an almost stern brevity. Then, in a
moment, the Jew's face flushed under his dark skin.

"The darn suckers!" he cried. "This'll cost me thousands of dollars.
It'll drive trade into the Gridiron fer weeks. If I'd been wise to
that bum being soused he'd have gone out, if he broke his lousy neck."

"I'm not dead sure he was soused," said Kars.

The cold tone of his voice again brought Pap's eyes to his face.

"What d'you guess?" he demanded roughly.

"He wasn't a miner, and he wasn't soused. I guess he was a 'gunman.'"

"What d'you mean?"

"Just what I said. I'd been watching him a while from the box above
us. I've seen enough to figger this thing's for the p'lice. We're
going to put this thing through for what it's worth, and my bank roll's
going to talk plenty."

Bill had risen from his knees. He was standing beyond the two bodies.
His shrewd eyes were steadily regarding Pap, who, in turn, was gazing
squarely into the cold eyes of John Kars.

Just for a moment it looked as though he were about to fling back hot
words at the unquestioned challenge in them. But the light suddenly
died out of his eyes. His thin lips compressed, and he shrugged his
shoulders.

"Guess that's up to you," he said, and moved away towards the bar.

Kars gazed down at the dead form of Alec Mowbray. All the coldness had
gone out of his eyes. It had been replaced with a world of pity, for
which no words of his could have found expression. The spectacle was
terrible, and the sight of it filled him with an emotion which no sight
of death had ever before stirred. He was thinking of the widowed
mother. He was thinking of the girl whose gray eyes had taught him so
much. He was wondering how he must carry the news to these two living
souls, and fling them once more to the depths of despair such as they
had endured through the murder of a husband and father.

He was aroused from his grievous meditations by a sharp hammering on
the main doors. It was the police. Kars turned at once.

"Open that door!" he said sharply to the waiter standing beside it.

The man hesitated and looked at Pap. Kars would not be denied.

"Open that door," he ordered again, and moved towards it.

The man obeyed on the instant.

It was two days before the investigation into the tragedy at the
Elysian Fields released Dr. Bill. Being on the spot, and being one of
the most skilful medical men in Leaping Horse, the Mounted Police had
claimed him