ded.

Mary faltered: "He say Eembrie got ver' strong medicine. Him not stay
dead."

"That is nonsense. You saw the body. Could a man without a face come to
life?"

She asked Etzooah timidly if Imbrie's face was all right.

"Well, what does he say?" Stonor demanded with a scornful smile.

"He say Eembrie's face smooth lak a baby's," Mary replied with downcast
eyes.

"If Etzooah's story is true it was another man's body that we buried,"
said Stonor dejectedly.

He saw by the dogged expression on both red faces that they would not
have this. They insisted on the supernatural explanation. In a way they
loved the mystery that scared them half out of their wits.

"What man's body was that?" asked Etzooah, challengingly.

And Stonor could not answer. Etzooah insisted that no other man had gone
down the river, certainly no white man. Stonor knew from the condition
of the portage trail that no one had come up from below that season.
There remained the possibility that Imbrie had brought in a companion
with him, but everything in his shack had been designed for a single
occupant; moreover the diary gave the lie to this supposition. Etzooah
said that he had been to Imbrie's shack the previous fall, and there was
no other man there then. There were moments when the bewildered
policeman was almost forced to fall back on the supernatural
explanation.

It would never do for him, though, to betray bewilderment; not only the
two Indians, but Clare, looked to him for guidance. He must not think of
the wreck of his own hopes, but only of what must be done next. He rose
stiffly, and gave Mary the word to pack up. At any rate his duty was
clear. The fleeing Imbrie held the key to the mystery, and he must be
captured--Imbrie, Clare's husband, and now a possible murderer!

"Martin, tell me what's the matter," Clare said again, as he held the
dug-out for her to get in.

"I'll tell you as soon as I get rid of this Indian," he said, with as
easy an air as he could muster.

He ordered Etzooah to take him to his camp, as he wished to search it,
and to question his family. The Indian stolidly prepared to obey.

It was at no great distance up-stream. It consisted of three tepees
hidden from the river, a Kakisa custom dating from the days when they
had warlike enemies. The tepees were occupied by Etzooah's immediate
family, and the households respectively of his brother and his
brother-in-law.

The search and the examination revea