wolf dope!"

"That's just where you're wrong!" I remembered the boy I'd left cached
in Skunk's Misery--and something else, that had been in my head ever
since wolves and the smell of a Skunk's Misery bottle seemed to go
together. "Two Frenchmen were run in for using wolf dope in Quebec
province last winter, for I've an account of their trial somewhere that
I cut out of an Ottawa paper. And as for a witness, I've a boy cached at
Skunk's Misery who can prove Macartney made the same stuff there. The
only thing we might get stuck on in Caraquet is the _reason_ for all the
murders he's done--with, and without it!"

"I guess Miss Valenka knows the reason all right," Collins spoke as
coolly as if she were not there, which may have been the wisest thing to
do, for though she flushed sharply she said nothing. He went on with
exactly what she had said herself. "But after Hutton came here to get
her, he saw he'd be a fool not to grab the La Chance mine, too; and
unless we can stop him you bet he and his gang have grabbed it! They've
disposed of Thompson, of all our own men who might have stood by us, of
Wilbraham," categorically; "they think they've disposed of Dunn
and me and buried you alive, and--except for having lost Miss
Valenka--Macartney's made his game! Nobody'll know there's anything
wrong at the mine till the spring, because there's no one interested
enough to ask questions till Wilbraham's bank payments have stopped long
enough to look queer. And by that time Macartney and his gang will be
gone, and the cream of Wilbraham's gold with them. As for us, we can't
fight him by sitting in this burrow _with_ Miss Paulette, and without
any guns, even if he doesn't end by nosing out Dunn's and my gold as
well as Wilbraham's. Why, we depend on Charliet for our food, let alone
anything else; and for all we know, Charliet may have squeaked on us by
this time. I say again, let's get a sheriff and posse at Caraquet, and
come back here and get Macartney! We could do it, if we took Miss
Paulette and hit the trail to-night."

"And Macartney'd get us, if we tried it!" I had thrashed all that out in
my head before, while I was tying up Macartney with Charliet's
clothesline. "We'd be stopped by his picket at the Halfway, if ever we
got to the Halfway, for the Caraquet road's likely drifted solid and
you don't make time digging out smothering horses. No; we'll fight
Macartney where we are! And the way to do it is with Charliet and guns."