Part 34 (2/2)

Lance hat horse-ranchers called a throw-back; in a sense, he belonged to an older generation

There was another thing Jih they were cousins, he understood cousins sometie would advance the interests of the faht hurt Lance worse than by robbing hi

Yet Lance had held up the car for hi killed After all, this did not clash with Jiht dislike the entleman Then Jie

A belt of peat, checkered by white tufts of wild cotton, ran back frole Soths of wire lay about Jihtfully, and then went on to the spot where broken glass and torn up soil ain and lighted his pipe In the Canadian woods he had now and then trusted to his rifle to supply his food, and tracking large gauess an ani or a disturbed stone tells one ht help him, so to speak, to reconstruct the accident

He re They had obviously struck soain the other way The marks the tires had round The silverweed that covered the peaty soil between the road and ditch was not one far on that side before he, for a an when it swerved again and ran across the road So

Ji stone, but could find none; besides, it was i down by the overturned car he thoughtfully finished his pipe The car ot out of the ditch, but this was not i wire; he had a hazy notion that the obstacle he had struck was flexible By and by he heard a step, and Jake caht to be about,” the latter said ”It will be an aard job to get the car into the road”

”I' about the car,” Jim replied ”I want to find out why she ran into the ditch”

”You don't know, then?”

Ji ”She went off at an angle and I couldn't pull her round,” he concluded

”Do you expect to find the steering-gear broken?”

”Not unless it broke after she skidded”

Jake gave hiin to see! Well, people so to thes alone But what kind of a clew do you expect to get?”

”A mark on a thorn trunk; we'll look for one,” said Jim ”Suppose you take the other side!”

He walked a few yards along the ditch, exa the bottom of the trunks, and presently stopped and put his foot on the other bank Then he beckoned Jake and indicated a few scratches on the bark of a thorn

The rough stem was tufted with dry moss and for an inch or two this was crushed

”I reckon so has been fastened to this tree,” he said ”If we can find another mark on the opposite row, I'll be satisfied”

They went across and after a few moments Jake said, ”Here it is!”

Jiet into the field and look at the old fence wire I want a piece seven or eight yards long”

After pulling about the wire that lay in the grass, they found a piece

One end was bent into a rough hook, and although the other was nearly straight Ji was cracked

”It has been bent here twice,” he said ”Pulled over into a hook and then pulled back You can see how the zinc has flaked”