ved a hand to
him.

Prescott felt suddenly limp and nerveless; now that help was near at
hand, he wanted to sit down; but he held on until he limped into the hut,
where two men stood awaiting him. They were strong, weather-beaten
fellows, dressed in quaintly patched garments, and they looked
good-humored.

"Come right in," said one. "Pull that box up to the fire and sit down."

Prescott was glad to obey, and when he had taken off his pack he looked
about the shack. It was substantially built: stones and soil had been
used in its construction as well as boards and bark. It was warmed by a
big open fire and contained a table, besides a few tubs and cases which
served as seats. A bunk neatly made of split boards and filled with
spruce twigs and swamp hay ran along one end.

"Can you take me in for a day or two?" he asked. "I've hurt my foot."

"Sure," said the second man. "I noticed you were walking lame. We're well
stocked in groceries and Steve got a deer a day or two ago."

"How did you get your stores?"

"The contractor brought them up. There was quite a camp here; company
putting in all the preliminary work that could be done with the shovel.
They shut down when the frost came, but we figured we'd stay on, and took
over part of the supplies. The boss had more truck than he could pack
down to the other camps."

"Then there's nobody else about the place?"

"No, sir," said the first man; "they're all gone. It's kind of lonely,
but we're doing some chopping for the road, and we'll be right here with
money saved when work begins in spring. Bought a piece of fruit land,
part on mortgage, at a snap, and with good luck we'll have it clear when
we go back."

The short explanation supplied a clue to the characters of the men, who
with an eye to the future preferred to face the rigors of the north
rather than to spend the winter hanging round the saloons on the warmer
coast.

"Well," inquired the other, "where did you come from?"

Prescott mentioned the last camp he had visited and gave them a few
particulars about his journey.

"And so you came down the Long Bench--pretty tough proposition that! And
kept the trail on short rations!" one of his hosts remarked. "Suppose you
take a smoke, and I'll get supper a little earlier."

Before long he was given a share of a simple but abundant meal, and after
it was over sat talking with his hosts. It was dark outside now, but
although the men had run out of oil for the l