he couldn't track the canoe up the rapids. All she can do is to go on
down."

"How did you know where I was?" asked Imbrie.

"I didn't know. I took a chance. I had the gun and a belt of cartridges.
I can snare fool-hens and catch fish. It was a sight better than going
to jail. I knew if the policeman got you he'd bring you down river, and
I figured I'd have another chance to get him. And if you got him I
figured there wouldn't be any hurry, and you'd wait for awhile for me."

"You did well," said Imbrie with condescending approval.

"Nearly all night I walked along the shore looking for your camp. At
last I saw the little tent and I knew I was all right. Then I waited for
daylight to shoot. The damned policeman turned his head as I fired, or I
would have finished him."

Imbrie dropped into the Indian tongue that they ordinarily used. From
his knowledge of the Beaver language Stonor understood it pretty well,
though a word escaped him here and there.

"What will we do with him?" he said.

"Be careful," she said. "They may understand."

"No fear of that. We know that Clare doesn't speak our tongue."

"Maybe the policeman speaks Beaver."

"He doesn't, though. He spoke English to them. I asked Shose Cardinal if
he spoke Beaver, and he said no. And when I pushed off I insulted him in
our tongue, and he paid no attention. Listen to this----"

Imbrie turned, and in the Indian tongue addressed an unrepeatable insult
to the wounded trooper. Stonor, though almost suffocated with rage,
contrived to maintain an unchanged face.

"You see?" said Imbrie to the woman, laughing. "No white man would take
that. We can say what we like to each other. Speak English now just to
torment him, the swine! Ask me in English what I'm going to do with
him."

She did so.

"Oh, I don't know," he answered carelessly. "Just tie him up, I guess,
and leave him sitting here."

"Tie him up?" she said with an evil smile.

"Sure! Give him leisure to prepare for his end."

They laughed together.

Stonor dreaded the effect of this on Clare. She, however, seemed to be
upborne by some inner thought.

"I know something better than that," the woman said presently.

"What?"

"Don't tie him up. Leave him just as he is, without gun, axe or knife.
Let him walk around until he goes off his nut or starves to death. Then
there'll be no evidence. But if you leave him tied they'll find his body
with the rope round it."

"That's a good idea. But