lows must depend upon circumstances."

"Noxy, will ye answer me one question?"

"I will."

[Illustration: "GIVE ME YOUR HAND ON THAT."]

"When ye lave here will ye be going back to Kit Woodford and Graff
Miller?"

The eyes of the young man flashed and, with an earnestness that seemed
deadly in its intensity, he said hoarsely:

"No! never! I'll die first!"

"Give me yer hand on that!"

It seemed as if the grip would crush the clasping fingers. The pressure
continued for nearly a minute, while the two looked fixedly into each
other's eyes. The pledge had been made and into each heart stole the
warm, irradiating glow that God gives to all the children of men when
they break loose from evil and cling to that which is good.

And then the young man gave Mike his confidence. Aunt Maggie, with a tact
that was creditable to her, left them together most of the forenoon and
their talk was comparatively free from interruption.

As Noxon had hinted, he was the eldest son of parents who were in
prosperous circumstances. He did not give their name nor place of
residence, for it was unnecessary, but he admitted he had been wayward
from early boyhood. He longed for wild adventure, and caused his family
grief and anguish by his persistent wrongdoing. Finally, when he had
matriculated at Yale, he ran away from home, taking what funds he could
steal and fully resolved upon a life of sin.

"If there were pirates to-day, as there used to be, I should have striven
to become the chief of a crew that flew the black flag, but I had to give
that up. Some humorist has said that when a man starts to go to the devil
he finds everything greased. So it proved with me. I fell in with Graff
Miller, who, though he is about my age, has been a burglar for several
years. I never suspected it until he found I was hunting for such a
companion, when he told me of his partnership with Kit Woodford. In my
vanity, I had shown how easy it was for me to open one of the
old-fashioned combination safes, by detecting the working of the
mechanism inside. This made me invaluable to them, and they proposed that
I should become the third member of the gang. I jumped at the chance.
Since Miller told me they used aliases instead of their right names, I
took the one by which you know me.

"Their plan was to visit different points in the south of Maine, where
there had been a number of post office robberies, and use me to open the
safes. I was delighted with th