e prairie. And once the
half-breeds began to consider revolt it was not hard for them to stir up
certain bad Indians with the proposal that by combining they could drive
out the whites and have the country to themselves again.

In any case our main interest in this book is the story of the Mounted
Police, and we repeat that they did their duty in warning the
authorities a long distance ahead. When their warning was not heeded and
the flame of rebellion broke out, they, as this story will show, did
more than their share in putting out the fire where it had started, and
in preventing it from spreading, as it might have done, over the whole
country.

We have quoted Superintendent Crozier's warning. Let us notice also the
testimony of another experienced officer, Superintendent Sam B. Steele.
It appears that in 1884, when Steele was still in command at Calgary,
Mr. Magnus Begg, Indian agent of the Blackfeet, reported that the former
friendly attitude of those Indians seemed to be changing to one of
sulkiness and hostility. Steele asked him about a certain half-breed who
had been with Riel in Montana, and Begg, on being given the description,
said he was in the camp with Chief Crowfoot. Steele sent and had this
half-breed arrested, but he escaped by making a leap from the train. And
when next day Colonel Irvine and Superintendent Herchmer came to Calgary
to take over the command from Steele, who was under orders for duty in
the mountains, he reported the facts to them with his conviction that
the half-breed was one of Riel's runners trying to stir up the Indians.
They asked Steele to stay over and arrest him in Crowfoot's camp, and
taking two men with him, Walters and Kerr, well known for their strength
and reliability, he went to the camp, and, through L'Hereux, the
interpreter there, demanded the half-breed, whom he found in Crowfoot's
tent. Crowfoot, with the half-breed beside him and his chief men around
him, had evidently been imposed upon by sinister Riel propaganda, and
seemed to be quite hostile. He sprang up and faced Steele threateningly
as he entered the tent, but the giant policeman waved him back and told
him it would be the worse for him if he started anything, because he had
come for the half-breed and that he was going to take him, as the Police
always did when they started after a man. Then Steele, suiting the
action to the word, seized the half-breed by the back of the collar,
whirled him round, and, dragg