They gave him a few more words of encouragement, told him that if it came to money for defense they would find it for him, and after he had been returned to his cell by a deputy went outside to the waiting sheriff. “Sheriff,” said David, “we promised to tell you anything we could find out about this Ray case. Well, we’re going to do it; but to save repeating it, we’d like to have you go with us to the prosecuting attorney’s office so he can hear what we have to say at the same time. Is that good enough?” “Sure. I’ll go right over to Hillyer’s office with you now,” the sheriff said. “He’ll be glad to see you two fellows any way, because he’s a right smart admirer of yours and a good friend, isn’t he?” “Hope so,” Goliath growled with a grin as he recalled a past episode in their career where the prosecuting attorney had turned a blind eye on their manipulation of a Sky Gap election which worked for an improvement in law and order. And he proved so when David sat and painstakingly detailed all that he had discovered and expounded his theory. “Shaughnessy’s got hold of some boobs back East who want to buy a mining property. The fact that there has been a little gold found on Torren’s Gulch makes that the ideal ground to sell to any but the old-timers at the mining game who know the one color of gold in a pan doesn’t make a paying mine, and that there are gulches which are as spotted as a fawn. Everything goes well until Shaughnessy tried to buy out this tenderfoot Ray, and because Ray’s inexperienced and wants money enough to marry his best girl, he won’t sell for a thousand dollars and Shaughnessy doesn’t want to pay any more than he has to. He’s got to have the ground to put the deal through. When he can’t get it decently he turns around and goes after it crookedly, which is the way he knows best, anyhow. “He gets that seventy-five hundred that can be identified, then he and one of his pals, either Pinder or ‘Crook’ MacPharlane, drive down there into that side road with a buggy. Shaughnessy gets on the high point to signal when the stage is coming, and the other man sticks her up, and they go back and plant the money in Ray’s cabin, then write the anonymous letter. The watch charm I found is the only thing that was bad for them. I recognized it the minute I found it because I’ve seen it on Shaughnessy’s chain a hundred times. After our talk with Ray it was all plain. They framed up on the boy to get him out of the way and to buy his mine for a thousand dollars when he became so desperate and helpless that he’d sell his right eye to clear himself, and they do it under the bluff of friendship, damn ’em! Doesn’t it look that way to you, Hillyer?”