had been removed, "we
would like to know where you were last week."

"That's nobody's blank business," said Carroll.

An angry murmur arose from the crowd.

"Carroll, this thing is too serious for any bluffing, and we are going
to see it through. It is fair that you should know why we ask. Let me
give you the facts we have found out." Sinclair gave a brief resume of
the story as gathered from Stanton and Perault. As Carroll listened his
face grew white with fury.

"Does any blank, blank son of a horse thief," he cried, when Sinclair
had done, "say I am the man that broke open that cache? Let him stand
up forninst me and say so." He gnashed his teeth in his rage. "Whin Tim
Carroll goes to git even wid a man he doesn't go behind his back fur
it, and yez all know that! No," he cried, planting his huge fist with a
crash upon the table, "I didn't put a finger on the cache nor his
ponies ayther, begob!"

"All right, Carroll, we are glad to hear it," said Sinclair, in a cold,
stern voice. "You needn't get so wild over it. You cannot frighten us,
you know. Every man here can give an account of his doings last
week--can you?"

"I can that same," said Carroll, somewhat subdued by Sinclair's tone
and manner. "I am not afraid to say that we went up to see a mine we
heard of."

"You and Crawley, you mean?" said Sinclair quietly.

"Yes," continued Carroll, "and that's fair enough, too; and we hunted
around a week fur it, an' came back."

"Did you find your mine?" asked Sinclair.

"We did not, and it's a blank, blank fool I was to listen to the yarn
of the drunken old fool of a doctor."

"Thank you, Carroll. Now, I do not think myself that you touched that
cache."

"If he did, he will swing for it," said a voice, cool and relentless,
in the crowd.

Carroll started a little as he heard that voice.

"You shut up!" said Ike.

"Now, Carroll, we want you to answer a few questions," continued
Sinclair. "Mr. Crawley brought you to the camp where the Old Prospector
died--is that right?"

"He did."

"And then you went east from that point over the mountain?"

"We did, and I am telling you we was looking for that mine we heard of."

"All right," said Sinclair. "How long did you stay in that
neighbourhood?"

"A week or so."

"Did you see Mr. Macgregor or Perault while you were there?"

"That's none of your business."

"You'd better answer, Carroll."

"It'll be your business pretty blank soon!" drawled the voice