Slim rammed the black cloth back into the duffel bag and slipped on his chaps, slung his gun belt around his hips, and started for the corral.
An excited group was gathered at the gate, looking at tracks which led into the corral.
“Look here, Slim,” cried Chuck. “One of the rustlers, the guy that took a shot at the boss, rode right into our own corral last night. Here’s his tracks going in, but there’s none coming out.”
Slim looked down at the hoofprint to which Chuck pointed. There was the telltale V-shaped mark.
There was no mistaking the V-shaped nick. It was clearly outlined in the dust and Slim stooped to look at it closely.
“Kind of looks like the mysterious rider was the guy who roped me around the neck and then left me down by the creek to hear the crickets sing,” he said.
“Maybe he was trying to get another shot at the boss,” said Walt Kelly.
“If he was, he wouldn’t have ridden right into our corral. Anyway, there’re no marks like this one coming out,” Chuck pointed out.
Slim sat back on his heels, puzzled at the turn of events, while Chuck ambled into the corral. A minute later he shouted for them to join him and they hurried inside.
Chuck was looking at his own horse but as they approached he pointed at the dust.
“My gosh, fellows, my own horse has that V-shaped mark on his left rear shoe!”
“That kind of puts you in a hole,” spoke up Doug Huston.
“Nothing of the kind,” retorted Slim sharply. “Chuck wasn’t on the range when the boss was shot and you fellows know darned well where he was the other night when the rustlers were chasing our cattle onto the Double O range. This is just a trick of the rustlers to cause suspicion in our own outfit. The fellow who slugged me last night rode away on Chuck’s horse and while he was away from the ranch he had the V-shaped mark filed in the shoe. It was clever trick, but it didn’t work.”
Joe Haines, who had been strangely silent, stepped forward.
“You’re right, Slim,” said the foreman. “Putting that nick on the shoe of that cayuse was aimed to throw us on the wrong track. What’s troubling me is how the rustlers learned we were after a horse with a shoe marked like that. As far as I know only our own outfit knew about it and Nels Anderson and Al Bass.”