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“So I imagined. He hasn’t made the other cattlemen think that he’s better than they are, has he?”

“Not on your life! That ain’t Perry’s style. He’d be neighborly, if they’d let him.”

“I don’t believe,” said the scout, “that Perry was here when his daughter was taken away. There’d have been shooting, wouldn’t there?”

“Right off the reel,” answered Dunbar promptly. “Perry would have gone any length to defend himself.”

“There are no signs to indicate that revolvers were used. I suppose Perry kept his guns handy?”

“Always—since the barons turned loose on him.”

“Then here’s the way I figure it: You failed to come back to the cabin yesterday. Perry and Hattie believed that you had been trapped by Benner’s men. Perry went off to look for you. While he was gone, the trouble happened here. Perry may get back any minute, Dunbar, and then he can help us do our planning. Are there any horses in the corral?”

“No.”

The cowboy was moody. He could see the logic of the scout’s suggestions, but he was not in a temper to be sanguine over results.