Knowing of Talpers's friendliness for the rebellious element among the Indians, Lowell looked at the trader in surprise. "You didn't see any Indians doing this, did you, Talpers?" he asked. The trader hastened to qualify his remark, as it would not do to have the word get out among the Indians that he had attempted to throw the blame on them. "No--I ain't exactly sayin' that Injuns done it," said the trader, "but I ain't ever seen more signs pointin' in one direction." "Well, don't let signs get you so far off the right trail that you can't get back again," replied the agent, turning to help Tom Redmond and his deputy in the work of establishing the identity of the slain man. It was work that did not take long. Papers were found in the pockets indicating that the victim was Edward B. Sargent, of St. Louis. In the automobile was found clothing bearing St. Louis trademarks. "Judging from the balance in this checkbook," said the sheriff, "he was a man who didn't have to worry about financial affairs. Probably this is only a checking account, for running expenses, but there's thirty thousand to his credit." "He's probably some tourist on his way to the coast," observed the deputy, "and he thought he'd make a detour and see an Injun reservation. Somebody saw a good chance for a holdup, but he showed fight and got killed." "Nobody reported such a machine as going through the agency," offered Lowell. "The car is big enough and showy enough to attract attention anywhere." "I didn't see him go past my place," said Talpers. "And if my clerk'd seen him he'd have said somethin' about it." "Well, he was killed sometime yesterday--that's sure," remarked the sheriff. "He might have come through early in the morning and nobody saw him, or he might have hit White Lodge and the agency and Talpers's late at night and camped here along the Dollar Sign until morning and been killed when he started on. The thing of it is that this is as far as he got, and we've got to find the ones that's responsible. This kind of a killing is jest going to make the White Lodge Chamber of Commerce get up on its hind legs and howl. There's bound to be speeches telling how, just when we've about convinced the East that we've shook off our wild Western ways, here comes a murder that's wilder'n anything that's been pulled off since the trapper days." "Accordin' to my way of thinkin'," said Talpers, "that man wasn't tortured after he was staked down. Any one who knows anything about Injun character knows that when they pegged a victim out that way, they intended for him to furnish some amusement, such as having splinters stuck into him and bein' set afire by the squaws." "They probably thought they seen some one coming," said the sheriff, "and shot him after they got him tied down, and then made a quick getaway." "That man was shot before he was tied down," interposed Lowell quietly. "What makes you think that?" Redmond said quickly.