here," he put his hand to his breast, "and it is just
burning the life out of me. I wish it had come to any one of you but
me. If I tell it, it will mean murder, for sure. If I don't, it may
bring the end of us all. God help me, but I am near out of my wits over
it!"

McMurdo looked at the man earnestly. He was trembling in every limb. He
poured some whisky into a glass and handed it to him. "That's the
physic for the likes of you," said he. "Now let me hear of it."

Morris drank, and his white face took a tinge of colour. "I can tell it
to you all in one sentence," said he. "There's a detective on our
trail."

McMurdo stared at him in astonishment. "Why, man, you're crazy," he
said. "Isn't the place full of police and detectives and what harm did
they ever do us?"

"No, no, it's no man of the district. As you say, we know them, and it
is little that they can do. But you've heard of Pinkerton's?"

"I've read of some folk of that name."

"Well, you can take it from me you've no show when they are on your
trail. It's not a take-it-or-miss-it government concern. It's a dead
earnest business proposition that's out for results and keeps out till
by hook or crook it gets them. If a Pinkerton man is deep in this
business, we are all destroyed."

"We must kill him."

"Ah, it's the first thought that came to you! So it will be up at the
lodge. Didn't I say to you that it would end in murder?"

"Sure, what is murder? Isn't it common enough in these parts?"

"It is, indeed; but it's not for me to point out the man that is to be
murdered. I'd never rest easy again. And yet it's our own necks that
may be at stake. In God's name what shall I do?" He rocked to and fro
in his agony of indecision.

But his words had moved McMurdo deeply. It was easy to see that he
shared the other's opinion as to the danger, and the need for meeting
it. He gripped Morris's shoulder and shook him in his earnestness.

"See here, man," he cried, and he almost screeched the words in his
excitement, "you won't gain anything by sitting keening like an old
wife at a wake. Let's have the facts. Who is the fellow? Where is he?
How did you hear of him? Why did you come to me?"

"I came to you; for you are the one man that would advise me. I told
you that I had a store in the East before I came here. I left good
friends behind me, and one of them is in the telegraph service. Here's
a letter that I had from him yesterday. It's this part from the to