Pagina 342 de 439

"Not directly. At three hundred yards, I could have shot a heap

straighter than that. The fool must have been drunk."

"You'll have to excuse him. It was beginning to get dark. His

intentions were good."

There was a quick light step behind him, and Arlie came into the

room. She glanced quickly from one to the other, and there was

apprehension in her look.

"I've come to see Lieutenant Fraser on business," Briscoe

explained, with an air patently triumphant.

Arlie made no offer to leave the room. "He's hardly up to

business yet, is he?" she asked, as carelessly as she could.

"Then we'll give it another name. I'm making a neighborly call to

ask how he is, and to return some things he lost."

Jed's hand went into his pocket and drew forth leisurely a

photograph. This he handed to Arlie right side up, smiling the

while, with a kind of masked deviltry.