"I don't either," smiled Stratton, getting on his feet. The swift, southern darkness had fallen so quickly that they could barely see each other's faces. "It's one of their own little tricks, and turn about is fair play. Our job, I reckon, is to keep our eyes open every minute and not let anything slip. We'll find a way to get together again if anything should turn up. I'll be going back."
He turned away and took a few steps along the bank. Then all at once he stopped and walked back.
"Say, Bud, how big is that north pasture place you were telling about?" he asked. "I don't seem to remember going over it when I was--"
He broke off abruptly, and a sudden flush burned into his cheeks at the realization that he had almost betrayed himself. Fortunately Jessup did not seem to notice the slip.
"I don't know exactly," replied the youngster. "About two miles square, maybe. Why?"
"Oh, I just wondered," shrugged Stratton. "Well, so-long."
Again they parted, Bud returning to the harness-room, where he would have to finish his work by lantern-light.
"Gee, but that was close!" murmured Bud, feeling his way through the darkness. "Just about one more word and I'd have given away the show completely."
He paused under a cottonwood as a gleam of light from the open bunk-house door showed through the leaves.
A waste of sand, cactus, and scanty desert growth! In Arizona nothing is more ordinary or commonplace, more utterly lacking in interest and significance. Yet Stratton's mind returned to it persistently as he considered one by one the scanty details of Jessup's brief narrative.
What was there about a spot like that to rouse excitement in the breast of the usually phlegmatic Andrew Thorne? Why had he been in such haste to drag Lynch thither, and what had passed between the two before the older man came to his sudden and tragic end? Was it possible that somewhere within that four square miles of desolate wilderness might lie the key to the puzzling mystery Buck had set himself to solve?
"I wonder?" he murmured again, and leaving the margin of the creek, he moved slowly toward the open bunk-house door.
As Buck appeared in the doorway, blinking a little at the lamp-light, the five card-players stared at him in astonishment.