“Not yet,” said Prescott with a smile. “You don’t seem to realize that instead of excusing people for suspicions they could hardly avoid, you’re expected to make some defense for the carelessness that gave rise to them. Anyway, Curtis is entitled to an explanation, and as I sent him word, he should be here soon.”
“You did right,” Jernyngham broke in with a trace of asperity. “It’s proper that the blundering fellow who misled us all should have his stupidity impressed on him!”
They waited, talking about indifferent matters, until Curtis arrived. At Cyril’s request he made a rough diagram of the tracks he had discovered in the neighborhood of the muskeg and stated his theory of what had happened there.
“A clever piece of reasoning,” Cyril remarked. “There’s scarcely a flaw in it, as you’ll see by my account of the affair. After saying good-by to Prescott on the night I left the settlement, I went on until I was near the muskeg and had dismounted to camp when a stranger rode up. We sat talking for a while and I foolishly told him I meant to buy some horses and apply for a railroad haulage contract, from which he no doubt concluded I was carrying some money. Soon afterward, he went off to hobble his horse, and I suppose he must have crept up behind me and knocked me out with the handle of his quirt, for I fell over with a stupefying pain in my head. This was the last thing I was clearly conscious of until the next morning, when I found myself lying close to the water, but at some distance from where I met the man. My hat had gone and my head was cut; my horse had disappeared, and I afterward discovered I had been robbed.”
Cyril paused and glanced at Curtis.
“There’s a point to be accounted for—how I reached the spot where I was lying, and this is my suggestion: The fellow thought he had killed me and in alarm determined to throw me into the muskeg. As I had a hazy recollection of being roughly lifted, I imagine he laid me across his saddle and after a while I must have moved or groaned. Then, having no doubt only meant to stun me, he left me on the ground. All this fits in with your theory.”
“What was the man like?” Curtis asked.
Cyril described him, explaining that there was a good moon; and the corporal nodded, as if satisfied.
“Then I’m glad to say that, as I half expected, we have got the fellow; corralled him for horse-stealing a while ago, and he’ll be charged with robbing you in due time. But go on.”
“I felt horribly thirsty, and crawling to the edge of the sloo, tumbled in. There was more slime than water, but I could see a cleaner pool some way out, and being up to my knees already, I tried to reach it. It was hardly fit to drink, but I felt better and clearer-headed after swallowing some; and then I noticed thick grass in front of me. This implied that the swamp was shallower there and I made for the other bank, instead of going back. The grass and reeds that I disturbed would soon straighten, which accounts for your losing my tracks. You wouldn’t have expected me to wade across the muskeg?”