s continued. "Then he
dropped a loop over me, and that's all there is to tell. The joke's on
us just now."

"So it is," said Casey. "Whatever made you think that kid had anything
to do with blowing up the dam?"

"Hadn't he?"

Casey smiled genially. "Why, how should I know, Mr. Glass? I was just
asking what you were going on."

"I'm not showing my hand. I don't say the kid did it alone."

"And so you thought you'd round him up and sweat some information out
of him. That was it, wasn't it?"

"You're quite a guesser and you show a whole lot of interest in the
answer," retorted Glass. "Keep on guessing."

"I don't need to. Come up to the house and have breakfast. And for
Heaven's sake don't say anything to frighten the kid's mother."

"What do you take us for?" said Glass. "We'll treat the whole thing as
a joke--to her."

Casey breakfasted with them, and after they had gone sought Simon. The
old Indian, full to repletion, was squatting on the kitchen steps,
smoking and blinking sleepily.

"No see um Sandy," he observed. "Where him stop?"

"No more Sandy stop this _illahee_," Casey replied. "Sandy _klatawa
kopa_ stone _illahee_, all same Tom." Meaning that Sandy had gone in
the direction of the hills, as had McHale.

"Why him _klatawa_?" Simon asked.

Casey explained, and Simon listened gravely. His receptiveness was
enormous. Information dropped into him as into a bottomless pit,
vanishing without splash.

"Sandy _hyas_ young fool," he commented. "Me tell him _mamook huyhuy_
moccasin. S'pose moccasin stop, _ikt_ man findum, then heltopay.
Polisman _mamook_ catchum, put um in _skookum_ house, maybeso hang um
_kopa_ neck."

"What are you talking about, anyway?" Casey demanded. And Simon told
him of the track of the patched moccasin and of his warning to Sandy.

Casey immediately fitted things together. He knew that Sandy's right
moccasin was almost invariably worn through at the toe. Before they
left he had seen him patching them, and because they wore through at
the same place the patches were of nearly the same shape. So that if
Glass had found a patched moccasin it was not necessarily the one which
had made the track. But that would make little difference. Either
Farwell or his assistant must have told Glass about this track. If he
had found a pair of Sandy's moccasins to correspond with the footprint
he had come very near getting Sandy with the goods. But Farwell or
somebody must have directed Glass'