"
"An'," he jeered, "you was so busy about that time that you couldn't go
to investigate. That's how you guarded it--how you filled your trust."
She gazed fixedly at him and his gaze dropped. "You are determined to
continue your insults," she said coldly.
He reddened. "I reckon you deserve them," he said sneeringly.
"Taggart's makin' a fool of you. I heard him palaverin' to you last
night. I followed him, but lost him. Then I got into the clearin' in
the timber. I run into a man named Al Sharp, who'd been knifed by the
Toltec. Him an' the Toltec had been detailed by Taggart to get the
diagram. Sharp said Taggart knowed my dad had drawed one. Telza got
it last night while you was talkin' to Taggart. Frame-up. Sharp tried
to take it away from Telza, an' Telza knifed him. Sharp's dead. I
buried him last night. Telza dropped the diagram. I got it. I reckon
Telza has sloped. Then I met Taggart an' his dad. They reckoned they
didn't like my company overmuch an' they walked home. Didn't even wait
to take their horses."
She drew a breath which sounded strangely like relief.
"Well," she said; "it was fortunate that you happened to be there to
get the idol."
"Yes," he drawled, with a suspicious grin; "I reckon you feel a whole
lot like congratulatin' me."
"I do," she said.
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