ll use of the property of
the Government; and Jason, as a man whose great muscles were thrown
away on the paltry work of prison-cleaning, was set to delving
sulphur on the banks of the hot springs.

Now this change for the better in the condition of Red Jason led to a
change for the worse in that of Michael Sunlocks, for when Jason was
relieved of his housekeeping and of the iron collar and bell that had
been the badge of it, Sunlocks, as a malcontent, was ordered to clean
Jason's house as well as his own. But so bad a change led to the
great event in the lives of both, the meeting of these men face to
face, and the way of it was this:

One day, the winter being then fully come, the mornings dark, and
some new fallen snow lying deep over the warm ground of the stockade,
Michael Sunlocks had been set to clearing away from the front of the
log house on the south before Jason and his housemates had come out
of it. His bodily strength had failed him greatly by this time, his
face was pale, his large eyes were swollen and bloodshot, and under
the heavy labor of that day his tall, slight figure stooped. But a
warder stood over him leaning on a musket and urging him on with
words that were harder to him than his hard work. His bell rang as he
stooped, and rang again as he rose, and at every thrust of the spade
it rang, so that when Jason and his gang came out of the sickening
house, he heard it. And hearing the bell, he remembered that he
himself had worn it, and, wondering who had succeeded him in the vile
office whereof he had been relieved, he turned to look upon the man
who was clearing the snow.

There are moments when the sense of our destiny is strong upon us,
and this was such a moment to Red Jason. He saw Michael Sunlocks for
the first time, but without knowing him, and yet at that sight every
pulse beat and every nerve quivered. A great sorrow and a great pity
took hold of him. The face he looked upon moved him, the voice he
heard thrilled him, and by an impulse that he could not resist he
stopped and turned to the warder leaning on the musket and said:

"Let me do this man's work. It would be nothing to me. He is ill.
Send him up to the hospital."

"March!" shouted his own warders, and they hustled him along, and at
the next minute he was gone. Then the bell stopped for an instant,
for Michael Sunlocks had raised his head to look upon the man who had
spoken. He did not see Jason's face, but his own face soften