d his tread over the uneven ground.

"'Tisn't true," broke in the other again, in unexpected denial of his
own words, "that that's all I know. I know something more; 'tisn't much,
perhaps, but as I value my soul's salvation, I'll say it here. Before I
left the neighbourhood of Turrifs, I heard of this old gentleman here
a-making his way round the country, and I put in currency the report
that he was Cameron, and I've no doubt that that suggestion made the
country folks head him off towards Turrifs Station as far as they could
influence his route; and that'll be how he came there at Christmas time.
Look you here! I didn't know then, and I don't know now, whether he
_was_ or _wasn't_--I didn't think he was--but for a scheme I had afoot I
set that idea going. I did it by telegraphing it along the line, as if
I'd been one of the operators. The thing worked better than I expected."

Alec listened without the feeling of interest the words were expected to
arouse. To his mind a fellow who spoke glibly about his soul's salvation
was either silly or profane. He had no conception that this man, whose
way of regarding his own feelings, and whose standard of propriety as to
their expression, differed so much from his own, was, in reality, going
through a moral crisis.

"Well?" said he.

"Well, I guess that's about all I have to say."

"If you don't know anything more, I don't see that you've told me
anything." He meant, anything worth telling, for he did not feel that he
had any interest with the other's tricks or schemes.

"I do declare," cried Harkness, without heeding his indifference, "I'm
just cut up about this night's affair; I never thought Job would set on
anyone but his wife. I do regret I brought this good old gentleman to
this place. If some one offered me half Bates's land now, I wouldn't
feel inclined to take it."

Trenholme returned to his pacing, but when he had passed and re-passed,
he said, "Cameron doesn't seem to have been able to preach and pray like
an educated man; but Bates is here, he will see him to-morrow, and if he
doesn't claim the body, the police will advertise. Some one must know
who the old man is."

The words that came in return seemed singularly irrelevant. "What about
the find of asbestos the surveyor thought he'd got on the hills where
Bates's clearing is? Has Bates got a big offer for the land?"

"He has had some correspondence about it," said Trenholme, stiffly.

"He'll be a rich man