That Rossland had discovered Mary Standish was not dead was the least astonishing factor in the new development.

The information might easily have reached him through Sandy McCormick or his wife Ellen.

The astonishing thing was that he had in some mysterious way picked up the trail of her flight a thousand miles northward, and the still more amazing fact that he had dared to follow her and reveal himself openly at his range.

His heart pumped hard, for he knew Rossland must be directly under Graham's orders.
Then came the resolution to take Stampede into his confidence and to reveal all that had happened on the day of his departure for the mountains.

He proceeded to do this without equivocation or hesitancy, for there now pressed upon him a grim anticipation of impending events ahead of them.
Stampede betrayed no astonishment at the other's disclosures.