The Ledge on Bald Face

tripling, white-faced and wild-eyed, with news of him. The boy was young Stephens, son of Andy Stephens, the game-warden. He and his father, coming up from Cribb's

elp, while he himself had remained by the body, guardi

every one talking at once, trying to question young Stephens. The Sheriff was away, down at Fredericton for a holida

the tall, lean figure of the Deputy Sheriff of Nipsiwaska County came striding in h

nfidence in their Deputy Sheriff. They believed that his shrewd brain and keen eye could find a clue to the most baffling of mysteries. Just now, however, his face was like a ma

started off down the road at that long loose stride of

Tug," drawled a r

anded Blackstock, turning

m as sold ye 'Mother, Home, an' Heaven.' Mebbe he could give us some

umstances, still less as one to try issues with a man like Jake Sanderson. But the crowd, eager to give to

ee him this mornin'?" "Rout him out!" "Fetch

the voice of Mrs. Stukeley, who kept the boarding-house

or his ministerial garb, nor his efforts to get a subscription out of her, and she was therefore ready to believe him guilty without fu

imperturbable and disdainful Deputy Sheriff was impressed by the

d kind of excited an' nervous like, so's he could hardly stop to finish hi

wo of the boys an' go after the Book Agent. Find him, an' fetch him back. But no funny business wi

ped by this pronouncement, and Hawker's

dence, him skinnin' out that way afo

dy, his lean jaws working grimly upon a huge chew of tobacco, the big, black dog not now at his heels but trotting a little way

me, afore I tell ye to," he announced with decision. "K

too hard to be enforced

ts in silence, looking down upon the body of his friend with stony face and brooding eyes. In spite of his grief, his p

by, in the middle of the road, lay a stout leather satchel, gaping open, and quite empty. Two small memorandum books, one shut and the other with white leaves fluttering, lay near the

little result. The ground was too hard and dusty to receive any legible trail, and, moreover, it had been carelessly over-trodden

the fatal wound, a knife-thrust which had been driven upwards between the ribs. He laid the body down again, and at the same time picked up a piece of paper, crumpled and blood-st

between the leaves of the note-book w

e him, had caught a glimpse o

under his breath. "I

black dog, which had been waiting all this time in an attitu

k at him, Jim,"

r, and then looked up at his mas

at this." And he poi

e inquired when the dog had

and tail drooping, the picture o

ay, and offered it to the clog, who nosed it carefully, then

Jim," said

the open book. Then he fell to circling about the ba

wker, and closed in, effectually obliterating all trails. Jim growled angrily, showing his long white teeth, a

ye found under him, Tug?"

ed the deputy, putting the blood-s

rowd. "It was one o' them there dokyments that the book a

him up!" yelled the crowd, star

houted Blackstock. "Hold

clamorous voyage through the sky. Fired by Sam Hawker's exhortatio

ursed them i

said he, "or there'll be trouble wh

sted the warden. "Guess he done it all r

ty, "an' anyways, they're jest plumb looney now. You stay here, an'

time for the dog to follow him. But to his surprise Jim did not obey instantly. He was ve

that! What d'ye mean by foolin' about aft

is master for a moment. Then, with evident reluctance, he obeyed. But he kept lo

that there dawg yet," explained Black

that wouldn't want to dig out a