time. If the tug did not start her engines within the next few seconds
she must drive close down on him. Otherwise--but filled with the hope
of escape and the lust for revenge Black was willing to take the risk.

He hooked one knee around the brace, gripped it between his ankles and
slackened the grip of his hands. The topsails slid away from him, the
spray rushed up below, his feet struck the rail, and the next moment he
was down in utter blackness and conscious of a shock of icy cold water.
He rose gasping and swung around, buffeted in the vessel's eddying
wake. There was no shouting on board her, and, with a choking cry, he
struck out for the black shape of the tug, now only a short distance
away. Somebody heard and flung down a line. He clutched at it and, by
good fortune, grasped it. Head downward he was drawn on board by the
aid of a long boathook, and hauled, dripping, before the skipper.

"Did you fall or jump in?" asked the skipper.

"I jumped," confessed Black, putting a bold face on it, and the master
of the towboat laughed.

"Shanghaied, I guess!" he said. "Well, I don't blame you for showing
your grit. The master of that lumber wagon is a blame avaricious
insect! He beat us down until all we got out of him will hardly pay
for the coal we used--that's what he did. So if you slip ashore
quietly when we tie up, he'll think you pitched over making sail, and
I'll keep my mouth shut."

Accordingly it happened that next morning Black, who had left the
wooden city before daylight to tramp back to the bush, sat down to
consider his next move.

"There's one thing tolerably certain, Black Christy's drowned, and
he'll just stop drowned until it suits him," he decided. "Next, though
he's not over fond of it, there's lots of work for a good carpenter in
this country and newspapers are cheap. So when it's worth his while to
strike in with the Thurston Company and get even with the other side
he'll probably hear of it."

He laughed a little as he once more read the message on a strip of
pulpy paper somebody had slipped into his pocket.

"You are going to China for your health, and you had better stop there
if you want to keep clear of trouble."

Black Christy got upon his feet again and departed into the bush, where
he wandered for several weeks, building fences and splitting shingles
for the ranchers in return for food and shelter, until he found work
and wages at a saw-mill.

Shortly after