"Me!" he drawled. "What d'ye mean?" At the insolent tone Ross's blood boiled. It hummed through his ears, deafening him to the sound of his own voice. What he said he never could recall beyond the general knowledge that he accused Sandy of the theft of the dynamite and of his own and Leslie's abduction across the mountains. And, when he paused to catch his breath and steady his voice, Sandy was looking him over with an amused grin which maddened him. "Now, ain't that a likely story?" he inquired. "Kept ye a prisoner fer six months not five miles from Camp on a trail that can be follered at any time in the year! Ha, ha!" Bill Travers grinned faintly. The other man turned away with the corners of his mouth twitching, while Sandy went on: "And as fer Weston, he went to Missoury the day after we left Medder Creek, and there he is now fer all I've heard." Again Sandy's laugh rang out as he added: "That story won't hold water. Why didn't ye make up a----" Here Waymart appeared in the doorway of the shack. He scowled at Ross, but his peremptory words were aimed at Sandy: "See here! If we're goin' t' send that bundle down by Grasshopper we've got t' make lively tracks in here, and ye ought t' know it!" "Keep yer hair on tight, Mart," laughed Sandy. He turned, nevertheless, toward the door. As he did so, he mechanically withdrew his hands from his pockets and Ross saw something which at once arrested his attention. The middle finger of Sandy's right hand was gone! In a flash, memory showed Ross the four blood streaks on the trunk of the spruce with the second streak the deepest in color. [Illustration: YOU'VE PAID FOR IT.] With his anger still burning he snatched off his glove and held up his right hand triumphantly, the middle finger projecting. "Well, anyway," he cried, "Leslie ain't a bad shot. We may never prove that you put us in that hole, but you've paid for it, nevertheless!" Sandy involuntarily doubled his right hand into a fist. He caught his under lip between his teeth and sent Ross a black look as, wordlessly, he entered the shack and slammed the door behind him, leaving Ross to tell the story of Leslie's shot to two interested and excited men. "That accounts fer it," confirmed Bill Travers. "Sandy and Waymart they come up from Cody along in February and when they clumb int' th' stage goin' back, Sandy's hand was tied up. Next thing I knowed when they come up with me t' other day, that finger was off clean to the hand, but Sandy hain't never spoken of it." Ross, leaving Bill to talk the matter over with his companions, went on rapidly now down the canon, his eyes narrowed and his chin protruding doggedly. One disagreeable scene was ended, and he was, perhaps, facing another. "I ought to be sorry that Sandy lost a finger but--hanged if I am!" he burst out loud. He was anxious to have Leslie know the result of his random shot.