TRAILING THE HALF-BREED Eli Horn paused in the enclosed porch to shoulder his provision pack, left there upon his arrival home earlier in the evening.

He was passing from the porch when Doctor Joe opened the door.
"Eli," said Doctor Joe, closing the door behind him, "may I have a word with you ?" "Aye, sir," and Eli stopped.
"I just wished to speak a word of warning," said Doctor Joe quietly.
"Be cautious, Eli, and do nothing you'll regret.

Don't be too hasty.
We suspect Indian Jake, but none of us knows certainly that he shot your father or took the silver fox skin." "There's no doubtin' he took un! Pop says he took un, and he knows.
I'm goin' to get the silver if I has to kill Injun Jake." Eli spoke in even, quiet tones, but with the dogged determination of the man trained to pit his powers of endurance against Nature and the wilderness.

He gave no suggestion of boastfulness, but rather of the man who has an ordinary duty to perform, and is bent upon doing it to the best of his ability.
"Don't you think you had better wait and start in the morning?
It's a nasty night to be out," Doctor Joe suggested.

"'Twill be hard to make your way to-night with the wind against you as well as the dark.