feel sure they are up there now and we will go and
find them."

Jerry sat silent, smoking thoughtfully. Finally he took his pipe from
his mouth, pressed the tobacco hard down with his horny middle finger
and stuck it in his pocket.

"Mebbe so," he said slowly, a slight grin distorting his wizened little
face, "mebbe so, but t'ink not--me."

"Well, Jerry, where could they have gone? They might ride straight
to Crowfoot's Reserve, but I think that is extremely unlikely. They
certainly would not go to the Bloods, therefore they must be up this
canyon. We will go up, Jerry, for ten miles or so and see what we can
see."

"Good," said Jerry with a grunt, his tone conveying his conviction that
where the chief scout of the North West Mounted Police had said it was
useless to search, any other man searching would have nothing but his
folly for his pains.

"Have a sleep first, Jerry. We need not start for a couple of hours."

Jerry grunted his usual reply, rolled himself in his blanket and, lying
down at the back of a rock, was asleep in a minute's time.

In two hours to the minute he stood beside his pony waiting for Cameron,
who had been explaining his plan to the two constables and giving them
his final orders.

The orders were very brief and simple. They were to wait where they were
till noon. If any of the band of Piegans appeared one of the men was
to ride up the canyon with the information, the other was to follow
the band till they camped and then ride back till he should meet his
comrades. They divided up the grub into two parts and Cameron and the
interpreter took their way up the canyon.

The canyon consisted of a deep cleft across a series of ranges of hills
or low mountains. Through it ran a rough breakneck trail once used by
the Indians and trappers but now abandoned since the building of the
Canadian Pacific Railway through the Kicking Horse Pass and the opening
of the Government trail through the Crow's Nest. From this which had
once been the main trail other trails led westward into the Kootenays
and eastward into the Foothill country. At times the canyon widened into
a valley, rich in grazing and in streams of water, again it narrowed
into a gorge, deep and black, with rugged sides above which only the
blue sky was visible, and from which led cavernous passages that wound
into the heart of the mountains, some of them large enough to hold a
hundred men or more without crowding. These caverns had been