James Henderson did not reply. He looked around to find one of the men who had taken care of McEwan’s remains and saw George McKay sitting against the wall.

‘George. We will make the grave by the other men. I will conduct the funeral tomorrow at noon. Perhaps you could ask some men to dig the hole in the morning.’

George nodded and bowed his head slightly.

‘Did you not hear us, Reverend? Mr Sitconski says …’

‘I do not care to hear what Mr Sitconski thinks, Mr Muir. You may take it from me you are in no danger. The Kinchuinicks are as horrified as you that our engineer has met with such a disgusting and mysterious death.’

‘Aye. Mysterious is the word, Reverend. If it was not the work of the heathens, then who?’ Muir was adamant.

Henderson looked directly at the trapper who was watching the men with detached interest. The man’s face was as odd as his speech, but Henderson could not find a reason for his discomfort. He tore his eyes away and looked back at Muir. ‘We have been so befuddled by our own fevered imaginings, sickened by occult nonsense, perhaps we may never know. We are men of reason, Mr Muir, and yet we have been talking of animals who speak and demons that live in rock. Aye, and I have suffered perhaps the worst of you all. But I am cured of my brain fever now, and we must start to reason like the civilized beings we are. After all, it may even be someone unknown to us. Mr Sitconski has proved we are not alone out here as we thought. Perhaps a madman is loose in the wilderness, and the Indians are at as much risk as we.’

Muir was not convinced and Sitconski sat with what Henderson could swear was an amused twinkle in his peculiar blue eyes.

Henderson challenged the trapper. ‘You disagree, I see.’

‘I do, sir. I believe you should beat the truth out of the hound.’

‘So you would have us go to their camp and torture their chief until he confesses? Speaking now as a member of the church, we stopped such practices many centuries ago. We no longer burn witches either, sir.’

‘But you still hang murderers.’

‘After it has been proved that they are guilty.’

Sitconski shrugged in his big coat. ‘Do as you please. I would not sleep sound here.’

‘Then you do not have to.’ Henderson turned and left the long, dark cabin. He could hear the murmur begin even as he pushed open the door to leave. This strange man was playing to the gallery of frightened and confused men and for some reason Henderson could not bear to look at him further.