e that'll clear you flyin'."

As a matter of fact, Talpers intended to play a double game. He would
let matters drift, and see if McFann did not get off in the ordinary
course of events. Meantime the trader would use his precious possession,
the letter written by Helen Ervin, to terrify the girl. In case the girl
proved defiant, why, then it would be time to produce the letter as a
law-abiding citizen should, and demand that the searchlight of justice
be turned on the author of a missive apparently so directly concerned
with the murder. If it so happened that the letter in his hands proved
to be a successful weapon, and if Bill Talpers were accepted as a
suitor, he would let the matter drop, so far as the authorities were
concerned--and Jim McFann could drop with it. If the half-breed were to
be sacrificed when a few words from Bill Talpers might save him, so much
the worse for Jim McFann! The affairs of Bill Talpers were to be
considered first of all, and there was no need of being too solicitous
over the welfare of any mere cat's-paw like the half-breed.

If Jim McFann had known what was passing in the mind of the trader, he
would have torn his way out of jail with his bare hands and slain his
partner in bootlegging. But the half-breed took Talpers's fair words at
face value and faced his prospects with a trifle more of equanimity.

Fire Bear continued to view matters with true Indian composure. He had
made no protestations of innocence, and had told Lowell there was
nothing he wanted except to get the hearing over with as quickly as
possible. The young Indian, to Lowell's shrewd eye, did not seem well.
His actions were feverish and his eyes unnaturally bright. At Lowell's
request, an agency doctor was brought and examined Fire Bear. His report
to Lowell was the one sinister word: "Tuberculosis!"

When the men were brought into the court-room a miscellaneous crowd had
assembled. Cowpunchers from many miles away had ridden in to hear what
the Indian and "breed" had to say for themselves. The crowd even
extended through the open doors into the hallway. Late comers, who could
not get so much as standing room, draped themselves upon the stairs and
about the porch and made eager inquiry as to the progress of affairs.

Helen Ervin rode in to attend the hearing, in response to an inner
appeal against which she had struggled vainly. She met Lowell as she
dismounted from the old white horse in front of the court-house. Lowe