Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/197

Rh God, by stealing all of his food, and lighting out some time in the night. It might be as well, sergeant, to round up that brute and ask him a few questions about that murder near the C. D. Cut-off.”

“I am not surprised at what you tell me,” the sergeant replied. “Bill is a bad man, and we need him. I was hoping to be first at The Gap to head him off. The task will be much more difficult now, so we shall need your help.”

“And you shall have it,” Hugo emphatically declared. “I shall do everything in my power to bring the guilty to justice.”

For a long time that night the sergeant and Hugo talked after Marion and the constable were asleep. The trapper told all he knew about finding the Haines child in the lonely cabin, and the blood-stains leading to the river. But of the finding of the diamond ring he said nothing. He would explain about that when he received it from the missionary, and handed it over to the sergeant.

“I never expected to tell you all this,” he said in conclusion. “I looked upon the Force as my deadly enemy, for reasons which you already partly know. What led me to flee to this country I do not wish to explain now. That can wait. But I see things in a new light, and I am glad. I have been living long enough in hell, but have at last escaped. There, now, I think we have talked enough. We need rest, for a hard journey lies ahead of us to-morrow.”