The Mexicans kept in a group by themselves a little
in rear of the others--it was not their trouble. If the gringos
wanted to lynch another gringo, well and good--that was the
gringos' business. They would keep out of it, and they did.
Down past the bunkhouse and the cookhouse to the stables
the searchers made their way. Grayson could not be found. In
the stables one of the men made a discovery--the foreman's
saddle had vanished. Out in the corrals they went. One of the
men laughed--the bars were down and the saddle horses
gone. Eddie Shorter presently pointed out across the pasture
and the river to the skyline of the low bluffs beyond. The
others looked. A horseman was just visible urging his mount
upward to the crest, the two stood in silhouette against the
morning sky pink with the new sun.
"That's him," said Eddie.
"Let him go," said Billy Byrne. "He won't never come back
and he ain't worth chasin'. Not while we got Miss Barbara to
look after. My horse is down there with yours. I'm goin'
down to get him. Will you come, Shorter? I may need help--I
ain't much with a rope yet."
He started off without waiting for a reply, and all the
Americans followed. Together they circled the horses and
drove them back to the corral.
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