Part 3 (2/2)

As he spoke, Stevens fished a cruave it to his coe out on his knee There was no writing on it, but it was crowded thick with figures, as if theso that interested him was that wherever monetary syn

The totals of certain colu

”Guess she's a ,”

said Stevens ”Notice that figger there!” He pointed with a stubby forefinger ”Pretty near a billion, ain't it?”

”Seven hundred and fifty thousand,” said Aldous

He was thinking of the ”pound” sign She had not looked like the Englishwomen he had met He folded the slip of paper and put it in his pocket

Stevens eyed hiive you a bit of advice before I left for the Maligne Lake country,” he said ”You'd better move Quade won't want you around after this Besides----”

”What?”

”My kid heard sohty good to the kid when I was down an' out, Aldous I ought to tell you It wasn't an hour ago the kid was behind the tent an' he heard Quade and Sli So far as I can find froone nutty over her He's ravin' He told Sliet her in his hands What sent the boy down to et _you_ first He told Sliirl!”

”The deuce you say!” cried Aldous, clutching the other's arm suddenly

”He's done that?”

”That's what the kid says”

Aldous rose to his feet slowly The careless sain A few erous

”The kid is undoubtedly right,” he said, looking down at Stevens ”But I a care of herself Quade has a tre Sliainst a husband or a brother”

Stevens haunched his shoulders

”It's not the woe my location”

”Why wouldn't it be just as well if I told the police of his threat?” asked Aldous, looking across the river with a glimmer of humour in his eyes

”Oh, hell!” was the packer's rejoinder

Slowly he unwound his long legs and rose to his feet

”Taketo cross that cussed river this afternoon or know the reason why”

He stalked away in the direction of his outfit, chewing viciously at his quid For a few moments Aldous stood undecided He would liked to have joined the half-dozenponies But Stevens hadof his cabin--and the priceless achievement of his last months of work, his manuscript If Quade should destroy that----

He clenched his hands and walked swiftly toward his camp To ”burn out” an enemy was one of Quade's favourite methods of retaliation He had heard this He also knew that Quade's as done so cleverly that the police had been unable to call him to account

Quade's status had interested Aldous fro He had discovered that Quade and Culver Rann, his partner at Tete Jaune, were forces to be reckoned with even by the ”powers” along the line of rail They were the two chiefs of the ”underground,” the erous elee He had once seen Culver Rann, a quiet, keen-eyed, iroomed man of forty--the cleverest scoundrel that had ever drifted into the Canadian west He had been told that Rann was really the brain of the combination, and that the two had picked up a quarter of a million in various ways But it was Quade hoan to thank Stevens for his warning He was filled with a sense of relief when he reached his cabin and found it as he had left it He always made a carbon copy of his work This copy he now put into a waterproof tin box, and the box he concealed under a log a short distance back in the bush

”Now go ahead, Quade,” he laughed to hi in his voice ”I haven't had any real excite I can't re to _be_ fun!”

He returned to his birds, perched hi them He had almost finished when he heard hoarse shouts from up the river From his position he could see the stream a hundred yards below the ford Stevens had driven in his horses He could see the the first sweep of the current, their heads held high, struggling for the opposite shore He rose, dropped his birds, and stared

”Good God, what a fool!” he gasped