Then I started, and Heysham bowed as he answered: “You are evidently new to the wicked ways of this country, Miss Lorimer. I meant that some unprincipled person has, I fear, unfortunately taken your brother in. I have suspicions. Was he a little dark man, or perhaps it was another, rather stout and red-faced? Still I’m puzzled as to how they acquired the local knowledge and learned enough about your business to fool you.” 241
“No,” I answered with a gleam of hope, “he was neither;” but Aline broke in:
“The man you mention drove here in a wagon some weeks earlier, and I know how he got the local knowledge—the other, with the red face, was Thomas Fletcher. He lived on the prairie, Mr. Heysham, and there must have been three in the plot.”
I rose from the table, flinging back my chair, but Heysham nodded gravely.
“Exactly; there are three of them. Your sister has made it all clear,” he said. “I know the party—they’ve been engineering various shady deals in estate and produce, and now, when Winnipeg is getting uncomfortably warm, this is evidently a last coup before they light out across the boundary. The dark man was a clerk in the stock trade—turned out for embezzlement—once, you see. Still, they can’t sell until to-morrow, and we might get the night train. No chance of trade hereabout, you say; then, for the credit of our market, if you’ll lend me a fresh horse, I’m going right back to Winnipeg with you. Sit down, and finish your dinner; you’ll want it before you’re through.”
I looked at Aline, who was equal to the occasion. “You must certainly go,” she said. “Even if there is a blizzard, I shall be safe enough.”
So presently she buttoned the skin coat about me, slipped a flask of spirits into the pocket; and just before we started kissed me, saying, “Take care of yourself, and do your utmost. There are all poor Jasper’s cattle besides our own. Mr. Heysham, I thank you, and whenever you pass this way remember there’s a hearty welcome for you at Fairmead.”
“I am repaid already, madam,” said Heysham as we rode away.