“Go on,”Mason said.
“She’d met Hogarty. She came up to the claim as a young woman who wanted to throw in her lot with two prospectors on a basis of share and share alike. She was willing to do her share of the work to make the cabin neat and attractive, to do the cooking, to do anything else she could around the mine. But she wasn’t going to stand for some of the stuff Hogarty had in mind. Hogarty overplayed his hand when I was in at the nearest settlement getting grub. I came back and found her gone. She’d left a note.”
“Where’s that note?” Mason asked.
“Burnt,” Leeds said crisply.
“She killed him?”
“Evidently,” Leeds said. “They had a knockdown and drag-out battle. Emily shot, and the bullet knocked him over. He got up and ran out. She didn’t know where he was hit. It was toward the end of the season. It was getting dark early. I think it was the trail of the blood on the floor and in the snow that put her in a panic. She threw some things onto a sled, and started out. There were only two dogs left in camp. I was getting provisions with the big dog team.”
“When did you get back to the cabin?”
“Three days later.”
“You tried to find her?”
Leeds nodded. Evidently, he didn’t care to discuss that phase of the matter.