公表する of 事件／事情／状勢s. He had let Quin go on home alone, happy (Dale hoped) in his 所有／入手 of 強硬派. If Cynthy were as wise as he believed her to be, she would catch him now in that mood of contentment; then later Dale would stroll in with a nice basket of fish—Cynthy herself had given him the cue for that, and he would tell her so too. He'd remind her that she had counted on her trout supper to raise Quin's spirits that first evening. It せねばならない help a little to-night.
He reached the creek which flowed 負かす／撃墜する through the Burnett ranch, 熟考する／考慮するd it for a few minutes and then proceeded to 始める，決める up the borrowed 棒, attach the reel and string the line. Hugh had a darn good 取り組む, he thought; a real sportsman, that boy, even if he were a Wyoming rancher. Now, if his 飛行機で行くs were any good—a blue 瓶／封じ込める せねばならない do pretty 井戸／弁護士席 this time of day, if Hugh had one, and he certainly should; a fellow with 棒 and reel like that would keep his 飛行機で行く 調書をとる／予約する 井戸／弁護士席 在庫／株d—
Dale pulled the 調書をとる／予約する from his coat pocket, opened it and selected a fresh, 未使用の bluebottle 飛行機で行く, turned it over in his fingers, looked at it more 批判的に, and with thumb and finger still tightly 持つ／拘留するing the tiny silk-and-feather replica of the 飛行機で行くs buzzing there over the oozy mud on the bank, he bent tight-lipped over the 調書をとる／予約する spread open on his 膝.
"WHY, Dale! You—where's your fish?" Cynthy 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する her pan of fresh-選ぶd peas on the 辛勝する／優位 of the porch and ran to 会合，会う Dale, striding 負かす／撃墜する from the hill road. "Hugh said you were going to fish upstream and you'd be here in time for supper."
"Yes, 井戸／弁護士席—I changed my 計画（する）. Where's your father, Cynthy?"
"Is it something about 法案's ギャング（団）?" Cynthy sent a 迅速な look behind her. "Father's 負かす／撃墜する around the stables somewhere, I think. He discovered a skinned place on 強硬派's 脚 that looked as if he'd run against a sharp stub of some 肉親，親類d, and he's been doctoring that. Every man must have some 証拠不十分, I suppose," she smiled. "井戸／弁護士席, Father's is that horse."
"Is there a place on this ranch, Cynthy, where we can talk and be 安全な from eavesdroppers?" Dale could not 会合，会う her mood at that moment.
"井戸／弁護士席," Cynthy considered hurriedly, "the garden's 権利 out in the open and we could 選ぶ more peas, I guess. Wait till I 捨てる these under the porch and I'll go 支援する with you. Mother," she explained 意味ありげに, "is in the milk house at this particular moment, but there's no telling when she'll come out and start asking questions, so come on."
"I want your dad in on this 会議／協議会, though. Would it be cataclysmic if he should join us up in the garden?"
In the 中央 of her alarm at Dale's look and manner, Cynthy laughed and said it would not, because her father liked to come up and help in the garden. It was another one of his pets, she explained, perhaps second only to 強硬派 in his affections.
"I'll go find him, then, and let him lead me up where you are. I've 簡単に got to 協議する you both, dear, and I'd rather tell it just once and get it over with. And it's something that must not be—"
"I hear Mother. （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it, Dale, and get Father!" and Cynthy, hurriedly throwing a milk pan 十分な of peas where they would not be seen, ran away up the grassy path to the garden, as Dale made his way to the stables. Probably they both thanked heaven that the corner of the house hid them from the sight of any one coming from the milk house. And even Cynthy's mother, a good but troublesome woman, as you all know, saw nothing 怪しげな in the fact that Dale and Quin went strolling together up to the garden where Cynthy was 選ぶing peas. Her most 有形の thought was probably a casual thankfulness that they had patched up that quarrel they had at the supper （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する a few nights ago.
"井戸／弁護士席, what you 設立する out?" Quin 需要・要求するd almost querulously, when they had reached Cynthy and stopped beside her in the green fragrant 列／漕ぐ／騒動s. "Anything new about Neal?" He ちらりと見ることd toward the house, as if he half 恐れるd that even so far away the wretched story would 漏れる to the ears of his wife. "That boy's innocent or he's a mighty bad egg—I don't know which."
"I don't know anything about Neal," Dale said tensely, "this 関心s Hugh. He lent me fishing 取り組む and 飛行機で行く 調書をとる／予約する, and when I went to select a 飛行機で行く—you remember, Cynthy, those 飛行機で行くs I showed you that I had made? The 飛行機で行く 調書をとる／予約する was stolen and then returned, remember, with some of the 飛行機で行くs 行方不明の. Then that afternoon, when it began raining, I made up some others and filled up the 調書をとる／予約する again.
"井戸／弁護士席, like you in 認めるing Neal on horseback, I can't very 井戸／弁護士席 explain just how I know my own 飛行機で行くs, but I do. When a thing grows under your own fingers—anyway, my 飛行機で行くs were in Hugh's 調書をとる／予約する. That nearly knocked me over. Twice when I was robbed my 飛行機で行くs were taken. And they could only get into Hugh's 所有／入手 in one way."
"What else? You didn't stop there, did you?"
"No," said Dale with a click of his teeth, "you can bet I didn't stop there! If Hugh had the 飛行機で行くs, it was 論理（学）の to guess he had the other stuff of 地雷. It would account for our not finding any 跡をつけるs except under my window and along that 味方する of the house.
"See how it 人物／姿／数字s out! I was tied, bound and gagged in my bed. All 権利, they could take my 控訴 事例／患者s and little trunk out through the window easily enough, carry them to the corner of the house and 押す them through another window or の上に the porch—with one of those 激しい Navajo rugs laid on the porch, they could very easily take the baggage 支援する into the house and I'd never hear it."
"井戸／弁護士席," said Cynthy breathlessly, "did you find your things?"
"Not at first. I had to go about it in such a way that 物陰／風下 Chow wouldn't discover what I was up to. First I went to my room, made sure he was in his little cabin, and then made a 徹底的な search of the house, closets and so on till I （機の）カム to Hugh's bedroom. He's got one 正規の／正選手 closet and another blind closet—good-sized one, at that, 開始 off it. I discovered that the partition across the end of his room next the den has been 始める，決める into the room about four feet. Then that is partitioned too, leaving a 罰金 dark room about four feet square. I really don't believe it was made with any dishonest 目的, Mr. Burnett. There are 棚上げにするs and an amateur developing and printing outfit for kodaks and a ガソリン lamp with reflector—Hugh has used it for making his own pictures. Good idea too, so far from town. My stuff is in there, neatly stacked under the 底（に届く） shelf; all of it, except those three 調書をとる／予約するs 法案 Bradley 削減（する） to pieces over on Grey Bull."
Quin stood up, a 手渡す upon the small of his 支援する while he ちらりと見ることd around the place. Then he knelt upon one 膝 and began absently twitching fat pea pods from the vines and throwing them one by one into the pan beside Cynthy. His wide hat brim hid his 直面する from Dale.
"I thought that's about where you'd find your 着せる／賦与するs," he said, in a flat tired 発言する／表明する. "Somewhere in the house. Everything pointed to Hugh, but I kept hopin' I'd be able to keep him outa trouble over it. Hugh ain't bad at heart, but they're hard up, and fifty thousand dollars was just too big a 誘惑. It'd take half of it to clean up the mortgage on the ranch, and what Hugh 借りがあるs around here and there I don't know, but it's a lot. If you'd put the money in the bank like I told you to—
"But you couldn't see what you was doin' to that boy, of course. Some folks never do see how they encourage 罪，犯罪 by leavin' the door wide open to it. I didn't care anything about you losin' the money; if you was fool enough to pack it around with you and flaunt it in the 直面するs of folks that needed it worse than you did and would help themselves to it, that was your 警戒／見張り, not 地雷. But Hugh's weak. I've been tryin' to keep him on the 権利 味方する of the 法律 till he woke up and settled 負かす／撃墜する to 商売／仕事. Jim turned out pretty 井戸／弁護士席 after his first wild oats was （種を）蒔くd, and I thought Hugh would too. He's got to learn that a ranch won't run itself, though. Them boys up there—" he broke off suddenly to look searchingly at Dale. "Is there any 調印する of they're bein' mixed up in this crooked work? Bird and Ned and the 残り／休憩（する）?"
"Not so far." Dale shook his 長，率いる. "My impression is that they …に出席する 厳密に to 商売／仕事 and let Hugh come and go without question or comment. Their 態度 yesterday seemed to show that—don't you think so, Cynthy?"
"Yes, it did." Cynthy did not look up. "Father and I were sure it was Hugh, and I went up yesterday morning to be a 肉親，親類d of 護衛 and 説得する you 負かす／撃墜する here, till Father （機の）カム 支援する with the 当局 to 逮捕（する） Hugh, if necessary. Then 法案 and Jack and the 残り／休憩（する） threw me all off—the way 法案 行為／法令／行動するd toward Hugh, and taking the horses and all. I wasn't so sure it was Hugh, then. But the boys—they're pretty 井戸／弁護士席 trained, if they're in with him. I couldn't get a flicker of 犯罪 there."
"井戸／弁護士席, we'll mighty quick find out. The thing to do is go get your stuff and 運ぶ／漁獲高 it 負かす／撃墜する here. Hugh's team oughta be taken 支援する anyway, and I'll 運動 on up with you and bring 支援する your baggage. We've just about got time before supper, if we hurry, and the boys oughta be home when we get there. If they know anything about that baggage stealin', I'll find out when we go after it. Cynthy, you go tell your mother you're comin' along with us. We can both identify Dale's 支配するs and trunks, and I want you for a 証言，証人／目撃する." Once more he stood up, squinting at the sun. "We better get started if we're goin' to get 支援する for supper. I want to have Neal at the house when we 荷を降ろす the stuff."
His 静かな efficiency amazed Dale, swept him into unquestioning obedience. Without another word they left the garden and hurried to the stable to get the team ready. Cynthy calmly gathered up the peas she had thrown under the porch and took them in for Judy to 爆撃する, and told her mother they were going after Dale's stuff and to wait supper if they were a little late getting home.
She was 負かす／撃墜する in the stable yard in time to help Dale hitch the sorrel team to the buggy, and seemed to take it for 認めるd that she was 推定する／予想するd to ride with him instead of with her father. And just because Quin made no comment whatever upon that 協定 Dale would cheerfully have given a thousand dollars for the 力／強力にする to read his thoughts.
* * * * *
"井戸／弁護士席, the boys （疑いを）晴らすd themselves in 罰金 形態／調整," Quin 観察するd, with a sigh of 救済, as Dale climbed 支援する into the seat with Cynthy and her father, after の近くにing the Mowerby gate behind the spring wagon.
"How, Father? I didn't know you said anything to them about it." Cynthy 紅潮／摘発するd a little and tried to appear 絶対 unconscious of Dale's arm which slid around her as she spoke.
"Didn't have to say anything. Got all I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know just by watchin' em while we were there. I was a little afraid I might have to make a clean sweep there. I thought maybe the Chink would be in it too."
"Still, a Chinaman's 直面する is made of 支持を得ようと努めるd," Dale 発言／述べるd, 産する／生じるing to the 無謀な 誘惑 to give Cynthy a squeeze.
"Yeah, but even 支持を得ようと努めるd'll give under a 激しい shock. (Crowdin' yuh, Cynthy? Maybe Dale'll move over a little.) 物陰／風下 took it for 認めるd you'd want your stuff 負かす／撃墜する to our place if you're goin' to stay there. He didn't know you'd lost it, did he?"
"井戸／弁護士席, he wasn't supposed to." On the strength of Quin's hint, Dale boldly pulled Cynthy closer to him.
"Hugh was playin' a 孤独な 手渡す, far as the folks on the ranch are 関心d. 価値（がある） a lot to know that. Oughta be able to get a line on Neal, next."
What he meant to do after he had 決定するd Neal's 犯罪 or innocence, Quin did not say. And Dale, wholly engrossed in the 近づく presence of Cynthy, forgot to ask him.
"WELL, Mother, it seems kinda 堅い to go off and leave you holdin' 負かす／撃墜する the ranch alone with Judy. Maybe you better change your mind and come along," Quin said, when, dressed for the trip he had decided was necessary, the family rose from the breakfast （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する next morning. "I've got to take Neal along, you know. Got some 商売／仕事 to …に出席する to and I want him to 調印する the papers."
Almost any other woman would have felt 誘発するd by that mysterious 声明 to ask several questions 関心ing the 商売／仕事 which made Neal Somers' presence in town a necessity. But Mrs. Burnett was different.
"I wouldn't sleep in one of them hotel beds again if you paid me for it," she 宣言するd. "And you know 井戸／弁護士席 enough what I think of that sanitarium couch Rose has got. You tell Donna she better come home. Gaddin' around Cheyenne is no way to 残り／休憩（する） up from school, and I don't see what you let her stay for. Here's a 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of things I want you should get. Judy and I are goin' to tie a couple of comforters while we've got the house to ourselves, and I don't know but what we're liable to run outa battin' and yarn. You let Cynthy 選ぶ out the yarn, Quin."
Quin took the 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）, slid it into his inner pocket of his coat, turned glassy-注目する，もくろむd for a second, as men will when they suddenly realize that they have forgotten something, and pulled out a letter which he 手渡すd to Dale.
"They gave me that at the hotel," he said blankly. "I meant to give it to you before, but it kinda slipped my mind."
"For the land's sake, Quin!" his wife 非難d him fretfully. "You're gettin' old, but that's no excuse for bein' as childish and forgetful as you are lately. What'll Mr. Emery think of you—packin' his mail around like that?"
"Why, that's やめる all 権利, I'm sure," Dale あわてて soothed her. "I couldn't have answered it before, anyway. It doesn't 事柄 in the least, Mrs. Burnett." But the look on his 直面する when he saw the return 演説（する）／住所 did not やめる 調和させる with the words. He excused himself rather あわてて and read the letter in his own room, and he was preoccupied all the way to town, in spite of his 成果／努力s to throw off the thoughts that nagged at him. To discuss the 支配する uppermost in their minds was impossible because of Neal's surly presence.
Quin and Cynthy, sensing Dale's fresh worry, made no 試みる／企てる at desultory conversation. They were a silent quartette on that long ride to town, and from their general atmosphere they might have been on their way to the funeral of a friend.
But at the hotel where Quin decided they had best make their first stop, Dale shook off his depressed mood. Cynthy and her father must be told something, and it could not wait any longer. Neal had got out of the car and disappeared when they stopped at the hotel, and it was a simple 事柄 for Dale to call Quin and Cynthy into his room.
"This letter—it's from Mr. Kittridge, my Chicago 銀行業者," he said. "Kittridge is the one who settled my father's 広い地所—he died a year and more ago—and nagged about my carrying a large sum of cash west with me, so I finally got my 支援する up and took almost all I had in the bank.
"井戸／弁護士席, that 強盗 stunt that was pulled on me here seems to have gotten under the old man's 肌. If you'll 容赦 me, I'll just read his letter—and the enclosure—and save time. Kittridge says:
Mr. Teasdale Emery [and so 前へ／外へ]
My dear Emery:
News of the 強盗 （罪などを）犯すd in Cheyenne, in which you lost the $50,000.00 通貨 which you had in your 所有／入手 at the time, has led me to believe that かもしれない I was in a 手段 責任がある the 乱暴／暴力を加える.
I am therefore enclosing a letter which will explain itself and which may be of some slight service to you in （疑いを）晴らすing up the 事件／事情／状勢 and, I 信用, apprehending the 犯罪のs.
I may 追加する that the 賃貸し（する） upon your Halstead Street 所有物／資産／財産 has been 新たにするd and the sum of—[er—井戸／弁護士席, it may be as 井戸／弁護士席, Mr. Burnett, to let you know about how I stand 支援する there]—the sum of $45,000 credited to your account.
信用ing that you will be fortunate enough to 回復する the money lost in the 強盗, and that you will 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる the fact that I 行為／法令／行動するd in good 約束 and for your best 利益／興味s, I am
Very truly yours, John L. Kittridge
"And here's the letter he encloses—rather, a 炭素 copy of a letter:
Mr. James D. Mowerby,
Cashier Stockgrowers' 信用 and 貯金 Bank Cheyenne,
Wyoming.
My dear Mr. Mowerby:
I am 令状ing you in my personal capacity as the friend and 財政上の 助言者 of Mr. Teasdale Emery, a （弁護士の）依頼人 of this bank.
Mr. Emery is making a visit to your town for the 目的 of looking over the country thereabout with a 見解（をとる） to 購入（する）ing a cattle ranch of some 肉親，親類d. Mr. Emery is carrying upon his person the sum of $50,000 in 通貨.
I shall みなす it a 広大な／多数の／重要な personal 好意 to me if you will make an 成果／努力 to 会合，会う Mr. Emery and, if it is possible without 公表する／暴露するing this （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） or antagonizing him in any way, 説得する him to deposit in your bank whatever cash he may have with him. A friendly suggestion that you will be glad, as a 特派員 of our bank, to take care of any 財政上の 事柄 for him, should produce the result 願望（する）d.
Mr. Emery is an estimable young man—"
[Dale inwardly gloated over the 合法的 excuse for bringing this paragraph to Quin's attention, though he did stutter a little over the actual reading of it.]
—an estimable young man but inclined to be headstrong, and I 恐れる that in 試みる／企てるing to dissuade him from carrying this large sum of money with him I made the mistake of antagonizing him to a 確かな degree. I 信用 that you will be able to 修理 my error, and in any event I beg to 申し込む／申し出 you my thanks and 評価 for any service you may be able to （判決などを）下す my friend and （弁護士の）依頼人.
Very truly yours,
John L. Kittridge
副大統領
La Salle 郡 信用 & 貯金 Bank Chicago, Ill."
"Jim told?" Cynthy turned and 星／主役にするd rather wild-注目する，もくろむd at her father. "Jim! Why, it doesn't Seem possible, Dale! He's been in that bank—why, they think the world and all of Jim!"
"I've been wonderin' about Jim," Quin said 厳粛に. "It's his ranch 合法的に. Hugh has been runnin' behind pretty bad with it, but I knew it was Jim that was worryin' over the mortgage. Buyin' a home here in town and raisin' a family costs money, these days, and I knew somethin' or other would have to break pretty soon. Rose sent for me because she's 脅すd about Jim. He ain't eatin' nor sleepin' lately, and she kinda 疑惑d somethin' was wrong at the bank and didn't know what to do. I went and asked Jim if anything was wrong, and he put me off. Needed a vacation, he said.
"井戸／弁護士席," he sighed, "there's two of 'em gone wrong. I made up my mind I wouldn't 保護物，者 'em—"
"You don't have to, Mr. Burnett. Look here. I did a lot of thinking on the way in, and it seems to me this thing can be settled without any publicity, if you are willing. They didn't get anything after all—"
"What about the money they got here in town?" Quin 需要・要求するd はっきりと. "Couple of hundred, wasn't it?"
"Who knows who got it? Any yegg could have はうd in the window—井戸／弁護士席, let's leave that for the 現在の. Don't you suppose, Mr. Burnett, they've had their lesson? I don't go much on putting men away in 刑務所s without giving them a chance to change their ways. You say they're 不正に in 負債, with the ranch mortgaged and so on. You also say this money 追跡（する） of theirs is my fault, because I'd no 商売／仕事 to have that much with me to tempt them. Now it's over, I'll 収容する／認める you're 権利.
"Now, suppose I buy them out for cash? I want that ranch and I'd have made Hugh an 申し込む／申し出 before, if I had thought he would consider selling. Then if they （疑いを）晴らすd out—or Hugh, we'll say. I—excuse me a moment."
Some one had rapped on the door, and he opened it to 収容する／認める Hugh. The three 星／主役にするd at him in stunned silence. Hugh's 直面する was white, his 注目する，もくろむs were red-rimmed and bloodshot, his tawny hair was a rumpled mop. He （機の）カム in and 押し進めるd it shut with his 肘 and stood with his 支援する against it while he looked at them.
"Look here," he said 厳しく, "I know what you folks are here for—Neal told me you've got wise, somehow. He はうd a freight train headin' west. But there ain't any runnin' 血 in me—I want to know what you're going to do about it?"
"Where's Jim?" Quin stood up, 注目する，もくろむing him bleakly. "Before we go into this, we せねばならない have Jim here."
"Hell, what d' you want Jim for? He didn't do anything—only show me the letter he'd got from Chicago, just as a 見本 of the luck some people have in this world. Dale here, packin' fifty thousand dollars around just to be smart, and us ready to lose every foot of land and every hoof we owned! That much money would put us on our feet; with him it was just something to play with. It made me sore.
"Jim didn't know anything about it till after the fracas here in the hotel, and then of course—we had it out, then. I told him straight I was goin' to get that money. Jim didn't want me to. He begged me not to—銀行業者s are so damn' honest! But Jim 申し込む／申し出d to use the bank money to 支払う／賃金 off the 利益／興味 if I'd lay off this other. We had it 支援する and 前へ／外へ all one night, nearly. There was Rose and the kids—he couldn't 危険 losin' his 職業 and goin' to 刑務所，拘置所. I told him that. I told him I'd get this fifty thousand—
"井戸／弁護士席, I've been crooked before. You know that, Quin. I got to runnin' with 法案 and Jack, is how it started. And Neal—him and I used to find out things 法案 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know, and he'd go do the 職業 and 分裂（する） with us. I never did anything much myself—just helped 法案. Neal too. So I told 法案 about this fifty thousand comin' to town, and he agreed to help get it and take a third, because it was my 職業. I was goin' to make it my 職業. Jim don't know anything about 法案, though. He thinks I was tryin' to pull this alone and it was my first 試みる／企てる." He turned a desolate look on Dale.
"I swiped your 着せる／賦与するs, Dale," he said 率直に. "They're at the house, in my closet. I didn't much believe you had the stuff with you, after all, but you kept sayin' you did have it, and 法案 was like a lion smellin' 血—he wouldn't lay off, once I let him in on it. He kept at me to get it.
"Like over on Grey Bull. That was his 計画／陰謀—tyin' us both up and scarin' you a little. I never dreamed the damn' どろぼう would—and he 二塁打-crossed me. Or he was goin' to, if he'd got the jack.
"So that's the how of it. I'm ready to go—but for God's sake don't drag Jim in. If I 罪を認める, you won't have to go into how I heard about it in the first place—"
Dale walked up to him then and took him by both shoulders and talked for three minutes without stopping, looking Hugh straight in the 注目する，もくろむs all the while. He saw the hard 反抗 slowly leave Hugh's 直面する, saw it quiver, saw the tight lips 緩和する and droop at the corners, saw the 涙／ほころびs slip over his blinking lids and slide unheeded 負かす／撃墜する his cheeks.
But a man doesn't 星／主役にする for long upon the 明らかにするd soul of another, and Dale, blinking his own 注目する，もくろむs with a 怪しげな moisture on the 攻撃するs, turned and grinned over his shoulder at the others.
"Hugh and I have got some 商売／仕事 over at the bank," he said, his 発言する／表明する not 完全に 安定した. "Goin' to buy a ranch and raise polo ponies, with Hugh for ranch superintendent. He's cured, I'll bet on that. You folks have got your shopping to do, and I suppose you'll want to see Donna and Mrs. Jim—and Cynthy has something she wants to ask you, Mr. Burnett. Suppose we all 会合，会う here, along about dinner time, and you be my guests at dinner. Bring Donna and Jim and Mrs. Jim—Hugh and I'll be on time, never 恐れる!" He smiled that strange, heart-新たな展開ing smile which Cynthy had spoken of, and it is やめる likely that her heart gave its customary flop.
"Cynthy's question don't need askin'," Quin said, after he had swallowed something that seemed rather difficult to go 負かす／撃墜する. "You can have the weddin' any time you two are a mind to."
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