Johnny tried to catch sight of Gallup’s party as it rode out of town. To see the better he opened the trapdoor which led to the roof of the hotel and crawled out upon it. A mile away he could see four horsemen riding into the north. “A buckboard wasn’t fast enough for Gallup today, eh?” Johnny muttered. “They’ll never git anywhere ridin’ that fast. Aaron’ll be so sore in an hour or two that he’ll want to ride in a bed.” Johnny crossed the roof to the side nearest the railroad tracks and looked down on Gallup’s house. “My Lord,” he said half aloud, “this would ’a’ been a grand-stand seat for the doin’s last evenin’. If Toby had crawled up here he wouldn’t ’a’ missed a thing. And you can just bet your last cookie that that’s what he did. He’s just about streakin’ it right now for the Reservation. Him and the old chief are goin’ to have another powwow. Elk Valley is goin’ to be ’way over-populated before this day is done. I’ve got a hunch some of the visitors are never goin’ to come back to the Rock—unless Doc brings ’em.” CHAPTER XXVIII JOHNNY TALKS AT LAST Big Jim greeted Johnny with a laugh. People said that the district attorney knew more and said less than any one in the county. A look of almost infinite wisdom was in his eyes as he studied Johnny. “Well,” he questioned, “you’re goin’ to bust if you don’t talk, Johnny? Let’s have it.” “You hit the nail, Jim. Talk—a big order of it—is what I want to git off my mind.” “I’ve had my ears open, Johnny,” Kelsey said. “I wondered when you’d drop in.” “You hain’t heard _nothin’_. You wait. I’ve found out a-plenty since I started puttin’ my nose into other people’s business, as Gallup would say. I’m here to ask for a warrant.” “So? For whom?” “For the coroner of this county—for the murder of Crosbie Traynor, same having occurred on the night of October 4th in a room at the Palace Hotel. You listen to me and see if I’m crazy or not. I suppose you heard all the talk that was made the night we found the body? Well, I won’t waste no time on that, but—I found the dead man’s horse. I went through the saddlebags and I found a picture. Later, I got the dead man’s name. I just kept on putting two and two together until I began to git scared at what I was findin’ out. Git your pencil and make some notes.” Kelsey did as Johnny asked, but he made small use of the pencil. His mind grasped the facts as Johnny unfolded them. From time to time he stopped the boy to insert a question. Whenever he did so, Johnny’s answers invariably enabled him to leap ahead to the next move in this game of life and death. Sometimes Johnny raised questioning eyes as he wondered if he were making himself understood. Kelsey merely grunted in the affirmative. Once he whistled. Traynor’s letter to Molly caused that. The boy knew his story grasped the man’s mind, for, shrewd as Kelsey was, he could not keep all emotion from his eyes.