Hardley seemed to relish supplying the details, even though he had to whisper them. Apparently he had forgotten that one of his confidants was an utter stranger both to him and to the camp, one whose name even he did not know. His was country-official vanity advanced to the nth degree.
"Dr. Pratt dug out the bullet, which fixed the brand of the gun with which the deed was done. Then I've got a half-breed boy on my staff who's keen as a Gordon setter in the bush. He found the horse track of the two from the scene of the crime. Now I'm looking for a man with a 30-30 repeater and a horse that's shy on shoes."
Surprised that Hardley should have shown so much initiative, and apprehensive that he was getting too near "home" for comfort, Seymour framed a diverting question.
"What do you know about the chap who was killed?"
"You mean this last one—Staff-Sergeant Seymour?" asked the deputy in turn, but merely as a preface, not waiting for an answer. "Kirby of the First Bank has heard of him. Says he was nicknamed 'Sergeant Scarlet' up in the Northwest territories, and is guilty of some of the hardest patrols ever made. He must have been a regular fighting machine. Autopsy proved that."
Sergeant Scarlet! That was the nickname Moira had given him! But others, to be sure, had used it before his beautiful Irisher. Perhaps his reputation as a man-getter had spread further than he knew.
Anyway, his chance to check up on Widow Caswell had arrived sooner than he expected. He showed casual but sufficient interest in the disclosures mentioned.
"The sergeant had been under fire before, and more than once," declared Hardley. "The doctor found a silver plate bracing his spine high up between the shoulders. And, would you believe it, there was a dent in that plate which looked as if he'd been hit in the identical repair spot by some later bullet!"
"Checked to a T," thought Seymour of the widow's tale.
He became more than ever anxious to be clear of the talkative deputy. With all his false surmises, the natural-born bungler had corralled some accurate information and might make a deal of trouble for him. At first chance he got back to his room.