ut the moment of silence passed. It was broken by a fierce oath, and
it came from Bill. A hot flush stained his tanned cheeks. His anger
transformed him.

"God in Heaven!" he cried. "I've suspected right along. Guess I must
have _known_, and couldn't believe. I'm just mad--mad at the thought
of it. Say, John, he's had us beaten the whole way. And now it's too
late. I could cry like a kid. I could break my fool head against the
wall. The whole darn thing was telling itself to me, way back months,
down in Leaping Horse, and I just wouldn't listen. And now the boy's
dead."

He drew a deep breath. But he went on almost at once. And though his
tones were more controlled his emotion was working deeply.

"D'you know why I brought that bullet along? No," as Kars shook his
head. "I guess I don't quite know myself. And yet it seemed to me it
was necessary. I sort of felt if we got behind things here on Bell
River we'd find a link between them and that bullet. Now I know. Say,
I've got it all now. It's acted itself all to me right here in this
shack. It was acting itself to me up there in that ruined shack across
the river, when you handed me your talk of Murray's purpose, only I
guess I wasn't sitting in the front row, and hadn't the opera glasses
to see with.

"Say, it's the same darn story over again," he went on with passionate
force. "It's the same with a different setting, and different
characters. It's the same motive. Just the rotten darn motive this
world'll never be rid of so long as human nature lasts. We've both
seen it down there in Leaping Horse, and, like the fools we were,
guessed the long trail was clear of it. We're the fools and suckers.
God made man, and the devil handed him temptation. I'll tell you the
things I've seen floating around in the sunlight, where the flies are
worrying, while I've been sitting around here looking at that gun you
grabbed from Murray. It's a tough yarn that'll sicken you. But it's
right. And you'll learn it's right before the police set their rope
around Murray McTavish's neck. I don't think Murray's early history
needs to figger. If it did, maybe it wouldn't be too wholesome. Where
Allan found him I don't know, and Murray hasn't felt like talking about
things himself. Maybe Allan knew his record. I can't say. Anyway, as
I said, it doesn't figger. There's mighty few folks who hit north of
'sixty' got much of a Sunday-school record, and they'r