t was quite clear to me that
Jernyngham was knocked out near the muskeg." He looked hard at Prescott.
"It isn't easy to change that opinion."

"It seems your duty to test it. Even if the thing costs some trouble,
can't you instruct your people in Alberta to find out whether a man
called Kermode worked in any of the construction camps, and if they're
satisfied that he answers Jernyngham's description, to have him followed
up in British Columbia?"

"There's a point you haven't got hold of," Curtis replied. "When you
struck a camp, asking after your partner, the boys were ready to talk to
you; but it's quite different when a trooper comes along. I wouldn't have
much use for anything they told him."

Prescott realized the truth of this. Traveling on foot in search of a
working comrade, he had been received by the railroad hands as one of
themselves; but he knew that men with checkered careers which would not
bear investigation found refuge among the toilers on the new lines, and
that even those who had nothing to fear would consider reticence becoming
when questioned by the police. The only excuse for loquacity would be the
sending of an inquisitive constable on a fruitless expedition.

"Then can't you try the bosses?" he asked.

"I guess they're not likely to have found out much about the man, and the
boys wouldn't tell them. However, I'll send up a report and see what can
be done."

"Thanks," said Prescott, and then asked bluntly: "What do you make of the
brown clothes?"

"So you heard they were found!" said Curtis with some dryness. "I haven't
done figuring on the matter yet."

"I don't suppose I'd help you by saying that they don't belong to me."

Curtis looked at him thoughtfully but made no answer for a while. Then:

"Did you ever see anybody wearing a suit like that?" he asked.

"Well," Prescott answered, "I believe I once did, but I can't think who
it was. I've been trying hard to remember all day and it may come back."

He got up and Curtis walked to the door with him.

"Frost's keeping pretty keen," he remarked.

Prescott drove away, and the corporal was smoking near the stove when
Stanton came in.

"You look as if you'd been studying the Jernyngham case," he said. "I'll
allow it's enough to get on your nerves."

"Prescott's been here," replied Curtis. "He's heard those blamed clothes
were found, and that's going to make us trouble. We've had Jernyngham
interfering and mussing up the tracks, and