Part 44 (1/2)
”Then what makes you think I'll believe it now?”
”To be honest, I don't care whether you do or not.”
Curtis sat silent a few moments.
”What you have told me amounts to this,” he then summed up: ”you have heard of a man who seems to look like Cyril Jernyngham.”
”It's as much to the purpose that he acts like him. I've told you all I learned about his doings and you can judge for yourself. You knew the man.”
”So do you,” said Curtis pointedly.
Prescott smiled.
”Leave it at that. I want you to find out whether I'm correct or not. You made some inquiries along the new line?”
”We didn't go far west,” Curtis admitted. ”There were difficulties, and we couldn't see much reason for the search. It was quite clear to me that Jernyngham was knocked out near the muskeg.” He looked hard at Prescott.
”It isn't easy to change that opinion.”
”It seems your duty to test it. Even if the thing costs some trouble, can't you instruct your people in Alberta to find out whether a man called Kermode worked in any of the construction camps, and if they're satisfied that he answers Jernyngham's description, to have him followed up in British Columbia?”
”There's a point you haven't got hold of,” Curtis replied. ”When you struck a camp, asking after your partner, the boys were ready to talk to you; but it's quite different when a trooper comes along. I wouldn't have much use for anything they told him.”
Prescott realized the truth of this. Traveling on foot in search of a working comrade, he had been received by the railroad hands as one of themselves; but he knew that men with checkered careers which would not bear investigation found refuge among the toilers on the new lines, and that even those who had nothing to fear would consider reticence becoming when questioned by the police. The only excuse for loquacity would be the sending of an inquisitive constable on a fruitless expedition.
”Then can't you try the bosses?” he asked.
”I guess they're not likely to have found out much about the man, and the boys wouldn't tell them. However, I'll send up a report and see what can be done.”
”Thanks,” said Prescott, and then asked bluntly: ”What do you make of the brown clothes?”
”So you heard they were found!” said Curtis with some dryness. ”I haven't done figuring on the matter yet.”
”I don't suppose I'd help you by saying that they don't belong to me.”
Curtis looked at him thoughtfully but made no answer for a while. Then:
”Did you ever see anybody wearing a suit like that?” he asked.
”Well,” Prescott answered, ”I believe I once did, but I can't think who it was. I've been trying hard to remember all day and it may come back.”
He got up and Curtis walked to the door with him.
”Frost's keeping pretty keen,” he remarked.
Prescott drove away, and the corporal was smoking near the stove when Stanton came in.
”You look as if you'd been studying the Jernyngham case,” he said. ”I'll allow it's enough to get on your nerves.”