And just so long as the
mountains themselves last, will men come now and then into such places
as that wherein Jim Galloway's rifles lay hidden.
"I have lived in this part of the world all but two or three years of
my life," said Norton at the end, "and yet I never heard of these
particular caves until a very few days ago. I don't believe that there
are ten people living who know of them; so Galloway, hiding his stuff
out there was playing just as safe as a man can play--when he plays the
game crooked, anyway."
"But won't he guess something when he misses Moraga?"
"I don't think so." Norton shook his head. "Tom Cutter and Brocky made
Moraga talk. His job was to keep an eye on this end, but he was
commissioned also to make a trip over to the county line. The first
thing Jim Galloway will hear will be that Moraga got drunk and into a
scrape and was taken in by Sheriff Roberts. Then I think that Galloway
himself will slip out of San Juan himself some dark night and climb the
cliffs to make sure. When he finds everything absolutely as it was
left, when time passes and nothing is done, I think he will replace
Moraga with another man and figure that everything is all right. Why
shouldn't he?"
From Galloway and Moraga they got back to a discussion of the ancient
peoples of the desert, venturing surmise for surmise, finding that
their stimulated fancies winged together, daring to construct for
themselves something of the forgotten annals of a forgotten folk who,
perhaps, were living in walled cities while old Egypt was building her
pyramids.
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