knows
too much. Go on and find a place to bunk. I'm follerin'."

"You won't croak anybody while I'm hangin' around! I'm tellin' you
I've got troubles enough on my hands already without chasin' a noose.
I'm goin' to save my neck anyhow, and I ain't goin' to be mixed up in
any croakin'," muttered the one called Hank, as he turned and plunged
forward again through the darkness.

What "croaking" meant Jamie did not in the least know, but he
suspected that it referred to something not in the least pleasant for
himself. He was too tired, however, to think or care a great deal as
he was dragged on, stumbling in the darkness over fallen logs, and
bumping into trees.

It seemed an interminable time to Jamie before the man ahead again
stopped, and said decisively:

"We'll camp here. We've gone far enough, and I ain't goin' another
rod. We're a good five mile from them fellers you're afraid of."

"All right, I'm satisfied. You've got the axe, go ahead and make a
cover," said Bill. "Kid, you come with me and help break branches for
the bed. Don't you loaf neither. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, sir," answered Jamie timidly.

It was a relief to stop walking and to feel the man relax the
relentless grip upon his arm, and Jamie, meekly enough, began breaking
boughs with the man always within striking distance, as though afraid
that he might run away and make his escape, though Jamie was quite too
tired for that.

The man with the axe cut a stiff pole and trimmed it. Then he lopped
off the lower branches of two spruce trees that stood a convenient
distance apart, and laid the pole on a supporting limb of each tree,
about four feet from the ground. This was to form the ridge of a
lean-to shelter. Poles were now cut and formed into a sloping roof by
resting one end upon the ridge pole, the other upon the ground, and
the poles covered with a thick thatch of branches to exclude the snow.

When this was completed a quantity of dry wood was cut, and in front
of the lean-to a fire was lighted.

While the man with the axe was engaged in thatching the roof and
lighting the fire and gathering wood, the other turned his attention
to the preparation of the bed.

"Don't you try to break away, now!" he growled at Jamie. "I'll shoot
you like I would a rat if you do. Just stand there and hand me them
branches, and shake the snow off'n 'em first, too."

Running was the last thing that Jamie contemplated doing, even though
there had been no dan