ant you to tell me the truth," said Ted, when he had
released the Japanese. "Did you murder Miss Mowbray, and why did you do
it?"

The Jap looked at him with growing intelligence in his eyes.

"Me no kill. Mistah Mowbray kill with cord. I see him, and he tly to
kill me."

Ted looked at Mowbray, who had straightened up and was listening.

Then he nodded his head, and signaled to Ted to give him a drink of
water. After he had drunk he seemed stronger.

"Come here," he said, in a hoarse whisper. Ted went to his side.

"I might as well confess," he said. "It will make the end easier. I will
be dead in a few minutes, for I am mortally wounded. I would have
released that poor devil of a Japanese, but I hadn't the strength to go
to him."

"Take it easy," said Ted.

"I murdered Helen Mowbray by strangling her with a cord," he said, after
a pause. "I did it because I had gambled away everything I had and
needed money--and she wouldn't give it to me.

"I lived for many years in India, and there I became a member of the
sect known as the Thugs, who use a cord to strangle their victims. She
cast me off, and when she refused to help me I became enraged and killed
her. I am sorry now, for she was a fine woman, but I needed money."

"Then Farnsworth had nothing to do with it?" asked Ted.

"Nothing."

"Tell me another thing. Did Farnsworth, so called, have anything to do
with the murder of the Spooner family in Somber Pass?"

"No, I and my men did that. Farnsworth has led a pretty clean life. He
has stood for the crimes I committed for the sake of his sister.
Wherever and whenever I got into a scrape I used his name, and put the
crimes I committed upon him, and he stood for them on account of his
sister's name."

"Is he a bad man? Has he killed many men?"

"Only such as he had to, to defend his sister's name. I say it was I who
was guilty of the crimes charged to him. I hate him, and always have
done so, but I am dying, and it is only fair play to clear him."

"That is all I want to know," said Ted, trying to make the man more
comfortable. But he was beyond help, and in less than a half hour he
sighed, and his wicked spirit passed away.

Ted and Bud buried him on the mountainside, and, after releasing White
Fang, watched it for a few moments.

It went to the edge of a peak overlooking a deep chasm, and there sat on
its haunches howling dismally.

Then, to the amazement of all, it straightened up and leaped far o