rn if he heard too late what the struggle that year on
the Noda waters signified in the case of the girl for whom he had
professed love.

She could not talk with the old man; she stumbled across the dry kye,
threw herself on her couch of boughs, and pressed her palms over her
ears to keep out the threat in the song of the men who toiled around and
around the capstan post, drawing the Flagg logs in their slow,
relentless passage to the scene of the promised conflict at Skulltree.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"I'll be cursed if I don't think I ought to hire a real detective and
put him onto the inside affairs in this office," was Chief Mern's ireful
opinion after he had listened to Crowley and Miss Elsham when they
reported in from the north country. They were voluble in their own
behalf, but their talk was slippery, so the chief felt. They were also
voluble in regard to Lida Kennard, but Mern found himself more than ever
enmeshed in his guesswork about that mysterious young lady.

Crowley kept shifting off the topic onto his own prowess, patting
himself on the breast and claiming all the credit for getting Latisan
off his job.

Miss Elsham, on her part, kept lighting fresh cigarettes and was
convincing on only one point: "No more wild men of the woods for me.
Never again in the tall timber. I'll do night and day shifts in the
cafes if you ask me to. And I've got a knickerbocker suit that's for
sale!"

Mern had several interviews with the two, trying to understand.

When the blustering Crowley was present Miss Elsham allowed him to claim
all the credit and made no protest.

Alone with Mern, she declared that Buck was a big bluff, but she was not
especially clear in her reports on his methods.

"But what has become of Kennard?"

"I don't know. Lynched, maybe. They were threatening to do it to Buck
and me before we got away."

One thing seemed to be true--Mern had a wire from Brophy in reply to an
inquiry: Ward Latisan had gone away and was staying away.

And Rufus Craig, arriving in the city, telephoned the same information
to the chief and promised to call around and settle.

Crowley was informed of that confirmation, and grinned and again patted
his breast and claimed the credit.

"All right," allowed the chief, "you're in for your slice of the fee.
But if you're lying about Kennard I'll make you suffer for deserting
her."

"I stand by what I have said. She was double-crossing us."

Later, Crowley b