fire Don Clarencio had sought the missing boot from the foot of the
Senor Peyton when his body was found, he, Incarnacion, had thought he
would look for it on the falda of the second terrace. And behold, Mother
of God it was there! Soaked with mud and rain, but the same as when the
senor was alive. To the very spur!"
He drew the boot from beneath his serape and laid it before Clarence.
The young man instantly recognized it, in spite of its weather-beaten
condition and its air of grotesque and drunken inconsistency to the
usually trim and correct appearance of Peyton when alive. "It is the
same," he said, in a low voice.
"Good!" said Incarnacion. "Now, if Don Clarencio will examine the
American spur, he will see--what? A few horse-hairs twisted and caught
in the sharp points of the rowel. Good! Is it the hair of the horse that
Senor rode? Clearly not; and in truth not. It is too long for the flanks
and belly of the horse; it is not the same color as the tail and the
mane. How comes it there? It comes from the twisted horsehair rope of a
riata, and not from the braided cowhide thongs of the regular lasso of a
vacquero. The lasso slips not much, but holds; the riata slips much and
strangles."
"But Mr. Peyton was not strangled," said Clarence quickly.
"No, for the noose of the riata was perhaps large,--who knows? It
might have slipped down his arms, pinioned him, and pulled him off.
Truly!--such has been known before. Then on the ground it slipped again,
or he perhaps worked it off to his feet where it caught on his spur, and
then he was dragged until the boot came off, and behold! he was dead."
This had been Clarence's own theory of the murder, but he had only
half confided it to Incarnacion. He silently examined the spur with the
accusing horse-hair, and placed it in his desk. Incarnacion continued:--
"There is not a vacquero in the whole rancho who has a horse-hair riata.
We use the braided cowhide; it is heavier and stronger; it is for
the bull and not the man. The horse-hair riata comes from over the
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