“Zell! Zell who?”
“The half-breed girl who was travelling with me. We were camping by the side of the trail, and after the wolves had been shot, she went for some wood. But she never came back, and I am afraid she is either lost or something has carried her off.”
“And did those wolves now lying dead down there attack you?” North asked in surprise.
“They did. Oh, it was terrible!”
“Who shot them?”
“Hugo, the trapper. The wolves surrounded us, coming closer and closer all the time, and when they were about to spring upon us, some one began shooting at them. We could not see who it was, although I know now that it was the trapper. He carried me part way here.”
“He did!” There was a peculiar expression in the sergeant’s eyes as he kept them fixed upon Marion’s face?
“So it was Hugo,” he mused. “It’s too bad I wasn’t on hand sooner.”
“Why, what would you have done, John?” Marion asked.
“Rescued you, of course.”
“Anything else?”
“And captured Hugo.”
“Why?”
“I want him. He’s the man I’m after, and I shall never give up until I get him.”
“Why are you chasing him? What has he done?”
“That’s what I want to find out. He is needed in connection with that murder near the C. D. Cut-Off.”
“I don’t believe he did that,” Marion defended. “He
