g her hand she stood to watch them down the trail.

"Jolly little girl," said the Inspector, as they turned from the railway
tote road down the coulee into the Kootenay trail. "But who is this
other?"

"Oh," said Cameron impatiently, "I feel like a beastly cad. She's
the daughter of the farmer where I spent a summer in Ontario, a good
simple-hearted girl, but awfully--well--crude, you know. And yet--"
Cameron's speech faded into silence, for his memory played a trick upon
him, and again he was standing in the orchard on that sunny autumn day
looking into a pair of wonderful eyes, and, remembering the eyes, he
forgot his speech.

"Ah, yes," said the Inspector. "I understand."

"No, you don't," said Cameron almost rudely. "You would have to see her
first. By Jove!" He broke into a laugh. "It is a joke with a vengeance,"
and relapsed into silence that lasted for some miles.

That night they slept in the old lumber camp, and the afternoon of the
second day found them skirting the Crow's Nest.

"We've had no luck this trip," growled the Inspector, for now they were
facing toward home.

"Listen!" said Cameron, pulling up his horse sharply. Down the pass the
faraway beat of a drum was heard. It was the steady throb of the tom-tom
rising and falling with rhythmic regularity.

"Sun-dance," said the Inspector, as near to excitement as he generally
allowed himself. "Piegans."

"Where?" said Cameron.

"In the sun-dance canyon," answered the Inspector. "I believe in my soul
we shall see something now. Must be two miles off. Come on."

Though late in December the ground was still unfrozen and the new-made
government trail gave soft footing to their horses. And so without fear
of detection they loped briskly along till they began to hear
rising above the throb of the tom-tom the weird chant of the Indian
sun-dancers.

"They are right down in the canyon," said the Inspector. "I know the
spot well. We can see them from the top. This is their most sacred place
and there is doubtless something big going on."

They left the main trail and, dismounting, led their horses through
the scrubby woods, which were thick enough to give them cover without
impeding very materially their progress. Within a hundred yards of the
top they tied their horses in the thicket and climbed the slight ascent.
Crawling on hands and knees to the lip of the canyon, they looked down
upon a scene seldom witnessed by the eyes of white men. The canyon w