"You've made good, Mason, an' I'm obliged," he said, after a prolonged silence. "Say," he went on, glancing at his watch, "there's just four and a half hours to the time we start back for the camp. Go over to Dawson's shack and get a shake-down. Get what sleep you can. I'll call you in time. Meanwhile I'll see to this fellow," he added, indicating the prisoner. "We'll have a heap of time for talk on the way to the camps."
The overseer's eyes lit.
"Are you going up to the camps?" he inquired eagerly.
"Yes, surely. We'll have to straighten this out." Then a sudden thought flashed through his mind. "There's the parson and——!"
Mason nodded.
"Yes. They've got my shack. There's plenty of arms and ammunition. I left parson to hurry back to——"
"He wasn't with her when you left?"
There was a sudden, fierce light in Dave's eyes. Mason shook his head, and something of the other's apprehension was in his voice as he replied—
"He was going back there."
Dave's eyes were fiercely riveted upon Truscott's face.