cheat," replied Dinsmore--"and three-quarters snake.
The gang he trained agin ye done what he told 'em to--they burned ye
out with him a-leadin' 'em. I watched him and know--see him with the
can 'fore the fire began. It's as plain as day, Mr. Thayor. Father's
right--yer life ain't safe till ye git to the cars."

Thayor's grizzled, unshaven jaw closed hard. He sat staring into the
fire, every muscle in his haggard face tense.

"There's men me and you know in these woods now," continued Dinsmore,
"who ain't no more to blame in this ornery business 'n I be."

Again Thayor looked up in surprise.

"I had hoped as much," he said slowly, shaking his head. "There
was not one of them, however, that came forward to help us--I am
excepting, you understand, your father, Freme, and Holcomb. I owe
them a debt of gratitude which I can never repay. Why have _you_ come,
Dinsmore?" he added, turning abruptly, with something of the briskness
of his old business-like manner.

"Because ye've been good to me," replied the hide-out; "that's why I
come; I wanted to do ye a good turn--I ain't got nothin' else to give
ye."

"Good to you--I don't understand."

"I come to thank ye, Mr. Thayor. I see ye once the day ye got the
buck. Father told me your name after ye'd gone. He and me eat up what
ye left, and I got the money ye left fer me--Myra Hathaway's takin'
care of it--she's got my leetle gal. Yes--I seen ye more 'n once. You
ain't never seen me--folks don't see me as a rule; but I've seen you
many a time when ye've stepped by me and I've been layin' hid out;
times when I'd starved if it hadn't been for him"--and he nodded
across the fire to Blakeman.

"I caught a partridge once he'd winged," he went on, "and give it
to him, seein' he was a city man and wouldn't know me. He see I was
poor--thought I had run away from some gov'ment place and I let it go
at that. He used to give me what was left from the kitchen; he'd come
out and leave it hid for me 'long 'bout dark--your hired man asleep
over thar, I'm talkin' 'bout. He said you wouldn't mind--not if you
knowed how bad off I was for a snack to eat. I might hev stole it from
ye more'n once, but I ain't never stole nothin'--I ain't a thief, Mr.
Thayor."

"Why didn't you come to me?" asked Thayor, after a moment's pause.
He was strangely moved at the man's story. "I would have helped you,
Dinsmore. I have told Holcomb repeatedly I wanted to help you."

"So Billy told me, and so did m