ing affrightedly, but when MacDavid spoke to them sharply in
Cree they retreated inside again.

Some distance away, glaring at the dead dogs, the justice sat in his
saddle, and from beneath his huge moustache he spat a volley of most
un-magisterial oaths, delivered in a snarling, nasal tone foreign to the
ears of his listeners. A minute or so he remained thus, then his baleful
eyes met the steady, meaning stare of the motionless quartette and his
face changed to a blank, irresolute expression. He made a motion of
urging his horse forward, then, checking it abruptly, he wheeled about,
loping away in his original direction.

The trader was the first one to find his voice. "Well, my God!" he
ejaculated. "Did you ever see th' like o' that?"

His companions remained curiously silent. "Gully!" he continued, with
vibrating voice, "whoever'd a-thought that that drawlin' English dude
could shoot like that? . . . Fred Storey should have been here. . . ."
Still getting no response to his remarks he glanced up wonderingly. The
three policemen were staring strangely at each other, and something in
their expression startled him.

"Eh! Why! What's up?" he queried sharply.

Then Slavin spoke grimly. "Let's go luk at thim dogs," was all he
vouchsafed.

They stepped forward and inspected the carcasses critically. "Fifty
yards away, if he was a foot!" said Redmond, "and he dropped them in one!
two! three! . . ."

"Slap through the head, too!" muttered Yorke. "Burke!"--he added
suddenly. Slavin met his eye with a steady, meaning stare; then, at
something he read in his subordinate's face, the sergeant's deep-set orbs
dilated strangely and he swung on his heel.

"Aye!" he ejaculated with an oath "I was forghettin' thim--come bhoys!
let's go luk for thim. Shpread out, or we may miss the place."

"Empty shells," explained Yorke to the others, "automatic ejection--you
remember, Reddy! We may find them."

Keeping a short distance apart, they sauntered forward, trying to recall
the spot Gully had shot from. For awhile, with bent heads, they circled
slowly about each other, carefully scrutinizing the short turf.
Presently the trader uttered a low exclamation. "Here's th' place!" he
said, pointing downwards. The others joined him and they all gazed at
the cluster of deeply-indented hoof-marks, indicating where the horse had
propped and whirled about.

"Aha!" said Redmond, suddenly.

"Got ut?" queried Slavin.

For