The stranger had drawn and shot _with his left hand_.
CHAPTER XIII
Trailing the Outlaws
For a few minutes the wildest confusion prevailed in the saloon. The
noise of the shooting had emptied the other bar-rooms, as well as the
houses of the little settlement, and from all quarters people came
flocking to the scene of the tragedy. The dead man was removed to a
room in the rear, and the wounds of the others were bound up with rude
surgery, pending the arrival of a doctor, for whom one of the cowboys had
ridden off post haste.
Bert's quick mind was busy piecing together the events of the past
crowded hour. That the stranger was left-handed, although unusual in that
region, proved nothing by itself. But the dead steer had borne the mark
of a left-handed man--and Pedro was in charge of a part of Melton's
stock--and he had sneaked away from his work to talk with this ruffian,
apparently by appointment--and the latter had given the half-breed money.
Had Bert known the additional fact that Pedro had been riding herd in the
section where a large drove had recently disappeared, the conclusion
would have been irresistible that he and the stranger had been in league
to "rustle" Melton's cattle.
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