not when
they're just opening, Jimmy. It was the girl. Her eyes shattered every
nerve in him. And his first words were an order for me to free
McTrigger, coupled with the lie that he was coming back to see
Cardigan. And if you could have seen her eyes when she turned them on
me! They were blue--blue as violets--but shooting fire. I could imagine
black eyes like that, but not blue ones. Kedsty simply wilted in their
blaze. And there was a reason--I know it--a reason that sent his mind
like lightning to the man in the cell!"

"Now, that you leave me out of it, the thing begins to get
interesting," said Kent. "It's a matter of the relationship of this
blonde girl and--"

"She isn't blonde--and I'm not leaving you out of it," interrupted
O'Connor. "I never saw anything so black in my life as her hair. It was
magnificent. If you saw that girl once, you would never forget her
again as long as you lived. She has never been in Athabasca Landing
before, or anywhere near here. If she had, we surely would have heard
about her. She came for a purpose, and I believe that purpose was
accomplished when Kedsty gave me the order to free McTrigger."

"That's possible, and probable," agreed Kent. "I always said you were
the best clue-analyst in the force, Bucky. But I don't see where I come
in."

O'Connor smiled grimly. "You don't? Well, I may be both blind and a
fool, and perhaps a little excited. But it seemed to me that from the
moment Inspector Kedsty laid his eyes on that girl he was a little too
anxious to let McTrigger go and hang you in his place. A little too
anxious, Kent."

The irony of the thing brought a hard smile to Kent's lips as he nodded
for the cigars. "I'll try one of these on top of the pipe," he said,
nipping off the end of the cigar with his teeth. "And you forget that
I'm not going to hang, Bucky. Cardigan has given me until tomorrow
night. Perhaps until the next day. Did you see Rossand's fleet leaving
for up north? It made me think of three years ago!"

O'Connor was gripping his hand again. The coldness of it sent a chill
into the staff-sergeant's heart. He rose and looked through the upper
part of the window, so that the twitching in his throat was hidden from
Kent. Then he went to the door.

"I'll see you again tomorrow," he said. "And if I find out anything
more about the girl, I'll report."

He tried to laugh, but there was a tremble in his voice, a break in the
humor he attempted to force.

Kent