and then disappeared in his tent. Soon he came out, dressed in
the "store clothes" of the ordinary Indian. He joined Redmond and the
agent at the edge of the glade, and they made their way toward the
creek, no one venturing to follow from the camp. At the bottom of the
slope they found the Indian helpers with the horses.

"Fire Bear," said Lowell, as they paused before starting out, "there's
one thing more I want of you. Help us to find Jim McFann. He's as deep
or deeper in this thing than you are."

"I know he is," replied Fire Bear, "but it wasn't for me to say so. I'll
help find him for you."

They had to fight to get Jim McFann. They found the half-breed cooking
some bacon over a tiny fire, at the head of a gulch that was just made
for human concealment. If it had not been for the good offices of Fire
Bear on the trail, they might have hunted a week for their man. McFann
had moved camp several times since Plenty Buffalo had located him. Each
time he had covered his tracks with surpassing care.

Lowell, according to prearranged plan, had walked in upon McFann, with
Redmond covering the half-breed, ready to shoot in case a weapon was
drawn. But McFann merely made a headlong dive for Lowell's legs, and
there was a rough-and-tumble fight about the camp-fire which was settled
only when the agent managed to get a lock on his wiry opponent which
pinned McFann's back to the ground.

"You wouldn't fight that hard if you thought you was being yanked up for
a little bootlegging, Jim," mused Tom Redmond, pulling his long
mustache. "You know what we've come after you for, don't you?"

McFann threshed about in another futile attempt to escape, and cursed
his captors with gifts of expletive which came from two races.

"It's on account of that tenderfoot that was found on the Dollar Sign,"
growled Jim, "but Fire Bear and his gang can't tell any more on me than
I can on them."

"That's the way to get at the truth," chuckled the sheriff triumphantly.
"I guess by the time you fellers are through with each other we'll know
who shot that man and staked him down."

CHAPTER V

On the day following the incarceration of Fire Bear and Jim McFann,
Lowell rode over to the scene of the murder on the Dollar Sign road.

It seemed to the agent as if a fresh start from the very beginning would
do more than anything else to put him on the trail of a solution of the
mystery.

Lowell was not inclined to accept Redmond's comfortab