said was the plain truth, as she understood it. Great
Heavens! It's no wonder she looked at me as if I'd been the dirt under
her feet. That thing's got to be straightened out, somehow, but first
I must see Stefan, of course."

For a moment a wild idea came to him of going over to Carcajou in the
darkness. Such an undertaking was by no means particularly difficult
for a strong man, who knew the way, but suddenly he realized that he
was played out and would never reach his destination that night. This
irked his soul, unbearably, until he had recourse to his old briar
pipe. In spite of the fact that his arm was beginning to hurt him
badly he sat near the stove, where he had kindled a fire again,
thinking hard. He was racking his brain to seek some motive that could
have impelled any one he knew to play such a frightful joke. One after
another he named every man he had ever known or even merely met in
Carcajou and the surrounding, sparsely settled country. But they were
nearly all friends of his, he knew, or at least had no reason to bear
him ill-will. There was one chap he had had quite a scrap with one
day, over a dog-fight in which the man had urged his animal first and
then kicked Maigan when he saw his brute having by far the worst of
it. But soon afterwards they had shaken hands and the matter had been
forgotten. Besides, the fellow was now working in Sudbury, far east
down the line. No, that wasn't a trail worth following. The more he
thought the matter over the more utterly mysterious it seemed to
become. But of one thing he was determined. He was going to move
heaven and earth to get at the bottom of all this, and when he found
out who was responsible the fur would fly.

It was perhaps fortunate for her that the idea of the red-headed girl
in old McGurn's store never entered his head for a moment. She had
always been friendly, perhaps even a little forward in her attentions
to him, though he had always paid her rather scant notice. He had
never been more than decently civil to her.

When he sought his bunk, an hour or two later, a long time elapsed
before he could fall asleep. It seemed to him that his head throbbed a
good deal, and that shoulder was growing mightily uncomfortable. He
hoped it would be better in the morning. Finally he fell asleep,
restlessly. Upon the floor, stretched out upon an old deerskin close
to the stove, Maigan was sleeping more profoundly, though now and then
he whined and sighed in h