hey?"

"What was his special characteristic?"

The question was drawled coolly.

"He kicked when ye tried to drive him with a whip and he bit and
squealed when ye tried to coax him along with sweet apples. So if ye
won't neither lead nor drive, then out with it man fashion."

"I simply demand my liberty."

"And what be ye goin' to do with it?"

"That is my own affair."

The two men sat and looked at each other a long time, the old man's
choler rising the higher from the fact that it had been so long
repressed. The young man's glance did not fall before this furious
regard.

At last Ward quivered his fists above his head, stamped around the
little room and went to the door.

"You've got a few hours to do a little more thinkin' in, and then you
look out for yourself, for it's up to you, you--," he slammed and locked
the door and went away, cursing horribly.

CHAPTER ELEVEN--THE BEAR THAT WALKED LIKE A MAN

That in this age of law and order Gideon Ward meditated any actual
violence to his person Parker found it hard to believe as he sat there
in the "wangan" and pondered on his situation. He could not avoid
the conclusion that at heart Colonel Ward was a coward. But sometimes
circumstances that a brave man will not suffer to rule him will drive a
coward into crime.

It was a long and dreary day for him.

From the window he saw Colonel Ward go scurrying away on a jumper,
evidently bound for the choppings.

The cook and cookee surveyed his prison at a distance. They seemed to
have no desire to come into close contact with a man of whom they had
heard such sinister reports.

Hackett, who hung about camp, apparently to serve as general "striker"
and man of all work, brought food at noon and left it without engaging
in conversation.

Parker made a dull day of it.

After the chill dusk had fallen and he had stuffed his rusty little
stove with all the wood it would hold, he heard the men returning.

A colloquy that occurred after supper interested him.

He heard Colonel Ward bellow at some one who was evidently advancing
toward the wangan.

"Here you, Connick, where are you goin'?"

"Just to pass a word with the lad," the man replied.

"Have you got your knittin'?" squalled Ward sarcastically. "There's no
call for you to go passin' talk around that wangan camp, Connick. You
come away from it."

But when Connick spoke again it was evident he had not retired.

"It's only right to let him come