Nothing else seemed in the least to bear any evidence of what had taken place.
Lite's thoughts turned in spite of him to the man who had ridden from the coulee as though fiends had pursued.

The conclusion was obvious, yet Lite loyally rejected it in the face of reason.

Reason told him that there went the slayer.

For this dead man was what was left of Johnny Croft, the Crofty of whom Jim had gossiped not more than half an hour before.

And the gossip had been of threats which Johnny Croft had made against the two Douglas brothers,--big Aleck, of the Lazy A, and Carl, of the Bar Nothing ranch adjoining.
Suicide it could scarcely be, for Crofty was the type of man who would cling to life; besides, his gun was in its holster, and a man would hardly have the strength or the desire to put away his gun after he has shot himself under one eye.