By Right of Purchase

en trail. Behind him the wilderness, losing its gleaming whiteness and fading into shades of soft blue-grey, ran level to the hard blueness on the northern hor

rozen waters of Lake Winnipeg. Already miles of it were banded together by belts of two-foot stubble; but as yet the p

lf-frozen beneath the piled-up robes, wondered why his companion had pulled the team up there when they were within some twenty minutes' ride from shelter. Still he did not consider it advisable to inquire,

't want to keep a warm team st

e reins, though his hands were

u going to d

said Leland drily. "Th

bob-sled. He now noticed what he had been too cold to notice before, that there was something peculiar about the print of hoofs breaking out here and there, a blur of scattered blue smudges in the trail he followed. Some seemed deeper than others, and there were long spaces where they disappeared altogether. This did not seriously concern him, s

f Kimball, too. One would have figured that man had a little more s

dust the trail. Is there anything

round next day, and I've a kind

land had quarrelled with his wife, but he had noticed the man's grimness during th

y whisky they could run. There was, too, among the Chinamen in the United States a good demand for opium, which it was supposed came in via Vancouver. For the most part, the smugglers were tolerated, perhaps from the same motives that prompt otherwise honest people to pardon outlaws who rob the rich and the government. At any rate, a farmer seldom grumbled when a horse was requisitioned, though he knew that the animal might not be returned. As a reward for his silence, he was l

while making trouble?" sa

"I guess I'm going to get them. Sha

they came into sight of a blaze of cheerful radiance in the gloom of a big bluff. Lelan

who drove the sleigh round to the back of it before he got

said. "We have come for the night, and w

r half-hour, however, they were sitting down to a meal. Leland said very little until it was over, when, taking his pipe out, he

ther. "He brought four

the back range. Quite sure he hadn't any more? That reminds

and he watched the big, loose-limbed man who was filling his pipe just then. He

o recollect,

else?" sa

along with a bo

think of

uspicious glance at him. "I can't quite f

ering for a moment or two, and then, straighte

a kind of pity you don't know

allwey watched the pair. A smoky kerosene lamp gave out an indifferent light, and a red gla

, and the other man making little uneasy movements as he shra

said. "Have you no grit in you? Then why in the name of thunder did you take hold of a con

what you mean," said t

, three of my horses went with them. Now, who caught those horses and had them ready? It's kind of curious, too, that they were the pick of the bunch, with good blood in them. The only man r

elf for an effort. "You're

there in the snow. Can't I tell the difference between the tracks of a steady ridden

anybody has ever taken out of you, while it's quite likely you'll be worse off if you m

use for a man who sells my property to his fri

ight now. Thompson

n take your blankets into the other room as soon as you like. It's quite hard to keep my ha

ed bunk, shuffled away into a second room behind a log partition. Leland we

're going to hear you, and then you

imself into the chair beside

gave you," said Gallwey reflectively. "You certainly can afford to lose a horse or two, and the rustlers are the kind of people it

They get horses for nothing, and they have to buy the whisky. They haven't gone very far into it yet, but it's a sure thing

her let their neighbour make it first," said Gallw

feel like taking it out of somebody so

expected you to feel

I didn't want him loose on the prairie. It seems to me he's expecting a visit from his friends, and I'd just as

nest face. Though they had been out since dawn in the stinging frost, he sat firmly erect, gripping his unlighted pipe and gazing straight in front of him with hard, unwavering eyes. Behind him the shadows played upon the walls of the

fe. He had known that she had no love for him, but, since the night she had met him on the terrace steps at Barrock-holme, his admiration for her had grown steadily stronger, and he had been consc

her that the most she could feel for him was an impersonal toleration. He was a proud man, and her words had stung him deeply. It was galling to realise that he w

o live it down, but he did not know how either could be done, and now and then a little fit of anger set his blood tingling as he sat in the growing shadows beside the emptying stove. His resentment was not so much against the woman as the man who had, knowing what she must feel, forced her into marrying him; but they were in England, and he felt illogically that he must strike at

the door, and shut it when I tell y

tamping of feet outside, and Leland flung a few split billets through the open top of the stove. A sharp crackl

em in!"

r coats and caps, appeared in the opening, and one of the

that for? I don't seem

s no mistake. Jeff's in the second room yonder, and if he ventures to come out with

in token that Jeff had heard. In the meanwhile one of the rustlers had slipp

said. "If you'll sit down a minute,

the door watching Gallwey, who was, on the who

st outlaw. "It was J

marter man before you ventured to put up a bluff on me. Still, tha

said the other with a chuckle. "Wi

y're not back in that time,

we have, after all, stuck you for very little. With four police troopers to watch this p

eks to bring bac

insist on it?" s

f you. They're only lazy. We have nothing to do with the whisky, but this horse-li

ipped his hand beneath his furs, L

" he said. "Will you lay it down, and see if you c

ent, and, though there was very lit

give you good advice. Sit tight, and mind your farming, and it's quite likely you won't l

my horses are back two weeks to-night. Ope

in another minute or two there was a