Jean of the Lazy A

e doctor claims he'd been dead six hours when he seen him last night. Crofty-why, Crofty was laying in there dead

Lite retorted irritably.

er was ready to begin the inquest. "Say," he leaned over and wh

r black-leg signs," said Lite prompt

his mind any slight suspicion he may have held, but L

ing home," he said. As he spoke, his face lig

mself had not testified, just before then, that he had returned about three o'clock to the ranch and pottered around the corral with the mare and colt, and unsaddled his horse before going into the hou

ered why the jury,-men whom he knew and had known for years, most of them,-looked at one another so queerly when he declared that he had seen Aleck ride home. The coroner als

rrived, and that he had immediately started with her to town. The coroner did not cross-question him. Counting from four o'clock, which Jim had already named as the time of their separation, Lite would have had just about time to

r arrest, and as a prisoner he rode back to town alongside the sheriff,-an

on beneath it. "It's just to have something to work from,-don't mean anything in particular. It's a funny way the l

ne that saw him alive," she said resentfully, "and arrest him, then,-and le

e observed, in a tone that made Je

se all in a lather of sweat, and took the afternoon train yesterday? I saw him. I met him square in the middle of the street, and he didn't even look at me. He was in a frigh

g to Alaska,-been planning it all spring. And Carl said he was with Art till Art left to catch the tr

ho was i

to talk, to Jean especially. For lies never came easily to the tongue of Lite Avery. It was all very well to tell Jean that he didn't know who it was; he did tell her so, and made his escape before she could read in his face the fear tha

put them off. He was due at the ranch, he said, to look

o town and to an unwept burial. At the gate he met Carl Douglas, riding with his head sunk deep on his chest. Lite would have avoided that meeting if he could have done so unobtrusively, but as it was, he pul

te made brief comment w

up to the saddle-horn. He was a small man, not at all like

f it?" he asked Lit

brother to ask," Lite retorted sharply. "

u saw him ride home?

eave it." Lite scowled down at Carl.

ave heard Aleck say he came home a full hour or more before you say you saw him

in the saddle, and eyed the other without really seeing him at al

can't indict him on the evidence. They haven't got any evidence,-not any more than just the fact that he rode in with the news. No need to worry; he'll be turned loose in a few days." He picked up the gate, dragged it after him as he wen

e turned in the sa

ade you do that;-not when you knew Jim an

d done any good. It had done harm; he could see now that it had. But he could not believe that it would make any material difference in Aleck's case

Croft had not drawn any weapon. Jim had declared that Aleck could have sworn that Johnny reached for his gun.

lk to the kitchen door before he realized that it would be wasted, sitting in pans when the house would be empty. Still, it occurred to him that he

face was moody, his eyes dull with trouble. Like a treadmill, his mind went over and over the meager knowledge he had of th

ng to the Lazy A, but it was certain that no one had followed him from town. His threats had been for the most part directed against Carl, it is true; but if he had meant to quarrel

blatant and argumentative, no one had taken him seriously enough to nurse any grudge that would be likely to breed assassination. It was inconceivable to Lite that any man had trailed Johnny Croft to the Lazy A and

dried his hands. The stain was still there, in spite of him, just as the memory of the murder would cling always to the place. He w

in Aleck's innocence was not strong; it had proven that he did not trust the facts. That hurt Lite, and made it seem more

fore the kitchen door and smoked and stared straight before him. Once he thought he saw a man move cautiously from the corner of the shed where the youngest calf slept besid

cy, so that he did not sit down again to smoke and think. He had thought until his brain felt heavy and stupid; and t

ke him; sunlight that was warm in the room and proved how late the morning was. He swore in his astonishment and got up hastily, a grea

He stood looking at them, much as he had looked at the stain that would not come out, no matter how hard he scrubbed. He had not gone in the room after he had pulled the door shut and gone off

always show plainly on clean boards. The floor had evidently been moist still,-Lite had scrubbed man-fashion, with a broom, and had not been very particular about drying the floor afterwards. Also he had

tes at the end of the middle shelf, smaller plates next, then a stack of saucers,-the arrangement stereotyped, unvarying since first Lite Avery had taken dishtowel in hand to dry the dishes for Jean when she was ten and stood upon a footstool so that her elbows would b

eck had laid a pair of extra gloves. He pulled out the two small drawers just under the cupboard top and looked within them. The first held pipes and sacks of tobacco and books of cigarette papers; Lite knew well enough the contents of

ad been since Lite first came to the ranch. Here Lite believed the confusion was recent. Jean had been very domestic since her return from school, and all disorder had been frowned upon. Latel

wler's visit. Aleck's desk was always open. There was never anything there which he wanted to hide away. His account books and his business correspondence, such as i

s desk. He had heard of such things being done. He could not imagine what evidence might be placed here

the kitchen into Jean's room, which had been built on to the rest of the

loor, and occasionally at the brown stain in the center. He decided that he would not say anyth