erence in his voice. "'Tis an
ugly bump," he added, passing his fingers lightly over the swelling.
"'Tis a wonder it didn't break your skull, as it was. The cap saved you,
I guess. Why didn't you tell us you had that nasty lump, you young
spalpeen? It ought to have been treated long ago."

"It ain't nothing," replied Sparrer sheepishly, for he hated to have a
fuss made over him.

Upton was already heating water and preparing a bandage. As soon as the
water was hot he added a little tincture of arnica, and despite
Sparrer's protests a hot bandage was soon applied, and he was forced to
admit that it brought almost immediate relief. This attention having
been given the victim Pat called a conference.

"It's plain enough," said he, "that this is the work of one of the
black-hearted crooks who have been stealing our furs, for 'tis my belief
that there is probably more than one and likely not over two." Alec
nodded concurrence with this belief. "That they'll stop at nothing
Sparrer's experience proves. I've known murder to be committed for less
than the price of a prime black fox pelt. Now that they've got it 'tis
like that they will pull camp at once rather than take the chance of
being discovered. On the other hand they may think that their camp is so
well hidden that they can just lie low. If, as I suspect, they have been
run out of one of the Canadian lumber camps, this may be what they will
do. They know that Sparrer here is a tenderfoot and that there is only
his word against theirs. Besides, they can hide the pelt and deny all
knowledge of it. Sparrer hasn't a shred of proof but the lump on his
head, and it would take more than that to convince a court of law in
these parts that he had killed a genuine black fox.

"It's my opinion that their camp is a whole lot nearer than Alec has
supposed. There are plenty of draws back in these hills where a camp
could be hidden and discovered only by chance, unless some one was
making special search for it. The fact that that bloody-minded Injun was
hanging around the beaver pond so late in the day is evidence enough
for me that his camp isn't many miles away. I'll bet it's within five
miles of us this blessed minute. They probably located our trap lines,
then built their camp in a place we were not likely to visit and then by
working back up through the hills kept their trail hidden, and crossed
on the ice to work our long lines, as Alec suspects. They left our short
lines alo