camping-place, as afterwards transpired, shot all three men first
through the body and then through the head to make sure. There was no
human witness to the event. But when these men did not turn up at the
next point on the trail, and O'Brien did, the Police began rapid
investigation. If there were no eye-witnesses in the case a web of
circumstantial evidence would have to be woven around the figure of the
fourth man of the party if the facts that would emerge justified it.
This was done with consummate skill but with absolute fairness by the
Mounted Police, Inspector Scarth, officer commanding at Fort Selkirk,
being the directing hand, Corporal Ryan doing some important parts and
Constable Pennycuick being the "Sherlock Holmes" genius whose keen
detective instincts and arduous persistent work won high praise from the
judge at the trial, being those mainly instrumental in bringing this
cold-blooded and cruel murderer to justice. The Police have always had a
free hand as to expense in the enforcement of law, and the O'Brien case
ran up a bill of over $100,000. But the reputation built up throughout
the years by these guardians of public safety, that they would get a
criminal if they had to follow him to the ends of the earth, saved the
Dominions uncounted expenditure in other ways, and established Canada in
the opinion of the world as a country where desirable citizens could
come, build homes, rear their families and pursue their avocations freer
from molestation than in any other similarly situated place on the face
of earth. And that was an enormous gain for a new land which needed
immigrants to populate its vast territory and develop its immense latent
resources.

Somewhat briefly, the way the Police got O'Brien was in this fashion.
The Police, as above mentioned, kept close "tab" on travellers by trail
or river for the sake of their safety, and a few days after Olsen,
Relphe, Clayson and O'Brien left Fossal's road-house at Minto, Sergeant
Barker, who was in charge at Five Fingers, and who had been notified of
their departure, wired to White Horse that the party had not been heard
of since. And the wires were kept hot in all directions, while patrols
also were sent out to locate the men who had not turned up at the usual
points. At that time murder was not necessarily a theory connected with
their disappearance. Nearly ten days after Christmas the alert Police at
Tagish post saw a man with horse and sleigh making a de