He would
return to Lac Bain. That was settled in his mind without argument.
Nothing could hold him back after what he had received that afternoon.
If the letter and the violet message had come to him from the end of the
earth it would have made no difference; his determination would have
been the same. He would return to Lac Bain--but how? That was the
question which puzzled him. He still had thirteen months of service
ahead of him. He was not in line for a furlough. It would take at least
three months of official red tape to purchase his discharge. These facts
rose like barriers in his way. It occurred to him that he might confide
in MacGregor, and that the inspector would make an opportunity for him
to return into the north immediately. MacGregor had the power to do
that, and he believed that he would do it. But he hesitated to accept
this last alternative.
And then, all at once. Sergeant Moody's words came back to him--"They've
got track of DeBar again, up near Lac la Biche." The idea that burst
upon him with the recalling of those words stopped Philip suddenly, and
he turned back toward the barracks. He had heard a great deal about
DeBar, the cleverest criminal in all the northland, and whom no man or
combination of men had been clever enough to catch. And now this man was
near Lac la Biche, in the Churchill and Lac Bain country.
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