banks, and
she got it in such a sure-fire nice way that I'd have eat soap out of
her hand if she'd offered it to me. Then, sort of sly and soft-like, she
began asking questions about John Graham--and I woke up."

"John Graham!" Alan repeated the name.

"Yes, John Graham. And I had a lot to tell. After that I tried to get
away from her. But she caught me just as I was sneakin' aboard a
down-river boat, and cool as you please--with her hand on my arm--she
said she wasn't quite ready to go yet, and would I please come and help
her carry some stuff she was going to buy. Alan, it ain't a lie what I'm
going to tell you! She led me up the street, telling me what a wonderful
idea she had for surprisin' _you_. Said she knew you would return to the
Range by the Fourth of July and we sure must have some fireworks. Said
you was such a good American you'd be disappointed if you didn't have
'em. So she took me in a store an' bought it out. Asked the man what
he'd take for everything in his joint that had powder in it. Five
hundred dollars, that was what she paid. She pulled a silk something out
of the front of her dress with a pad of hundred-dollar bills in it an
inch think. Then she asked _me_ to get them firecrackers 'n' wheels 'n'
skyrockets 'n' balloons 'n' other stuff down to the boat, and she asked
me just as if I was a sweet little boy who'd be tickled to death to
do it!"

In the excitement of unburdening himself of a matter which he had borne
in secret for many days, Stampede did not observe the effect of his
words upon his companion. Incredulity shot into Alan's eyes, and the
humorous lines about his mouth vanished when he saw clearly that
Stampede was not drawing upon his imagination. Yet what he had told him
seemed impossible. Mary Standish had come aboard the _Nome_ a fugitive.
All her possessions she had brought with her in a small hand-bag, and
these things she had left in her cabin when she leaped into the sea.
How, then, could she logically have had such a sum of money at Fairbanks
as Stampede described? Was it possible the Thlinkit Indian had also
become her agent in transporting the money ashore on the night she
played her desperate game by making the world believe she had died? And
was this money--possibly the manner in which she had secured it in
Seattle--the cause of her flight and the clever scheme she had put into
execution a little later?

He had been thinking crime, and his face grew hot at the sin of it.