"Your bag was the only thing on the wagon that Bart thought might be of use to him," she admitted with an air of frankness that was convincing. "He brought it here—to a room he was supposed to have been renting from me—in the half story above the restaurant. When I found him there trying on the suit, he told me about his hard luck."
The sergeant felt that the crux of the interview was approaching, but meant to get at it gradually, retaining the full advantage of the confidence he had established.
"The idea of impersonating an officer of the Mounted—was that merely to assure him a getaway for the Tabor killing?" he asked.
"Partly to delay an investigation of that by pretending to have undertaken it himself; more to help him in another enterprise he had in view up the creeks."
Considering a moment, Seymour ventured:
"Having failed in landing the bank currency, he was going after gold in the raw, perhaps?"
"He told me there was something richer than gold——"
The noisy opening of the street door interrupted. They glanced up to see Cato entering. Looking like a horrid gnome, with his long arms dangling almost to the ground from his misshapen shoulders, the ox driver advanced to a stool one removed from Seymour. Upon this he pulled himself, after giving his neighbor the merest of nods. From the odor of his breath, he evidently had fortified himself for this untimely visit with bottled courage. He leered at the widow as if he considered himself assured of welcome now that his attractive rival had been eliminated.
"'Tis a starving man you see before you, Mary, Queen of Scots," he declared. "But a starving man with a jingle in his pockets. With all the goings-on in camp, I'm rejoiced that the Home is open for serving meals that is meals."
Recalling the hope which Cato had expressed on the street a short while before, Seymour wondered how long he would have to wait for an opportunity to finish his interview. He attacked the steak that had been neglected, hoping that the old man would be too engrossed in his "chances" to notice that the meat was cold.