xcept at the end of the fur season, and then most of them
are in debt to the storekeepers."

"Then why--"

"I sometimes wonder," the voice was coldly cutting, "why I continue to
employ you, Red. What profit would I find in a cabin like this? I want
what he knows, not what he has."

Having thus reduced his henchman to silence, the speaker went on
smoothly, as if he were thinking aloud. "With Simpson doing so well in
town, we're close to the finish. This swamper must tell us--" His voice
trailed away. Except for the creaking of wood when the sitter shifted
his position, there was no other sound.

Then Red must have grown restless, for someone stamped up to the
platform and rattled the chain on the cabin door aggressively. Val
flattened back against the wall. What if the fellow took it into his
head to walk around?

"Gonna wait here all day?" demanded Red.

"As it is necessary for me to have a word with him, we will. This waste
of time is the product of Pitts' stupidity. I shall remember that. It is
entirely needless to use force except as a last resource. Now that this
swamper's suspicions are aroused, we may have trouble."

"Yeah? Well, we can handle that. But how do yuh know that this guy has
the stuff?"

"I can at least believe the evidence of my own eyes," the other replied
with bored contempt. "I came down river alone the night of the storm and
saw him on the levee. He has a way of getting into the house all right.
I saw him in there. And he doesn't go through any of the doors, either.
I must know how he does it."

"All right, Boss. And what if you do get in? What are we supposed to be
lookin' for?"

"What those bright boys up there found a few days ago. That clerk told
us that they'd discovered whatever the girl was talking about in the
office that day. And we've got to get that before Simpson comes into
court with his suit. I'm not going to lose fifty grand." The last
sentence ended abruptly as if the speaker had snapped his teeth shut
upon a word like a dog upon its quarry.

"What does this guy Jeems go to the house for?" asked Red.

"Who knows? He seems to be hunting something too. But that's not our
worry. If it's necessary, we can play ghost also. I've got to get into
that house. If I can do it the way this Jeems does, without having to
break in--so much the better. We don't want the police ambling around
here just now."

Val stiffened. It didn't require a Sherlock Holmes to get the kernel of