"What's the trouble?" he asked. "Are you thinking of beating some one with that stick?"
Rayton laughed joylessly. "This is too bad!" he said. "Molly Canadian, the busy old idiot, brought this in to me only a few minutes ago. Silly old chump!"
"What is it? And who is Molly Canadian?"
"She's an old squaw—and a great pal of mine. This thing is a piece of a canoe pole."
"Ah! Piece of a pole. Why does it interest and depress you so?"
"She found it at the foot of the rapids in which young Marsh came to grief. Yesterday, she says. If you look at the broken end of it you'll notice that the surface is remarkably smooth for about halfway across."
"Ah! It has been cut! Cut halfway through! Do you think it is David's pole?"
"I am afraid it is the one he broke. It was found at the foot of the rapids."
Mr. Banks scratched his clean-shaven chin.
"Looks as if you had put your trust in a lame horse," he said.