The Desert Moon Mystery by Kay Cleaver Strahan

"I think," Danny said, "that Chad did it."

Sam lowered his brows, and turned those blue searchlights of his on her. "That is a bad beginning, my girl," he said, kindly enough, though. "You don't think that. Not for a minute. Better start over again."

"Uncle Sam," she pleaded, "listen. You spoke about clearing everyone's name, and about the honor of the Desert Moon. Chad's confession does that-does all of it. Why not let well enough alone?"

My own words; but I had not expected to hear them from Danny. The only reason for them seemed to be that Hubert Hand had frightened her with his case against John. Was she the sort of girl who would keep on loving John, and marry him, if she thought that he had killed her sister? I did not believe it.

John said, "Danny! " And, knowing as little as I do about being loved, I knew that I should hate to have my sweetheart pronounce my name with a pinch of horror, and a pinch of anger, and a big dash of bewilderment, as John had pronounced hers.

Sam said, "Somebody else suggested that to-day, Danny. I told them that there was no question of well enough while the man who had murdered your sister was going about alive, and while his helper was keeping his secret on the Desert Moon."

"You said that? " Danny questioned, and gave us all another severe shock by accenting the pronoun.

"I said that, yes. " Sam showed signs of rising dander. "And I thought that you, if anyone, more than anyone, would agree with me."

"Only," she answered, "I should rather let a guilty person go free, escape, than to persecute an innocent person."

"No innocent person is going to be persecuted on the Desert Moon," Sam said, "and no guilty one is going to escape, either. You're going to be a good, sensible girl, too, and answer a few questions I want to ask you.

"First thing I want to know is, what was it that you girls were hunting for, all the time, here on the ranch?"

"We had been told," Danny answered, "that there was a very large sum of money hidden here on this place. We came to get it. That is-Gaby did. I mean-before we left the continent I knew that I wanted to stay here, for a long time. I cared much more about staying here, and keeping Gaby here, than I cared about finding the money. Really, I-I hoped not to find the money. The people with whom I had been living in England had broken up their home there. I had no home. That is how I happened to be in Switzerland, with Gaby. I -- "

She broke down, and hid her face in her hands. We all sat, quietly, and waited.

With her face still covered she appealed to Sam. "Uncle, I can't tell all this, to-day, I can't. I loved Gaby. I did love her. If she were alive -- But she isn't. Please, please don't force me to go on with this."

"You've got me wrong, Danny," Sam said, "I didn't expect you to tell about all of your past lives, and that. But this stuff now about money hidden here. Could it have any bearing on the murder?"

She shook her head. "I think not. Not possibly. There was no money here, anyway, as it turned out. That is-if Gaby told me the truth about anything. I thought that she did. But now-she spoke of keeping fear and dread from me, in her last note to me. I -- I can't talk of this, to-day, I tell you!"

"See here, dad," John spoke up, "Danny isn't fit to go through with this to-day. I think she has told me everything she has to tell. She told me most of it this morning. I've got it straight. How about allowing me to go on with it?"

"Do you think any of it might have a bearing on the murder?"

"Yes, I think it might."

Sam banged on the table with his fist. "By God," he roared, "what kind of people have I got to deal with? Not five minutes ago, you sat right there and swore that you had told everything you know. Couldn't even begin. Couldn't think of a thing to say. No suspicion. No hints of any kind, except a slur at a dead boy. Now you come out with this. By the Lord, Hand, you may be a better man than I think you are -- "