ing to stick me with
a knife? Why, there are twenty others who have done as much, and we
have been the best of friends afterwards. Oh, no, lassie, it means
more than that, and harks back many a long year. I told you I saw a
mark on his hand I would never forget--but I saw that mark first
fifteen years ago. I 'm not taking my life in my hand to revenge the
killing of Slavin, or in any memory of that little misunderstanding
between the citizens of Glencaid and myself. I should say not. I have
been slashed at and shot at somewhat promiscuously during the last five
years, but I never permitted such little affairs to interfere with
either business, pleasure, or friendship. If this fellow Murphy, or
whoever the man I am after may prove to be, had contented himself with
endeavoring playfully to carve me, the account would be considered
closed. But this is a duty I owe a friend, a dead friend, to run to
earth this murderer. Do you understand now? The fellow who did that
shooting up at Bethune fifteen years ago had the same sort of a mark on
his right hand as this one who killed Slavin. That's why I'm after
him, and when I catch up he'll either squeal or die. He won't be very
likely to look on the matter as a joke."

"But how do you know?"

"I never told you the whole story, and I don't mean to now until I come
back, and can make everything perfectly clear. It would n't do you any
good the way things stand now, and would only make you uneasy. But if
you do any praying over it, my girl, pray good and hard that I may
discover some means for making that fellow squeal."

She made no response. He had told her so little, that it left her
blindly groping, yet fearful to ask for more. She stood gazing
thoughtfully past him.

"Have you heard anything lately, Bob, about the Seventh?" she asked,
finally. "Since--since N Troop left here?"

He answered with well-simulated carelessness. "No; but it is most
likely they are well into the game by this time. It's bound to prove a
hard campaign, to judge from all visible indications, and the trouble
has been hatching long enough to get all the hostiles into a bunch. I
know most of them, and they are a bad lot of savages. Crook's column,
I have just heard, was overwhelmingly attacked on the Rosebud, and
forced to fall back. That leaves the Seventh to take the brunt of it,
and there is going to be hell up north presently, or I 've forgotten
all I ever knew about Indians.