"
"Shoot, and be jiggered!" shouted the major, who was thoroughly angry by
this time, for he was not used to having his orders disobeyed.
"I will if you attempt to break into this house. If you get an order
I'll let you in. Without an order you get in only after I am down and
out."
"Stay here, major. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Ted Strong was angry also at the delay, and at once suspected that Burk,
the deputy marshal, had some sinister reason for putting the house in
charge of one of his men, but he could not imagine what it was unless
his purpose was not honest.
Ted's experience had taught him that all men in authority as deputy
United States marshals were not honest, and that they often used their
office to graft.
He had no faith in Burk, whose looks and actions he had distrusted at
their first meeting. If Burk knew that the broncho boys were in town it
would be sufficient excuse for him to annoy and impede their movements
all he could.
No doubt Burk knew that they would come to Rodeo in the interests of
Farnsworth, but he did not believe that the deputy marshal knew anything
of the newly discovered relationship between Major Caruthers, the dead
woman, and the so-called Farnsworth.
What, then, was his reason for holding the house and the remains of the
murdered woman against all comers?
There were two inferences: Loot of the woman's house, unprotected by
friends and relatives, and the awaiting of the woman's husband.
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