--"

"Keep right on makin' fun o' me. Tom Morse he's a man outa ten
thousand, an' I don't know as I'm coverin' enough population at that."

"And you're willing to make a squaw-man of him. Oh, Mr. Stearns!"

He looked at her severely. "You got no license to talk thataway,
Jessie McRae. You're Angus McRae's daughter an' you been to Winnipeg
to school. Anyways, after what Lemoine found out--"

"What did he find out? Pierre Roubideaux couldn't tell him anything
about the locket and the ring. Makoye-kin said he got it from his
brother who was one of a party that massacred an American outfit of
trappers headed for Peace River. He doesn't know whether the picture
of the woman in the locket was that of one of the women in the camp.
All we've learned is that I look like a picture of a white woman found
in a locket nearly twenty years ago. That doesn't take us very far,
does it?"

"Well, Stokimatis may know something. When Onistah comes back with
her, we'll get the facts straight."

McRae came into the room. "News, lass," he cried, and his voice rang.
"A Cree runner's just down frae Northern Lights. He says the lads were
picked up by some trappers near Desolation. One o' them's been badly
hurt, but he's on the mend. Which yin I dinna ken. What wi' starvation
an' blizzards an' battles they've had a tough time. But the word is
they're doing fine noo."

"West?" asked Brad. "Did they get him?"

"They got him. Dragged him back to Desolation with a rope round his
neck. Hung on to him while they were slam-bangin' through blizzards
an' runnin' a race wi' death to get back before they starved. Found
him up i' the Barrens somewhere, the story is. He'll be hangit at the
proper time an' place. It's in the Word. 'They that take the sword
shall perish with the sword.' Matthew 26:52."

Brad let out the exultant rebel yell he had learned years before in
the Confederate army. "What'd I tell you about that boy? Ain't I
knowed him since he was a li'l' bit of a tad? He's a go-getter, Tom
is. Y'betcha!"

Jessie's heart was singing too, but she could not forbear a friendly
gibe at him. "I suppose Win Beresford wasn't there at all. He hadn't a
thing to do with it, had he?"

The old cowpuncher raised a protesting hand. "I ain't said a word
against him. Now have I, McRae? Nothin' a-tall. All I done said was
that I been tellin' everybody Tom would sure enough bring back Bully
West with him."

The girl laughed. "You're daffy about that boy