“Wotcher wanter ask?”

“Who was with you the out-trip, along with Miss Donovan?”

“Joe Sikes.”

“And yer left him back there, guarding the girl?”

“He stayed; them was the orders, while I was to bring back the team; but I reckon he won’t need to do no guardin’ to speak of, fer we run inter a bunch o’ fellows.”

“Mendez’s outfit?”

“You got the right dope, marshal, so I reckon I ain’t spillin’ no beans.  It was the Mex all right, an’ some o’ his bunch.”

“And Lacy didn’t know they were there?”

“I reckon not; leastways he never said so, an’ they’d only come a few days.”

“How many are they?”

“Maybe a dozen; I don’t just know.  I saw eight, or ten, round the bunk-house, besides ol’ Mendez an’ that dude lieutenant of his, Juan Cateras.  I ain’t got no use fer that duck; I allers did want ter soak him.  Then ther’ was others out with the cow herd.”

“They had a bunch o’ cattle?”

“Maybe three hundred head, run in from Arizona.  I heard that much, but I don’t talk their lingo.”

“What was done with the young lady?”

Moore spat vindictively into the sand, digging a hole with his heel.  He had talked already more than he intended, but what was the difference?

“Cateras took her,” he admitted, “but I don’t know whar.  I rather liked that girl; she’s got a hell ov a lot o’ sand, an’ never put up a whimper.  I tried ter find out whar she was, but nobody’d tell me.  Then I had ter pull out.”

Westcott interjected a question.

“Did you learn if there was any other prisoner there?”

“Not that I heard of.  Who do yer mean?”

“A man named Cavendish.”

“No, I reckon not.”  He turned back to the marshal.

“What are you guys goin’ ter do with me?”

“That depends, Matt.  When a lad is straight with me, I generally play square with him.  All this took place in Sunken Valley?”

“Yep; whar’d you hear it called that?”

“Oh, I know more’n some ov you boys think I do.  That name’s been floatin’ ’bout fer some time.  I’ve even got the spot located—­it’s straight south thar a ways.  But you’ve been in it, an’ I never have.  Here’s whar you can serve the law, an’ so get out of yer own trouble if yer so minded.  It don’t make a hell ov a lot o’ difference to me whether yer speak up or not, but it’s liable to ter you.  What do yer say?”

“Fire away; I reckon I’m up against it anyhow.”

“What’s the valley like, an’ how do you get into it?”

“Well, I’d say it was just a sort o’ sink in the desert, a kinder freak.  Anyhow, I never saw nuthin’ like it afore.  You’d never know it was thar a hundred yards away; it kinder scares me sometimes when I come up to it thro’ all this sand.  The walls is solid rock, almost straight up an’ down, but thar’s a considerable stream flowin’ down thar that just bursts out a hole in the rock, an’ plenty o’ grass fer quite a bunch of steers.”