be faster than that half-breed." He paused a minute. "If
you go at dawn, I probably won't see you again. In that case, let
me remind you, McTavish, of the matter of which we were speaking
before this murder came up. I--"

"You don't need to remind me. I remember it perfectly." Donald
moved toward the door.

Fitzpatrick leaned still farther forward in his great chair, his
eyes glinting, his lips curved in a snarl.

"And don't forget," he rasped at the other's back, "that I want
that half-breed, dead or alive--and that he's a mighty fast man
with a gun!"

The young man vouchsafed no reply, but passed out of the door that
Tee-ka-mee opened from the other side. For fully a minute after
the door had closed, Fitzpatrick continued to lean forward, the
snarl on his lips, the evil light in his eyes. Then he fell back
heavily, with a harsh, mirthless cackle.

"If he only knew--if he only knew!" he muttered to himself. "He
must know soon, or there won't be half the pleasure in it for me."

Then, thirst being upon him, he clanged the bell for Tee-ka-mee,
and that faithful servitor, divining the order, brought the aged
factor wherewithal to warm himself.

CHAPTER II

ILL REPORT

Donald found Peter Rainy gossiping with a couple of the Indian
servants in the barracks, and informed his attendant of the intended
departure next morning. Then, he returned to the factor's house,
unexpected and unaccompanied, and was admitted silently by an Indian
woman, into whose hand he slipped a tiny mirror by way of recompense.

"Will you tell Miss Jean that I'm here?" he said, in the soft native
Ojibway of the woman.

She nodded assent, and disappeared, only the sharp creaking of the
stairs under her tread betraying her movements. For some time,
then, Donald sat alone in the low-ceiled parlor. At one end of the
room a roaring fire burned in the rough stone fireplace; there were
a couple of tables along either wall, with mid-Victorian novels
scattered over them; Oriental rugs and great furs smothered the
floor, and there was even a new mahogany davenport in one corner,
which the yearly ship from England had brought the summer before.
While the room of the other interview was palpably that of the
factor, there was something about this one, a certain pervasive
touch of femininity, that marked it as that of the daughters of
the house.

After a few minutes, there sounded a second creaking of the stairs
accompanied by a soft rustling