ng in a wide circle, so that they
came up on that forest side of the cabin where there was no window. And
here Jolly Roger knelt down beside Peter again, and whispered to him.

"You stay here, Pied-Bot. Understand? You stay here."

He pressed him down gently with his hand, so that Peter understood.
Then, slinking low, and swift as a cat, Jolly Roger ran to the end of
the cabin where there was no window. With his head close to the ground
he peered out cautiously at the door. It was closed. Then he looked at
the windows. To the west the curtains were up, as he had left them. And
to the east--

A whimsical smile played at the corners of his mouth. Those curtains
he had kept tightly drawn. One of them was down now. But the other was
raised two inches, so that one hidden within the cabin could watch the
approach from the trail!

He drew back, and under his breath he chuckled. He recognized the sheer
nerve of the thing, the clever handiwork of it. Someone was inside the
cabin, and he was ready to stake his life it was Cassidy, the Irish
bloodhound of "M" Division. If anyone ferreted him out way down here on
the edge of civilization he had gambled with himself that it would be
Cassidy. And Cassidy had come--Cassidy, who had hung like a wolf to his
trails for three years, who had chased him across the Barren Lands, who
had followed him up the Mackenzie, and back again--who had fought with
him, and starved with him, and froze with him, yet had never brought him
to prison. Deep down in his heart Jolly Roger loved Cassidy. They had
played, and were still playing, a thrilling game, and to win that game
had become the life's ambition of each. And now Cassidy was in there,
confident that at last he had his man, and waiting for him to step into
the trap.

To Jolly Roger, in the face of its possible tragedy, there was a
deep-seated humor in the situation. Three times in the last year and a
half had he turned the tables on Cassidy, leaving him floundering in the
cleverly woven webs which the man-hunter had placed for his victim. This
was the fourth time. And Cassidy would be tremendously upset!

Praying that Peter would remain quiet, Jolly Roger took off his shoes.
After that he made no more sound than a ferret as he crept to the door.
An inch at a time he raised himself, until he was standing up, with
his ear half an inch from the crack that ran lengthwise of the frame.
Holding his breath, he listened. For an interminable time, i