MacPherson ducked quickly and Bud's boot-heel hit the wall behind him. "Leave her name out of it!" snapped Bud. "I don't know a blamed thing that happened, Mac." "Ye'll no deny ye were drunk, will ye?" "On one drink?" snorted Bud. "It must ha' been a lar-r-ge one, lad." MacPherson shook his gray head wonderingly. "Mebbe ye were usin' a washtub, eh?" Bud shook his head and spat dryly. "My tongue is plum corroded, Mac. What did the inspector say?" MacPherson shook his head slowly. "What could he say, lad? Ye have disgraced the for-r-ce; so he says. Don't ye know that the Royal Northwest Mounted----?" "Aw shut up!" wailed Bud. "What don't I know about rules and regulations? Ain't I had 'em fired at my head ever since I dressed myself up like a Royal chinook salmon and swore to never pull a gun except in self defense? I didn't ask yuh for a ruling, you long-faced old leather-knees--I asked yuh what the inspector said." "I'll not repeat it," declared MacPherson. "He sent McKay out on your detail and told me to sober ye up long enough for-r-r ye to answer a few questions. Dr. Clarey was the one that found ye--him and Joe Burgoyne." "Yeah?" Bud grimaced and scratched his touseled hair nervously. "Clarey, eh? What was he doin' up there?" "A man got half killed in a brawl, so he says. Burgoyne came after Dr. Clarey, and they found ye maudling drunk, and with ye was the little Marie, and she was----" "Aw, shut up," snorted Bud, as he got to his feet. "I'm goin' in and have it over with. If Joe Burgoyne sticks a knife into me I hope it'll be in the stummick; I've no use for that part of me." Bud kicked the door shut behind him and went to face Inspector Grandon; after which he wrote his resignation. Grandon had said little during the session. Bud denied everything except taking the drink of liquor, but the evidence was all against him. But just now Bud was not worrying about his discharge nor about disgracing the force; he was thinking about little Norah Clarey. She was a proud little brown-eyed miss, with raven tresses. Black Irish, MacPherson called her. And Bud's whole future was built around Norah Clarey, whether she knew it or not. Now, he knew that she had heard from her father of what he had done, and, if he had not misjudged her, she would never speak to him again. All of which caused Bud to have a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, along with the rest of his internal misery. The fact that both Burgoyne and old Louis Beaudet desired his scalp did not worry Bud in the least. Old Louis was the proprietor of the store at Eagle Nest, the R. N. W. M. P. headquarters. There was little more than the store and the buildings used by the Mounted, but old Louis did a fair business. Mrs. Beaudet was a Cree squaw, very fat and very indifferent.