son Bay trader, then a freighter. At present he "ran" the Loon Lake
Stopping Place and a livery stable, took contracts in freight, and
conducted a general trading business in horses, cattle--anything, in
short, that could be bought and sold in that country. A man of powerful
physique and great shrewdness, he easily dominated the community of
Loon Lake. He was a curious mixture of incongruous characteristics. At
the same time many a poor fellow had found in him a friend in sickness
or "in hard luck," and by his wife and family he was adored. His
tenderness for little lame Patsy was the marvel of all who knew the
terrible Tim Carroll. He had a furious temper, and in wrath was truly
terrifying, while in matters of trade he was cool, cunning, and
unscrupulous. Few men had ever dared to face his rage, and few had ever
worsted him in a "deal." No wonder Perault, who had experienced both
the fury of his rage and the unscrupulousness of his trading methods,
approached him with reluctance. But, though Perault had suffered at the
hands of the big Irishman, the chief cause of his hatred was not
personal. He knew, what many others in the community suspected, that
for years Carroll had systematically robbed and had contributed largely
to the ruin of his "old boss." Walter Mowbray was haunted by one
enslaving vice. He was by temperament and by habit a gambler. It was
this vice that had been his ruin. In the madness of his passion he had
risked and lost, one fatal night in the old land, the funds of the
financial institution of which he was the trusted and honoured head. In
the agony of his shame he had fled from his home, leaving in her grave
his broken-hearted wife, and abandoning to the care of his maiden
sister his little girl of a year old, and had sought, in the feverish
search for gold, relief from haunting memory, redemption for himself,
and provision for his child. In his prospecting experiments success had
attended him. He developed in a marvellous degree the prospector's
instinct, for instinct it appeared to be; and many of the important
prospects, and some of the most valuable mines in Southern British
Columbia, had been discovered by him.

It was at this point that Carroll took a hand. Acting in collusion with
the expert agent for the British American Gold and Silver Mining
Company, he had bought for hundreds of dollars and sold for thousands
the Old Prospector's claims. Not that the old man had lost that
financial abilit