He concluded with a curious assurance which approached solemnity; but Steel added, with a Western expletive, that he had already let be until he was ruined. Then I broke in: "If I can find Redmond and wring the truth from him I hope to prove that the limit has been reached; and I purpose, in the first place, to see what the law will do for me. Have you any word of him?"
"No," and the sergeant's tone was very significant. "If he were still above the prairie-sod we should have found him. But there was a bit freshet last night—and I am expecting him."
Steel, I fancied, shivered, and though the speaker might well be mistaken, anything that served to divert our thoughts was a relief, and for a while we lay among the grasses, smoking silently. The sky was heavily overcast, there was no breath of air astir, and the slow gurgle of the river drifted mournfully down the hollow. For some reason, I felt strangely restless and expectant, as though something unusual would shortly happen. A faint drumming of hoofs rose up from somewhere far off across the prairie, as well as a sound which might have been made by an approaching wagon.
"That's Lane striking south for the railroad with a few of the boys behind him," Steel said listlessly. "There'll be thunder before he reaches it, and Lardeau's team is wild, but there's no use hoping they'll bolt and break Lane's neck for him. Accidents do not happen to that kind of man."
A little time had passed, and the beat of horses' feet broke in a rhythmic measure through the heavy stillness, when Cotton, who had followed his sergeant along the bank, raised a shout, and I leaped to my feet, for something that circled with the current was drifting down stream. We ran our hardest, and, for I was not strong yet, the others were standing very silent, with tense faces and staring eyes, when I rejoined them.
"Yon's Redmond," said Sergeant Mackay. "I was expecting him."
The object he pointed to slid slowly by abreast of us, and I felt a shock of physical nausea as I stared at it. At that distance it was without human semblance, a mere shapeless mass of sodden clothing, save for the faint white glimmer of a face; but the shock gave place to a fit of sullen fury. Heaven knows I cherished no anger against the unfortunate man. Indeed, from the beginning, I had regarded him as a mere helpless tool; but death had robbed me of my only weapon, and I remembered Lane's prediction that Redmond would be of little use to me if I found him.
"If one of ye has a lariat ye had better bring it," said Sergeant Mackay.
We followed the object down stream. It floated slowly, now half-submerged, now rising more buoyantly, with the blanched countenance turned towards the murky heavens, out of which the light was fading, until Steel, poising himself upon the bank, deftly flung a coupled lariat. The noose upon its end took hold, and I shrank backwards when we drew what it held ashore, for Redmond's face was ill to look upon, and seemed to mock me with its staring eyes.
"Stan' clear!" said the sergeant, perhaps feeling speech of any kind would be a relief, for nobody showed the least desire to crowd upon him. "If it had not been for the regulations a drop of whisky would have been acceptable, seeing that it's my painful duty to find out how he came by his end."