“Now what in thunder does that mean?” he asked himself uneasily.  He had not in the least expected that move.  He had believed that the automobile he had heard, which very likely had carried the murderer, would hurry straight to town, or at least in that direction.  But those dimmed lights, and in that the machine surely betrayed a furtiveness in its flight, seemed to be heading for Sunlight Basin, though it might merely be making the big loop on its way to Malpais or beyond.  He stared again at the twinkling light of Helen May’s lamp.  What in the world was she doing up at that hour of the night?  “Oh, well, maybe she sleeps with a light burning.”  He dismissed the unusual incident, and went on about his more urgent business.

Rabbit greeted him with a subdued nicker of relief, telling plainly as a horse can speak that he had been seriously considering foraging for his supper and not waiting any longer for Starr.  There he had stood for six or seven hours, just where Starr had dismounted and dropped the reins.  He was a patient little horse, and he knew his business, but there is a limit to patience, and Rabbit had almost reached it.

Starr led him up over the rocky ridge into the arroyo where the automobile had been, and from there he rode down to the trail and back to the Medina ranch.  He watered Rabbit at the ditch, pulled off the saddle, and turned him into the corral, throwing him an armful of secate from a half-used stack.  Then he went up to the house and sat on the edge of the porch beside the senora, who was still weeping and murmuring yearning endearments to the ears that could not hear.

He did not know how long he would have to wait, but he knew that Luis would not spare his horse.  He smoked, and studied the things which Luis had let drop; every word of immense value to him now.  Elfigo Apodaca he knew slightly, and he wondered a little that he would be the Alliance leader in this section of the State.

Elfigo Apodaca seemed so thoroughly Americanized that only his swarthy skin and black hair and eyes reminded one that he was after all a son of the south.  He did a desultory business in real estate, and owned an immense tract of land, the remnant of an old Spanish grant, and went in for fancy cattle and horses.  He seemed more a sportsman than a politician—­a broadminded, easy-going man of much money.  Starr had still a surprised sensation that the trail should lead to Elfigo.  Juan, the brother of Elfigo, he could find it much easier to see in the role of conspirator.  But horror does not stop to weigh words, and Starr knew that Luis had spoken the truth in that unguarded moment.