"Don't blame him for that. He didn't mean to tell, but I wound him up so he couldn't get away from it. I'll show you later why he couldn't." "I'm sure you must have been very busy, spying and everything," she told him bitterly. "I've kept moving. But to get back to the point. Your father and Boone were on the ground where the stage was robbed _either at the time or right after_. Their tracks were all over there. Then they got on their horses and rode up the lateral." "But they couldn't. The ditch was full," broke from the girl. "You're right it was. You must be some observing to know when that ditch is full and empty to an hour. I reckon you've got an almanac of tides," he said ironically. She bit her lip with chagrin. "I just happened to notice." "Some folks _are_ more noticing than others. But you're surely right. They came up the ditch one on each side. Now, why one on each side, do you reckon?" Melissy hid the dread that was flooding her heart. "I'm sure I don't know. You know everything else. I suppose you do that, too, if they really did." "They had their reasons, but we won't go into that now. First off when they reach the house they take a bunch of sheep down to the ditch to water them. Now, why?" "Why, unless because they needed water?" "We'll let that go into the discard too just now. Let's suppose your father and Boone dumped the gold box down into the creek somewhere after they had robbed the stage. Suppose they had a partner up at the head-gates. When the signal is given down comes the water, and the box is covered by it. Mebbe that night they take it away and bury it somewhere else." The girl began to breathe again. He knew a good deal, but he was still off the track in the main points. "And who is this partner up at the canal? Have you got him located too?" "I might guess." "Well?"--impatiently. "A young lady hailing from this _hacienda_ was out gathering flowers all mo'ning. She was in her runabout. The tracks led straight from here to the head-gates. I followed them through the sands. There's a little break in one of the rubber tires. You'll find that break mark every eight feet or so in the sand wash." "I opened the head-gates, then, did I?" "It looks that way, doesn't it?" "At a signal from father?" "I reckon." "And that's all the evidence you've got against him and me?" she demanded, still outwardly scornful, but very much afraid at heart. "Oh, no, that ain't all, Miss Lee. Somebody locked the Chink in during this play. He's still wondering why." "He dreamed it. Very likely he had been rolling a pill." "Did I dream this too?" From his coat pocket he drew the piece of black shirting she had used as a mask. "I found it in the room where your father put me up that first night I stayed here. It was your brother Dick's room, and this came from the pocket of a shirt hanging in the closet. Now, who do you reckon put it there?"