Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/211

 CHAPTER XIII

The Priest's Story

They had their dinner that day at Nic'khal's, at the Forks, eating in the shed that later in the season becomes the "summer kitchen." The meal was primitive in material and cooking, but the sauce was hunger. An elderly priest, weary-looking and sad, was their sole companion, and he watched them through the meal, with a look that Trafford read as expressive of a desire to have talk with him. So, after the eating was over, Trafford put himself in the way of the clergyman, who quickly availed himself of the chance:

"You are from above?" he asked, and Trafford assented.

"Did you pass the logging camp at the first rapids?"

"I spent the night there," Trafford answered.

"Was the night disturbed?"

"An attempt was made to arrest a murderer, who