e MacNair
with their murder."

"Murder is a very serious charge, Miss Elliston. Let's go over the
facts again. You say you were in a canoe near the shore--you saw a man
you say was MacNair grab a rifle from an Indian and kill two men. Stop
and think, now--it was night and you saw all this by firelight--are you
sure the man who fired the shots was MacNair?"

"Absolutely!" cried the girl, with a trace of irritation.

"It was I who shot," interrupted MacNair.

The officer regarded him curiously and again addressed the girl. "Once
more, Miss Elliston, do you know that the men you saw fall are dead?
Mere shooting won't sustain a charge of murder."

Chloe hesitated. "No," she admitted reluctantly. "I did not examine
their dead bodies, if that is what you mean. But MacNair afterward
told me that he killed them, and I can swear to having seen them fall."

"The men are dead," said MacNair.

The officer stared in astonishment. Chloe also was puzzled by the
frank admission of the man, and she gazed into his face as though
striving to pierce its mask and discover an ulterior motive. MacNair
returned her gaze unflinchingly and again the girl felt an
indescribable sense of smallness--of helplessness before this man of
the North, whose very presence breathed strength and indomitable
man-power.

"Was it possible," she wondered, "that he would dare to flaunt this
strength in the very face of the law?" She turned to Corporal Ripley,
who was making notes with a pencil in a little note-book. "Well," she
asked, "is my evidence _specific_ enough to warrant this man's arrest?"

The officer nodded slowly. "Yes," he answered gravely. "The evidence
warrants an arrest. Very probably several arrests."

"You mean," asked the girl, "that you think he may have--an accomplice?"

"No, Miss Elliston, I don't mean that. In spite of your evidence and
his own words, I don't think MacNair is guilty. There is something
queer here. I guess there is no doubt that whiskey has been run into
the territory, and that it has been supplied to the Indians. You
charge MacNair with these crimes, and I've got to arrest him."

Chloe was about to retort, when the officer interrupted her with a
gesture.

"Just a moment, please," he said quietly; "I'm not sure I can make
myself plain to you, but you see in the North we know something of
MacNair's work. Of what he has done in spite of the odds. We know the
North needs men like MacNair. You