Blake talked to them, he had a preoccupied
look, and Harding knew he was thinking of the letter. He had, however,
no opportunity of questioning him and waited until next day, when
Emile, whom they were helping, chose a shorter way across a ravine than
that taken by the police and the men with the bob-sled. When they
reached the bottom of the hollow, Blake told the half-breed to stop,
and took his comrades aside.

"There's something I must tell you," he said. "It was Colonel
Challoner who sent the boys up from the settlement with food for us and
he begs me to come home at once. That's a point on which I'd like your
opinion, but you shall hear what he has to say." Then, sitting down
upon a log, he began to read from his letter:--

"'A man called Clarke, whom you have evidently met, lately called on me
and suggested an explanation of the Indian affair. As the price of his
keeping silence on the subject, he demanded that I should take a number
of shares in a syndicate he is forming for the exploitation of some
petroleum wells.'"

"I think it was a good offer," Harding interposed. "Clarke must have
had reason for believing he was about to make a big strike; he'd have
kept quiet until he was sure of the thing."

"'The fellow's story was plausible,' Blake continued reading. 'It
seems possible that you have been badly wronged, and I have been
troubled----' He omitted the next few lines and went on: 'As it
happens, another account of the frontier action had been given me some
time earlier by a lady who has been in India. It differed from
Clarke's in one or two details, but agreed in exonerating you; and she
also asked a price which I declined to pay. After giving the matter
careful thought, I feel that these people may have hit upon the truth.
It would, of course, afford me the keenest satisfaction to see you
cleared, but the thing must be thoroughly sifted because----'"

Blake stopped and added quietly: "He insists upon my going home."

"His difficulty is obvious," Benson remarked. "If you are blameless,
his son must be guilty. I arrived at the former conclusion some time
ago."

Blake, who did not answer, sat musing with a disturbed expression.
There was now no sign of the others, who had left the ravine, and no
sound reached the men from the plain above. Emile stood patiently
waiting some distance off, and though they were sheltered from the wind
it was bitterly cold.

"In some ways, it might be better