CHAPTER V
NICK-BY-NIGHT
Percy Rapson discovered the lumbering wagon by the cloud of dust which rose above the pine-trees half-way along the valley. He reined in his broncho and waited on the ridge of the hill until his two companions in the uniform of the North-West Mounted Police should rejoin him.
The loud crack of a teamster's whip had told him that there were strangers on the trail beyond this intervening hill.
"There goes the outfit that made the track we've been following up all the afternoon," he announced, pointing in the direction of the cloud of white dust. "Whose is it, I wonder?" he questioned, speaking more particularly to the one who wore a triple chevron on the arm of his faded red tunic. "Looks rather unusual, doesn't it, Silk?"
Sergeant Silk drew down the wide brim of his hat, to shield his eyes from the glare of the setting sun, and contemplated the distant vehicle with its white canvas roof and its plodding team of mules.
"I expect it's a party of prospectors going west to the diggings," remarked Trooper Medlicott, riding up to his side.