ide landscape was there a
sign of human habitation. Small birches and poplars, with an undergrowth
of nut bushes, clothed the sides of the ravine, but some distance ahead
it broadened out and the stream that flowed through it turned the hollow
into a muskeg. There harsh grass and reeds grew three or four feet high,
hiding the stretch of mire.

The police were young men with deeply bronzed faces, dressed in smart
khaki uniform with broad Stetson hats of the same color.

"What's that?" exclaimed Corporal Curtis, pointing to an indistinct
object lying among a patch of scrub some distance off.

"Looks like a hat," replied Private Stanton. "Some settler prospecting
for a homestead location must have lost it."

"You jump at things!" said the corporal. "How'd the man lose it? Guess it
wouldn't drop off without his knowing it, and with the sun we've been
having he'd want it pretty bad. He wouldn't throw it away, when he knew
he couldn't get another. We'll go along and see."

They dismounted a minute or two later and made a startling discovery. The
hat was a good one, but in one place the soft gray felt had been crushed
and partly cut as though by a heavy blow. On turning it over, they saw
that the inside was stained a dull red.

"Blood!" said Curtis significantly, and swept a searching glance about.
"More of it," he added. "See here--on the brush."

Moving forward, they found a succession of crimson spots and splashes on
the leaves of the willow scrub and withering grass.

"Picket the horses. Stanton; we've got to look into this," the corporal
said.

"I'd better lead them back a piece," responded his companion. "We don't
want to muss up things by making fresh tracks."

When he had done so, they set about the examination systematically. They
were men who lived, for the most part, in the open, and made long
journeys through the wilds, sleeping where they could find shelter in
ravine or bluff. Such things as a broken twig, a bruised tuft of grass,
or a mark in loose soil had a meaning to them, and here they had
plentiful material to work upon. Counting footprints and hoofmarks,
measuring distances, they constructed bit by bit the drama that had taken
place, but half an hour had passed before they sat down to talk it over
and took out their pipes. The afterglow shone about them; their hands and
thoughtful faces showed the same warm color as the brown grass in the
ruddy light. In the hat lay a five-dollar bill and a coat