hey were watching out for the shadow of
possible disaster before the youth could be got away.

Kars had verified the last detail of the situation in so far as the
proprietor of the Elysian Fields was concerned. Nor was he left with
any illusions. Pap had no intention of sitting down under this
terrible public and private hurt a boy from the "inside" had inflicted
upon him. The stories abroad were lurid in detail. It was said that
the storm which had raged in the final scene between Pap and his
mistress, when she quit the shelter he had provided for her for good,
had been terrible indeed. It was said he had threatened her life in a
moment of passion. It was said she had dared him to his face. It was
also said that he, the great "gunman," Pap, had groveled at her feet
like any callow school-youth. These things were open gossip, and each
repetition of the tales in circulation gained in elaboration of detail,
till all sorts of wild extravagances were accepted as facts.

But Kars and Bill accepted these things at a calm valuation. The side
of the affair that they did not treat lightly was the certainty that
Pap would not sit down under the injury. They knew him. They knew his
record too well. Whatever jeopardy the woman stood in they were
certain of the danger to young Alec. Of this the stories going about
were precise and illuminating. Jack Beal, the managing director of the
Yukon Amalgam Corporation, and a great friend of John Kars, had spoken
with a certainty which carried deep conviction, coining from a man who
was one of the most important commercial magnates of the city.

"Pap'll kill him sure," he said, in a manner of absolute conviction.
"Maybe he won't hand him the dose himself. That's not his way these
days. But the boy'll get his physic, and his folks best get busy on
his epitaph right away."

The position was more than difficult. It was well-nigh impossible.
None knew better than Kars how little there was to be done. They could
wait and watch. That seemed to be about all. Warning would be
useless. It would be worse. The probable result of warning would be
to drive the hothead to some dire act of foolishness. Even to an open
challenge of the inscrutable Pap. Kars and Bill were agreed they dared
risk no such calamity. There were the police in Leaping Horse. But
the Mounted Police were equally powerless, until some breach was
actually committed.

The interim of waiting was long. To Ka