This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
54
THE LAW-BRINGERS

shuffle out, he added: "I would give much to be able to lie with your serenity, my friend."

He pulled open a drawer in the table, took out a sheaf of papers, and fell to work with his forehead knotted by thought. Sudden suspicion had come to him that this matter was an illumination on something which had been distracting Grey Wolf lately, and he hunted what he wanted through official pamphlets and reports with his eyes growing more eager as he neared his goal. His natural suspicions of this kind helped him here, and also his personal knowledge of sorts of dishonesty which would never occur to Tempest. By way of his great intuition and powers of deduction he wound a tortuous course through the papers until his mind fastened at last with a leap on the clue he sought for. He looked up with his eyes narrowed and dark and rather puzzled. Then he shrugged his shoulders with a slight laugh.

"Why, of course; who is better fitted to deceive law and justice than the man who holds the scales," he said "But I fancy—I really fancy that we have got it in for you this time, Mr. Ducane."

He picked up the notes on Kicking Horse's evidence, and the paper which had led to his conclusion; took them into Tempest's office, and stood attentive while Tempest read the little information vouchsafed by the Indian. Dick watched him idly. Tempest had developed considerably since the old days. He was a fine-looking fellow, with that broad, untanned forehead where the bright hair lifted vigorously, and those lit, introspective eyes of the dreamer, and the firm jaw of the man who can do. It was the face of one who was not likely to run to wreck on his passions as Dick had done himself.

Tempest looked up at last, laying aside the official tone.

"I can't think who the white man is likely to be," he said.

"Can't you?" There was an edge of mockery in Dick's tone. "It is Ducane."

"Ducane! What are you thinking of? He is District J.P. He is a gentleman."

"Those two facts helped my deductions immenesly. It is also Ducane who, with Robison's assistance, is doing