So that was what Harry Karmack had told the girl. That was why the light of her wondrous eyes had gone out for him. Any added hate of his enemy that might have grown from this was lost in her statement that she believed. To make certain that she considered him guilty, he put the direct question.
"After what I've just seen—on top of all that was pointed out to me—I'm forced to believe," she said brokenly. "Go, before I take a vengeance that is not mine to take, but the Law's. Go—go!"
As broken as the gun he flung at Karmack, Sergeant Seymour gathered up his sidearms from the counter and stalked out of the Arctic's store room.
CHAPTER XI
THE SCARLET SPECIAL
Ten days after the battle between the sergeant and the factor, the quiet of Armistice camp was again upset, this time most unexpectedly by the arrival of the "scarlet special." A corporal of the Royal Mounted breezed in by dog team over the frozen wastes from far-away Athabaska, the end of rail gateway of the North, where English to some extent gives place to Cree.
That he brought no mail—beyond a sealed order bag for Sergeant Seymour—showed that the special's visit was as sudden as a telegram. But he did carry a late newspaper or two and several magazines that gave week-by-week gists of the world's news since Armistice last had heard from "Outside," so his unexpected arrival was more than welcome to the whites in the camp.
To the disappointment of Corporal Gaspard Le Blanc, the short, plump but doughty French-Canadian who had made the remarkable trip, Seymour was not at the post. The morning after the fight, a report had reached the detachment that a band of Eskimo on Skelly River were destitute. With Constable La Marr still convalescing from his accident, the sergeant had set out to investigate. His return was expected any hour of any day.
As the orders were sealed, the corporal to open them only when assured that something had happened to the ranking non-com to whom they were addressed, there seemed nothing to do but wait.
Factor Karmack was the first to call at headquarters. He met with a cold reception from La Marr, who naturally had sided with his superior on learning of the aspersion put upon the Force by the fur trader's insinuations in the O'Malley case.