ncerned.

Lowell had not exaggerated when he told Rogers he had gone over the
scene of the murder fifty times. He had not gone into details with his
clerk. Rogers would have been surprised to know that his chief had even
blocked out the scene of the murder in squares like a checkerboard. Each
one of these squares had been examined, slowly and painfully. The net
result had been some loose change which undoubtedly had been dropped by
Talpers in robbing the murdered man; an eagle feather, probably dropped
from a _coup_ stick which some one of Fire Bear's followers had borrowed
from an elder; a flint arrowhead of great antiquity, and a belt buckle
and some moccasin beads.

Far from being discouraged at the unsuccessful outcome of his
checkerboarding plan, Lowell took his automobile, on the morning
following his talk with Rogers, and again visited the scene of the
crime.

For six weeks the hill had been bathed daily in sunshine. The drought,
which the Indians had ascribed to evil spirits called down by Fire Bear,
had continued unbroken. The mud-holes in the road, through which Lowell
had plunged to the scene of the murder when he had first heard of the
crime, had been churned to dust. Lowell noticed that an old buffalo
wallow at the side of the road was still caked in irregular formations
which resembled the markings of alligator hide. The first hot winds
would cause these cakes of mud to disintegrate, but the weather had been
calm, and they had remained just as they had dried.

As he glanced about him at the peaceful panorama, it occurred to the
agent that perhaps too much attention had been centered upon the exact
spot of the murder. Yet, it seemed reasonable enough to suppose, no
murderer would possibly lie in wait for a victim in such an open spot.
If the murder had been deliberately planned, as Lowell believed, and if
the victim's approach were known, there could have been no waiting here
on the part of the murderer.

Getting into his automobile, Lowell drove carefully up the hill,
studying both sides of the road as he went. Several hundred yards from
the scene of the murder, he found a clump of giant sagebrush and
greasewood, close to the road. Lowell entered the clump and found that
from its eastern side he could command a good view of the Dollar Sign
road for miles. Here a man and horse might remain hidden until a
traveler, coming up the hill, was almost within hailing distance. The
brush had grown in a circle,