Steel's possessions had been sold off that day, and bought up at ridiculously inadequate prices by two strangers, who we all suspected had been financed by Lane. Few of us had a dollar to spare, and the auctioneer, who was also probably under the money-lender's thumb, demanded proof of ability to make the purchase when one or two neighbors attempted to force up the bidding. Steel rode with slack bridle and his head bent, and I was heavy of heart, for I held Gaspard's Trail only on sufferance, and the same fate must soon overtake me. The prairie stretched before us a desolate waste, fading on the horizon into gray obscurity, and, together with the gloom of the heavens above, its forlorn aspect increased my depression. So we came moodily to the dip to the Sweet.w.a.ter, and I saw Mackay standing beside a deeper pool below. A rapid flowed into the head of it, and the lines of froth shone with a strange lividness. The time was then perhaps an hour before sunset. When we dismounted to water and rest the horses, Mackay turned sharply and glanced at Cotton.

"All went off quietly?" And the trooper nodded.

"Yes," I said. "We have a long patience, Sergeant; but there were signs on some of the faces that things may go differently some day."

"Ay?" said the sergeant, fixing his keen eyes on me as he stood, a lean, bronze-skinned statue beside the river. "What were ye meaning, Rancher Ormesby?"

"I was merely giving you a hint," I said. "We have paid all demanded from us and kept the law, but now, when the powers that rule us stand by and watch us ground out of existence to enrich a few unprincipled schemers, it is hard to say what might not happen."

"Ye did well," was the dry answer. "It will be my business to see ye keep it still; but in this country any man has liberty to talk just as foolishly as it pleases him. Can the law change the seasons for ye, or protect the careless from their own improvidence? But let be. I'm older than most o' ye, and have seen that there's a measure set on oppression."

He concluded with a curious a.s.surance which approached solemnity; but Steel added, with a Western expletive, that he had already let be until he was ruined. Then I broke in: "If I can find Redmond and wring the truth from him I hope to prove that the limit has been reached; and I purpose, in the first place, to see what the law will do for me. Have you any word of him?"

"No," and the sergeant's tone was very significant. "If he were still above the prairie-sod we should have found him. But there was a bit freshet last night--and I am expecting him."

Steel, I fancied, shivered, and though the speaker might well be mistaken, anything that served to divert our thoughts was a relief, and for a while we lay among the gra.s.ses, smoking silently. The sky was heavily overcast, there was no breath of air astir, and the slow gurgle of the river drifted mournfully down the hollow. For some reason, I felt strangely restless and expectant, as though something unusual would shortly happen. A faint drumming of hoofs rose up from somewhere far off across the prairie, as well as a sound which might have been made by an approaching wagon.

"That's Lane striking south for the railroad with a few of the boys behind him," Steel said listlessly. "There'll be thunder before he reaches it, and Lardeau's team is wild, but there's no use hoping they'll bolt and break Lane's neck for him. Accidents do not happen to that kind of man."

A little time had pa.s.sed, and the beat of horses' feet broke in a rhythmic measure through the heavy stillness, when Cotton, who had followed his sergeant along the bank, raised a shout, and I leaped to my feet, for something that circled with the current was drifting down stream. We ran our hardest, and, for I was not strong yet, the others were standing very silent, with tense faces and staring eyes, when I rejoined them.

"Yon's Redmond," said Sergeant Mackay. "I was expecting him."

The object he pointed to slid slowly by abreast of us, and I felt a shock of physical nausea as I stared at it. At that distance it was without human semblance, a mere shapeless ma.s.s of sodden clothing, save for the faint white glimmer of a face; but the shock gave place to a fit of sullen fury. Heaven knows I cherished no anger against the unfortunate man. Indeed, from the beginning, I had regarded him as a mere helpless tool; but death had robbed me of my only weapon, and I remembered Lane's prediction that Redmond would be of little use to me if I found him.

"If one of ye has a lariat ye had better bring it," said Sergeant Mackay.

We followed the object down stream. It floated slowly, now half-submerged, now rising more buoyantly, with the blanched countenance turned towards the murky heavens, out of which the light was fading, until Steel, poising himself upon the bank, deftly flung a coupled lariat. The noose upon its end took hold, and I shrank backwards when we drew what it held ash.o.r.e, for Redmond's face was ill to look upon, and seemed to mock me with its staring eyes.

"Stan' clear!" said the sergeant, perhaps feeling speech of any kind would be a relief, for n.o.body showed the least desire to crowd upon him.

"If it had not been for the regulations a drop of whisky would have been acceptable, seeing that it's my painful duty to find out how he came by his end."

The words were excusable, but there was no whisky forthcoming; and though, perhaps, only one man in a hundred would have undertaken that gruesome task, the sergeant went through it with the grim thoroughness which characterized all his actions.

"There's no sign of a blow or bullet that I can find, and I'm thinking only the Almighty knows whether he drowned himself or it was accidental death. Ye can identify him, all of ye?"

We thought we could, but had been so intent that n.o.body noticed the trampling of horses' hoofs until a wagon was drawn up close by, and several riders reined in their beasts.

"Here's a man who ought to," said Steel. "Come down and swear to your partner, Lane."

Turning, I saw my enemy start as he looked over the side of the wagon at what lay before him. Every eye was fixed upon him, and Steel stood quietly determined by the wheel.

"I'm in a hurry, and don't fill the post of coroner," the former said.

"Will you come down?" Steel added; and there was a low growl from the a.s.sembly, while Lane shrank back from that side of the vehicle. "I guess it's certain this man was the last to see Redmond alive."

"Drive on!" said Lane to the teamster; but the man hesitated, while, when his employer s.n.a.t.c.hed up the reins, there was another murmur deeper than before, and mounted men closed about the wagon, their figures cutting blackly against the fading light. Why they were journeying homewards in such company I did not learn, but, overtaking it, they had perhaps ridden beside the wagon for the purpose of expressing their frank opinion of its occupant.

"Ye cannot pa.s.s until ye have answered my questions," said Sergeant Mackay. "If he does not dismount ye have authority to help him, Steel.

Ye will hold the horses, Trooper Cotton."

Lane slowly climbed down the wheel, and neither Mackay nor Cotton interfered when, as he showed signs of remaining at the foot of it, Steel's hand closed firmly on his neck and forced him forwards, apparently much against his wishes. Then the ruined farmer held him, protesting savagely, beside the body of his victim. It was, in its own way, an impressive scene--the erect, soldierly figures of the uniformed troopers, the circle of silent mounted men, who moved only to sooth their uneasy horses, and the white-faced man who shivered visibly as he looked down at the sodden heap at his feet. There was also, even had the two been strangers, ample excuse for him.

"While protesting that this is an outrage, I am ready to answer your questions," he said huskily.

"Who is this man? Did ye know him?" asked the sergeant, whose face remained woodenly impa.s.sive.

"Rancher Redmond, by his clothing," was the answer. "Yes; if necessary, I think I could swear to him." And the sergeant asked again: "When and where did ye last see him?"

"In the birch _coulee_, at dusk, three weeks past Tuesday. That would make it----" But the financier seemed unable to work out the simple sum, and concluded: "You can figure the date for yourself."

"What business had ye with him?" and the sergeant smiled dryly at the answer: "That does not concern you."

"Maybe no. If ye have good reasons for not telling I will not press ye, though ye may be called upon to speak plainly. Do ye know how he came into the river?"

"No," said Lane, a trifle too vehemently.

"Do ye know of any reason why he should have drowned himself?" And Lane turned upon the questioner savagely:

"I'll make you all suffer for your inference! Why should I know? I challenge the right of anyone but a coroner to detain me."

"I'll let ye see my authority at the station if I find it necessary to take ye there," said the sergeant grimly. "Noo will ye answer? Do ye know why this man ye had dealings with should wish to destroy himself?"

"You're presuming a good deal," was the answer; and Lane's face grew malevolent as he glanced at Steel and me. "How do you know he did destroy himself, anyway; and if he did, I guess it's an open secret he had trouble with Ormesby and Steel."

I sprang forward, but Cotton laid a heavy hand on my shoulder, and there was a threatening e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n from one of the bystanders. "Well, to satisfy you, I solemnly declare I am in no way connected with what has befallen the deceased rancher, and know of no reason why he should have attempted his life. This isn't a court; but because I'm in a hurry, and to stop chattering tongues, I call heaven to witness it is the truth."

I believed that, after a villainous attempt to divert suspicion to me, the man was deliberately perjuring himself, and several of the bystanders must have believed it, too. Most of them were not wholly free from superst.i.tion, and their faces were almost expectant as they stood strung up and intent about the dead man under the deepening gloom. Then a flicker of pale lightning filled the hollow. Each face was lit up for a second, and Lane's was livid; and, when the flash faded, the dusk seemed to deepen suddenly, and a boom of distant thunder rolled from swelling level to level across the prairie. Thunder had been very frequent during the last few weeks, but the listeners seemed to find the coincidence significant.

"Ye can pa.s.s," said the sergeant, whose voice seemed a trifle unsteady.

"But it will be on horseback, and we may want ye later. Lardeau--it's a charity--ye will lend Redmond the wagon."

"You can't have it," said Lane. "I have a long journey before me and a rheumatic thigh. If you take the wagon I hired what am I to do?"

"You can ride with Redmond. His house is on your way, and you can't hurt him, anyway. The poor devil's beyond you now," said a stern voice; and Lane, who allowed the teamster to help him onto one of the horses which was replaced, departed hurriedly.

"I congratulate ye," said Sergeant Mackay significantly. "He was a fellow-creature, boys. Who'll help me lift him in? We will e'en need the same service ourselves some day."

I shuddered, but took my place with Steel among the rest; and when the task was accomplished, the latter expressed both our feelings as he said: "I wouldn't for five hundred dollars do that again; but it seemed the poor devil's due after what we said about him. I guess he wasn't quite responsible, and was driven to it; but, when it comes to the reckoning, G.o.d help the man who drove him."

It was dark when we gained the level and followed the creaking wagon that jolted before us across the prairie. Few words were spoken. A low rumbling of thunder rolled across the great emptiness, while now and then a pale blue flash fell athwart the lathered horses and set faces of the men. "The beasts," said one big farmer, "know considerably more than they can tell. Look at the near one sweating! I guess they find Redmond or the load he's carrying mighty heavy."

"Then," added another voice, which broke harshly through the thuds of hoofs, "ten teams wouldn't move the man who rode away."

The ways of the prairie dwellers are in some respects modern and crudely new; but the Highland servants of the Hudson's Bay Company and the French half-breed _voyageur_ have between them left us a dowry of quaint belief and superst.i.tion; and the growl of the thunder and the black darkness made a due impression on most of those who brought Redmond home. For my part I was thankful when a lonely log-house loomed up ahead and the wagon came to a standstill. Four men, improvising a stretcher, took up their burden, and halted as Sergeant Mackay and another, neither of whom seemed to care about his errand, knocked on the door.

A young woman opened it, holding aloft a lamp, and under its uncertain light her face showed drawn and pale. I breathed harder, and heard some of those about me murmur compa.s.sionately, for she looked very frail and young to bear what must follow. The sergeant's words did not reach us, but a swift glare of blue flame, that left us dazzled, broke in upon them. The whole s.p.a.ce about the building was flooded with temporary brilliancy, and Redmond's daughter must have seen us standing about the wagon and the bearers waiting, for she dropped the lantern (which Mackay seized in time), and caught at the logs which framed the door as if for support. A minute must have pa.s.sed before the slight form once more stood erect upon the threshold.

"Mackay thinks of everything," Steel said in my ear. "He sent Gordon off to bring his wife along. There's only the half-breed here, and she'll need a white woman with her to-night, poor soul."