e fire start; I see some fellers from
whar I was run across the road; thar was more of 'em sneakin' off back
to the camp. They was someways off from me, but I could see 'em plain.
I'd hev got to ye then but I dassent run no risk; thar's a reward out
on me dead or alive. Bimeby I see ye all cross the brook and I knowed
ye was safe and that father'd do the best he knowed how fer ye. When
it come night I begun to travel, hopin' to strike yer tracks, but the
fire cut me off and I had to lay hid till the wind shifted. Soon's I
see it was safe to travel I come along huntin' for ye and father. 'T
warn't till I come through the swamp at Bear Pond that I struck yer
tracks--seen 'em plain then and the way ye was a-goin'. Long 'bout
four o'clock to-day I heared some fellers' voices ahead of me down in
a holler. Then I see smoke and knowed they was camped close by. Bimeby
I crawled out from whar I was hid and clum a tree. I see 'em plain
then--six of 'em; they was eatin' dinner--all of 'em lumber jacks from
the lower shanty; one was a Frenchy from his talk. Thar warn't none of
'em I knowed in perticlar 'cept Eph Edmunds, and he was layin'
drunk 'longside the fire. I heared one of 'em say thar warn't no use
follerin' ye further; that ye'd most likely got to the cars. Then
another feller says, says he, "I tell ye we've _got_ to find him; 't
won't do to let him git away--there'll be hell to pay."

Thayor shook his head gloomily.

"What have I done, Dinsmore, that I should be hunted even like you?"
he sighed. For some moments the hide-out did not speak. Finally he
continued:

"I had a reason for what I done," and a strange glitter came into his
eyes. "See here, Mr. Thayor, you're human and maybe you'll understand;
I'm goin' to tell ye the truth. I give Bailey all the chance in the
world; I even come to him like a friend and says to him what's
mine ain't yours; I ain't never troubled ye nor your woman--we was
happy--me and my wife, 'fore he begun to put notions in her head. 'T
warn't long 'fore she begun to think thar warn't nobody like Bailey.
He kep' store then close by whar we lived, and he give her most
anythin' she wanted. She called it 'credit'.

"One day Bailey went off to Montreal, where Bergstein had a place
fixed up for her. I'd been off trappin' up Big Shanty, and when I come
back home next night she was gone. She didn't come back for most a
week, and when she come I see she was drunk. Bailey come back the next
day. I so