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"I don't think Mary Radford is worryin' about me," he said steadily. "Well, now," returned Stafford, serious again; "then I reckon Leviatt had it wrong." "I expect he had it wrong," answered the stray-man shortly. But Stafford did not yield. He had determined to keep the stray-man at the Two Diamond and there were other arguments that he had not yet advanced which might cause him to stay.
We can't do anything until we prove that he's been rustlin'. An' then " He smiled grimly. "You reckon to know the girl's name too?" inquired Ferguson. "It's Mary," stated the manager. "I've heard Leviatt talk about her." Ferguson contemplated the manager gravely. "An' you ain't sure that Radford's stealin' your cattle?" Stafford filled and lighted his pipe.
Yet it was a good thing to know, for Leviatt must have some reason for secrecy, and if anything developed later Ferguson would know exactly where the range boss stood in the matter. Determined to investigate as far as possible, he rode down the river for a few miles, finally reaching a broad plain where the cattle were feeding.
"You're Two Diamond men, ain't you?" he asked, looking full at Ferguson. The latter nodded, and the clear-eyed man continued. "Knowed you right off," he declared, with a laugh. "Leviatt pointed you out to me one day when you was ridin' out yonder." He jerked a thumb toward the distance. "Leviatt told me about you. Wanted to try an' plug you with his six, but decided you was too far away."
The story of how the stray-man had closed Leviatt's mouth was still fresh in his memory. He was wondering whether Leviatt knew that he had heard about the incident. "Suppose you try him?" he suggested. "That'd be as good a way as any to find out if he's got nerve." Leviatt's face bloated poisonously, but he made no answer. Apparently unaware that he had touched a tender spot Stafford continued.
"I wasn't noticin' that you was worryin' about him." "I'm right flustered," returned Ferguson. "Where's he now?" "Gone down the crick with Tucson." Ferguson smoothed Mustard's mane. "Leviatt been with you right along?" "He went up the crick yesterday," returned Rope, looking quickly at the stray-man. "Went alone, I reckon?" "With Tucson." Rope was trying to conceal his interest in these questions.
His suspicions, of course, centered upon Leviatt, but he knew that under the circumstances Mary Radford would have to be given convincing proof. The attempted murder of her brother, following the disclosure that he had been hired by Stafford to do the deed, must have seemed to her sufficient evidence of his guilt.
"She was funnin' me," returned Leviatt, his face reddening. "I reckon she was," returned Ben dryly. "She's certainly some clever at handing it to a man." He smiled down into the flat, where Miss Radford could still be seen, riding toward the cabin. "Looks as though she wasn't quite ready to change her name to 'Leviatt'," he grinned. But there was no humor in Leviatt's reflections.
She turned swiftly, with heightened color, to see Leviatt. His sudden appearance gave her something of a shock, for as he stood there, smiling at her, he answered perfectly the description she had just written. He might have just stepped from one of her pages. But the shock passed, leaving her a little pale, but quite composed and not a little annoyed.
In another place she had jotted this down: "I shouldn't want anyone killed in my book, but if I find this to be necessary Leviatt must do the murder. But I think it would be better to have him employ some other person to do it for him; that would give him just the character that would fit him best.
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