Page:Vance--The trey o hearts.djvu/228



T WAS simply an accident," was all the satisfaction Judith would afford Marrophat in return for his insistent expostulations.

But for her, he asserted, the chase would have ended with the pressure of his finger on the trigger.

"I had him covered, I tell you!" he raved. "If you'd minded your horse, we'd be on our way back to your father now with the body of Alan Law!"

"You flatter yourself," she retorted. "What was it we were saying, only last night, about the quality of your marksmanship?"

Mumbling his indignation, the man swung his horse round and trotted off after Hopi Jim, leaving the girl to smile openly at his discomfiture.

But she smiled prematurely, for in the brief interval that elapsed before his return with Hopi Jim, Marrophat contrived to persuade the bandit that Judith had been responsible for their ill luck. As a consequence, the only information as to their purpose that she was able to extract from either man, when the pursuing party turned aside from the main trail, 196