am a fiction-writer," Prime admitted, not without some little anxiety
as to the effect the statement might have upon the hard-headed
under-sheriff.

"Ou, ay! That's it, is it? A story-writer? And, besides that, ye're the
biggest fule leevin' to tell it to me. Ye'll no be expectin' me to
believe anything ye're sayin', after that! A novel-writer--losh!"

"One of the greatest Scotchmen the world ever saw was a novel-writer,"
Prime ventured to suggest.

"And it's varra little to his credit, let me tell ye that, young man!
'Tis mair becomin' to Sir Walter that he was sheriff depute o'
Selkirkshire and clerk o' session for abune twenty-five year on end.
That's a canty story for ye!"

Prime saw that he was making no headway with the Macdougal, and after
the pipes were out he tried to compose himself to sleep. Some time later
on, Macdougal changed places with one of the paddlers, and, seizing her
opportunity, Lucetta crept back to take her place beside Prime. They
talked in whispers for a while, each trying to cheer the other. The
morning of new and more threatening involvements was only a short night
distant, and in the light of the month of hardship and mystery they
could only fear the worst and hope for the best.

"You must try to get what sleep you can," Prime urged at the last,
arranging the nearest blanket-roll for her back-support. "We shall be up
against it again in the morning, and we both ought to have clear heads
and a good, cold nerve. Snuggle down and shut your eyes. I am going to
do the same after I've smoked another pipe."

He kept his word, dropping off shortly after the big canoe had entered a
long straight reach with twinkling lights on either shore to prove that
the moving world was once more coming within shouting distance. How long
he slept he did not know, but when he awoke the canoe was stopped in
midstream, and was lying stem to stern beside a larger craft, in the
hold of which throbbing machinery seemed to be running idle.

Vaguely he gathered the impression that the canoe had been held up by
the motorcraft; then he realized that a fierce altercation was going on
between a big man who was leaning over the side to grip the gunwale of
the birch bark and Under-sheriff Macdougal.

"I'll fight it out with you in any court you like, you stubborn
blockhead!" Prime heard the big man bellow at Macdougal, and then the
canoe was passed swiftly aft, somebody reached over the side and lifted
him bodily int