THE
LONE TRAIL
BY
LUKE ALLAN
HERBERT JENKINS LIMITED
3 YORK STREET LONDON SW.1
A
HERBERT
JENKINS'
BOOK
Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London
CONTENTS
I. THE MURDER AT THE T-INVERTED R
II. MORTON STAMFORD: TENDERFOOT
III. CORPORAL FAIRCLOTH ARRIVES
IV. THE SHOTS FROM THE BUSHES
V. DAKOTA RUNS AMOK
VI. STAMFORD MAKES A DECISION
VII. AT THE H-LAZY Z
VIII. A LAMB AMONG THE LIONS
IX. COCKNEY'S MYSTERIOUS RIDE
X. STAMFORD'S SURPRISES COMMENCE
XI. THE FOSSIL-HUNTERS
XII. STAMFORD GOES FOSSIL-HUNTING
XIII. THE CONSPIRACY
XIV. RIDERS OF THE NIGHT
XV. ONE MYSTERY LESS
XVI. AN ADVENTURE IN THE MOONLIGHT
XVII. THE HOWL OF STRANGE DOGS
XVIII. A CATCH OF MORE THAN FISH
XIX. TWO PAIRS
XX. THE SECRET VALLEY
XXI. THE RAFT IN THE CANYON
XXII. PINK EYE AND THE ENGLISH SADDLE
XXIII. PREPARATIONS TO FLIT
XXIV. THE FIGHT IN THE RANCH-HOUSE
XXV. COCKNEY'S STORY
XXVI. THE CHASE AMONG THE CLIFFS
XXVII. THE BATTLE OF THE CLIFFS
THE LONE TRAIL
CHAPTER I
THE MURDER AT THE T-INVERTED R
Inspector Barker, of the Royal North-WestMounted Police, raised his frowningeyes from the weekly report he was scrawling,to watch absent-mindedly the arrival ofthe Calgary express as it roared out fromthe arches of the South Saskatchewan bridgeand pulled up at the station.
It was a morning ritual of the Inspector's.Three hundred and sixty-five days of the year,relatively at the same hour—if Rocky Mountainslides, foothill floods, and prairiesnowstorms permitted—the same train broke inon the mid-forenoon dullness of the "cow-town"of Medicine Hat; and the same pair of officialeyes followed it dully but with the determinationof established convention, clinging to it offand on during its twenty minutes' stop for afresh engine and supplies to carry it on itsfour days' run eastward.
But on Mondays the transcontinental wasfavoured with a more concentrated attention.On that morning Inspector Barker preparedhis weekly report. A pile of letters and staffreports scattered his desk; a smaller pile,the morning's m