went to sleep and rising an hour or two before
daylight broke camp and turned back across the hills. The march was
rough and toilsome, and when they camped at night fatigue and
drowsiness checked conversation, but Blake's party were sensible of a
difference in Lane's manner. It had become reserved and he had a
thoughtful look. Reaching the village one evening, they were surprised
to find that some of the Indians had returned and after supper Lane
summoned them into the tepee he occupied. Emile interpreted, but he
had some difficulty in making himself understood, for which Harding was
inclined to be thankful.

The Sergeant began by explaining the authority and business of the
North-West Police, of whom it appeared one or two of the Indians had
heard, after which he made Emile ask them if they knew Clarke. One of
them said they did and added that he stayed with them now and then.
Lane next asked why they took him in and the Indian hesitated.

"He was a big medicine man and cured us when we were ill," he replied.

"Do you know these white men?" Lane asked, indicating Blake's party.

An Indian declared that they had never seen them, though he added that
it was known they were in the neighbourhood. Being questioned about
this, he explained that about the time of Clarke's arrival one of the
tribe had come in from the North, where he had met a half-breed who
told him that he had travelled some distance with three white men who
were going to the settlements. Knowing the country, they had
calculated that the white men could not be very far off. As he heard
this Harding felt anxious. He saw where Lane's questions led, and that
the Sergeant meant to sift the matter thoroughly. There was not much
cause to fear that he and his friends would be held responsible for
Clarke's death, but he suspected things he did not wish the police to
guess, and the Indians might mention having seen a white man's
footprints on the occasion when he had forcibly taken Clarke away.
Owing perhaps to their difficulty in making themselves understood,
nothing was, however, said of this, and by and by Lane asked--

"How was it you left the white man in your village by himself?"

The Indians began to talk to one another, and it was with some trouble
Emile at length elicited an answer.

"It is a thing that puzzles us," said one. "The white man came alone
and told us he had seen tracks of caribou three days' journey back. As
we had no meat and