"I'll bet a dollar Mex against two plunks gold that you're wondering
whyfor I'm going."

Larry laughed. "You're right. I was wondering."

"Well, then, it's this way. What with all these boys on Kinney's trail
he's as good as rounded up. Fact is, Kinney's only a weak sister
anyhow. He turned State's witness at the trial, and it was his
testimony that convicted Struve. I know something about this because I
happened to be the man that caught Struve. I had just joined the
rangers. It was my first assignment. The other three got away. Two of
them escaped and the third was not tried for lack of sufficient
evidence. Now, then: Kinney rides the rods from Yuma to Marfa and is
now or had ought to be somewhere in this valley between Posa Buena and
Taylor's ranch. But where is Struve, the hardier ruffian of the two?
He ain't been seen since they broke out. He sure never reached Ft.
Lincoln. My notion is that he dropped off the train in the darkness
about Casa Grande, then rolled his tail for the Mal Pais country. Your
eyes are asking whys mighty loud, my friend; and my answer is that
there's a man up there mebbe who has got to hide Struve if he shows
up. That's only a guess, but it looks good to me. This man was the
brains of the whole outfit, and folks say that he's got cached the
whole haul the gang made from that S. P. hold-up. What's more, he
scattered gold so liberal that his name wasn't even mentioned at the
trial. He's a big man now, a millionaire copper king and into
gold-mines up to the hocks. In the Southwest those things happen. It
doesn't always do to look too closely at a man's past.

"We'll say Struve drops in on him and threatens to squeak. Mebbe he