n't help feeling for the poor wretch,
bad as he was, he was hard-hit, too. He bribed a native servant to show
him the letter giving his brother's address, and when the girl set off,
he instantly guessed her errand, and determined to prevent their
meeting.

Now it is only a short distance from Fort Edward over the height of land
to the source of the main southerly branch of the Spirit, and Hooliam
was therefore able to proceed direct to Fort Enterprise by canoe (a
journey of more than a thousand miles), pausing only to go up the
Stanley to pick up his mother, who was ripe for such an adventure. At
Carcajou Point, when they had almost reached Enterprise, they heard the
legend of the White Medicine Man off on the unknown Swan River, and they
decided to avoid Enterprise and hit straight across the prairie.

Meanwhile the girl was obliged to make a long detour south to the
railway, then across the mountains and north again by all sorts of
conveyances, with many delays. So Hooliam and his mother arrived a few
weeks before her, but they in turn were delayed at Swan Lake by the
woman's illness.

You have read a transcript of the statements of this precious pair at
the hearing before me. Read it again, and observe the ingenious web of
truth and falsehood. For instance, it was true the woman fell sick at
Swan Lake, and Hooliam after waiting awhile for her, finally went down
the river without her--only a few days in advance of Sergeant Stonor and
Ernest Imbrie's wife. As soon as Hooliam reached Swan Lake he began to
meet Indians who had seen his brother, and thereafter he was always
hailed among them as the White Medicine Man. The Indians never troubled
to explain to themselves how he had got to Swan Lake, because they
ascribed magical powers to him anyway.

What happened between the brothers when they met will never be known for
certain. Hooliam swears that he did not intend to kill Ernest, but that
the deed was done in self-defence during a quarrel. However that may
be, Ernest was shot through the heart with a bullet from Hooliam's gun,
and his body cast in the river.

You have read the rest of the story; how Stonor arrived with Ernest's
wife, and how, at the shock of beholding her husband's body, the poor
girl lost her memory. How Hooliam sought to escape up-stream, and
Stonor's confusion when he was told by an Indian that the White Medicine
Man was still alive. How Hooliam kidnapped the girl from Stonor, and
tried to win