d dangers in his life--and I've had
more than most in my time--there is a kind of sixth sense that waves
the red flag. I saw the signal clear enough, and yet I couldn't tell you
why. Next instant I spotted a boot under the window curtain, and then I
saw why plain enough.

"I'd just the one candle that was in my hand; but there was a good light
from the hall lamp through the open door. I put down the candle and
jumped for a hammer that I'd left on the mantel. At the same moment he
sprang at me. I saw the glint of a knife, and I lashed at him with the
hammer. I got him somewhere; for the knife tinkled down on the floor. He
dodged round the table as quick as an eel, and a moment later he'd got
his gun from under his coat. I heard him cock it; but I had got hold of
it before he could fire. I had it by the barrel, and we wrestled for it
all ends up for a minute or more. It was death to the man that lost his
grip.

"He never lost his grip; but he got it butt downward for a moment too
long. Maybe it was I that pulled the trigger. Maybe we just jolted it
off between us. Anyhow, he got both barrels in the face, and there I
was, staring down at all that was left of Ted Baldwin. I'd recognized
him in the township, and again when he sprang for me; but his own mother
wouldn't recognize him as I saw him then. I'm used to rough work; but I
fairly turned sick at the sight of him.

"I was hanging on the side of the table when Barker came hurrying down.
I heard my wife coming, and I ran to the door and stopped her. It was no
sight for a woman. I promised I'd come to her soon. I said a word or two
to Barker--he took it all in at a glance--and we waited for the rest to
come along. But there was no sign of them. Then we understood that they
could hear nothing, and that all that had happened was known only to
ourselves.

"It was at that instant that the idea came to me. I was fairly dazzled
by the brilliance of it. The man's sleeve had slipped up and there was
the branded mark of the lodge upon his forearm. See here!"

The man whom we had known as Douglas turned up his own coat and cuff
to show a brown triangle within a circle exactly like that which we had
seen upon the dead man.

"It was the sight of that which started me on it. I seemed to see it all
clear at a glance. There were his height and hair and figure, about the
same as my own. No one could swear to his face, poor devil! I brought
down this suit of clothes, and in a quarte