Winston of the Prairie

pushed on southwards, and passed a week in the especially desolate settlement he had been directed to. A few dilapidated frame houses rose out of the white wilderness beside the

valry, and the troopers daily maligned the Government w

e wooden hotel was rather more than usually badly-kept and comfortless, and Winston, who had managed

id. "Playing for stakes of this

ide his resentment, as he sai

hand, and if I didn't know that black horse I'd take you for some blamed Canadian rancher. You did

?" said

y would be very nice to you. Well, now, I've no use for fooling with a man who's too proud to take my dollars, and I've a pair of horses just stuffed

med team, which stood with ears laid back, prepared for conflict. Oats had been very plentiful, and prices low that season. Winston, who knew at least as much about a horse as Lance Courthorne, however, bent them to his will, and the team were trotting quietly through the shadow of a big birch bluff a league from

ic drumming behind him also quickened a little. Then a faintly musical jingle of steel accompanied the beat of hoofs, and Winston glanced about him wit

esome. I'll find out what

ss the trail. The snow lay deep on either side of it just there, with a sharp crust upon its surface, which rendered it inadvisable to take a horse round

"Been buying this

he same right as any other citizen to walk or drive along it without anybody prowling after

t whoever's on patrol near the settlement should keep his eye on you. You se

anadian citizen, and I cam

tight place down in Regent there, you told the boys so. Now, no sensible man w

raight answer. Can you tell me what y

ss our commander could. If you don't

n the reins. "I'll ride back

nd him, and though he suspected that there was no great difference between his escort and a prisoner's guard, the old love of excitement he once fancied he had outgrown forever, awoke again within him. Anything that was different from the pas

een for some months, when, handing the sleigh over to an orderly, he walked into the guard-room, where bronzed men in uniform glanced at him cu

a visit," he said. "I'm glad

it cost him no effort. He, who had, throughout the last two adverse seasons, seldom smiled at all, and

compliment just yet," he said. "I

off," he said. "I'm not a worrying policeman, and we're white men, any way. If you'd been twelve months in this f

wards the stove. "In the first place, I want to know why your boys are shadowing me. You s

to when you left this place, so the folks there could corral you if they got the papers. That's ab

haven't the faintest notion why the police in Canada shoul

ughtfully. "Bluff? I'm quite

is head. "It's a straight

whisky a little while ago, and, though the folks didn't seem to suspect it, you ha

d to roll the cigar which did n

s to you, the police came down upon your friends at a river-crossing, a

surged to his forehead sank from it sudd

said hoarsely.

e been enough to free him of the lad, and the rancher fired twice into him. They figure

y grim as he said, "They

e left it behind him. It wasn't killing, for the trooper don't seem to have had a show at all, and I'm glad to see it makes you kind of sick. Only tha

could trust his voice. Then he said

"They crawl slow in Canada. In the meanwhile they wanted to know where y

on?" said

there was a blizzard nobody quite saw the end of him, and in case there was any doubt they've got a warrant out. Farmer Winston's dead, and if he isn't he soon will be, for

r almost a minute. Then he rose up with

rather well," he said. "Thank you for the story. On my word thi

to the boys, I'll give you the best supper we can raise in the whole forsaken country, and you can camp here until to-morrow. It

. He was also glad to be alone a while, for now and then a fit of anger shook him as he saw how he had been duped by Courthorne. He had heard Shannon's story, and, remembering it, could fancy that Courthorne had planned the trooper's destruction with

it, and the holder of the mortgage had received a profitable interest already. Had the unforeseen not happened, Winston would have held out to the end of the struggle, but now he had no regret that this was out of the question. Fat

ive and eat in Homeric fashion in the Northwest, and when the green tea was finished

rtune to farmer W

ir," he said. "If the old folks t

was tolerably near it once or twice when he was alive, and, because of w

brought out the cards. They played for an hour beside the snapping st

y, "you're not well tonight o

nkle in his eyes. "I don't know tha

rumps are, you're not Lance Courthorne. Now, after what I'd heard of you, I'd have put up fifty

id. "One isn't always in his usual form, an

st the windows, and the shadows grew darker in the corners of the great log-walled room each time the icy draughts set the lamp flickering. Th

, but the man who followed him silently to the sleeping-room had nothing but a half-instinctive assurance that the future could not well be harder or

bundle of letters before him, and one addressed to Courthorne la

Canada are not going to worry you," he said. "Now, if you fe

, and his eyes grew thoughtful as he read. The letter had been written by a Winnipeg lawyer from a little town not very far away, and requ

e got to go into Anne

"I'll drive you. I've some

nickeled lamp flickered in the draughts that found their way in, and Winston was glad of it, though he was outwardly very collected. The stubborn patience and self-control with which he had faced the loss of his wheat crops

verdale, and am, therefore, well posted as to his affairs, which are, of course, connected with those of your own family," said the lawyer. "W

never heard of Colonel Barri

said. "Colonel Barrington does not deem it convenient that you should settle at Silve

ed having heard of the Silverdale Colo

ous sales made. You will also find the acreage, stock, and implements detailed at a well-known appraiser's valuation, which you could of course confirm, and Colon

eferred to a large and well-appointed farm, though it occurred to him that the crop was a good deal smalle

nxious to get rid of me," he said. "

, though I am of opinion that he might have done so under one c

m to take the money. It, however, appeared equally impossible to reveal his identity and escape the halter, and he felt that the dead man had wr

w I have offended Colon

l Barrington saw you, but he desired me to find means of tracing your Canadian record, and did n

not seen me for fifteen years is desirous of with

endeavoring to controvert it. Colonel Barrington is

man, and felt little kindliness towards any one con

at you have told me makes me the more determined to follow my own in

r niece would scarcely go counter to them. She must have been a very young girl when she las

thing. We will talk again to-morrow. You would

vements down to a week or two ago, and told me where to

he saw, a great inheritance, but one that in the right hands could be made profitable, and Winston, who had fought a plucky fight with obsolete and worthless implements and indifferent teams, felt that he could do a great deal with what was, as it were, thrust upon him at Silverdale. It was not avarice that tempted him, though he knew he was tempted now, but a longing to find a fair outlet for his energies, and show what, once given the chance that most men ha

e had lived long in primitive fashion in close touch with the soil, and sank, as most men would not have done, into restful slee

Barrington I'm coming

ously. "Would there be any us

to me, and, if it wouldn't be disloyalty to the Colonel, I should be pl

and the lawyer sat down t

I expected to find, and I venture to surmise that you will eventually discover him to