"You didn't see any Indians doing this, did you, Talpers?" he asked.

The trader hastened to qualify his remark, as it would not do to have
the word get out among the Indians that he had attempted to throw the
blame on them.

"No--I ain't exactly sayin' that Injuns done it," said the trader, "but
I ain't ever seen more signs pointin' in one direction."

"Well, don't let signs get you so far off the right trail that you can't
get back again," replied the agent, turning to help Tom Redmond and his
deputy in the work of establishing the identity of the slain man.

It was work that did not take long. Papers were found in the pockets
indicating that the victim was Edward B. Sargent, of St. Louis. In the
automobile was found clothing bearing St. Louis trademarks.

"Judging from the balance in this checkbook," said the sheriff, "he was
a man who didn't have to worry about financial affairs. Probably this is
only a checking account, for running expenses, but there's thirty
thousand to his credit."

"He's probably some tourist on his way to the coast," observed the
deputy, "and he thought he'd make a detour and see an Injun reservation.
Somebody saw a good chance for a holdup, but he showed fight and got
killed."

"Nobody reported such a machine as going through the agency," offered
Lowell. "The car is big enough and showy enough to attract attention
anywhere."

"I didn't see him go past my place," said Talpers. "And if my clerk'd
seen him he'd have said somethin' about it."

"Well, he was killed sometime yesterday--that's sure," remarked the
sheriff. "He might have come through early in the morning and nobody saw
him, or he might have hit White Lodge and the agency and Talpers's late
at night and camped here along the Dollar Sign until morning and been
killed when he started on. The thing of it is that this is as far as he
got, and we've got to find the ones that's responsible. This kind of a
killing is jest going to make the White Lodge Chamber of Commerce get up
on its hind legs and howl. There's bound to be speeches telling how,
just when we've about convinced the East that we've shook off our wild
Western ways, here comes a murder that's wilder'n anything that's been
pulled off since the trapper days."

"Accordin' to my way of thinkin'," said Talpers, "that man wasn't
tortured after he was staked down. Any one who knows anything about
Injun character knows that when they pegged a victim out that way, they
intend