be safe and sound and as good as ever," said the man as he
dropped from the lower limb of the tree to the ground. "Let's open her
up and have a drink, Hank."

"I'll go you, Bill. My throat feels as long as a camel's and as dry as
a snake's back."

Jamie could see the man called Bill stooping over the small bag to
untie it, and presently draw forth a bottle.

"Here she be, and the other three bottles too," said Bill. "You open
her up, Hank, while I see if the roll is there and the other stuff."

Bill ran his arm in the bag.

"Yes, it's all right," he assured. "I guess the Captain didn't miss
the money before the ship sailed, and there ain't any way of his
gettin' word in to the boss about it now before next spring. We're
safe enough to take it back and make our divvy. There won't be any
search made for it now."

"Naw, we're safe enough now." Hank tipped the bottle to his lips, and
handed it to Bill. "The boss ain't missed his liquor neither, and
there won't be any to miss pretty soon the way you're pulin' at it."

"I don't know's I took any more'n you did," said Bill petulantly,
corking the bottle and returning it to the bag. "It was a good move to
play safe anyhow and hide the swag until we made sure the boss
wouldn't go searching through our stuff for it. I don't know's he'd
suspicion us any more'n the rest of the crew, but he'd search
everybody's stuff if the Captain had give him a tip."

"You bet he would!" agreed Hank. "We just played in luck right
through. They won't blame us for that other job, will they? They ain't
likely to go makin' a search for that, be they?"

"Naw!" said Bill. "That other feller, whatever his name is, has got
'em on his trail for that. We ain't in it. They'll never suspicion us
for that. We made a slick job of that."

"Well, let's beat it back," said Hank. "It's snowin' and it's goin' to
snow hard. The sooner we gets back to camp the better we'll be off."

Bill swung the bag over his shoulder, when suddenly he stopped and
exclaimed:

"What's that?"

Jimmy had sneezed, and again he sneezed.

"Some sneak in that there tree!" and Bill with an oath dropped his bag
and seized his rifle, which he had leaned against the tree in which
Jimmy was perched. "I'll put a bullet up there! That'll settle that
feller, whoever he is!"

CHAPTER XIV

THE TWO DESPERADOS

"Don't shoot, sir! It's just me!" Jamie piped in terror from the tree.

"It's only a kid!" Bill swore an oath o