"Any particular reason?"
"Don't look to me hardly like playin' the game. I'm ferninst West every turn of the road. He's crooked as a dog's hind laig. But it wouldn't be right square for me to spy on him. Different with you. That's what you're paid for. You're out to run him down any way you can. He knows that. It's a game of hide an' go seek between you an' him. Best man wins."
The red-coat assented at once. "Right you are, I'll get some one else." He rose to go. "See you later maybe."
Tom nodded. "Sorry I can't oblige, but you see how it is."
"Quite. I oughtn't to have asked you."
Beresford strode briskly out of the store.
Through the window Morse saw him a moment later in whispered conversation with Onistah. They were standing back of an outlying shed, in such a position that they could not be seen from the road.
CHAPTER XIII
THE CONSTABLE BORES THROUGH DIFFICULTIES
The early Northern dusk was falling when Beresford dropped into the store again. Except for two half-breeds and the clerk dickering at the far end of the building over half a dozen silver fox furs Morse had the place to himself.