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378 "I should not send you out again just now if I did not believe that you were the most suitable man I can spare at present."

"I am ready to go, sir," said Dick.

He had regained his outward balance, but his mind was whirling. Ducane—he was one of the principal witnesses in Ducane's case. He had got the information together. He knew more of the connecting links than anyone else. If he were sent away again, for months, perhaps for a year, what was going to happen to that case? The Commissioner was watching him.

"What is it, Heriot?" he asked.

"I was thinking about that case of Ducane's, sir. I worked it up—so far as it went."

"Ah! Ducane. Yes, of course. He's in cells here, is he not? Yes. I have all the information on that case tabulated here. Sergeant Jones sent it down from Grey Wolf, and of course it has been in abeyance until we got the man. Did this Ducane tell you that he desired to turn King's evidence?"

"He said so. But I didn't believe" Dick stopped in disgust.

"Well, it is a fact. I saw him the morning after you brought him in, and he gave me the names of this company. I am operating now on the basis of what I got from him, and I fancy we can manage without you, Heriot. You are wanted for more important work." The Commissioner smiled. "This man will be no trouble," he said. "He is eager to tell everything in order to lighten his sentence. He will lighten it, of course. In fact, after the case comes up in court he will probably be let out on bail pending the arrest of the other men. There is a bigger thing behind this than the petty rogueries of Ducane, and I can assure you that your thorough work in the matter will not go unappreciated."

The Commissioner smiled again, but Dick's face was a blank. A cold horror had shut down over him. Ducane out on bail; penniless; practically a moral and physical wreck, and Jennifer with no one to guard her, no one to help her against him. He had not forgotten Jennifer's steady words that night in the Edmonton hotel.