anything incriminating." "What—what do you mean?" she gasped. Dexter looked absent-mindedly at his pipe, seemed to have forgotten what he meant to do with it, and returned it to his pocket. "You will come with me," he said mildly. "In the name of His Majesty the King, I arrest you." CHAPTER IX GO GET 'EM! The north wind rattled among the dry branches of the brookside junipers, but for a space of ten seconds no other sound broke the straining silence that had fallen upon them. The girl stood motionless, gazing vacantly at Dexter, finding nothing whatever to say. "I'm not making an accusation," he told her. "But we have to hold you for the time being as a witness. Perhaps it won't amount to more than that." She swayed a little, as he had sometimes seen a man reel at the first numbing shock of a pistol bullet. But as he watched with troubled eyes, he saw the slender figure straighten with the quick resiliency of a birch sapling in a wind. Her firm chin suddenly lifted, and she spoke slowly, in a voice strongly controlled. "What have I done?" she asked. "What right have you to detain me?" Dexter did not reply. The right or wrong of the law's might was a question policemen wisely would not discuss. "We'll start whenever you're ready," he said. "But—but—" she protested, fighting to keep back her tears, "you wouldn't dare! It would be too high-handed! Why, even the mounted can't go about arresting people right and left, for no reason at all." "Colonel Devreaux is waiting for us," he remarked with official politeness. "It isn't far, not more than a quarter of a mile from here." "Oh, no!" she cried, and for just a moment she could not help showing him how badly scared she was. "Don't you understand? I can't go. You mustn't make me! You mustn't! You don't know what you're doing!" "If you could convince Colonel Devreaux that we have no reason to take you to Fort Dauntless," he said with a trifle less austerity, "why, of course, that would end the matter." "Convince him of what?" she demanded.
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