nd to himself--to arrive at some
understanding, to establish their relations upon a proper and reasonable
basis. He was at very considerable pains to make it clear, not only
to the Sergeant, but to the cheerful little nurse and to the doctor as
well, that as her oldest friend in the country it was incumbent upon him
to exercise a sort of kindly protectorate over Nurse Haley. In this
it is to be feared he was only partially successful. The Sergeant was
obviously and gloomily incredulous of the purity of his motives, the
little nurse arched her eyebrows and smiled in a most annoying manner,
while the doctor pendulated between good-humoured tolerance and mild
sarcasm. It added not a little to Cameron's mental disquiet that he was
quite unable to understand himself; indeed, through these days he was
engaged in conducting a bit of psychological research, with his own
mind as laboratory and his mental phenomena as the materia for his
investigation. It was a most difficult and delicate study and one
demanding both leisure and calm--and Cameron had neither. The brief
minutes he could snatch from Her Majesty's service were necessarily
given to his friends in the hospital and as to the philosophic calm
necessary to research work, a glimpse through the door of Nurse Haley's
golden head bending over a sick man's cot, a snatch of song in the deep
mellow tones of her voice, a touch of her strong firm hand, a quiet
steady look from her deep, deep eyes--any one of these was sufficient to
scatter all his philosophic determinings to the winds and leave his soul
a chaos of confused emotions.

Small wonder, then, that twenty times a day he cursed the luck that
had transferred him from the comparatively peaceful environment of
the Police Post at Fort Macleod to the maddening whirl of conflicting
desires and duties attendant upon the Service in the railroad
construction camps. A letter from his friend Inspector Dickson
accentuated the contrast.

"Great doings, my boy," wrote the Inspector, evidently under the spell
of overmastering excitement. "We have Little Thunder again in the toils,
this time to stay, and we owe this capture to your friend Raven. A
week ago Mr. Raven coolly walked into the Fort and asked for the
Superintendent. I was down at stables at the time. As he was coming out
I ran into him and immediately shouted 'Hands up!'

"'Ah, Mr. Inspector,' said my gentleman, as cool as ice, 'delighted to
see you again.'

"'Stand wher