"But on snow I can follow his trail, whereas travel by water leaves no traces."
"What does that matter? Instead of following him, let him return to you, as he did to-night. You've driven him up a blind alley on this Last Chance River; he can only go to the blank wall of the Bay, and then come back."
"He can reach the House of the Crooked Creek."
"And if he does, what of that? He'll be touching the blank wall then. They won't want him. The first question that they'll ask him will be, 'And what have you come here for?' If he can't give a satisfactory account of himself, they'll place him under arrest. When you get news of that, you can go up there and fetch him."
"And if he doesn't get so far as that?"
"You can set out by canoe and drive him back, and back, till you come to the Bay, and he can go no further."
"He might hide, and I might pass him on the way—what then?"
"In that case he'd double back and come past Murder Point, trying to get out."
"In the meanwhile I should be a hundred, two hundred miles to the northwards, travelling towards the Bay on my fool's errand, and who would be here to capture him?"
"Why, I should."