that. But I don't see how any young girl can stomach the life at Clinch's."
"It's a wonder what a decent woman will stand," observed Stormont.
"Ninety-nine per cent, of all wives ought to receive the D.S.O."
"Do you think we're so rotten?" inquired Lannis, smiling.
"Not so rotten. No. But any man knows what men are. And it's a wonder women stick to us when they learn."
They laughed. Lannis glanced at his watch again.
"Well," he said, "I don't believe anybody has tipped off our man. It's noon. Come on to dinner, Jack."
They cantered forward into the sunlit clearing. Star Pond lay ahead.
On its edge stood Clinch's.
* * * * *
III
Clinch, in his shirt sleeves, came out on the veranda. He had little light grey eyes, close-clipped grey hair, and was clean shaven.
"How are you, Clinch," inquired Lannis affably.
"All right," replied Clinch; "you're the same, I hope."
"Trooper Stormont, Mr. Clinch," said Lannis in his genial way.
"Pleased to know you," said Clinch, level-eyed, unstirring.
The troopers dismounted. Both shook hands with Clinch. Then Lannis led the way to the barn.
"We'll eat well," he remarked to his comrade. "Clinch cooks."
From the care of their horses they went to a pump to wash. One or two rough looking men slouched out of the house and glanced at them.
"Hallo, Jake," said Lannis cheerily.
Jake Kloon grunted acknowledgment.
Lannis said in Stormont's ear: "Here she comes with towels. She's pretty, isn't she?"
A young girl in pink gingham advanced toward them across the patch of grass.
Lannis was very polite and presented Stormont. The girl handed them two rough towels, glanced at Stormont again after the introductions, smiled slightly.
"Dinner is ready," she said.
They dried their faces and followed her back to the house.
It was an unpainted building, partly of log. In the dining room half a dozen men waited silently for food. Lannis saluted all, named his comrade, and seated himself.
A delicious odour of johnny-cake pervaded the room. Presently Eve
Strayer appeared with the dinner.
There was dew on her pale forehead—the heat of the kitchen, no doubt. The girl's thick, lustrous hair was brownish gold, and so twisted up that it revealed her ears and a very white neck.
When she brought Stormont his dinner he caught her eyes a moment—experienced a slight shock of pleasure at their intense blue—the gentian-blue of the summer zenith at midday.
Lannis remained affable, even became jocose at moments: "No hootch for dinner, Mike? How's that, now?"
"The Boot-leg Express is a day late," replied Clinch, with cold humour.
Around the table ran an odd sound—a company of catamounts feeding might have made such a noise—if catamounts ever laugh.
"How's the fur market, Jake?" inquired Lannis, pouring gravy over his mashed potato.
Kloon quoted prices with an oath.
A mean-visaged young man named Leverett complained of the price of traps.
"What do you care?" inquired Lannis genially. "The other man pays. What are you kicking about, anyway? It wasn't so long ago that muskrats were ten cents."
The trooper's good-humoured intimation that Earl Leverett took fur in other men's traps was not lost on the company. Leverett's fox visage reddened; Jake Kloon, who had only one eye, glared at the State Trooper but said nothing.
Clinch's pale gaze met the trooper's smiling one: "The jays and squirrels talk too," he said slowly. "It don't mean anything. Only the show-down counts."
"You're quite right, Clinch. The show-down is what we pay to see. But talk is the tune the orchestra plays before the curtain rises."
Stormont had finished dinner. He heard a low, charming voice from behind his chair:
"Apple pie, lemon pie, maple cake, berry roll."
He looked up into two gentian-blue eyes.
"Lemon pie, please," he said, blushing.
* * * * *
When dinner was over and the bare little dining room empty except for Clinch and the two State Troopers, the former folded his heavy, powerful hands on the table's edge and turned his square face and pale-eyed gaze on Lannis.
"Spit it out," he said in a passionless voice.
Lannis crossed one knee over the other, lighted a cigarette:
"Is there a young fellow working for you named Hal Smith?"
"No," said Clinch.
"Sure?"
"Sure."
"Clinch," continued Lannis, have you heard about a stick-up on this wood-road out of Ghost Lake?"
"No."
"Well, a wealthy tourist from New York—a Mr. Sard, stopping at Ghost
Lake Inn—was held up and robbed last Saturday toward sundown."
"Never heard of him," said Clinch, calmly.
"The robber took four thousand dollars in bills and some private papers from him."
"It's no skin off my shins," remarked Clinch.
"He's laid a complaint."
"Yes?"
"Have any strangers been here since Saturday evening?"
"No."
There was a pause.
"We heard you had a new man named Hal Smith working around your place."
"No."
"He came here Saturday night."
"Who says so?"
"A guide from Ghost Lake."
"He's a liar."
"You know," said Lannis, "it won't do you any good if hold-up men can hide here and make a getaway."
"G'wan and search," said Clinch, calmly.
* * * * *
They searched the "hotel" from garret to cellar. They searched the barn, boat-shed, out-houses.
While this was going on, Clinch went into the kitchen.
"Eve," he said coolly, "the State Troopers are after that fellow, Hal
Smith, who came here Saturday night. Where is he?"
"He went into Harrod's to get us a deer," she replied in a low voice.
"What has he done?"
"Stuck up a man on the Ghost Lake road. He ought to have told me. Do you think you could meet up with him and tip him off?"
"He's hunting on Owl Marsh. I'll try."
"All right. Change your clothes and slip out the back-door. And look out for Harrod's patrols, too."
"All right, dad," she sad. "If I have to be out to-night, don't worry.
I'll get word to Smith somehow."
Half an hour later Lannis