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 range--south." There was a dead silence, broken only by the drumming of the rain upon the roof of the veranda.