the whiskey to my Indians, but he----"

"Mr. Lapierre was with me! Accuse him and you accuse me, also. He
brought me here because I wished to see for myself the condition of
your Indians--the condition of which I had so often heard."

"Was LeFroy, also, with you?"

"LeFroy was away upon a mission, and that mission was to capture two
others of your ilk--two whiskey-runners!"

MacNair laughed harshly. "Good LeFroy!" he exclaimed in derision.
"Great God, you are a fool! You yourself saw LeFroy and his satellites
rushing wildly for the shelter of the timber, when I unexpectedly
appeared among them." The light of exultation leaped into his eyes.
"I killed two of them, but LeFroy escaped. Lapierre timed his work
well. And had it not been that one of my Indians, who was a spy in
Lapierre's camp, learned of his plan and followed me across the
barrens, Lapierre would have had ample time, after the destruction of
my fort, to have scattered my Indians to the four winds. When I
learned of his plot, I forced the trail as I never had forced a trail,
in the hope of arriving in time to prevent the catastrophe. I reached
the fort too late to save my Indians from your human wolf-pack, their
homes from the flames, and my buildings and my property from
destruction. But, thank God, it is not too late to wreck my vengeance
upon the enemies of my people! For the trail is hot, and I will follow
it, if need be, to the end of the earth."

"Your love for your Indians is, indeed, touching. I witnessed a
demonstration of that love last night, when you battered and kicked and
hurled them about in their drunken and helpless condition. But, tell
me, what will become of them while you are following your trail of
blood--the trail you so fondly imagine will terminate in the death of
Lapierre, but which will, as surely and inevitably as justice itself,
lead you to a prison cell, if not the gallows?"

MacNair regarded the girl almost fiercely. "I must leave my Indians,"
he answered, "for the present, to their own devices. For the simple
reason that I cannot be in two places at the same time."

"But their supplies were burned! They will starve!" cried the girl.
"It would seem that one who really loved his Indians would have his
first thought for their welfare. But no; you prefer to take the trail
and kill men; men who may at some future time tell their story upon the
witness-stand; a story that will not sound pretty in the telling,