"I've a good mind to arrest the whole bunch of you for conspiring at the escape of a United States prisoner," he growled. "You'd stand a fine show to do that," said Ted quietly. "On the other hand, I've a mind to arrest you for the forcible entry of this house." "You have, have you?" sneered the other. "You make me laugh, young feller. You couldn't arrest a fly!" Ted threw open his coat and showed that he, too, wore a star. The leader of the posse leaned forward to read the authority on it. "Who are you?" he asked huskily. "I am Ted Strong." "Then why didn't you stop Fancy Farnsworth?" "What for? I have no knowledge of his having committed a crime, and, besides, I have no warrant for him. Have you?" "No. Didn't have time to get one. But that makes no difference. He killed a woman, and as soon as I heard of it I got my posse together an' hit his trail. If it hadn't been for you fellows I'd have got him." "I don't think you would." "Why wouldn't I?" "Because he'd have killed two or three of you first." "What about this crime, and why are you so sure he committed it?" asked Major Caruthers. "I thought him a fine, gentlemanly, quiet young fellow, and I'm somewhat of a judge of men myself. I can hardly believe that a man of that stamp could commit so terrible a crime as woman murder. That is the lowest degree of killing." "He done it, just the same," said the deputy marshal positively. "Why are you so sure?" asked Ted, taking up the interrogation. "Well, in the first place, he skipped the town just before the body of the woman was found. He was seen to ride out of town along the road on which her house stood." "Is that all the evidence you have against him?" "No; he was seen coming out of the house about three hours before he was seen leaving town." "H'm! Is that all?" "It comes pretty near enough. But, besides that, it was known that the woman, who was young and beautiful, had recently received a lot of money as her share in a mine, and that the money had been taken to her that morning by one of her partners." "And it is believed that the young fellow you call Fancy Farnsworth killed the woman for her money?" "Sure." "In what shape was the money? Currency, gold dust, ingots, or gold coins?" "It was in ingots." "Anybody know how much of it there was?" "Yes; her partner, Billy Slocum, was at the hotel, intendin' to go back to the mine to-day, and I went to see him." "And did he give you any idea of how much the gold weighed?" "Yes, it weighed about thirty pounds. Billy brought it in on his saddle, and he said it weighed quite considerable." "But Farnsworth, as you call him, had nothing of the sort when he arrived here." "That may be. He'd be too foxy to do that. He's cached it somewhere in the mountains, most likely." "How was the woman killed?" "She was strangled by a cord." "What was her name?" "Helen Mowbray." "What sort of a woman was she?"