minutes he believed that he was
gaining and when he rode into sight of the little wooden house, which
showed up black against the sky with one dim light in it, he was seized
by a new idea. A horse stood outside the door, and he supposed the
rancher had just returned. The man was a friend of Prescott's and
believed in his innocence.

"Larry," he cried as he rode up, and added when a shadowy figure came
out: "You can send along your teams and do that breaking we were speaking
of. Svendsen will pay you when you're through with it. I'm off to the
north."

"Ah!" exclaimed the other sharply. "I guess I know what you're after. It
strikes me you should have gone before."

He paused with a lifted hand as he heard the drumming of hoofs, and
Prescott laughed.

"That's so. I believe you'll have a police trooper here in the next few
minutes. Your horse is still saddled?"

"Yes; I've just come back from Gillom's."

"Then get up and ride for the settlement. Mail an order for some harness
or anything useful to Regina by the night train, when you get there; you
can let Svendsen have the bill. You had better go pretty fast and keep
ahead of the trooper as long as you can. I guess you understand."

"Sure," grinned the other, and getting into the saddle, rode away at a
smart trot, while Prescott dismounted and led his horse quietly toward
the nearest bluff.

On reaching it he stopped and, listening carefully, heard the rancher
riding down the trail to Sebastian, and another beat of hoofs that grew
rapidly louder. By and by he made out a dim mounted figure that pressed
on fast across the shadowy waste, and for a few anxious moments wondered
whether the policeman would call at the house and discover its owner's
absence. He passed on, however, and was presently lost in the darkness.
When the drumming of his horse's hoofs gradually died away, Prescott
mounted and rode hard toward the north. It would, he thought, be an hour
or two before the trooper found out his mistake; the rancher would not
betray him, and there was a prospect of his getting clear away.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CONSTRUCTION CAMP

The light was fading when Prescott walked into sight of the construction
camp. It was situated on the edge of a belt of a muskeg sprinkled with
birches and small pines, where the new railroad, leaving the open country
to the south, ran up toward the great coniferous forest that fringes the
northern portion of the prairie. Prescott ha