ss had arranged to
call on me the next afternoon, and I knew that if the troopers came upon
it the horse would be in good hands. Still, the police at least were
strong men, and I rather pitied Minnie Fletcher slowly freezing in the
bitter darkness under Aline's furs. I was glad now that she had lent them
to her. Minnie evidently had not expected that the troopers, being warned
by telegraph, would take up the trail so soon.

Then for the first time I recollected that Tetley had been cutting
building logs on a more level strip half-way up the side of the ravine,
and had cleared a jumper trail toward it. The sergeant certainly did not
know this, and it struck me that while his party searched the two forking
trails Fletcher's sleigh might well have lain hidden in the blind one, and
I turned the horse's head toward Tetley's dwelling. When I neared it my
suspicions were confirmed, for a rough voice hailed me from under the
trees:

"What are you wanting, stranger? Stop there!"

"I want Jim Tetley," I answered.

"He's way down to Dakota, and you can't see him," the unseen person said.

To this I replied at a venture: "I'm too cold for unnecessary fooling. Jim
Tetley is inside there. Go right in, and tell him that Lorimer of Fairmead
is waiting for his horse. He'll understand that message."

"Now you're talking," said the man showing himself. "Stay where you are
until I come back." And when he returned, he said: "You can have it on
the promise you'll tell no one what you see. It's not healthy to break
one's bargain, either, with Jim Tetley, while living in a wooden house
with a straw-pile granary."

"I'm a friend of Mrs. Fletcher, and I'm in a hurry," I answered boldly,
and when he ushered me into the dwelling I saw what I had expected. Minnie
lay back limp and colorless in a big chair by the stove. Fletcher knelt
close beside her chafing her wrists, and the table was littered with
wrappings, while Tetley frowned at me from one end of the room.

"Fletcher," I said. "You and your advocate worked up a lying charge
against me. Shall I ask your wife before you whether it's true? Do you
know that in half an hour I could bring the police on you?"

"I guess you won't," said Tetley, laying his hand significantly on the
rifle behind him; while Fletcher answered sullenly, "You needn't. I know
now it isn't true. But I was mad, and believed it at first, and afterward
it was either that or five years. There were other counts against