n on Lowell's part as the agent drove away
from the trader's store. Something had happened to put so much of
triumph in Talpers's face and speech, but Lowell was not able to figure
out just what that something could be. He resolved to keep a closer eye
than customary on the doings of the trader, but soon all thoughts of
everything save those concerned directly with the murder were banished
from his mind when he reached the scene of the tragedy.

Getting out of his automobile, Lowell went over the ground carefully.
The grass and even some of the sage had been trampled down by the
curious crowds that had flocked to the scene. An hour's careful search
revealed nothing, and Lowell walked back to his car, shaking his head.
Apparently the surroundings were more inscrutable than ever. The rolling
hills were beginning to lose their green tint, under a hot sun,
unrelieved by rain. The last rain of the season had fallen a day or so
before the murder. Lowell remembered the little pools he had splashed
through on the road, and the scattered "wallows" of mud that had
remained on the prairie. Such places were now all dry and caked. A few
meadow-larks were still singing, but even their notes would be silenced
in the long, hot days that were to come. But the distant mountains, and
the little stream in the bottom of the valley, looked cool and inviting.
Ordinarily Lowell would have turned his machine toward the line of
willows and tried an hour or so of fly-fishing, as there were plenty of
trout in the stream, but to-day he kept on along the road over which he
had taken Helen Ervin to her stepfather's ranch.

As Lowell drove up in front of Willis Morgan's ranch-house, he noticed a
change for the better in the appearance of the place. Wong had been
doing some work on the fence, but had discreetly vanished when Lowell
came in sight. The yard had been cleared of rubbish and a thick growth
of weeds had been cut down.

Lowell marveled that a Chinese should be doing such work as repairing a
fence, and wondered if the girl had wrought all the changes about the
place or if it had been done under Morgan's direction.

As if in answer, Helen Ervin came into the yard with a rake in her hand.
She gave a little cry of pleasure at seeing Lowell.

"I'd have been over before, as I promised," said Lowell, "and in fact I
had actually started when I had to make a long trip to a distant part of
the reservation."

"I suppose it was in connection with t