“There they stopped and held a pow-wow. We reloaded and then I got out my glasses and took a good squint at the band. The fellow who was evidently the leader was the dead image of the man you described. He had a scar that reached almost from his mouth to his ear on his right cheek and tallied with your man in all the other respects you mention. He wasn’t a greaser either. Just the tough gunman type you see in the slums of any big city. I studied him hard and know I would recognize him instantly again if I should ever meet him.
“They palavered a while and then concluded that they had had enough of our game and called it off. They rode off toward the Mexican border, that no man’s land that is as full of tough characters as a dog is full of fleas. Some time later a bunch of our boys who had heard the shooting came hurrying up, and the captain put himself at their head and went in pursuit. But the fracas happened just at the edge of dusk, and in the darkness the fellows got away. Probably crossed the Rio Grande.
“Now, that’s my little spiel and you can take it for what it is worth. It’s the same kind of a man as robbed the Castleton bank and he’s playing the same kind of a game. Of course, Laguna is a long way off from Castleton, but he’s had plenty of time to get here, and as a matter of fact, he’d naturally put a big stretch of country between himself and your town. If I were you I’d give the tip to the detectives who are looking for him and let them come down and get him if he proves to be the man they’re after. Or better still, come down and get him yourselves. I’m not kidding. Come down and get him yourselves. Mull this over in what you call your brains and call me again in five minutes.”
The voice ceased, and the listeners looked at each other with a new thought stirring in their minds.
“What do you think of it?” Phil asked of Mr. Denby.
“If you are referring to the clue,” answered the professor, “I think it’s a good one. Certainly it is one that you can’t afford to disregard. Detectives have traveled across a continent on much less than that. Of course, he may not prove to be the man, but there’s at least a good chance that he is. Nothing venture, nothing have.
“As to what he says about you boys going down there yourselves and trying to round the man up,” he continued, “that of course, is a matter on which I wouldn’t venture an opinion. Your families,” he smiled, “may have decided views on that point.”