's just one of those things that drifted in. I couldn't
tell you now who sprung it. But I'm mighty sorry you did it."

"Why?"

"Because, Captain McTavish, there is nothing to do but hold you on
suspicion. That's the least charge that can be made against you.
Andrew, go tell the factor what's happened, and say we'll bring
McTavish in shortly."

"Look here, boys, you're not going to try and put that Indian's
death on me, are you?" Donald cried, aghast.

"Sorry, Mac; but what you yourself have admitted is enough to lock
you up, accused of murder in the first degree."

"Heaven!" groaned Donald to himself. "Can anything else come
to me?"

A little later, as he looked down upon Angus Fitzpatrick, lying on
the bed of boughs, it seemed as though the old man had had a turn
for the worse. Donald recalled his grip on that wounded shoulder,
and smiled inwardly with pleasure, for his spirit was still bitterly
vindictive.

"Really, McTavish," was the factor's firm greeting, "I never knew
any one to come up before me as regularly and for as many varieties
of crime as you do. Too bad you don't devote that splendid ingenuity
to something worthy."

Donald smiled pleasantly, and inquired after the injured shoulder,
a question that turned the old man's sarcasm into fury, for he had
scarcely slept the night before, what with the pain of his wound,
and the nervous shock of the day.

"Well," he snarled to the others, "what brings him here now?"

A spokesman told what had already occurred outside, and Fitzpatrick
listened intently. With a few rapid questions, he made certain that
Indian Tom could not have perpetrated the deed himself, either
purposely or accidentally. Then, he turned to the accused.

"Just where were you when you heard the shot, as you claim?" he
inquired, curtly.

Donald declared he had been at the edge of the camp, naming a
certain spot, and the man who had found the body identified the
place as well within gun-shot of the scene of the tragedy.

"Do you believe," Fitzpatrick asked the hunter, "that a shot from
the tree where McTavish was could have reached and killed Indian
Tom?

"There's no doubt of it, sir."

"Now, Captain McTavish, do you admit having had a personal encounter
with this Indian not long since?

"I do." And Donald detailed the incident, ending with this remark:
"It would seem to me only ordinary common sense that Tom should go
gunning for me, and not I for him."

"Yes, but a great ma