Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/119

Rh she gave a start, and glanced anxiously toward the door. ‘I don’t dare to tell,’ she said. ‘Bill would kill me if I did.’”

“Ah!” The sergeant was looking straight before him, and his eyes were merely two narrow slits. He was thinking rapidly, comprehending things which he had never suspected.

“What else did the girl say?” he presently asked.

“She begged me not to tell you for fear of what Bill might do. She said he was getting ready for a trip, and was almost frightened out of his wits while you were at Big Chance. Zell, it seems, was secretly watching him.”

“Had she any idea where he was going?”

“Yes. She was certain that he was planning to leave the country by way of The Gap, and cross the mountains.”

“I see, I see,” North mused. “Yes, a most likely thing for him to do. My, this is important news to me, you have helped me wonderfully.”

“And you will follow him?” There was a quiver in Marion’s voice. “Oh, do be careful! Zell said that Bill was such a bad man that he would stop at nothing, and would even shoot a member of the Force if he opposed him.”

“And so you started out to warn me, eh?” North queried. “Did you realise the risks you were running? Did you stop to think what a trip to The Gap would mean at this time of the year? Why, it almost unnerves me to think of what might have happened to you. It is mighty lucky that you have come off so well.”

“I am afraid that I didn’t think much about the risk,