he had been looking for a rawhide lariat which he thought he had dropped
from his saddle somewhere along the Dollar Sign road the day before. He
had noticed an automobile standing in the road, and had discovered the
body staked down on the prairie. In answer to a question, McFann
admitted that the rope which had been cut in short lengths and used to
tie the murdered man to the stakes had been the lariat for which he had
been searching. He was alarmed at this discovery, and was about to
remove the rope from the victim's ankles and wrists, when he had
descried a body of horsemen approaching. He had thought the horsemen
might be Indian police, and had jumped on his horse and ridden away,
making his way through a near-by gulch and out on the prairie without
being detected.

"Why were you so afraid of the Indian police?" was asked.

The half-breed hesitated a moment, and then said:

"Bootlegging."

There was a laugh in the court-room at this--a sharp, mirthless laugh
which was checked by the insistent sound of the bailiff's gavel.

Jim McFann sank back in his chair, livid with rage. In his eyes was the
look of the snarling wild animal--the same look that had flashed there
when he sprang at Lowell in his camp. He motioned that he had nothing
more to say.

Fire Bear's testimony was as brief. He said that he and a company of his
young men--perhaps thirty or forty--all mounted on ponies, had taken a
long ride from the camp where they had been making medicine. The trip
was in connection with the medicine that was being made. Fire Bear and
his young men had ridden by a circuitous route, and had left the
reservation at the Greek Letter Ranch on the same morning that McFann
had found the slain man's body. They had intended riding along the
Dollar Sign road, past Talpers's and the agency, and back to their camp.
But on the big hill between Talpers's and the Greek Letter Ranch they
had found the automobile standing in the road, and a few minutes later
had found the body, just as McFann had described it. They had not seen
any trace of McFann, but had noticed the tracks of a man and pony about
the automobile and the body. The Indians had held a quick consultation,
and, on the advice of Fire Bear, had quit the scene suddenly. It was the
murder of a white man, off the reservation. It was a case for white men
to settle. If the Indians were found there, they might get in trouble.
They had galloped across the prairie to their camp, by