"A few miles. I'm bound upcountry—beyond the Barrens."
McTaggart felt again the strange thrill.
"Government?" he asked.
The stranger nodded.
"The—police, perhaps," persisted McTaggart.
"Why, yes—of course—the police," said the stranger, looking straight into the factor's eyes. "And now, m'sieu, as a very great courtesy to the Law I'm going to ask you to send a bullet through that beast's head before we go on. Will you? Or shall I?"
"It's the law of the line," said McTaggart, "to let a trap robber rot in the traps. And that beast was a devil. Listen—"
Swiftly, and yet leaving out none of the fine detail, he told of the weeks and months of strife between himself and Baree; of the maddening futility of all his tricks and schemes and the still more maddening cleverness of the beast he had at last succeeded in trapping.
"He was a devil—that clever," he cried fiercely when he had finished. "And now—would you shoot him, or let him lie there and die by inches, as the devil should?"
The stranger was looking at Baree. His face was turned away from McTaggart. He said: