ise. "Do you mean to say
that you have been traveling these last three days?"

Cameron nodded.

"Why, my dear sir, not even the Indians face such cold. Only the Mounted
Police venture out in weather like this--and those who want to get away
from them. Ha! ha! Eh? Inspector? Ha! ha!" His gay, careless laugh rang
out in the most cheery fashion. But only the ladies joined. The men
stood grimly silent.

Mandy could not understand their grim and gloomy silence. By her
cordiality she sought to cover up and atone for the studied and almost
insulting indifference of her husband and her other guests. In these
attempts she was loyally supported by her sister-in-law, whose anger was
roused by the all too obvious efforts on the part of her brother and
his friends to ignore this stranger, if not to treat him with contempt.
There was nothing in Raven's manner to indicate that he observed
anything amiss in the bearing of the male members of the company about
the fire. He met the attempt of the ladies at conversation with a
brilliancy of effort that quite captivated them, and, in spite of
themselves, drew the Superintendent and the Inspector into the flow of
talk.

As the hour of the midday meal approached Mandy rose from her place by
the fire and said:

"You will stay with us to dinner, Mr. Raven? We dine at midday. It is
not often we have such a distinguished and interesting company."

"Thank you, no," said Raven. "I merely looked in to give your husband
a bit of interesting information. And, by the way, I have a bit of
information that might interest the Superintendent as well."

"Well," said Mandy, "we are to have the pleasure of the Superintendent
and the Inspector to dinner with us to-day, and you can give them all
the information you think necessary while you are waiting."

Raven hesitated while he glanced at the faces of the men beside him.
What he read there drew from him a little hard smile of amused contempt.

"Please do not ask me again, Mrs. Cameron," he said. "You know not how
you strain my powers of resistance when I really dare not--may not," he
corrected himself with a quick glance at the Superintendent, "stay in
this most interesting company and enjoy your most grateful hospitality
any longer. And now my information is soon given. First of all for you,
Cameron--I shall not apologize to you, Mrs. Cameron, for delivering
it in your presence. I do you the honor to believe that you ought to
know--briefly my inf