"
"Do you know of anybody round these parts that is left-handed?" asked his
employer.
"Can't say as I do," replied Sandy after a little meditation, "leastways,
on any of the ranches around here. I know some of the boys that is almost
as good with their left hand as the right, but not what you could call
p'intedly left-handed. And anyway them fellers is as straight as a
string, and I know they wouldn't mix up with any dirty work like that."
"Who had been riding herd on that north range before Buck saw the trail
of the drove?" asked Mr. Melton abruptly.
"Let me see," answered Sandy, cudgeling his memory. "Why," he said after
a moment, "it was Pedro. He had been up there three days before Buck
relieved him."
"Ah, Pedro," echoed Mr. Melton.
There was a significance in his voice that caused Sandy to look up
quickly, and, as he caught the look in his employer's eyes, a sudden
suspicion leaped into his own.
"What!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean that Pedro was in cahoots with the
gang?"
"I don't mean anything--yet," replied Mr. Melton slowly. "I don't want to
do any one an injustice, and I haven't a particle of evidence that Pedro
isn't as innocent as a new-born babe.
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