Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/204

186 Yankee Doodle the boy was not quite sure of his man. It was possible, after all, that the man was a prospector. For, try as he would, Connie could trace no slightest resemblance between the features of his passenger and those of the photographs on file at headquarters. The chance word dropped by Corporal Rickey that Notorious Bishop was in the habit of whistling Yankee Doodle was the only clue to the man's identity. "'Course any one could whistle Yankee Doodle," thought the boy to himself as the canoe shot down toward the Yukon. "But way up here, somehow, the chances are they wouldn't. Anyway, I'm going to play safe. If he ain't Notorious Bishop, he can easily prove it, and if he is—Gee, won't Dan's eyes stick out! The Sarg said he'd eat me up in two bites. But I guess if he tries it he'll find out he's bit off more than he can chew."

During the days of the journey the man talked freely. His mind was evidently clear of any slightest suspicion that the boy was aware of his identity, and he whiled away the time with accounts of adventures in various parts of the world—adventures that made no mention of police, but included stories of the diamond mines of Africa, the sailing