condition of things Thayor little
dreamed of, and yet the facts were undeniable. Within the last month
two horses had died; another had gone so lame that he had been given
up as incurable. Leaks had also been frequent in expensive piping.
Moreover, the men had begun to complain of bad food at the lower
shanty; especially some barrels of corned beef and beans which were of
so poor a quality and in such bad condition that the shanty cook had
refused to serve them.

That not a word concerning these things had reached Thayor's ears was
owing, so Holcomb told him, to the influence of the trapper and the
Clown, who prevented the men from coming to him in open protest. In
the meantime he--Holcomb--had been secretly engaged in ferreting
out the proofs of a wholesale villainy at the bottom of which was
Bergstein. What he destroyed he replaced at such a good profit to
himself that he had, during his connection with Big Shanty, already
become exceedingly well off. Not content with laming and poisoning
dumb beasts to buy others at a fat commission, he had provided
condemned meat for the men under him at the lower shanty, had secretly
damaged thousands of dollars' worth of expensive plumbing, and
had sown hatred among the men against the man whose generosity had
befriended him. He had accomplished this systematically, little by
little, carrying his deeds clear from suspicion by a shrewdness and
daring that marked him a most able criminal. He had had freedom to do
as he pleased for months, and no profitable opportunity had escaped
him. These gains he had deposited in inconspicuous sums in rural
savings banks. What he did not deposit he had invested in timber
land. The evidence against him had been collected with care. Upon two
occasions Holcomb said he took the trapper with him as a witness. The
two had moved skilfully on, the trail of the culprit and had
watched him at work; once he was busy ruining a costly system of
water-filters. They had let him pass--he having stepped within a rod
of them unconscious of their presence.

* * * * *

With these facts before him Thayor came to an instant conclusion.
The result was that a little before noon on this same day--the day of
Sperry's departure--the owner of Big Shanty sent for Bergstein. Both
the trapper and Holcomb were present. Thayor stood beside the broad
writing table of his den as Bergstein entered; his manner was again
that of the polite, punctili