How will we do it? One way is to find the
lost bank notes in Thornton's possession. The other way is to get other
evidence to add to yours, cumulative evidence all of which will point
one way, to one conclusion!"
"To one conclusion?" she repeated after him, prompting him, so eager was
she for him to go on.
"To the fact that Buck Thornton is the man who, for six months now, has
been committing the series of crimes, running the gamut from the murder
of a stage driver to the theft of cattle from Kemble's place! That is
the thing I am waiting for!"
She frowned. A mental picture of the cowboy rose quickly and vividly
before her. She saw the clear, steadfast eyes, the free, upright
carriage, the flash of a smile that was like a boy's. She had come to be
firm in her belief that he was the man who had robbed her, had forced
the insult of his kiss upon her, but it was hard, with that picture of
him before her, to think him a murderer, too. But then, as though to
sweep away her last shred of doubt, the vision widened and into it came
another man: she saw Buck Thornton as she had seen him only a few
minutes ago, in seeming friendly conversation with the youngest Bedloe
whose eyes soiled the woman they rested upon, whose name had travelled
even to her home in Crystal City and beyond as a roisterer, a brawler,
a man of unsavoury deeds done boldly and shamelessly.
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