But they's plenty of us knows
you was the head leader of the gang that took an' lynched that pilgrim."
"That's right," smiled the man coolly. "Beats the devil, how things
gets spread around, don't it? An' speakin' of news spreading that
way--I just came up the creek from down below the canyon. You must
have had quite a bit of water in your reservoir when she let go,
Johnson, judgin' by results."
"What do you mean?"
"You ain't be'n down the creek, then?"
"No, I ain't. I'm goin' now. I had to git the men to work fixin' the
dam."
"What I mean is this! There's about fifty head of cattle, more or
less, that's layin' sprinkled around on top of the mud. Amongst which
I seen T U brands, and I X, an' D bar C, an' quite a few nester brands.
When your reservoir let go she sure raised hell with other folks'
property. Of course, bein' away down there where there ain't any
folks, if I hadn't happened along it might have been two or three weeks
before any one would have rode through, an' you could have run a bunch
of ranch hands down an' buried 'em an' no one would have be'n any
wiser----"
"You're lyin'!" There was a look of fear in the man's eyes,
Tex shrugged: "You'll only waste a half a day ridin' down to see for
yourself," he replied indifferently.
Johnson appeared to consider, then stepped close to the Texan's side:
"They say one good turn deserves another.
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